Anyone watching the coverage of Barack Obama's US Election victory could not fail to be moved by the genuine outpouring of joy and enthusiasm that accompanied the result.

Millions of Americans, angry at the state of the economy, angry at the inequality that exists in their nation and angry at American foreign policy have delivered a stinging rebuttal of the politics of George W Bush, John McCain and the Republican Party.

The electorate have rejected the pro-war, pro big business agenda of Bush and the neo-conservatives who have been in charge of the country and have been attracted to the idea of the "Change" that Obama and The Democratic Party campaigned for.

The result took on an even more historic significance due to the colour of Barack Obama's skin. Few would have believed, even until relatively recently, that a virtually unknown African American Senator, not yet having served a full term in office, could be elected as the 44th President of The United States.

In his thank you speech in Chicago, Obama thanked his campaign team and his party workers for helping deliver this stunning victory. Yet he also acknowledged the truth of the matter is the campaign to get the first black American President elected started much, much earlier. The path to power was paved by the struggle of millions from the self-organisation of slaves through to campaigners against the discriminatory Jim Crow laws. From Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights Movement through to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, generations of activists have fought, and in many cases given their lives in order to facilitate the change in American society that led to Obama's election. The emotion visible on the faces of so many is testament to what it means to have an African American family in the White House.

We in Solidarity acknowledge the historic nature of the result. We welcome the fact that a seismic shift has taken place in a country where only a few decades ago defacto apartheid existed in some states. We recognise that for millions of ordinary people across America and the world Obama appears to offer a new direction away from the hated and discredited politics of George W Bush and his big business neo con cabal. We realise that those who voted for change in their droves did so in the belief that Obama could find solutions to their problems.

Those problems are many. The global economic crisis, home repossessions, low wages, unemployment, inequality and (despite Obama's election) the real problem of racism and division. There is also the matter of American foreign policy and the catastrophic occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those who were re-enfranchised, re-engaged and re-energised by the campaign for Obama will demand real change in their lives but, are The Democrats the party to deliver what they need? Despite record donations from ordinary working class people, the majority of the money for Obama's campaign came from big business and corporate backers. It is those same backers who will demand a return on their investment in Obama. They will oppose higher wages, improvements in healthcare and welfare reforms.

It remains to be see who will have the biggest pull on Obama; corporate America or the masses who propelled him to power.

The previous Democratic administration of Bill Clinton generated a similar wave of hope and optimism but much like in Britain following Tony Blair's election, the gap between rich and poor, the haves and the have nots increased to record levels. We believe therefore that in order to find a solution to these problems a new type of party has to be built in America.

We in Solidarity will continue to argue for a socialist solution to the problems faced by the ordinary peoples of America and the world. We will continue to work with socialist and progressive forces where ever they exist in order to build alternative forces capable of making real change in the lives of many rather than the few, where we will put people before profit and keep campaigning for an end to wars of conquest and occupation.

Nevertheless, the climbing of a mountain begins with a single step, and yesterday American politics took a mighty leap forward. November 5th 2008 will be remembered as a day when we all awoke to a more hopeful world.

Independence, the economic crisis and socialism: the task ahead for the pro-independence left in Scotland

When the Democratic Green Socialist Group met recently in Perth our deliberations took place against an unfolding and unprecedented financial crisis for capitalism. Elsewhere in this issue of DGS that crisis is analysed and discussed in depth (see The Bubble Bursts) but this editorial reflects the excellent political discussion that took place that day around the way forward for Solidarity and the left in Scotland.

We are in a transitional period in capitalism and also within the socialist movement. Some commentators have discussed the end of the current model of neo-liberalism. Alongside campaigning and building, socialists need to arm themselves with a theoretical grasp what is going on in the global economy.

It’s changing times. In the US there is the real possibility that there could be the first black President in history. In Britain, despite a temporary Brown bounce due to media misinformation over the credit crunch, the New Labour project is coming to an end. Worryingly, there is the real prospect that a Tory government could come to power at a UK level.

In Scotland the political context is different. The coming to power of the SNP in Holyrood was historic. Large sections of working class people in Scotland now look mainly to the SNP for change rather than the Labour Party.

Yet the SNP have been silent or complicit on key issues. Public sector workers are forced to go on strike to protect wages and pensions while the bankers fritter and gamble away billions and get ‘golden parachutes’. The unemployed and disabled are under attack from New Labour’s welfare ‘reforms’. Millions shiver in their homes in fuel poverty. Yet no ‘mainstream’ political party voices support for these groups of people. There has been no 37 billion pound bail out for them.

Socialists need to develop a critique of the capitalist economy in relation to the fight for independence. We need a strategy that helps bring about independence but also allows us to differentiate our vision of a socialist independent Scotland with the SNP’s idea of a big business led Scotland. We also need to explain and articulate an alternative vision capable of winning layers wider than the 2% who habitually vote for hard left parties in Scotland at the current time.

We need a new set of pragmatic, realisable and inspiring socialist policies – slogans are no longer enough. We need to engage in a discussion about the economic effects of wars, Trident and nuclear energy – and private ownership for profit. We need to look at Credit Unions and compare them with the collapse of the banks, and we need to look in practice at how socialists would take key sectors of the Scottish economy into public ownership. Post Offices are being closed because we are told they are inefficient yet banks are now either heavily subsidised or part publicly owned. Our task is to articulate what a socialist economy would look like.

With the possibility of a Tory Westminster government and a possible independence referendum on the horizon none of these issues can now be discussed in the abstract, away from the issue of independence. The DGS stands without reservation for an independent Scotland. There are still elements on the left both inside and outside Solidarity who remain curiously sceptical or lukewarm about independence. DGS magazine will be at the forefront of highlighting the importance of independence, both as a democratic demand and a way of opening up early opportunities for socialism in Scotland.