Dear Bill, Norman, Barbara, Tom, Chris, Michael, Katha, Melissa, and
Katrina (among others),
I'm writing to you to draw your attention to the following quotation
reported on a recent Democracy Now segment from an activist named Kehben
Grifter who was among a small handful protesting the G 20 summit in
Pittsburgh:
“What we’re here doing this week is distributing our work and trying
to talk to people about coal and climate change and globalization. And
unfortunately, it seems like a lot of folks aren’t turning out for
these sort of mobilizations as much anymore. Maybe they’re depressed,
maybe they’re cynical, maybe they’ve still got Obamaitis. We’re on the
outside here. There’s like this huge arena and tons of space where
they thought lots of people who might care might show up, and we’re on
the outside of it with cops harassing us, because that’s what happens
usually at events like this.”
As I hope you remember, one of the central justifications for your
enthusiastic support for the candidacy of Barack Obama was the claim
that his election would usher in a "golden era" of activism, as one of
you put it. According to this logic the "Organizer in Chief" would be
uniquely responsive to pressure brought to bear by the activist left.
He is "one of us" you told us, and all we need is to "make him do
it!" All appearances that he is a standard issue corporate Democrat
are deceptive, you said. Underneath it all is the beating of "a
progressive heart."
As should now be obvious, rather than a golden era what materialized
was a new dark age: one where the most flagrant abuses by Wall Street
pass by without opposition or organized protest. Where troop increases in
Afghanistan barely register as blips on a comatose peace movement's radar screen.
Where the left abjectly fails to rouse itself to express concern for the virtual certainty
of planetary destruction due to global warming. Where organized labor yet
circle the drain.
All this is an inevitable result of the Obamania which you and too
many other progressive leaders were responsible for fomenting. That it
would metastasize into what Ms. Grifter correctly diagnoses as
Obamaitis, whose symptoms include the crippling of all left
oppositional capacity, had been shown repeatedly before. Similar
symptoms occurred notably during the Clinton administration where a
few leftists on the "inside" effectively enabled and provided cover
for the triangulation strategy so effectively wielded by neo-liberals
and which the left found itself powerless to combat.
During the Obama campaign, there were, of course, a few of us who saw
this coming, but you shouted us down, our alarms for the most part
relegated to far reaches of the blogosphere and the comments section
of A-list web organs (sometimes resulting in our banning).
An apology is therefore in order, but we won't ask for that.
We do call on you to acknowledge that what is necessary now is not to
fight against Obama's repudiation of his campaign promises but his
fulfillment of them: to expand the military presence in the Middle
East, to push for a corporate friendly health insurance "reform", to
continue massive subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, to reward
Wall Street investment bankers, hedge fund operators and corporate
criminals for their "initiative" and "entrepreneurial drive".
We assume that acknowledging this reality will be accompanied by
recognizing that a lot more is required to pressure Obama than
appealing to his conscience We need a serious disruption of business
as usual-something going far beyond the comfort level within which the
left has operated for a couple of generations.
As a constructive suggestion along these lines, you will find in your
in box a call for a demonstration which takes as its objective
shutting down Wall Street on May 1, 2010.
I hope you recognize that actions of this sort and of this intensity
are now what are required and that we can include you as supporters.
Best Regards,
John Halle
Adolph Reed
Matt Gonzalez
Bruce Dixon
Joshua Frank
Allison Kilkenny
Paul Street