In June 2004, New York City-based community activist and journalist Rosa Clemente helped found and coordinate the first-ever National Hip Hop Political Convention in Newark, NJ, which brought together over 3,000 people from across the country. Speaking afterward with The Indypendent’s Ana Nogueira, Clemente summed up her efforts: “If we don’t make some power moves now and in 2008, we aren’t going anywhere as a generation.”

Four years later, Clemente, 36, finds herself running for Dick Cheney’s job after being tapped earlier today by presumptive Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney to be her running mate.

McKinney, a former six-term Georgia congresswoman, goes into this weekend’s Green Party National Convention in Chicago with an overwhelming delegate lead and is widely expected to receive the party’s nomination.

“This campaign is the opportunity the Hip-Hop generation has been working for,” Clemente said in a press statement. “This is our time to address the issues affecting our communities – rising unemployment, the high cost of food and housing, a lack of quality public education and access to higher education, the prison-industrial complex, and unaccountable corporate media. These issues are not being addressed by either the Republican or Democratic nominee.

“I choose to do this, not for me, but for my generation, my community and my daughter. I don’t see the Green Party as an alternative; I see it as an imperative. I trust that my Vice Presidential run will inspire all people, but especially young people of color, to recognize that we have more then two choices. Together, we can build the future we’ve been dreaming of.”

For the full text of Rosa Clemente’s June 2004 interview with The Indypendent, read on:

Hip Hop schools the world: An Interview with Rosa Clemente
By Ana Nogueira

AN: Can you talk about how the National Hip Hop Political Convention was conceived, what its mission was and how it was organized?

RC: It was conceived in March 2003 when 15 people from across the United States got together in Chicago. Many of us had been talking about how to use electoral politics as a tactic along with grassroots organizing. So we came together and decided the best thing is to think about creating our own political party. And with that obviously comes a convention and an agenda that needs to be set for the people that you are supposed to represent. Some of our goals are to deal with issues of education, economic development, media conglomeration, human rights, reparations (not as a separate issue apart from economic development, but put it out there that we are seeking reparations for the African people in the U.S.), criminal justice and the prison industrial complex, the criminalization of our communities and also the impending draft.

AN: Many of the issues you raise are domestic issues. But there was a lot of discussion as well about foreign policy and how the African American community feels about it. Can you talk about that, how the hip hop generation relates to the war in Iraq, in Viequez, etc.
Hip hop is not just an African American community, and that is something even the independent media is not doing a good job of recognizing. It as a culture of black and brown people, African American and Latino. There were just as many Latinos as African Americans there. It is important for me as a Puerto Rican with American citizenship who understands the historical relationship and historical movement building amongst African Americans and Latinos. We have to be very careful in the media when we talk about the hip hop generation. It also includes Asian and Native Americans. The Native American community is amazing for what it is doing in hip hop. Artists like Lite Foot that are calling for Native American reparations, going to pow wow’s using hip hop culture, Chicanos, etc. it is just amazing. And that follows into the question of internationalism and militarism and war.

RC: Obviously we are dead set against the occupation and the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan and the occupation that continues in Puerto Rico. We are dead set against the draft. That is one of our agenda action items, that we oppose any hip hop entity that supports the draft. We are not down with magazines or any hip hop organizations taking money from the military to help recruit young men. And we are beginning to oppose the draft now before they implement it. So those are issues that are in the agenda under the human rights platform.

I think its important too for the young people that were there, for some of them it may have been their first time really getting a broad spectrum of issues, including international ones. It is sometimes very hard to organize and do solidarity work, and go to a rally against the [Israeli] occupation in Palestine or the [U.S.] occupation in Iraq, when you have to deal the issue of police brutality in New York. Our communities are in a constant stage of siege. Terrorism money has now been funneled to the NYPD for Operation Impact, which are basically occupations in certain areas of NYC that are considered high crime. So we often don’t have the luxury of dealing with the next international issue. But as activists and organizers we do.

AN: How does the Hip Hop Convention relate, if at all, to Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network?

RC: Russell says the same thing, that everything is political. It’s good to hear him say that. I think if he just had the right people around him, hip hop would be so powerful because he has the resources. He has the media. He has the savvy. He has the entrepreneurship for us to get our economic platform out. So it’s an issue of how can we finally come together.

But we are also not just about registering people to vote. Registering 50,000 people to vote is phenomenal, but who are they voting for? As Charles Barron said, a lesser of two evils? Do we have to vote that way? Or do we withhold our vote? Essentially Russell is helping the Democratic Party because no one in their right mind, I would hope, in our generation is going to vote for Bush.

AN: Charles Barron also said when you present the political agenda to the Democrats, if they don’t endorse it, then the Hip Hop Convention should officially hold its votes as a block. Is that being discussed?

RC: Our communities are dying. So if it means we have to withhold our vote to get the Democrats (black and Latino Democrats too) to finally listen to our generation, then that is what we are going to have to do. Because we can’t be used in this election. If we don’t make some power moves now and in 2008, we aren’t going anywhere as a generation.

AN: I was disappointed to see that there weren’t many white activists at the convention. I wanted to see what your thoughts were on that and how we can build some bridges between radical communities across racial lines.

RC: I don’t think anything of it. To me that is the norm. I think our agenda is too radical. We are talking about some real economic justice issues, health issues, criminal justice, human rights, etc and I think white progressives might not agree with some of these issues. They might not agree with reparations. They have their own views on hip hop culture.

I would say in terms of bridging the gap, I try to do that work all the time. But to me, once you pass a certain age whether you are white, black, whatever, you are just not going to stand up for certain things. We can put the call out there but we are not going to especially invite people. We are not going to hold people’s hands. I think sometimes the white progressive community expects us to say, “Can you please be at this event”, or “We need money from you,” or whatever. This was a self-sufficient event. I don’t think white progressives see the black and Latino community as having the ability of putting on their own amazing event. It is a lot of young people, using a culture they might not understand, and that when you come here, you are not coming here to be a leader. You are coming here to learn about our issues and take leadership from us.

At the end of the day that is the problem. Are white progressives able to take leadership from people of color?