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University of Houston
KPFT 90.1-FM
HMS Cable-Access Ch. 17
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Interviews
Transcription By Mario Gudmundsson
Intro
Dr. Fred Schiff:
The last segment is from an interview with Cynthia McKinney, a five-term congressional representative from Atlanta and a leading progressive in the black caucus. Cynthia McKinney is running to regain her house seat in 2004.
FS:
Well, I understand that you lost out in the primary in 2002 after serving for 10 years. Could you tell me how that happened?
Cynthia McKinney:
Well basically, we learned a new page in the Republican playbook. Georgia is an open primary state and quite frankly, probably since the passage of the voting rights act, we have not had an instance of a Republican crossover to defeat a Democratic candidate until August of 2002. The area is becoming increasingly blacker. Now what that means in a southern context is that you have the “good old boys” who controlled the courthouses, and who are losing control. And so, they then find mechanisms in order to hang on to power.
FS:
Campaign financing by conservative big business still drives what some people call the so-called “secret primaries,” raising money for the campaigns all around the country. Could you say in what ways has the Democratic Party really tried to protect the interests of white collar and blue collar working people, including working people of color?
CM:
Well it’s interesting that you talk about the secret primary, because that’s new terminology to me, and I find it very interesting. One of the stories that I like to tell to people who ask about, you know, how did I get started and what were some of the observations that I’ve had along the way, one of them is exactly this area of fundraising. Because as in 1992 of course, when I first ran for congress, I was being told the ropes by people who knew the ropes, and these are Washington D.C. insiders. Now what I was told is that I would have to make phone calls to, you know, the top Fortune 500 companies in my state and see if I could get the support of the CEO for the various companies.
Now that’s interesting in and of itself because that means the Democrats go to these people and Republicans go to these people. So now, what does that mean then, for people whose interests are not expressed or represented by corporate CEOs? If they don’t have a mechanism by which they can influence the process, then the process becomes dominated by those people who you were first told to go to, and that was very interesting to me.
FS:
Could you compare the U.S. Patriot Act to the COINTEL program, or secret intelligence, the FBI ran in the 60’s and 70’s.
CM:
I think that’s a very important comparison, because what became public through the search committee hearings and the search committee report was that the U.S. government, and this is not my words but this is paraphrasing the actual report, was that the U.S. government was engaged in illegal activities against American citizens.
Those activities included finding people crimes that they didn’t commit, breaking and entering into the homes of activists without the permission and knowledge of the activists -- without warrants. Surveillance of various sorts, including the use of the military, the US military for domestic purposes, and that is exposed through the most recent revelations surrounding operation “Lanternstrike” where military intelligence was used to surveil Dr. King for the last two months of his life.
And the USA Patriot Act now allows for, has legalized, some of this activity. And so, for those who are too young to have experienced the COINTEL Pro days, where America was vibrant with activism, and are concerned about what the USA Patriot Act really means, they should go back and look at what happened to various groups that were targeted, and individuals who were targeted by the governmental authorities because of their political beliefs.
FS: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, and if you come to Houston I would love to meet you in person.
© Copyright World Internet News 2006-07
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