Recently, while researching the ever transforming nature of imperialism and empire I remembered the nationally aired July 23, 2007, interview of noted author, founder and first president of TransAfrica, Randall Robinson. Robinson’s pertinent remarks in that interview of almost a year ago brought to mind Barack Obama.

The above mentioned interview had centered upon 21st century U.S. interventionism and imperialism in Haiti, the former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s abduction, and Randall Robinson’s book titled, An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. What specifically brought to mind Barack Obama, were the poignant words of Randall Robinson in that interview when he said, in relevant part, concerning the bloody U.S. and European repression and exploitation of the Haitian people: “And so, you have this collaboration between white, mulatto, wealthy elites in Haiti with the United States and Western Europe to repress the large black majority.” Though unlike Haiti, the U.S. does not have a “black majority,” the continued collective exploitation of Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White peoples in this nation, and throughout the world, by the U.S. corporate-military-prison apparatus, can only have a serious hope of being sustained and expanded if there is an imperialist who can successfully misrepresent himself to the people of this nation as being someone who is fundamentally different.

Enter Barack Obama, de facto pro-Zionist, corporate-backed, “unilateral” militarist, double speaking, wolf in sheep’s clothing - U.S. presidential candidate in the year 2008.

Barack Obama: a candidate of “color” touted as a “peace” candidate while simultaneously calling for “unilateral” U.S. military actions in other nations. A candidate who cynically claims to oppose the war in Iraq, while simultaneously having stated that he differs little with George W. Bush, since he (Obama) wants to have U.S. troops fight the war of occupation in Iraq “better,” and/or “more effectively.” Indeed, of late, Barack Obama and some of his colleagues in the Democratic party have begun to utilize the hypocritical and misleading political line, that U.S. troops and/or the war profiteering corporations in Iraq should be redeployed to a different region; which Obama knows full well is not ending the war but rather actually expanding it like a malignant cancer.

Moreover, due to Barack Obama’s blatant and unconscionable loyalty to apartheid Zionism, which is essentially the same as America’s racist Manifest Destiny doctrine, it is quite obvious that one of the next major targets of U.S. imperialist ambitions in any possible Obama presidency would most assuredly be an attack against the sovereign nation of Iran. This of course presupposes that the Bush/Cheney clique does not pre-empt such a move by insanely launching its own military attack against Iran, under some fabricated pretext, prior to the end of this regime’s term.

Perhaps one of the most dangerous, repugnant, and historically damning developments thus far in the year 2008, in the United States of America in general, and Black America in particular, is the apparent relative success with which the U.S. corporate-military-prison apparatus, and especially a significant portion of the corporate media, have worked overtime in manufacturing support of, and consent for, the de facto pro-Zionist, corporate candidacy of Barack Obama. Observing even some so-called progressives in the U.S. sell out the human rights of the Palestinian peoples in the name of political expediency, by supporting the pro-Zionist candidacy of Barack Obama, will ultimately go down in history as one of the most shameful moments of this nation, along side the genocide of the indigenous native peoples and the slavery and dehumanization of Black people. This might yet be reversed, but even if it is, it will remain historically as a terrible period of infamy.

No current U.S. presidential contender from either the Democratic or Republican parties [i.e. the Republicrats] other than Barack Obama is better suited to carry out the insidious imperialistic policies and ambitions of the U.S., while simultaneously [with the assistance of an overwhelmingly complicit news media] mesmerizing the people of this nation with inspiring - yet remarkably nebulous - “hope” and “change” rhetoric. No candidate other than Barack Obama can deliver such inspiring and remarkable speeches, and upon close examination have said virtually nothing whatsoever of systemic substance related to real change. Presently, no presidential candidate other than Barack Obama, has presented a better smoke and mirrors show to the ‘American’ people since the - apartheid-supporting, anti-labor/working people, trickle down economics - Ronald Reagan.

As scholar and author, Paul Street, recently and quite correctly noted in relevant part re Barack Obama:

“And what’s so damn wonderful about Barack Obama’s biography? It’s a story of kissing and climbing up to power in the industrialized world’s most unequal and wealth-top-heavy society. He wouldn’t be where he is if [he] wasn’t willing to play along with the corporate elite, whose funding and media approval are required to make a ‘viable’ run at the White House…Obama’s campaign is based on his desire to be president and on the corporate plutocracy’s judgment that he might be the right man for a key job: safely containing and channeling the demand for progressive change that has been deepened by the reactionary Cheney-Bush regime...”

While certain so-called progressives in this nation shamelessly stumble over one another in their swooning adoration of, and collaboration with, this 21st century colored chameleon imperialist, Barack Obama; America heads into an ever deepening recession as she looks for external enemies against whom to beat the drums of war and thereby once again divert the attention of her citizenry from the increasingly horrible internal economic and social plight of the vast majority of Black, Brown, Red, and White peoples in this nation. To reiterate the insightful words of scholar and author Paul Street; Barack Obama is presently viewed by many if not most in the U.S. corporate / military elite as being “the right man” for “the key job [of] safely containing and channeling the demand for progressive change” in the United States. Who better to thwart real systemic change than the corporate candidate best pretending to offer it?

We must be reminded of the African proverb which states: “Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes.” It is indeed Barack Obama, who in keeping with the famous words from the theatrical production The Wizard of Oz, would have us Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White people of this nation, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Nonetheless, that euphemistic “man behind the curtain” is the corporate-military-prison apparatus, much of which so strongly supports Barack Obama. “That man behind the curtain” is counting on successfully continuing to bamboozle the people of this nation at the horrible expense of its inhabitants, and the peoples of the world.

In their euphoria over the misleading, systemic, corporate-backed candidacy of Barack Obama, some have been diverted from intensifying the much needed fight for justice in the collective cases of Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abul-Jamal, the Angola 3, Reverend Edward Pinkney [not related], Lynne Stewart, the San Francisco 8, Marshall “Eddie” Conway, the numerous displaced victims of Katrina and government criminality & neglect, and the ongoing cases of so very many other women and men of all colors in this nation, and throughout the world. The subliminal message of Barack Obama to Black people (and other people as well) is almost like some science fiction Borg empire creature: “Resistance is futile.” In point of fact, resistance is definitely not futile but absolutely essential in this ongoing struggle for social, political, and economic justice. U.S. Empire and imperialism must be resisted and struggled against on every conceivable level. And ultimately, we the people, will be triumphant.

There simply is no short cut to attaining much needed and real systemic change; and for a certainty neither Barack Obama nor any other candidate within the Democratic or Republican parties offer such change. In fact, very much to the contrary, they offer treachery and betrayal. However, there is a viable alternative and it rests upon and within we the people - we ourselves. I reiterate that we must organize outside of the Democratic and Republican parties. We must build and nurture “third parties” whose platforms and objectives mesh with our own quests and thirst for economic, social, and political justice for all people, here and abroad.

Imperialism and empire must be replaced with the dogged determination to bring about the realization of a just and equitable society based upon human needs not human greed.

The only hope for real change is not to be found in any politician of the Democratic or Republican parties, but in we ourselves organizing day by day in the cities, towns, country side, and rural areas of America. This is the real hope for real change. This is keeping it real, and this is our collective task.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

 

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