Everyone has worked incredibly hard in building for the
January 31st State of Emergency Protests. Chapters have been incredibly creative in
their planning and the National Office has been inundated with calls from
people who want to get involved. This
checklist is a guide to help chapters make their event as successful as
possible and serves as a way to inspire people to go to D.C. on February 4th.
Responsibilities For
MCs/ What The Program Needs
Our entire event needs to create an atmosphere where people
genuinely feel like they are part of this movement to drive out the Bush
regime, and that their participation is vital and that it doesn’t just end when
they leave at
January 31st. Everyone who
comes should see themselves as part of building this movement, MCs can promote
this while on the stage by having people
look around and see a glimpse of this movement and when you come to DC on
Saturday you will see this movement on a National scale. It is essential that
people are welcomed with this is our movement, everyone at the event and
everyone who is outraged by this regime that is waiting to join. The following are suggestions of what the
program should put out and what could be said from the stage.
Reading Of The Call From The Stage
It is essential that the Call is
read from the stage and that different groups are represented in that
reading. People can take turns reading
sections of the call such as having young women read, ‘ Your government is
moving to deny women here and all over the world the right to birth control and
abortion’. There are many different
levels of unity in demanding that Bush step down. So it is important that we are all united
around the Call. That doesn’t mean
agreeing with every word in the Call. It
does mean that we HAVE to be united around the necessity that Bush and his
program must be repudiated and we must be the ones to do it!
Emphasize February 4th
The MC should promote 2/4. Encourage people to buy their bus tickets and
give them information on where the buses are leaving and what time they are
leaving. Let them know that they can get
their ticket that night either by one of the traveling ticket sellers or at the
organizers table.
Statement From the
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is working
on putting something together for all chapters to read at the event. This statement will be sent out as soon as
possible. Once you receive the statement
via e-mail, make arrangements for a dramatic reading of the statement.
Build Locally
Announce meeting time and place and remind people to not
leave without a stack of fliers.
Organizing New
Organizers
January 31st will be a tremendous opportunity to
organize new organizers. Organizers are created when we provide them with the
tools to get connected. Everyone at the
rally should be organized to go all out over the rest of the week, getting ‘BUSH
STEP DOWN’ posters and copies of the Call everywhere, and organizing others to
go to DC.
Have an organizing
table
A table lined with materials that people can take with
them. Nobody should leave without
feeling like they are part of this movement.
Suggested materials include: flier (including chapter info, how to
donate, and a little welcome to the movement), the Call, stickers, posters, and
whistles. We should encourage people to
take bundles of materials to get out to others (their book club, folks at their
yoga studio, family, friends etc.). Some
other ideas of what could be at the organizing table- trashcan for donations,
bus tickets, contact sheet, sheet for people to endorse the call, and most
importantly live organizers. The live
organizers are essential in mobilizing people, collecting contacts, getting
people on the bus, informing people of the politics of WCW, and most
importantly expanding our movement. Try
to cycle volunteers through the manning of the table.
Collecting Contacts-
Expanding Our Movement
Volunteers are needed to work their way through the crowd
with contact sheets collecting information and welcoming people to the movement
to drive out the Bush regime. In
addition these volunteers can get the Call out to people, as well as little
chop shops (mini fliers) that include: the website, your local info (including
meeting times and location), and a call for them to donate and send checks in
(305 Madison Ave. Suite 1166 New York, New York). Volunteers can also travel with
stickers! We need people to be leaving
with big stacks of fliers, stickers, and handfuls of chop shops to get out to
everyone they know!
Mobilizing For Feb 4th
in DC Within The Crowd
A huge focus of our rally on the 31st is to lead
these brand new participants and get them to be all out there and ready to go
DC on the 4th.
It is a perfect
opportunity to SELL TICKETS and get people to
ON THE BUS! Volunteers are needed to work their way through the crowd selling
bus tickets, as well as at the organizers table. And it should be asked from the stage: ‘Who’s
going to DC? Who’s gonna organize a bus to DC?’
Fundraising
To keep this movement growing and to get our message out
more broadly in society, we need to let people know about this movement. One way of doing this is through saturation
and another is through advertisements. A
full-page ad in the NY Times costs $45,000 and a week of ads on Air America
costs $15,000. These ads have proved to
be a crucial way of bringing people forward.
Be prepared to collect donations.
Fundraising pitch
Support and contribute to this movement to drive out the
Bush regime. We need thousands of
dollars for advertisements so that more people know about this movement. So far we’ve had two ads in the NY Times – we
need more! How much can you give to
drive out the Bush regime? How much
would you give to change the course of history? Give today; make the demand that Bush Step
Down heard by millions.
An effective way of collecting funds is for volunteers to go
about with trashcans for donation collection and agitating using the suggested
pitch.
~ Elena for the
National Office of The World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime!