Obama’s Victory
By Ghali Hassan
10 November,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Millions of ordinary people around the world have celebrated the election victory of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States – and its first black leader – and the end of the nightmare of George W. Bush’s religio-fascist Administration. Will Obama’s victory prove to be as symbolic as all other U.S. elections’ victories?
It is instructive
to make two important observations:
First, Barack Obama is elected not “because he is black”,
as the “liberal” media pundits suggesting. Obama is elected
because he offered ordinary (mostly young) people hope; the motive
that keeps people struggle. The majority of Americans are tired of
violence after nearly three decades of a violent nightmare started
with the mass slaughter of Iraqi civilians in 1991 and continues today
under George Bush’s religio-fascist Administration. Obama sold
the vision of hope for change and most people bought his vision. The
excitement and euphoria witnessed around the world are justified.
It remains to be seen if Obama can deliver on his promises, including
his promise to end the murderous Occupation of Iraq.
Second, Obama’s Victory doesn’t represent the so-called “triumph of the American story”. Despite a hard fought civil rights struggle, black and Hispanic Americans continue to face intense racial discrimination of all kinds. The U.S. is one of the most unequal societies in the world, characterised by massive poverty and rising economic inequality. The U.S. has the lowest socio-economic mobility in the OECD countries. A recent United Nations Report on global inequality revealed that, infant mortality rate has been rising in the U.S. for the past five years. America’s black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday. The U.S. is the only industrialised country without universal health insurance. The gap in health care between black and white Americans is growing. Just 13 per cent of white Americans are uninsured, compared with 21 per cent of blacks and 34 per cent of Hispanic Americans. The Report concludes that parts of the U.S. are as poor as the ‘Third World’ countries. (See: UNHD Report, PDF). Furthermore, the U.S. justice system is one of the most unjust and discriminatory systems in the world. According to a 2007 U.S. Department of Justice’s Prison Statistics, there were 4,618 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the U.S., compared to 1,747 Hispanic male prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic males and 773 white male prisoners per 100,000 white males. In short, the “American story” remains a myth for the majority of black and Hispanic Americans.
Nevertheless, the election of a black man to the White House – built by black slaves – is significant in itself. It has broken down the racial barriers and set the U.S. on a different path watched by the rest of the world. From the Americas to Europe to Australia, entrenched white racism has marginalised and alienated non-European citizens and indigenous people for centuries. Obama’s victory and the occupation of the White House by a black family is seen by oppressed people all over the world as the ultimate defeat of the so-called “white supremacy”.
For more than five centuries, the indigenous peoples of Latin America have suffered (and continue to suffer) from entrenched racism brought in by European invaders and remain a disease among white European descendants to this day. Just listen of the derogatory and racist comments often made by white oligarchs of European descendants driven by overt racism against the country’s indigenous people. The recent racial insult towards President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Evo Morales of Bolivia by Rubén Costas, an opposition politician in Bolivia is just a case in point. For years, the indigenous peoples of Latin America have experienced (and continue to experience) a reign of terror perpetuated by U.S.-installed and aided regimes and their death squads.
In Europe, the ruling classes see Obama’s victory as a threat to their privilege positions of power. The cheap comment by the bigoted Neo-fascist Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – in which he described Obama as ‘young, handsome and even tanned’ – is just a case in point. The Italian billionaire, who bought his way to become Italy’s Prime Minister, knows that a first generation black man in Italy (or anywhere in Europe) can’t even vote in elections. To paraphrase Professor Manning Marable of Columbia University in New York, tens of millions of European citizens, mainly Muslims, feel alienated and marginalised by what have become routine consequences of European racialisation in daily life.
In France, where there are more than five million Muslims, mainly from North Africa, and millions more blacks, there is only one black lawmaker in the 577-seat National Assembly, and only four senators of North African origin are in the upper house (Associated Press, November 2, 2008). Discrimination in French society is “widespread, entrenched and institutionalised”, wrote Gay J. McDougall, a United Nations Independent Expert on minority issues (UN Press Release, October 01, 2007).
In Britain and the rest of Europe, the situation is not different, if it is not worse. In Britain, because of “institutional racism”, Obama would never have been elected prime minister in this country, said the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips. “The parties and unions and think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business”, added Phillips. Using fear and racism as political tools to manipulate the public, the ruling European classes justify oppressive policies and discrimination against non-white European citizens in order to erect racial barriers and suppress political activism. With rising Islamophobia and draconian ant-migrants laws, Europe appears a long way from dismantling high racial barriers and producing a European Obama.
In Australia, two centuries of institutionalised racial discrimination against the Aborigines and rising Islamophobia created high racial barriers. Like in Britain, the policy of “multiculturalism” is used as a tool to promote racism not to discourage it. Its purpose is to keep Australians of non-European origin (particularly non-Anglo-Saxon) in their places. You can do what you want, it is a “multicultural country”, but remember your designated place. Take a look at who is doing what. The election of Barack Obama remains a disappointment to the Australian ruling class led by their chief propagandist Rupert Murdoch. Just before the elections, Murdoch attacked Obama publicly, saying Obama is ‘not good for America’. We know Murdoch’s propaganda is the modern Joseph Goebbels’s propaganda and serves as a global mouthpiece for the war on Iraq and on Muslims in general. In February 2007, Murdoch’s closest ally, the now discredited former prime minister John Howard said: "If I were running ‘al-Qaeda’ in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats". What Howard was saying, he was implying that a victory for a “secret Muslim” – Obama is Christian and the claims that he is Muslim is false – will help “al-Qaeda”, a creation of the U.S. and its proxies. But, most importantly, an Obama’s victory (according to Howard’s distorted thinking) will encourage indigenous and non-white Australians to demand better treatment and challenge white ruling class privilege. The current Labor Government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has endorsed Hillary Clinton, but switched to Obama’s side just before Obama’s victory. Australians on the other hand are overwhelmingly (nearly two-thirds) preferred Barack Obama to John McCain.
It is important to note that, regardless of who is in the White House, the U.S. is ruled by an anti-Muslims racist white Judeo-Christian ruling class, surrounded by special interest groups with a brutal imperialist agenda to control the world through violence. It is a collection of politically and financially powerful Zionist Jews, pro-Israel hard line Zionists, Neocon-fascists, religio-fascists and corporate conmen and lobbyists. Anyone who wants to climb the ladder to power and privilege must submit to its defined militarist-corporatist ideology.
Just take a look at who will be in Obama’s Administration. Obama’s vice-president Joe Biden is a self-described genetically altered Zionist. Biden is an avid supporter of Israel’s terror against the Palestinians and has endorsed Israel’ occupation of Palestinian land. Not only Biden has voted for and supported the aggression against Iraq that built on fabricated lies, bide is also in favour of a Balkanised Iraq a long sectarian and ethnic line, weak and dependent on U.S.-Israel protection. Obama’s White House chief-of-staff is Rahm Israel Emanuel, an Israeli citizen who has served in the Israeli army and like his father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pro-Israel hard line Zionist. Like other Democrats, Rahm Emanuel has also voted for the illegal aggression on Iraq. He is publicly supporting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and supported the 2006 Israel’s terrorist attack on Lebanon. His father, Benjamin Emanuel was a member of the terrorist organisation Irgun (New York Times, 12/30/1947), which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian women and children, including the massacre of Deir Yassin in April 1948 where hundreds of Palestinian villagers were murdered in cold blood. Irgun and its associate the Stern Gang are responsible for the bombing of King David Hotel and the assassination of Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish UN peace envoy to Palestine. In addition, most of Obama’s foreign policy advisers are pro-Israel hard line Zionists. From the Israeli Zionist Dennis Rose, head of the Israeli propaganda thin-tank, the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy to Martin Indyk, an Australian-American and the director of another Israeli propaganda, the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy think-tank in the U.S., the Obama’ Administration will be controlled from Tel Aviv not from Washington. Zionism that is likely to influence Obama’s foreign policy far more than “liberal ideals”. Israel’s terror and war crimes, including the deliberate murder of Palestinian children – a fact known to every U.S.-European politician and media outlet – will continue. Obama has already pledged unconditional financial and political support to Israel’s Zionist expansion in Palestine and has also indicated that he will escalate (not end) Bush’s “war on terror”, a.k.a. the ongoing war on Muslims. Only time will tell if Obama is a political tool to be used to ‘repair’ and rebrand America’s image and redeem it in the eyes of millions of people.
Finally, during the course of the election campaign, Obama publicly distanced himself from his Islamic heritage and anything to do with Islam. Obama whose middle name is Hussein didn’t react when anti-Muslims bigots made false claims that he is a Muslim. Instead, Obama’s response has been cowardly disgraceful. More than 1.5 billion Muslims expected Obama to confront his detractors head on and tell them that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim; they were disappointed. To imply that anyone being a Muslim is somehow offensive is a new form of anti-Semitism. By contrast, to Jews Obama can’t wait to crawl.
While there is hope that the Obama Administration will be different, it is an illusion to suggest that it will not continue the same U.S. imperialist ideology. Obama has already told his supporters that they shouldn’t expect too much too soon. “We know the challenges that tomorrow will bring, are the greatest of our lifetime … The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term”, he said. It is true, Obama has inherited an America in turmoil and the expectations of millions of people are immense. However, if Ronald Reagan can change America, Obama can do it in reverse because there are possibilities for change; he has the mandate.
Obama’s victory is not the result of Obama’s promises to return to past failed policies (e.g., the Clinton Administration criminal policies). On the contrary, Obama’s victory is the result of promises for change that inspires the hopes of millions of people all over the world who wholeheartedly celebrated an historic victory. Failure to turn promises to policies will betray the aspirations and hopes of millions of Obama’s supporters and have dire consequences.
The immediate goals for President Obama should include his promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and dismantle the Republican religio-fascist ideology. In addition, President Obama should end the murderous occupation of Afghanistan and commit his Administration to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, including the suffocating Israeli military siege of Gaza. It is long overdue that an honest U.S. administration takes a decisive and courageous approach to Israel’s illegal and oppressive policies. There will be no peace without justice.
Ghali Hassan is an independent writer living in Australia.
