[Marxism] Obama/Mania?

[Anthony Boynton]

I aksed in my earlier post if anyone in the USA has
seen any sign whatsoever of Obama/mania in the black
community, and am now asking again. 

So far all we have seen is an unexpected enthusiasm
for Obama among young, well educated white people in a
white state which is not very in sync with urban life
in the USA. That and an enormous enthusiasm for Obama
in newsroomns across the USA. 

One of my friends in the USA, a homie in Oaktown says
that the black community will go for Obama only if he
wins in New Hampshire today and shows he can be
elected by white folks. Then South Carolina will be
the litmus test for his candidacy.

I asked the question because it does not look to me
like Obama is being pushed from below by any mass
movement. It looks to me like a rich and powerful
sector of the bourgeoisie sense he can win mass
support and has played their cards in a very smart
way.

This is pertinent to Joaquin[s enthusiasm for Obama
which looks to me like it might go beyond mere
reporting, to reporting his own dreams for Obama.

In my humble opinion real mass movements of the
working class and oppressed can, under very peculiar
conditions, arise WITHIN a bourgeois political party
before breaking out to become and indepdent class
based movement. The trade union movements of England
and the USA are this sort of movement, except that in
the case of the USA they never broke out of the cage,
and in the case of England they produced the Labor
Party. The movment led by Jorge Eliacer Gaitan in
Colombia was a better example.

But Obama does not look like this kind of animal to
me.  Jesse Jackson's movement perhaps wanted to be
that kind of movement, but was not. 

This leads back to the point of a Cynthia McKinney
candidacy. Her candidacy is MORE important now than
ever before. The fact is that Obama may be black, but
his war policies and his lack of real domestic policy
in the face of major economic downturn point to a
likely early betrayl of any expectations that black
people - or regular people of any color - may put in
his candiddacy after today.

(Eric, thank you for the Iowa demographics, but they
were the point of my earlier post)

Anthony





Minister Farakhan's remarks were right on the money,
too.

And, last for this post, Mr. Obama should be
tightening his security right now. Probably most of
the leaders of US imperialism could accept having a
black Prez, but that country has a lot of very rich,
very powerful, very racist SOBs in the ruling class
mix. 




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