A Black Panther mauls Obama

Larry Pinkney, writer of the following criticism of Obama, 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. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. 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).

History does not repeat itself. Rather, it is people who repeat history, especially when we do not learn from the lessons of history.

The U.S. mass media of disinformation (and its allies in the corporate, military, and prison apparatus) is busily going about the business of successfully infecting many, including even heretofore apparently critically thinking people in this nation, with an ultimately fatal disease whose symptoms include denial, arrogance, and mindless blissfulness. The U.S. Empire in the year 2008, going into 2009, is about what it has always been about: deceit, hypocrisy, and domination. The U.S. mass media of disinformation seeks to ensure that we do not learn from the lessons of history.

Now, there is a man who would be the colored Emperor of the de facto U.S. Empire; Barack Obama, the most singularly dangerous threat to Black America, and the planet as a whole. Masquerading as a man of peace when in fact he is a corporate / military representative of war. The same man who has thrown Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his entire church, and the Palestinian peoples under the crushing wheels of the proverbial bus of political expediency and opportunism. No critically thinking person of good will, be they Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, or White should be surprised when this man sets out to sacrifice us on his alter of political opportunism and hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, this Wall Street-backed, pro-apartheid Zionist Barack Obama could not do successfully carry out his aims without the complicity of neo fascist 21st Century white so-called liberals / progressives such as media personality Amy Goodman and company, who have for over a year now have been among his active cheer leaders. These are people, who like certain French collaborators with the Nazis in occupied Paris of the 1940s, think they can eat their cake and have it too. These are people who always stop short of clearly and concisely calling for what is really needed in the U.S.; and that is total and complete systemic change: a people’s revolution. These are people who clack on and on about certain select injustices in the U.S. and elsewhere while reveling in their own color and class privilege and simultaneously being undeservedly revered by some as politically “progressive figures.”

In describing these kinds of persons the author, Dr. Eric Larsen, correctly describes them by writing: “Progressives like Amy Goodman hide behind the good they do in order to escape censure for the bad…They can dodge issues, twist issues, simplify issues, and ignore issues…” which of course is precisely what they do. [Reference the essays titled, Notes From A Dying Nation and Amy Goodman A Mind Prostituted by Eric Larsen]. Accompanying these above mentioned collaborators with the Empire are unfortunately a group of so-called people of color, who are in fact gate keepers for the U.S. Empire whose job it is to ensure the continuation of the corporate, cynically racist, capitalist system under the guise of being progressive or even leftist. This is what I refer to as ‘The Spook Who Sat Beside The Door’ in reverse.

Not only is it a contradiction in terms to support the pro-apartheid Zionist, corporate and militarily backed Barack Obama (or any other Democratic or Republican Party candidate) while simultaneously claiming to be of all things a leftist; it is the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty. One cannot simultaneously support both the empire and those that the empire oppresses and represses. One is either in support of the U.S. Empire or in opposition to it - -plain and simple. In this there is no middle passage, no middle ground, no nonsense.

I find myself in agreement with Mumia Abu-Jamal, when he concluded his June 5, 2008, column titled, ‘Is Obama’s Victory Ours?,’ by stating, “’Real change that you could believe in’ would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just the change of the shade of the political managers…” This of course is obvious, but is nonetheless being studiously ignored by those so-called progressives and leftists who have opportunistically chosen to collaborate with the Empire while at the same time asserting that they somehow oppose its despicable practices against oppressed peoples both in inside of the United States and around the world. What rubbish!

Former U.S. Senator and author James G. Abourezk makes it chilling clear in his recent article titled, ‘Deadly Fallout From Obama’s Groveling Before Israel Lobby,’ how dangerous kowtowing to apartheid Zionism is to the entire planet. Nevertheless, this is precisely what the Republicrats [i.e. the Democrats and Republicans] are doing at the expense of the U.S. population and the whole world. Thinking people must utterly and completely reject the Republicrats and all of their dangerous baggage.

It is apparent that an increasing amount of people are beginning to wake up as also demonstrated by the recent article titled, ‘Obama and McCain: Two Sides of the Same Coin’ by Timothy V. Gatto. Nonetheless, is it too few and too late? The struggle against the Empire is after all a protracted one. So we must persevere.

Those so-called progressives and or leftists who support Barack Obama or John McCain can hardly be trusted when they complain of racism, police brutality, economic and social inequality, unending war, and subterfuge of every kind; for these two men represent the continuation of the Empire - which is of course the continuation of all of the aforementioned horrors. It’s time to be honest with ourselves and each other.

The belligerent saber rattling by both Barack Obama and John McCain against Iran, Cuba, the Palestinians, Venezuela, and a virtually endless list of other nations is the same old recipe for endless war abroad and economic misery and inequality for people inside the U.S. Neither of these candidates stand for or represent peace or justice at home or abroad.

There is a real, viable, and incredible alternative to this madness - in the person of Cynthia McKinney and the “Power To The People” Campaign. But of course it means hard work. It means organizing for systemic change outside of the Democratic and Republican Parties. It means struggling for a nation and world devoid of corporate and military domination. It means saying no to those who continually pimp the hopes and dreams of the majority of people in the United States and throughout the world. The masses of Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White peoples truly deserve this kind of a world but we will have to seriously and collectively struggle to obtain it.

Onward then, now and in the future…