The first year of the Obama administration is almost in the books, and pundits across the political spectrum are assessing its accomplishments.

Any assessment must be placed in context of the overall political and class balance of forces, in Congress and within the multi-class, socially diverse coalition that carried Obama to the White House.

The success, breadth and extent of President Obama’s new policy direction depend in particular on the strength and unity of the people’s forces and their ability to gain allies and mobilize at the grassroots and influence Congress.

The Obama administration must work with and unite a heterogeneous Congressional Democratic caucus to pass legislation against a united Republican opposition.

To undo the damage of eight years of ultra-right government and 30 years of ultra right political dominance, Obama must overcome a still formidable political opposition that won 46 percent of the vote in the 2008 election. The extreme right wing still influences the public through its right wing media and is engaging in rabid racist attacks on Obama and whipping up a lunatic fringe. Obama must also overcome resistance in military and intelligence circles.

But as CPUSA national chair Sam Webb notes the administration must also contend with “the interpenetration of big capital – especially finance, military and energy capital – and government, which has reached unprecedented levels.

“This reality explains why it was not possible for President Obama to even attempt the kind of radical restructuring of finance that is objectively needed. He may be president, and he may have a majority in Congress, but the majority isn’t big enough, nor is it progressive enough, nor does he have full control many aspects of state/governmental power.”

All this effects what the Obama administration (and by extension the labor-led people’s coalition) can win in Congress, the battles it picks and the extent of the compromises it must make.

That said, the field of battle is more favorable toward the working class and its allies than anytime in the past 30 years. Labor and civil rights leaders, progressives and other activists have been appointed to policy positions and advisory bodies. And while there may not be agreement on every issue, Obama seeks grassroots progressive involvement and is responsive to people’s concerns in a way the people’s force could never dream of with the Bush administration.

Policy changes and reforms are unfolding across the board. Their outcome is uncertain and will be contested every step of the way, much like the current health care reform.

The policies reflect the complex, contradictory, broad multi-class coalition that swept Obama to the White House. Some critics tend to focus on their shortcomings, but taken as a whole they are are an impressive achievement for a first year president.

Here are a few areas where the advances are most notable and where the shortcomings reflect the limited reach so far of a united, progressive working class coalition of forces.

Should Congress pass health care reform even with a weakened public option, it will do so in the face of powerful and unrelenting opposition. Aside from the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid, it would constitute the first major health care reform since national health insurance was to be part of the New Deal in 1933.

The current legislation at Obama‘s initiative, doesn’t go as far as the people’s forces had hoped, but takes the first steps to regulate the health care industry and curb their power. A public option would constitute a political earthquake, reaffirming the role of government after 30 years of anti-government right-wing propaganda and destruction. It will lay the basis for the next titanic battles for universal health care and reestablish the idea of the “public option” in other areas of economic and social life.

When the Obama administration took office it faced the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the loss of 700,000 jobs a month, skyrocketing foreclosures, state and local budget crises and a financial system teetering on the edge. The Bush ultra right economic policy with its market driven, deregulation created imbalances domestically and internationally that exploded.

While the crisis continues devastating working class communities and job losses mount, the administration is implementing policies that offer some protections to the working class. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is far short of what is needed but includes job creation and preservation, aid to the states to protect education and health care funding, extended unemployment benefits for 12 million workers, reduced cost of COBRA benefits and extended credits to first time home buyers.

Most economists agree these actions took the country from the economic brink. But while profits and bonuses have been restored on Wall Street, those living on Main Street are still reeling. The private sector can’t create the 26 million needed jobs, so the administration and Congress are discussing more intervention. A jobs summit with business, labor leaders, economists and elected officials will be held in early December.

The ability of labor and its allies, including small and medium sized business to confront the stranglehold of Wall Street and finance capital on economic policy will determine how far the financial reform and government intervention process can proceed.

The Obama foreign policy is a rejection of the neoconservative single superpower unilateralism, militarism, aggression, and saber rattling, toward one stressing global collective security, cooperation and diplomacy. It is a recognition of new global realities, the rise of new global powers like China and the existence of global threats like climate change that requiring collective action.

Shortly after taking office Obama announced a timetable for withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq by 2011. Whether the withdrawal will be completed and every base closed remains to be seen since there are counter pressures from transnational corporate forces who desire a permanent presence. It’s up to the American people to insist on a total pullout.

President Obama also ended the Bush policy of permanent detention, torture and abuse of terror suspects, and renounced its legal framework. Obama began closing the secret CIA detention sites and the Guantanamo detention facility and reestablished a system of justice to try detainees. Full implementation, strengthened over site and reform is being stymied by divisions in his administration and the military and intelligence community.

Obama outlined a new foreign policy approach in three major speeches in Prague, where he called for global nuclear abolition, in Cairo where he called for resetting relations with the Muslim world and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in Accra, Ghana where he called for new relations with the countries of Africa.

The new direction was warmly received around the world and were reasons Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. While it’s a mixed picture the overall direction is a positive one.

Obama’s call for the global abolition of nuclear weapons is a first by an American president. The administration has taken the initial steps by scrapping the Bush policy to deploy a missile shield in Czech Republic and Poland and will sign a new START treaty with Russia to reduce the nuclear arsenals of both countries.

Obama also set in motion a new policy with Cuba that could result in the normalization of relations and an end to the 47 year old blockade. This included executive orders to end restrictions on travel and sending remittances by Cuban Americans to family and the opening of talks with the Cuban government on a broad range of issues.

There is growing support in Congress to scrap the travel ban and restrictive trade policies that have isolated the US globally. The 66 percent majority public opinion to end the blockade must be mobilized to overcome entrenched and still powerful opposition.

The biggest challenge faced by the Obama administration will be extricating the US from the deeply complex and dangerous situation in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Along with the expected surge announcement, Obama will outline an exit strategy. He is under immense pressure to maintain a US military presence and only a united majority movement for withdrawal will overcome the threat of deepening involvement that could doom the administration.

For eight years the Bush administration in total collusion with the energy monopolies blocked any progress toward a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rejected science and emasculated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a short time, Obama has responded with urgency to the climate crisis, restored science and the EPA to their rightful places.

Despite tremendous opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and the energy monopolies, the Obama administration announced goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama will present these goals to the Copenhagen meeting that will begin adopting a new global climate treaty. While it may not go as far as many hoped, the U.S. government is no longer seen as an obstacle to solving the climate crisis.

After decades of inaction, the EPA announced new CO2 limits for cars. The Sierra Club said this “established the nation’s first greenhouse gas standards, and puts country on a trajectory to achieve what California and 14 other states are poised to implement.”

The EPA also announced regulations to require new coal plants and other large facilities to install global warming pollution controls. Old coal burning plants including 500 responsible for 70 percent of nation’s global warming pollution will have to install controls when they modify or expand operations.

These measures have been praised by environmental groups and are seen as the first steps toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

President Obama has taken a number of steps to expand equality, end discrimination and strengthen worker rights that have also been widely praised. During his first weeks in office, Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for women to sue for pay discrimination and repealed the so-called “Gag Rule,” banning U.S.-funded family planning groups based overseas from discussing or providing any abortion-related services, even with their own money.

One of his first major decisions was to nominate a Puerto Rican woman, Sonya Sotomayor, to the US Supreme Court. She made history by becoming the first Latino Justice to the high court.

Among Obama’s diverse Cabinet appointees is Hilda Solis, as Secretary of Labor. Daughter of trade unionists, Solis is a champion of labor rights and the opposite of the anti-labor Elaine Chao who served Bush. Obama has openly met with labor leaders on several occasions at the White House, addressed the AFL-CIO convention and repeatedly reiterated his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

New AFC-CIO President Richard Trumka has called Obama “the best friend, and the best president, working people are ever going to get.”

Congress passed and President Obama signed the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act. It had been blocked from becoming law for 10 years by Bush and ultra right in Congress.

The law expands federal hate crimes law to include crimes based on a person’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Obama also lifted the ban against visitors with HIV to the US, is pushing for employee non-discrimination bill, repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the Defense of Marriage Act and passage of a Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act.

These steps have been hailed by the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community and all supporters of civil and human rights.

By Obama’s own admission, change, no matter how small, comes by assembling broad coalitions and popular majorities both at the grassroots level and in Congress.

Obama’s Nov. 4 election night admonition rings true – the election “was not the change we seek but the opportunity to make that change.” Despite immense opposition and some wrong steps, the Obama administration has initiated a set of new policies that if pursued hold great potential for economic and social change.

Their fate certainly depends on the results of the 2010 congressional elections. We are in a period of political transition. It is up to the united labor led coalition to mobilize at the grassroots and continue to alter the balance of political forces. In so doing new chapters can be written in the struggle for the change we seek.

Photo: White House