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NYC flagship Teach – In
October 30, 7pm at St. John The Divine Cathedral, 110th St. and Amsterdam Avenue
Featuring speakers Les Roberts (an author of the recent study revealing that over 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the 2003 invasion and occupation), Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Chris Hedges (author of the best selling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning), Cristina Page (author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America), and Larry Everest (author of Oil, Power, & Empire).
This flagship event will be webcast, starting at 9pm Oct. 30th and online for the following 2 weeks. Start organizing nation-wide house parties, dorm showings, and gatherings of people. [more]
Action needed: mass campaign to get CSPAN to cover the event [more]
For NYC Flyers, Out Reach Schedule, Press Release and to Volunteer please visit: http://www.myspace.com/wcwvolunteers
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The Bush Crimes Commission & the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime invite you to:
It’s Worse Than You Think…
Where is the Bush Regime taking the World?
Why Must it Be Stopped?
The world faces a grave emergency. The very nature of U.S. society and its relationship to other countries are being reshaped in a horrific ways before our eyes. Yet the full implications of these sweeping changes are not widely understood, even among those who oppose the Bush administration. This must change!
Consider:
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the U.S. government has now legalized torture and shredded constitutional promises of the basic and foundational rights of due process. This unprecedented action is not an isolated incident; it is part of a larger Bush administration package that includes:
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the on-going occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, with ominous threats of war on Iran, possibly nuclear war – all expressions of a strategy of unchallenged global supremacy and an illegal doctrine of “preventive war”
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the Patriot Act, NSA spying, the Military Commissions Act – all represent significant and qualitative steps towards a police state under a president unrestrained by law
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systematic assaults on women’s rights to abortion and birth control, with the growing danger abortion will be outlawed.
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a criminal response to Hurricane Katrina that still continues.
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the denial of the basic human rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people
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new repressive legislation aimed at immigrants, along with the militarization of the USMexico border
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systematic obstruction of efforts to curb global warming
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a dramatic erosion of the separation of church and state, and serious motion towards theocracy where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism would rule
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the suppression of science that doesn’t fit the extreme right’s religious, political and economic agenda; if allowed to continue, this will inflict a terrible price on present and future generations
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the promotion of a culture of greed, bigotry, and intolerance
Each of these actions exacts an enormous human toll, and taken together the whole package is far worse. It is unrelenting and extremely dangerous. As the call for The World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime states: “The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.”
Neither the full magnitude nor the staggering implications of the Bush program are well understood. The administration systematically lies about its actions and agenda, while the major media and Democrats allow it to frame the overall discussion. As a result, the most crucial issues are not discussed truthfully either in the public arena or in election campaigns. This is a major reason why public resistance to Bush’s outrages is nowhere near what it urgently needed.
This is why “The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime” organization, in conjunction with the Bush Crimes Commission and others, are calling for emergency teach-ins – in communities, on campuses, and in homes – to explore the actual content of the Bush program and where it is taking the people of the world.
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We will join with others in organizing emergency nationwide teach-ins, large and small, in communities and on campuses, between October 26 and 30.
New York City will host a major “flagship” event on October 30 featuring speakers Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Chris Hedges (author of the best selling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning), which will be web-cast into homes and classrooms around the country. We are also encouraging a movement of emergency teach-ins in other areas on that or subsequent nights, especially on major campuses. These local programs could include speakers on several aspects of the Bush program, or even just one aspect (a speakers bureau is being organized).
World Can’t Wait, the Bush Crimes Commission and other sponsoring organizations will provide materials like DVD’s on war, torture, Katrina, global warming, Bush policies on HIV/AIDS, and Bush war crimes, as well as printed materials and organizing suggestions so that individuals or groups can organize their own teach-ins in theaters, churches, classrooms, community centers or homes aspect.
These are teach-ins with a purpose. Their goal is education, but also discussion of everyone’s moral and political responsibilities in the face of the Bush onslaught.
We”re aiming for a nationwide impact building off October 5. Having hundreds of teach-ins on campuses and in communities across the country on the same day (or days) will make a statement that many, many people want to learn and discuss the truth about the Bush regime, not media spin and election-driven propaganda. This is a concerted push to raise and discuss the crucial issues of the day which can reframe discussion and break through the suffocating and false terms that characterizes what passes for debate in this country.
How to organize a teach-in in your area
Find everything you need by clicking on the links below. Email mailto: teachin@worldcantwait.org with any quesions.
Materials to use at your teach-in, including DVD to play
Materials:
Here are 4 things to use for your teach-in:
1) DVD of testimony from the Bush Crimes Commission is perfect for showing the magnitude and scope of this regime’s crimes, from a range experts and witnesses.
Click here to order the DVD’s.
Click here to download a segment on torture.
2) NYC teach-in webcast Oct. 30
Featuring speakers Les Roberts (an author of the recent study revealing that over 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the 2003 invasion and occupation), Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Chris Hedges (author of the best selling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning). Details for the webcast will be available soon. You can play the webcast to an audience in your area.
3) Use information on our website to present at your teach-in.
Find out about the latest crimes of the Bush regime in our news & outrages section.
4) Finding speakers for your teach-in
List of Potential Speakers for Teach-ins:
“We arouse consciousness in order to create mass resistance”*. Right now we need voices that will speak clearly and unapologetically about the Bush Regime’s horrific program and the stakes humanity faces in this pivotal moment. Invite professors, progressive religious leaders, writers or veterans against the war to speak at your event.
Think Big. Think Broadly. Is there an artist in your area who would show an exhibit to make your event come alive? A scientist or doctor that could speak about the Bush administration’s attacks on science? Below are a list of groups that provide speakers concerning the issues addressed and might be able to help with World Can’t Wait’s call for Emergency Teach-Ins.
*Historians Against the War
*Theocracy Watch
*American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org – click on link to “Your Local ACLU”)
*Iraq Veterans Against the War (http://www.ivaw.net)
*Military Families Speak Out (http://www.mfso.org – click on “Chapters”)
Sample Letter to Invite Speakers:
Dear XXX,
Attached is a proposal for nationwide emergency teach-ins, Oct 26-30. I am writing to invite you to be one of the people speaking [ local info ]. The call is initiated by the World Can’t Wait coalition with the support of the Bush Crimes Commission.
This is a short time-frame, but we really need to act on this highly politicized moment. Our aim is to force a conversation about the real issues that you won’t hear in the suffocating atmosphere of media spin and electioneering. It’s crucial that people nationwide grasp the magnitude, trajectory and implications of the whole Bush “package” – something even many who oppose Bush don’t yet fully understand.
The very things that people care about the most are being deep-sixed in the campaign. And there is a whole range of issues that are just not understood by the public, from the threatened war on Iran, to the radical substance of the recent torture bill, to the very serious movement to outlaw abortion.
In addition to the many local events, there will be a “flagship event” in New York that is intended as a model for the breadth of issues that we want to inspire in local teach-ins all over the country. To facilitate that, we will stream the New York event on the internet and quickly produce a DVD of it.
This is a moment when people’s “ears are up,” so that a concentrated effort now is worth months of work in ordinary times. Please let us know about your availability and your thoughts on how to make this happen to the maximum.
What places are available for meetings & performances? Each town is different, but every town has a place to host an event. Union halls, book stores, churches, theatres or a place to host a house party. Many teach-ins or film screenings are held on college campuses – these are places where people are studying and discussing big issues of the day and where resistance movements have been historically rooted. Most anyone in a Law Department is outraged and agonizing over the new “Torture Bill” that has been signed by President Bush. What about the religious studies department helping out in hosting an event on the breakdown of the separation between church and state under the Bush administration? These are all potential organizers and people to approach at colleges about hosting an event on campus. This needs to happen; argue for people to rearrange their schedules and change their calendars to make space available for the event.
Publicity
The word can get out to a lot of people, very quickly, by bringing people from different communities into the process of publicizing your event. People with large email lists, youth who are on Myspace or Facebook a lot and could post your event all over the place, people with a platform to speak; religious leaders, teachers, artists, who could make announcements about the event. Record a P.S.A for the local radio station or figure out a way to get the word out over the airwaves. Set a goal of how many flyers you need and make plans to get them printed up for distribution and posting. Identify key places like supermarkets, churches, train stations, campus centers to get the word out.
These are some key parts about getting the word out about your teach-in, but draw on people’s creativity and ideas about how to get the word out in your area.
The Event
A good deal of thinking, planning and collective effort among people involved with building for the teach-in needs to go into the actual event. World Can’t Wait has found it to be extremely important to have sign-ups sheets for everyone that attends and materials at the event for people to take home (the wcw call, flyers, literature, fact sheets, stickers). Also develop a questionnaire for new people to fill out so we can learn more about the people who attended the teach-in and how they can contribute to efforts to force the Bush regime out of office. It’s also essential to develop a checklist of things to have for the event:
___ Sign – Up Sheets
___ Identify the sound and video equipment you will need ( speakers, mic, camera to record the event).
___ An M.C. or a person to introduce/moderate the event
___ Materials for the event ( flyers, WCW Call, fact sheets, literature)
___ Program for the event
___ Donation Can/ Envelope to pass around and for entrance
___ Set a time and place for your next meeting, event or protest to announce at the Teach-In
Some facts to think about in preparing for your teach-in:
*654,965. According to a new study, this is how many Iraqi civilians have died, between the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and July 2006.
*Torture is now legal. The new Military Commission Act legally allows the government to hold people indefinitely without a trial and removes what had been the constitutional right to habeas corpus. The U.S. government cannot be held up to the Geneva Conventions in any civil case or habeas corpus proceedings undertaken against the U.S. government.
*George Bush: ‘God Told Me to End the Tyranny in Iraq’
*Seven states, including Illinois, Louisiana, and Kentucky have either trigger laws to ban abortion immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned or have statements of policy that display the same intention for immediate bans.
These facts are basic and fundamental features of the Bush Agenda that are shaping the future of U.S. society. How many people in America know about this? How many are aware of these atrocities, but fail to grasp they are part of a larger, coherent package that can only really be described as fascist?
The times are calling for a heavy dose of reality that could wake up millions.
October 26th-30th”why call for teach-ins so soon? This is a short time-frame, but we really need to act on this highly politicized moment. Our aim is to force a conversation about the real issues that you won’t hear in the suffocating atmosphere of media spin and electioneering. It’s crucial that people nationwide grasp the magnitude, trajectory and implications of the whole Bush “package” – something even many who oppose Bush don’t yet fully understand.