Next Left Notes
by Bill Reed - September 21, 2010

NEW YORK — Sunday Sept. 12 Cynthia McKinney, former Member of Congress for six years and the 2008 Green Party candidate for President, spoke in Brooklyn as part of her New YorkC tour to discuss the impact of 9/11 and support the Rally Against Racism and Islamophobia. Ms McKinney is currently traveling with the Bike Across America For Peace Campaign due to arrive in Washington D.C. in October.

She was welcomed at The Commons, a skill share organization in downtown Brooklyn. Ms McKinney spoke about the need to build the Green Party alternative to the Democrats and Republicans and to support New York Green Party candidates and the event featured a serious discussion of current problems with the death penalty in the U.S.

Green Party candidate for New York State Comptroller Julia Willebrand spoke about the basic problems of how the New York State Comptrollers have been investing the state’s huge state employee retirement fund. The funds are given to brokers who are paid huge fees for their services. One investment firm received $200 million,”to invest in Ireland.” Ms. Willebrand said that the money should have been invested in New York State businesses to create jobs here. The money was never invested in Ireland because of severe problems with the Irish economic downturn, but the investment firm was paid a fee of $6 million anyway. Ms. Willebrand would invest in socially responsible investments.

Howie Hawkins, a Teamster, is the only candidate for governor who is a union member. He spoke about many of the problems caused by the state government which is controlled by Democrats acting like Republicans. He called for a “Green New Deal” with a higher minimum wage, Medicare for All, a state owned bank to finance an economic recovery with alternative energy jobs and a moratorium on foreclosures.

Colia Clark, the Green candidate for U.S. Senate running against Senator Schumer, has been a life long activist. She was an organizer for tenants rights in Chicago when Dr. King moved to Chicago to support those efforts in that city. She detailed the support that Sen. Schumer has given the Wall Street Financial Service Industry and Big Oil. He was the person in the Senate who helped get much of Wall Street’s deregulation requests pushed into law in Washington. She opposes the senator’s constant work to expand the US wars and occupations.

Ms Clark introduced fellow anti-death penalty activists from the World Day Against the Death Penalty in the U.S.A. This organization will hold events world wide in October. There will be a march in Philadelphia on October 10. For more information call: 212 330 8029. Pam Africa spoke about activists being very disappointed in the President, Attorney General Holder and other Black Democrats who support and promote the death penalty and obstruct appeals, DNA testing and new evidence in death penalty cases. In Philadelphia, a Black Democrat ran for election on the slogan that, “There is no evidence that Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent,” she said.

Cynthia McKinney spoke about traveling through out the U.S. and hearing people who voted for President Obama who have “Buyers Remorse.” With the large numbers of people very disappointed in the elected Democrats and Republicans she calls for New Yorkers to give the Green candidate for governor enough votes so that the party can again become an official ballot line party in the state. The candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, Howie Hawkins and Gloria Mattera, need at least 50,000 votes to do that. In 2008, Julia Willebrand received over 118,000 votes for Comptroller.

Ms McKinney also spoke about the need for peace and justice activists to reach out to a wider group of people.

Ann Roos, Green candidate for New York State Senate in Manhattan’s 31st Senate district on the Upper West Side, was also there. Her campaign emphasizes closing nuclear power plants, a ban of hydro-fracking, stopping privatization, repealing the Rockefeller drug laws, legalizing marijuana, and improving public transportation among other things.