On Thursday January 29, France experienced what the UK Guardian termed "the first general strike to hit a major industrialised nation since the start of the global financial crisis." Millions of workers stayed off their jobs and took to the streets instead, demanding that the French government help workers find and keep jobs at decent wages, instead of shelling out public money to bail out banks and big corporations.
On the same day, in a demonstration of worker anger that was smaller and closer to home, but still significant, the LA Times reports that "Thousands of teachers and other union members rallied Thursday at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles to oppose state and local cuts to education." Thanks to Without a Paddle for bringing the LA demo to our attention - and, even more, for being there to stand up and be counted!
A related Northern California struggle is also in progress. See Charles Rachlis's recent post about the community movement against school closures that Charles is helping to lead in Richmond, California.)
As the worldwide so-called recession deepens even further, more such demonstrations against budget cuts, layoffs, and fat cat bailouts can be expected. Will they rise to the level of a revolutionary movement, as at least one French Trotskyist leader is hoping?
Only time will tell, but one thing is clear already: ordinary working people are angry, and they will only get angrier as conditions get worse. Be careful what you ask for, pro-capitalist Obama supporters - as the class struggle heats up, you may find yourselves facing the prospect of some real change!
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i just lost a half hour of writing here. Let me be so rude as to ask you to check out the following blog:
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=68013
It offers my idea of a workable, healthy, decent form of capitalist society. Socialists usually hate it with a passion equal only to the hate it engenders in the fat-cats who are benefiting in our present cesspool of a system (which is in no way representative of a "designed by us - for us" type of capitalism).
The mere fact that neo-cons and silly socialists BOTH dislike this idea tells me I'm onto something good!
PS: Sorry you lost your earlier comment. Happens to all of us. Sometimes I write them in Word and just paste them in, when they're long.
Be careful what you ask for, pro-capitalist Obama supporters - as the class struggle heats up, you may find yourselves facing the prospect of some real change!
Perhaps. After 2 stolen elections, we've waited so long for a non-idiot, non-far-right-whacko to be in charge that we may not sit still for more Wall Street gibberish. Which leads to:
Mother: Is it possible to be an Obama supporter and still side with workers?
Sure. He's straddling all kinds of fences and trying to find his feet - and his balance. We can support what he does that helps workers and fight him for what doesn't. There's some of each. Until he lands on the wrong side and stays there, I'll support some of what he does.
There's no reason - yet - to come over all all-or-nothing. He's just a politician. At least he's not a hopeless ideologue and he listens to people who don't agree with him. That's different.
Obama-worship does need to end. We need to divorce ourselves from party loyalty, turn indie, and hassle whoever needs to be hassled no matter which party they are. But we don't need to replace it with Obama-disappointment either. Forget personality. Work for or against the policies.
Mother: Congratulations! You have prompted Mick to make a comment with which I disagree, at least in part - a rare occurrence indeed!
Okay, I will admit that I could not help feeling a sense of relief on November 4, and again on January 20. The Bush years were a nightmare, and McCain would have been more of the same.
Nonetheless, unlike Mick, I do not think one can be an Obama supporter and still be on the side of the workers in any fundamental sense. As I said in my comment on one of Mick's recent posts: "Supporting the 'lesser evil' just gets us right back where we started, every time. Nothing is going to change unless and until we build an independent mass party based on organized labor. But for that to happen, unions and progressives will have to shed their illusions in the Democrats."
Just to clarify, however, let me flip your question around: Is it possible to support the workers, and still approve of some of the things Obama is doing? To that question, I will echo Mick's "sure" response. Of course it is a good thing that Obama has lifted the ban on federal funds to family planning providers, promised to close Guantanamo, and so on. So I'm not saying we can't support whatever reforms and good things Obama is willing, and manages, to do.
But ultimately, I do not think any politician who supports the continued existence of the capitalist system is entitled to the support of working people, because I believe that only the abolition of the capitalist system can really change the world for the better in any permanent way. If you don't believe me, keep a close eye on Obama and the people he has chosen to advise him and carry out his program. Watch as they water down and compromise their "progressive" positions - sometimes to nothing - in the interest of keeping Big Business on their side. After all, as you so astutely pointed out, "Obama has CEOs and Wall street types in most positions."
Unlike you, however, I do not think this is "inevitable." Organized labor contributed thousands of dollars and volunteer hours to Obama's election. Why, then, didn't he appoint people with union experience to high-level posts in his administration? See my earlier posts on the fact that Obama's transition team had no Labor representative, and on the absence of labor issues from the "agenda" published on his website. Wouldn't someone who really has the best interests of working people at heart do better than that?
You also stated that "If McCain were in power I think workers in many major cities would be in the streets and at the barricades -- well maybe when it warms up a little." It's already plenty warm here in the Bay Area, and we have lots of people here who will go out on the streets at the drop of a hat. But they're not out there - and I think you're right that one of the reasons is that they're counting on Obama to fix everything for us.
By the time it really sinks in that that's not going to happen, it will be time for another election. Meanwhile, Obama will have done exactly what he was elected to do - i.e., keep those people off the streets, and prevent those barricades from going up. The election of "reform" Democrats has functioned as this kind of safety valve for capitalism in the past, and it will continue to do so until working people catch on and stop falling for it! Sorry for such a long-winded answer to a succinct question, but I thought it deserved a full answer.