05/22/2008 - 10:37.
Cynthia McKinney: That Audacious Black Woman Standing
with the People
Black Commentator column Pinkney (May 22, 2008)
by Larry Pinkney
There are very few these days who demonstrate that
all-too-rare quality of telling the narrative of the
people's struggle as it really is while simultaneously
struggling to bring about real systemic change with
and for Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White peoples.
Cynthia McKinney is audaciously doing just that.
Cynthia is running for President of the United States
of America, not as a Democratic or Republican Party
[i.e. Republicrat] hustler, but as the real people's
candidate. She is not embraced, funded or backed by
Wall Street, Lockheed, or any other entity of the
corporate / military / prison apparatus as are the
candidates of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
The Cynthia McKinney campaign is about so much more
than merely a presidential run for office. It is about
building an ongoing, well-honed, politically conscious
people's movement with a view toward bringing about
systemic change. It is about the continuous hard work
of building political parties and organizations that
are not beholden to the Republicrats [i.e. the
Democratic and Republican Parties]. This is precisely
why her organizing activities are correctly and
succinctly referred to as the "Power To The People"
Campaign. It is about building, supporting, and
nurturing the people's struggle, not corporately
blood-sucking them in the name of some kind of
illusively abstract and ultimately dangerous feel-good
rhetoric.
Indeed, "Sister Cynthia McKinney is the ONLY one who
seriously and fundamentally addresses our issues" the
concerns of Black America: self determination,
reparations, judicial equality, police brutality,
COINTELPRO, political prisoners, employment, decent
housing, environmental justice, educational parity,
and the absolute end to unjust wars at home and
abroad. She is one of US. She does not pretend that the
legacy of slavery is in the past. She makes it clear
that jobs, justice and equality are more important
than ever before. She is bold about the fact that
Black Liberation is a very important and serious
ongoing struggle in the United States of America. By
supporting Cynthia, we support ourselves and our
humanity. [Reference: An Open Letter Re Cynthia
McKinney To Our Politically Conscious Sisters And
Brothers Of Black America].
Cynthia McKinney is not a member of the posh
millionaire or billionaire clubs as are the U.S.
Presidential candidates of the Democratic and
Republican Parties [i.e. the Republicrats]. Cynthia is
no smooth talking, half-stepping, opportunist. Cynthia
is for-real, which is yet another reason why this
former U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia, boldly and
courageously left the politically bankrupt Democratic
Party.
This is May, 2008; and it was in this very month in
the year 1925 that our beloved warrior and Black
prince - Malcolm X was born. Despite every effort by
the 21st Century Amerikkkan power structure to distort
and sanitize the words of Brother Malcolm, the fact is
that Malcolm X was uncompromising in the struggle for
justice and Black Liberation. It would have been
utterly unthinkable for Brother Malcolm to have
figuratively thrown Rev. Jeremiah Wright under the
proverbial bus and then backed up to run over him
again and again at the behest of the racist U.S.
corporate, military, and prison industrial apparatus.
As Malcolm X repeatedly said, "No sell outs!" Brother
Malcolm made it crystal clear that the Democratic and
Republican Parties [i.e. the Republicrats] are "foxes
and wolves." Their ultimate objective is to keep
Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and yes even White peoples
- disempowered while pretending to be doing the
opposite. Their actual masters are the elite of the
corporate / military / prison apparatus.
Just as Malcolm X was and remains, in the words of the
late, great Ossie Davis, "Our own shining Black
prince;" so it is that we have been blessed to
currently have our own shining Black princess in the
person of Cynthia McKinney. She is of us, and we of
her.
The "Power To The People" Campaign is about all of us.
Our love and respect for Malcolm X, John Brown,
Harriet Tubman, Assata Shakur, Martin Luther King,
Jr., Huey P. Newton and so very many others; is alive
and well in the person Cynthia McKinney and the "Power
To The People" Campaign.
This is not only about the United States of America.
This is about the peoples of the entire world. This is
about our Mother Earth. This is about political,
social, and economic justice in South and Central
America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and
every nook and cranny on this planet. This is about US, the people - everywhere.
Get involved now. Make it real! Onward then. Let's
get busy.
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.
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