ABIT OF NEWS TO ROUND OFF THE WEEKEND

Despite the Power of Money – Reflections on the Vapid Obama Commentary of Professor Angela Davis
Paul Street, BAR
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content%2F%E2%80%9Cdespite-power-money%E2%80%9D-reflections-vapid-obama-commentary-professor-angela-davis

And clearly a large number of Wall Street and K Street insiders thought early on that Obama could possibly prevail. They invested heavily in his campaign after vetting him and finding out that “a figure like Barack Obama” was completely safe and inordinately useful for existing dominant domestic and imperial hierarchies and doctrines. Professor Davis is free to think that college kids on the Internet pushed Obama into the White House but the real story has far more to do with more mundane, traditional and timeworn factors: Wall Street backing, establishment approval, corporate media love, and a bad economy that worked against the incumbent party.

Of course serious progressive change is about pressuring major party state capitalist office-holders from the bottom up. Naturally we should not look to politicians and officeholders to fix contemporary messes; we’ve got to do it ourselves as citizens. Yes, the struggle continues. As Howard Zinn used to say, “it’s not about who’s sitting in the White House; it’s about who’s sitting in.” Fine. But it’s sad to see Davis ignore the elementary facts that (i) the corporate-imperial Obama campaign worked expertly and overtime to seduce “progressive” voters (and every other kind of voter they could attract with Brand Obama) to “project [their] own potential power” on to Obamessiah; (ii) the business-friendly and militaristic Obama presidency has worked consistently to undermine, deflect, and intimidate serious progressive protest of its corporate and imperial agenda, using threats, mockery, denial of access, surveillance, and raids to those ends.

The Obama campaign was not a grassroots social movement created by ordinary people struggling for progressive change from the bottom up any more than a fish is a cat or than war is peace. It was a top-down, candidate-centered operation in which “rank and file” activists got their marching orders from distant campaign elites, themselves equipped with the latest technologies and marketing techniques that record-setting corporate and other big money campaign contributions could provide.

Obama raised $750 million in 2008, nearly doubling the Bush record. OpenSecrets.org says that 1/3 was in small donation (less than $200). But that leaves $500 million in 'big' donations. More than the totals Bush raised in either 2000 or 2004.

[Duchess Note: Many thanks to Judith in sharing the above article, which conveys a lot of truth on the Obomba Regine. Many other so called “progressives” speak BS and/or fear to speak the truth.]

Ralph Nader Wants You to Vote for Howie Hawkins, the Green Party Candidate for Governor
Mark Dunlea, Green Party

Ralph Nader urges you to vote for Howie Hawkins (http://www.howiehawkins.org/), the Green Party candidate for Governor in NY. Ralph has done several campaign appearances with Howie in Buffalo and Albany. Howie will be on Row F this Tuesday, November 2. Please spread the word.

A key issue is to get New York State to stop rebating to Wall Street speculators the $16 billion it collects annually from the stock sales tax.

Ralph believes the stock transfer tax rebates is the most important fiscal issue for NY gubernatorial candidates to address. “The budget deficit in New York State is about eight billion, so there is no more ready and justifiable source of revenue than a tax that is already assessed,” Nader says. “It would make up the deficit and provide for critical needs like health insurance. It would prevent job loss. It could build or renovate some public works, upgrade mass transit, provide for clinics, schools, public building and court rooms that are often in a state of disrepair. (Read more: http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2010/10/29/howie-hawkins-green-new-deal/#ixzz13tfctXl8)

2010 has already been a pivotal year for the Green Party worldwide. Greens in Britain, Australia and Colombia have all achieved historic milestones. With climate change accelerating and the world's economy in the worst collapse in 70 years, voters are turning to the Green program of ecology, grassroots democracy, nonviolence and social and economic justice.

Hawkins was a founding member of the Green Party in the US and has been an environmental, labor and justice organizer for nearly 40 years.

Howie, a Teamster, is the only union member running for statewide office. He has been warmly received by the many parts of the labor movement as well as the environmental movement where the Greens have traditionally received support. A labor committee has been established for Howie, and many union members, especially teachers, have been organizing for him.

Howie has received a lot of support as the only gubernatorial candidate calling for a permanent ban on the dangerous practice of hydrofracking for natural gas. His call to cut the military budget and bring our troops home, including NY's National Guard, has won him the endorsement of Broome County Peace Action.

Given the anti-incumbent mood, a tea party millionaire Republican candidate, and Cuomo running as a “New Democrat” with an Old Republican platform on labor, the economy, and the environment, we have an opportunity in this election to change New York's politics permanently by establishing the Green Party as a viable alternative to the two-party system of corporate rule.

50,000 votes for Governor restores the Green's official status as a party in NYS. This will make it much easier for Greens to run for, and win, local, state and national office to offer an alternative vision for our future than the one promoted by the two corporate parties.

But our more important goal is to change New York politics by winning a lot more than 50,000 votes. A large vote total will enable the Greens to define the terms of the debate and build public support for a rapid transition to clean energy to avert catastrophic climate change, living wage jobs for all, expanded and improved Medicare for All, bringing our troops home and cutting the military budget. You can check out Howie's platform, media releases and video statements at http://www.howiehawkins.org/.

The time is right for the Green Party to surge. A Gallup poll released September 17 finds that 58% of Americans, including 61% of liberals and 74% of independents, want a “third major political party.” We want to win. Voters want new leadership. The Greens are ready to govern.

What It’s Like to Work in Walmart Hell
John Olympic, AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/story/148640/what_it%27s_like_to_work_in_walmart_hell

See, like millions of Americans, I'm underemployed. The government doesn't count people like me in its official unemployment numbers. And those numbers are pretty grim; the national unemployment rate is at 9.6 percent, with 15 million Americans looking for work. I guess working at Walmart is better than nothing.

But working for low pay is about as rewarding as stabbing out your own eyeballs with a stale baguette. $14 billion in profits last year bumped Walmart back on top of the Fortune 500 list, and the company keeps up those profits partly by paying associates as little as (legally) possible. Walmart wages are not only well below living wage, we're paid significantly less than comparable jobs at other retailers.

As diverse as Walmart associates are, we have at least one thing in common: When it comes to our jobs, we have no voice. Walmart is America's largest private employer, yet the 1 million workers who put on that red, white and blue nametag each week have zero collective bargaining power when it comes to our pay, benefits or working conditions.

Walmart is America: underpaid workers cleaning up after malnourished customers purchasing Chinese sweatshop goods.

Dean Baker: Why Growth Still Feels Like Recession
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2922?akid=240.19616.3VD_nC&t=25

Tom Engelhardt: A Democracy of Bags Stuffed with Cash
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2923?akid=240.19616.3VD_nC&t=27

Robert Reich: Halliburton and the Upcoming Election
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2924?akid=240.19616.3VD_nC&t=29