from Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait National Coordinator
January 30, early am
Dear friends,
I’m taking the time at this
11th hour to write to all the World Can’t Wait organizers on what I
feel to be some urgent questions.
I am actually filled with
enthusiasm for the great new things that are happening every day. Now I certainly feel the intense pressure to
actually realize our (very) ambitious goals.
But I think we are in range of ( no, we are on the cusp of (
bringing together a movement that will arrive at the steps of power this coming
Saturday with the message that there is a force in society that is not going to
stop until this terrible regime is driven out.
There’s a whole lot to do to make that happen . . . a whole lot.
. . but when I see what’s coming forward, every day, I can see more and more
how we could really do it.
And when I look at what is
going on at the top of society and read and hear the anguish from people all
over about that, and when I think about how it is bearing out everything we
said last summer in our Call, I see again, even more deeply, why we have
to do it.
Now I want to speak
frankly
here. I know everybody is trying as hard
as they can. But calling around, I feel
there is more than a little casting about going on, and even some
discouragement. I’m not trying to tell people to be cheerful
or put on a happy face or some equally empty admonition . . . but
people, I
feel that discouragement right now is not really based on
reality. And I am concerned that if you’re not basing
yourself on reality, and the ways in which it’s changing and the basis
for it
to change further, then you’re not going to see the ways to make it
change in a
good direction. By action. Even by the action of a relative
minority, at
first.
Yes, I’m going to address
the things that have people upset. But I’m
going to address them from the basis of what really exists and what we can do
about it to really realize our goal.
Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll either “dally and dawdle” as the Hampton students warned us against, or run around in a
pointless and counterproductive frenzy.
So, what do we have going
for us?
Well, take a look at our site, with fresh eyes.
Did you notice that in the last few days a whole range of people have
taken pen in hand to argue that people must act around the State of the Union? Four students from Hampton,
where they stood up against threats of expulsion after November 2. . . Gore Vidal,
with his excellent biting article that demands Bush go back to Crawford and
ends by calling for people to turn out for the 31st and 4th.
. . Howard Zinn,
again addressing the students on the need to turn out . . . the important and
powerful piece by Richard Lang,
the minister from Seattle . . . the very moving call from Missy Comley Beattie, the Gold Star Parent for Peace . . . And other folks too. What does it say when this scope of people are
urging people ( and arguing with people ( each from their different points of
view, to turn out for these actions?
What does it say about the direction of society, and what does it say
about the potential for us to influence and change that direction ( by massive
political mobilization??
Have you also noticed on our
site how the list of endorsers of our Call is expanding and broadening almost
every day? Yesterday John Conyers, who
would be a big factor in any impeachment proceedings, has endorsed the
Call. And looking through the list of speakers for the 31st, I noticed Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Dr.
Quentin Young in Chicago, and a host of others. . .
There’s been media,
too. I hope everyone took a look at the CNN Show Biz Tonite segment
And that’s in addition to the Times ad, the Air America ads, and to
radio shows like Mike Malloy’s and Al Sharpton’s and many more local shows, to
ads in widely read local papers like the Chicago Reader and the Bay Guardian. These
have been extremely important in spreading the word, all that has to ( and can
( take a big jump up around the 31st and leading into the 4th. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself here. on the site.
And have you looked at the Call
recently? Our Call, written and released
in the early summer, has proven downright prophetic. Right now we are acting in a very intense
juncture, where Bush is pushing his direction forward against very widespread
but disorganized opposition. Alito,
massive wiretapping, new threats of war, this time with Iran. . . The
world REALLY can’t wait!
The Bush regime is actually
doing everything the Call said they were doing and would do, and with a
vengeance ( literally. And the more that
people are turning against them and their direction, the more they are lying .
. . and lashing out.
The really important thing
to grab hold on, the thing I return if I get down, is that World Can’t
Wait is not only calling it right on what the Bush Regime is doing, it’s
really the vehicle that can not just oppose BUT REVERSE this whole direction. It’s the vehicle that can put a whole
different dynamic into play in society, by bringing thousands, then tens of thousands
and ultimately millions into the street.
But, to again refer to our
Call, “this will not be easy.”
I’m not going to sit here
and repeat all the problems that everyone is raising. I’m sure you know what they are. I know I do.
Let’s just say they’re real enough, and we have to overcome them. But what I will do is try to put out
thoughts that can indicate how, through our work in the next 48 hours or less,
we can solve them. . . and how, coming out of the 31st, we can go
even further.
1) Open the doors and let in
the people.
Everybody complains that
there aren’t enough people involved and organized yet into World Can’t
Wait. Guess what . . . there
aren’t! So what are we gonna do about
it?
If you have an organizing
center, throw open the doors first thing today.
Put the person who you think can best explain what we’re doing and get
them in there to talk to people. When
they do talk, be sure to find out who people know, what they do, and get a good
sense of the different social ties and connections they have and the various
ways they can help. Get some other
people to phone-bank. Then when people
to come in from the calls, orient them and either pair them up with people on
your committee who are working to get this or that thing in place, or else give
them flyers, stickers, copies of the Call, bus tickets, lawn signs (if we have
them) and so on. Give them ideas on
where to take them and tell them to come back at 6 or whenever they run out of
materials. And ask them to raise money
when they go out, so we can really saturate areas.
And, by the way, if you have
an organizing center, please put it
on the website ( NOW, with its hours.
If you don’t yet have an
organizing center, find a friendly Starbuck’s, bring a lap top and few cell phones,
and do it out of there!
Hint: your organizing center
should have all the calls to the State of the Union events that people like
Gore Vidal, the Hampton Students, etc. have written. . . posted on its wall,
very prominently.
Hint: A great many elderly
people, coming from their long experience in society, are among the biggest
supporters of World Can’t Wait. But if
all you’re doing is asking people to come to meetings and then getting them to
flyer, you’re not allowing them to participate fully. Get phone lists of 25, 50 or more people and
get them to your older supporters who may want to, or have to, stay home. They can be your call center!
The National Office has had
a surge of new volunteers because we asked
for them in the New York Times ad. We just had a first: a new volunteer
wearing a mink coat. Why did she
volunteer? “Because we have to do
something!”
2) Mobilize your supporters.
Everyone says we don’t have
enough supporters. And we don’t. But
every city does have scores and even hundreds of people and groups who have
endorsed the Call. Some of those folks
can get in the media. Most of them have
connections to professional organizations or labor unions or to groups active
in the women’s movement, the Black movement, the gay movement and many other
movements. Or else they are in one or
another artistic or intellectual community, or teach at a school, or minister
to a religious congregation. Almost all
of them have much-needed funds, including some who can spare rather substantial
donations. Somebody needs to call all
these folks and talk with them about how they can help.
Hint: the important thing is
not to know everything. . . it’s to be good at learning. There is a wealth of knowledge within our
endorsers. Ask them for their opinions,
insights and advice.
Hint: In addition to
mobilizing your supporters, mobilize your non-supporters too. You
heard me right. Someone from a group that wouldn’t endorse
just called me to say that she had just found my e-mail from a few
weeks ago
and wanted to take this to her board. Do
not give up on organized forces . . . and if they get on board, get
them to
really go all-out for this.
Remember: there are tens of
thousands in each city who would turn out if they knew about it. And the ones who do know are a big key to the
ones who don’t.
3) Use the website.
Let me repeat that. Use. . . the . . . website. Hundreds of people are at the site all the
time. Starting Monday, it’ll probably
get into the thousands at any given time.
The day before November 2, over 30,000 people visited the site. I expect there’ll be more than that on the 31st,
and more still following the 31st.
And I have to be blunt
here. Some of the announcements for what
people were going to do on the 31st were really uninspiring. Think ( lots of people are going to get the
info for your demo by going to the site.
Look at the DC committee’s announcement and change yours right away if it doesn’t measure
up. Every announcement should have who
is speaking, where it’s going to be, and what’s going to happen. If you have an organizing center, you should
list that too.
Also: you must list how and
where to get bus tickets for DC!!
Hint: Anything good that
happens in the next 24-36 hours should be instantly reported ( especially new
endorsers, media coverage, and so on.
For that matter, if there are any bad things ( like what happened to the
Cleveland activist yesterday ( we need to know that, too. We really need our site to reflect the
developing momentum of this counter-dynamic to the Bush regime.
And write in immediately
after the events! And all through the 1st
to the 3rd, every good new thing should be reported.
Remember: the site is a huge
plus to make the 31st all it has to be.
4) Don’t be afraid to
argue. And argue based on our Call.
I hear of way too many
conversations that are too short. It’s
not enough to find out why people feel they don’t want to, or can’t, throw in
with this. . . you have to debate âem on it.
Find out what their reasons are and learn how to speak to them.
Use the FAQ’s. And use the Call.
“I’m scared.” Well, it’s not going to get less scary if we don’t stand
up. ‘[H]istory 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.’
“I think it’ll just blow
over, or unravel of its own accord.” Oh,
really? ‘People who steal elections and
believe they’re on a mission from God will not go without a fight.’ And even Al Gore recently said that there was
good reasons to fear that there would not be a pendulum swing this time around.
“I’m worried that my funding
will dry up, or my 501-c3 status will be taken away.” Well, how long do you think you’ll keep it
if you don’t fight back. . . and more to the point, what will it be worth
anyway? People are doing good and
important work, but ‘we need more than fighting Bush’s outrages one at a time,
constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim 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 can’t do it until
there’s a majority in Congress in favor of impeachment.” Gee,
where would be today if the people in Montgomery, Alabama had taken
that attitude? Where would be if people had taken that
attitude right after Richard Nixon got elected with the biggest victory
margin
in history? The point is this: ‘That which you will
not resist and mobilize
to stop, you will learn(or be forced(to accept.’
“Things have been bad for
a
long time, it’s not just Bush.” But ‘people look at all this and
think of Hitler(and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is
setting out to radically
remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to
come.’ And what’s your point ( that
because things have been bad for a long time, we should just sit back
and let
them get worse? Here’s a better idea:
think about what it would mean if we could unite the people who can’t
stand
this direction and get a whole new dynamic going in society, one that
takes on
all the outrages that are cited at the beginning of the Call.
And so on. The point is this: as you may have noticed,
I’m rather familiar with many of the objections we get, and I think that the
Call contains within it the answers to just about all of them.
5) Make the 31st
a giant political trampoline.
On February 1, I don’t want
to hear about any city that didn’t use the big “drown out” demos on the 31st
to massively build for the 4th.
I don’t want to hear about any city where the organizers don’t go home
with lists of names and numbers and e-mail addresses. And I certainly don’t want to hear about any
city where the people who turn out don’t go home with organizing packets full of
flyers, stickers, copies of the Call, bus tickets, and so on and who don’t have
a way to ‘check in’ every day. Believe
me, you don’t want to see Debra Angry.
(Just kidding, of course, I mean about the Debra Angry part, but I feel
very strongly and even fiercely about this.)
I don’t care if you’re a
small town with 2 dozen people on a corner or a big city with thousands in the
streets . . . you’ve got to see the 31st as a giant trampoline that
can get us to the heights we need to be at for the 4th. And since I said what I don’t want to hear,
let me say that I do
want to hear about stirring calls from the stage to “get on the bus”
and calls to “organize a bus” . . . I do want to hear about
buckets circulating through the crowds, getting us the money to spread
our
message even further in the next few days and to actually bring people
to DC. .
. I do want to hear our committees poised to seize on media openings
and
speaking opportunities for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Everyone who comes to these “drown out” events has to leave with the conviction that we’re taking our
demand to the seat of power on February 4 and aiming to change history. On that day we’re going to bring a whole new
dynamic into play. They’re going to need
to leave from these events with the materials and the convictions and the ways
to make the most of the next 3 days to really turn people out to DC.
And after the 31st,
go one more time to everyone who didn’t come, especially organized
groups, and get them on board. People
will see ‘okay, this is happening and we need to pitch in’ ( or at least some
sections of the membership will be feeling that ( and there will be new
opportunities. People will have seen
that while the Bush thing gets uglier all the time, accelerating, and that it
really is, as we say, “a state of emergency”. . . there is another dynamic that has emerged. .
. ready to confront what is going on, and determined to defeat this regime and
change the whole direction of society.
So that, my friends, is my
letter to you at this late late hour.
Let me close with this:
“History is full of examples
where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and
were victorious.”
Be one of those people.
Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait National Coordinator