[Marxism] MLIN [Jan-Feb 2009] Mumbai Attacks | Elections | Dalits | and More

["CPI \(ML\) Intl Liaison Office" <cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx>]

ML International Newsletter 

January-February 2009 

   

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An update on news and ideas from the revolutionary left in India .  

Produced by: Communist Party of India 
(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation international team  



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Websites: [mlint.wordpress.com] and [www.cpiml.org] 



Emails: [cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx]
and [cpimllib@xxxxxxxxx] 



   

Table of Contents 

   

1)       Workers, Students
and Youth March to Parliament  

2)       India Must Not Succumb
to the US 
Strategy of Proliferation of Terror 

3)       Corporate
Governance and Nuclear End Games Cannot Make Us Secure 

4)       The Battle Now Begins for the
Lok Sabha 

5)      
Obama and 'Change':
Analysis of the 2008 US 
Election 

6)      
CPI (ML) Sankalp
March on 6 December 

7)      
Convention on
Dalits' Rights in Tamil Nadu ,
 India 

8)      
Sri Lanka: the State and the Media 

9)      
New Book Examines
the Character of the Deepening Crisis in Capitalist Globalization 



   



Mumbai Attacks 

   

Workers,
Students and Youth March to Parliament  

against
Terrorism, Communalism, and Regional Chauvinism 

   

- ML Update, 16-22 December,
2008.  

   

On December 12, the streets of
Delhi saw the largest mobilisation yet since the Mumbai terrorist attack of
November 2008, with many thousands of students, workers and youth marching
condemning the heinous attack in one voice, and paying tribute to the memory of
its victims.     

   

The media may be full of war
cries trying to whip up a communal jingoistic frenzy, especially amongst youth,
against Pakistan ,
and promoting army rule or dictatorship as an antidote to terror. This din is
trying to drown out all the saner voices speaking out against US imperialism,
or demanding investigation into the Sanghi terrorist network, punishment for
regional chauvinists and communal hate-mongers, and justice against fake
encounters and framing of innocents by the police. The March to Parliament on
12 December was a spirited rebuttal of these attempts to silence the voices of
democracy and whip up a communal, anti-democratic and jingoistic frenzy.  

   

Thousands of workers, students
and youth from all over the country, under the banner of AISA (All India
Students’ Association), Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), AICCTU (All
India Central Council of Trade Unions) and AIALA (All India Agricultural
Labourers’ Association) marched towards Jantar Mantar from Ramlila grounds,
holding up banners and placards and raising slogans proclaiming “Stop importing
terror and economic crisis from the US,” “Shame on BJP for garnering votes in
the name of terrorism,” “People’s Security = Democracy + Secularism +
Anti-Imperialism; Recipe for Terrorism = Dictatorship + Communalism + Pro-US
policies,” “Ban Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)-Shiv Sena,” “Why bail for Raj
Thackeray and Jail for protesting students – United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
– National Democratic Alliance (NDA) must answer.” At the head of the March
were CPI (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Politburo member Swadesh
Bhattacharya, AICCTU general Secretary Swapan Mukherjee, AISA General Secretary
Ravi Rai, RYA President Mohd. Salim and General Secretary Kamlesh Sharma, as
well as Shri Kundan Singh, father of Rahul Raj, the young job-seeker killed in
a police ‘encounter’ in Mumbai, and Prof. Naval Kishore Chaudhury, Head of 
Department,
Economics, Patna University. Shri Kundan Singh held up a portrait of his son 
along
with one of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. The March culminated in a massive
meeting at Parliament Street . 

  

The meeting began by paying
homage to the victims of terrorism, communal violence and regional chauvinism.
Conducting the meeting, AISA General Secretary Ravi Rai was greeted by
enthusiastic slogans and thousands of people clapping when he declared, ‘No war
on Pakistan ; united struggle
of India and Pakistan 
against US Imperialism and the forces of terrorism!’ The meeting was addressed
by AISA Vice President Abhyuday and RYA National President Mohd. Salim who
recounted experiences of AISA’s and RYA’s leading role in the struggle against
the MNS-Shiv Sena violence, which exposed the opportunism of UPA and NDA alike.
AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee said that the US economic crisis was 
being imported into India by the
Manmohan Government – and workers were being laid off as a result. He demanded
that instead of layoffs for workers and bailouts for corporates, the Government
should resolve the crisis by reversing pro-US economic policies, and enhancing
public expenditure in pro-poor schemes.  

   

Addressing the gathering, Shri
Kundan Singh said that the Maharashtra police,
which had treated the marauding Shiv Sena and MNS cadre with kid gloves, had
cold-bloodedly killed his son, Rahul. The fact that those in power were
avoiding to order a probe into the ‘encounter’ proved that they had something
to hide. In the quest for justice for Rahul, he expressed his sense of betrayal
by the parties that swore by the cause of Bihar, and said that it was the
students, youth and workers of Bihar who were
his partners in the struggle.  

   

Prof. Naval Kishore Chaudhury
said that governments were showing double standards by soft-pedalling communal
and chauvinistic forces. He demanded a ban on the MNS, Shiv Sena, as well as
Bajrang Dal. Opposing war-mongering and jingoism, he said that democracy, peace
and justice were the best guarantee against terrorism.  

   

Addressing
the mass meeting,
CPI (ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar said that “some sections of
the
media and politicians are trying to peddle dictatorship, army rule, war
with Pakistan and partnership with the US as solutions for India ’s
security. Pakistan ’s own
experience is proof that this is a recipe for disaster. India ’s ruling
class – both Congress and BJP –
are hell-bent on shackling India to the globally hated US imperialist
policies, and thus importing the US ’ economic crisis as well as
terrorism onto Indian soil. To fight terror India must first of all
de-link her foreign policy from the American strategic
stranglehold, and must engage Pakistan in a shared struggle against
terror.”  

   

Condemning the UPA and NDA
parties and Governments for failing to protect the migrant workers, students
and job-seekers of North India from the regional chauvinistic violence of the
MNS-Shiv Sena, Comrade Dipankar said that “the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal 
(RJD)
and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP), as well as Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) [JD (U)]
have all proved equally hollow on the issue of confronting the MNS-Shiv Sena.
It is the students and youth of Bihar and UP
who challenged the MNS-Sena and yet they were punished with lathi-charges and
jail.”  

   

AIALA General Secretary
Dhirendra Jha read out several resolutions, which were passed unanimously. A
memorandum was submitted to the Home Minister as well as President of India . 
Apart
from the above-mentioned concerns and demands, the memorandum also demanded
legislation to ensure the security and dignity of migrant workers, and raised
the concerns of the victims of the Kosi floods. The memorandum demanded
year-long work under NREGA in these areas, as well as free and regular monthly
rations, immediate temporary shelter and a time-bound provision of housing to
all affected families. 

   

Resolutions Adopted at the
March to Parliament  

   

1. This gathering expresses
the deepest grief and condolences for the victims of the heinous terror attacks
at Mumbai last month and for all the victims of bomb blasts and terrorist
violence.  

2. This gathering resolves to
struggle against every brand of terrorism, communal violence and regional
chauvinism, for a secular, democratic and united India . This gathering 
expresses the
strongest condemnation of the political forces seeking to gather votes from the
bloodshed in terror attacks and communal and regional-chauvinistic violence.  

 3. This gathering condemns the attempts to
whip up demands for war, army rule, or partnership with the US as solutions
to terrorism. We hold that a stronger democracy and de-linking from the pro-US
policies as the foundation of our security. We condemn any attempt to whip up
war between Pakistan and India, resist US meddling in the sub- continent, and
call for a united struggle by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh against the shared
problem of terrorism.  

4. This gathering condemns the
corporate bailouts and layoffs which can never be the way out of the current
economic crisis. We demand that the Indian government reverse the disastrous
policies of globalisation and stop importing the US economic crisis onto Indian
soil, put an end to layoffs and instead enhance public expenditure and invest
more in schemes for the poor in order to rejuvenate the economy.  

5. This gathering condemns the
UPA-NDA parties and governments for doing nothing to protect the migrant
workers, job-seekers and students of North India 
who have been victims of regional chauvinistic violence by the MNS and Shiv
Sena. We demand a ban on the MNS-Shiv Sena, prosecution of Raj and Bal
Thackeray for murder, and withdrawal of all charges against students who were
arrested for protesting against the violence. We demand a judicial enquiry into
the ‘encounter’ in which Rahul Raj was killed in Mumbai.  

6. We demand legislation to
ensure the security and dignity of migrant workers, including rights like
identity cards and comprehensive social security.  

7. This gathering condemns the
Nitish Government of Bihar for retreating from its promises to the victims of
the Kosi floods. Relief camps are being closed and people forcibly evicted, and
people are being forced to face the approaching severe cold without even
minimum temporary shelters. Hunger and starvation loom large there. We demand
year-long work under NREGA in these areas, involving their own rehabilitation
work, free and regular monthly rations, immediate temporary shelter and a
time-bound provision of housing to all affected families.  

8. This gathering condemns the
killer Soren Government for the recent police firing on adivasis protesting
peacefully against land grab in Dumka, Jharkhand, and demands scrapping of all 
Memorandum
of Understandings (MoUs) and moratorium on land acquisition without people’s
consent.  

9. This gathering demands the
immediate release of Dr. Binayak Sen and disbanding of the Salwa Judum in
Chhattisgarh.    

10. We demand a time-bound
judicial enquiry into the Batla House ‘encounter’ and action against the
Special Cell operatives found by the CBI to be guilty of framing two innocent
Muslim youth as terrorists. 

11. We demand a thorough probe
into the role of the Sangh Parivar and Sanghi elements in the armed forces in
terrorism. 



   



Mumbai Attacks 

   

India Must Not Succumb to the US Strategy of Proliferation of
Terror 

   

-  Dipankar Bhattacharya, Liberation, January,
2009. 

   

The recent siege of Mumbai for
nearly three days by a small band of well trained terrorists has almost
universally come to be described as India ’s 9/11. In terms of sheer
audacity of planning and execution, the places targeted and the scale and range
of people killed and injured, the Mumbai terror siege can surely be bracketed
with the original 9/11, and in terms of the duration of the skirmish it can
also claim to have left the original way behind.  

   

The analogy between New York
9/11 and Mumbai 26/11 must not however be confined to these operational
details, what is most important is to recognise the Mumbai attack as an
extension of the same terror trajectory that struck New York seven years ago.
What should we learn from this?  

   

The terror that visited the US in September 2001 was not just executed in
the US but it was also born
and brought up in Washington ’s
foreign policy laboratory. The history of development of the Taliban and
Mujahideen variety of terror – the precursor of Al-Qaeda – under the aegis of 
Washington is too well
known to merit repetition. But instead of effecting a policy change to
terminate the trajectory of this terror, the Bush Administration could only
think of attacking Afghanistan 
in the name of avenging 9/11. And soon enough it moved on to its next project –
invasion, occupation and plunder of Iraq . The US has not been
able to bring Laden to justice; all it could do was to capture and kill Saddam
and create a huge vacuum that is now filled up by more terror and anarchy.  

   

Some ‘terror experts’ in India
claim that this ‘firm’ and ‘no-nonsense’ response has made the post 9/11 US a
safer place. The American people evidently do not believe this story and hence
we saw them deliver an emphatic mandate against the entire Bush strategy in the
recent Presidential election. The US may well have escaped a repeat
of 9/11 within its own territory, but at a price that has made Americans the
world over more insecure and vulnerable to terror threats as once again
confirmed by the Mumbai siege. And when more and more parts of the world reel
under terror, the US 
can hardly expect to remain indefinitely insulated from its vicelike grip.  

   

The US 
strategy to counter terror is therefore nothing but a strategy of proliferation
of terror, and India 
can never afford to adopt such a strategy. While the US 
can in the short run hope to transfer its burden of terror on to other parts of
the world till the accounts are settled and all the transferred terror begins
paying a return visit to the US ,
 India 
just does not have that kind of an option. India can only invite more terror
with such a strategy.  

   

Instead of realising that to
fight terror India must first of all delink her foreign policy from the
American strategic stranglehold, our US-crazy terror experts and policy
analysts have begun prescribing that if the US had followed up 9/11 with
Afghanistan and Iraq, India should follow up 26/11 with at least Pakistan and
Bangladesh.  

   

Nothing
could be a surer
recipe for disaster. Pakistan today is more susceptible to terror than
India . The Lal Masjid siege, the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the attack on Marriott Hotel in
Islamabad and the blasts that are rocking and bleeding Pakistan at
regular intervals, all confirm this undeniable reality. India must
therefore seek Pakistan ’s cooperation in a shared battle
against terrorism and not try and bully or corner Pakistan ,
let alone ask for a US-led invasion or occupation of Pakistan on the
lines of Afghanistan or Iraq .
 

Any attempt to destabilise Pakistan could only lead to an unprecedented
escalation and proliferation of terror in South Asia .
The US , which is desperately
looking for an exit route from Iraq 
while intensifying its presence and intervention in South
 Asia , may find an Indo-Pak war, or at any rate a permanent state
of heightened Indo-Pak tension, an attractive proposition for fishing in
troubled waters. But India 
and Pakistan 
must by all means avoid such a scenario. Instead of inviting the US to act 
against Pakistan ,
 India must keep the US out and directly engage Pakistan in a
shared bilateral fight against the common problem of terrorism. 



   



Mumbai Attacks 

   

Corporate Governance and Nuclear End Games
Cannot Make Us Secure 

   

- Kavita Krishnan, Liberation,
January, 2009. 



   

In the aftermath of Mumbai, sections of the media have made much of
‘people’s anger against politicians and the system.’ What do we make of this
claim? Sure, people are angry. Anger with those who rule us and with the system
is surely a healthy emotion. Anger at those who are putting us in a position
where we never know when our loved ones could be subjected to sudden and
violent death; anger at those who circled around the Mumbai tragedy for votes,
with the eagerness of vultures spotting a meal; anger at the shamelessness of
those who vilified Hemant Karkare for his courage (in investigating Sanghi
terrorists) in life, and tried to appropriate him in death; anger at Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi of the BJP who dismissed the people’s anger in loaded gendered
language; anger at the Kerala Chief Minister who could not gracefully accept
the feelings of a bereaved parent who wasn’t interested in meeting him, and
instead indulged in unwarranted and contemptuous abuse.  

   

Armed marauders indulging in random shooting at public places and killing
nearly 200 people is surely just cause for rage. Some sections of the media are
telling us that the target of our anger must be Pakistan . Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh (RSS) Chief Sudarshan has said in an interview that if it comes to a
nuclear war to defeat the ‘demons’, so be it – a better world will emerge from
it? Does he know what a nuclear war means – or does he imagine it like a scene
from the TV Mahabharata? That may be a Bollywood scenario – go across the
‘Border,’ with the US 
backing us, and get the bad guys. Unfortunately in real life, the bad guys are
not that easy to recognise. Take the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence 
(ISI):
that familiar bugbear for Indian rulers for decades. The ISI is known to have
had inextricably close links with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – in
fact, many in Pakistan’s beleaguered democratic movement were sure that the ISI
listened more to US diktats than to those of the Pakistani government. Ditto,
often, for the Pakistani Army. So what are we saying if we demand an attack 
Pakistan with the US on our side? That we don’t
really care about the morals of our allies; or for the true identity of our
enemies; we just want a quick, easy, feel-good target to attack?  

   

What does Pakistan 
stand accused of? Of allowing its soil to be used by terrorists to launch
attacks on other countries. Of allowing banned terrorist organisations to
rename themselves and get a new lease of life? It is a cautionary reminder that
the very country being touted as our greatest ally and powerful friend in the
war on terror – the US 
– is guilty of an even worse crime. The US Army ran the ‘School of the
Americas’ (SOA) at Fort Benning on US soil, for decades – training Latin
American troops to put down popular democratic movements, prop up dictatorships
and defend US corporations in Latin American countries. The SOA, dubbed by a
President of Panama as the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America 
,” was not a ‘non-state actor’ – it was run
by the US Army. Though public notoriety that dubbed it the ‘ School of 
Assassins ,’
it has recreated itself under a new name: the ‘Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation.’ And that’s just the story in Latin America; there’s a
similarly sordid story of US 
intervention to destabilise democracies in West Asia .
So, are we willing to range ourselves against such ‘bad guys’? Or will we allow
the bad guys to decide which of their disposable minions we are allowed to
target?  

           

Let’s also take time to broaden our perspective somewhat. Yes, Mumbai has
taught many of us that the sight of innocent people and loved ones being killed
in cold blood can enrage us. Let’s just remind ourselves that many thousands of
Indians already live with this rage simmering within them. It insulted many
that the media did not deem the deaths at Chakraparti Sivaji Terminal station
(CST) as worthy of TV coverage as those at the Taj hotel. Let’s not similarly
insult the loss and pain of others whom TV has not brought to our sight. The
National Crime Records Bureau has come up with its grim count of annual
suicides. India ,
we’re told, saw 16,632 farmer suicides in 2007; and in 2006, the number was
marginally higher. What do we tell the families of those 17,000 people whom
despair (caused by Governments that would rather bail out stinking rich
corporates rather than suicidal farmers) destroys every year? That just because
there’s no AK-47-wielding foreign ‘aatankvaadi’ [terrorist] (dead or alive) to
hate and kill, their rage is any less justified?  

   

What about the thousands of Muslim kids in Gujarat 2002 who saw their
mothers raped, wombs ripped out, families burnt alive, quite openly, by gleeful
brigades armed with a carefully prepared arsenal of gas cylinders and sharp
weapons? No commandos rushed to save them and put down the killers. The killers
gloated about their deeds on hidden camera – and are yet to be punished; their
patron is a Chief Minister is the darling of corporate houses. Don’t those kids
have a right to feel that ‘Enough is Enough’? If we expect sanity from the
Vidarbha farmers and the Gujarat genocide
victims, if we expect them to understand the ‘big picture’ and overcome blind
rage to uphold democracy and secularism, surely we can expect a modicum of
restraint and depth of analysis to guide our response to Mumbai?  

   

The crude attempts by the media to whip up a mindless frenzy in the wake
of Mumbai have been marked by breathtaking insults to our intelligence and
independence. In one show, yesteryear film star Simi Garewal called for ‘carpet
bombing’ of Pakistan and declared, “When you look down from the Four Seasons
onto the slums, you see, not Congress or BJP flags but Pakistani flags.” She
later apologised, explaining that she had mistaken Muslim flags for Pakistani
ones; and that she thought ‘carpet bombing’ meant a covert military operation.
Unfortunately there’s no ban on this Simi – she’s allowed to inflict her
prejudices and idiocies on us all.  

   

A media channel flashed a placard again and again, “CEO, Not CM;’ an
article in the American Forbes magazine advised that Ratan Tata be made India 
’s PM. The
article said that “Indians and Pakistanis alike criticized President Bush's”
response to 9/11; and claimed that after Mumbai an Indian friend said that
“only now does he understand Bush's cowboy reaction.” Others have advocated
‘army rule’ as an option.  

One need not look far to see that corporate governance and army rule have
never guaranteed security. Pakistan 
has had army rule (and US as an ally) for years and decades, yet today Pakistan 
is as insecure and unsafe as India . Ask the
adivasis of Kalinganagar or the peasants of Singur, or for that matter, the
Muslims of Gujarat if they trust Tata, who christened Modi the “good M,” to
keep them safe. 

   

The only option to a rotting system is to struggle for a system on
radically new democratic foundations. Corporate and authoritarian forces are at
the heart of the rot: we can’t peddle them as the solution to it. Anger and
outrage at Mumbai must join the anger and outrage at all the victims of every
kind of terrorism and mass murder in this country. 

   



Elections in India 

   

Assembly Elections Are Over – 

The Battle 
Now Begins for the Lok Sabha 

   

- Liberation, January, 2009. 

   

If the terror siege of Mumbai
had left the country in a state of shock, the verdict of the recent Assembly
elections should have a sobering impact.  

   

The overall outcome of the
Assembly elections held in Delhi ,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram suggests gains for the
Congress and losses for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Before the elections
the Congress was in power only in Delhi , now apart
from retaining Delhi 
it has regained Mizoram and Rajasthan. The BJP will have to content itself with
Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattisgarh.  

   

This election outcome has also
challenged some rather well entrenched media perceptions about elections, the
politics in these states and the present political situation in the country.
The so-called ‘anti-incumbency factor’, invoked time and again by media
analysts to explain election results and elevated to the status of almost an
iron law, does not seem to have held good in these elections. The Congress has
won in Delhi 
for the third successive time, the BJP in MP and Chhattisgarh for the second
successive term. In the absence of powerful mass assertion and a viable
electoral alternative, the ‘anti-incumbency factor’ by itself does not
automatically lead to change even in a limited bourgeois context.  

   

It was also commonly believed
that the Amarnath land row in Kashmir and the
issue of terrorism would yield considerable dividends to the BJP. In recent
months, the BJP has once again been quite aggressive in invoking the bogey of
‘appeasement of Muslims’ and ‘persecution of Hindus’. It tried to justify the
anti-Christian violence in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and elsewhere as a legitimate
reaction to ‘religious conversion’ and the killing of an infamous VHP
functionary in Orissa. The ATS investigation into the September 29 Malegaon 
blasts that led
to the arrest of ‘Sadhvi’ Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt. Col. Purohit was sought
to be rubbished as a conspiracy to defame the Sangh and Hindu saints. And
finally following the Mumbai terror siege, the BJP went into overdrive with its
‘fight terror, vote BJP’ call.  

   

The results do not suggest
that this entire campaign has yielded any electoral benefit for the BJP. No
less instructive in this context is the debacle suffered by Uma Bharti and her
BJSP, who only gave the BJP’s theme a more aggressive and shrill note.  

   

A third hypothesis regarding
the ‘bi-polar’ nature of politics in these states may still seem to hold good.
But the gains made by the BSP and the relatively impressive performance put up
by the CPI (M) in Rajasthan, where the party has won three seats for the first
time, point to a growing third camp in a political environment otherwise
dominated by the BJP and the Congress.  

   

The script of the downfall of
the BJP government in Rajasthan was being written for quite some time. The Raje
government had become infamous for its feudal-monarchical arrogance, record of
brutal repression and utter insensitivity to the problems of the masses. The
anger of the peasantry and alienation of powerful social groups had made the
end of the Raje regime a near-foregone conclusion. The repressive Raman Singh
government of Chhattisgarh too deserved a similar fate, but in Chhattisgarh the
Congress remained busy colluding with the BJP to sponsor the infamous Salwa
Judum campaign and every other assault on democracy. The Congress thus had
neither the organisation nor the necessary oppositional plank to oust the BJP
in the state. In Delhi ,
the anger of the traders over the issue of sealing of shops had already been
played out in the 2007 municipal elections, leaving the Congress on a stronger
wicket vis-a-vis a confused, divided and faded BJP.  

   

The refusal of the electorate
to get swayed by the BJP’s high-voltage propaganda and fascist communal
campaign has surely sent out a healthy message. But as long as politics in the
country will remain polarised between the Congress and the BJP, and pro-US
policies will dictate the economic and foreign policy agenda of the country,
there can be no respite for the people in any key sphere of national life. As
we begin a new year and start preparing for the coming Lok Sabha elections, we
must make sure that the battle for reversal of existing policies and freedom 
from
the American strategic stranglehold acquires an unstoppable momentum and takes
the rulers to task for all their betrayals and lapses. 



   



Elections in US 

   

Obama and 'Change': Analysis of the 2008 US Election 

   

- Surya, Liberation, December,
2008.  

   

Introduction 

The 2008 election was historic
as the United States (US) voters elected the first African American President.
This is of immense importance in a country where African Americans had been
systematically lynched for having the audacity to vote. In a country built
using slave labour, it is the Blacks who built the White House. Now a Black man
will reside in the White House.  

   

Barack Obama won the
presidential election after winning 365 electoral college votes, calculated
based on number of states won, out of a total of 538. He received more than 65
million votes in total. Despite the institutionalized racism being perpetrated
by the system and commercial media, white people voted for an African American
candidate with the name Barack Hussein Obama. This again shows that it is
possible for people to overcome their prejudices despite the propaganda. The
highly unpopular eight years of the Republican party with George Bush as the
most despised President did provide a conducive environment for this 
polarization.
 

   

The Dominant Issues 

The election campaign started
in 2007 with war in Iraq and
 Afghanistan 
as the top issue. In a matter of months, by 2008, economic issues started to
dominate the election campaign. This recession is being called the worst since
the great depression. Despite the massive infusion of government money the
economy continues to plummet. Individuals backruptcies have jumped. Forclosure
on houses has skyrocketed. People of color and women are the ones who are
always disproportionately affected. The unemployment has increased to 6.5% and
unemployment claims are highest since 2001. Amongst African-Americans it is
11.1% and Latin@s it is 8.8% [1]. As is well known, these numbers are
underestimates of the actual unemployment and suffering. As peoples' suffering
intensifies the commercial press is full of articles on the great depression
and speculation about its present re-incarnation. 

   

The financial crisis has
become a global capitalist crisis. The capitalist tactic has been the bailout
of firms – socialization of losses – and lately massive government investment –
socialization of investments. The first installment of the bailout money has
already been spent on the large US 
financial institutions from American International Group (AIG) to Bank of 
America
to Goldman Sachs. An economic 'stimulus' package has already been spent and
more are in the works – as tax rebates to massive infrastructure projects. More
than $ 2 trillion of government money has been pumped into the economy. Now the
three big US 
auto makers want a bailout. The US 
national debt will soon be more than $ 11 trillion. At this juncture the ideas
of John Maynard Keynes are being promoted than those of Milton Friedman as
possible solutions. The Democratic party and Republican party, along with their
presidential candidates, worked together to implement the corporate bailout.
Barack Obama has promised to continue to implement this corporate welfare
program.   

   

Obama launched his career at
the national level as an anti-Iraq war candidate. However the Obama plan is to
withdraw troops slowly but still keep a residual force in Iraq to conduct
“targeted counter-terrorism missions.” Permanent US 
military bases in Iraq 
have already been built and US is likely tomaintain military presence for the 
foreseeable
future. Whenever Obama talked about the Iraq 
war, which is estimated to cost $ 3 trillion, in the same breath he would add
how he wants to increase military presence in Afghanistan . Even leaving open 
the
possibility of attacking Pakistan 
if needed.   

   

While campaigning Barack Obama
gave a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a
powerful pro-Israel lobby group. He said "We must preserve our total
commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel ”,
and promised continued American military assistance to Israel . Rahm
Emmanuel, a big supporter of Israel 's
policies, is now Obama's chief of staff.  

   

With the recent spike in
energy prices, the 'new energy' policy also was on peoples' minds. The
solutions proposed by the two capitalist parties were nothing but 're-cycled'
energy industry plans. Healthcare costs have skyrocketed yet private industry
based solutions continue to be proposed. Immigration policy of both the parties
continues to support militarization of the border. Raids and deportations have
increased dramatically. This was an important issue for the new immigrants,
especially from Latin America .  

   

Obama's campaign mostly
avoided the questions of race and class. When speeches of Jeremiah Wright,
Obama's radical black priest, stressed that present day racism and imperialism
has to be understood in the context of colonization and slavery, Obama
disassociated himself. The opposition campaigned to instill fear in the
electorate that Obama was a Black radical a la Malcolm X. Obama actually quotes
Martin Luther King but never his radical speeches against US militarism,
imperialism, and bigotry. Obama was also accused of 'palling around with
terrorists' such as Bill Ayers, a 1960s radical. In the same vein, he was also 
accused
of being a socialist – a supposedly derogatory term. Interestingly, people,
especially the youth, have become more curious about Socialism. 

   

The Money Issue 

Elections in capitalist
democracies are money dominated. This election set a new record. The finance,
insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector was the most generous and collected at
least $13.4 million for Obama. Executives from firms such as Citigroup, Credit
Suisse, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs, who are at the epicenter financial
and economic crisis, bundled millions of dollars. Courtesy of all the large and
small contributions, Obama had an almost two-to-one monetary advantage over
John McCain. This obviously gave the Obama campaign a major advantage [2]. 

   

The securities and investment
industry contributed $101 million in total during this election, 56 % of which
went to Democrats. The Democratic party became the favorite of the securities
and investment industry that has preferred Republicans in the last 10 years.
The average cost of winning a House seat was $1.1 million and the Senate seat
almost $6.5 million. The total cost of the 2008 elections for Congress and the
White House is estimated at $5.3 billion. Sheila Krumholz, executive director
of the Center for Responsive Politics said “The 2008 election will go down in 
U.S. history as
an election of firsts, but this was far from the first time that money was
overwhelmingly victorious on Election Day,” and added “The best-funded
candidates won nine out of 10 contests” [3]. 

   

The Change Issue 

The campaign centered on
“Change We Need” and “Hope”. In these depressing and alienating times, people
needed something to 'Believe In'. Obama's campaign created this image of an
African American who rose from an ordinary family to graduate from Harvard Law 
School 
and then gave up trappings of wealth to become a community organizer. This is a
carefully crafted image. The Obama campaign mobilized youth and people of
colour in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Traditional door to door
campaings to Internet based social networking tools were used. People of color
and youth in the US 
identified with Obama because he mirrored their aspirations for change. The
hopes of people have been raised.  

   

The Democratic party is doing
what it has always done, being a good manager of capitalism and imperialism.
Obama's transition team consists of bankers and Bill Clinton appointees,
including Indian American Sonal Shah. She has reportedly served on the
governing body of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America. This appointment, with the
Hindu fascist links, has become quite controversial. Bush policies have lowered
the expectations such that if the Democratic party is willing to even talk with
 Iran , Cuba and Venezuela , it is a major sigh of
relief. If organized labor, which supported the Democractic party, can conduct
union-organizing drives under the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, it is
groundbreaking. If minor progress can be made on social issues such as abortion
and same sex union rights, it is a major achievement.  

   

The anti-war and immigrant
rights movement, including major sections of the progressive movement, were
sucked into the election. This year witnessed very few demonstrations against
the domestic and foreign policies of the Bush administration. Elections usually
dampen the movement in the US 
and this year did that more than ever. Except for small spontaneous
demonstrations against the Wall Street bailout or foreclosures, it has been an
insipid year. 

   

The two progressive
independent/third party presidential candidates were Cynthia McKinney and Ralph
Nader. Having run for president earlier he is a known figure and he received
672, 000 votes [4]. The Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, an
African American woman, ran on a progressive platform for change. After being
kicked out of the Democratic party, she has been trying to build a progressive
movement and was supported by several socialist parties. Communist Party USA,
as in previous elections, supported the Democratic party.  

   

Obama as a person is an
achievement of decades, if not centuries of struggle. Obama as President is the
executive officer of the US 
capitalist and imperialist class. It is an illusion that he represents
fundamental change. People definitely want change. History's lesson is that for
change to truly transform people's lives it has to be a radical socio-economic
change. Hope the progressive movement in the US steps up to the challenge.  

   

Endnotes 

1.             Reports, US Bureau of Labor Statistics. [www.bls.gov] 

2.             News articles, Center for Responsive Politics.
[OpenSecrets.org] 

3.             News articles, Center for Responsive Politics.
[OpenSecrets.org] 

4.             Reports, The Independent Institute. [Independent.org] 



   



Politics in India 

   

CPI (ML) Sankalp March on 6 December 

   

- Liberation, January, 2009. 

   

On 6 December, on the 16th
anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, CPI (ML) held ‘Sankalp March’
programmes all over the country to pledge to intensify the struggle against the
divisive forces of terrorism, communalism and regional chauvinism. Condemning
the terrorist assault on Mumbai, the CPI (ML) protests on 6 December rejected
all prescriptions of dictatorship, army rule, war with Pakistan and partnership
with the US as ‘solutions’ to make us secure. They demanded punishment for the
perpetrators of the Babri Masjid demolition as well as the communal pogroms at
Mumbai (1992), Gujarat (2002) and Kandhamal
(Orissa) and Karnataka in 2008.   

   

In Delhi the Sankalp March started from Mandi
House and culminated in a mass meeting at Jantar Mantar. The march was led by
CPI (ML) Politburo member Swadesh Bhattacharya, AICCTU General Secretary Swapan
Mukherjee, AIPWA National Secretary Kavita Krishnan, CPI (ML) Delhi State
Secretary Sanjay Sharma, AISA General Secretary Ravi Rai, JNUSU President
Sandeep Singh, along with many democratic individuals, workers, and students.
The meeting was addressed by the above activists as well as by noted journalist
Jawed Naqvi, Tanweer Fazal of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group and student
activists of various universities in Delhi. 

   

At Patna, the Sankalp March
from Gandhi Maidan culminating in a meeting at Patna Junction Circle, was led
by CPI (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar State Secretary Nand
Kishore Prasad, Central Committee member (CCM) K D Yadav, Saroj Chaube, Meena
Tiwary, and BB Pande, AISA State Secretary Abhyuday, AICCTU State Secretary R N
Thakur and AIPWA State Secretary Shashi Yadav. Apart from CPI (ML) leaders, the
meeting was also addressed by Prof. Naval Kishore Chaudhury, Head of the 
Department
of Economics, Patna University, former NIT professor Prof. Santosh Kumar, Prof.
Amarnath Singh of Patna University, intellectuals and social activists like
Arshad Ajmal, Father Philip Methra, Prakash Louis, Prof. Bharti S Kumar as well
as Shri Kundan Singh, father of Rahul Raj, the young man from Bihar who was
killed in a suspicious encounter in Mumbai.  

   

The Sankalp March at Lucknow
from Charbagh to the Assembly was led by UP State Secretary Sudhakar Yadav, as
well as state committee members Kranti Kumar Singh, Madan Singh, Vidya Rajwar,
Balmukund Dhuria, district secretary Shiv Kumar, Jan Sanskriti Manch convenor
Kaushal Kishore, Ravindra Sinha, poet Shobha Singh, AIPWA National Vice
President Tahira Hasan, PUHR General Secretary Dr. Brijbihari, AICCTU leader
Hari Singh and many other activists.   

   

Similar marches were also held
at Varanasi , Gorakhpur ,
 Allahabad , Moradabad ,
Mirzapur, Sonebhadra, Jalaun, Azamgarh and many other centres. An impressive
March was held at Sikandarpur in Ballia, and marches were also held at two
other centres in the same district.  

   

Marches were also held at Ranchi , Gumla, Giridih, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Dumka,
Jamtara, Bundu, Bagodar and Barwadih in Jharkhand; and Agartala, Kailasahar, 
Udaipur , Dharampur and
other towns in Tripura. 



   



Dalit Struggles 

   

Convention
on Dalits' Rights in Tamil Nadu ,
 India 

   

- Liberation, January, 2009. 

   

CPI (ML)'s Tamil Nadu State
Committee organized a convention in Madurai 
on December 9th, 2008 on the issue of protecting democratic rights of Dalits. 
Tamil
Nadu witnessed several caste clashes in the last two months. A fact-finding
team under the leadership of state secretary, Com. Balasundram, lawyers and
students, met the people of the affected areas of Elumalai, E
 Kottapatty and Uthapuram. A report was produced based on the major
findings of the visit and it was released in the convention at Madurai . More 
than 200 rural poor mostly
women and agriculture workers participated in the convention. 

   

A separating wall was erected
between the Dalit and non-Dalit areas in Uthapuram village in Madurai district. 
Dalits there were attacked
as they protested against the maintenance work of the caste wall. The
fact-finding team found that the police at Uthapuram had sided with upper caste
goons. Holding the government and political parties to blame, the team demanded
that action be taken against the police and revenue officials. 

   

The dalits' demands included
removal of the encroachment in the common path (that is, demolition of the
caste wall), restoring worshiping rights of the dalits (that is demolition of
another caste wall built around the worshipping area and removal of
encroachment on the banks of the Kanmoy-water body), and construction of a bus
shelter and so on. Instead of meeting these straightforward demands and
implementing the law, the government was conducting peace committee meetings.
When the government was forced to concede the demands eventually, the local
casteist group attacked a convoy of Dr. Krishnasamy (Leader of Puthiya
Tamilagam) and initiated a fresh round of clashes and attacks in and around 
Madurai district. Dalits
were attacked in many villages and police killed a youth in E
 Kottaipatti in an attempt to suppress the voice of Dalits. The
latest assault was the well-planned attack on dalit students of Dr. Ambedkar
Law College of Chennai, aimed at sparking off a fresh round of castiest frenzy. 

  

The report was released by
Comrade Gundumalai and received by Comrade Thangapandiyan, editor of Puthiya
Poraali (New Fighter or Militant) magazine. Comrade Mathivanan, who presided
over the convention, briefly narrated the major findings. Comrades Sankara
Pandiyan, Bharathi and Usha (State Committee members) addressed the gathering.
Comrades Bhagat Singh (lawyer), and Vaiyavan (Tamilaga Manavar Munnani (Tamil
Nadu Students Front) also spoke on the rights of Dalits. Comrade Balasundaram
asserted that protecting the rights of Dalits is an integral part of democratic
struggles.  

   

The convention demanded that
the rights of Dalits over land and livelihood should be protected and the
dignity of Dalits should be maintained, the notorious elements behind the
attack should be arrested, and erring civil and police officials should be
suspended or transferred and action against certain officials be taken under
the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) act. The convention also demanded that the
government should stop sponsoring 'Thevar Jayanthi' (‘Birthday of Pasumpon
Muthuramalinga Thevar’) as the annual event is being used by reactionary forces
to instigate caste frenzy.  



   



South Asia 

   

Sri
  Lanka: The
State and the Media 

   

- S. Sivasegaram. 

   

The tolerance of the Sri
Lankan state towards the media is at an all time low. Despite denials by
spokespersons for the state, Sri
  Lanka is ranked very low by Reporters Sans Frontiers
(RSF) in its Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Although the RSF criteria
have their class bias and overlook imperialist meddling, the fall of Sri Lanka
from a rank of 51st (among 139 countries considered) when ranking began to
165th (among 173, or the ninth worst) in 2008 was a consequence of the
increased threats faced by media personnel since 2005. The Free Media Movement
(FMM), a prominent media rights group in Sri Lanka , and its website 
(http://www.freemediasrilanka.org)
persist in their protests about the treatment of the media by the state and the
complaints are echoed by international bodies including the International News
Safety Institute and the World Association of Newspapers among others. 

   

What is most worrying is the
threatening attitude of the state towards dissent: not long ago, the website of
the Ministry of Defence carried a statement labelling journalists critical of
the war effort "enemies of the state" and threatening to take
"all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery". Several
Sinhala journalists have since 2005 been held in detention under Emergency
Regulations and anti-terrorism laws. However, it is the Tamil journalists who
have suffered the most in every way, including arrest and prolonged detention,
physical and verbal assault, and cold blooded murder, mainly by forces loyal to
the government and to a less but significant extent by those loyal to the Tamil
Tigers (LTTE).  

   

The decline of media freedom
in Sri Lanka 
started many years ago and has culminated in a fall of journalistic standards
and ethics, journalistic quality, and professionalism in the face of repressive
political interference. What we witness now is a reflection of a deep crisis of
democracy.  

   

A Glimpse of the Past 

The mainstream media in Sri Lanka for
long since inception under colonial rule was owned by members of the
reactionary capitalist class. However, despite the in-built bias, norms of
journalism were observed and journalists enjoyed considerable freedom, provided
that the system of government was not under threat. The print media as a whole
was hostile to the government led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that
ended the rule of the pro-imperialist United National Party (UNP) in 1956. The
government used the radio, which was under its direct control, to counter the
newspapers; but that eroded the credibility of the radio in due course. The
SLFP government, in the face of bitter hostility of the powerful Associated
Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) towards it in the 1960s, made an 
unsuccessful
bid in 1964 to nationalise it, and was forced to step down. 

  

New players entered soon
after, the Sinhala nationalistic Sun and its sister newspapers in particular,
with agenda different from those of the older pro-West print media. A second
bid to nationalise the ANCL, with most of its fixed assets divested in
anticipation, succeeded in 1972. By then the Sun and sister newspapers turned
hostile to the government for other than political reasons and conducted a
vicious campaign against the food drive of the government in 1974-75, a time of
serious food shortage precipitated by a severe drought. The government
over-reacted by sealing up their printing press. It was a drastic legal action
against the media, but there was no harassment of journalists, although the
state-controlled media came under increased political pressure. 

   

The return to power of the UNP
with an unprecedented 5/6 majority soon led to escalated national oppression of
Tamils and the curtailment of democratic rights throughout the country. Private
broadcasting came into being in the 1990s but that did not mean real freedom of
the media. In the pretext of fighting terrorism, newspapers in the Tamil North
came under attack since the 1980s. Some newspaper reporters in the South were
killed under mysterious circumstances. But the killing of the popular
journalist Richard de Zoysa in the wake the witch hunt against the Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna in 1989 provoked public anger and contributed in a modest way
to the fall of the UNP in 1994. 

   

However, it was the Tamil
newspapers in the North and Tamil journalists in general who faced the brunt of
oppressive violence mainly from the state and forces loyal to it in government
controlled areas, where journalists had also been targeted for being critical of
the LTTE. The LTTE maintained an iron grip on journalism in areas under its
control. 

While the state used press
censorship and other means under Emergency Regulations to control the media as
necessary, criminal elements carried out acts of intimidation, physical harm,
abduction and killings with the blessings of people in power. The last two
years have been especially notorious for the revival since 1990 of open
intimidation, physical attacks and abduction of Sinhalese journalists,
including employees of the state media. It is against this background that the
government seems to be moving for total control over the media. 

   

New Threats 

New rules were announced on
27th October to control the content not only for broadcast but also MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service), a form of news dissemination rapidly gaining in
popularity. The rules also seek to control private television and radio
stations by placing them under the control of a single minister for the media.
The rules dated 10th October 2008, but cited as the Private Television
Broadcasting Station Regulations of 2007, cover all private television
broadcasting stations including terrestrial, cable, satellite and internet TV
and mobile telephony platform based TV.  

   

Media groups and other public
organisations have instituted legal action in the Supreme Court against the
regulations, and several political parties have openly endorsed the move.
Protesters have pointed out that these repressive draconian rules are
unprecedented and designed to use the power of the Media Minister as regulator
to cancel licences for broadcast on the flimsiest pretext by claiming that the
content of a broadcast was detrimental to the interests of a national security,
incited a break-down of public order, incited ethnic, religious or cultural
hatred, was morally offensive or indecent or was detrimental to the rights and
privileges of children. The rules are also restrictive in other ways by
limiting the period of the licence to a year and excluding political parties
and foreigners from operating stations.  

   

The government whose only
basis for public support is its claim of success in fighting terrorism hopes
that with a continuous flow of news of unhindered government success on its
battlefronts the people will bear with repression, corruption and mismanagement
of the economy. News of military setbacks and losses to the armed forces hurts
the government’s credibility as do reports of corruption and various misdeeds
by people in power. Thus the rules, if implemented will lead to the suppression
of not only news but also democratic views and objections against the
government and pave the way for the government to continue its pursuit of war
and to frustrate the protests of the people who are suffering under the
economic crisis. 

   

Some like to isolate the
question of war, the national question, human rights, and democratic and media
freedom from each other. Such segregation is illusory since the issues are
closely interwoven; the struggles related to them therefore will inevitably be
interwoven. 



   



Book Review 

   

New
Book Examines the Character of the Deepening Crisis in Capitalist Globalization 

   

- Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African
News Wire. 

   

Title: Colossus With Feet of
Clay: Low-Wage Capitalism, What the new globalized, high-tech imperialism means
for the class struggle in the U.S. ". 

Author: Fred Goldstein 

Publisher: WorldView Forum, New York , 2008 

   

This is a must read book for
those seeking answers to the current crisis in world capitalism. With the
economic meltdown of 2008, the very future of the system of international
finance capital has been thrown into question. 

   

Just within the last year we
have witnessed the monumental write-offs of hundreds of billions of dollars by
the world's leading banks and investment firms. Names such as Bear Stearns,
Goldman Sachs, UBS, HSBC, Wachovia, Citigroup, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac,
etc., have become the focus of attention for not only the bourgeoisie but
working people who have seen their jobs, homes, pensions and overall living
standards plunge. 

   

Over the course of 2008,
official statistics on the United
  States economy indicate that in excess of 1
million jobs have been lost. Consumer confidence has plunged while greater
signs of social discord have emerged, that in part, has resulted in the
willingness of many whites to vote for the nation's first African American
president. 

   

This crisis is not confined to
the United States .
The so-called "subprime mortage mess" or the "credit
crunch", as it was described during the early months of 2008, is now, even
by the corporate press, being labelled as a major economic dilemma affecting
billions throughout the globe. 

   

What has generated profound
anger among working people throughout the United States is the response to
this crisis by the capitalist class and the bourgeois state which has given in
excess of a trillion dollars in taxpayer money to the very same financial
institutions that created the crisis. 

   

The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank,
along with central banks througout Europe and
the world, have handed over hundreds of billions of dollars and other units of
currency to the bankers in order to stave off a more rapid collapse of the
system. Despite all of these subsidies to the financiers, many of these firms
have not survived. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have essentially been
"nationalized" under capitalist control by the United States 
government in order to soften the fall of the multi-trillion dollar housing
market in the country. 

   

Yet there has been no bailout
for the working people of the United
  States and the world. Millions have loss
their homes and jobs. Their pensions are rapidly drying up because many of
these funds were invested in the gambling houses of Wall Street and their
allies around the world. 

   

Nonetheless, the resistance
and fightback is developing. Workers in Europe 
have staged general strikes against rising fuel and food prices. There have
been food rebellions in various countries throughout the Caribbean and Africa . 
In the United States , a burgeoning
movement calling for a moratorium on foreclosures has made a political impact
and is influencing the political dialogue taking place inside the country. 

   

What is the Source of This
Crisis? 

Goldstein, utilizing marxist
economic analysis, has approached this crisis from the standpoint of those who
are most seriously affected: the working class, the nationally oppressed and
women. The author makes the case in very simple and straight forward language
that the crisis is one of capitalist overproduction. 

   

According to Goldstein:
"This cycle dictates that, during periods of capitalist expansion, the
powers of production increase ever more rapidly while the powers of consumption
of society expand only gradually. Sooner or later production outstrips
consumption. Profit does not arrive in corporate bank accounts until sales take
place. If commodities cannot be sold at a profit, inventories pile up,
production stops, workers are laid off, and a crisis ensues. That is the crude
dynamic of the capitalist crisis of overproduction." (pp. xi-xii). 

   

The author continues by
pointing out that: "The new international division of labor pits workers
all around the world against each other in a race to the bottom. It depresses
wages of the working class in imperialist countries and expands the sweatshop,
superexploitation of the workers in low-wage countries. It makes each
capitalist recovery more difficult and undermines the historic advantages
accruing to the workers in a capitalist upturn. All this is aggravating the
general crisis of capitalism. High technology and low-wage capitalism on a
world scale are accelerating the crisis of overproduction and laying the basis
for a massive counter-attack by the working class." (p. xiii). 

   

Women, Race and the Crisis in
Capitalism 

As it relates to the impact of
the crisis on women and the nationally oppressed in the United States ,
Goldstein looks at this phenomena within the context of the historical
development of the country. It was the stolen land of the Native Americans and
the slave labor of the African people, along with the low-wage exploitation of
Chinese workers in building the railways on the west coast, that made America 
the
leading capitalist nation in the world. 

   

The author takes note of the
changing character of the labor force in the United States : "But the rise
in the number of women compared to men in the workforce over the last three
decades is telling. In 1970, 79 percent of all men participated in the labor
force as opposed to 43 percent of all women. In 2005, men's participation
dropped to 72 percent while women's climbed to 60 percent. Women's
participation in the labor force has steadily risen since 1980 and men's
participation has steadily declined. By 2005 there were 80 million men and 70
million women in the workforce." 

   

Nonetheless, Goldstein
emphasizes that women are more likely to receive lower wages than men. He also
points to the class nature of the Clinton-era "welfare reform" policy
that advanced the "politically reactionary campaign to spread the idea
that those on welfare were lazy people who just wanted to 'live off the dole.'
It was racist in character because the racist regime of U.S. capitalism has
left so many Black single parents in poverty and almost all references to the
poor focus in on African Americans (even though the majority of the poor in the
U.S. are white)." (p. 134). 

   

In specific reference to
African Americans, Goldstein illustrates how the restructuring of capitalism
has devastated large sections of the Black working class. He says that:
"The restructuring by the bosses devastated Black workers, partly as a
result of a deliberate effort starting in the 1960s and 1970s to relocate
plants away from the industrial central cities, where there were great
concentrations of the African-American proletariat. But this devastation was
also the result of a general decline in manufacturing and particularly of the
general attack on the union movement." (p. 137). 

   

The Coming Fightback 

Not only does Goldstein
analyze the character of the modern-day capitalist crisis but he is bold enough
to put forward a set of possible demands that can serve as a rallying point for
a national and international fightback movement. Looking at the recent
struggles that have taken place over the last three decades during the decline,
he firmly believes that the present crisis can be reversed through a proactive
approach by the working class and the oppressed. 

   

This struggle will not only
encompass the workers of the industrialized capitalist states but the
proletariat in the United States and western Europe must understand the
necessity of forming alliances with working people in the former colonial and
neo-colonial countries. The globalization of capitalist production has created
the condition for such an alliance that can transform the course of history. 

   

Goldstein's work not only
makes a significant contribution to the resurgence in literature on marxist
political economy, but it can, more importantly, serve as a guide for building
broader and more militant social movements that directly address the need to
transform capitalist societies in order to ensure a socialist future for
humanity. 

   

[Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor
of the Pan-African News Wire and has served as a contributing editor to Workers
World Newspaper.] 



   



   

   

   

  
 




      
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