11-19-08, 9:01 am
Original source: The Guardian (Australia)
The election of Barack Obama as US President symbolizes the hope and expectation sweeping the American public for a real political change. The Communist Party of Australia welcomes this movement for change. It is also historic in that for the first time there will be a Black man in the White House.
The Obama campaign was able to generate the most excitement, attract the most votes, most volunteers and the most money because it had the clearest message of unity and offered hope of progressive change at a time when economic rationalist policies and aggressive foreign policies had become a disaster for the US people and the rest of the world.
After the longest and most expensive campaign in US history, Obama was elected by voters suffering from the effects of eight years of Bush’s presidency and appalled by rising unemployment and homelessness and the financial crisis.
The Obama victory was the result of an impressive campaign at the grass roots level, led by an orator who offered hope for the future. Never before in the US have so many people taken to the streets, doorknocked their neighbors or signed up to campaign for a presidential candidate.
The people of America voted for change, for an end to the policies that cut and privatize welfare spending, cut jobs and wages, that cut health care, neglect education, see people thrown out of their homes, while billions of dollars are thrown to the military industry and into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US voters shook off their cynicism and hopelessness to actually vote. In a country where voting is not compulsory, millions of voters, including millions of new voters, used the election to defeat the right wing Bush policies and to bring about change.
Democrats will now control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994. The election saw a huge turnout of an estimated 64.1 percent of the electorate. This is the highest voter turnout since 1908.
The election of Barack Obama means there is now an opportunity in the US to end the war in Iraq, to create jobs, to cut the destructive military budget, to house those who have lost their homes, bring universal health care, save the environment and start the restoration of democratic rights.
However, President Obama will inherit a country in deep economic crisis and involved in several astronomically expensive wars. Realistically he will face huge obstacles in trying to unite a deeply divided and often racist society at a time of extreme social and political crisis.
The Obama reforms are likely to be limited. The big private enterprise corporations continue to control the economy. Obama has indicated that he will follow the practice of taxpayer bail-outs although the direction of his bail-outs may not follow the Bush priorities.
The US ruling class remains wedded to the private enterprise system and will not give up its power and privileges without a people’s struggle far more powerful and persistent than yet seen in the US.
The activism growing out of this election is the only guarantee that the devastation of the Bush years will be rolled back and that real changes can be implemented. The challenge now is to keep up the activism and pressure on the new president to bring about those changes.
The American people have taken a significant first step. We wish them great success in the struggles to come.
--A statement from the Communist Party of Australia.
