Light at the End of the Tunnel: Communities Must Stand Together for Change

In the streets of Oakland, California, an injustice to one man, Oscar Grant, was taken up as an injustice to all. Thousands chanted with one unified voice, “I am Oscar Grant!” They collectively vowed put an end to police violence against non-violent civilians.

In a meeting hall in San José, five parallel public workshops, each representing residents of diverse communities, hammered out ideas and action plans to create and sustain civic engagement in the process of effecting social change at the grassroots level.

On the Martin Luther King Freedom Train to San Francisco, students and seniors discussed how the foundations for Barack Obama’s election victory and his words “Yes we can!” were being laid long before by Martin Luther King’s dream; and how the foundation of Martin Luther King’s dream was laid by Paul Robeson, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, and so many others.

In east San José, Hispanics and Arab Americans joined together to demand justice for undocumented immigrants and justice for Gaza. Both communities felt empowered, where both had been reluctant to protest publicly only a few fearful years back in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.

On different occasions and in divergent settings, all of these events were taking place in the midst of a wave of mass euphoria set off by Barack Obama’s election victory. They were also responding to his call in his election-night victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, “So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.”

This theme was repeated in Obama’s inaugural speech, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

Between those two speeches, millions saw light at the end of the tunnel – light at the end of eight long years of the presidency of George W. Bush. The first lights piercing the night in Grant Park seemed very bright indeed. Or was it because the eight-year-long tunnel of the Bush administration had been so dark?

But as the Obama administration takes shape, it is beginning to look more and more like a Clinton-era cabinet. While being a great breath of fresh air, “change we can believe in” is melting into “more of the same” from eight years ago.

Obama’s campaign vow to ban former lobbyists from working for the federal government in capacities that would enable them to oversee contracts benefitting their former employers fell to the wayside with the appointment of William Lynn as Deputy Secretary of Defense.

After early meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top Pentagon officials, Obama made no further commitment on his campaign pledge to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, as if oblivious to the Status of Forces Agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraq, and ratified by the Iraqi parliament.

With an inaugural promise to engage Muslim countries “based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” U.S. forces in Afghanistan continue to conduct air strikes in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan against the will of the host governments and peoples. The unacceptably high civilian casualties have sparked both official and popular outrage in both countries.

While the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package passed by Congress seeks to inject money into the economy, rebuild ageing infrastructure, and cut certain taxes; states, counties, and cities are cutting jobs and raising taxes to cover their burgeoning deficits. The federal stimulus package does not provide anywhere nearly enough to prevent a meltdown in state and local governments. Instead of governments at different levels working at cross purposes, the first priority of the federal stimulus package should be to ensure that no state, county, or city employees in essential public services like education, healthcare, and public safety are laid off, and that state and local taxes on the “middle class,” working class, and unemployed are not increased in a time of deep economic contraction. Now, more than ever, is the time to ensure that the social safety net administered through state and local governments remains intact or is reinforced.

As Obama was taking the oath of office, the temporary ban on short selling was being lifted. Within a week, when a record 76,400 layoffs were announced in a single day by major western multinational corporations (Caterpillar, Pfizer, Sprint Nextel, ING, Home Depot, Philips, Corus, Texas Instruments, and General Motors). Yet the New York-based hedge fund Paulson & Company announced a $378 million profit from resumed short selling shares of the tottering Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). In other words, while governments went into emergency mode to stabilize the financial system, the economy, and their fiscal budgets; profiteers were once again pulling phantom wealth out of an ailing economic system without producing a penny of real use value.

So while “change we can believe in” is becoming “more of the same,” it is becoming increasingly apparent that real change must be driven from below by people at the grassroots level. If the euphoria over the end of the Bush administration, and the election of the first African American president of the United States does nothing more than engage people into civic action and community empowerment, then it will be a positive force for change. Most promising is the activation and engagement of the youth.

Ordinarily, the euphoria is transient and unsustainable. However, the financial crisis has set off an apparently ever-deeping economic crisis. The International Labour Organization in Geneva has said that the global economic contraction could lead to the loss of 50 million jobs worldwide. The silver lining is that for the first time in over 50 years, union membership is up. Strikes and political unrest are spreading across Europe – millions of workers engaging in widespread protests in Greece, France, Britain, and Russia, to name a few. Millions of newly unemployed may increase politicization among the working class and propel them as a force for socio-economic change.

But the real message of unity and change must not be lost in an occasional descent into anger and chaos, as has happened after several rallies for Oscar Grant in Oakland. The profound messages of the protests were often lost in the commercial mass media that comprehensive changes in leadership, training, policymaking, and public accountability are needed in the city, in BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), and in area police forces.

The light at the end of the tunnel seemed incredibly bright as viewed from the depths of the dark tunnel of the Bush administration. It seems less bright as we emerge into the full daylight of the Obama government. But Barack Obama does appear to provide an opening for potential change. To keep the light at the end of the tunnel burning brightly, ordinary people, consumers, and producers of real value, and whole communities must press not for cosmetic, but for structural, change. The public meetings, workshops, and protests must continue. The task of real structural change has only begun.