What is Barack Obama's greatest challenge now?

[RSS News]

Barack Obama is constructing his new administration. What should be his priority?

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[bcbm]

Me.

[KC]

I heard you were pretty easy, actually.

[bcbm]

Says who?

...They're right. :(

[Saorsa]

Teaching those damn rebellious natives in Afghanistan a thing or two!

[AAFCE]

1 Attacking Palestine/Iran in a Gulf War Blitzkreig style
2 Set up puppet democracys in the Middle East
3 Control worlds oil supplies
4 ??????
5 Profit

[Saorsa]

4 ??????


change

[Black Cross]

Barack Obama is constructing his new administration. What should be his priority?

He won't do shit. His priority will probably be placation. People will be pretty pissed when they find out where his loyalties actual lie. Maybe he'll roll back some of the tax cuts for the rich, but the working class won't see any real changes. They'll still foot the bill for this recession. And the bill for the troops he'll send to Pakistan. And you can bet he won't spend a penny on reparations for the people of Iraq; he'll just remove the troops and leave them to pick up the pieces (not to mention he'll send those troops to Afghanistan, so the military bill won't be much less than it was under Bushwa). Obama's nothing but a snake. Hell, he made more corporate money for campaign funds than McCain did.

[AAFCE]

Anyone notice him appointing Zionist extremists to high positions?

[ChairmanArt]

He won't do shit. His priority will probably be placation. People will be pretty pissed when they find out where his loyalties actual lie. Maybe he'll roll back some of the tax cuts for the rich, but the working class won't see any real changes. They'll still foot the bill for this recession. And the bill for the troops he'll send to Pakistan. And you can bet he won't spend a penny on reparations for the people of Iraq; he'll just remove the troops and leave them to pick up the pieces (not to mention he'll send those troops to Afghanistan, so the military bill won't be much less than it was under Bushwa). Obama's nothing but a snake. Hell, he made more corporate money for campaign funds than McCain did.

Exactly :D He's certainly been a very effective tool of the bourgeoisie in duping the masses into USA #1 national chauvinism- the spectacle of which I could not be more disgusted by- but despite the color of Caesar's skin, he is still the head of an empire that has taken on a toll on humanity far worse than any of the fabled monstrous regimes of old. And to that effect, Iraq may be a situation that we'll look up and still find ourselves in at the end of his term; the serpent's promise of complete withdrawl was somewhat repealed with assurances that he'll "listen to the generals" and wait until the armed forces of the puppet Malaki government can ensure order. When the fuck is that going to happen?!

[Labor Shall Rule]

It'll be what most of his electorate voted him in for - "the economy".

It'd be, in other words, creating a public financial alternative that will provide the credit to avoid a suffocating slump of manufacturing and industrial capital. The excess reserves is not increasing liquidity, simply because the banks can not pay for their current debts that they got themselves into - it's being 'hoarded'. No one (at least now) have made plans to provide relief from bankruptcy and creditor claims. It'll become an 'issue' for a president-elect that was elected for that reason in the first place.

He has claimed, however, that in the first few months that he's finally the president, he would make a 'comprehensive' plan to pull-out from Iraq and redeploy two divisions to Afghanistan.

[jake williams]

Anyone notice him appointing Zionist extremists to high positions?
Yes.

[AAFCE]

Yes.

Not bother you any?

[Pawn Power]

Newsbot doesn't really think his questions through.

We are really in no position to decide what Obama's priorities should be. What we can do is decide what priorities we collectively have and pressure his administration to fulfill them. Or, more radically, fulfill them ourselves.

[BIG BROTHER]

It will be of course to get the economy flowing again, and making sure people don't get disappointing when they don't seen any "change" for them.

[jake williams]

Not bother you any?
It bothers me more than a bit.

[Djehuti]

http://socialistworker.org/2008/11/05/what-next-for-the-struggle



Howard Zinn, Historian and veteran activist, author of the classic book A People’s History of the United States:

So it will take a revivified social movement to do for Obama what the strikers and tenant organizers and unemployed councils and agitators of the early 1930s did for FDR, pushing him into new paths, so angering the superrich that FDR, in one of his best moments, said, “They hate me, and I welcome their hatred!”

Obama needs such fire. It is up to us, the citizenry–and non-citizens too!–to ignite it.


Mike Davis, Writer, historian and socialist activist, author of several books, including Planet of Slums, In Praise of Barbarians and City of Quartz.:

More importantly, tens of millions of voters have reversed the verdict of 1968: this time choosing economic solidarity over racial division. Indeed, this election has been a virtual plebiscite on the future of class-consciousness in the United States, and the vote–thanks especially to working women–is an extraordinary vindication of progressive hopes.

(…)

First, there is no hope whatsoever of the spontaneous generation of a new New Deal (or for that matter, of Rooseveltian liberals) without the combustion of massive social struggles.

Second, after the brief Woodstock of an Obama inauguration, millions of hearts will be broken by the administration’s inability to manage mass bankruptcy and unemployment, as well as end the wars in the Middle East.

Third, the Bushites may be dead, but the hate-spewing nativist Right (particularly the Lou Dobbs wing) is well-positioned for a dramatic revival as neoliberal solutions fail.

The great challenge to small bands of the left is to anticipate this mass disillusionment, understanding that our task is not “how to move Obama leftward,” but to salvage and reorganize shattered hopes. The transitional program must be socialism itself.


Sharon Smith, author of Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States and Women and Socialism:

IT IS worth remembering that only 50 years ago, African Americans were denied the right to even cast a vote in presidential elections, much less run for office. These rights were won only after the massive struggles of the civil rights movement finally broke the Democratic Party from its segregationist legacy.

Obama’s victory marks a blow against racism of similarly historic proportion. Despite McCain’s and Palin’s best efforts to whip up racial animosity toward Obama, they failed to garner a majority of voters for their hate-filled campaign. To be sure, the changing demographics of the U.S. voting population has reduced the relative importance of the white vote, while boosting that of Blacks, Latinos and other immigrants.

(…)

We have not seen a rise in class struggle for more than three decades in the U.S. But the class anger on display in this election could well be a prelude to such a rise in coming years. Obama has promised “change,” but the scale of change that is needed requires mass struggle from below.



Ken Riley, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 in Charleston, S.C.

ELECTION DAY has been phenomenal in South Carolina. Among young African Americans, the idea of not voting is unpopular and uncool.

I was in line to vote early on Election Day and saw a lot of young people I knew–I couldn’t believe they were 18 already. I gave one young man who just turned 18 a ride to vote, and he couldn’t have been more proud. That’s the kind of energy and excitement we have in the African American community in Charleston. We expect 2,000 people at the union hall tonight.

[…]

Therefore, you won’t see people cast a vote and back off. There will be significant organizing. If there is such a thing as trickle-down, that is what’s going to trickle down.

[Elway]

He's certainly been a very effective tool of the bourgeoisie in duping the masses into USA #1 national chauvinism

The USA got there LONG before Obama was alive!

[ev]

Not get assassinated by some white supremacist! :laugh:

[redguard2009]

I don't think white supremacists are capable of assassination. It's far too complicated for them. Plus, I'm fairly certain they'd stick out like a sore thumb at a Barrack Obama rally. I can just imagine a skinheaded pale-white guy with gaelic tattoos and a suspicious bulge in his trenchcoat standing uncomfortably in a sea of blacks, hispanics and other minorities.

[alpharowe3]

I don't think white supremacists are capable of assassination. It's far too complicated for them. Plus, I'm fairly certain they'd stick out like a sore thumb at a Barrack Obama rally. I can just imagine a skinheaded pale-white guy with gaelic tattoos and a suspicious bulge in his trenchcoat standing uncomfortably in a sea of blacks, hispanics and other minorities.

lol, i love that imagery

[ev]

I don't think white supremacists are capable of assassination. It's far too complicated for them. Plus, I'm fairly certain they'd stick out like a sore thumb at a Barrack Obama rally. I can just imagine a skinheaded pale-white guy with gaelic tattoos and a suspicious bulge in his trenchcoat standing uncomfortably in a sea of blacks, hispanics and other minorities.

Lol :laugh: who do you think will assassinate him?

[Black Cross]

Lol :laugh: who do you think will assassinate him?

Dick Cheney

[alpharowe3]

Dick Cheney
lol, thats awesome.