Backwards Logic: Obama’s “We Got Your Back” Black Campaign Ad
The Obama 2012 campaign’s radio ad, in which a chorus of Black voices assures the president that “We got your back,” implies a “reciprocal relationship” between Blacks and Obama – “that we’re all in this together,” said Dr. Johnny Williams, professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. However, “there’s been very little that he’s done directly for Black people to show us that he’s got our back.”
Why Wisconsin mobilization and Occupy movement “Faltered”
The “biggest ongoing labor rally since the 1930s got shunted into electoral politics…because there wasn’t also the pursuit of independent movement building,” said Arun Gupta, co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street Journal. The problem, said Gupta, was not simply that Democratic Party and labor union “honchos” steered the movement into an unsuccessful bid to unseat Republican Scott Walker. Rather, the Wisconsin mobilization and the Occupy movement, “despite their potential, have been faltering because of…a lack of organization, a lack of discipline, and a lack of strategy.”
Medicaid for All Would Have Passed Constitutional Muster
President Obama could have avoided constitutional problems if he had chosen a health care plan that “most people have long supported” and which is “constitutionally safe”: Medicare for All, said political analyst and author Paul Street. “All you have to do” to create a single-payer system ”is to go into the Medicare bill and take out the clause that says its for people over 65 – and just say its for everybody.” Instead, Obama pushed a bill that guaranteed price-setting power to the drug and insurance “mafias.” The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on Obama’s health care legislation, which requires people to purchase private insurance.
Obama Violates His Own Law on Congo Killings
Friends of Congo is circulating a petition demanding that Washington cut off funds to nations that “destabilize” their neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Executive director Maurice Carney notes that the law was authored by Sen. Barack Obama and co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, now U.S. Secretary of State. Rwanda and Uganda are both guilty of destabilizing the DRC, “resulting in the death of millions of Congolese,” said Carney. Both Rwanda and Uganda are close allies of the U.S.
No Compromise with Capitalism
“You have to have, as an objective, overturning the system of capitalism, itself. And to do that, you’ve got to be organized,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, founded in 1972. Yeshitela was speaking at the national convention of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, in Philadelphia.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Tuesday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
The U.S. isn't the only country with a duplicitous Black political class. The coup government in Peru has Black "leaders" who protect and defend the right wing who ousted an elected president and…
The US "war on terror" brought nothing but terror to the Horn of Africa. Kenya is a US client state which has spent years destabilizing Somalia under the guise of fighting terrorism.
The late Mutulu Shakur and other Black radicals were responsible for improving the lives of millions of people in the U.S. The counter revolution ended that period of progress, but the political…
Mutulu Shakur passed away just seven months after being paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was terminally ill. The US has more political prisoners and incarcerates…
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has succumbed to US pressure and endorsed a new invasion of Haiti.
