Bill Clinton: No friend of workers, oppressed minorities, and women
1992Molly Sachs 1992-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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"The most important family policy, urban policy, minority policy and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy," said Bill Clinton in his speech accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party as its candidate for president of the United States.
This, the other references to capitalism in his acceptance speech, and the call for a strong military, are the essence of the Clinton candidacy.
Clinton's actual record, as governor of Arkansas, is well known: Arkansas is a "right-to-work" (for less money) state. It is one of only two states (the other is Alabama) with no anti-discrimination civil rights legislation on the books.
Clinton interrupted his primary electioneering to fly back to Arkansas on Jan. 14 to witness the state's execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a brain-damaged African-American. He signed state legislation restricting women's right to abortion, including requiring parental approval for minors to get abortions. Now he's posing as the pro-choice candidate.
The clear message of Clinton's candidacy is that he would be a better administrator for the U.S. capitalist system than Bush and the Republicans. He said it himself: "What is our vision of our New Covenant? An America that says to entrepreneurs and business people: We will give you more incentives, more opportunities than ever before... to create wealth in the new global economy."
But is creating more wealth for business in the "new global economy" of any concern to the majority of people in this country?
Working people have seen a steady decline of their real wages for the last decade. The governmental policies that have fostered this attack on workers' stanthe rich receive (over $150 billion this year alone for the wealthiest one percent).
The capitalist parties obviously can't solve the problems they helped to cause. Working people need their own party-a labor party-to fight for their interests in the workplace and in the government.
Women are experiencing a steady erosion of their rights to reproductive freedom and indeed to equal rights in all spheres. The Democrats and Republicans share responsibility (along with the Supreme Court, whose members they ratified) for the attacks on women.