Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Obama Rams Through TPP With Little Democratic Support, Even from Black Caucus
24 Jun 2015

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

Every phony leftist that peddled Barack Obama as a “progressive,” and every knave and fool in “Progressives for Obama” that spread rose petals at his feet in 2008, should do penance through five years of silence. The First Black President positioned himself “at the far right wing of his own Democratic Party” to pass his TPP rigged trade treaty. Only three Black congresspersons, and 25 other Democrats, joined with Obama and his Republicans.

Obama Rams Through TPP With Little Democratic Support, Even from Black Caucus

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Obama delivered a crushing defeat to his own party, and to the health and welfare of all humanity.”

In the weeks before Barack Obama began his first term in office, we at Black Agenda Report described him as a center-right politician, based on the cast of characters he chose for his cabinet and his announcement that Social Security and all entitlement programs would be put on the chopping block under his presidency. Six and a half years later, Obama stands at the far right wing of his own Democratic Party, and – on issues of corporate domination – to the right of many Republicans. Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership treaty, the 21st century blueprint for global corporate rule, garnered only 28 Democratic votes in a showdown on Capitol Hill, last week. But, backed by 190 Republicans, and all the assets that Wall Street can muster, Obama delivered a crushing defeat to his own party, and to the health and welfare of all humanity. So rotten is the stench of TPP – a treaty so toxic it is a state secret – that only three members of the Congressional Black Caucus were willing to side with the First Black President.

The “Black TPP Three” are: Gregory Meeks, the corporate servant from Queens, New York; Terri Sewell, the sell-out who misrepresents Alabama’s Black Belt; and Eddie Bernice Johnson, the congresswoman from Texas who occupies a special place of shame, since she also voted in favor of the disastrous NAFTA treaty, 22 years ago.

Eddie Bernice Johnson, Recidivist

Back in 1993, Obama’s political mentor, Bill Clinton, crossed over the aisle to lead Republicans to victory over his fellow Democrats in the fight to pass NAFTA, the treaty with Canada and Mexico. Clinton got a much larger share of Democrats to go along with his jobs-killing bill, but most of the party still opposed the deal; 102 Democrats voted Yes, versus 156 that said No to NAFTA. Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus sided with Bill Clinton: Carrie Meek, of Florida; Mel Reynolds, from Chicago, who two years later was forced to resign after a conviction for statutory rape; William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, the money-man from New Orleans who hid cash in his refrigerator; Floyd Flake, whose New York seat is now held by the thoroughly corrupted Gregory Meeks; Harold Ford, who went on to become George Bush’s favorite Black congressman; and Eddie Bernice Johnson, the only one of the six still in a position to betray more 700,000 of her constituents, in Dallas, Texas.

In the generation since passage of NAFTA, the Black economy has collapsed, largely due to the flight of manufacturing jobs to low wage foreign shores. On Barack Obama’s watch, Black wealth fell to one-twentieth of median white household wealth, making it statistically impossible for African Americans to ever hope to reach parity with whites, short of a revolution. TPP will hasten the pace of social and economic decline in the United States – the real legacy of Barack Hussein Obama.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].

 



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20150624_gf_CBC-TPP.mp3

More Stories


  • Black University, White Power:  Howard University Covers for US Imperialism
    Erica Caines
    Black University, White Power: Howard University Covers for US Imperialism
    01 Feb 2023
    The announcement of a $90 million Air Force contract making Howard University a University Affiliated Research Center is a first for an HBCU. Now Howard has joined other universities in creating a…
  • Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost
    Stephen Wilson
    Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost
    01 Feb 2023
    Martin Sostre (1923-2015) was a political prisoner, jailhouse lawyer, and Black anarchist of Puerto Rican descent. After being released from prison, he opened a radical Afro-Asian Book Shop in…
  • Global Africa’s Mission: Expose the CIA’s Shameless, Continuing Crimes
    Mark P. Fancher
    Global Africa’s Mission: Expose the CIA’s Shameless, Continuing Crimes
    01 Feb 2023
    The CIA director recently visited Libya, a state that was destroyed by the US. History shows that the CIA is never up to anything good in Africa.
  • Colonial-Capitalist Fascism and Its Deadly Outcome: The State Murder of Tortuguita in Atlanta and Tyre Nichols in Memphis Are Inextricably Linked
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    Colonial-Capitalist Fascism and Its Deadly Outcome: The State Murder of Tortuguita in Atlanta and Tyre Nichols in Memphis Are Inextricably Linked
    01 Feb 2023
    All acts of police violence in the US are linked to the colonial capitalist state.
  • Closing Ceremony of the A-APRP Party Congress in Guinea-Bissau
    All African Peoples Revolutionary Party
    Closing Ceremony of the A-APRP Party Congress in Guinea-Bissau
    01 Feb 2023
    The First Historical Congress of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party marked a significant moment in the Pan-African Revolution.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us