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Obama’s inauguration—what’s next?

The Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the U.S. was an historic event for many reasons. A record number of close to two million people—many of them weeping—stood in the bitter cold for several hours to bear witness to the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. The vast majority had to watch it from several Jumbotrons close to two miles back. The previous record crowd of just over one million people convened during Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration following the 1964 election.

Bourgeois commentators mentioned the irony that both the Capitol building and the White House, where Obama and his family will be living, were built on the backs of African slaves. For millions of people here and around the world, it was truly a revelation to hear this fact since U.S. history books very seldom mention that slavery existed in various areas of the North as well as in the South.

It was also very noticeable that in the presidential reviewing stand during the inaugural parade, there were many more people of color in attendance. In fact, commentators acknowledged that the reviewing stand held at least one-third people of color, while during the George W. Bush inaugurations, people of color were virtually nonexistent.

For millions of people the inauguration of Obama was viewed as a breath of fresh air following eight years of the Bush regime, which became synonymous with war for empire, an almost complete dismissal of the plight of workers, the poor and oppressed peoples, and the deepening economic crisis. There is understandably a strong feeling of validation amongst Black and other oppressed peoples with the Obama victory.

The Obama presidency represents another chapter in the ongoing struggle for full democratic rights that has been expressed in various heroic forms of self-determination since the end of the U.S. Civil War, including anti-lynching campaigns, the right to land in the South, civil rights, the right to self-defense, the right to political representation, affirmative action and much more.

There are some who feel that the election of Obama was the culmination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of full equality. There are others who see the Obama election as moving one step forward in Dr. King’s vision for political and economic equality. Above all else, Dr. King was an anti-war and anti-racist activist who believed that only mass action could change the conditions of the workers and oppressed for the better.

Many progressive appeals are being made to President Obama on a number of important political and economic issues at home and abroad. This is all good. At the same time, as the economic suffering gets worse, it is even more important to organize an independent grassroots movement to be in the streets to demand jobs or a livable income, health care, housing, education and an end to police brutality, along with no U.S.-backed wars on Palestine, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Colombia or elsewhere.

In New York City on Jan. 17 and Los Angeles on Jan. 24, the Bail Out the People Movement sponsored conferences to help lay the basis for building a nationwide fightback struggle for human needs, not to save the bankers and bosses. Part of a working document adopted at both meetings reads, “In 2009, more and more lives are going to be devastated by the biggest global economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s.

“This crisis is the challenge of a lifetime for those of us who have made a commitment to fighting for the rights of people. What we do or fail to do will prove decisive in the coming battle over whose interests in society shall prevail.” (www.bailoutpeople.org)