Commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal Nada for Gaza: The McKinney Israel Trip
2009 2009-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and take steps to 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by workers’ committees.
2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused decline in value.
3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, forests, farmland, and open space.
4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war industries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global 5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Periodicals postage #721090 is paid at San Francisco, Calif. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S. — $20; Canada and Mexico — $20. All other Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. It is printed by members of Local 583, Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, Calif. warming. C ynthia McKinney, the outspoken former congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, recently got out of jail. Yeah. That’s right. Jail.
It’s possible that you had no idea she was in jail. That’s because she was in detention for almost a week in Israel. Her offense? She accompanied a group from the Free Gaza Movement bringing medical sup plies, olive trees, cement and children’s toys to the beleaguered and occupied Pal estinians in Gaza.
McKinney and 21 other people were blocked from landing on the Gazan coast line, and seized by the Israeli Navy, in what she called “an outrageous violation of in ternational law.” McKinney was part of an international humanitarian mission to A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS implement the following demands — countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.
support an oppressed population—not with weapons but with toys and medi cines—and was thrown into jail!
In a recent call, when I was told about this, I was quite surprised, for I hadn’t heard or read a thing about it. A major U.S. ally, which receives more U.S. mili tary aid than any other nation on earth, blithely tosses a former U.S. congress person, a past presidential candidate, and a Black civil rights activist into a jail cell, and few major media sources deem it worthy of reportage!
Was the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage too impenetrable?
According to a later published account (aired first on her MySpace page), McKinney wrote the following, shortly after her release: We were in international wa ters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threat ened us, dismantled our navigation equip ment boarded and confiscated the ship.... All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned“ (Philadelphia Tri bune, July 7, 2009).
Umph! Cynthia McKinney in jail—in Is rael—for bringing medicine to the sick; for bringing toys to children; for bringing suc cor to the oppressed and occupied! (Oh! By the way, the name of that ship? It was the “Spirit of Humanity.”) And it ain’t news?
© 2009 maj benefits.
system.
origin. ers’ government!
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