The Primaries to choose who will be the candidates of the Republicans and the Democrats (the two biggest bourgeois parties) in the Presidential elections in the United States have been attracting a lot of attention in the world media. The Democratic Party won the last congressional elections (they now have a majority in both houses of Congress) and has a good chance of winning the Presidential elections.

Two of their candidates are challenging what up to now has been the prevailing logic in American politics. One is a woman (Hillary Clinton) and the other a Black man, Barack Obama. Obama's candidacy is growing ever stronger and mobilizing popular participation. And his recent victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii have piled up even more pressure on Hillary Clinton. But, what does Senator Obama really stand for? In order to find out, we took a look at his official web site.

His programme

About Iraq it says: Obama is against the war and proposes the withdrawal of troops within 16 months. He also proposes to close Guantánamo.

On Iran: "If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives such as membership of the World Trade Organization, economic investment, and a move towards normal diplomatic relations. If Iran continues its disturbing behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation."

On international relations: The United States must lead the fight against terrorism and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. The U.S. must extend the Treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, to increase sanctions against North Korea and Iran; increase its diplomatic presence, particularly in Africa; help weaker states to reduce poverty and develop their markets; grant more "flexibility" to the commanders of UN troops; increase investment to modernize the U.S. Army; increase the number of soldiers by 65,000 and the number of Marines by 27.000.

On Israel: he will work for two States, Israel and Palestine.

On immigration: he proposes to increase security on borders and ports (that is, to increase repression against illegal immigrants); he promises to punish employers that hire illegal immigrants; to increase the opportunities for legal immigration (though he does not propose any concrete measures); and to promote the economic development of Mexico to avoid emigration (also without explaining how).

On the economy: reduce taxes to be paid by the poor and the middle classes. On international trade, he intends to protect American jobs. He will press the WTO to ban subsidies on American exports. He defends NAFTA. He proposes to improve the conditions and training of unemployed workers; more money for the development of renewable energy sources; freedom to unionize, free from bullying bosses; defense of the right to strike; increase of the minimum wage; creation of a Credit Card Rating System and a Credit Card Bill of Rights; to offer fiscal advantages to the companies that keep their headquarters in the USA, to increase the number of workers in the USA, strengthen the health insurance system, and hire workers who have served in the armed forces.

On healthcare: to create a new national healthcare insurance scheme. To increase competition between pharmaceutical companies. To create incentives for the use of generic medicines.

On retirement: Current bankruptcy laws protect the banks before the workers. Obama proposes to protect pensioners by putting workers at the top of the list of creditors. He is against (further) privatization of social security.

These are the main electoral promises in his program published on his website. Before commenting on all this, it is worth pointing out what he does not mention: the reversal of the Patriot Act, by which you can be sent to prison without being charged, without any legal assistance, and allows the police to investigate someone because of their "racial features", something which had been scrapped after the Black revolts in the 1950s and 1960s but has now been reintroduced.

In his speech at the first primary elections, in Iowa, Obama explained that it is necessary to unite America again, that the division between Republican and Democrat States is no longer acceptable. Obama proposes to increase taxes for those companies that shift their production abroad, that he will develop new forms of energy to combat the oil industry, that he will bring home the troops in Iraq and that America and the world will combat terrorism and nuclear weapons.

He proposes to unite America and appeals to patriotism, to combat the big corporations and protect the system. He says he will guarantee workers' and unions' rights.

If we look at history, there was another American president who addressed the American people along similar lines: Franklin D. Roosevelt. Listening to his speeches, one may wonder why none of the political analysts have made such a comparison? But Obama is something more than that. Obama, speaking at the congress of a metalworkers' union, stressed that he supported the right to strike for workers. He said that if in the past it was said that "what is good for General Motors, is good for the USA", it was time now to say that "what is good for the unions, is good for the USA".

The truth is that all the analysts fear what making this comparison involves. Is it that the crisis is upon us and that the only way out for the system is another Roosevelt? Let us remember that none of the so-called "freedoms" in Obama's speech can be defended: an increase in the budget for the Armed Forces, an increase in their numbers; tighter border controls, more money for the FBI, but not a word about the Patriot Act which restricts the freedoms of ordinary American citizens.

We are entering a period of economic crisis and it is possible that the American bourgeoisie is considering a solution along the lines of a new Roosevelt-type "New Deal". The problem is, do conditions exist for such a deal? The world has changed since the 1930s; Stalinism, which acted as an obstacle for the masses who were trying to carry out revolution, has collapsed. On the other hand, the forces of revolutionary Marxism after seventy years of struggle are still very weak. The building up of these forces has been slow, with occasional sudden leaps, both positive and negative.

We maintain our confidence in the working class, especially in the difficult conditions that lie ahead. Every American worker who loses his or her job knows what this means, and we are sure that the workers will find the right road to solve their problems.

It seems likely that first they will have to live through the experience of having a Black president who promises to do many things but delivers on very little; a president that will continue to defend capitalism, albeit a more "humane" capitalism for which the conditions do not exist, and which will soon be exposed in all its brutality; a president that defends a foreign policy that takes the USA back into the arena of the United Nations and gives more "freedom" to the UN commanders; who wants to expand the armed forces and equip them with new modern weapons; a president who says he defends free trade unions, the right to strike and civil liberties but says nothing about the Patriot Act.

Barack Obama and the black vote

While he clearly defends the status quo and has the support of an important section of the US ruling class, a lot is being made out of the fact that he is "black". In fact, he won by an ample margin at the Democratic Party primary elections in South Carolina, where thanks to the support of Black voters, he received twice as many votes as Senator Hillary Clinton. Obama got 55% of the vote, double that of the former First Lady, who got 27%, and much more than the 19% received by ex-Senator John Edwards.

The fact that half the people that voted were African-Americans, according to the data collected at the polling stations, may have helped the Senator win this battle, in which there is a big racial polarization among voters. In fact, eight out of ten African-American voters who turned up to vote, voted for Obama, while only two out of ten chose Senator Clinton. But Obama is not the candidate of the poor, the Blacks and the workers. On the contrary, Obama has made it clear what the meaning of the Black vote is for him.

In his first public appearance after his South Carolina victory he tried to play down the racial tension that had arisen in the campaign, in an attempt to avoid being seen as "the candidate of the African-Americans", which could damage his campaign in the rest of the country.

This is what he said:

"The choice is not about regions, or religions or genders; it is not about rich versus poor, young versus old, and it is not about black versus white. This election is about the past versus the future. I did not travel around this State for the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina, I saw South Carolina".

Need for a workers' party

Blacks and poor workers in the United States need a candidate to represent them. The Black movements, the unions, all rally behind the Democratic Party and spread their votes between Obama and Hillary Clinton. The unions, in particular, have spent huge amounts of money trying to get one of them nominated as candidate and then will spend even greater amounts of money on the Democratic Party to help it defeat the Republican Party. And yet, everything continues as before. What the working class needs, what poor Blacks, Latinos and all workers who live in the United States need, is a candidate that represents their interests, a labor candidate who would present a socialist platform to overcome the current crisis.

Obama will try to impose a new "social pact", which will involve the workers giving up many rights in order to save the billions and billions, maybe trillions, for multi-billionaire magnates like Bill Gates who are facing a coming recession.

Now, that recession may make Bill Gates lose some billions, but what is certain is that it will eliminate millions of jobs, and it is poor people who will suffer hunger, disease and misery... and this in the United States! The richest nation on earth, which produces and consumes 25% of world GDP, is going to see part of its people suffer...from hunger! And the greatest scandal of all is that this is all that capitalism can offer. While the big farmers are paid not to produce anything the poor go hungry. While the stocks of oil built up in the United States would suffice to fuel consumption for more than one year the poor will die of cold because they have no money to buy heating fuel.

Does Obama have a solution to all this? His program does not have anything in it that would alleviate these problems. When he makes it clear that he wants to govern "for all" we already know the result: he will govern for the rich.

We are facing difficult times, but the working class will know how to find the way to strengthen itself and attain victory in the not-so-distant future. The way out of this impasse is through a determined struggle inside each union to push the labor movement as a whole to establish a party and a candidate that would come out in the name of the working class to change the country and the world.

• USA: Come All Ye Faithful: Vote for Me! The Presidential Candidates and Religion by Shane Jones in the USA (February 13, 2008)
• Super Tuesday and the U.S. Elections by John Peterson in the U.S. (February 7, 2008)
• USA: Why Workers Need a Labor Party by Ed Riley in the U.S. (February 7, 2008)
• Election 2008 & the U.S. Working Class by the Editorial Board US Socialist Appeal (January 14, 2008)