November
19. 2005
Presentation to National
Meeting of The World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime
Debra Sweet, National
Co-ordinator
Somewhere this morning, perhaps in a
secret “detention camp” in Eastern Europe, a man kidnapped by US
military forces is likely being tortured. No one knows where he’s
disappeared to. Somewhere in the Mississippi Delta, a sixteen year old
girl is 6 months pregnant; she’s had no medical care at all, and never had any
“choice” because the federal government has cut back on prenatal
care, and the last abortion clinic left in Mississippi is 4 hours away.
Somewhere in Kansas a biology teacher is trying to prepare a lesson plan for
her students that interests them in science, but can NEVER teach the concept of
evolution! As Sunsara Taylor said at our rally on the 2nd,
this isn’t so complicated. Are you for that biblical literalism being
what the law is, or are you against it?
Ten weeks ago some of us here now met in
NY, brought together by the compelling Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime.
We struggled hard over a weekend, and we decided, this Regime does NOT
REPRESENT US and WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT. Over the next eight weeks we fought
to launch a historic movement that seeks to do something entirely unprecedented
in this country: drive a sitting President from power, and stop the whole
direction his Regime is taking society.
Our launch on November 2 brought thousands
into the streets as they left work and school and signaled the powerful
potential our movement has. It was a real beginning, and a new
thing. But we have to ask: will that good beginning be an interesting
footnote in the history books one day? Or will November 2 go down really
as the day “history started to change”? We here have a lot to
say about how that question is settled.
Our mission this weekend is to decide and
make real plans for politically drowning out Bush’s State of the Union
message across the country, and the following Saturday, gather people from all
over for a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C., raising our demand full
of determination: BUSH MUST GO! BUSH MUST GO! STEP DOWN STEP DOWN, BUSH
MUST GO! STEP DOWN STEP DOWN, BUSH MUST GO!
But we have work to do to make that
real. We – friends, in this room -must decide and figure out this weekend
how to build the poles we need to vault this movement to where it must be in
another 8 weeks to politically drown out Bush’s State of the Union message and
make real the demand BUSH STEP DOWN and TAKE YOUR WHOLE PROGRAM WITH YOU!
I want to talk a little a bit about the
foundation of this movement, the Call that we put out last July 1. Why is
our Call so important? It provides the basis for uniting and guiding a movement
to drive the Bush regime from power(and to take its program with it.
The first and most important thing is
this: the Call tells the truth about the situation. Listen:
“Your government, on the basis of
outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq,
with other countries in their sights.
Your government is openly torturing
people, and justifying it.
Your government puts people in jail on the
merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely
or deporting them in the dead of night.
Your government is moving each day closer
to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism
will rule.
Your government suppresses the science
that doesn’t fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present
and future generations to pay a terrible price.
Your government is moving to deny women
here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
Your government enforces a culture of
greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.”
In light of this, let’s ask: Is it too
“extreme”, as some would say, to launch a massive and determined
political movement to drive such a regime from power? Or is the situation
extreme, and we are responding to that(and rightly so? We must
drive this regime from power(the only way it can be done, by mass political
action.
We cannot rest for one second to really
get this movement moving. This is a serious situation, and we must be(we
are!–serious about driving this regime from power(the world can’t wait.
Bush hasn’t stopped since November 2.
This Bush crew is relentless. Give
them falling public support for the war, and what? Bush makes 3 speeches
on military bases arguing for endless war. He calls anyone who opposes
him ( even the few Democrats in Congress who have raised questions ( traitors,
and commits more troops. Meanwhile, the horror and the carnage goes on,
every day. Do you realize just how extreme that is?
Give them opposition to secret US
detention centers in European countries, and what? Dick Cheney, the
poster boy for torture, makes clear again and again that this regime openly
opposes ANY bill that would tie the US hands in openly proclaiming its right to
torture. Last week the Senate voted to
overrule a federal court decision, and reinstated Bush’s self-declared mandate
to declare anyone an enemy combatant and deny anyone the right to habeas corpus
( that is, the right to not be secretly held in prison without the benefit of a
lawyer, a fair trial and what used to be called due process. Do you
realize that this over-rules 900 years of habeas corpus? Do you realize
just how extreme that is?
Give them public outrage at the treatment
of people who somehow survived Katrina and the government’s draconian response
let them die, and what? FEMA announces suddenly this week that they’re
throwing 53,000 families out of subsidized hotel rooms. 53,000
families! Do you realize just how extreme that is?
We are in a race against time, literally
for peoples’ lives. Our call rightly says: “The Bush regime is setting out
to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations
to come.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that most of the elected
officials who have come first to endorse our Call and who spoke at our November
2nd rallies are lesbian or gay. Why have they this taken this
risk? What do they see that others don’t? Bush staked his
election chances on pulling out thousands of churches against gay marriage last
year. These theocrats – and I advocate calling them Christian Fascists
because that’s just what they are – Christian fascists. Anyway, these
theocrats that Bush is so indebted to have a program based on the book of
Leviticus in the Bible that advocates killing people who are gay. This is
no secret; and these politicians are not crazy to fear annihilation.
Some people are clear on what our Call is
warning against when it speaks of what this government is doing in Iraq, or in
openly carrying out torture, but they are less clear when it warns of
“theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism
will rule.” But this is a very timely warning about a real and dangerous
attempt to make law out of a literal belief in the Bible. An attempt,
which is well underway, by powerful forces with real power and initiative in
this society(and the Republican party and the Bush regime in particular.
Is this threat real? Well, just look at how Bush dropped the nomination of
Harriet Miers, when powerful forces in the Republican party, motivated by this
Christian fascist agenda, demanded not just a “stealth” reactionary
zealot, but an open ideological representative on the Supreme court.
Someone they say, like Scalia, who has argued, among other things, that
governmental authority and law derive from God.
And what is the result when these
theocratic forces grab even a little bit of power? Well, what has
happened just this month in Kansas, where not only has a religious creationist
belief been brought into science classrooms, but the very definition of science
itself has now been changed, as a matter of state policy. And what about
“abstinence only” as state policy in reproductive health? Let’s call
it for what it is(genocide. Know effective means of AIDS protection are BANNED
from any government funded health programs in Africa, as literally MILLIONS of
Africans(men, women and children die.
Or take what is happening with women’s
right to abortion, and even birth control. Are these forces actually
trying to outlaw birth control, as well as abortion? Yes, they are!
The columnist Ellen Goodman recently wrote about how these Christian fascist
forces are mobilizing against a new medical breakthrough in the treatment of
cervical cancer, because it undermines “abstinence only.” She quotes
Senator Coburn, one of these dangerous lunatics with real power, saying he
would forbid his daughter this treatment for cervical cancer because it would
serve promiscuity.
Opposing theocracy, Christian fascism, is
not about opposing religion. But we MUST oppose the imposition of this
literal interpretation of the Bible as law. Let me emphasize, because
this is very important. Some of us in this movement believe in God…and
some of us do not. But all of us are united in opposing the imposition of
a “hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism” as law.
This is the meaning, and the importance, of the Call, which unites us. Lives
are at stake(and most definitely the rights and very lives of women.
And let’s be clear. These people are
not just a handful of people on school boards. They are in the
Courts. They are all up into the armed forces. And they are at the
very highest reaches of government.
Martin Neimoeller was a German minister
who lived through the development of Nazi times. He even supported Hitler
in the election that brought the Nazis to power. Slowly he became
alienated, and began to express opposition to how the Nazis affected him.
It was only in 1937, four years after Hitler came to power, that Niemoeller was
arrested, and spent the next eight years in prisons and concentration camps.
And what lesson did he draw?
Did he say that it was really good that we didn’t all get together to fight the
whole regime, but just looked after “our own struggle”? Did he
say that the problem was that we were too extreme in our
opposition? Well, listen to what he said:
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I
didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
“Then they came for the trade
unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
“Then they came for the Catholic, and
I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
“Then they came for me. . . and by
that time no one was left to speak up.”
Today, we live in Neimoeller times. This
regime is on a course to radically remake society and the world, and our Call
put it straight: “That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you
will learn ( or be forced to accept.”
And our Call also says this: “History
is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against
tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people
passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond
what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO
US.”
On November 2, we led thousands to become
the first kind of people, and we took a first step into writing a
different kind of future.
I want to talk some about what we
accomplished. And what we still need to do.
You’ve probably read all the reports on worldcantwait.org.
There were good reports on truthout.org
and Michael Moore featured it for 2 days on his site. Local news coverage
across the country was overall very positive and widespread. Our launch
brought joy and hope over the outpouring of youth and determined energy.
Across the country, this outpouring had
many different faces, reflecting the variety of people who have cast aside
politics-as-usual and are daring to do something unprecedented. People
who had been in prison, and had reason to fear getting arrested, still came out
to march with us. In the last week before the 2nd, hundreds of
people who are the voices of conscience in this society, including a few
household names like Jane Fonda, endorsed our Call, and it began to take on
more influence. Boots Riley of the Coup stuck his neck way out speak for
the World Can’t Wait on national radio spots. On the very morning
of the 2nd, the famous writer Gore Vidal, went on the local New York
City NPR station and called to hundreds of thousands of listeners to come out
to Union Square. Howard Zinn made his beautiful challenge to students.
And the playwright Harold Pinter ( an artist who has, among other things, shown
how language can be perverted into oppression and who won this year’s Nobel
Prize for literature ( wrote from England: “The Bush Administration is the
most dangerous force that has ever existed. It is more dangerous than Nazi
Germany because of the range and depth of its activities and intentions
worldwide. I give my full support to the Call to Drive out the Bush
Regime.”
Nation-wide, thousands of high school
students flooded to the forefront. They walked out of school in the face
of massive repression, suspension, truancy officers and military
recruiters. Students climbed out bathroom windows after their school
doors were locked shut, or were locked in the boiler room but made it to the
rally anyway. Some kids like students in Batavia IL, had no rally at all
to go to so they marched to the Republican Congressman Hastert’s office and
screamed. We just heard – and only by accident – that in Dover PA, the
very place where evolution has been on trial by a school board that wanted to
replace it with so-called “intelligent design”, that 60 kids walked
out of Dover High School on the 2nd. Overall, it was probably
the most significant high school walk-out since the 60’s – over 200 schools
taking part. And in many places, parents and teachers defended them, and
so did our movement, which is exactly what we should be doing!
The demand BUSH STEP DOWN has come to the
notice of some millions of people. This IS the news that we made.
November 2 was a public
proclamation that we refuse to be ruled this way, and it called out to millions
who heard about it. But it was not massive. We had thousands
of people out in 200 some locations, and the low thousands in several large
cities. This IS a beginning step, but it is not yet nearly what
we need to drive out the regime, where millions are in the streets taking
responsibility, led by tens of thousands of organizers. We raised tens of
thousands of dollars from thousands of people. We need millions of dollars from
hundreds of thousands of donors.
The participation of high school youth was
our main strength surpassing any predictions, and you can never have a social
movement without youth. But we can’t leave them to take on the whole
thing. They have to be joined by tens of thousands and then millions of
people from the rest of society. We needed a student movement on 100
campuses, including the elite universities, and while they were great
mobilizations at a few schools like Columbia and Pitzer Colleges, these are
shoots of what we must do now more broadly.
To create a political situation where the
Bush regime’s program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office,
and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed, we need
to have the institutions people look to – the schools, professional
organizations, local governments, unions and religious institutions in turmoil
over whether they are with Bush, or see his Regime as illegitimate and
intolerable. As much as the left political movements have not joined in
this effort, they should. But we are really going for something much
bigger, involving millions of people who have never been activists rather
suddenly deciding to take to the streets, to debate with people at work,
canvass their neighborhoods, ask their friends for money, call radio talk shows
to say that challenge anyone who defends the Bush Regime.
We have decided to lead people in taking
independent historical action, with what aim? To drive out this regime,
and nothing less. I’ll say it again: TO DRIVE OUT THIS REGIME, AND
NOTHING LESS. We are not about passively waiting out the storm. We
got something different we are doing. We are giving a voice and vehicle
to people who are locked out of the process, and are seeking to change the
terms by we’re told by which political change can even happen.
We meant what we said and we said what we
meant. And that means we have to be very serious to accomplish that
aim. We have to be serious ( and we also have to be mad creative,
refusing to accept the conventional wisdom of what we can’t do. We have to
learn from the resisters of an earlier generation who said ‘BE REALISTIC;
DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE.” We learned much more deeply on November 2
how it IS realistic to move thousands and thousands of people around this
demand, and on the foundation of our Call. Now we have to take what we
learned, and what we accomplished, and get this thing into a whole other place.
Now I want to speak to directly to a huge
question we are asked often. Why would Bush step down? How could the Bush
Regime be driven out? There are actually quite a few different
possibilities. If we build the movement powerfully and quickly enough,
things can start opening up and coming out. The first bit of criminality has
been attached to the Bush Regime with the Libby indictment. This could go
much deeper. The Downing Street Memo has not been answered; the WMD’s
never found. The lies the Bush Regime is based on way surpass anything
Richard Nixon was forced to resign over. The stolen elections – including the
voting machine scandal (which has remained suppressed) could open up.
Thieves fall out when the going gets tough, and ugly splits in the ranks could
develop, even between some very bad people.
Now there is absolutely no juice behind
impeachment right now – that would take more than the Democrats in Congress,
even if they did want to push that. But that could change with a big
movement in the streets. I can never resist the example of Richard Nixon,
who won by the biggest landslide ever in the 1972 election; and was gone in
disgrace less than two years later. But whether it’s by impeachment or
resignation ( it can only happen with a huge social movement, determined to
settle for nothing less than getting this regime OUT OF THERE.
And we are not talking about a President
Cheney or Rice, either. We are talking about a REGIME, not just one
individual. And we are saying “Take your whole program with
you.” We are building a movement to drive out this regime, and as we
do that we are galvanizing people against the whole logic and direction
this crew is taking society.
But we got a problem.
We’re up against a way things work
politically in this society that people have come to accept. We’re up
against a framework of “how things work” which is killing us.
It’s called accommodation. Some people who should know better, like
the President of the National Organization for Women, are declaring that
“the tide has turned” because a Democrat won election in Virginia
over a Republican Bush campaigned for. This guy Kaine is anti-abortion
and pro-death penalty and ran on the basis that he’s more openly religious than
the other guy! This wasn’t a victory against the moves to turn this country
into a theocracy. This was not a blow against the trend to force
intolerant and absolutist religious dogma into every realm of public and
private life – including into the law. No, this was a maneuver – yet
again – on the part of the Democrats to see if they could become more like the
Republicans we all hate and should hate so much. And, they are saying openly,
this is a model for them, something to emulate.
I want to quote from an essay that is on
our website.
“Of course, there are still people
who hate everything the Bush regime represents, and its whole agenda, but who
are holding out the hope that the difficulties it is facing will make things
more favorable for electing a Democratic Congress in 2006 (and a Democratic
President in 2008) and who therefore think that, rather than mobilizing to
drive out the Bush regime, we should pin our hopes on, and wait for, those
elections. But the questions must be honestly, and urgently, posed:
“Can we afford to wait that long
before doing something decisive to defeat this regime and its whole
agenda? And by voting for Democrats would people really be doing anything
to change the whole course on which this regime has set the country, and indeed
the world? The answers are NO and NO.
“If, instead of bringing forth, from
here forward, the kind of massive resistance, of millions, that is both
urgently needed and is possible, we focus our attention on elections and on
electing Democrats, this will only mean that things will be in an even far
worse place by a year from now, in terms of what is happening in the world and
what it is possible to do to oppose it. And, anyway, what exactly is it
we would be “waiting for” in terms of these elections? Can
anyone honestly say that in 2006 (or 2008) it will be possible to vote for a
Democratic Party that would:
· “Bring an end to U.S. occupation in Iraq and
other wars to enforce and extend American imperial domination in the world?
· “Put a stop to the torture being carried out
by the U.S. government and others cooperating with it?
· “End the
imprisonment of people without rights or legal representation and the
heightened repression embodied in the Patriot Act?
· “Actively and uncompromisingly oppose
Christian fundamentalist attacks on evolution and on science and the scientific
method in general, and on the separation of church and state?
· “Vigorously defend the right to abortion, and
to birth control?
· “Consistently
and systematically defend the rights of gay people?
· “Seriously
address and do something to actually end the continuing discrimination and
institutionalized racism, oppression and poverty that were once again and
dramatically brought to light through hurricane Katrina and in the way the
government has dealt with that natural disaster and its aftermath?
“The answer to these questions, as
well as the actions of Bush himself, in the face of growing difficulties for
his regime and its agenda, show once again why the Call, “The World Can’t
Wait! Drive Out The Bush Regime!” is speaking to a profound truth and a
profound need when it says:
“There is not going to be some
magical ‘pendulum swing.’ People who steal elections and believe they’re on a
‘mission from God’ will not go without a fight.
Quite frankly, it seems to me that the
“fix is already in” on the 2006 elections. The Diebold machines
are in place, the crooked redistricting has all been done, and the money and
high-level support that does go to Democrats are for the ones running on anti
abortion or other “Republican lite” platforms.
And fascism need not come with funny
mustaches or canceling elections ( In countries all over the world
trained and managed by the CIA fascist regimes hold elections every year. The
PRI ruled for 60 years in Mexico as a single ruling party that won every
election.
One thing we can say with certainty is that
the Democratic Party will not do anything in the direction of what the vast
majority of it’s base truly wants and believes in ( like the overwhelming
public opinion to end the war now, or the over 400 cities that opposed the
Patriot Act until their feet are to the fire ( until the they fear that people
are getting beyond their control. The blunt truth is that as long as they think
people are willing to be passively go along with the whole process and are
dependent on them, they are never going to bend to the things people really
care about.
Even for those of us who strongly believe
there is still hope and something to believe in within the electoral process –
or room to be created for those in congress trying to do something – we are
here together because there is recognition that this will not happen short of a
massive upsurge from below. When that does happen it changes everything
and creates a political situation that everyone has to respond to.
We have to recognize that the only thing
that can save us is our own independent political activity.
Now, the political cohesion of our
Movement is not voting vs. not voting; the Call doesn’t tell people not to
vote. And it would be very wrong to make that the dividing line.
Anybody who says that this movement is against voting perhaps has not read the
Call. The point is that we cannot rely on the Democratic Party –
that as our call says “This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies
into leadership who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious
fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to
demobilize people.”
Let’s be real clear. This regime may
be wounded, but is as dangerous, and determined, as a wounded beast. And
at this State of the Union Bush will attempt a big comeback for his regime and
his program. It must be massively answered. And it will not be
answered by what is being brought forward following after the leadership of the
Democratic Party. In fact, the time of the state of the Union is going to
mark the beginning of a whole campaign to draw peoples’ hopes and energies into
relying on “leaders” who tell us to seek common ground with fascists
and religious fanatics.
Our mass actions around the State of the
union must provide people the way to get on a different road – the road of
taking independent mass political action, driving out this regime. Our
plan for the State of the union must meet that challenge – nothing less-or we
will fail in our responsibility to powerfully provide people with that path, at
this crucial time. The future we get really is up to us.
So let’s talk about what we ARE going to
do. Let’s talk about, and let me share, an audacious vision that our
steering committee has come up with, beyond what we sent out earlier in the
week. Let’s bring about a vision commensurate with what we need to really
make a leap toward driving out this regime. Let’s talk about taking a
step that’s going to create a whole new dynamic in this society.
Let’s talk about the State of the Union
speech, when Bush will strut out there, putting on his best face, and put
forward his program of more war, more repression, and more horror, with all the
major networks covering him and all eyes on him. Let’s talk about how
just as he starts to run his lies to people all over the country and all over
the world, from every corner of the country he is politically drowned
out by mass action. Let’s talk about how THIS becomes what everyone has
to relate to, and how the biggest question in society becomes, to quote the
Clash: SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO?
And let’s talk about how we answer that
question loud and clear to millions and millions of people with further
powerful action. That’s what we have been wrestling with, and I’m going
to present you a new and even more powerful vision, from the Steering
Committee, of how to do that in a minute.
But let’s be clear first: that is a tall
order but this is what we need. To say we made a beginning on November 2
cannot mean that now we settle into gradual and incremental tactics to slowly
grow this movement. This is not the same old – same old. This is not a
pet project or a way to build a movement. It is a serious challenge to
unseat and drive out of power a sitting regime and not just any old regime (
but one that has to be driven out ( because what will happen if we don’t?
We said in our Call that, In the face of
what this Regime is doing, silence and paralysis are NOT
acceptable! If we are going to politically drown out the state of
the union and get things into a different dynamic, we have to shake people up
AND we have to make a compelling case that they join us! There are many
people who would respond to our message, but we have not yet even reached
them. That’s for starters ( we REALLY have to get this Call out there
much more broadly.
At the same time, we very much need to
learn better the things that prevent some people who have heard our
message and speak to their questions more powerfully. But we can do
that. The very things that compelled thousands to step up and step out in
the face of both repression and despair are still here, and getting worse by
the day. The very things that made each and every person in this room
turn their lives around are still there, and getting worse by the day.
The vision that inspired all of those people that is embodied in our Call is
still here, and the potential to make that seemingly impossible dream a reality
not only manifested on November 2, but can and must manifest all the more
powerfully as we go into the State of the Union. We can break the
constraints ( political and practical ( that held people back. And we
will.
This weekend we have to decide this
will happen and build our own framework to make it happen. We are
responsible to all the people who are not here, who worked behind the scenes to
make those events happen, or who couldn’t afford to come here today.
We’re responsible to our growing movement.
Therefore, the
Steering Committee proposes a more ambitious and audacious plan for the State
of the Union, in 2 phases:
1) On the night of the State of the Union
message, in real time across the country, everyone will mobilize in their own
area to Drown Our Bush’s Lies. At rallies called one hour before the
speech (starting at 8 pm EST, 5 pm PST, and so on) we will proclaim our
determination to Drive out the Bush Regime. The whole diversity of our
movement, from high school students who have spent the day mobilizing, to local
government officials who bring resolutions calling for Bush to Step Down, to
prominent artists and activists, unions, professional associations, student
governments will represent. As Bush begins to speak, literally, we will
BRING THE NOISE in a cacophony of sound that drowns out his speech. From
drum circles to violins, cat-calls to air horns to banging pots and pans-the
whole variety of musical expression from hip hop to classical will make a
noise. Big media outlets like Fox News might make good gathering spots
for public DROWN OUTS. People in nursing homes and hospitals, or at work
on late shifts, could participate where they are. The students,
especially the high schools, can help by not even going to school that day, but
by criss-crossing the cities and towns in car caravans and flat bed trucks, and
marches.
This part of the plan utilizes the
strength we have in the youth and the fact that people want to demonstrate
wherever they are that they demand BUSH STEP DOWN, and Take your whole program
with you!
2) Then, the very next Saturday, we will
get everyone possible to Washington DC by bus, car, train or plane to protest
at the seat of government. There will be prominent voices of conscience
to help deliver the peoples’ verdict on the State of the Union. And that
verdict will ring through the streets of DC, and echo through the world: STEP
DOWN STEP DOWN, BUSH MUST GO! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!
Here are a few nuts and bolts before we
break. Even though we don’t know the date of the State of the Union, we
should begin selling tickets immediately for the DC demo, putting this on
everyone’s agenda. We should right now make materials, putting out the
slogans:
State
of the Union, with an international NO slash across the Union , replaced
with “EMERGENCY”
Bring
the Noise – Drown Out Bush’s Lies – Drive Out the Bush Regime
We should get out a student flyer: State
of the Union; No School – National Student Mobilization -Stand up and Drive Out
the Bush Regime
To do this, to get this going, we have 5
very serious and necessary tasks to accomplish in the next 5 weeks
1) Raise hundreds of thousands of dollars
by early December
2) Run the call for The World Can’t Wait (
Drive Out the Bush Regime in the NY Times, and from there go to other major
papers
3) we have to get out onto the college
campuses BEFORE the break, getting out to professors as well as students,
working with the cores on the campuses that have stepped out, as well as
bringing high school students on to the campuses to challenge the college
students.
4) We need to saturate with materials
announcing this, and take out ads specifically calling for this State of the
Union manifestation
5) We have to reach out to the middle
class and bring them solidly in the movement – Librarians, neighborhood
associations, Churches ( getting not just endorsements but resolutions that
BUSH STEP DOWN and taking action during the State of the Union.
So, there it is. We took a first
huge step on November 2. We put our challenge out there, and we are
determined to see it through. We aim to change the direction of society
and, yes, the course of history. And, to conclude with the final words of
our call:
“The future is unwritten. WHICH
ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.”
Thank you