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| Sunday, 7 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
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US Presidential candidate : Crisis in education in America by M.P. Muttiah
Bill Van Auken, the US Presidential Candidate of the Socialist Equality Party touring Sri Lanka, said that providing arms to Pakistan would trigger arms race in South Asia. In an interview with the Sunday Observer, Auken said that this arms race would deplete the desperately needed resources. It would also make worse the living conditions of the people, especially the working class. Any arms race would fatten the military industrial complex. When asked about his party's view on globalisation, Auken said globalisation under a socialist government would be more beneficial to the working people. Multi-national corporations and factories were operating in almost all the countries. But they exploited the labour of the working class. In the present context, under the capitalist environment it further impoverished the people. Their living conditions were deteriorating. Replying a question on why the US presidential candidates George W.Bush and John Kerry, in their campaign and debates, had not mentioned anything about the relations with the European Union, Auken said there was an objective interest for the United States. The United States wanted to dominate the oil resources in the Middle eastern countries. At the same time, the European countries too relied on oil producing countries for their fuel requirements. They did not like this situation. Therefore, it was natural to observe a difference between the United States and the European countries. The EU had to respond to the US domination of oil fields. Referring to the relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair,Bill Van said the British Prime Minister was playing a double game. Most of the Britons did not like Blair's co-operation with Bush and they were not happy about it. Electoral When asked whether there could be electoral malpractices, as in Florida, in the Presidential elections, Auken said already complaints were lodged in Nevada after Republicans registered their voters. There was a tendency to prevent the poor voting. Answering another question, Auken said there were no parties, other than Republicans and Democrats, represented in any other legislatures and blamed the two-party system for such a situation. Although there were about ten million workers in the country their voice was suppressed. Asked about whether his party's campaign would lead Kerry to lose votes and offered a chance to Bush, since the workers in the United States support Kerry, Auken said 50 per cent of the people did not cast their votes. It was the domination of Republicans and Democrats. There was nothing for the working class to do and the number swinging the vote too declined. Democrats were the biggest impediment to abolish the two-party system. Political Replying to a question about the Presidential race, Bill Van said that his party was concerned not about the November 2 elections, but about what would happen after that. What his party sought was to raise the political consciousness of the working class and this could be achieved only by developing a grass roots political movement that would broadly mobilize workers, professionals, young people and students, and building a mass socialist party. |
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