From the National Steering Committee of World Can’t Wait, 2/21
When the President used the State of
the Union address January 31 to relentlessly push his case for unending war on
the world, unimpeded domestic spying, faith-based initiatives and an attack on
stem cell research and abortion, some reported this as a “moderate speech
with no new proposals.” But there
was a different response in the streets of more than 60 cities, when tens of
thousands perceived Bush’s address as a State of Emergency. Then, Saturday,
over two thousand came right to the White House to demand “Bush Step Down
and Take Your Program with You!”
Many thousands of individuals who
had been looking for something that can really make a huge change in this
country and the world found it this month in the vehicle we are building with
The World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime. A soldier who just returned from Iraq one week earlier drove
straight from Indiana to protest in DC on Saturday after hearing about it 2
days before. At the rally we met people who had traveled from Oklahoma, Maine,
Indiana, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, the Carolinas and other places, who had
not yet hooked up with a WCW chapter. Many commented on the spirit and
determination of the crowd, including the sight of elderly and disabled people
marching through a driving rain alongside this very young movement. Many
longtime organizers noted the wide range of nationality, age, and political
outlooks, not often seen together in a way that is united around a common
message and purpose. Political office holders, union officers, religious
leaders, Iraq veterans and military families, leaders of a new student
movement, defectors from the Bush Regime, and revolutionaries shared a common
stage and goal.
In the weeks preceding, the World
Can’t Wait reached millions through local newspaper and radio ads in San
Francisco, Washington and NYC, and through national ads on Air America
Radio. Our ad in The New York Times on
January 20 brought new signers to the Call, including U.S. Representatives John
Conyers, Cynthia McKinney, Bobby Rush and Maxine Waters; Daniel Ellsberg;
CHOICE USA; Dennis Rivera (President, Local 1199 SEIU); Gloria Steinem; St.
Clair Bourne; Mark Ruffalo; and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski (ret). Prominent
artists and writers have started speaking to their audiences on the importance of the people standing up
now. Former CIA consultant Ray
McGovern, speaking at the National Press Club where the findings of the
International Bush Commission on Crimes Against Humanity were presented, said:
‘This is what our German forebearers in the 1930’s did not do. They sat around,
blamed their rulers, said âmaybe everything’s going to be alright.’ That is
something we cannot do.’ We learned that
people in the national press are watching this movement closely to see if it
will reach, as they put it, ‘critical mass.’
Friend and foe alike are now dealing
with the existence of an emerging movement that is demanding the extraordinary.
At the same time, we have to soberly
assess everything we said was coming to a head in January: the fact that Bush
has been able to install Alito to the Supreme Court with no effectual
opposition by Congress. This surrender
is not being answered with mass resistance on the part of hundreds of thousands
who are deeply opposed to this. As events accelerate and Bush blitzkriegs
through his program of massive military spending for endless war, now rattling
his saber at Iran) as prisoners in Guantanamo are forced to end their hunger
strike, indefinitely detained in a twilight zone where there is no due process
and no one to witness) as the NSA revelations are being readied for another
white wash and more betrayal) we must also confront the fact that our numbers
and our reach are still far short of what it will take to stop this all this
madness.
Our movement is brand new and the
thousands who came into the streets represent millions more who want to see
this President out of office and his whole program repudiated and reversed, but
who do not yet know about this movement, or are not yet convinced that mass
independent political action and protest can make a decisive difference. Or
they may be still hoping to passively wait it out, not confronting the horror
that will be done in their name if they remain idle and complicit.
Our movement with its powerful Call
needs to reach out even more broadly to organizations and institutions to join
us and to plan broader and more powerful resistance. There are many people we
must connect with who have never stepped into taking responsibility for the
direction of history before. While we are considering our next major steps we
need to actively investigate with those who have acted and those who have not
yet done so– to get a deeper understanding of both why those who came have
decided to act now and what is holding back those who have not yet done so.
This is not just a job for the organizers of committees but for every
participant in this movement. Seek out
and really listen to people– engage with people on the substance in the Call
to drive out the Bush Regime with the content of what ‘your government’ is
doing; with the morality of ‘that which you do not resist and mobilize to
stop;’ with the reality of where politics as usual has brought us to; and with
the positive and hopeful message that there is a way to really make a huge
change in this country and in the world if we act. As the Georgetown law students put it on February 4, ‘we are what
we have been waiting for.’
As we carry out this mass inquiry
and analysis and plan our next big steps, chapters should firmly take hold of
what we have built and accomplished and take it forward. Get back to everyone we have talked with and
bring them actively into the movement. Ask people to volunteer and get
organized to make their efforts really matter!
The World Can’t Wait is not accepting any of the police
state measures being cobbled together with arrogance and compromise by your
government. We will not get used to or
tolerate torture, the racial cleansing of New Orleans
or the Patriot act with passive consent, and we will not stop until the regime
is driven from power. We must rapidly escalate our determination, reach and
impact on society as we move forward in our efforts to drive out the Bush
Regime and reverse the course of history. We need to pour our collective
efforts and energies into the five essentials below. It will make a difference. Call for meetings
in your area to discuss the following plans and establish groups to make them a
reality. Each component of the plan is critical in taking this movement
forward.
As we are doing all this, we should be making further steps
in developing World Can’t Wait as an organized political force in its own
right, founded on the Call as its basis of unity, and increasingly drawing in
individuals and organizations of various kinds to be part of the movement to
Drive out the Bush Regime.
(1) Return to the analysis and political objectives
contained in the Call. This is critical for maintaining our bearings and
direction, and allows people from many different perspectives to unite. It
speaks a truth that this regime has tried to place beyond the pale and galvanizes
those who know it tells it like it is- people are both recognizing this as our
position is verified by events and getting the courage to stand up and say it
themselves. Even though we’ve been at this for a while – it is still widely
unknown and this is a discussion that is just getting going in earnest. Reach
out with the call more widely. Print is as a poster – distribute it and get it
posted, as well as continuing to publish it in progressive weeklies,
newsletters and zines. Post the Call on the web forums and spread it through
email lists. Make it a topic of debate at work and bring people into this
movement to discuss it at house parties. Establish public outlets, in stores
and coffee shops, & at drop-in places where anyone can pick up materials.
(2) Organize large forums, speaking engagements and town hall
meetings where speakers bring home the realities of the Your Government
indictments in the Call and WHY the Bush Regime needs to be driven from power.
Hold events on particular aspects such as the response to Katrina or spying.
Especially important on college campuses, we need speakers who can give the
full sense of what this regime represents, and speak to the influence of openly
theocratic political operatives in every area of this administration, of the
fascist remaking of law and government, etc.
(3) The indictments and deadly trajectory starkly posed in
the Call are being rammed down people’s throats everyday and the current terms
of debate surrounding Bush’s crimes are appalling. ‘Everybody agrees Bush should be able to
exercise the power to spy, but should he be able overstep the law in the course
keeping the nation safe?’ NO! NO! We
cannot turn the page and allow yesterday’s outrage to settle in as today’s new
normalcy. We must visibly oppose the
Bush Regime’s fascist remaking of society every step of the way and build up
the organizational capacity of World Can’t Wait to intensify our reach and
impact through the course of establishing a new dynamic in society.
Follow developing events on the World Can’t Website, media
outlets, and local news, poised to respond to Bush’s outrages. If Bush is speaking in your town-
Protest! Take inspiration from the
Georgetown Law Students who organized an action in a 24 hour time span when
they heard that Attorney Gonzales was speaking at their school and mobilize
visible opposition to the regime every time they appear in your area. Develop the mechanisms to send out Flash
Alerts, mass text messages and email blasts to respond to breaking news. When new photos are leaked from Abu Ghraib or
Guantanamo ( saturate your campus
and post them up at work to hammer home the message that these acts are illegal
and immoral. At every critical juncture
and for every shocking outrage, we must respond with banners, noise, op-ed
pieces, press conferences, protests and bold actions that shatter the
disturbing silence throughout society.
It is up to us to stop this and there is a vehicle that can take on the
enormity. Draw on the strengths of being
a national movement and send in reports and pictures to the website.
(4) FUNDRAISE! Get back with all the new people we met,
encouraging them to hold fund-raising house parties. The Portland
chapter has a goal of a house party in every neighborhood they marched in on
January 31. Plan fund-raising events and reach out to potential funders so that
we can really build up the infrastructure and reach of this movement. Plan
major fundraisers such as the Grand Lake
theatre event in your city or major forums that are fundraisers for the
movement this spring.
(5) “Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies,
is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq,
with other countries in their sights.” World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the
Bush Regime is planning to take part in a wide range of anti-war activities and
mass mobilizations this Spring, planned from March 18th-20th and April 29th.
Find events planned to protest the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of
the War on Iraq
and regularly check out worldcantwait.org for updates and plans. Call and
organize for demonstrations that embody the politics of the Call to Drive out
the Bush Regime if there are no scheduled events March 18th-20th in your local
area.