mardi 24 août 2010

STALEMATE OR PROGRESS

Where is President Obama?
vol. 3, no. 6, September 1-15, 2010, $ 1.00

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

FOREWORD: You will find at the bottom the link to the daily communist selection published by l'Humanité in English, in Paris.

Sadness, did you say? Oh, rather deep sorrow! The US communist newspaper disappeared in January 2010, sunk by its editorial board. They shut the public voice of the Communist Party USA, the People’s Weekly World (PWW).
Who will now, like the British communist newspaper, The New Worker, reveals that: “It is appropriate to recall that it was Bush’s corrupt administration that boosted and fostered the development of offshore oil rigs – no matter how risky they were- to increase local oil production without observing the proper safety measures, in return for bribes and economic favours?”
(ref.: May 2010).
The CP USA electronic newsletter People’s World , which replaced the PWW, praises President Obama to the skies. For instance, a few months ago, when he “tackles immigration reform”, it says: “The president, like the Statue of Liberty and Lazarus’ poem, appeals to the best of America”. Is that true? At any rate, it causes confusion.
What’s next? Already in the 1990s, one of the US leaders, Dan Margolis barred the sending to Montréal of the PWW, not “to mingle with Canadian affairs”; nowadays, he acts as a modern Mandarin, kicking out party members who do not abide by His Grace.
Astonishingly enough the 29th Convention in New York (May 2010), hammers out: “Finally, as for the role of communists, our mission is not to ‘steer the ship of state’. That task is the responsibility of a broader left coalition and the broadest possible section of the people.” Concretely, they could have tried to set up such a coalition to free the Cuban Five, detainees in USA on mere allegations since 11 years, but they did not.
(Photo-Gen.Consulate in Montréal: those "dangerous" Cubans supporting the Cuban Five, detainees in US jails).

The writer Edward A. Drummond, in The Crisis of the CPUSA Part 2, shows that “above all, the greatest problem is the demoralization and political disorientation”... in the membership and “the CP USA suffers from growing international isolation”.
Nevertheless, their People’s World reported in June 2010, that: “Opening the U.S. Social Forum in this city (Detroit, Ed.), hit hard by the economic crisis, 20 000 from around the nation marched [...] calling for jobs, economic and social justice and equality.” At the same time, the leadership of the CP USA is tailing Obama, its Democratic Party and the direction of the AFL-CIO. They don’t live up to the fine traditions of the internationalist CP USA past chairman, Gus Hall.
(Photo-Internet: CP USA past Chairman, Gus Hall. Well-known and appreciated leader in the world communist movement).

The tone here is angry. How would you react, when a clique of right-wing opportunists is wrecking this beautiful US fighter’s party, vanguard of working people’s rights: Black and White, English and Spanish speaking, and much more?

Drummond declares: “Project the Party’s own advanced demands for anti-monopoly democracy and for socialism. Fight for leadership of people’s movements, including trade unions.” He also states that “… for the overwhelming majority of Americans of color, the burden of special oppression and class oppression remain a material reality, as the Black unemployment rates double the white unemployment rate (true for decades now) illustrate”. 30 millions unemployed people languish and the Party leadership has not taken a single step toward responding to the crisis in its own name.
The international scene

Altogether, it is very difficult to distinguish the policies of Obama from those of Bush in external affairs, to start with. In January 2010, the Communist Party of Bolivia expressed its concern and exposed the situation as such: “While Venezuela sent one plane with medication, doctors and rescuers just 30 minutes after the catastrophe (in Haiti, Ed.) and immediately followed by Cuba, the USA sent 10 000 soldiers. What had the appearance to be humanitarian help, “rapid and efficient”, was for observers an attempt for occupation of a “failed State”.
At the end of June 2010, the US Congress responding to a demand of President Obama granted $ 33 more billions to the war in Afghanistan; 30 000 more troopers will be dispatched there. It seems that there is no way out. Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, kept on asking the Canadian government to pursue its mission in Afghanistan. In July 2010, Métro reported that Richard Fadden, the “boss” of CSIS (Canadian secret services, Ed.) regretted to have said that: “there is a foreign interference in provincial politics”.

This is probably pretty mild in comparison to the constant interventions of the US government in Canadian affairs; but nobody raised the point so far. Anyhow, if the Canadian people maintain its pressure, the Canadian troops should leave on July 1st 2011 and return to Canada. (But watch out the pro-US Harper government that would like to make a deal with the Liberal opposition to go just over it).
Now, as a growing number of US rank-and-file communists puts it: “If anyone is tempted to walk away in disgust, resist the temptation. Real revolutionaries don’t quit. Walking away only makes the victory of the Party-wreckers easier. There is not an infinite amount of time to right this starboard-listing ship. Every comrade is needed in this struggle.”
(Photo-Internet: The CP USA used to present candidates to the presidential elections. Here Gus Hall for President and Jarvis Tyner for Vice-President).

So, Canadian communists got in touch with some US comrades; they talk together. “Interference!” will shout Webb and his bunch… No! In North America, we need action and solidarity. Obama puts us to sleep. Let’s wake up workers’ America!


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