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Socialism and the political independence of the working class
The fight for the interests of the working class, for its social rights, for the defense of democratic rights, for an end to war raises at every point the necessity for the independent political organization of the working class. It is impossible for the working class to advance its interests within the framework of the Democratic Party and the capitalist two-party system in the US.
The experience of the Obama administration has once again demonstrated the right-wing, pro-corporate nature of the Democratic Party. Every aspect of the administration’s policy—the expansion of war, the bailout of the banks, the wholesale attack on the working class and the persistent calls for cutting social programs—has been dictated by the corporate and financial elite that controls the political system in the US.
The fight for the political independence of the working class means a struggle against all those middle-class organizations, including nominally “socialist” groups, which claim that the Democratic Party can be pushed to the left through mass pressure. This position is aimed at preventing the working class from establishing its own independent political party.
In fact, the Democratic Party long ago abandoned even a nominal commitment to social reform. The rightward movement of the Democratic Party has been accompanied by attempts on the part of its middle-class supporters to promote all manner of lifestyle issues and identity politics as a means of obscuring the question of class and social equality.
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The UAW: A purveyor of cheap labor for the US auto industry
Written by Jerry White on April 1, 2011In recent comments, officials of the United Auto Workers union have made clear that they are willing to expand the number of workers being paid near-poverty wages as part of new contracts the UAW will negotiate this summer with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
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TwitterMSNBC’s Rachel Maddow lines up behind Obama’s attack on Libya
Written by David Walsh on March 25, 2011On March 21, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow offered a defense of the Obama administration and its role in launching a military assault on Libya. With tortured logic, Maddow attempted to show that the means by which President Barack Obama made public this new act of Great Power aggression revealed the chasm that separates his administration from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
The case of Fabien Engelmann in France: Trade unionist, ex-member of Lutte Ouvrière and the NPA—and neo-fascist
Written by Olivier Laurent on March 23, 2011The French press recently reported the case of a CGT (General Confederation of Labour) union official, Fabien Engelmann, who spent 10 years in “far-left” organisations, first in Lutte Ouvrière (LO—Workers Struggle), then in the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA—Nouveau parti anti-capitaliste), and who will now be a candidate in the upcoming local elections for the neo-fascist National Front (FN). Contrary to the declarations of these organisations, Engelmann’s political trajectory is not an aberration, but the consequence of their own perspectives.
Obama, Private Manning and human rights
Written by Barry Grey on March 15, 2011Even as the United States preaches the sanctity of human rights to the world—in order to disguise its efforts to prop up besieged dictatorships in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain and install a new client regime in Libya—President Barack Obama is defending the torture of a US citizen at home.
The US states’ budget crisis: Where should the money come from?
Written by Patrick Martin on March 7, 2011Republican and Democratic governors in state after state claim they have no choice but to impose drastic cuts on the wages, health benefits and pensions of public employees, as well as slashing funding for education, health care and other vital social services. The states face intractable budget shortfalls, the argument goes. They have to cut because “there is no money.”
Obama picks Wall Street insider as White House chief of staff
Written by Jerry White on January 9, 2011Originally published on the World Socialist Web Site
President Obama’s choice of William Daley for the post of White House chief of staff is a clear signal to corporate America that his administration will dedicate the next two years to accommodating the wishes of big business for reduced regulations and taxes for corporations and austerity measures for the working class.
The 112th US Congress convenes
Written by Patrick Martin on January 5, 2011The 112th US Congress convenes Wednesday, with a large Republican majority in the House of Representatives and a diminished Democratic majority in the Senate. This division is the outcome of the November 2010 election, in which the Republicans made a net gain of 63 seats and took control of the House while picking up six Senate seats but falling short of a majority in the upper chamber.
The media and Obama: Image and reality
Written by Barry Grey on December 28, 2010For the past two weeks the US media has been pumping out admiring commentaries on the “comeback” of Barack Obama. As if on signal, the man widely portrayed before and immediately after the November midterm elections as presiding over a failing presidency is being depicted as the protagonist of a political tour de force that has turned defeat at the polls into a triumph of reform legislation.
Obama’s business summit
Written by Barry Grey on December 17, 2010President Obama’s summit with US corporate chiefs on Wednesday was a shameless display of the complete subordination of the administration to big business. In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, with millions losing their homes and falling into poverty, Obama met for five hours behind closed doors to reassure the leaders of 20 major corporations of his unquestioning support, while plotting new initiatives to boost profits and reduce working class living standards.
Obama’s tax windfall for the rich
Written by Tom Eley on December 10, 2010The deal worked out between President Obama and the Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the richest Americans is the latest demonstration of the dictatorship America’s financial aristocracy wields over the government and its policies.
The agreement will extend $150 billion in income tax savings to the wealthy over the next two years and hundreds of billions more in the form of cuts to taxes on corporate profits, capital gains, and the estates of multimillionaires.
