Mass Protests Against Sexual Violence Spread Beyond India

 by Jack Gerson

Protests against sexual violence against women are spreading throughout the Indian subcontinent and may well be developing into an ongoing and sustained mass movement. Below, we reprint a story from the Guardian newspaper (UK) reporting that there are now mass demonstrations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as many parts of India. The media in these countries have finally been forced to take up the issue of rape and overall horrific brutalization of women that they've been so silent on -- indeed, accepted and even encouraged -- for so long.

As the Guardian story makes clear, many protesters are holding the region's governments accountable for the atrocities. But as Arundhati Roy said in a Channel 4 (UK) interview that we republished here four days ago, the problem here is one of class as well as gender: the state security forces,  police and especially the Indian army, have long used rape as a weapon against poor, working class, and dissident women. We hope and anticipate that the mass protests will be taking up this theme more and more in this new year.

Here's a link to the Arundhati Roy video:
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2013/01/arundhati-roy-on-rape-in-india.html

And here's a link to the Guardian story, followed by a full reprint of that story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/04/rape-protests-spread-beyond-india/print

Rape protests spread beyond India

Demonstrators in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh join protest movement against sexual violence

Protests against sexual violence are spreading across south Asia as anger following the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi courses through the region.  Inspired by the rallies and marches staged across India for nearly three weeks, demonstrations have also been held in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh – all countries where activists say women suffer high levels of sexual and domestic violence.

In Nepal, the case of a 21-year-old woman who says she was raped and threatened with death by a police officer and robbed by immigration officials, prompted hundreds of demonstrators to converge on the prime minister's residence in Kathmandu. They called for legal reforms and an overhaul of attitudes to women.

"We had seen the power of the mass campaign in Delhi's rape case. It is a pure people's movement," said Anita Thapa, one of the demonstrators.

Bandana Rana, a veteran Nepalese activist, described the ongoing protests in Delhi as "eye-opening". "A few years back, women even talking about sexual violence or even domestic violence was a very rare," she said.

Sultana Kamal, of the Bangladeshi human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), said the protests in Delhi had given fresh impetus to protests against sexual violence. One incident that has provoked anger in Bangladesh was the alleged gang rape of a teenager by four men over four days in early December in Tangail, 40 miles north-west of Dhaka. The men were said to have made videos of the attack before leaving their victim near a rail track where she was eventually found by her brother.

On Friday a teenager who was said to have been repeatedly raped in a hotel died in hospital in Dhaka of injuries sustained when she subsequently tried to take her own life.

But despite the widespread anger, the social stigma attached to rape victims remains a major problem throughout the region. Although Bangladesh police arrested suspects in both the cases and investigations are under way, activists fear that corruption as well as deep-seated misogyny among investigating officers and the judiciary make convictions unlikely.

According to ASK's statistics, at least 1,008 women were raped in 2012 in Bangladesh, of whom 98 were later killed.

Khushi Kabir, one of the organisers of a "human chain" in Dhaka to protest against violence to women, said its aim was "to show that people are not going to just let this [movement] die down".
Kabir said although previous demonstrations on similar issues were largely dominated by women, men were now protesting too. The protests had also drawn people from a broad range of society. "We had lawyers, schoolchildren, teachers, theatre activists and personalities, industrialists," she said.

One week after the Delhi rape victim died in a Singapore hospital, the widespread grief and outrage have moderated, but a fierce debate still rages over the country's sexual violence and attitudes to women. One politician from the opposition BJP party was forced to apologise after stating the women who did not stay "within moral limits … paid the price". A senior official in a hardline Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation provoked controversy when he claimed that westernisation was responsible for rapes in cities.

The Delhi rape case is being heard in a special fast-track court inaugurated last week to deal with such offences in the capital. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Saturday. Protests however continue, albeit at a lower intensity than in previous weeks.

The Indian media continue to give prominence to news items that would barely have received attention a month ago. On Friday it was reported that a 19-year-old woman had died in a hospital in the north-western city of Jaipur after she set herself on fire allegedly following aggressive harassment from a neighbour. She said the man had threatened to kill her brother and father if she did not marry him.

In another incident reported on Friday a woman was said to have jumped from a moving train to escape an assault. Sexual harassment on public transport is endemic in India where men target single young women. Such abuse is described euphemistically as "eve-teasing" with perpetrators dubbed "railway Romeos". One persistent problem, women say, is men filming their faces or bodies on mobile phones in buses or trains.

Indian activists have repeatedly argued that media descriptions of such activities as "eve-teasing" contribute to the widespread acceptance of sexual harassment in public places. A recent survey by the Hindustan Times newspaper found that nearly 80% of women aged between 18 and 25 in Delhi had been harassed last year and more than 90% of men of the same age had "friends who had made passes at women in public places". Nearly two-thirds of the latter thought the problem was exaggerated. It was also reported on Friday that though Delhi police had received 64 calls alleging a rape and 501 calls about harassment since 16 December, only four formal inquiries had been launched.

Senior officials across the south Asian region have defended their government's records on tackling sexual violence against women. In Delhi, Sushilkumar Shinde, the Indian home secretary, said on Friday that crimes against women and marginalised sections of society were increasing, and it was the government's responsibility to stop them. "This needs to be curbed by an iron hand," he told a conference of state officials from across India convened to discuss how to protect women. He called for changes in the law and the way police investigate cases so justice could be swiftly delivered. Many rape cases are bogged down in India's overburdened and sluggish court system for years. "We need a reappraisal of the entire system," he said.

Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi minister for women and children's affairs, said her government was "taking this issue very seriously".  "Just yesterday [Thursday] a sex offender … was given a very high punishment under the law," she said, "but sometimes the delay and the whole process of the trial takes a bit of time to ensure justice."

Protests are expected on Saturday in Bangladesh following the news of a new incident: the rape and killing of a student in the south-east of the country. The 14-year-old is reported to have left home to bring in her family's cows in Rangamati district one evening earlier this week. Her uncle later found her body in a forest. An autopsy report later confirmed that she had been raped and then strangled.

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Shark deaths are an environmental disaster

This should come as no surprise as human life also has little value when it comes to the profit industry. One only has to remind oneself of Madeline Albright's statement on US TV that the 500,000 or so Iraqi women and children that died due to US sanctions was "worth it" to realize that. But it's still pretty disgusting. Capitalism is an efficient killer. Globally, twelve people died from shark attack in 2011, all outside of the US. Meanwhile scientists estimate that 30 to 70 million sharks are killed each year. Extinction might be a natural process but extinction as a by-product of the capitalist mode of production is a different thing altogether. Such mass slaughter of animal life has consequences just like  polluting the oceans does. If this system of production is not ended, human life on this planet will be next.

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Bradley Manning: US Gov't wants to block whistle blower defense

The US government wants to block any mention that Manning might have been motivated as a whistle blower. How obvious is this to the fact that the state wants to persecute this man for letting the rest of us know what is going on.  If it was someone blowing the whistle on a public sector unionized Janitor taking too long on her lunch break it would be defending whistle blower's rights as public sector workers, not capitalism and it's predatory wars are destroying the American way of life.  Unless you're the pope of course who says gay marriage and abortion are a threat to world peace.
RM

Bradley in court next week: Gov't seeks to block reference to whistle-blower motives.

Judge Lind may rule on motion to dismiss charges based on unlawful pretrial punishment, and prosecutors to argue motion to block any reference to Bradley Manning’s whistle-blower motives. Two months remain before the court martial, take action!


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Bradley Manning returns to court next week, January 8-11, 2013, for another pretrial hearing. Government prosecutors will argue their motion to block both any reference to the lack of harm caused by the released documents, and any reference of Bradley Manning’s whistle-blower motives, from the merits portion of his trial. If granted by military judge Col. Denise Lind, it will make it difficult for the defense to show that Bradley Manning released documents to uncover crimes and abuse and to better inform the American public. As Bradley’s lawyer David Coombs said, it could “cut Bradley’s defense at its knees”.

It is also possible that Judge Lind will rule on the defense motion to dismiss charges all the charges based on the abusive and unlawful pretrial treatment Bradley Manning endured at the Quantico Marine brig prison. PFC Manning was kept in solitary confinement for over nine months, against the consistent recommendations of brig psychiatrists. If Judge Lind finds that this treatment was intentionally punitive, she could throw out the charges against PFC Manning, or she could award him multiplied credit for sentencing, possibly as much as ten days credit for every day spent in solitary confinement.

Bradley Manning’s court-martial trial is currently scheduled to begin March 6, 2013. This gives us two months to ramp up our efforts. Help us pressure the government and military to do the right thing: free Bradley Manning. We are asking supporters to take action during the proceeding court dates, and particularly leading up to the court martial. You can find solidarity events in your area here, as well as register your own.

Court dates:

8-11 January 2013: Judicial notice motions and Defense witness litigation
16-17 January 2013: Defense Motion to Dismiss for Lack of a Speedy Trial
5-8 February 2013: Providence inquiry and “Grunden” issues (re. what portions of the trial will be closed to the public due to the government’s security concerns);
27 February – 1 March 2013: Grunden issues continued (re. what portions of the trial will be closed to the public due to the government’s security concerns)
6 March – 17 April 2013: Trial (18 March 2013: Current alternate trial start date)

How to Attend Bradley's Hearings

Following next week’s hearing, PFC Manning is scheduled to return to Fort Meade on January 16 and 17, to conclude the defense’s motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial. When that motion is argued, PFC Manning will have been awaiting trial in prison for nearly 1,000 days.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Bradley's legal fees! Donate today.

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From fiscal cliff to fiscal farce

by Michael Roberts

So after months of argument, threats and dispute, the leaders of the US Congress duly trooped out before the cameras and said they have ‘saved America’s middle class’ from facing a steep fiscal cliff. In reality, the politicians had turned the fiscal cliff into a fiscal farce. As American Enterprise Institute scholar Norm Ornstein put it: “This fandango was an immense embarrassment,” calling it “cringeworthy.” And “the fact that we are going to have another disastrous confrontation over the debt limit in two months, with the radical right wing of the House Republicans determined to send us over the edge if they don’t get their way, is actually frightening.” It was “the worst Congress in our lifetimes.”

Sarah Binder, another ‘expert’ on Congressional politics, described the politicians as “a Congress that can barely get its work done – especially when confronting the most important issues of the day”. The farce is set to continue as Congress must deal with avoiding the federal ‘debt limit’ being breached by Valentine’s Day and then work out a way to reduce welfare spending for the next generation of Americans in need by March. All that Congress agreed on the New Year holiday was to extend the tax cuts first introduced by George Bush, except for those taxpayers earning more than $400,000 a year – the infamous 1%. This saves about $100bn from the budget in 2013. However, for that small concession to Obama in agreeing to raise the tax burden for the very rich just a little, both the Republicans and Democrats alike were happy to impose higher social security contributions on every American, or what America’s opinion makers like to call the ‘middle class’. Apparently in the US, there is no working class. There is the rich, the middle class and the poor. But no working class.

The 2% cut in payroll taxes introduced to boost employment just three years ago has been reversed, raising employee contribution rates to 6.2% of gross pay. This is the biggest hit to average Americans, in order to ‘save’ $126bn, as it reduces middle quintile incomes by roughly $700-1000 a year. Altogether the fiscal cliff of about $600bn has become a more moderate slope of under $300bn.

But that’s still a sizeable hill of pain for most Americans and there’s more to come. So the boast of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress that they have ‘saved the American people’ is so much hogwash. The deal is really the first signal that in a couple of months time when Congress gets round to deciding how much government spending needs to be cut to reduce the public sector debt burden, that social security costs are going to rise for the average American, there will be more taxes and further cuts in government services. Nevertheless, Keynesian guru, Paul Krugman, thought it a reasonable deal in the circumstances as there were no serious cuts in social benefits and tax cuts for the middle class were to be continued for the next five years. But he recognised that Obama has already pushed through an increased medicare age and reduced social benefits in his 2012 budget. So we can expect more hits to the poor and ‘middle class when the 2013 budget is finally agreed.

That other Keynesian guru, Brad de Long, was less happy as he was worried that the agreement to raise payroll taxes would hit the purchasing power of employees and so weaken the ability of the US economy to recover. But it’s not the lack of workers’ purchasing power that is the problem. Indeed, despite real wages falling, consumption as a share of GDP has hardly moved as households run down savings and save less. It’s investment by the business sector that holds back recovery in a capitalist economy. That’s why the Congress agreement includes yet more tax relief to the capitalist sector in the form of investment allowances, more special subsidies for various key industries and no closure of any corporate tax loopholes. Indeed, about $46bn in business tax breaks were included with an extension of research and development tax credits, a provision allowing businesses to write off immediately half the value of new investments and a wide range of other favours for select industries, including tax breaks for railroad track maintenance, restaurant and retail store improvements, auto racetracks, film and television production and rum production in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands!

There was no mention of ending key tax breaks for the oil and gas business, or for senior managers of private equity firms and hedge funds. And the banks also did well. They retained a key tax break allowing them to defer paying US taxes on certain financial transactions undertaken outside the US. This offshore tax loophole is worth more than $150bn a year, larger than the money raised by increasing workers’ payroll tax. The deal is heralded by the worthy Senators and Congress men and women as saving middle America. In reality, it is saving business from a tax hike. The US corporate tax burden is now at a post-war low.

Now some more radical Keynesians like those from the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) group reckon that any cuts in government spending to reduce the $1trn-plus budget deficit are unnecessary. As leading MMT exponent, Randall Wray, put it: “MMT has always argued that a sovereign government that issues its own currency cannot become insolvent.” So increased government borrowing to cover deficits is not a problem and rising public debt is not an issue because governments can always print money to honour any debt payments. It is impossible for a government to default (unless it owes money to foreigners). Leaving aside the issue that about 40% of all US federal debt is owed to foreigners, who will worry if the value of the dollars they own in US treasuries should plummet, can it really be right that government debt can go rising indefinitely without consequences for the capitalist system?

As Wray correctly points out, the ratio of debt to GDP will only rise if the interest cost on that debt rises faster than GDP and governments do not raise enough extra revenue over spending to cover the difference. But that is exactly what is happening in the US now. If the level of debt rises, then the cost of servicing that debt (repaying maturing debt plus interest) will rise too and start to eat into spending that could otherwise be used on welfare or government investment in infrastructure or education etc. Indeed, if the US government debt ratio to GDP is to be stopped from rising, then the current annual primary budget deficit (excluding interest payments) of 5% of GDP, will have to be turned into a surplus. That would mean a huge rise in taxes or cuts in federal spending, or both.

So one of the reasons that government debt matters to the capitalist economy is that, if it keeps rising, the cost of servicing it will drive up taxes for capitalists or reduce government spending on ‘necessary’ things like defence and homeland security.  The capitalist solution then (for both Republicans and Democrats alike) will be to try to get the deficit and debt down by welfare cuts and taxes on the ‘middle class’. Given that government spending on so-called discretionary items have already been cut to the bone (see graph below), the next cuts will be aimed at so-called entitlement programmes like medicare, medicaid and social security.

Remember what Obama said recently:“The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican.” The only difference is that Obama and the Democrats want to make any cuts in welfare slower and more gradual and raise taxes on the better off a bit more. The Republicans want to cut welfare more quickly and preferably not raise taxes at all.

Jeffery Sachs, newly converted radical from mainstream economics, condemns the Congress agreement because it does not allow the Bush tax cuts to expire! He wants the fiscal cliff to remain. Sachs argued that many people will say, “Yes, but why tax the middle class to collect more revenues?” Sachs answers by saying by that Americans need to be taxed more in order to pay for welfare and education etc. It’s the only way, he says. So the Keynesian position is to save welfare and government services by more taxation. It does not enter into their thinking that faster economic growth and employment along with the reversal of payouts and tax exemptions to the rich and the corporate sector could preserve and even improve welfare and government services without raising taxes on the ‘middle class’. As I said in my previous post, The fiscal cliff, Okun’s law and the Long Depression, neither the Keynesians nor the Austerians offer any policies on how to raise the rate of economic growth on a long term basis. Both accept whatever the capitalist sector can deliver, on the whole. So they are forced to consider budget reductions either through more taxes or less spending to stop federal debt rising inexorably.

Marx once said in the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte that history can repeat itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. But farce can also turn into tragedy. And over the next two months when Congress imposes a range of cuts in government services and welfare benefits for the foreseeable future, along with more tax increases, this farce may well end up tragically for America’s working class.

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Capitalism at work: Tragic shack fires in South Africa

From Martin Legassick in South Africa

This video was taken some 30 hours after a fire caused by a paraffin stove or a candle overturning devastated the shack settlement BM section in Khayelitsha, causing at least 3 deaths, with 800 shacks destroyed and 4000 people displaced. On average there are ten shack fires a day in South Africa, killing someone every other day. This is one of the bad fires -- in January 2005 12000 people were left homeless after a fire in Joe Slovo settlement in Langa, Cape Town. Here people are painfully starting to rebuild. Many will have lost everything save the clothes they are wearing. This video was taken some 30 hours after a fire caused by a paraffin stove or a candle overturning devastated the shack settlement BM section in Khayelitsha, causing at least 3 deaths, with 800 shacks destroyed and 4000 people displaced. On average there are ten shack fires a day in South Africa, killing someone every other day. This is one of the bad fires -- in January 2005 12000 people were left homeless after a fire in Joe Slovo settlement in Langa, Cape Town. Here people are painfully starting to rebuild. Many will have lost everything save the clothes they are wearing. Such fires -- which cause the majority of fire deaths in South Africa -- can be prevented. Electrification of shacks eliminates the danger of paraffin and candles. (Yet in some parts of the country -- though not, so far, in Cape Town -- municipalities are de-electrifying shack settlements!). There needs to be adequate water supply, to every shack -- instead of a few taps for thousands as is the case at present -- with fire hoses and fire extinguishers. There need to be adequate access roads built instead of shacks squeezed next to each other with only a path separating the walls. There need to be brick buildings built to replace the shacks. The millions of unemployed need to be trained and put to work building houses. But the capitalist ANC government cannot do this, it serves only the system of profit.

 

Here is a report on shack fires and a statement of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Durban position.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape 1 January 2012

As residents of QQ Section shack settlement and members of the movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, we would like to say that we are not happy about what happened early this morning across the street from QQ Section. A massive shack-fire, which started at around 4am, swept through almost the entire shack settlement of BM Section leaving thousands homeless and at least three (but possibly as much as six) people dead. We have a few Abahlali members in the settlement and, as residents of QQ Section, we also have a large number of friends and family who also were affected by the fire.

We therefore remain in living solidarity with all those affect by the fire in BM section and other shack fires in WD Section and in Du Noon. The scourge of shack-fires throughout all of Cape Town's shack settlements and the delayed and uncaring response by the city clearly shows that shackdwellers have been isolated socially, economically and politically. If the government would give us the respect of a citizen of this country, this kind of incident would not have happened. The immediate cause of the fire remains uncertain (either a cooking accident or a knocked over candle by a drunk community member).

Yet the resulting massive fire is beyond our control as residents of the shacks. In other words, these fires are not only preventable, but they are caused by uncaring and anti-poor government policy. As citizens of this country, we have a right to decent housing, to efficient sanitation, to affordable electricity and to well-planned roads. Yet even though residents of BM section as well as numerous settlements affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo have been protesting for these things for years, the government has delivered almost nothing we have demanded for our communities.

• If we had electricity, dangerous paraffin stoves and candles would be a thing of the past and shack-fires would be a rare phenomenon.

• If we had piped water into our homes, we would be able to quickly fight the fires ourselves.

• If we had proper access roads in our settlements, fire-fighters would be able to stop fires much quicker.

• If we had brick house and our own plots of land, fires would not spread from one home to the next. If we had all these things, or even some of them, an accident by a drunk neighbour would not affect the livelihood those around him. Shack-fires in Cape Town, just as this report shows they are in Durban, are the result of government policy that denies us the basic things we need to live healthy and safe lives. Instead, shack-fires have now become an opportunity for the city to pretend it cares for us by giving us a few food parcels and blankets each time a fire rips through one of our communities. And yet, even the city's contingency plan is lacking:

• Disaster Management has failed to provide emergency accommodation to all the victims of the fire in BM Section.

• Despite claims to the contrary, Disaster Management has failed to provide all victims with food, clothes, blankets and other necessary emergency items. We therefore appeal to Mayor de Lille to sit down with Abahlali baseMjondolo and other shackdwellers throughout the city to discuss the role that the City of Cape Town plays in creating the conditions of the current shack-fire epidemic. We as AbM-WC are also asking for solidarity with the victims of the BM Section fire.

Please contact us if you'd like to help. For more information, please contact: Thembelani @ 0712604119 Mr Qona @ 0713518483

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Obama and the Fiscal Cliff fiasco

The supporters of this blog are republishing the piece below and this blog is in general agreement with it's critical analysis including that workers' need a political party of our own as an alternative to the two parties of Wall Street. We differ that such a party has to have a socialist program initially for socialists to participate in it.  We believe this objective process inevitably means such a party will not have a socialist program from the outset.

As the mass movement against the capitalist offensive develops it will take organizational form and that includes independent political action. Socialists must welcome and participate in such a development and actively help this process along in a non-sectarian way.  

However, as we help build such a mass party we recognize that ultimate success rests on building a revolutionary current within it that will struggle to end capitalism and build a democratic socialist global community. And with this approach, the most combative workers, those who have drawn the conclusion that capitalism has to be ended and replaced, will be drawn to and participate in building such a current

Behind the “fiscal cliff” debate

Obama spearheads social counterrevolution

World Socialist Website, 31 December 2012

As of this writing, talks are continuing between congressional Republicans and the White House on the eve of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” It is not clear whether an agreement will be reached over the next few days, or if the manufactured crisis atmosphere will continue into the New Year. What is clear, however, is the overall direction of US social policy and the fact that the real target of both sides in the Washington debate is the working class.  It is necessary to demystify the whole process, which is characterized by an extraordinary level of posturing and lies, behind which is concealed a conspiracy against the American people.

The “fiscal cliff” is an artificially erected deadline, laid down as part of previous negotiations and aimed at creating the conditions for implementing unpopular measures that previously would have been considered politically impossible.

If Washington “goes over the cliff,” the impact will be felt most directly by working people, including tax increases that will effectively cut take-home pay for workers by 7 percent and the immediate elimination of unemployment insurance for 2 million long-term jobless, followed soon after by the cutoff of benefits for another 1 million people. Federal workers will face unpaid furloughs, and essential social programs, from energy assistance to child nutrition to education grants, will be hit with across-the-board cuts.

This is only the beginning. The fiscal cliff is the first in a series of artificial deadlines established for the New Year. There will be another deadline in late February over raising the federal debt ceiling—the same issue that became the pretext in August 2011 for a bipartisan agreement to cut over $1 trillion in social spending over the next decade. In March, the “continuing resolution” adopted before the election to authorize federal spending for six months will expire.

Each deadline will be utilized as the occasion to go after the most important federal social programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which provide retirement income and pay for health care for tens of millions of elderly, disabled and poor people. The phony debate over a minuscule tax increase for the rich—which will be quickly replaced with “comprehensive reform” to lower income and corporate taxes next year—is intended to conceal this reactionary agenda.

The overall strategy of the ruling class was evident in an interview with President Obama aired Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. While most press attention focused on his remarks criticizing congressional Republicans for balking at even the slightest increase in taxes on the wealthy, there was comparably little commentary on Obama’s embrace of cuts in entitlement programs.

Challenged by moderator David Gregory to “talk tough to seniors,” Obama replied, “but I already have, David.” He cited his support for the so-called “chained” consumer price index, a revised formula for calculating increases in the cost of living that will reduce future benefits for Social Security recipients. “Highly unpopular among Democrats,” Obama continued. “Not something supported by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). But in pursuit of strengthening Social Security for the long term, I’m willing to make those decisions.”

In the Orwellian language of American politics, “strengthening” a social program means permanently slashing the benefits it provides, just as “balance” and “fairness” mean gutting the conditions of tens of millions of working people while imposing a token and temporary tax increase on bankers and CEOs. According to Obama, if millionaires and billionaires pay slightly higher taxes, while the hungry eat less, poor children see the doctor less often, and the elderly lower their thermostats because they can’t pay the fuel bill, that constitutes “everybody doing their share.”

Towards the end of his interview, Obama went out of his way to deny any connection to the past liberal traditions of the Democratic Party. “I’m not driven by some ideological agenda,” he said. His own position in the talks on the fiscal cliff called for “maintaining tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anybody would consider that some liberal left wing agenda…that used to be considered a pretty mainstream Republican agenda.”

Obama’s remarks on “Meet the Press” are only the most explicit of a series of statements and actions by the White House since the November election. The Democratic president is reassuring his main constituency, the American financial aristocracy, that he is single-mindedly devoted to preserving its interests.

In the course of the presidential election, liberal publications like the Nationmagazine and a panoply of pseudo-left groups such as the International Socialist Organization portrayed the reelection of Obama as a blow to the right-wing agenda of the giant corporations and banks. The truth is that Obama and the Democrats represent the financial aristocracy no less than the Republicans. In fact, Obama became the preferred candidate of the ruling elite, as demonstrated by his campaign cash hoard of more than $1 billion.

Obama is spearheading the social counterrevolution that is the common policy of the ruling classes of the entire world—from Europe to Japan to the United States. In every country, the representatives of finance capital, having plundered national treasuries to bail out the banks and speculators, are now demanding that the working people pay the price.

The entire framework of the official budget “debate” is reactionary and false. It is based on the lie that there is no money for social programs such as health care and education, or for decent wages and benefits for the working class. Corporate profits and the fortunes of the financial elite continue to soar, while social inequality reaches unprecedented levels. It is estimated that US corporations are currently sitting on $3 trillion to $5 trillion in cash reserves.

The actions of world governments, led by the US, are dictated by definite class interests. Under conditions of deepening economic crisis, the ruling class is seeking to defend its wealth through a historic retrogression in the living conditions of the vast majority of the people.

To fight the bipartisan policy of austerity, the working class must break with the Democrats and take up a struggle against the Obama administration and the capitalist two-party system. This means building an independent political movement based on a socialist program that defends the social rights of the working class—to jobs, decent wages, health care, education and a secure retirement—rather than corporate profits.

Patrick Martin

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Arundhati Roy on Rape in India

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