Mobilize to Stop Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

By Billy Wharton, Co-Chair Socialist Party USA

On May 1, 2003 then President George W. Bush emerged from a fighter jet on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to make his famously absurd "mission accomplished" speech.  Today's announcement of an agreement on a budget deficit package provides current President Barack Obama with his own "mission accomplished" moment.  Much like that of Bush, Obama's completed mission will lead to mass suffering and more than a few deaths.  Bush's victims were Iraqis and the American soldiers sent to kill them.  Obama's will be poor, working class and elderly Americans cut off from vital social programs as a result of budget cuts.

Since his election in 2008, Socialists have been clear about what the Obama administration represented.  We often referred to him as a "hedge-fund Democrat."  This tag was… (Read on)

Source: Socialist Party USA. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Black Panther Speaks at SP event

“when in the course of human events it becomes necessary … “

After a very short introduction, Bobby Seale takes the stage, grabs the microphone and begins to talk, with a strong, vibrant voice. He is wearing a blue shirt, chinos, and a black hat. Standing above the old photos of himself, he shows his age, but still has a young and very captivating energy.

He talks for almost two hours, remembering his youth as a child in the Oakland projects, his past experience in the Air Force, his jobs as aeronautical engineer, jazz drummer, stand up comedian … his youth, living first hand the painful racist environment of those years.

The news of the assassination of Malcolm X at the hands of some FBI killer left a great impression on young Bobby; he goes on a “one man riot” and starts to see his role in society under a different light… (Read on)

Source: Socialist Party USA. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The Costs of Finding Osama

By Billy Wharton, Co-Chair Socialist Party USA

In the play Doctor Faustus, author Christopher Marlowe described Helen of Troy as the “face that launched a thousand ships.”  Marlowe used the phrase to describe the manner in which Helen’s beauty supposedly motivated the Greek armies to attack Troy.

Taking a page from this Elizabethan play, we might describe the now deceased Osama Bin-Laden as “the face that launched a million military budget requests.”  Though civilians throughout the world were left to deal with the consequences, the figure of Osama was always a useful one for the American Empire.  This was just as true when he received direct financial and military aid from the US in the 1980s as when he was presented as an arch nemesis used to justify the escalating military adventures of the 21st century.  No surprise then, if his death yields more benefits for the military industrial complex and even greater hazards to peace loving people everywhere.

While Communism was still being presented as the great global enemy, as the rationale for maintaining a bloated military industrial complex in the 80s, Osama Bin-Laden proved a useful ally.  His brand of Islamic fundamentalism received support and funding from the US government, despite the deeply reactionary politics it carried with it.  In Afghanistan Bin-Laden was able to establish an international movement trained in the tactics of guerrilla warfare and imbued with a backwards looking philosophy of Islamic jihad.  All while being funded by the American taxpayer.

After the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan... (Read on)
Source: Socialist Party USA