OBAMA began his second term on Monday, after four years of office which saw GM and other motor car giants go bust, Lehman Brothers collapse, and the US debt head for $17 trillion.
His policy at home was to bail out US capitalism, rescuing the bankers and the bosses, whatever the cost, no matter how many US workers had their wages cut, or lost their jobs and homes.
Abroad he personally supervised the deadly murderous drone attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Yemen, put missile bases on Russia’s western borders, organised the invasion of Libya and the murder of Colonel Gadaffi, accepted the murder of his ambassador by some of those that he had put into power in Libya without any retaliation, something that would have be unthinkable if it had happened in Iran, and declared that the bulk of US military forces are to be stationed in the Asia Pacific region, confronting China.
The scene for Obama’s second coming was set by Lupe Fiasco when he was forced off the stage during an inaugural event in Washington DC on Sunday night, after telling the crowd that he had not voted for Obama and rapping a 30-minute version of his song ‘Words I Never Said’ featuring lyrics such as: ‘I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit, just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets’ as well as ‘Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit.’
When Fiasco refused to move on to the next song, his microphone was cut and a security team removed him from the stage.
Fiasco’s stand is a pretty good indication of just how the US working class and youth are going to treat Obama’s second term.
In his address, the president began by telling the US workers, the unemployed and the homeless that, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’
This declaration is in absolute contradiction to the conditions of the US working class and middle class after four years of Obama’s attempt to rescue capitalism from its crisis and restore the US position in the world, using drones as his weapon of choice.
He added that ‘The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.’
Again, in a country made up of one per cent living at the expense of the wealth created by 99%, the propaganda of the US bourgeois revolution does not cut any ice with the masses.
He continued: ‘This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.’
It will come as no surprise after the US’ military adventures that the US regards the world ‘without boundaries’ as its to seize.
Getting closer to the truth of the desperate state of US capitalism he added: ‘We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.’
He continued: ‘We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law . . . America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe . . . We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East.’
Obama’s second coming is going to see even greater attacks on the workers of the US and the world to try to secure the future of US capitalism.
The future of US workers depends on them breaking with Obama and the Democrats and building a Labour Party that will advance socialist policies and create the conditions for the US workers to get rid of capitalism and go forward to socialism.
