Text of a talk given by Allen Lang, National Student and Youth Organizer. The student plans are an extension of the national Fall Plans for Oct 5th.
Go all out in mobilizing students returning to school this September to the national Sept. 7th mass meetings as a leap towards October 5th.
It’s gonna make a difference whether or not students, in their tens of thousands, walk out of classes in protest on October 5th to demand a different future and bring this disastrous course to a halt. Call for walkouts on October 5th right away.
The Bush Agenda is a fascist agenda and George W. Bush has blood on his hands when it comes to the war in Iraq, when it comes to New Orleans, when it comes to Lebanon and when it comes to Guantanamo.
Nearly a year ago today, the Bush Administration was responsible for mass murder, criminal negligence and accountable for turning a natural disaster into a preventable human disaster that concentrated the historical legacy of racism for African-Americans and a sign of things to come. Spike Lee’s new HBO documentary captures the heart wrenching experience and needless suffering tens of thousands of mainly Black people experienced when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Katrina produced a list of more than a thousand names representing people needlessly killed in New Orleans after their government abandoned them and left them to die, while National Guard troops shot down people trying to gather supplies and survive. No storm, no matter how great, could wash away the memories of those killed in New Orleans and Bush’s handling of Katrina rises to the level of crimes against humanity. Now Bush is returning to the scene of the crime and visiting the Gulf Coast on the occasion of the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Bush should be behind bars solely based on he handled Katrina, not posing for photo-ops and shedding crocodile tears in the Gulf.
In the face of this the Democrats have not only been spineless, but they have been working overtime to rip the spine out of your back and leaving you politically paralyzed.
Look at the flashpoints of the past year: New Orleans, wiretapping, Lebanon. What has been the Democrats response to these crimes? Outright capitulation and nauseating displays of claiming they can execute this immoral war for empire better than the Republicans. As the Fall plans on World Can’t Wait’s website states:
The Democrats sanction this whole framework by saying they would be tough and effective managers in Iraq, in the war on terror, in border security and work to make abortion rare (proving themselves by affirming all of Bush’s Supreme Court nominees). The whole process keeps going further and further to the right, and people learn to adapt themselves to the “new normalcy” and finding a way to plead for more space within that.
The logic of this leads you to the lesson of German history ( during World War II) immortalized by Pastor Neimoeller. He warned us of failing to act when it was still possible because you thought the danger didn’t affect you – and by the time it did affect you it was too late to stop it. The point of his famous statement isn’t for us to repeat the tragic mistake!
This is why we need to do October 5th.
The Future is in Balance; We Must Act Now.
This is not an overstatement or idea in the abstract- this is real. What kind of doctor could you be in a world where performing an abortion is outlawed and women are classified as either pregnant or pre-pregnant? What kind of lawyer could you be where due process is a thing of the past? What kind of teacher could you be where it is against state policy to teach about evolution? Where English is the only language to be taught and prayer is mandatory? What will the political discourse and intellectual life of society be like if Bush succeeds in redefining what truth is and how one arrives at the truth?
If we act now and step into the streets on October 5th to bring this to a halt it could reverse the course of history. If we fail to act or even if we protest but our aims fall short of driving out the Bush Regime then this will have negative consequences for the planet and for the future.
We can do this.
Apathy is not the problem. Millions of people are agonizing over the future and searching for a way to make an impact. Some have become disaffected with politics but still hate what is going on. We”ve seen many youth come out to protest the war in Iraq, volunteer in New Orleans, walk out to protest bills that would criminalize and deport immigrants and there are millions of students who outraged by the war, the lies and the torture who need to be on the forefront of manifesting massive resistance on October 5th.
As many of us are returning to school, kids in Lebanon are returning back to their villages to pick through the rubble of their homes and too many of them will be digging out the dead bodies of their family members. Even though you hate this, children in Lebanon cannot see your anti-Bush bumper sticker; they cannot see the anti-war button on your backpack. We need to manifest in the streets in massive protests to bring this to light. Tens of thousands of people need to join together across the country on one day to send a message to the entire planet, that not only is their a deep hatred for President Bush across the country, but that there are large numbers of people stepping into the streets to settle for nothing less than the Bush Regime being driven from office- NOW- and the American people going about their daily routines as if monstrous crimes were not happening can not continue and we must bring this to a halt. The world needs us to stop this.
Tell the Truth about what will Stop This Direction and What Won’t
The walkouts and marches against the anti-immigrant HR4337 Bill did mean something. They impacted the political terrain. The problem was not that protests against HR4337 were ineffective, the problem was a central question to that protest movement became ” what Democrat or what legislative bill should we line up behind?”
October 5th we’re talking about something different. On October 5th, campuses need to be shutdown by massive independent political protest involving hundreds and thousands of students and faculty. The political opposition on the day must be so massive and so determined; that the powers that be cannot ignore it, the media cannot ignore it, the world can’t ignore it and the authorities who attempt to repress walk outs and protests on October 5th know the whole world is watching. On October 5th we are going out to bring this to a halt, not merely registering dissent. We are setting out to change the whole political question and reverse the course of history. This is not a one shot deal- we need to seize on the momentum leading up to and during October 5th, to grow and deepen the movement to drive out the Bush regime leap by leap. Every generation has a mission- truly ours is to drive out the Bush Regime.
How Are We Going to do This?
Set plans for October 5th and begin building for it in your school, in your town, and online right away. There maybe just a few people at your school at first, but if you step out others will step out. And if you step out boldly with determination and aim for nothing less than walkouts or not going to school on October 5th- as controversial as that is and should be- people will follow because this is what the world is calling on this generation to do and because this the thing, the only thing, that can really provide a vehicle for people’s outrage and distress. These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary acts of resistance.
You might run up against students who don’t think protests matter or might not like Bush but think its too extreme to call him a war criminal-but we need to get a buzz going where the entire school is confronted with the fact that each day they know their government is committing crimes and decide not to take part in the political upheavel needed to stop it- then they are complicit with those crimes and future crimes to be carried out in our name. And the school is going to know about it when the dorms are saturated with posters, when every locker has a flyer for the 5th, when we’re making announcement in classrooms, radio, the school newspaper, when professors are making announcements about October 5th and student groups are blasting out emails calling on students to come out on October 5th.
Know the Truth, Deliver the Verdict and Act on it- 4 Essential Steps:
(1) Set concrete plans for October 5th and send them to the World Can’t Wait website.
(2) Study the World Can’t Wait Call and download materials from the website to begin mobilizing for October 5th. Create a Myspace.com page as part of publicizing your plans for October 5th and a way to organize with others.
(3) Two Key Dates. Go all out in organizing students to attend the Mass Meetings on September 7th that will be announced in the New York Times the last week of August. Email, call and text message everyone you know to be at the mass meeting on Sept. 7th, make a big push to do outreach on campuses for Sept. 7th and post up info for Sept. 7th on web forums. Have materials, organizing kits and an outreach calendar ready for the Sept. 7th meetings. The second key date is Sept. 19th- Bush Crimes Day. Hold an event on September 19th as part of Bush Crimes Day called by the Bush Crimes Commission (bushcommission.org). Put the question of the Bush Administration being guilty of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity fuel and frame the debate in society. Sept. 19th- 100 people on campus in orange Guantanamo suits, DVD showings and guest speakers exposing the crimes of the Bush Administration- Learn the truth, deliver the verdict and act on it!
(4) To find out more about Bush Crimes Day, how to organize for October 5th and hear other voices organizing for October 5th check out worldcantwait.org on the regular and also visit the Students and Youth section.
Finally, step back ask your self: what will diplomas, grades and careers mean in a nation where the rulers can openly institute a policy of torture as an acceptable form of governing society? What type of world will we inherit when global warming reaches an irreversible phase?
October 5th- Bring this to a Halt
The World Can’t Wait Drive out the Bush Regime