PHOTO OF CORNEL WEST ENDORSING OBAMA AT THE APOLLO
Tue May 17, 2011
CORNEL WEST WEIGHS IN- PART 1
ANWAR SALANDY: From researching your work, Dr. West, it appears you had a public disagreement with Al Sharpton, another activist. What was the nature of that disagreement?
DR. CORNEL WEST: Well, Rev. Sharpton and I, we go all the way back, I've got his book right up there, which is, "Go Tell Pharaoh", which is a powerful title, guess he's been tellin' Pharaoh for a long time, now he's pretty close with our dear brother, Barack Obama, who's in Pharaoh's office. Now, that doesn't really Barack an automatic Pharaoh, but, for those of us concerned with poor and working people, the powers that be do not make poor and working people a priority. That, for me is a certain type of a definition of a pharaoh-like figure.
But, no, I have a deep love for Al Sharpton, a deep respect for the brother. I was just a little afraid that he was allowing himself to be used by the Obama Administration as a cover for some of the issues that need to be head-on: Prison-Industrial-Complex, dilapidated housing, disgraceful school systems, homeowners loosing their homes in foreclosurings. Those are not priorities.
In the Administration, for the last 2 1/2 years the priority has been to save Wall Street and kill Bin Laden and they've done both, very well. So in that sense, it is very clear that they were successful in what they intended to do. But, I am concerned with, not just security for the nation, where's security in the 'hood, where's security in poor communities, where's security for the young people dodging bullets all the time? Where is security when it comes to jobs with a living wage, where's security in terms of quality education, not just privatizing education that trashes trade unions and teachers...but high quality education for every child, no matter how poor, no matter how rich? Those were the kind of issues that I was pushing.
We were talking specifically about the stop-and-frisk policy of New York City, where you've had 65% of young black brothers between the ages of 16 and 26 when stopped by the police only 2.5% of them are arrested. That's nothing but police harrassment, par excellence. Its nothing but intimidation. Not a mumbling word from the mayor of New York, who's got a lilly-white administration that Sharpton's very close to. Not a mumbling word when President Obama went to Shaprton's National Action Network, right in New York, right there in Manhattan and not gone say nothing. You not gone say nothing about stop-and-frisk, but you say you believe in the rule-of-law? Well, what is going on here? So, when Sharpton himself hadn't said a word about it, because of his closeness to both Mayor Blumberg and the President, you see, I'm saying where is the Sharpton that I know, way back, when I was head of his Presidential exploratory committee? He would have said something strong. So, I was just saying, look brother, I love you, I just make sure that you not getting used by these folks, now. You don't want to get chewed up and spit out like Van Jones and some of these other folk got treated, or Sister Sherrod. I'm keepin' track of it.
Though, we had a wonderful dialogue right after the exchange. I think, some people thought, on television, we were really, uh, 'at it' and intense. That's the just the way we are, 'cause we're concerned about the issues, but we had a wonderful dialogue right after. But, I'll continue to say the same thing, if he continues to do the same thing, I'll tell ya.
SALANDY: During that same MSNBC interview, it was said that you called President Obama a 'mascot for the wealthy'. Now, what did you mean by that comment?
WEST: I called him a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs, a black puppet of corporate plutocrats, and what I meant by that was, and when you actually look at the priorities of his administration, you got...he brought in Larry Summers, Larry Summers was the one who deregulated derivatives on Wall Street. Larry Summers, of course has intimate connections with Wall Street and made $7 million dollars on hedge funds when he was president of Harvard. So, as an economist he's always been very tied to Wall Street. Same is true with Tim Geitner, who was head of the New York Reserve banking system that was responsible in many ways for looking away from all of the ganster activity on Wall Street, having to do with predatory lending, having to do with fraudulent behavior, insider trading, we can go on and on. So, when he brought both of those folk into his administration, Summers head of his economic council of advisors and ofcourse, Tim Geitner as head of Treasury, you said wait a minute, wait a minute, brother, you were using the language of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campaign. Martin Luther King, Jr. was talking about poor people, he died organizing sanitation workers. He was critical of the war in Viet Nam. How you bring in these folk straight out of Wall Street oligarchy, straight out of corporate plutocracy and say you tied to Martin's legacies? Some of are willing to live and die for the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and others, so we got to keep it real in terms of ways that they would look at the world in the age of Obama.
And so, when you look very closely, you say 'wait a minute', more and more, he's leaning so much toward the powerful and the wealthy and the Wall Street folk. Who does he spend time with? Who, in poor communities, actually are speaking to him? Who does he listen to?
You got one black person in the Cabinet, Eric Holder. Eric Holder's a decent brother, but, Eric Holder, of course has done what? He's justifying allowing terrorists off the hook. You see, he knows who has committed terrror...um...um...excuse me...torture. He's allowing torturers off the hook. They know who committed torture. They won't touch 'em.
But, Jamal gets caught with a crack bag, he goes to jail. You say, 'wait, you've got to have one rule of law', you see, across the board. The same is true of wire tappers. They know that wire tapping for fellow citizens is wrong, its illegal. They know who did it, they won't touch them. You see, Eric Holder and Barack Obama said what? They said, "Well, we have to just keep moving forward". You don't keep moving forward when somebody broke the law. Lateesha get caught, you don't just looking, forward, you see. We got to have rule of law across the board.
So that's exactly the language I use in terms of too much of the tilt toward the Obama Administration. The same is true in terms of this budget deficit debate. Its a false debate. Everybody knows that all you got to do is tax wealth, not just income. Everybody knows that all you've got to do is tax financial transactions on Wall Street. Let them pay some taxes. One out of 4 corporations in America didn't pay one penny of taxes. The working paid, black people paid, across the board. GE didn't pay one penny.
The CEO of GE is the head of Barack Obama's job commission. His name is Jeff Immelt You say, 'well wait a minute, what's going on?" Exxon Mobil didn't pay a penny. Bank of American didn't pay a penny.
Who's paying taxes? Working people. Well, how can working people pay taxes, corporations making big money? Well, they got subsidiaries all around the world...Cayman Islands and other places where there are tax havens, you see. As the taxes get heavier you end up with Christian, who is anti-tax, as right wing as he can be, cold hearted, mean-spirited toward poor people and so forth. But people do resonate with the fact that they are being taxed too much. They are being taxed too much. Its because the well-to-do and corporations are paying less and less and less taxes. Well, why not hit that issue head on, strong, you know?
I want the President to have the same backbone in fighting for the War on Poverty that he had for the War Against Terror. If he can find Bin Laden, then he should be able to a stronger impact in eliminating poverty in the Country. That's the King legacy. Just being true to Martin, that's all. Being true to Curtis Mayfield. Just being true to John Coltrane, you know what I mean?
http://anwarsreflections.blogspot.com/
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GREETINGS NETTERS:
The dispute between Cornel West and Al Sharpton that was referenced above, is when they both were panelists on MSNBC entitled A Stronger America - The Black Agenda . I gave my comments on the 'dispute' in an earlier thread on this forum. I criticized both West and Sharpton for not criticizing the Democratic Party. The fact of the matter is that they were both prominent having influenced workers (and Black workers in particular), into voting, yet again, for the Democratic Party.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laborpartypraxis/message/26848
I have shown that the Democratic Party does not represent the interests of workers, but, as demonstrated by the policies of the present Obama Administration, serves a militarist and corporate agenda. And, in this case, race matters not! This Administration demonstrates that the office of Commander in Chief of the armed forces and Head of State, is not a function of race or ethnicity, but a function of class...the ruling class.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laborpartypraxis/message/26758
WEST WROTE: "...he brought in Larry Summers, Larry Summers was the one who deregulated derivatives on Wall Street. Larry Summers, of course has intimate connections with Wall Street and made $7 million dollars on hedge funds when he was president of Harvard. So, as an economist he's always been very tied to Wall Street. Same is true with Tim Geitner, who was head of the New York Reserve banking system that was responsible in many ways for looking away from all of the ganster activity on Wall Street, having to do with predatory lending, having to do with fraudulent behavior, insider trading, we can go on and on. So, when he brought both of those folk into his administration, Summers head of his economic council of advisors and ofcourse, Tim Geitner as head of Treasury, you said wait a minute, wait a minute, brother, you were using the language of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campaign. Martin Luther King, Jr. was talking about poor people, he died organizing sanitation workers. He was critical of the war in Viet Nam. How you bring in these folk straight out of Wall Street oligarchy, straight out of corporate plutocracy and say you tied to Martin's legacies? Some of are willing to live and die for the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and others, so we got to keep it real in terms of ways that they would look at the world in the age of Obama."
Adaoma writes: Obama used language of Martin Luther King when he said that he would "put on a pair of comfortable shoes myself. I'll walk on that picket line..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA9KC8SMu3o
and, perhaps, used the language of a union memebers when he spoke to the SEIU about single payer health care,
and, he, certainly used the language of the military-industrial-complex when he said 'loosing is not an option in Afghanistan" and that more troops were needed to "finish the job". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZRspJg1VYA.
Presidential candidates "use language" to win elections. The campaign, however revealed that Obama was committed to toeing the Democratic Party line. Now, that there has been an attack on collective bargaining under a Democratic Administration, now that troops remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, now that there is no single payer, now that medicare and social security are being threatened, while corporation subsidies are being considered despite the fact that corporations said in 2005 that they were not even needed, it should be clear that the Democratic Party does not serve the interests of workers.
The Executive Branch is the expression of a party politics not individual agenda.
Will Cornel West toe-the-party-line of the Democratic Socialists of America, his own party, and campaign, once again, for the US Democratic Party presidential candidate, as was the case in 2004 (Kerry ) and for Obama, as in 2008?
Or, will independents begin to run their own candidates and promote them to workers, based on policy...rather than color?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Socialists_of_America#Electoral_positions
Adaoma
GENERAL ELECTRIC MADE $14.2 BILLION PROFIT IN 2010; PAID $0.00 IN TAXES
25th March 2011
http://morallowground.com/2011/03/25/general-electric-made-14-2-billion-profit-in-2010-paid-0-00-in-taxes/
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558
Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/12/us-usa-taxes-corporations-idUSN1249465620080812
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