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Judging by the ubiquitous media-generated euphoria that
greeted the Barak Obama victory in the US presidential election, you
could be forgiven for thinking that the class struggle had ended in the
USA. Across the globe, the world’s media intimated
that this was the dawn of a new age and hundreds of millions of workers
breathed a sigh of relief, convinced President Obama will now undo all
the wrongdoing carried out by President Bush and generally improve the
quality of their lives and the safety of the planet.
The first thing to note, however, is that this had been the most
expensive American election so far. The pooled cost of the Republican
and Democratic campaigns was a cool $1 billion. The McCain camp raised
$340 million whereas the Obama team secured $640 million.While
Obama’s team boasted that most of their money came from small
$100 and $200 donors, in truth the great bulk of his financial support
came from Wall Street and the US corporate elite and was way in advance
of that given to John McCain, suggesting the US capitalism plc feels
its profits are best protected via Obama. The US power elite bankrolled
the Obama campaign and for no other reason than that they know he will
have to repay their loyalty.
An estimated 64 percent of the US electorate turned out to vote
– a record by all accounts - 62.3 million votes. The majority
of the extra voters were Blacks and Latino, not only drawn to the
ballot box by the longing to oust a reactionary Republican regime, or
by Obama’s promise of ‘change’
but, moreover, because Obama was non–white.
Socialists could only watch on and comment that this election was not a
race issue, but a class issue and lament their selective amnesia. One
time Secretary of State Collin Powell rose through the ranks covering
up the My Lai massacre and famously presented false evidence to the UN
in furtherance of the US justification for the invasion of Iraq.
Consider too his successor Condoleezza Rice, the zealous maid-servant
to Bush’s imperialist strategy.
To be sure, Obama was not breaking any mould, despite his hope-fused
rhetoric. The vast majority of voters, indeed workers the world over,
were heartily fed up with Bush’s wars, his imperialist
conquests, the US disregard for international law and the increasing
pariah status this had earned America and sincerely wanted to
see the back of it. The signs, however, that Obama was more of a wolf
in sheep’s clothing were already there, not least in the
Senate where he sanctioned every increase in funding for the Iraq war
that George Bush requested.
Furthermore, like Bush, Obama is a supporter of the death penalty. He
is pro-pollutant nuclear and coal industries and, whilst the Guardian
could optimistically run a headline “Obama will move to veto
Bush laws” (10 November), has not mentioned eradicating
repressive legislation such as the Patriot Act, homeland security, the
Military Commissions Act,
internet control, and wiretapping and spying
on the US populace. ..Continued on next page 11
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