We took it to the streets!
For Bush to Step Down, we must step forward…
An hour long rally at the State Capitol included speakers from MLK Coalition, Progressive Democrats of America, PFLAG, State House Representative Maile Shimabukuro, Refuse & Resist!, Not In Our Name, Revolutionary Communist Party, Youth Speaks, WCW, and Code Pink,
along with representatives from four high schools. People shook
gravel-filled cans when someone made a righteous statement, and people
were constantly interrupted with applause.
At the end of the rally about a dozen youth got on
the stage, each reading a section of the Call. About then someone in
the audience rushed to the stage to tell the emcee that Cindy Sheehan
had been arrested at the SOU, and that Bush’s speech was delayed. When
this was announced, the crowd erupted.
By then the crowd was abut 250 and we got ready to
march through the sidewalks and brought the noise with drums on bikes
and people making other noise, with bullhorns, tambourines. and the
people chanting “Bush Lied, Bush Spied, Bush Step Down!,” “Join Us Join
Us the World Can’t Wait,” “Step Down, Step Down, Bush Must Go–Drive
Out the Bush Regime!”, and “The World Can’t Wait–Drive Out the Bush
Regime. It was good, but it got better. As the march proceeded down
Bishop Street – the center of the downtown business district – the
crowd suddenly stepped into the streets to join the Critical Mass
bike-ride. Four lanes of traffic came to a total standstill as the
noise echoed between the massive bank and office buildings lining the
route. The stifling confines of the sidewalk had been broken.
By the time the crowd reached the main downtown
intersection the bikes were circling, marchers stopped to chant and
drum, and feel the power of totally breaking out of “marches as usual”.
When the march hit the end of Bishop, and marchers took all of the
lanes of Nimitz Highway, the noise was deafening. Pots and pans,
drums, rattles and whistles.
Because it was 5 in the afternoon, when traffic is
generally gridlocked and now was at a complete standstill because the
streets had been closed by the march, the cop cop cars couldn’t get to
the march. When they finally got through with their sirens wailing, the
protesters had reached the front of the Federal Building, where they
took the steps and held another rally.
The energy for many was one of great joy, feeling so
liberated. An 80+ woman who had watched Hitler’s rise, and who gave a
speech at the rally that stunned the crowd with its urgency, raced
forward banging her pans! People in the anti-war movement were smiling
smiles that hadn’t been seen in marches or actions in memory.
This was a day that truly felt powerful. Like
something new was coming into being. One young guy talked about how
this march electrified him in a nervous kind of way, knowing that this
is actually what’s needed. He talked about being challenged to do
something he’s never done before, and never expected he would do. A
middle class woman said over and over again, “This is just so
liberating!”
Today was awesome! The crowd was diverse. Democrats,
revolutionaries, youth, pacifists, and veteran activists were shouting
together, talking together, and laughing together. Representatives of
organizations talked about the need to meet and get down around how to
work together in making our demand for Bush to Step Down real.
Everywhere people were congratulating each other.
As the crowd was ready to leave the Federal
building, a WCW agitator jumped up on one of the barriers in front of
the steps to say: “After seeing what we did today, I know that we can
really do it! We can drive George Bush from office! And from the
response of the crowd, it was clear they shared her optimism.
Here’s an article
on the rally/march in the Star Bulletin, one of Honolulu’s
dailies. The picture is taken just as the march was leaving the
State Capitol, and before taking the streets. Their numbers are
wrong — our estimates are that between 250-300 participated (some only
attending the rally; others jumping in with the march.
There
was also coverage on national TV station affiliates. The other
Honolulu daily merely had a small box noting that the protest against
Bush had occupied the streets.
We had almost no media at the
rally, in spite of intense publicity beforehand. Media
caught news of the march and were unable to reach it because the
traffic was entirely snarled.
They finally came in
with their live coverage trucks after the march, and after the crowds
had dispersed.
Honolulu, Hawai’i Chapter, WorldCantWait.ORG