Editorial
A Clash of Expectations
The election of Barack Obama as
president of the United States has created a wave of euphoria, not only in the
U.S., but around the world. In the U.S., people are talking about a new era of
peace, equality and social justice, universal health care, a reduction in
poverty, cleaning up of the environment and so on. Internationally, people are
hailing Obama as a president who will bring peace to the world and who will put
an end to the hegemonic, militaristic and bullying foreign policy of the Bush
regime. Even Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela and Amadinejad,
the president of Iran have stated that they welcome Obama’s election and hope
that he will live up to his promise of “change”.
The irony is that Barak Obama never promised
peace, equality, universal health care or any of the other things that people
are so euphoric about. In fact, when he spoke about “change” Obama was very
careful not to promise much of anything. He spoke in abstracts and broad
generalities. He expressed concern about the problems facing the people without
actually saying that he would do anything to help solve those problems.
On the other hand, when he did make
promises they had little to do with change. He promised the Israel lobby that
he would continue to support Israel unconditionally. He promised the Cuba Mafia
that he would escalate the economic embargo against Cuba. He promised that he
would step up the pressure against Venezuela and Iran. He also promised that he
would escalate the war against Afghanistan and carry it into Pakistan, while
withdrawing from Iraq when the Iraqi government is able to take over security
in that country. Furthermore, he promised that he would restore the lost power
and prestige of the U.S. in the international arena. In other words, what he
did promise was to maintain the status quo and to implement the Bush Doctrine,
albeit in a kinder, gentler way.
Similarly, on the issue of the economy
Obama’s positions have little to do with change. He supported the $700 billion
bailout of the failing financial institutions and he supports a $25 billion
bailout of the Big Three American automakers. In fact, prior to the election
Obama was critical of McCain for delaying the Wall Street bailout. The enormous
increase in the U.S. national debt created by these and the many future bailout
which are inevitable will be used as an excuse for Obama to renege on those
minor reforms that he did commit himself to during the campaign. In his
election speech he was already starting to backtrack, stating that much of his
vision of “change” would not be achievable in his first term in office.
Interestingly, it appears that vast
numbers of people did not hear what Obama actually did promise. If they did
hear they apparently have dismissed those promises as the necessary lies that a
candidate must tell in order to get elected president of the United States. It
also appears that they have inserted their own hopes and aspirations into the
vacuum that is Obama’s vision of “change”. In fact, the whole phenomenon that
is Obama can only be understood from the perspective that the American and
world’s people are demanding fundamental change, for an end to the destruction
and misery created by capitalism and imperialism and the creation of a new
economic and political order based on equality between peoples and nations. In
other words, people are yearning for socialism, whether they are aware of it or
not. They are so desperate to achieve fundamental change that they are ready to
invest all of their hopes and dreams in someone who speaks in vague
generalities about “change” in the abstract, but who supports the status quo
concretely.
Unfortunately, these are not the only
expectations invested in Barack Obama. There are also the aspirations of the
U.S. monopoly capitalists, some of the biggest of whom were strong supporters
of Obama. The expectation of the U.S. monopoly capitalists is that Obama will
restore their previous levels of profit and re-establish U.S. imperialism as
the world’s sole superpower. The problem that Obama faces is that in order to
restore the profits of the monopoly capitalists he must crush the American
working class and drive down their wages, while supporting regimes abroad to
accomplish the same thing in their countries. Furthermore, in order to re-establish
the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent imperialist superpower, Obama has no choice
but to continue the foreign policy of his predecessors, which is based on
seizing control of energy sources in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Meanwhile, the monopoly capitalists in
other countries are also expecting Obama to rescue the imperialist system and
restore their profit levels. However, most are also determined that he will not
be able to restore U.S. imperialism to its previous dominant position and that
he will be forced to make concessions to them in order to keep the
capitalist/imperialist system running. They are openly stating that they want
to return to the post-war style of multilateralism, but they are equally
adamant that it will not be on the basis of the U.S. running the show as it was
previously. Russia and China, in particular, have stated that they will support
a special role for the U.S. as the main guarantor of the international
financial system, but they will not tolerate U.S. attempts to encircle them and
cut them off from their sources of energy.
The problem is that these various
expectations and aspirations are mutually incompatible. Capitalism and
imperialism can never give rise to an era of peace, equality and social justice.
Capitalism and imperialism are synonymous with war, inequality, exploitation
and oppression. It cannot and will not change its nature. The aspirations of
the U.S. imperialists and their imperialist rivals will necessarily lead to
trade wars, as well as shooting wars. The only aspiration they share is the one
to crush their respective working classes and drive down wages in order to prop
up falling capitalist profits.
The question is: Which expectations will
Barack Obama fulfill and which will he crush? The answer is quite obvious.
Barack Obama is the champion of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class, not of any
rival monopoly capitalist class and he is certainly not the champion of the
American working class. He has promised repeatedly to restore U.S. imperialism
to its position of pre-eminence in the world and he has repeatedly denied that
he stands for any kind of socialism. Whether he can succeed in fulfilling the
expectations of the U.S. monopoly capitalists remains to be seen. U.S.
imperialism is in decline and it will only be possible to restore profit levels
of the U.S. monopoly capitalists by restoring U.S. imperialism to its former
unchallenged position in the capitalist world. It goes without saying that
America’s imperialist rivals will have something to say about that. However, whether
he succeeds or not, the very attempt to do so means necessarily that he must
shatter the expectations of tens of millions of Americans and billions of
people in the rest of the world. That betrayal will turn the current euphoria
into anger and disillusionment. That, in turn, could very well create
conditions favourable to the advance of the
revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement on a world scale.