[Marxism] the terrain for extra parliamentary politics

[abu hartal <abuhartal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Over on lbo-talk there is a lot of laughing at gay conservative and celebrity 
video support for Obama. But he has won the overwhelming support of the so 
called Gitmo lawyers. No mention of that over there.  Why actually talk about 
what Obama has done when we can speak of others' videos or the conservatism of 
a distant gay supporter or third hand rumors about off the cuff statements made 
by advisors. These are serious men at lbo-talk; these are the kinds of things 
they must attend to. 

So with all those really tough super left guys there has not been much comment 
on the changes in the the terrain for extra parliamentary politics. It shows of 
course that they are not serious about the radical change, just resentful of 
Obama's grassroots support. But we won't psychoanalyze that. 

In the real world it's important that habeas corpus remain intact and that 
checks be put in place before executive privileges to detain terrorists  
devolve, as they did in South Africa, into indiscriminate rights to imprison 
peaceable activists and ban non violent organizations in civil society. This 
could happen and is happening in the United States.

As Jean-Claude Paye has been showing on the Monthly Review and Telos websites, 
we are indeed living through a period of enormous and fateful legal change.  
Now judging candidates in terms of this constiutional crisis is not something 
self proclaimed leftist business observers are willing to do. 


 Naomi Wolf writes at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/29/7373/:


"Which is why I am formally coming out of the closet with my support for 
Senator Barack Obama. Of all the candidates running now, he is the leader on 
understanding the threat to the Constitution and actually taking action, not 
just mouthing soundbites, on the need to deny torturers space in our nation and 
to restore the rule of law.

Lawyers for Gitmo detainees endorse Obama,” read a recent headline on the 
Boston Globe’s political blog. In the article, reporter Charlie Savage notes 
that “More than 80 volunteer lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees today 
endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid. The attorneys said 
in a joint statement that they believed Obama was the best choice to roll back 
the Bush-Cheney administration’s detention policies in the war on terrorism and 
thereby to ‘restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human 
rights, and repair our reputation in the world community.’”

The lawyers who signed this letter — prominent names on the list included 
Washington lawyer Thomas Wilner, retired federal appeals court judge John 
Gibbons, and retired Rear Admiral Donald Guter, who was the Navy’s top JAG 
officer from 2000 to 2002 — applauded Obama for having stood up in 2006 against 
aspects of the Military Commissions Act. Unfortunately, his fight was 
ultimately unsuccessful — which is why we are all still in danger. But unlike 
other candidates he truly fought and he understood the nature of the danger: 
“When we were walking the halls of the Capitol trying to win over enough 
Senators to beat back the Administration’s bill, Senator Obama made his key 
staffers and even his offices available to help us,” the lawyers wrote. 
“Senator Obama worked with us to count the votes, and he personally lobbied 
colleagues who worried about the political ramifications of voting to preserve 
habeas corpus for the men held at Guantanamo. He has understood that our 
strength as a nation stems from our commitment to our core values, and that we 
are strong enough to protect both our security and those values. Senator Obama 
demonstrated real leadership then and since, continuing to raise Guantanamo and 
habeas corpus in his speeches and in the debates.”

Senator Clinton also opposed the law. In 2006 she said: “If enacted, this law 
would give license to this Administration to pick people up off the streets of 
the United States and hold them indefinitely without charges and without legal 
recourse.” She gets the danger; many of her colleagues do too. But this issue 
requires bold language and action. Senator Clinton has not foregrounded the 
issue of the subversion of the rule of law in her appearances or speeches; and 
I am very VERY sorry to say that she did not oppose torture until she opposed 
it."

See also 
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/lawyers_for_git.html

As Arato explained, that she has not foregrounded the issue is of a piece with 
her rejecting the Levin amendment so as to give explicitly the executive branch 
arbitrary war making power.




Abu Hartal
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