h/t to Green Party Watch
When she was a member of the Democratic Party, Cynthia McKinney served as a member of Congress from Georgia. In 2008, Cynthia McKinney, then a Green Party member, ran as the Green Party candidate for President of the United States. Now, Cynthia McKinney is part of a team of people–including Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report; Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council; Prof. Anthony Monteiro of the African American Studies Department of Temple University; Dedon Kamathi of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party; and writer/activist Mae Jackson— who are launching a new organization called DIGNITY to galvanize the black body politic.
(excerpt from Cynthia McKinney’s speech as posted at) Centre for Research on Globalization
Which Way Forward for the Black Left: The Formation of DIGNITY
“With Dignity, we will stand up for our rights!”
by Cynthia McKinney / June 3, 2009
…On Thursday, General Taguba spoke to journalists and said that the photos currently being withheld by President Obama show rape. On Friday, he went even further and said that he saw video of U.S. soldiers raping and sodomizing detainees. From the first batch of photos that were released, we know that detainees were also murdered. In your name and mine.
But some of us here in the U.S. are not shocked or surprised that this kind of behavior could occur. For those of us who have our eyes open, the gritty streets of America are filled with the experience of unarmed black and brown men being beaten, raped, sodomized, and even murdered by terroristic agents of the state.
We remember the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Kwame Touré. We remember George Jackson, Soledad and Attica. We remember the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican Independistas, the Chicano Movement, and we remember the FBI. We know about Area A in Chicago and we’ve heard the San Francisco 8 recount for us their experiences of torture at the hands of law enforcement. We’ve heard them tell how 30 years later, the very same people who tortured them showed up on their doorsteps to re-arrest them for crimes they did not commit…
Our President has breathed new life into the Democratic Party. But the fact is, our precious breath, that gives that Party life, is killing us.
Glen Ford, Roy Singham, Dedon Kamathi of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, and I all came together earlier this year, to not only lament the present, but to change the future. We decided that while our movement was nascent, coming out of my Power to the People campaign, that there was power in organization. That there was hope in mobilization. And that victory was possible in implementation. We agreed to found an action organization and to call it Dignity…
For about ten years, I went around the country proclaiming the black body politic to be at first moribund, then comatose. I now see the same fate awaiting the Progressive community even as we witness ongoing war, even ramping up the war machine during the greatest transfer of wealth out of black and brown communities by the wholesale theft of people’s homes.
Bait and switch schemes, whitewashing, and red herrings shouldn’t be left for the people alone to decipher as they are also trying to save themselves from drowning. Some of us know what’s going on and we’re organizing Dignity in order to inform and then stop it.
We are tired of watching politicians acknowledge our pain, win office, and then go about their business adding more to the existing pain.
We can change the policies only by changing the nature of the debate that leads up to the selection of our policymakers…
…we need actions that serve as a wake-up call to all of our elected officials that for a critical number of us, and Glen just happens to believe that we have the right number of people supporting us in general now, business as usual is over.
We have brains, we have brawn, and we’ve got guts. But is that enough?
We’ve learned from our neighbors to our South, from Mexico, Cuba, and Haiti; Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua that we don’t have to settle for less than what we need from politics.
And I’m tired of feeling trapped in the politics of self-abnegation. If people in other parts of the world can do it, then we must be able to do it, too. That remains to be seen, however.
So, Dignity is attempting to show that real change is possible.
Dignity will show that just voting for special interest politicians who reflect special interest political parties in new faces is not enough.
It is clear that some people are satisfied with that, but we demand more…
I was saddened to read a message from Cindy Sheehan saying that she won’t run against Pelosi next election. That’s a big blow to us and I hope she will reconsider…
I’m willing to try one more thing, one more time. And Dignity is our effort to endure; to deliver a much-needed victory to the people. Before it’s too late.
Please support us with your money, your brain, and your time.
…We want to organize networks so that we can relay information quickly to a large number of people.
…Dignity soon will have an internet presence and a weekly television show. We intend to have a distribution mechanism so that our supporters can place our television show on cable access stations across the country; we want to be on the radio, and we also want to be in the faces of the people who got our votes or have authority over our tax dollars and who continue to disappoint us.
We are not abused spouses turning the other cheek for another slap in the face. We are individuals who know that this country can be better because we still have faith in the good will and the values of the American people.
Help us organize Dignity, and with dignity, we will stand up for our rights!
For more information on DIGNITY, contact Ms. McKinney at hq2600 at gmail dot com
Still no contact from anonymous at
[email protected]
After I e mailed this person, asking who it was.
Seems that the interest of structural issues was lost by this person who “works with the Green Party.”
Cyn, if Dignity endorses The Progressive Libertarian Alliance Strategy, then count me as Down with Dignity!
It’s only been a day or so. Maybe they had to go away for a while. Most of us do have lives outside the Internet, after all. Myself included, though that would probably surprise a lot of you.
Folks,
just a quick heads up. The above poster, anonymous with the bunch of numbers-gmail e mail address asked me to contact him/her/it in regards to my allegations of serious structural problems with the GP.
I contacted the e mail in question. I asked that before I started to discuss this, who was the person.
No answer.
Interesting.
I e
As we use to say at the worst veterans home on the Planet [Barstow, California], “Tell a lie, get slapped on the wrist; tell the truth, get shot at dawn!”
Michael is right on this. The difference is, though, that I consider the Destructo-Greens heroes. They are making way for the Obama Revolution of Catholic Trotskyism, the good New World Order which is pitted against the satanic Nader/Republican New World Order control conspiracy. Cynthia McKinney’s new group will go nowhere electorally, but will be a good action group that will fight alongside the Catholic Trotskyist Party and the Democratic Party for a brighter future of good economy, world peace, education, healthcare, etc.
Michael,
E-mail me at [email protected]. Listserve bannings, though, I am not really interested in. Especially GPW, DailyKos, OpEdNews, etc. They are all privately owned and operated and who they decide to ban doesn’t reflect on the Green Party of the United States.
Structural problems…let me know.
[email protected]
I should mention that I have also been banned from posting at other sites.
All of them have been like Daily KOS, Democratic party apologist types of places. Op Ed News (a whole bunch of us have and have set up our own news site COTOCrew wordpress) Daily KOS, My space Democrats etc etc.
damn, when you point out the issue of holding the pro-war, corporate corrupted two party system and how to orgaize EFFECTIVELY, you get banned.
Ask yourselves why.
Anonymous
I will be only to happy to talk with you, any old time at all. especially about the structural issues.
I was never banned from any of the Minnesota GP list-serves. Just the National GP Delegates list-serve along with GP Watch. Where decisions are/were made.
I was attacked on said list-serve by people from the National GP though. On a very regular basis. Along with any of those nasty, mean old Nader supporters or their allies (who are serious about building an alternative to the Dems, it must be noted)
If you want a good look at this, just visit the Greens For Nader website (if it still exists) and it’s last statement. I can testify to the veracity of what it catalogued.
Sadly GP Watch is not talking about just how the GP is falling apart. From the latest discussion to borrow $75,000 to the self implosion of the Minnesota GPP, attempts to un-endorse the GP Minneapolis Councilman Cam Gordon (for a whole list of reasons) and God knows what else they are hiding from the membership.
Of course, since the real fighters have been driven out it is kind of irrelevant.
All those who are SERIOUS about building an alternative to the pro-war, corporate corrupted two party system are busy, building and organizing.
Just not with the GP.
We tried to warn them but instead got tagged as destructo-greens.
Oh well, ce la vie.
Carry on.
Jake, possibly long winded, sorry:
I have been suspicious of the Democans and the Republicrats since the 1960s. I grew up in the American Heartland where the establishment may bicker and attack the other half of the duopoly cabal, but all other political groups were ignored!
Politically, I have been here there and every where. And generally fairly unhappy bout it!
Any way, I was recruited into the Reform Party of California with the CALVETS abused veterans as the lure. The guy that talked me into the organization then quit and I was introduced to some of the most dishonest, ethically challenged [so called] patriots on the West Coast.
http://www.reformparty.com
http://www.reformparty.net
http://www.reformparty.org
http://www.reformpartyusa-ag.org
[the ‘Action Group’]
all of these sites and groups
are not what they propose
to be……………
These folks make GOP thug Pat
Buchanan look good!
And the Greens, could be great,
could truly be a viable third party.
Like the [so called] reformers,
the greens act as if they are trying
to sabotage the [stated] effort!
“Due to some of the very seriously flawed structural problems with the GP”.
Michael,
I am active with the GP on several levels and want to make sure it works, and works better than it has in the past. Can you be more specific about the structural problems? And I have not been active long (not at all during 2004) so if you mention the “Smith affair” or something from a while back I probably won’t know what you are talking about. If you’ve had personal conflicts with someone I can appreciate that, but I’m more interested in the “structural problems” you’re talking about. Kimberly too.
If you want to talk about that, I’d love to hear.
Were you ever banned from discussing issues on the Green National Committee listserve? Local and state listserves and Green Party Watch are all run by other groups and individuals that the National Committee can’t control. I just wanted to get some specifics about that.
In other words, there is a reason that Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehann, Matt Gonzalez and countless others are no longer associated with the GP.
We can now add Cynthia McKinney to the list.
I know. Cynthia McKinney is a destructo-green.
Man, oh man. Like I said to the GP before I was banned from posting.
Attacking people, banning those people who actually do the very hard, grunt work of building an organization.
Well, it isn’t really sustainable.
Not to mention violations of Grassroots Democracy, Social Justice and Respect For Diversity.
Funny thing is, I have not been banned from posting here.
Oh yeah, free speech and the free market of ideas. Why how very democratic (small d obviously) of you here.
Oh well, time to go on building and organizing.
Carry on.
I will gladly give you a deadly serious reply.
Sadly, the fact that Cynthia is now doing the same thing as Ralph Nader has NOTHING to do with ego and personality. It is purely political.
She is SERIOUS about building something. Not a psuedo-intellectual, talk shop with all talk and no action.
The National GP has a cadre of people who seem determined to actually sabotage any and all real, honest efforts and building something real and effective. I am not sure if it is deliberate or subconscious but either way, it is real.
There are many good and decent people in the GP, however these people that
I speak of ( a minority) are still able to block any real movement. Due to some of the very seriously flawed structural problems with the GP. I was a National GP delegate from Minnesota so I know of what I speak. Kimberley Wilder was a National delegate also, as an aside.
I was also involved in the Cynthia McKinney campaign at the very start. It was at this point that i realized that some folks were using Cynthia’s campaign, not to build but to ensure that Ralph Nader did not get the GP nomination, as a club to attack Nader and then to fade away into nothing. Which is precisely what happened.
Now, at this point you can expect the cat calls of destructo-green to emerge.
It was because this fact of trying to deal with these serious structural flaws, this central point that many former GP National delegates were banned from even discussing, booted off list serves and why I have been banned from posting at GP Watch.
On the McKinney article…How do Greens feel about this? She says that the people involved in DIGNITY “want to organize networks so that we can relay information quickly to a large number of people”, want to raise funds to publicize issues, want to change “the nature of the debate that leads up to the selection of our policymakers”, etc. Aren’t those the Green Party’s goals? Didn’t the Green Party extend a pretty large invitation to her by nominating her for President? Why start a new organization when there are networks in place, with ballot access in two dozen states, and some resources available?
The Green Party is not perfect, has flaws, is poor, etc. But why the desire to break ties and start something totally new? Ralph Nader continues to do it, Cindy Sheehan (though never really tied to the party, although she easily could have been) has talked about doing it, and now Cynthia McKinney is doing it. It is inherent in the personalities of people with name recognition that they go their own way, or is there a real structural barrier to working with the Greens?
Serious replies preferred.
Donald,
I’ve got a question. I see on the websites that you post on links back to the Reform Party, but never the actual party link…. why?
The USA, since at least Honolulu 1883, has been a fascist imperial global empire. People of color and women of all skin tones are targeted? Well, pretty much any one whom stands up to the establishment!
November 28, 2008, physical abuse/ false arrest victim at UCSD/ San Diego VA Hospital. Nine weeks of ‘Anger Management’ [Victim Pacification ????] in lieu of a $300 fine.
Free White 21, Male WASP, former military officer dragged by the hand cuffs to the isolated cell from the ‘Patient Advocate Office’. Welcome to 21st century America.