"Food, Housing And Peace"- Programmatic Notes For The Anti-Capitalist Left Opposition in Obamian Times

Click on title to link to the Lenin Internet Archive's copy of his 1917 article, "Banks And Ministers".

Commentary

In a recent entry in this space I pointed out that it was both necessary and desirable for the anti-capitalist left opposition to begin formulating our alternative program NOW for the forthcoming political struggle during the Obamiad. In that entry entitled "Bread, Land and Peace"-Fighting Slogans For Obamian Times, dated November 30, 2008, I made comparisons with the slogans that animated the working masses in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and today's concerns, all historical proportions guarded. Here, upon further thought, I would only change those slogans slightly to reflect more correctly today's immediate concerns. Thus from here on in I, for one, will fight under the banner of Food, Housing and Peace. Still, not so different from 1917, wouldn't you agree? That said, here's today's entry

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These are hard times for militant leftists for we have just come through an election period where all the political air, including that of our extra-parliamentary leftist turf, was sucked out by the effects of the Obama avalanche. Moreover, just now, we are between bourgeois capitalist administrations, the infamous “lame duck” period. We no longer effectively have the Cheney-Rove-Bush trifecta as a target. And although he has made some disturbing appointments, which have the liberals muttering among themselves in horror, to fill out his administration Obama is in a “grace” period. That period should, given the wasteland of the past eight years, last for some time barring unforeseen developments. Nevertheless, we can usefully spend formulating the anti-capitalist left opposition program that we need to propagandize for and expand over the coming period. Especially concerning those systematic problems with the capitalist system that, at this point, may well be beyond Obama’s team’s capacity to correct other than to apply bandages. We wait in the wings. But here are a couple of points until then.

In a few previous commentaries in this space I have attempted to begin to articulate some programmatic points that militant leftists are going to have fight around as we face the Obamiad. The shorthand for these programmatic points – the “three whales of anti-capitalist militancy” to use an old leftist expression- is indicated by the headline to this entry above- “Food, Housing And Peace”. The last part of the slogan, which I addressed previously in this space in the entry mentioned above, forms the first axis of intervention and the one most likely to prove an opening for us in the coming escalation of troop levels in the Afghanistan quagmire. Obama has signaled his intention to escalate troop levels, most prominently by his selection as key National Security Adviser of ex-Marine General James Jones. We now fight under the slogan “Obama- Immediate Unconditional U. S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan And Iraq!”. That, my friends is a “no-brainer” and is merely the beginning of wisdom.

While I have not mentioned previously, other than in passing, the food issue- the increasingly desperate worldwide struggle for bread, I will not deal with that question today because I am still thinking through an appropriate approach to the question that does not sound like one befitting a charitable relief agency . I do however want to mention this second point about homes. I have already mentioned that a moratorium on foreclosures for a prolonged period is in order. I have also noted that precious little time or energy is being spent by any of these major players in articulating a program to “bail out” individual homeowners who are up against the wall. That is the axis I want to fight around today.

Over the past couple of months there have been several rounds of financial, credit and corporate governmental bailouts for those whose greed and need to expand profit margins beyond even the expansive capitalist norms of rationality turned this capitalist system on its head. As a reaction, and justifiably so, there has been something of a populist outpouring against those bailouts, from lower- level bourgeois politicians who are getting irate messages from constituents to those average citizens who are ticked off that these corporate wizards and financials mavens aren’t hanging from trees somewhere.

The recently electorally defeated Republican Party, now that it will be in the bourgeois political wilderness, is beginning to make noises in that direction as well since they are not in power in order to tap into this anger. Fellow leftists this, by right, is our issue and we best fight around a program that fights for the interests of working people who are our political base or the right-wingers will surely reap the benefits. That is, in the final analysis, the problem with getting a handle on vaguely articulated populist stirrings- they can go left or right. American history is replete with such movements, like that of George Wallace in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, that get fired up by right-wing demagogues. Let’s fight to make it a left turn. No To Corporate, Credit Or Financial Market Bailouts! Stop Individual Homeowner Foreclosures! Jobs For All! It is also time to dust off that old slogan from the 1930’s- “30 hour work for 40 hours pay” to really “redistribute the wealth” in this time of high unemployment. That slogan, by the way, is the one right-wingers will not touch. Enough said.