Some Friendly Advice to Senator Obama:
Beware of Corporate Takeover of ‘Change’

Dear Senator Obama:

We shall not forget how you inspired millions of Americans with your vision of “change” and how you won the Democratic nomination for President by holding fast to your message, despite the vicious attacks on you.

But now, you face a more seductive challenge: whom will you select, not only as your running mate, but the scores of influential subordinates you will need to run the country if you are elected?

In making these many choices, I ask you to remember two views that you expressed numerous times during the political debates in the primaries:

(1) You denounced the Washington elite for starting the war in Iraq and conducting a domestic economy that favored corporations and the wealthy, and

(2) You said that good judgment, decent values and a clear vision of the future could be more important criteria in choosing strong leaders than years of experience.

Yet, you seem to have discarded those principles in selecting James Johnson, “Washington’s consummate insider,” to head your vice-presidential search committee. Johnson, who is a director of five corporate boards, had received a special deal on three home loans by the head of Countrywide Financial Corporation, which you had criticized for its role in the subprime lending crisis.

For all of his awesome reputation, Johnson has a record of failure at his special task: The v.p.’s he picked for Mondale and Kerry were losers. Johnson was such an embarrassment to you that he had to resign. But there are scores of high-priced job-seekers, with gilt-edged résumés, who will be telling you how enthralled they are with your “change” campaign, and are ready to help out – for a price.

Take the case of Robert E. Rubin, Wall Street’s top insider, who was President Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury. Rubin is now chairman of the executive committee of Citicorp, the world’s largest bank. Not surprisingly, the big rap against Rubin is that he focused more on the needs of corporate America than on the problems of working families. We are told that Rubin has become one of your closest economic advisers.

So you can understand that union people were upset when you hired Jason Furman, a Harvard-trained economist and close Rubin associate, to be your economic policy director, and you signaled, according to a New York Times story, that the major players from the Clinton economic team were now in [your] camp – starting with Robert E. Rubin.”

Until his latest appointment, Furman was director of the Hamilton Project, a research center that promotes international trade policies that are at variance with the views you have expressed in speeches around the country. He insists that Wal-Mart is a good business model, brushing aside the contrary views of labor.

While workers complain that their current salaries are insufficient to meet the cost of gas, oil, food and healthcare, Furman says they are better off than their counterparts were some thirty years ago. Ingenuously, your new appointee assures us: “My own views, such as they are, are irrelevant.”

In one of your recent speeches, you called for “the creation of millions of new jobs by rebuilding our schools, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure.” Do you think that “experts” like Furman, who advocate a balanced federal budget, will help make your promise a reality?

Union People Should Have a Voice in Campaign for ‘Change’ I

n past presidential elections, unions never received proper recognition for the money, volunteers and their tremendous voter turnouts. Their leaders rarely appeared at public functions with their candidates, either during the campaign or its aftermath. They were not invited to speak at major press conferences or political forums. They were not called upon to participate in high-level meetings where the key decisions about candidates, issues and strategy were made. Very few union people, no matter how qualified, ever get to be appointed to influential positions, even after a victorious campaign.

Unions have been reduced to political vassals of the Democratic Party on the assumption they will not switch to the anti-labor Republican Party or build a party of their own.

Senator, you now have a golden opportunity to draw millions of blue-collar workers and union members into the battle for democratic change, since they are among the ones who need change the most and they will be its chief beneficiaries. But you must find ways to involve them locally, as well as nationally, in every aspect of the campaign.

The prize is enormous. Organized labor, with its 16 million members, who live and work in virtually every city and county in the United States, has millions of dollars and an army of volunteers for the candidates its supports. Within the labor movement, you’ll find all the experts the campaign needs, both for the election campaign and after (as we hope) you’ve won the presidency.

You should know that for the past several weeks, the unions have conducted a full-scale campaign against your rival, Senator John McCain. They are your strongest ally in your fight against the privileged Washington Establishment. They are determined, as you are, that the nightmare of the past eight years of the George W. Bush administration will be replaced by a government that serves the needs of all Americans and is respected everywhere in the world.

We offer these frank comments in the hope that they will be helpful to you and the campaign in the difficult days ahead.

Our best wishes to you, your family and your campaign staff.

Sincerely,

Harry Kelber

Visit our web site at www.laboreducator.org