If Obama were a Socialist...

by Cindy, based on the Wokers' International League Working Class Program for the Economic Crisis

If Obama were a socialist, he would:

Nationalize the banks and insurance companies under democratic workers control and management, and compose the board of directors so that 1/3rd would be elected by bank workers, 1/3rd by the trade unions, and 1/3rd from the government. He would provide compensation for banks and other companies only in cases of proven need to pension funds, 401k funds (and similar retirement funds), workers and retired workers.

He would nationalize under democratic workers control and management all idle factories and those under threat of being closed!

He would immediately end exorbitant bonuses, and limit all executive pay to the wages of an average worker.

He would immediately reduce interest rates to the necessary costs of banking operations, and make cheap credit available to small businesses and workers buying homes, not the bankers.

He would fix rent at no more than 10% of wages and end home foreclosures, utility disconnections and rent evictions. He'd open empty homes to those without shelter, and create an immediate construction program of affordable public housing, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, public transportation networks and other infrastructure to improve quality of life and create millions of jobs at union wages and benefits.

He would introduce a 30hr week without loss of pay to provide work for all, as well as a living wage and pension for all. He'd create a sliding scale of wages, linking all increases to the increases in the cost of living.

He would unconditionally legalize all undocumented immigrants and end all racist immigration and asylum controls. He's ensure the right to residency and dual citizenship, and end "guest worker" programs, raids, and deportations.

He would gather the trade unions, co-operatives and consumer associations together to work out the real index of the cost of living in place of the official COLA index, which does not reflect the real state of affairs. He'd also set up committees of workers, homemakers, small businesses and the unemployed to control price increases.

A socialist Obama would abolish all indirect and regressive taxation and introduce a heavily progressive system of direct taxation on the rich. He would abolish all taxation for the poor and make the rich pay for their crisis!

He would nationalize energy companies, which would enable us to impose price controls on gas and electricity.

He'd push the right of all workers to join a union, strike, picket and demonstrate and for an end to Taft-Hartley and all similar anti-union laws, compulsory arbitration, no-strike clauses, and other measures intended to restrict the scope of action of the unions.

He would abolish tuition fees and introduce a living grant to all students who qualify for higher education. He'd guarantee a job for every graduate, at a living wage.

He'd abolish private health insurance and HMOs, and nationalize the pharmaceuticals.

He'd nationalize the Fortune 500, and promote socialist planning to end unemployment and ensure democratic control of production, distribution and exchange, using all available information and technology. He'd make sure that the unions would play a key role in the administration and control of every workplace.

He'd immediately withdraw all troops and military contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan. He'd slash the military budget, massively increase social spending, and provide full civil rights for soldiers, including the right to join unions and the right to strike. He'd end imperialist interference with Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Latin America, the Middle East and the world!

If Obama were a Socialist...

See SocialistAppeal.org for more information.

"...the workers must open the eyes of the people to the deception practiced by the bourgeois politicians, teach them to put no faith in words, to depend entirely on their own strength, their own organization, their own unity, and their own weapons." (Lenin, Letters from Afar)

"An exploited class cannot be liberated by simply voting and bringing into power a group of new governors. A political party cannot bring freedom, but, when it wins, only new forms of domination. Freedom can be won by the working masses only through their own organized action, by taking their lot into their own hands, in devoted exertion of all their faculties, by directing and organizing their fight and their work themselves..." (Anton Pannekoek, 7 Theses On The Fight Of The Working Class Against Capitalism)

"Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. He has not come; he never will come. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds that there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves." (Eugene Debs, 1905)