Unity, militancy can stop Clinton's 'right moves'

by Gus Hall

This article was reprinted from the July 12, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

The following is excerpted from a report by Communist Party National Chair Gus Hall to a meeting of its national board June 28-29. (Part one of two).

The Clinton administration is moving consistently to the right on both domestic and foreign issues, with the signing of the welfare bill last August only the most ominous and most blatantly anti-people signal. It seems that, as a lame duck, Clinton has now decided to follow his natural inclinations to give in to the right pressures. And he is doing just that across the board - on welfare, on the budget, on taxes, on health care.

In January 1996, when we were discussing our Party's electoral tactics, we said:

"Ridding the U.S. Congress of the fascist-like wing of the Republican Party and its criminal 'Contract on America' is the greatest challenge our people and our country face."

There were some gains toward this end in the November elections. However, Gingrich and his extremist henchmen remain in the leadership of the Congress. By any definition, it remains a right-wing Republican stronghold.

Then, after the elections, we warned:

"Unless we greatly accelerate the number and strength of mass movements across the country - on the streets, inpublic rallies and mass actions - Clinton will be pushed tothe right, toward the more extreme Republican positions"

It has not taken much pushing for Clinton to make those moves primarily because he is not feeling enough street heat. He is obviously getting more pressure from the ultra- right (where his tendencies lie anyway) than from the people's forces who elected him.

Clinton is betraying the people who elected him. He is switching to the right even on his middle-of-the-road positions. Practically every move he makes now is pro- corporate, pro-military-industrial complex, anti-labor and anti-people.

Many trade unionists and other peoples activists are angry and frustrated - and some are ready to take action to let Clinton know it. Many are puzzled,' in a dilemma about what to do - about when and how to respond.

We should discuss this new situation and move quickly to shift into high gear on initiating mass street actions on issues.

The critical issues

The stupidity and squabbling among the Republicans work in Clinton's favor and keep his ratings high.

For example, the Republicans lost ground on the flood relief bill. Big tax cuts for the rich are the next step on the agenda of both the Republicans and the Clinton White House. Members of his Cabinet and White House personnel, who left after Clinton's first term to switch back to corporate service, are being replaced with much more conservative forces.

Madeleine Albright, mouthpiece for the most extreme reactionary positions (but also for Clinton) and her State Department, is a prime example of the new Clinton personnel.

The Supreme Court, as demonstrated by its latest decisions, especially, but not only, on the separation of church and state, has become the most reactionary in recent history and is a Gingrich Supreme Court, lock, stock and barrel.

Clinton has not made one statement or taken any action against moves to privatize the public schools, prisons, sanitation services, hospitals and transit systems. His positions on the environment have disappointed many of his supporters and pleased the corporate polluters.

Clinton is going along with all the Republican tax cuts for the rich and most of the Republican budget.

Even the New York Times in its lead editorial July 2, titled, "That's class warfare," said: "At a time when private incomes of the richest Americans are soaring out of sight of ordinary workers, [the rich] hardly need the additional advantage of a skewed tax cut."

Clinton's total betrayal on the gutting of welfare and his broken promises to "undo the most painful elements of the bill" began to take their toll on people's lives earlier this month when the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program died. With its "death" many millions will lose even their thin lifeline between hunger and starvation, between slum housing and homelessness - quite literally, between life and death. Millions will be faced with an emergency crisis such as we have not seen since the 1930s.

And it looks like - notwithstanding all his fine talk, public town meetings, committees and campaign promises - Clinton will cave in completely on Medicare, Medicaid and millions of uninsured children.

More than apologies needed

There is nothing wrong with the president apologizing for racist policies of the past, like the horrendous Tuskegee experiment, that left African American men with syphilis untreated, or expressing remorse over slavery.

But there is everything wrong with empty rhetoric without concrete steps to eliminate the racism that still infects our society. By his actions Clinton has rejected all concrete proposals that move toward eliminating racism and inequality in hiring and promotion; in education, health care and housing .

The fact is that hate crimes, police brutality, resegregation in housing and education, destruction of affirmative action, anti-immigrant laws, scapegoating and roundup campaigns, as well as anti-Semitic vandalism, are still at crisis levels in our country.

The growth of militias, the rise of Ku Klux Klan-like violence and terrorism call for strict new laws outlawing such groups. But, among all the proposals from his advisors, all Clinton has agreed to do is set up another advisory committee to engage in a national dialogue on race relations.

And Gingrich thinks all he has to do to cover up his racism is to invite Jesse Jackson to sit in his seat when he presides as Speaker of the House. The fact is that the Gingrich campaigns against welfare and food stamps are the main components of his racist "Contract on America."

Clinton's latest idea to deal with the blight of slums, and deepening poverty is to initiate a program to help 2,000 police buy HUD-owned homes at half-price with a $100 down payment and allow them to use Section 8 rent vouchers to pay mortgages. The whole idea of moving police into neighborhoods and practically giving them scarce HUD housing that community people can't get, is, to say the least, insulting. And, given the justified anger at police for the increase in police brutality and immigration raids, it has the distinct stench of insensitivity and racism.

The emergency situation in the struggle against racism calls for the formation of a visible, active left force. It calls for mass actions in the streets. It calls for militancy. Another factor feeding the need for a militant left force in the African American community is the fact that Louis Farrakhan has become an openly right-wing Republican and that trends are emerging elsewhere that move in the direction of retreat on fundamental issues of equality.

There are left and progressive forces around the country, including Communists, who are working toward organizing a militant, left political force that will raise the struggle against racism to a new level of action and militancy. Such an organization can be effective in promoting alliances and coalitions with trade unions and community forces. thus raising the struggle against racism and for equality, to an entirely new level.

It is now clear that Clinton's calls for "eliminating big government," "getting government off the backs of the people" and "eliminating government bureaucracy," or "states rights" and his big campaign on "volunteerism" all lead him in the direction of caving in to further retreat on the "Contract on America."

Monopoly tightens its grip

The goal of the Contract remains what it always was - to shift more wealth from working and poor people to the coffers of the filthy rich and Big Business and to fasten the hold of monopoly on the nation's political and economic structure. That is exactly what has been happening - much of it hidden from public view and to a much greater extent than is generally known.

Since the Party's last leadership meeting in April, business interests and their lobbyists have literally taken control of the work of many elected government bodies. For example, the biggest corporate lobbies are now always present at Congressional sessions and increasingly at all meetings on state levels. Lobbyists attend and participate in writing legislation as if they were members of elected bodies. They or their representatives control - and often head - committees set up by elected bodies.

And the lobbies on a state level have even more power than those in Washington, DC. For example, they have been successful in moving most governors and members of state legislative bodies to support the new welfare law and the privatization of state-owned, public property.

The role and power of these corporations is not in keeping with our democratic heritage and traditions and have nothing in common with the interests or needs of the people.

This makes it even more urgent to break the right-wing Republican majority and build an anti-monopoly coalition.

Now what?

What should we be thinking of in terms of changing the political balance of forces in our country? Let's begin with a brief look at what's coming up on the electoral agenda.

The full House of Representatives is coming up for re- election in 1998 which will be a great opportunity to free the government from the Republican Party's stranglehold. It is more possible now because the Republican Party has been steadily losing ground in the battle for public trust since the last election.

The exposes of campaign finance corruption and the shutdown of the federal government have greatly angered the people.

When Gingrich and the Republicans took a two week vacation while the victims of the Midwest floods were desperately waiting for flood relief funds, the Republicans looked more cold blooded and anti-people than ever.

They lost more ground when they tried to load the relief legislation with amendments that Clinton couldn't sign without being totally identified with them.

Republican tax cuts for the rich further add to their anti- working class image. And the rent control fight in New York didn't endear the GOP to voters, especially in New York.

Republicans are losing ground because of their policies on the budget, because they are openly advocating tax cuts for the rich because they are pushing cuts in Medicare and the privatization of Social Security.

The only force that has the power to stop and reverse Clinton's right shift is the people - the trade union movement and people's organizations. People- Black, Brown and white - can generate enough street heat to not only force Clinton into reverse, but also clean out the "Contract on America" Republicans in Congress. Unity and militancy in mass action is the key to people's victories.