by BAR columnist michael hureaux perez
"President-Elect Obama has promised us a massive public works program that will put two and a half million people to work in various forms of ‘green' industry" - a promise that may or may not turn out to be worth something. "Green" is a shapeless category that can include "use of healthy agricultural acreage for the production of fuels for the automobile." Obama's leftish supporters anticipate a second coming of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, but "even the Obamaists have to see that there's something slightly hinky about the names that are turning up in the presidential cabinet."
Eshu's blues: President Barancklin Husseinalo Roosobamavelt
by BAR columnist michael hureaux perez
"There's no need to expect anything except a hearty dose of imperialist warfare during an Obama administration."
If you blink these days, you'll miss the latest installment of liberal commentary on the coming renaissance of the Rooseveltian New Deal, which is supposed to begin with the inauguration of President-Elect Obama. And yes, President-Elect Obama has promised us a massive public works program that will put two and a half million people to work in various forms of green industry, which would be a positive thing for those two million workers maybe. But being the curmudgeon I am, I gotta say we'll see what happens. This age in which the "green" use of healthy agricultural acreage for the production of fuels for the automobile - a process which the President-Elect currently underwrites - does not bode well for the non-white poor in the rest of the world. And I have had my own experience with "green" industry.
Having (for now) survived the health effects of tons of myriad particles of dust I was exposed to during my own sojourn as a light industrial worker in the "green" enterprise of recycling, I suppose it would be ungracious of me to note that the only thing "green" I saw while working that job was that the propane fumes from the forklifts in the plant seemed to be turning my shoes green. There were also these disquieting little chunks of greenish black snot I used to spend an hour or so blowing out of my nose after leaving shift. But what can I say? I've got this thing about inhaling toxic fumes or dirt before my time. I'm also a little skeptical of "green" employment packages which are brought forward by people who never have to do low-end labor for a living. I was always taught by my elders that "you got to go there to know there." And what I didn't learn from that little piece of mother wit was imparted to me through long interaction with the entitled myopia the privileged classes always have in regard to the everyday conditions of their social and labor engineering schemes. So yes, I'm dubious, beloveds.
"I've got this thing about inhaling toxic fumes or dirt before my time."
But, speaking objectively about President Roosobamavelt's coming cultural renaissance, one of the truer analogies to be had can be found in the observations made by the International Socialist Organization's Sharon Smith in her brief recap of the Roosevelt years in her labor history Subterranean Fire (2006). Roosevelt spoke of his own effort as one that was led by the best friend the profit system ever had, and proclaimed his goal to be "nothing less then the salvation of American capitalism." Smith continues:
Roosevelt won a section of capital to back the Democratic Party program - state intervention at home and internationalism abroad - to pull the U.S. economy out of crisis. Although these capitalists made up only a minority of business leaders, they were among the most powerful. Roosevelt's backers included top executives from some of the biggest corporate interests, including General Electric, IBM, R.J. Reynolds, and Standard Oil of New Jersey and California (Pg 51).
Now, we're six weeks out from the legendary victory of Roosobamavelt, so even the Obamaists have to see that there's something slightly hinky about the names that are turning up in the presidential cabinet in this hour of "change we can believe in." Senator Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Paul Volcker, Rahm Emanuel, ad infinitum ad nauseum. Many people are taking heart in the selection of Tom Daschle, and that's cool. To paraphrase Obama's hero Abraham Lincoln, for those who like that sort of thing, Tom Daschle is the sort of thing they will like. But to me, Daschle's appointment is only Obama's token progressive toss to those starved white liberals who waxed euphoric over Reagan's selection of Pennsylvania liberal Senator Richard Schweicker to the HEW post in his cabinet back in 1980. At the end of the day, it's all business as usual, which is to say further belt tightening and sacrifice for the working class majority across cultures. And the President-Elect is telling us as much, if the Obamaists ever stop to listen.
"It's all business as usual, which is to say further belt tightening and sacrifice for the working class."
Already I can hear the cries of "unfair." I hear tell socialists like me sit in our ivory towers and pronounce judgment on those who went out and worked to build the so-called Obama movement. Just for the record, I'm actually sitting in a three bedroom bungalow in severe need of a paint job just off the southwest corner of Seattle city lines. I'm a few years into a thirty year mortgage, so I'm only now biting into the principal and retirement is a direct impossibility. I drive a five year old car that is in extensive need of body work, new struts and a tune-up, none of which I can afford. Many of my neighbors are immigrant labor from the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, East Africa and Central America. Many of my neighbors are poor whites. A good many of these folks are allowed to work sporadically and find themselves feeding families on food vouchers much of the time.
Compared to the situation many of these people find themselves in, I have it pretty good. As a public school teacher, I have a union contract, health insurance, and a fairly stable old age fund. At least, I have these things until Mr. Obama's local supporters sell the school district and my union bureaucracy on the abbreviated compensation packages that the Green Dot Corporation and other supporters of Mr. Obama's charter school fantasies believe in. But for now, I can't kick. Still, I do come out of a past that is just like many of the people I've mentioned, and the only reason I'm doing as well as I am is because I have always striven to be part of a political front that makes it our business to call bullshit on political movements led by the Roosobamaveltians. Being creolized black, a racially mixed working class militant who knows where me and mine came from, and what we had to do to survive under this thieving system "progressives" are always so eager to make their peace with, I and many others remain weary. Since decisions are being made about our lives, we have a perfect right to be critical of how they are put into place, particularly when the effort is as starry-eyed as is that of the Roosobamaveltians.
By the way, I don't suppose there's still anybody out there who believes that the presence of sharks like Emanuel, Biden and Clinton are merely fronts for some kabalistic Obamian strategy under which the Guardian of Hope and Change is, quote, "keeping his friends close and his enemies closer," but if there are, y'all need to come up off of it. Seriously.
"I have always striven to be part of a political front that makes it our business to call bullshit on political movements led by the Roosobamaveltians."
Rabid imperialism, or as Sharon Smith so generously refers to it, "internationalism," is also part of the Rooseveltian legacy. That legacy was exemplified in Roosevelt's support for the Somoza regime of Nicaragua, which was expressed with the words: "Somoza is a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch". Truth be told, there are a lot of "sons of bitches" out there who do not belong to the United States, some of whom bear names like Castro, Chavez, Morales and Ahmenadijad. The President-elect has made no secret of his support for unilateral aggressive or military action against such "sons of bitches" in the past, so there's no need to expect anything except a hearty dose of imperialist warfare during an Obama administration. He's already made peace with his own "sons of bitches." Just ask Karl Rove, who was complimenting Obama's cabinet picks in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago.
The bottom line is that it's one thing to laud what few public works concessions that may be won from the U.S. government, it's entirely another to look the other way while the living (maybe) gets a little easier on our own turf. The national leadership of the United States in both the Republican and Democratic parties has to stand accountable for its crimes against masses of poor people of color in Southwest Asia, and until we are willing to energetically and forcibly demand this accounting, this petty boojwah fairy tale about how the Obama election represents an end to the age of white supremacy in the United States remains just that. Ralph Ellison used to say we need to change the joke and slip the yoke. Well, the joke has been changed, but the yoke, or the tyranny of race, class and commodity remains. It's time to start consciously working to give these jokers the slip.
michael hureaux is a writer, musician and teacher who lives in southwest Seattle, Washington. He is a longtime contributor to small and alternative presses around the country and performs his work frequently. Email to: [email protected]