Statement by Cynthia McKinney

September 13, 2007

I, Cynthia McKinney, former Member of Congress for the people of Georgia, would like to hereby declare my full support for the formation of an independent Reconstruction Party in the United States. I also declare my full support for Brother Malcolm Suber's candidacy for New Orleans City Council in the October 20, 2007 elections.

Brother Suber is a long time revolutionary fighter for Black and working class liberation, a dedicated community organizer, and a staunch internationalist.

Brother Suber has recently offered himself as a founding member of the Reconstruction Party Organizing Committee, which will embody the fighting spirit and organizing form to lead the people into a new New Orleans and new Gulf Coast, where the lives of the people will come before the profits of capitalist corporations.

Brother Suber and I strongly believe that the Reconstruction Movement must move to its next and logical phase, which is the contest for political power if we are truly to have a just and equitable reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The facts on the ground clearly demonstrate that we cannot rely on failed politicians and failing political parties which are complicit in the lack of preparation, the failure to rescue, and the continued refusal to advance the right to return for hundreds of thousands of people who continue to be displaced.

I join Brother Suber in calling on our friends and supporters from around the country to support the formation of the Reconstruction Party, which is needed to address the myriad problems of institutional racism, class domination, historical poverty, and sexism which plague working people in the cities throughout this country. The problems faced in these cities are no different than the problems faced by those in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

The politicians and machinery of both these parties have been proven complicit in the genocidal policies against our people. The systematic and intentional crimes associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were submitted for evidence at the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, held in New Orleans from August 29th through September 2nd on the two-year anniversary of the disaster. The Tribunal's conveners and judges were representative of workers' and democratic peoples' movements in the U.S. and abroad. The U.S. government at all levels -- federal, state, and local -- were proven responsible for these atrocities.

Brother Suber and the Reconstruction Party have my full and unequivocal support, and I will do whatever is in my power to advance their platform, a platform of the people.

Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney