Reports, reflections, interviews and pictures from the World Can’t Wait Student and Youth Summer Training Project. The training brought over 30 youth from across the country for 10 days of political education, workshops, outreach/fieldwork and protest.
World Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime kicked off it’s summer with a Student and Youth Training Project and a resounding declaration that: We have no future under the Bush Regime and we will not stop until the regime is driven out of office. This was a historic gathering of over 30 youth who traveled to New York from all around the country as the current administration is rapidly implementing a facisitic agenda and facing no real opposition within the halls of power. The training took place in New York over 10 days as revelations of the Haditha massacre were surfacing in the news and the state of Louisiana moved forward in banning abortion.
The training explored new territory and strengthened the determination and organizational network of students committed to forcing the Bush Administration out of office. Each morning people dove into discussions, did outreach and fieldwork in the afternoon, attended evening programs that featured experts on the crimes of the Bush Regime and discussed everything from evolution to local music scenes to experiences in the resistance movement late into the night.
There was a breadth to this training and the students who attended the training sessions provided a glimpse of the broad spectrum of people who urgently want to see the Bush regime unseated from power. Youth from Indiana canvasing in Harlem, a film student working all night to redesign the website, progressive churches hosting speakers like Esther Kaplan to speak in depth about the rise of the religious right under the Bush Administration and learning about torture policies in the ” War on Terror” from lawyers involved in defending detainees in Guantanamo at the Center for Constitutional Rights. A powerful statement on Haditha was produced and helped inspire a protest dramatizing the massacre on the last day of the training.
October 5th was central to the training and wove through people’s comments.
” The Bush Regime is not only a threat to us, but a threat to the world. The mainstream media is corrupt and tries to marginilize people’s opposition to Bush. On October 5th we need to have protests that are so massive that the media is forced to cover us and send this message around the world.” – Youth from the Bay Area
” October 5th has to be a day where millions of people act out their desires and outrage. Not just youth and not just by the conventional means….librarians organizing readings of radical books and individuals creating art that goes against the Bush Agenda.” – Student from Texas
Speakers, workshops, outreach, and the world around us being ripped apart sparked discussions about the possibility of really driving out the Bush Regime, the political climate on campuses, the role of the media, what is truth, what is ” politics-as-usual and is there any hope in the Democratic Party?
David Kohn, a leading Darwin biographer, talked about the key contributions Darwin made to Evolution and how to take on the underpinnings of Intelligent Design. Ted Glick of Climate Crisis Coalition spoke about the imminent dangers of Global Warming, Cristina Page, author of ” How the Pro- Choice Movement Saved America” spoke about Bush’s war on contraception and went into detail about what have been the results of banning abortion in other countries. Sunsara Taylor spoke at a session entitled ” Drawing on lessons from Nazi Germany” and again on a panel with Stanley Rogowski and Counterpunch columnist Dave Lindorff on the political program of the Democrats and their role in forcing Bush out of office.
The programs were powerful and opened up new questions for people at the training like; ” do you have to be an atheist to agree with evolution?” or “what will the world look like in 5 years if drastic changes related to Global Warming are not made?”
October 5th must be a day of massive demonstrations, of an unprecedented scope and scale, and the ability for a broad range of people to fight for WHY the Bush Regime needs to be driven from office and the colossal efforts that thousands of people need to take on over the Summer- will be decisive in whether or not October 5th will BRING THIS TO A HALT.
Throughout the training and in doing outreach, we learned the more you present the realities and scope of crimes committed by the Bush Regime – the more people saw the urgency to act and the more we were able to expose the capitulation and political paralysis produced by leading Democrats – the more people saw the need for themselves to act.
The kind of resistance that can take on the enormity we face and how to move millions of people to manifest resistance in the streets was a question that ran through the course of the training.
” People are dying in Iraq, if I can do something to stop it – I will.” – student from Savanna, Georgia.
The training acted as a springboard and propelled plans forward. Youth volunteered to go on the Bus Tour, join the web team and intern in the National Office over the summer.
People confronted the depth and scope of the Bush Regime’s crimes, brainstormed and hatched plans that could create a radical shift in the mood across the country:
– hosting regional student conferences when school starts back up. Conferences will take place in New York, Chicago, Bay Area and possibly more
– Fourth of July block parties
– organizing film screenings of ” Sir, No, Sir!”
– holding poetry events and weekly youth speakouts
– Major outreach and some areas getting floats at Pride Events
– researching events and festivals to saturate over the Summer
– talking to prominent religious leaders
– meeting up with people on Van’s Warped Tour and the World Can’t Wait Bus Tour
– creating World Can’t Wait CDs for fundraising
– Active Investigation with contacts ( sitting down and learning what people are thinking about the current situation)
– setting up a more active list serve that could also serve as an ALERT system to chapters know when people like Rumsfeld or Bush are speaking in their area
– chapters made goals for the amount of Calls they are aiming to distribute and collecting signatures of people to sign the Call. Cities like Atlanta made a goal of distributing 150,000 Calls and collecting 4,000 signatures
– an idea of having a lawn sign campaign and store front campaign was also proposed. The proposal can be READ HERE.
First Hand Report from Jamilah-Houston, TX
I spent 10 days in New York City learning how to drive out the Bush regime! The days were full of brainstorming, workshops and outreach. Great ideas were discussed. Political questions responded to. A series of speakers gave us insight into how this administration is moving to turn this society into a place we would never even recognize.
Some major discussions surrounded around creating a political situation on our campuses and what October 5th will look like. The level of knowledge and enthusiasm was contagious and I know that the work we did in New York will propel us to new heights in our own campuses and communities.
But the one thing I’ll take the most from this gathering is the conversations that were held outside of the schedule. From sitting in Union Square and discussing over ice cream what it would really take to drive out this regime and what it would take for us to build this movement so that our goals are reached. To riding on subways and examining our own doubts and questions. To sitting at dinner, debating issues, laughing and sharing accents, all of these experiences have shaped me, and I know others as well. This experience has shaped me to become bolder in my outreach, more certain of my goals and more determined to drive out the Bush regime.
World Can’t Wait Interview with Mike from Indiana
(1) What is the mood, politically, in Indiana?
The people who run things, late 20s-40s, are Republican. It seems like the older, retired people are, some are republican, but a lot of them don’t like this regime. And, a lot of the youth agree with what their parents say, but some of the youth are against this regime.
(2) What made you interested in becoming a part of WCW?
I got fired from my job and in Indiana, its an “at will hire” state, it’s very easy to get unemployment. I play in 2 punk rock bands who support various causes, “Food Not Bombs” and “Artists Against Racism,” “Gay-Straight Alliance, Rock the Vote, Anti-Racist Action. And as a result of playing in these bands, I met Kelly who told us about what was going on in NY, and with the Warped tour this summer, I went to the website, felt that I agreed with most everything the org was saying, and decided to step across the fence from artist to activist.
(3) How, it at all, does your religious experience factor into why you are a part of WCW?
George Bush does not represent my idea of what a Christian is and I believe that fundamentalist Christian, especially in high place of power, give a stereotype that is equal to that of Muslims and Osama Bin Laden.
(4) What would you say to those who are of the Christian faith about the need to drive out the Bush regime?
Don’t let someone who breaks most laws and really most commandments represent your religion.
(5) Why did you want to come to the training session this summer?
I’m not a person who’s happy sitting at home, watching TV, falling asleep, going to work the next day. It seemed as if this would be an educational, eye-opening experience that I needed to take part in.
(6) Why, are you going on the Warped tour with WCW? What are your goals for the trip?
Warped tour reaches over 400,000 youth, all over the country, of a particularly rebellious nature. It’s a giant opportunity for WCW to build their movement and to educate youth. I would hope as a result of going on the warped tour many youth will start their own chapters, hold their own meetings and make October 5th a day that could history.
(7) What are your experiences being an “individual” in Indiana?
It’s not an accepting place. People, who stand out, really stand out. If you’re gay, if you’re a minority, if you’re a feminist, if you have a crazy haircut, you will stand out. It’s not like in New York. One thing I can say to people interested in organizing in these areas is just to tone it down a little bit. Whatever individualistic statements you make with dress or exuberant conversation make a concerned effort to suppress. Or people, who you may be able to reach, won’t give you the time of day.
(8) Why?
People don’t like what George Bush is doing everywhere. But people also have prejudices. The main goal of World Can’t Wait is to start a movement of millions. If it truly is a movement of millions, that includes people with prejudices.
(9)How were you, who were born and raised in the Midwest, able to come to your understanding of how the world works, which seems to be in conflict with what people understand about the Midwest, which is “American flags and apple pies?”
I don’t know. I do know that I’ve never fit in, so to speak, and always felt that I lived in a very backwards community. We combat that with our shows across the state and the surrounding states. The feeling that you are not alone is an important one to youth in Indiana and through organizing there and talking to other people you are able to create your own beliefs that are not subordinate with the stereotype of “Midwestern beliefs.”