Saturday, October 29, 2005
To Student Organizers – from Sunsara Taylor
To Student Organizers – from Sunsara Taylor
I
am finally back in New York after traveling up both coasts and through
the Midwest, speaking on 15 college campuses to hundreds of students and many local activists.
Over
and over again I was struck by the large numbers of people who are
attracted to this effort to unseat the Bush regime. At the same time, I
learned more deeply how taking this movement out to people requires
going up against a lot of “conventional wisdom” and a lot of “settling
in” with intolerable outrages that has unfortunately gone on. I’ve run
into all the obstacles many of you have run into ( lectures from
progressive students about how we’ll never end torture,
pro-choice groups who think it is “inappropriate” to suggesting that
Judge Roberts’ views are not unknown but highly fascistic, etc.
But ( I say to get at a greater underlying truth that I have found, which
is that as challenging as it sometimes is, most students can’t defend
the actions of this regime and are horrified by the nightmarish society
it is forcing on us all. And I’ve found that when we refuse to
compromise on what is actually at stake for the people of this country
and the world and the survival of the planet itself ( we are able to
reach inside people and move them…
The most powerful and important tool in all of this remains the Call for the World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime.
It lays out the stakes of what this regime is doing and how we are
called on and can take history into our own hands.Just put it to people
( is what’s in the Call right or wrong? Doesn’t the withdrawal of
Harriet Miers show even more dangerously how the Christian fascists in
this country are determined to change the whole way law is done (
moving us each day closer to a theocracy where a narrow and hateful
brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule? Don’t the 2,000 deaths of
soldiers and the tens of thousands of Iraqis show that we cannot wait (
as an utterly illegitimate war is continues, all based on outrageous
lies? Isn’t it a fact that the polar ice-caps are melting, that science
is being suppressed, that this regime is threatening the survival of
the very planet we live on? Can anyone deny that right now people are
being TORTURED ( beaten, chained to ceilings, stripped naked and
stacked up in pyramids, held underwater, denied sleep for days,
tormented and worse?!?! Aren’t there people with direct ties to the
White House floating out the idea of extermination of Black babies and
executions for abortion providers? When we put it to people ( either
tell us we are making these things up (which we are NOT) or tell us why
you can live with these atrocities and worse to come (most don’t want
to!))
OR
get in on stopping this disastrous course. The
truth is ( we don’t have to live with these outrages because The World
Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime is providing a vehicle for people
to take history into our own hands by driving this regime OUT (
starting on November 2nd. This is what the world needs from us ( and
this is by far the most important, the most meaningful, and the most
beautiful that youngpeople and every people can be doing.
Just a few days ago at UCLA I met with some students, and as I did one
by
one more trickled in ( moved and challenged to do so by a knot of
organizers dress as torture victims outside. One guy told me, “I guess
I am one of those people who has started to get used to torture, cuz I
hadn’t
been thinking much about it until I saw those folks outside.” I told
him the truth, “Of course you’ve gotten used to it, most people have,
but we are changing all that. Now, you have to help us get everyone
else!” So, then we staged an impromptu march down Wilshire Boulevard to
join a vigil for the deaths of 2,000 soldiers in Iraq, chanting, “The
World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime!” Our boldness drew in
other students and passersby and cars honked their horns and we
distributed stacks of leaflets for November 2nd. At several schools, I
met students who had poured their hearts and hopes into the 2004
elections – many moving across the country and going door to door to
get out the vote. They told me how burned they were after Bush claimed
his “mandate” but they added that learning about this movement ( that
doesn’t hinge itself on non-existent “saviors” from the Democratic
Party
( has reenergized them and filled them with a passion to bring others
back in to the life and death fight for the future.
All the
struggle and work we have conducted for months now is beginning to
unlock the tremendous potential that exists. So, in these last few days,
let’s not ease it up one bit ( but let’s go with renewed enthusiasm and
open arms to bring everyone on board to make history on November 2nd.We
are getting traction ( we really are ( through all parts of
society. Each day new organizations come on board, prominent people
add their support, we get in various media about November 2nd (
let’s bring this to bear on the campuses in a BIG WAY. Students and
faculty should keep running into word about November 2nd every where
they go ( being both challenged to participate and inspired by the fact
that this day is happening on a scale that can really have an impact.
Get
Howard Zinn’s statement to the students played over and over again on
campus radio stations, blast it in the commons, or have professors play
it in classes. Do the same with the fantastic PSA’s recorded by Boots
from the Coup, Suheir Hammad, Jessica Blank, Koba, Culture Clash, and
Michael Eric Dyson. Get me or another organizer on your college radio for an interview. Move on this right now!
Go
to all the campus groups ( Black Student Unions, Gay/Straight
Alliances, the Young Democrats, Mecha Chapters, feminist groups, artist
collectives, activist groups, and others ( and have each of them send
out notices of your local actions on their email lists, post it on
their web-sites, and help get posters and flyers out by the thousands.
Do the same with professors, stuff all their mailboxes and poke your
head in during office hours and classes ( and let them all know that
that Gore Vidal, Tom Morello, Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, ACT UP,
Not In Our Name, Code Pink, Studs Terkel, Ann Wright (former U.S.
Diplomat), Cindy Sheehan, Campus Anti-War Network, Anti-Flag and many
others have taken this up. (see expanded list at worldcantwait.org)
COMPLETELY
SATURATE the whole campus ( divide up the dorms and/or lockers and
stuff a flyer under EVERY SINGLE door! Leave them on the seats of
classrooms and write the info on the chalkboards between classes. Hang
banners from major buildings. Chalk thesidewalks vigorously. Table
EVERYWHERE. Post dozens of flyers on every kiosk, bulletin board, and
corner and get stickers EVERYWHERE!
Systematically call and
email everyone on your sign-up lists ( tell them we are in the final
count-down to November 2nd, picking up steam, and need their help for a
final, major push. Give them concrete tasks that they can do and let
them know how it will help. Involving everyone you haveevery been in
touch with in these final days will give you the capacity to reach the
whole campus in its entirety and will bring firm up those folks’
commitment and involvement on the 2nd and beyond.
Okay ( there’s more. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.
Do
like the organizers at UCLA and before November 2nd stage a march
through campus and to the nearest busy avenue calling on others to JOIN
US and taking the signs to the street. This lets people know it is for
real, energizes those who take part (and are then joined by other
students & honked at favorably by cars), and gets out lots more
stacks of leaflets.You can get dressed up to do this ( in the orange
jumpsuits, hoods, and leashes like torture victims, or women wearing
hospital gowns with blood smeared on the lower half carrying
coat-hangers, or other ideas you come up with to dramatize the lives on
the line by the Bush regime.
Bring lots of signs and have extras
for the people who join you. Really ( DO THIS! ( and do it BOLDLY. It
can have a big impact! Then, on the 2nd itself, remember we are ushering
a whole new political movement with the concrete objective of forcing
the Bush regime to step down and take their whole global problem with
them. So, whoever shows up at first is not just a body to be counted,
they are now the core of a growing movement who are on the spot
changing their relationship to the future and to others ( going back
into the school buildings and across the campus chanting loudly
together, “JOIN US! JOIN US! THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH
REGIME!” Everyone who doesn’t like Bush but thought they would sit this
one out, will get a second chance and a challenge to take part as this
message interrupts their classes and pulls many of them out of their
seats and into the streets. All day long ( everywhere people go, all
day long the aim is to GROW and GROW and GROW!
The future we get
is up to us, so every day for the next four days ( ask yourself and ask
others ( how much of yourself should you give? And, when you answer,
think of the Iraqi children in towns like Abu Hishma which have been
turned into prison camps, literally wrapped in barbed wire, the fathers
and brothers dragged off in hoods and cuffs.
Consider the
strength and devastation of Katrina, and ask yourself what kind of
planet we will be left to inhabit if we leave in place a regime that
suppresses science and blocks moves to stem Global Warming. Think of
what you will tell your children and grandchildren about how you
livedas your government was normalized torture, disappeared people
without charges, threw women in jail for desperately inducing their
ownabortions, bitterly betrayed hundreds of thousands of poor and Black
people in the largest disaster this country has ever seen, and
greased all of this with outrageous knowing LIES. And, consider the fact
that we are acting in the interests of the vast majority of people in
this country and the world.
Consider that in just a few short
months we have drawn together organizers in over 70 cities, 40 colleges,
75 high schools that we know of and some of the most known, beloved, and
respected artists, intellectuals and prominent individuals of
conscience in our society. Consider that we are living in days around
which the future is pivoting ( in a society undergoing shocks and jolts
at a dizzying pace. In these times, each day people can change,
movements can leap further ahead, new possibilities can be fought for
and wrenched out.
Then, give all of yourself, every thing you’ve
got, in these next few days. I am talking about less than 100 hours to
go ( skip class or a bunch of classes, call in to work, stretch your
wallet and make another donation,call up friends and family and
struggle with them to join you, stay upmad late and get up again
insanely early ( go all out! Every effort you bend, every dollar you
spend, every uncompromising truth you defend ( will be worth it and
more than worth it. On November 2nd we’re making history.
Every
action, every voice, ounce of outrage and daring and love will be
amplified through the combined actions of many tens of thousands across
the country and many more as the day goes on. We will act in unison to
say: NO! GEORGE BUSH DOES NOT REPRESENT US AND WE WILL DRIVE HIM OUT!
And, throughout the day we will call forward many others ( going back
into the halls and classrooms, and then through the streets calling
out, “Join us! Join us! The world can’t wait! Drive out the Bush
regime!”On November 2nd ( we’re making history.
Lets do it with vigor, with determination, with moral certitude and with absolutely everything we’ve got.