On November 2nd a new political movement busted through with the strength and political force to give the whole world notice that the Bush Regime will be driven out! As news coverage and reports are still pouring in to the World Can’t Wait National Office, one thing can be said for sure: High School students brought tremendous determination and energy to the rallies and embodied the defiant edge put forward in the call.
Those who faced the most repression and threats of reprisal were the ones who stepped out the boldest.
The movement that began with one or a handful of students at each school became a major question in High Schools the week before November 2nd. Loudspeakers announced: ‘Leaving school grounds before the end of the day is not permitted. Anyone that walks out of school on November 2nd will be stopped and suspended’. Schools administrators in Oakland lined the schools with barbwire and greased the fences in preparation for the walkouts. A World Can’t Wait organizer in L.A was brought into her principal’s office and had World Can’t Wait materials confiscated from her.
Again, think about what it means when a student can be pulled into a Principal’s office, have anti- Bush flyers confiscated from them and be sent home with a suspension. How will people react when students get a note to go down to the principal’s office and empty out their backpacks because a teacher overheard them talking about Evolution and Darwin. No, we cannot accept this to go down. Students from the Bronx sent in letters telling us people were getting suspended at Leahman High for wearing Resist or Die Stickers. This is heading to fascism. Period. We have to wage a major political battle immediately and not allow a precedent to set in that this repression is acceptable.
The Morning of the 2nd
Many students took a different route the morning of the 2nd after deciding to take part in writing history, not satisfied with simply studying it. Others read the World Can’t Wait Call on school buses and in subway cars preparing to walk out and join the afternoon convergences. High School students did not just decide to come to the afternoon rallies, they fought with everything they had to get to the Nov.2nd protests. From the youth in Atlanta who were not deterred by a fascistic ‘intruder alert’ that put the school on lockdown, to the students who broke through the security guards blocking doors in North Hampton, Massachusets, on November 2nd the youth made it clear that: We refuse to be ruled in this way, this regime does not represent us and we will drive it out!In New York, when a Hip-Hop artist on stage asked is the BX (the Bronx) in the house, you better believe the crowd erupted with cheers. 100 schools in Washington State participated in the Nov. 2nd Protests. In cities around the country youth made up much of the crowd and carried the day.
‘This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try and silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world’. ( from the World Can’t Wait Call
Just a few weeks ago the mayor of Chicago called on students to miss school to attend victory celebrations after the White Sox won the World Series. Yet students at Roberto Clemente H.S. in Chicago are attacked and prevented from going to a rally to stop Fascism being consolidated in the most powerful country in the world?!?! This is a display of stunning hypocrisy and represents where these officials stand. Two students thought they were being mugged when two men in street clothes were choking them only to be placed in a jail cell overnight and find out they were arrested for having Resist or Die stickers. These brutal attacks only underline the necessity for us to ACT and resist on a level put forward in the World Can’t Wait Call.And no, the organizers calling for walkouts did not put students ‘at risk’, this regime is putting students’ lives at risk. Recruiting students to be cannon fodder for their unending war, openly pushing for global warming, botched back alley abortions, promoting abstinence only when AIDS runs rampant here and around the world, this is putting students’ life at risk. They are ruthlessly working to seal the fate of a generation. On Nov. 1st thousands of students went to bed sizing up the possibility of being suspended with the stakes the world was facing and on Nov. 2nd took a stand with the people of the world. The principals and teachers who enforced these crack downs should feel ashamed of themselves and have no right to claim they care anything about their students’ futures. For the teachers and administration who supported these walk-outs; now is not the time to step back onto the sidelines, now is the time to stand up against these attacks, alone at first if you must, and rally others to overturn these unjust suspensions. How will you react when a student is pulled out of class because he is openly Gay and officials do not want his ‘lifestyle’ to influence his classmates? This is the road we are on under this regime, this is the reality we have to face.Write in and Organize
Students should send in reports to youth_students@worldcantwait.org or call 1.866.973.4463, we want to know how many students walked out or missed class at your school, were there threats, did students get suspended or were searched, etc. We are calling people to organize against the repression students faced and not let these suspensions go unopposed.
*Write a statement upholding the walkouts and political dissent in schools and condemning the suspension for people to sign. Students, progressive teachers, parents, lawyers, religious forces in the community, store owners, bus drivers, guidance councilers, nurses, workers should be approached to sign the statement.
*Make this a big issue at the next school board meeting and fight for these suspensions to be overturned.
*Encourage other people, like lawyers in the ACLU or NLG to write statements defending students who walked out. (see statement by Public Defender Jeff Adachi).
* Check out the battle to have a L.A World Can’t Wait Organizer be allowed to return to class without consequences after facing expulsion because of organizing for Nov.2nd.
Won’t Stop, Can’t StopFor the youth who defied the naysayers and the Billy clubs on Nov.2nd: there is no turning back, we launched a movement November 2nd and now we need to make good on the demand ‘Bush: Step Down and Take Your Whole Program With You’ this January.Take your suspension slips and frame them. Keep it as a reminder of the heroic and just stand you took on Nov. 2nd and that there are thousands of other slips for the youth around the country who will not stop until this regime is driven from power.
-Allen Lang