Newark, NJ – Peace activist and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney visited here July 28, speaking at a meeting of the People’s Organization for Progress. The room was packed as over 200 people turned out to hear her speak about her recent visit to Libya, the latest country to be victimized by NATO aggression.

At the beginning of the program McKinney was given an Award of Merit presented by local people’s activists. A motion was made and passed by acclamation to declare her an honorary member of the People’s Organization for Progress.

She began by noting that Newark and New Jersey are in the grip of economic crisis. The official ideals are devoted to the people, but nonetheless the people are forced to fight for things like jobs and healthcare and to stop police brutality. If the government really cared about the people it would take care of them. Instead the people must fight to see who will be the winners.

McKinney said she takes her vision of Libya from the people she met there. They said, “This is our land and what lies underneath it belongs to us. We aren’t going to let anyone take it away. We will fight to the last person and the last bullet.”

The visitors’ group that flew to Libya had to land far from the capital city of Tripoli. They had to take a six-hour trip by automobile. “People have set up checkpoints,” said Ms. McKinney. “All cars going into Tripoli must be searched. But the people at the checkpoints are not police or military personnel. They are ordinary folks.”

People told her that if it were not for the NATO bombing they could have dispatched the ‘rebels in a matter of days. As it is, innocent people are dying from the bombs. Vital underground water pipes, that serve the needs of large numbers of people, have been destroyed.

A university in Libya was bombed while McKinney was there. She said that university tuition is free. Students there don’t know what tuition is. If a Libyan can get accepted at any institution of higher learning the government will pay his or her expenses to go there and study.

Medical care is also free. If a government cares about its people it wants them to be healthy. If a government does not care about its people that will also be reflected in what it does. In Libya food is subsidized. In the U.S. 25% of the children in the United States go to bed hungry.

Turning to her domestic political experience, McKinney said that if we want a government that respects us we cannot give our votes away for free. Referencing her home state of Georgia, she said it needs a Black Manifesto: “A Black Manifesto had been formulated in Georgia and circulated to lawmakers. An attempt was made to operationalize it. Lawmakers were asked to respond and recommendations were made according to the responses without regard to party affiliation. Experience proved that elected officials were more loyal to the Democratic Party than to the voters who elected them. 40% of Georgia’s population is made up of black people. Georgia has the largest state legislative Black Caucus in the country...and they have come up with nothing.”

McKinney still maintains it is possible to do better. “Libya is not perfect,” she said, “but we deserve a better country than we have. We have to change a little bit about the way we vote and who we elect to office so we can get better.”

#NewarkNJ #AntiwarMovement #NATO #CynthiaMcKinney #Libya #LibyaWar

Minneapolis, MN – Cynthia McKinney, former six-term member of the House of Representatives, and Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, spoke to a packed room of over 60 supporters, July 9, at the Plymouth Congregational Church. Both gave motivating speeches for how the U.S./NATO intervention in Libya is endangering and killing the civilian population and demanded an immediate end to the war on Libya.

President Obama claims U.S. involvement in Libya is not a ‘war,’ but McKinney’s firsthand testimony of the nighttime and daytime bombing of Tripoli, the country’s largest urban center, during her month long stay disputed that claim. She saw missiles fly over her head and heard drones and bombing attacks repeatedly. “The bombing for me, and I was only there for a couple of weeks, takes a psychological toll. If I’m subject to it, imagine the children. That first day of intense bombing took place on the day of national exams for the little kids…The first day of the super intensive bombing they started bombing at 11:30 in the morning and kept on going until 11:30 at night. We counted a total of 89 bombs that day,” McKinney told the audience.

During her stay McKinney had the opportunity to meet with people who were carrying out their everyday lives as an act of resistance to the U.S./NATO bombing campaign. She occupied the plaza in front of Momar Qadafi’s home with thousands of Libyans and Africans who support Qadafi, refuse to leave and are offering themselves as protection from bombing. She met with students who came to the university to take their finals despite the bombing raids because they refused to put their lives on hold because of U.S. imperialism. “They said they were not going to be deterred because of NATO.”

Both McKinney and Flounders addressed the roots of the conflict directly. They argued effectively that the U.S. and NATO are using the civil war as an excuse to carry out regime change in Libya. They articulated that the U.S. and European powers want to install a puppet government so they can control the largest oil reserves in Africa.

Flounders attacked one of President Obama’s main justifications for the war, “He says this war is for humanitarian intervention. This is an excuse. There is not a country in the world that is better off after U.S. warfare. Just ask the people of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan!”

This event was a part of the national speaking tour of the Dignity delegation, which was lead by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. This tour is playing an important role in giving voice to the Libyan people during a time when an increasing number of Americans are strongly questioning the U.S. role in this conflict while state and federal governments are in debt and cutting needed social services. By a margin of 2-to-1, people in the United States oppose the war in Libya.

The Eyewitness Libya event was co-sponsored by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, the Emergency Committee to Stop U.S./NATO War on Libya, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, the Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Women Against Military Madness.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #SaraFlounders #CynthiaMcKinney #MeredithAby #Libya #InternationalActionCenter #Africa

Chicago, IL – On Nov. 9, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney from Georgia came to Chicago. Rep. McKinney had been one of the few in Congress to dare to speak the truth about George W. Bush’s so-called war on terrorism. For her courage in telling the truth, she was betrayed by the Democratic Party. Targeted by the pro-Israel lobby and the Republicans, she lost her re-election bid in the Democratic primary in August.

She was invited here by Ujima PAC, a local nationalist organization that had raised money and volunteers for McKinney when it became clear she was under attack this summer.

The most influential Zionist organization, the American Israeli Political Action Committee – AIPAC – came after the congresswoman because “she was critical of U.S. foreign policy in relation to the Middle East,” said Randy Evans, one of the organizers of the Nov. 9 event. “Rep. McKinney refused to vote for the resolution by AIPAC in April endorsing the Israelis’ actions in the invading the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza.”

McKinney had also earned the wrath of George W. Bush because she dared to question his actions in the investigation of September 11. Her question: what did he know and when did he know it? Plus, she pointed out that his family has investments in oil and weapons companies, so he personally benefits from the war in Afghanistan and the one he is threatening on Iraq.

These truths are such a threat to the powers-that-be in Washington that the Republicans urged their members in Georgia to cross over to the Democratic primary to vote for her opponent.

Rep. McKinney isn’t going away. She will be a speaker at the Jan. 18 anti-war march in Washington D.C. Further, as she said in her farewell speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, “I know that as we continue to speak out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized in this country, my supporters across the spectrum, and across America will be right there with me.”

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #CapitalismAndEconomy #News #AfricanAmerican #WarOnTerrorism #CynthiaMcKinney #RepMcKinney #proIsraelLobby #UjimaPAC #CongressionalBlackCaucus