NHHPC Coverage-Cynthia McKinney

by Davey D

This past weekend August 1-3 the National Hip Hop Political Convention touched down in Las Vegas with the hopes of establishing a Hip Hop agenda that can be addressed by the presidential candidates. All the candidates were invited. We didn't hear from John McCain. Barack Obama promised to send a surrogate who never made his/her way there and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney came through and blew up the spot.

We sat down and had a serious one on one with the former Congresswomen and got her to touch upon key issues rarely addressed by her Democratic and Republican counterparts.

We started off by talking about the work she did in Congress around the issue of domestic spying and the legacy of Cointel-Pro. She went into great detail and talked about how the CIA and FBI had edicts that plainly stated that it was against the United States security interests to have a 'safe, non threatening Negroe leader to replace Dr Martin Luther King should he be eliminated from public life.

people need to let that sink in.. This is a document stamped by the CIA. McKinney described it as Regime change for Black America.

She also talked about another edict put out by the FBI that said the government should work to make sure that Black youth never ever adhere to a Black nationalist philosphy ala Malcolm X ala the Black Panthers ala Public Enemy ala the Nation of Islam.

It was important to talk about Cointel-pro because it provided a historical and political context to better understand the types of domestic spying and new laws like FISA which are on the books post 9-11. It was also important to have this history discussed so we could better understand the types of surveillance and political disruption taking place within Hip Hop.

McKinney's work around domestic spying had her looking into the deaths of 2Pac and Biggie to see if it fit a pattern consistent with the type of disruptive tactics the FBI used against groups like the Black Panther, SNCC and Dr King. What was really important for McKinney was to examine the role that culture has played in the liberation struggle and how historically artists, their music, writings and oral expressions and their crafts have been shut down, marginalized and outright attacked by the government. She raised the questions as to whether or not the attacks on Hip Hop was a continuum of this..She talked about how cultural expressions have always been connected to a people's self-determination

During our interview I asked McKinney if what was the reaction from her Congressional collegues to the work she was doing around Cointel-pro and whether or not they were outraged once all these documents were shown and if so how they could go along with bills like the Patriot Act and the recent FISA Bill signed by her opponent Barack Obama and of course the Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Act which seeks to see how the Internet is being used to politicize people.

McKinney bluntly stated that many of her former collegues are part of the problem. They have been complicit in in creating an environment that resembles a police state all under the guise of protecting us from terrorism.

We talked about the hearings and questions McKinney raised around 9-11 shortly after the Terror attacks. At the time she started asking all the hard questions, she was considered un patriotic and out of touch. 7 Years later we can see that McKinney was right on time and in many ways she has been vindicated.

We talked about McKinney's run for the White House and why she has been ignored by so many progressive media enclaves that share her values about everything from being opposed to the war to curtailing the governments push to trounce on our civil liberties to making sure our elections are protected and every vote is counted. McKinney was behind the incredible film 'American Blackout' which brought attention to election fraud. One would think that places like the Huffington Post or the Nation Magazine would be at the very least raising some of the issues McKinney has championed.

McKinney said it would be nice to be invited to do interviews with some of these progressive outlets and that she would love to sit down and have a serious conversation with Arianna Huffington. She noted that what is apparent is that in many ways these outlets and individuals aren't really all that progressive and they've allowed their values to be compromised.

We tthen talked about her take on Foreign Policy. McKinney broke down the resistance movements that have been unfolding throughout latin America. She talked about her recent trip to Mexico City to stand in solidarity with union workers and others who are still protesting and in staunch opposition to their presidential election which they feel was stolen. One of the key sticking points in mexico is the attempts to privitize water and oil and make them become the property to corporate entities controlled by the US.

She talked about how people within the US in particular the Longshoreman's Union has protested this action by shutting down our own seaports.

She also talked about Africom which is the US's rarely talked about policy to set up military basis throughout Africa to ensure that we have access to oil and other natural resources. The US feels that its bad standing in many parts of the world has made them vulnerable to boycotts from countrie's that have critical resources. These military bases are designed to prevent that from happening.

Lastly McKinney talked about her choice for running mate in the form of Rosa Clemente. and how important it was to have someone of her caliber and reach into underrepresnted communities.

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