The Time Has Come Today”

Posted on September 26, 2006
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We are at a crossroads.

What will it take to realize the potential of October 5th
as fully as possible? Right now there is a core of people throughout the
country already activated, preparing and organizing for October 5th.
Thousands more are committed to act, and tens of thousands are thinking about
it, checking out this web site and other World Can’t Wait material. What will
it take to go to something much more powerful than this? In the days between
now and October 5th, how do we go to tens of thousands committed to
be part of these historic events, and hundreds of thousands deciding whether or
not they should throw in with them?

From the speech given by World Can’t Wait at the September 7th organizing meetings:

“You now
know that Bush and Rumsfeld have cynically been in on planning the
bombing that put the civilians of Lebanon
under rubble as a dry run for war with Iran.  You have the facts – that there is no
opposition to this coming from the Democratic Party.

“Condoleezza Rice glibly describes the loss of life and
destruction of the civilian infrastructure in Beirut
as the birth pangs of a new Middle East. The
new Middle East they are bombing into existence – and the polarization
resulting from this – is driving secular people in Lebanon
to support Hezbollah and creating new Hezbollah’s by the tens of thousands all
over the Middle East. Your government is
leaving the option of ‘nuclear bombs’ on the table to deal with Iran. Think of
the humanitarian disaster that would mean. And think of political disaster as
well, when people all over the world will see only two possible options before
them – Iranian style theocracy, or Bush-style crusade. No one will be left
unaffected by where those in power in the US are rapidly pushing things and
it is necessary – indeed critical – to confront the urgency posed by all this.”

 

Putting your hopes in the Democractic Party:

Even people who continue to hold out hopes and expectations
that the Democratic Party will finally do something about the Bush program need
to think long and hard about what difference a handful more Democrats – even
“anti-war Democrats” – will make in the situation that exists now, without October 5th, without an aroused and determined
section of people. Listen to what Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate
Democrats, said when asked if his party would offer principled opposition to
Bush’s efforts to legalize the use of torture: “there is no fight
here”. 

It is vitally important for each and every one of us to be
there and be counted on October 5th. 
But the historic juncture we are at demands more of us. All those people
committed and determined to act on October 5th must redouble and triple our
efforts.

World Can’t Wait speaks for millions when we say this regime
– with its wars, lies, torture, spying, self righteous culture of greed and
repression, contemptuous poisoning of the earth, “don’t know nothin’ and
don’t want to know nothin'” ignorance, does not represent us. Now is the
time to do exert every effort we can to build a powerful movement aimed at
driving it out.

What does this mean you can do? You can raise money for more
ads to be printed, and for leaflets and posters to be printed. You can
volunteer with the World Can’t Wait chapter in your area, or start one if it
doesn’t exist. You can join or initiate phone banking efforts to get the word
out. You can get stores in your neighborhood to put up World Can’t Wait posters
in their windows. You can tell your congregations, classes, and unions about
World Can’t Wait and October 5th, and encourage them to endorse it
and to be there. You can email everyone you know with Daniel Ellsberg’s speech
at the September 7th organizing meeting in San Francisco and other materials from
worldcantwait.org.

You can change the
course of history.

October 5th can blossom and burgeon into a day
that profoundly transforms the political atmosphere in this country and impacts
the entire world. The poisonous political atmosphere that dominates today –
“debates” among politicians over exactly what constitutes torture,
organ failure or death? – can be transformed.

The determination and energy of all those now prepared to
act must be multiplied many times over. We are not offering petty amendments to
Bush’s fascist program. We will not learn to accept the unacceptable. We will
settle for nothing less than doing “something on a scale that can really
make a huge change in this country and in the world”, as the World Can’t
Wait Call for October 5th states.

The Bush juggernaut has triggered huge turmoil in the world.
How this will turn out, what unexpected developments may cause further crises
and difficulties for it, how they will reverberate through the power structure
of this country, no one can foretell with certainty. But we do know that Bush
is hell bent on pursuing his agenda even more aggressively, in more parts of
the world.

The determination and energy of all those now prepared to
act to drive out the Bush regime must be multiplied many times over. We are not
offering petty amendments to Bush’s fascist program. We will not learn to
accept the unacceptable. We will settle for nothing less than doing “something
on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the
world”, as the World Can’t Wait Call for October 5th states.

This has happened before. Daniel Ellsberg brought out
important historic examples in his September 7th speech. He
recounted that “I keep looking at that date on the calendar – October 5. I
think of 1969 ” because on that day “across the country 2 million people
marched. Not in any one place, they were counted up and added up because they all
walked out; it was a weekday, out of school, out of businesses on that weekday.
They met in rallies, heard many speakers– in those days there was great
tolerance (well, there still is to some extent) for a lot of speeches. But it
was a weekday and they called it the Moratorium because people thought the word
general strike was too provocative, but that’s what they had in mind.

“It was a walkout, in other words it was no business as
usual. The president was watching it in the White House, hour by hour, while
pretending that he wasn’t. In fact he was in the situation room getting
half-hour reports on how many people. .. And the fact is that when people did
march in October and November 1969 – without even realizing that a crisis was
imminent, they just saw the war going on – they in fact stopped a massive
escalation of the war.”

Ellsberg also spoke of the spirit that infused that
movement, an unstoppable spirit that is needed today: “the situation now,
I think, demands of us not business as usual; it demands what was available in
this country in 1969. I’ll characterize that very briefly: 5,000 young people
went to prison rather then go into the army (under the draft) – rather then
collaborate with the war. I met some of those people on their way to prison.”

October 5th will be a significant day. Events are
scheduled in over 90 cities. Many prominent people have spoken about why the
Bush regime must be driven out; organizations throughout the country continue
to announce their support for its political aims. Thousands of people will be
taking off work or leaving school to participate in these events. But what will
happen on October 5th still hangs in the balance. If the people now prepared to act on October
5th and the people weighing that decision throw our energy, passion,
conviction, creativity, perseverance, and determination into making every day,
every hour and minute between now and October 5th count as much as
possible towards building the broadest and most powerful outpourings, doing
everything we can to bring out everyone we can in our schools, workplaces,
unions, congregations, neighborhoods and communities – we can make October 5th
into a force all of society must reckon with.

This is within our grasp. Right now, and every minute
counts.

The hour is late, and the need is great.

 

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