Cynthia McKinney in Reconstruction Party Manifesto
On Civil Rights:
Repeal the Patriot Act and end Islamophobia
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #1:
Freedom includes the rights to education, health care, housing, living wages, and freedom from racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, gentrification, and police terror. Therefore, we need comprehensive
federal investment in low-income families and communities, with an emphasis on people of color.
We need repeal of the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act, and other legislation that rolls back bedrock civil liberties.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Civil Rights:
Reparations for former slaves, as promised & never delivered
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #3. We Want Reparations Now!
We believe that the U.S. government never kept its promise to former slaves of the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were pr
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Crime:
End the death penalty; it’s based on race & class
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #7. We Want to End Prisons for Profit Now!
We want an end to privatization of prisons and prison health services. We want an end to prison labor schemes that are little more than
corporate subsidies that provide little training or rehabilitation for inmates. We want reconciliation, transformation, preparation, rather than incarceration based on retribution and vengeance. We do not want race and class to serve as the primary
determinants of punishment. And we want an end to the death penalty.We believe that the prison-industrial, criminal injustice complex of today still operates in many respects as a vestige of slavery. And just as punishment was meted out disparately fo
Blacks and whites during slavery, these conditions persist today. Disparities permeate the system from the laws enacted, to those who enact the laws, to those who enforce and interpret them.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Crime:
End racial disparities in sentencing
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #5. We Want to Stop the War at Home Now!
We believe that disparities in sentencing and in the criminal justice system as a whole can be overcome with political will to change the policies
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Drugs:
End the war on drugs
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #6. We Want an End to the War on Drugs Now!
We believe that the war on drugs provides cover for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries, particularly to our south, and that this
increased militarization is used to put down all social protest movements in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere. We believe that unequal justice is epitomized in the U.S. prosecution of the so-called War on Drugs.
We believe that the United States has the most expensive, most repressive, least effective drug policy in the industrialized world. And it is this drug war that has helped the United States incarcerate a higher percentage of its own people than any other
country in the world. We need an end to mandatory minimum drug sentences. We need to end the funding of Plan Colombia and Plan Mexico and other militarized “plans” enacted that fund and support a failed drug policy at home and abroad.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Environment:
We need sustainable production and consumption policies
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #8. We Want an Environmental Protection Policy that Works Now!
We want our forests protected and restored; we want sustainable resource use and reuse, and we want less waste to dispose.
We want renewable energy and we don’t want policies that pit food production against energy production. We want drinkable and clean water, soil, and air. We want to live within our resource means.
We need air, land, water, climate, production and consumption policies that reflect the real limits within which we must live.
We need an entirely new paradigm that encourages us to produce green, local, and fairly; most importantly we need true, representative government that serves the needs of the people over that of corporations so that these policies can become law.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Foreign Policy:
Make US a partner for peace in global community
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #10. We Want Peace Now!
We want to live in a peaceful world where the global community considers the US a key partner for peace and development. But, the two parties of corporate rule
are not offering this vision of peace and partnership. We believe that an explicit rejection of the policies of political and economic destabilization that we have witnessed played out on the African Continent, in Latin America, and the Muslim world.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Government Reform:
End privately-owned and party-run voting machines
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #1. We Want Freedom Now!
We want the power to determine our destiny. We want an electoral system that allows true representation and that ensures that all votes are counted.
We believe that free and fair elections are not possible in the current climate in which electronic voting machines, special interest money, corporate control of the two-party system predominate. In the 2000 Presidential election, an estimated
6 million votes cast were not counted, reflecting a crisis in our voting system and a concrete denial of self-determination.
We need to eliminate privately owned electronic voting machines and every machine that does not provide a paper ballot. We must
never again allow political parties to control the hardware on which official votes are counted (as in Ohio 2004). Voters should never again be told that election results belong to a private company & are not accessible by the public (as in Georgia 2007)
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Health Care:
Resources for health needs, pre-natal & post-natal care
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #4. We Want Resources for Human Needs Now!
We want budget priorities that satisfy pressing and unmet human needs in health care, education, and ending enduring disparities, not that furthe
corporate greed or the war machine. We believe in full reproductive rights for women--for legal rights and safe access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal/infant care; family planning services, including “morning after” medication; and abortion.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Homeland Security:
Bring home all troops stationed abroad
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #9. We Want an End to Militarism Now!
We want all U.S. troops stationed in other countries around the world to come home. We call for an end to funding for war, products for war,
preparation for war, intelligence for war or funds used to destabilize other countries, or to maintain or expand U.S. military presence at home or abroad. We call for an end to the expanding police state at home.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Jobs:
Gainful employment at a guaranteed income for every family
Reconstruction Party Manifesto point #2. We Want Full Employment Now!
We want the definition of national security to include the general wellbeing of U.S. citizens and residents. No children in this rich country should be
raised below the poverty line. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to implement an economic policy that provides an opportunity for every family to have gainful employment at a guaranteed income.
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
On Principles & Values:
Helped draft the Reconstruction Party Manifesto
Cynthia McKinney participated in drafting the Reconstruction Party Manifesto, and is seeking its election ballot line. The Manifesto has ten key points:In the context of what is perhaps the most important Presidential election in a generation, we
feel compelled to add our voices to the deafening silence coming from both the Democratic & Republican parties on the real issues of concern to us. We reject “differences” that will not make a difference and “changes” that will not bring about any change
The vision of the Reconstruction Party encompasses all communities in need of reconstruction. - 1. We Want Freedom Now!
- We Want Full Employment Now!
- We Want Reparations Now!
- We Want Resources for Human Needs Now!
- We Want to Stop the
War at Home Now!
- We Want an End to the War on Drugs Now!
- We Want to End Prisons for Profit Now!
- We Want an Environmental Protection Policy that Works Now!
- We Want an End to Militarism Now!
- We Want Peace Now!
Source: Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party
Jan 26, 2008
Page last updated: Feb 21, 2019