Declare It Now at Rock The Bells in San Francisco
 | We had around 40 World Can’t Wait organizers inside Rock The Bells, many of whom responded from a mass email sent out 10 days before the event. We did two types of outreach- (1) a vendor booth which was well visited and (2) going out in groups of three or two with bags filled with fliers and bandanas. Our reach at the concert was reasonably broad and generally encountered a positive reception to World Can’t Wait from artists and audience members. Orange was ALL OVER at the concert- both in the bandanas that had been bought by the masses and also in the visibility of the orange teams, a couple artists, like Chuck D, were rocking bandanas.
The response from the people at the concert were interesting. The discussions had a wide range of views and understandings; there was a lot of frustration around the current state of politics and the options presented to people and there was a widespread anger about the complicity of the Democrats. Most people were aware of the Bush regime’s atrocities and wanted them out now. Many people brought forward a concern of feeling isolated whether they be from Sacramento, Fresno, or Nevada. People said the felt isolated because of the feeling that they were the only person in their community who was against what was happening. This experience really underscores the potential strength of people in small towns or conservative areas wearing orange as a way to project their outrage and establish a sense of solidarity and community. The fact that many of the people I and other spoke with were open to the challenge of creating a movement of people from the bottom to drive this regime out was inspiring. At many other events I’ve encountered folks who don’t seem to think it’s possible to do something like what we’re calling for, but there was more of a sense at Rock the Bells that not only could we build a mass movement, but that it was the only thing which might work to reverse what the Bush Administration has done to this country. This felt like something new. |
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