By Sunsara Taylor, 1/7/07
The triumph of the new Democratic Congress on their first day and their promises of a “new direction” offered all the refreshment of Lysol dressing up the stench of rotting homes of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, of human waste and blood in the secret C.I.A. torture dungeons, and of the mangled bodies that are being chewed by dogs in the streets of of Baghdad.
Nancy Pelosi’s much touted agenda for the first 100 hours of the new
Congress made no mention of ending the war on Iraq, repealing the
Military Commissions Act which legalizes torture and rips up habeas
corpus, rebuilding New Orleans, or — for all the talk of her
chairmanship as a “great advance” for women — taking on the assault on
women’s reproductive rights and basic equality.
Throughout their painstakingly choreographed first day in Congress,
the horrors that the Democrats are working with the Bush Regime to push
out of the public eye and the deep and widespread disgust of millions
with these horrors kept bubbling up.
On January 4th, millions of readers woke up to articles in the New
York Times, Washington Post, New York Post and elsewhere with the
exhilarating news of Cindy Sheehan seizing the microphone after
Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emmanuel fled the disruption of his
press conference by anti-war protesters. Emmanuel’s smug arrogance
about his “success” in turning the Democratic Party into one that is
even less distinguishable from the Republicans — by recruiting
pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-gay candidates — was challenged before
his new Congress was even sworn in.
At noon, just as Nancy “impeachment-off-the-table” Pelosi was being
sworn in, hundreds gathered near the Capital beneath a banner that
read: “Impeach George Bush for War Crimes.” Several dozen people
crouched in the bright orange jumpsuits that are the signature of
Guantanamo detainees with black hoods over their heads. They were a
living portrayal of some of the Bush Regimes’ crimes against humanity:
the illegal detention and torture that this regime has
institutionalized and that this Congress won’t even speak about.
People of all ages had traveled from Illinois, Georgia, Michigan,
New York and elsewhere, some abandoning at the last minute their plans
to see their congresspeople get sworn in – choosing instead to protest
for impeachment. An active duty Marine blended into the crowd in his
street clothes. While most people had come out of opposition to the
war, it was striking how strongly the crowd responded when people from
the stage spoke against the Bush regime’s handling of Hurricane Katrina
as well as the brutal killing of Sean Bell by the New York Police
Departments’ 50 shots, particularly the fists of anger and defiance
that shot up from among the Black folks in the crowd.
Military mother Elaine Brower, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern,
Green Party co-chair Steve Cramer, Paul Magno of the Torture Abolition
Coalition, Kevin Zeese of Democracy Rising and others took turns at the
mic. Some expressed their hope that the new Congress will listen and
respond to the demands of the people to get out of the brutal war in
Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan was greeted with enthusiasm spoke movingly about the
cost of the Iraq war in the lives of Iraqi people and the need for
people to hold the new Congress’ feet to the fire to impeach Bush and
end the war in Iraq. Reverend Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus
delivered a stirring challenge to the audience to cross traditional
color lines and bring together the streams of outrage around US
immigration policy, against the treatment of people in New Orleans, and
against the war into a unified movement against a regime that is
endangering us all. I spoke for World Can’t Wait, focusing on the
complicity of the Democrats in accepting and promoting the whole logic
of Bush’s so-called “War on Terror” and the need for people to rise up
in massive political upheaval to bring this whole direction to a halt.
As the rally came to a close, a recording of Pink’s scathing “Dear
Mr. President” filled the air. And protesters in Guantanamo orange
jumpsuits lined up on the street each with a four-foot-tall letter
spelling out “The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime!” and
then marched towards the capital, drawing support from many people on
the street who raised concerns ranging from stem cell research to the
discarding of the Geneva Conventions.
Meanwhile, the Senate building was being redecorated with immense,
truth-telling banners. One that hung 30 by 10 feet proclaimed: “War,
Lies, Torture – We Will Not Be Silent,” was flashed on several major
news programs. Senators came out with their eyes wide and jaws open
while federal workers gathered to admire and appreciate this message.
That evening, 300 people crowded in to the National Press Club to
listen to Michael Ratner, Cindy Sheehan, John Nichols, Daniel Ellsberg,
myself and a video message from Gore Vidal in a program emceed by David
Swanson of After Downing Street. Together we laid out the crimes of
the Bush regime, from the war of aggression against Iraq and
legalization of torture which constitute war crimes and crimes against
humanity, to the frontal assault on women’s reproductive rights and the
rights of gay people, the danger to the environment, the suppression of
science and critical thought, the official promotion of Christian
fundamentalism, and the criminal response to Hurricane Katrina.
An Historical Challenge
As the Call for the World Can’t Wait states, “The Bush regime is
setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way,
and for generations to come.”
This was not changed or even challenged in the 2006 elections. A
sobering sign of the political climate is that even with a Democratic
majority, even John Conyers — one of the most liberal members of
Congress who has done as much to expose the impeachable offenses of
George Bush as almost anyone and who has worked with World Can’t
Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime — has come out and argued against
impeachment, insisting it is unrealistic because it would require
bipartisan support.
What this is really saying is that the only people who can set
political terms in this country are George Bush’s neo-cons and
Christian fascists and that everyone else has to find their place
within these terms. But this must not be accepted.
Just as it did during Nixon’s day, it will take political struggle
breaking free of these terms and coming up from below to create a
situation where those in power are compelled to change their position
and impeachment is put back on the table and carried out or some other
means is found to politically drive out this regime. If we fail,
everything that Bush has done will remain legitimate, no matter who
becomes the next president and the people of the world and future
generations will judge us harshly.
O”Reilly’s Threats. . . and Their Fear of Mass Action
That night, The O’Reilly Factor aired an exchange between me and
O’Reilly where he repeatedly called me a lunatic and actually
threatened me, while I stayed focused on how George Bush has committed
war crimes and crimes against humanity and must be stopped. (Click here to watch the interview.)
One very interesting thing about this program was the discussion
that followed my appearance. O’Reilly’s next guest, Dick Morris, a high
level bourgeois political operative, challenged how O’Reilly dismissed
me and the protesters as just a small group. “It’s huge, it’s not 50
or 60, its tens of millions,” Morris said, “Just as in the 1960’s the
Vietnam movement was critical of its own Democratic Party for
supporting the war and for not opposing it vigorously enough, you’re
going to see the Howard Dean element of the Democratic Party
increasingly breaking away from the Pelosi mainstream of the Party…
The Democrats are determined to stay away from the two issues that got
them elected: opposing the tax cuts and the Iraq war… There’s a
fissure happening… and that lunatic, as you called her… is not
alone.”
O’Reilly tried again insisting that we are merely “a pressure
group.” He said, “They’re not wide, they can’t mobilize a lot of
people because people understand that the United States would be much
better off if we did win in Iraq.” And Morris replied, “I’ll bet they
could put two million people in the streets of Washington.”
The truth of how widespread opposition to the Bush program was
apparent in the response our protests got all day long. It was even
apparent when I stepped into the car that Fox News had provided for
me. The driver, after hearing about my appearance, blurted out, “Bill
O’Reilly is the lunatic! And George Bush doesn’t need to be
impeached. He needs to be thrown in jail!”
Will the resisters who sprung up all over D.C. and who represent the
will and the interests of millions of people in this country and more
around the world persevere and step up their challenge to this regime –
and also challenge all those who would sit back and be complicit in the
tremendous crimes being committed? Will all this gain in momentum and
determination to create a situation where the refusal of those in power
to reverse this direction is responded to by greater outbreaks of
political struggle rather than passive acceptance and demoralization?
Or will the people be lulled by the false sense of victory that comes
from this reactionary Democratic Congress? Will people’s hopes,
energies, resources and principles be sucked into the killing confines
of the 2008 elections which have already kicked into gear and are not
challenging in any fundamental way the whole direction and package of
the Bush regime? There is a huge choice and challenge before us – and
what we do, and win others to do, will matter immensely.