Political Controversies

There has been a lot of stories about what has happened in Nevada. First, we have to set the facts straight. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have recent primaries. Hillary barely won the Kentucky primary while Sanders won the Oregon primary. The Democratic Party establishment wants Hillary Clinton to clinch the nomination as soon as possible. Now, there is controversy over many people using the phone threatening violence against party officials in Nevada. The Nevada state Democratic convention in Las Vegas last Saturday ended in chaos. State Chairwoman Robert Lange gaveled through a rigged credentials report that excluded just enough Sanders supporters to ensure a narrow Clinton majority and two additional Clinton delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. When Sanders supporters began to stand up and voice their objections, Lange declared the convention adjourned and summoned sheriff’s deputies to enforce her decision. There has been tensions among both the Sanders and Clinton camps for months. Now, this is a new escalation of such tensions. There is no excuse for some people to threaten Democratic Party leaders period. No one should be threatened with violence. It is wrong for some, who claim to be Sanders supporters (with titles like “Bernie Bros”) showing misogynistic and even racist language against people in the Internet and in public. Misogyny is evil and it must be condemned no matter who does it. Also, we do know that the primary process is rigged with superdelegates having inordinate power and corporate interests dominating the two party duopoly. That’s a fact. Unfair rules make it so that only those who can get the most interests from Wall Street bankers or corporate interests win the White House. There is a debate on whether chairs were thrown or not. One man apparently brandished a chair, but was persuaded by Sanders supporters to put it down. Also, we know that the Sanders campaign is not responsible for these hateful messages, but the Sanders campaign do need to denounce such actions in stronger terms. Also, the Hillary Clinton campaign is filled with promotion of imperialism, capitalism, and “pragmatic” centrism. DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave a round of media interviews Tuesday criticizing his response as “anything but acceptable.” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, the boss of the Nevada Democratic Party, called Sanders to complain and denounced his “silly statement.” Some Democratic Party leaders and media commentators even sought to equate the conduct of Sanders supporters in Nevada with the thuggery at Trump rallies. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said, “We saw what happened at the Trump rallies, which broke into violence, people punching one another. I don’t want to see that happen at the Democratic Party.” More and more of the Millennial youth identify themselves as socialist. We know about the Donald Trump campaign being regressive. Also, the Democratic Party (in their leadership) is right wing and pro-corporate.

The current administration saw the greatest transfer of wealth from the working people to the financial aristocracy in American history. Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton don’t criticized Obama’s record. Both Republicans and Democrats are the parties of the oligarchy. The Democratic Party is the second oldest capitalist party on Earth. It was the party of Southern slave-owners. It was involved in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a party that endorses daily assassinations globally and especially when Hillary Clinton made the cackling obituary of Muammar Gaddafi: “We came, we saw, he died.” Both parties are in capitalist politics. The red baiting corporate media has condemned socialism, but we aren’t backing down. Now, we see the Republican Party splitting up. Many Republicans won’t vote for Tramp and some want to vote for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic Party is headed for its convention in Philadelphia, which is ironically a place filled with American history. The corporate media are filled with agents for Hillary Clinton and many of them criticize Sanders. They want Hillary to win since Hillary represents the status quo.

The Green Party, which has attempted to open a dialogue with Bernie Sanders since 2011 – to no avail, according to Green presidential candidate Jill Stein – plans to muster a significant presence in Philadelphia, alongside the Socialist Alternative party and other leftish electoral groupings. Hillary now is trying to reach out to many Republicans, so the white male vote can come to her in higher numbers. GOP now is a party filled with white nationalist ideology plain and simple. “Get ready for the whiplash,” says the writer and activist Paul Street, author of They Rule: Democracy Versus the 1%. “The Democratic Party is about to go from being the party that allowed a self-declared democratic socialist to go very far in the primary process, to becoming, objectively, the truer and more fully explicit ruling class party in the country.” I am a black person. Research from black social demographer Michael Dawson found that the biggest bloc of Black voters are most like Swedish Social Democrats and a very large number of us (who are black) are more radical than that. That’s interesting and true since I am progressive on economic issues. Promoting Social Security, Medicare, opposing NAFTA, and believing in peace are critical in the world. Trump is a racist America firster (who a Soros-funded person is in his campaign. Trump is a known sexist and xenophobe) while Hillary Clinton is the candidate of Wall Street, war, and austerity. That’s a sad choice for Americans during the 2016 Presidential election. Yet, people have the right to vote for third party candidates nationally, which have more progressive ideologies than the 2 party duopoly.

No major candidates (from the 2 party system) has made a clear policy position on foreign policy as it relates to the African continent in a progressive fashion. The two parties have made it their duty to promote international finance capital instead of liberation from neoliberal capitalism. Washington’s imperialist policy towards Africa have harmed Africa in terms of human lives being lost to the economic exploitation of Africa’s great resources. Even some of the mainstream black leadership has been very silent on these issues too (unlike the 1970’s and the 1980’s). People of African descent make up the largest voting bloc among minorities in the United States. For years, the establishment has not given serious concerns to the domestic and foreign policy issues of people of black African descent. The Bill Clinton administration passed draconian legislation that accelerated the incarceration rates of African Americans. These laws constitute a policy of national oppression. The Clinton administration promoted laws that grew the disparate treatment in the criminal justice system along racial lines. Also, Bill and Hillary Clinton have advance foreign policy operation that have been disastrous for the people of Haiti, Libya, etc. (in favor of the interests of the American government and private capital). Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the face of the Pentagon and NATO-led bombings against Libya during 2011. The Libyan war was a total disaster. Thousands of people died, millions of people are dislocated, and Libya is an impoverished country today. Libya was once the most prosperous nation on the continent. Now, the Libyan civil war have cause more terrorism and instability in North Africa, the Maghreb, and West Africa. Libya is in ruins. The United Nations attempted to prop up the GNA or the so-called Government of National Accord. The GNA has no legitimacy even among the two rival factions installed by imperialism in the aftermath of the war. Muammar Gaddafi was assassinated without due process when Gaddafi gave Libya many resources. The African Union has problems. Wall Street and Washington wants African resources. We see AFRICOM, which started under George W. Bush and it expanded during the Obama administration. AFRICOM or the U.S. Army Command caused more instability and dislocation in AU member states. In Mali during 2012, a military coup was carried out by an official of the armed forces who was trained at various defense schools in the U.S. The Horn of Africa nations of Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia serve as staging grounds for imperialist military operations on the continent and in the Middle East. Djibouti houses the largest known Pentagon base at Camp Lemonier where thousands of U.S. and French troops are stationed. The CIA allow drone strikes in Somalia, etc. Some attack the al-Sahabaab Islamist group in Somalia. Warships from NATO countries are active in the Gulf of Aden (which is one of the massive trading routes on Earth). The Pentagon works in West Africa too in dealing with terrorism. Nigerian leaders work with the Pentagon and the CIA to fight Boko Haram, which is an armed group that killed thousands of people in NE Nigeria and displaced millions.

Back in the day, the CBC (during the 70’s and 80’s) supported national liberation struggles against colonialism and apartheid. Former Congressman Ron Dellums from the Bay Area, California supported the first Anti-Apartheid Act (which was passed by the U.S. Congress over the veto of Republican President Ronald Reagan). Today, many CBC members are silent on Hillary Clinton’s role in the Libyan disaster, even if Hillary has no responsibility in the deaths of four U.S. diplomatic personnel and CIA operatives in Benghazi. The people of Libya deserve respect. Also, many black Africans have migrated from the Mediterranean from Libya into Southern, Central, and East Europe because of imperial policies. Many Africans in Europe face discrimination, racial violence, and segregated housing complexes. Some are limited to menial work without adequate resources for education and economic opportunities Africa have many places with activists fighting for environmental justice, gender equality, and economic growth. Zimbabwe and South Africa have a known history of this movement building too. The volume of trade has declined over many years between America and Africa. There is an international debt crisis reemerging in Africa due to the fall of natural gas, strategic minerals, and the commodity prices. Domestic extraction of oil and natural gas has increased in America. Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, and Nigeria are dealing with these issues too. Policies from the Pentagon, State Department, and the CIA destabilized much of Africa. Capitalist production has caused crisis. We want Africa to have a transformation to have more self-determination, independence, sovereignty, and support movements who desire socialist construction. We want Africa to be free and independent.

By Timothy