No Gods No Masters

This has been submitted by a reader.  All reader articles represent 
the views of the writer, and not necessarily tokyoprogressive.

Submitted by Tokyo Spring
http://tokyospring.org

When Marcus Garvey wrote the words above about weaklings being the slaves of a nobler class performing the will of their masters without question he wasn’t thinking of Barack Obama. How could he have been?  However, his words will ring true again as Obama dutifully serves his corporate masters and talks of god in his quest to cement his place in ruling class history.

Obama on Israel from Haaretz.com

Obama supports Israel. Period.

Barack Obama’s big speech on Israel is now over, and as expected, the candidate made no secret of his support and dedication to the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel. “My view is that the United States’ special relationship with Israel obligates us to be helpful to them in the search for credible partners with whom they can make peace, while also supporting Israel in defending itself against enemies sworn to its destruction,” were Obama’s words to Haaretz last week. Today, he sounded as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period.

Obama on Afghanistan from CNN

“I think one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq,” he said.
Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.
“For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,” he told CBS. “I think it’s very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities.

Obama on Iran from Chicago Sun-Times

Sen. Barack Obama said Friday the use of military force should not be taken off the table when dealing with Iran, which he called “a threat to all of us.”

Obama said global leaders must do whatever it takes to stop Iran from enriching uranium and acquiring nuclear weapons. He called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “reckless, irresponsible and inattentive” to the day-to-day needs of the Iranian people.

The Iranian “regime is a threat to all of us,” Obama said.

While Obama wouldn’t rule out force, he said the United States should engage in “aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions” to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat.
Obama on Iraq from New York Post

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”

Obama on Business from Socialist Worker

Obama is unequivocally committed to the Democrats’ pro-business agenda. On all central issues his politics are identical to those of his rival Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Despite boasting of nearly two million individual donors who have given to his campaign, Obama still relies overwhelmingly on corporate donors and wealthy fundraisers.

He has raised around $140 million so far for his campaign, and much of this has come from the financial elite.

More than 17 of his major fundraisers are heads of hedge funds or private equity firms. One of those who joined his team early on is Kenneth Griffin, the second highest paid hedge fund manager in the US.

From illvox on Malcolm X and Capitalism

According to the U.S. census bureau, the official poverty rate for White Americans is a high 8.1%. However, the rate for Black Americans is an enormous 24.1%. In the U.S., which has the world’s largest imprisoned population both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of total population, black people account for just over 12% of the total population but over 44% of the prison population.

Enduring realities like these led Malcolm X to claim “the system in this country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this social system, this system period.”

Malcolm stated “we want equality by any means necessary.” In a 1964 speech, he said “you can’t have capitalism without racism.” Malcolm never became a socialist and he never broke with some of the conservative ideas he had acquired early in his life. However, at the time of his death the trajectory of his political thought was towards anti-capitalism, internationalism, and revolution.