Check out the essentials and key things Students and
Youth need in the run up to the State of the Union and National
Mobilization in D.C on Feb.4th.
5 days until Bush’s State of the Union address.
9 days before we protest at the White House.
Bay Area youth protest the Alito hearings.
If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?
“The future is on the line and you are in the right place.”
In the face of major scandals, widespread criticism
and the admission of committing impeachable crimes, the Bush Regime has
continued on it’s unrelenting rampage of establishing a fascist
theocracy to be locked into place for generations. When Samuel
Alito can breeze through his Supreme Court hearings, this should be
seen as a major leap in laying down the foundation for the fascist
remaking of the legal system. When speaking of her support for
Samuel Alito, Jan Larue of Concerned Women for America stated “my
interest in shifting the court is larger than Roe, though overturning
it would be the kind of justice that comes with overturning what she
calls bad precedent, such as when Brown v. Board of Education rejected
the court’s earlier “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v.
Ferguson”.
When two major Black neighborhoods are buried in New
Orleans and their public school system turned into a string of
privatized charter schools, when high ranking religious figures and
politicians in the White House make no apologies about demanding
doctors who provide abortions be sent to the guillotine and human
beings be imprisoned as felons if they do not have all their
immigration papers in order, when Christian Fascists can stage a
major rally in a Black Church in North Philadelphia and mobilize their
foot soldiers to march through San Francisco to demand ” abstinence-
only” on the eve of the anniversary of Roe V Wade, we have to ask
ourselves:
What type of future do we face under this regime?
If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?
If
the leading Democrats were not willing to take a stand during the Alito
hearings, when will they ever take a stand? One must hand it to
them, they were very successful in their strategy of
capitulation. Think of the thousands sitting on edge of their
seats, watching the hearings and waiting for someone anyone to take a
stand. Millions are looking for an answer that does not include
air wars that carpet bomb Iraqi villages, secret courts that vote to
allow the president to spy and leaders who set their clocks to
countdown the end of Roe V Wade.
If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?
When
has there been a time when an ex-Vice President states “what we do know
about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that
the President) has been breaking the law repeatedly and
persistently”. Al Gore’s statement was delievered in a time where
major newspapers and magazines are running editorials calling for Bush
to resign. Impeachment is discussed in town hall meetings, web
blogs and on AOL pop-up windows. This sharp turn of Impeachment
being a major question is very new and very positive. However,
unless this sentiment and the burning desire of millions is manifested
in the streets on the night of the State of the Union and in D.C on Feb
4th, Bush’s unconscionable acts will only be ratified and settle in as
the ” new normalcy”.
If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?
The
majority of Americans support the right for a woman to choose to have
an abortion. Yet a vicious theocrat like Alito, who has every
intention to create abstinence-only policies, faces no major opposition
in his climb to the highest court in the land and becomes ” the
mainstream”. This is a dynamic and trajectory that needs to
dramatically change and with urgency. Look around, the only way
to defy this and stop this disastrous course is to TAKE TO THE STREETS
and demand Bush Step Down! In the last remaining days we need to
be beating the drums and sounding the alarms: This is a State of
When has there been a time when actors like Sean Penn and
people in Congress sign a call demanding Bush Step Down that will
appear in the New York Times? Since our Air America ads has hit
the airwaves chapters have been springing up from
On all different levels and all fronts people need to be stepping it up
to demand Bush Step Down. We need to be acting on this level 24/7
for the remaining days in the lead up to the State of the Union
Protests.
How Can We Do This?
(1)Establish Plans and Actions for the Night of the 31st.
Begin
organizing buses and car carvans to be in D.C. on Saturday February
4th. If plans for the 31st are set in your area, send in an
expanded vision of the day. Where students and youth are meeting
up. What will they be doing. Whistles, drums, big posters
and teams electrifying the city all day.
(2)Saturation
Saturation means
SATURATION, not simply handing flyers. In the days we have left
we need to create Bush Step Down-zones on College Campuses.
Flyers and posters on every dorm room door, window, on bulletin boards,
flag poles, kiosks and classroom doors. Chalk messages on
walkways: ” Bush Step Down and the local plans.
Stuff
lockers and teachers mailboxes. Post up flyers and posters where
people hang out after school. Stickers should appear all over
town in the blink of an eye. Banners stretched out on the tops of
and train stops overnight. It makes a difference when someone
reads our ad in the New York Times and then is bombarded with Green and
Black Bush Step Down everywhere they walk. This is REAL.
Distribute bundles of flyers in the
center of campus and before/after school starts. Have clipboards,
bus tickets, stickers and whistles on hand and play the new F
Word song. Create a scene- Bring the Noise! This can make
an impact, but we need to go beyond just that. Make announcements
at school sporting events and assemblies as teams distribute flyers and
stickers through the crowd. If we do face a future of fascism and
theocracy under the Bush Regime, then what would hold you back from
standing on a cafeteria lunch table and calling on people to ACT! NOW!
Demand Bush Step Down. Mobilize and be in the streets the night
of the 31st and in D. the 4th. “Acting in this way, we join with
and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently
need and want this regime to be stopped.”- from the Call
(3)Get Student Organizations and Professors to sign the call and endorse the events on the 31st and the 4th.
Professors from different departments can write statements
on why Bush needs to Step Down and why there needs to be a massive
outpouring the night of the 31st and on the 4th. Professors can
invite students and organizers to make announcements in front of
class. Check the talking points for classroom presentations on
the website. Student groups can use their budget to send buses
and car caravans to D.C on the 4th.
(4) Raise Funds!
We cannot drive out a
regime on the cheap. This movement has to be funded by the
millions of people who are outraged by the direction society is headed
under Bush and want to this goal: Bush Step Down- Drive Out the Bush
Regime realized. Sending in donations and raising funds gets our
message out; hitting the Airwaves on Air
and in print in the New York Times. Raise funds to take full page
ads out in local news papers. Professors can contribute
considerable amounts of money to this movement.
(5) Saturate the Airwaves and the Web.
Get the Bush Step Down P.S.A’s on College Radio
Stations. Write Op-eds and contact the local paper to run
articles featuring these historic protests as TOP news stories.
Post up the Bring The Noise- Bush Step Down banner and local plans for
the State of the Union Protests on web forums and My Space.
(6) Know the World In Order to Change the World
Create a countdown atmosphere. Plan to do showings of
the Bush Commission DVD and testimonies at night meetings or in
classrooms. Get groups together to listen to the audio of Debra’s
speech online. Organize study sessions of The Call and the FAQ’s
online. What is Theocracy? What would fascism look like in
the U.S? What are the global implications of all that?