[GPCA Updates] RELEASE Open letter to NOW from Green Party Nat'l Women's Caucus: support Cynthia McKinney

[Green Party of California Updates]

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Distributed by the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org

National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States
http://greens.org/gp-uswomen/

For Immediate Release
Monday, September 29, 2008


Green Party National Women's Caucus challenges NOW to support the historic
McKinney/Clemente presidential campaign


WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Women's Caucus (http://greens.org/gp-uswomen)
of the Green Party of the United States has sent an open letter to the
National Organization for Women (http://www.now.org) urging support for the
Green Party's presidential ticket.  The text of the letter is appended below.

The letter cites Green nominee Cynthia McKinney's six terms in Congress and
her unmatched dedication to the principles of equality and human rights
championed by NOW.  The National Women's Caucus emphasizes the historical
role that alternative parties have played in the struggle for women's
suffrage and rights, and notes that NOW has failed even to recognize the
significance of America's first national campaign by two women of African
descent: Ms. McKinney is African American and running mate Rosa Clemente is
Black Puerto Rican.


OPEN LETTER TO NOW, THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN

National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States
http://greens.org/gp-uswomen/

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Dear National Organization for Women leadership and members:

The National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States is
dismayed that your recent endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President
of the United States did not acknowledge the first all-female ticket in
recent U.S. history. Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente are running for
President and Vice President, respectively, on the Green Party ballot line.

Cynthia McKinney served six terms in the U.S. Congress and two terms in the
Georgia General Assembly. She is a global human rights and peace activist
with a substantial voting record supporting women.  Rosa Clemente is a
community organizer and journalist who was one of the founders and primary
organizers of the first national Hip Hop political convention. Their “Power
to the People” campaign goal is to ensure that public policy reflects the
Green Party values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots
democracy, and nonviolence.

Cynthia McKinney has been a steadfast supporter of full reproductive rights
for women throughout her legislative career, including opposition to
“abstinence only” sex education, funding for contraception and UN family
planning. Rosa Clemente has been an outspoken advocate on issues affecting
people of color, particularly women, and has directed her campaign toward
the 48% of young people who don’t vote, to encourage participation in the
electoral process.

Additional positions of the McKinney/Clemente campaign that will benefit
women include:

- Equal Rights

- End to forced sterilization and coerced or uninformed consent procedures,

- Immediate end to the War in Iraq and reinvestment of the money into our
communities

- Single-payer, universal “Medicare for All”

- Election integrity where every vote is counted

- Right to same-sex marriage

- Free higher education

- End to the drug war

- Right of return of survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

- Withdrawal from corporate trade agreements such as NAFTA that are
devastating economies worldwide

- Promotion of renewable energy (no coal or nuclear) to create hundreds of
thousands of new manufacturing, construction and service jobs

Neither Obama nor his Republican opponent John McCain support these positions.

The National Organization for Women PAC repeatedly praised Congresswoman
McKinney during her six terms in U.S. Congress; and her record, on every
relevant issue, surpasses those of the male endorsees. But now, these two
women of color -- powerful and power-challenging, real choices, and
nominated by a political party that proudly boasts Feminism & Gender Equity
among our Ten Key Values -- don't even receive acknowledgment.

The National Organization for Women, at all levels, has long struggled over
diverging feminist paths -- choosing either to press for change within the
existing power structure, and its institutions, or to step outside of the
expected and challenge the institutions themselves. In the view of the
National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States, NOW has
best served women when NOW has recognized, in the words of Audre Lord, that
"when you look back on the road you've come, and see pain, and look forward
to the road you're on, and see pain, then, step off the road, and make a new
path."

We recall when NOW distributed buttons proclaiming that "Women were not born
Democrats, Republicans, or YESTERDAY." We recall when the heroines of our
heritage were Belva Lockwood, Alice Paul and Sonia Johnson, each willing to
form her own political party, or run for president independently, or both.
They were willing because that path provided fewer barriers to telling the
plain truth, the truth that needed to be heard, than did service to the
establishment parties. We even recall when NOW announced the formation of
its own, alternative, political party, the "Party for the 21st Century,"
with Dolores Huerta at its head. We rejoiced when NOW sought to make a new
path, because the old political road was simply too filled with the pain of
condescension and compromise, deferment and settling for what was offered.

Even when NOW, through its political action committee, decided in the last
two decades to bestow its endorsement on candidates from the
over-represented political parties, it was to reward them for actually
moving closer to the day when a woman might be president, with a Geraldine
Ferraro and a Hillary Clinton sitting in the candidate car, and not just
trudging behind it, pushing. But this past week, that endorsement reward was
offered without even that, out of the same "fear of the alternative" that
has driven women to set our own hopes, dreams and destinations aside, time
and again, to let the men drive the car.

Belva, Alice and Sonia did not become president of the United States, but,
with the support of the feminists of their time, speaking truth, each
re-formed the vision that America had about women. While men can be
feminists too, their institutions can only be deemed feminist if they
produce equality. The dearth of elected women, at every level, is its own
condemnation of the party structures that are the paved road of American
democracy. It disappoints us greatly, that earlier this month, NOW has not
made a new path. By failing to commend, or even comment on, the presidential
candidacy of Cynthia McKinney and her Green Party running mate, Rosa
Clemente, NOW is driving on the wrong side of history.

We invite the National Organization for Women, and feminists everywhere, to
support the Green Party and the McKinney/Clemente campaign. Come walk the
walk with us, and make a new path.

Sincerely,

National Women's Caucus, Green Party of the United States
Nan Garrett, Co-Chair
Ginny Marie Case, Co-Chair

National Women’s Caucus Member Claudia Ellquist, National NOW Board member,
1990-94, participated in the drafting of this letter

National Women’s Caucus
Green Party of the United States
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
202-319-7191
202-319-7192

MORE INFORMATION

Abortion and contraception: McKinney is a firm supporter of abortion rights,
appearing on EMILY's List of pro-choice women. She has also supported
federal funding for contraception and U.N. family planning programs.
http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Election2008/CynthiaMcKinney/#MajorElectionIssues

Quite a long statement on Women, Families and Children at
http://archives.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/mckinney.house.gov/women.htm

* Voted YES on reducing Marriage Tax by $399B over 10 years. (Mar 2001)
* Supported funding child care, child health, & child housing. (Jul 1999)
http://www.issues2000.org/Cynthia_McKinney.htm

McKinney immediately challenged Georgia House rules requiring women to wear
dresses by wearing slacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_McKinney

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White
House
http://votetruth08.com
http://www.runcynthiarun.org
Cynthia McKinney on video
http://www.youtube.com/user/RunCynthiaRun
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RunCynthiaRun
• Press conference, September 10 at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_5ivgS4asc
• Speech in Denver, August 24: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPxgcjOjUEc
• Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1NPlQjkqo


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