Howie Hawkins Endorsed by City Workers' Union; Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney To Speak at Green Rally
Howie Hawkins for Syracuse Councilor At-Large
www.HowieHawkins.org
Media Release
For Immediate Release: October 26, 2007
For More Information: Howie Hawkins, (315) 425-1019; hhawkins@igc.org
The local Green Party is not the only support behind Howie Hawkins' bid for an at-large seat on the Syracuse Common Council.
The members of AFSCME Local 400, representing the city's blue collar workers, voted to endorse Hawkins.
"The AFSCME Local 400 endorsement comes from a vote of the rank-and-file, not a top-down decision by officers as is the case in too many unions these days," said Hawkins, a UPS truck unloader who is a member of Teamsters Local 317.
"Their endorsement means so much to me because of how they made it. Because the members made it, their endorsement will translate into votes," Hawkins said.
Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will be welcomed to Syracuse by Hawkins when she speaks at the Green Party's Get-Out-the-Vote Rally on Sunday, November 4, at 7:00 pm at the University United Methodist Church, 1085 E. Genesee St., Syracuse.
McKinney represented an Atlanta, Georgia congressional district as a Democrat from 1993 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007. A featured speaker at many antiwar demonstrations in recent years, McKinney's outspoken advocacy for human rights, civil liberties, honest elections, and the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, and Rice upset the Democratic as well as Republican party establishments, who joined forces to oppose her in the 2002, 2004, and 2006 congressional campaigns.
Recent press reports say that McKinney enrolled in the Green Party earlier this month in California, where she is a Ph.D. candidate in African-American studies at the University of California at Berkeley. A draft McKinney movement is petitioning to place her on the Green Party's 2008 presidential primary ballots.
"Greens around the country always considered Cynthia McKinney to be our Representative in Congress. She was the one member of Congress we could count on," Hawkins said, citing her work on a wide range of issues of concern to Greens, from opposing the Iraq war to fair ballot access and proportional representation for alternative parties.
Acting as a probable candidate for the Green presidential nomination, Cynthia McKinney has been touring the country doing joint fundraisers with local Green candidates and in support of Green Party ballot access drives. She campaigned earlier this month with another ex-Democrat, Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist who is running as an independent against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Sheehan endorsed Hawkins in his antiwar campaign for US Senator against incumbent Hillary Clinton last year.
"With the Democrats failing to use their congressional majorities to vote down war funding, restore constitutional rights, or provide universal health care and economic security, a lot of disaffected progressives are going to follow the lead of Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan out of the Democrats and into the Greens," Hawkins said.
Syracuse Greens will hold their Tuesday, November 6th Election Night Party beginning at 9:00 pm at the Green Party office at 2617 S. Salina St., Syracuse.
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