OBAMA MUST BE ELECTED

vol. 1, no. 3, October 2008, $ 1.00



si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

Foreword

To open a new chapter: the Canadians will vote this October 14th. La Vie Réelle in English encourages its readers to vote for the New Democratic Party. This invitation has been done so far in the French issue previously. If you speak French, we encourage you to read the article under the title of Un gouvernement minoritaire. Canada needs a shift onto a people’s agenda like in the USA.

November the 4th

Already in an editorial, published in People’s Weekly World this summer, the communists of the USA recognized that one may disagree with some aspects of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, while encouraging important points, such as: “ending the war in Iraq, shifting to multilateral diplomatic measures and re-engaging the international community in a unified and necessary struggle against real problems of terrorism (which have been fuelled by the Bush-McCain policies).” However, the political battle will continue after the eventual election of Obama.

In his speech –a striking credo- Obama, unveiled his viewpoint about world and domestic events when he spoke in Berlin on July 24th: “if we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.” The would-be president seems to ignore all what communism is about; and his allocution denounces without nuances – maybe - the attitude of the then Soviet government. Let’s hope that it will be possible to dialogue and exchange on what animates the communists: their faith in a better world, love and compassion for the needy and strive for the beauty of life.

On the other hand, Obama, in his declaration, mentioned rapidly the “voters” in Zimbabwe. Bush, still in power, was rather drastic on this issue, along side with the G8 nations – including Canada- and expressed, according to the Montréal daily The Gazette, “grave concern” about this country, vowing to impose financial restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and his officials. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe’s UN mission, as reported in the British daily The Morning Star, said a few days later that the nation is “not at war with itself and poses no threat to its neighbours or any other country.” Sanctions would only be a “support of Britain’s colonial crusade against Zimbabwe.” Their letter indicated that “some isolated and localised cases of violence have indeed occurred in Zimbabwe” since the Spring elections, but accused the Movement for a Democratic Change (MDC), the opposition party, of “premeditation, planning, stage management and exaggeration of this violence, with British and American encouragement and collusion, as part of a grand strategy aimed at inviting foreign intervention in Zimbabwe.”

This is the kind of policy that democratic-minded people do not expect to see in the future. The overwhelming majority of the US population stands by him when Obama reaffirms that within 16 months of his presidency the US troops would leave Iraq. The daily Métro issued in Montréal, quoted him, reminding that: “John McCain and George W. Bush both said that if Iraq, as a sovereign government, would decide that it is the time for us to start to withdraw our troops, they should respect the wish of this sovereign government.”

Canada, the USA and the world

In many cases, the Congress has not been able to reinforce democracy in the country. The People’s Weekly World in an editorial of mid-July points out that: “it’s unfortunate that Congress has been unable to compel the current administration to begin to end the occupation. The ball will be in the court of the next administration and Congress to finally and promptly end this war [in Iraq].”

The chairman of the Communist Party USA, Sam Webb, at this moment, expressed this concern: “What is more, to win, the campaign has to reach out to independents and disaffected Republicans. Without winning a section of them, a landslide victory is improbable […] In order to advance one iota of a pro-people’s agenda; the people’s movement has to elect Obama and to enlarge the Democratic Party majorities in Congress. Without that everything else is wishful thinking.” This is part of an article reproduced in the People’s Weekly World.

In the world, other countries are keen to develop a foreign policy, sometimes different from the one of the USA. In July, Fidel Castro wrote in the news bulletin Argenpress that basically the competition between the US administration and the government of North Korea could lead to insecurity for all countries in the region, especially this country and China. “We were satisfied by the declaration of North Korea on the decision to suspend their program of nuclear weapons. This has nothing to do with the crimes and blackmail of Bush who now boasts that this decision is the result of his policy of genocide.”

It is even more obvious than the policies of the large capitalist countries are dictated or shaped in the head offices of multinationals. It happens that often the governments yield quickly to their desiderata; nevertheless, the workers are more and more determined to protect their lifestyle and rights. The numerous upsurges of the European workers against the oil corporations last summer are a good indicator.

Some other topics will confront the future President of the USA. For instance, members of the Bloc québécois, of the New Democratic Party (NDP) -both in Parliament (before October 14th)- and the Communist party of Canada (CPC) have given their support to the world campaign urging for a fair trial for the five Cubans detained since nine years in the USA. Their situation is opposed to the Constitution of the country and the International Laws. La Vie Réelle in English spoke about them in the September issue; here is a poem of Antonio Guerrero, one of the Five:

In the Eye of the Hurricane

In the eye of the hurricane
Where it is feeling so much unfair
When time of revenge
A bloodstained iron
I have figured out more
Than four brothers
Which millions of brothers
Theirs arms, theirs voices
And have failed
Doves thus flying
Around my body
Bringing hope
The vital hope
In its giant wings
A troubadour with his guitar
Singing my adventures
And my misadventures
A painter with a flower
Drawing a face and many other ones
Cherished and beloved
And a poet with a lamp that
By day and by night
Brighten up everything
What shall I need more!
In the eye of this hurricane
Everything which was scattered
By evil winds
It is worth really
To be willing for dying.

(Poem in Spanish under the title En el ojo del huracan, written in USP, Florence, Colorado, on July 2nd, 2008 and translated in English by Michel Pratte, in Montréal, Canada, on August 27th, 2008.)

For all of these considerations and many more things, Barack Obama should listen to the communists of the United States of America. Their strength lies surely in their deep passion for the working class and their true affection for their country. Let’s break bread!

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