The Obama Gambit

I went to a program yesterday where the statements that received the greatest positive reaction from the crowd were completely contradictory(at least in my mind--obviously not, in the collective mind of the audience): Statement 1: Imperialism was hurt in Vietnam, it was hurt in Iraq and it will be buried in Africa. Statement 2: I voted for him(Obama) cause he is Black. On their face, these statements may not seem related, but my mind has been whirling trying to reconcile them into one coherent worldview. The fact is they can't be reconciled and the reaction to these statements are actually symptomatic of a sort of political schizophrenia. Of being African and still putting some hope or giving some credence to the idea of an American identity. My favorite statement of the night was in response to a question posed(facetiously, i hope) about whether we could look forward to a kinder, gentler foreign policy(read imperialism) from an Obama presidency, it was profound in its simplicity: the president of America is still the president of America.

We must see the Obama presidency as just the latest stunt imperialism has pulled out of its bag of tricks. We can see the game aint changed, only the players. Indeed, what separated Obama from the pack of Democrats initially, was his foreign policy. Specifically, his stance on the war in Iraq, but who does he choose as his Sec. of State,(the face of foreign policy) but Hillary Clinton who sought to position herself as the most hawkish Democratic candidate(read trustworthy guardian of imperialism). By the way anyone remember those commercials about who do you want to pick up the phone at 3am?. His chief of staff is Rahm Emanuel- a super wealthy Zionist war hawk. Along with Hillary Clinton, Obama's vice president Joe Biden authored the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act which imposed economic sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. The president of America is still the president of America.

We see imperialism just got a makeover--putting a African face on imperialism aint change we can believe in, matter fact it aint change at all. It is actually Imperialist rule in blackface. This is what Nkrumah called neo-colonialism.Of course, the Obama gambit is meant to distract us from the conflicts inherent to capitalism, but in fact it is doomed to fail and fall victim to its own contradictions. Africans and people all over the world have their expectations raised while imperialism is still the order of the day and so the conflicts have not been resolved.

Let's put things in a little historical context. When imperialism could no longer rule through naked colonialism, it turned to an indirect form of rule. It propped up puppet rulers who were willing to do their bidding. Look at Papa Doc in Haiti, Mobutu in the Congo. Look at Mandela's presidency, people rejoiced around the world at the end of the apartheid regime and assumed progress would be made. In fact, under the guise of democracy the same exploitative system of capitalism continued to function and the same people who were rich before apartheid are richer and the Azanian/South African masses are still suffering at the hand of imperialism.

So this is nothing new, same old same old. It actually clarifies the contradictions, which is why Nkrumah called neo-colonialism the last stage of imperialism. It got nowhere to go, but down. Once the conflicts around race are removed("give a black man a chance") and people realize imperialism is still the old dirty bastard it always was, the People will be forced to deal with class conflict as the last great obstacle between them and a truly democratic society free from oppression.