[Sosfbay-discuss] Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente: Building a Movement for REAL Change (reprinted from Black Commentator, July 17, 2008)

[Drew Johnson]

http://blackcommentator.com/286/286_kir_mckinney_clemente_movement_change.html

Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente: Building a Movement For Real Change

Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente:
Building a Movement for REAL Change
By LARRY PINKNEY
(Black Commentator Editorial Board Member)

Something magnificent and truly extraordinary happened at the 2008,
Green Party Presidential Convention a few days ago in Chicago,
Illinois. Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente; two dynamic, highly
intelligent, experienced, and politically committed women of color
were chosen by the Green Party of this nation to be its nominees for
President and Vice President respectively, of the United States of
America. Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney who demonstrated
the guts and integrity to leave the politically opportunist and
bankrupt Democratic Party has, for quite some time now been yet again
demonstrating her guts and integrity by crisscrossing this nation and
informing people in every nook and cranny about the "Power To The
People" Campaign. Now Sister McKinney has been joined by Puerto Rican
people's grass root activist / journalist / and intellectual hip hop
artist Sister Rosa Clemente in this ever growing campaign and people's
movement and struggle. Indeed, something extraordinary has happened
and there is yet more to come.

While CNN, ABC, C-SPAN, etc. did give some limited coverage of and to
this incredibly momentous event; none of the pundits of these
so-called "main stream news" media outlets dared elucidate to the
"American" people the enormous present-day and historical significance
and opportunities of what just happened in Chicago. None of these
pundits dared explain and emphasize the revolutionary aspect of what
had just happened in Chicago: That the Green Party and the
Reconstruction Movement this past weekend, in selecting Cynthia
McKinney as their primary standard bearer, is a stinging rejection and
rebuke of the Democratic and Republican Parties [i.e. the
Republicrats] with their putrid, hypocritical, corporate / military
apparatus-fueled politics of dishonesty, subterfuge, smoke & mirrors,
and unending wars abroad and increasing economic disparity and social
misery at home. The sleeping dragon, consisting of the rank and file,
everyday woman, man, and child in this nation, has finally begun to
awaken once again.

The Empire, including its Democratic and Republican Party surrogates,
has been put on notice by politically conscious Black, Brown, Red,
Yellow, and White peoples of this nation of who are sick and tired of
being hoodwinked, manipulated, and politically blood sucked. What
happened this past week end in Chicago is a wake up call to all
persons of good will: Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow!
By supporting the candidacies of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente we
are supporting a people's movement -- our movement for real,
fundamental, "systemic" change, not mealy-mouth meaningless / feel
good rhetoric. We are self-actualizing our hopes and dreams, not
allowing others to pimp and manipulate us by playing on those hopes
and dreams. We are supporting the very best in ourselves. We are
laying the foundation in 21st Century "America" for a genuine and
ongoing people's movement that says NO to the corporate / military /
prison apparatus of the U.S. Empire at home and abroad.
We are supporting so much more than only candidates for political
office --  we are supporting our commitment to the building of an
uncompromising, unswerving, people's movement that is unhindered by
this system's Democratic and Republican [i.e. Republicratic] Party
election time lines and political machine. We are refusing to
collaborate with this Empire's system of oppression. Rather, we are
working to dismantle it and build a fundamentally and systemically
different system that addresses human needs, not human greed. We are
emphatically stating that we will not sit back and allow principled,
intelligent, revolutionary / politically progressive, honest, and
for-real women to be by-passed and ignored any longer by this system
in "America."

By supporting the Cynthia McKinney / Rosa Clemente "Power To The
People" Campaign we are making it crystal clear that we will intensify
the struggle the dignity and human rights of all people: women, men,
and children -- Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow -- all peoples.
To be sure, the U.S. Empire's corrupt and biased news media
disinformation machine can be expected to go into high gear in an
effort to discredit and neutralize the McKinney / Clemente ticket and
the "Power To The People" Campaign. Indeed, these slimy tactics have
already begun. However, such tactics merely confirm the absolute
importance of what we are committed to and what this movement is all
about.

For those who may not have seen and heard Cynthia McKinney's
acceptance speech on C-SPAN at the Green Party Convention this past
July 13, 2008; it is urged that you turn on your computer's speakers,
view her presentation, and hear her remarks and those of Rosa Clemente
on the internet at C-SPAN.org under the heading Green Party
Presidential Convention (July 13, 2008).

The "Power To The People" Campaign is the only one to boldly and
seriously address not only the issues of militarism, economic
disparity, social and environmental inequities, single payer health
care, government malfeasance and neglect, corporate greed, equal
opportunity and education, racism, reparations, gender parity, and
homelessness, etc; but just as importantly, this campaign is about
building an ongoing movement to fundamentally address the root causes
of these pressing concerns. The twin demons of the Empire, i.e. the
Democratic and Republican Parties [increasingly known as the
Republicrats] and their accomplices, are in opposition to any real
systemic change. Thus, every conceivable means will be utilized to
deter this campaign, its ultimate movement, and objectives.

We must get out into our towns, cities, and municipalities of all
kinds with one fundamental objective: Getting and putting the "Power
To The People" Cynthia McKinney / Rosa Clemente Green Party ticket on
the ballot in high numbers in every viable state of this nation, while
simultaneously building and nurturing this people's movement. Let us
start voting right now by organizing to support Cynthia and Rosa in
the streets, the back woods, the schools, on the reservations, in the
barrios, ghettos, and every possible nook and cranny and community of
this nation. WE ARE NOT COLLABORATORS AND WE WILL NOT COLLABORATE WITH
THE EMPIRE IN OUR OWN OPPRESSION OR THAT OF OTHERS. Organize,
organize, and organize some more!

We are the people and it is WE ourselves who are the essence of, and
motivation for, real change. Let us call out to our sisters and
brothers in Haiti, in Venezuela, in Bolivia, in Cuba, in Palestine, in
Myanmar, in the Congo and throughout the entire world. Let us send
them a message of comradely greetings and let them know that we are
reawakening from slumber here in the belly of the Empire. We have seen
their examples and are emulating them for the mutual betterment of all
our peoples.

We must build coalitions that serve the interests of the people. We
must pry open the systemic, strangling, amoral death grip that the
Democrats and Republican Parties [i.e. the Republicrats] have around
our proverbial necks and minds. We must work together with the
Reconstruction Movement which began around the despicable U.S.
Government criminality of both the Republicans and Democratic Parties
re hurricane Katrina (and subsequently hurricane Rita). Being Green is
just the beginning. We must keep in mind that there are also other
progressive peoples out there in parties such as the Peace & Freedom
Party, and we must work together with them to the mutual advantage of
the people's movement. We must remember that "no one of us is as smart
or as strong as all of us."

We must remember our sister and brother political prisoners,
liberation fighters, and exiles such as Leonard Peltier, Mumia
Abu-Jamal, Reverend Edward Pinkney [no relation], the San Francisco 8,
Assata Shakur and so very, very many more. We must remember why we are
waging this struggle. This is about more than votes. This is about our
very survival and that of Mother Earth - this planet.
This is about saying NO to the Empire and its collaborators, and YES
to a NEW DAY a NEW SOCIETY, a NEW WORLD. This is about struggling to
be that NEW PERSON who self-actualizes and addresses human needs, not
human greed, lies, and hypocrisy.

Viva Cynthia McKinney! Viva Rosa Clememte! Long live "The Power To The
People' Campaign! Let's get busy brothers and sisters. "Each one reach
one". There is much work to be done!

Onward thenŠ
----------
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a
veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of
the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only
American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights
case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing
activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was
interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly
known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see
the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist
and Thinker , by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click
here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr.
Pinkney.



-- 
Starlene Rankin
Green Party Media Coordinator
916-995-3805
starlene at gp.org