Effective chapters are built on strong political
understanding of the reasons why we do this work, and why we must act. This political understanding is an ongoing
learning process, which not only fuels organizers, but makes us more adept at
fielding questions and engaging people in meaningful conversations.
The Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime is our founding
document and has been the ground and the glue for a mass movement that has
inspired thousands to take action. It is a guide as well as a political
analysis of the depth and scope of the entire package of the Bush Regime. It clearly outlines what we are up against
and what the stakes are. Read it and study it.
Each point of the Call defines only an aspect of this package. Become more and more familiar with real examples of how each point is
articulated politically throughout society by the Bush Regime.
Have discussions with other people in WCW about aspects of
the Call that you may have questions about, or that resonate more deeply with
you.
Not all World Can’t Wait organizers agree fully with every
word of the Call. We learn from each other through respectful and robust
discussion about these matters.
We all agree on one point:
the need to Drive out the Bush Regime and repudiate its agenda. Talk to
friends, co-workers and family about this movement. Get their support and encourage them to get
involved with you in this work.
Active Investigation
This is a method that we use in all our work. Put simply, it means that we are always
seeking to know what people are thinking.
What do they think about the overall content of the Call? Do they think
it is possible to drive out the Bush Regime?
What do they think is the best way to do that? What do people think is needed to move
millions into opposition?
To answer this we need both to use our understanding of the
situation and to be good listeners. What
did we learn about what seemed to work and not work in answering people’s
questions? What are new questions we
need to address?
When we put all that together with others” experience all
over the country, the information enables the national steering committee to
formulate plans.
The National Website is a crucial component to lead a
movement of millions. It provides a
common political framework and orientation for us all, from those in the national
office to the one organizer in a rural region of California.
Discuss major articles for the analysis and thinking behind common
national efforts like “Declare it Now!
Wear Orange!”
Contribute articles on major events in the world or your thoughts on how to
build this movement. What is one of the
most frequently asked questions you encounter?
Write your best answer. Send it
to the website and to the discussion list and it will contribute to a better
understanding by all.
The website is
designed to be a place for people to reference; to become more familiar with
the history and political thrust of WCW, for breaking news, current videos,
events, and important messages. Everything you need to make flyers and
materials, or to order particular materials, can be found on the website. If you can’t find what you need, call your
chapter coordinator or the national office. Visit the website daily. Chapters
post information about local events as well as reports, video and still photos.
These materials keep us informed of the work being done by other organizers.
The World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime is a National
Movement. Though chapters work independently and there are regional approaches
and influences, we work nationally in a unified way to inform and mobilize
thousands (millions) to take independent political action to drive out this
hated regime. The national office in NYC
is a central hub, and it is important to the ongoing effectiveness of this
movement that chapters stay connected and in touch with the office in a variety
of ways. Communicating regularly with chapter coordinators not only assists
chapters, but increases our collective knowledge of how people are responding
and thinking about WCW as well as unfolding political events. This assists the Steering Committee in making
strategic decisions in a range of areas.
National conferences calls are scheduled weekly for chapter
people from all over the country to have an opportunity to share thoughts
strategies and ideas with the national steering committee or the national
coordinator.
DAY TO DAY OPERATIONS: Getting Started
1. Sign up on the
organizers list so that you will receive important emails from the national
office as well as communication from other chapters and organizers
2. Establish a WCW
email address and check it frequently–at least once a day.
3. Have a phone # where you can be easily reached by others
in your chapter, potential organizers, other organizations, national office and
chapter coordinators.
4. Print out blank WCW contact sheets in quantity
(attached), and always have a clipboard with you when you go out to any meeting
or event. Collect names of folks you
talk to, making sure that they print their email address and phone # as legibly
as they can. Make notes on the sheets as to where you met them, the date, and
any thing that they volunteered to do, or any connections they may have to
other groups and might be able to assist with outreach. Transfer e-mail
addresses to your growing WCW address book, which will eventually become your
e-list. (Many organizers copy original contact sheets and put them somewhere
safe, using copies for reference, as well as for WCW office work. Do not leave
contact info lying around. Back up all data on disks or CD’s). E mail one copy to contacts@worldcantwait.org (just
include the email address 1 per line) to be put on the national email list.
This is very important in reaching out to involve them in everything from
organizing an event to donating money.
5. Call these contacts soon after you meet them and invite
them to meetings and events. Stay in
touch with them. Form relationships. Get
them involved politically as well as in coordinating chapter work and tasks. Begin
to schedule regular weekly meetings. Call all contacts, post flyers, and email
time and place. Encourage people to let their friends know about these
meetings. These can take place at a local coffee shop or fast food restaurant,
a library, at someone’s home, or even at a park.
Stay in touch with chapter team coordinators. Let us know
how things are going: what challenges you are encountering, what questions
people have and what they are saying and thinking.
COMPONENTS OF A GROWING CHAPTER
BROAD OUTREACH
Passing out flyers and contact information where there is
opportunity to encounter crowds
(concert events, speaker events, book signings, well-trafficked public areas or
thoroughfares, movie theatres, political marches and demonstrations initiated
by other group as well as WCW) posting flyers and posters, or setting up a WCW
table (tabling) stocked with flyers, posters, stickers, t-shirts, buttons and
bracelets. and other information about WCW.
Always solicit donations.
Sending out a weekly of current activities and events
newsletter to your growing list.
Phonebanking: keeping in touch with contacts through calling
to discuss political terrain, breaking
events, and to solicit funds to keep our movement alive.
ORGANIZATION OUTREACH
Form relationships with other social and political
organizations. This can be achieved in a
variety of ways. The first step is to
get to know who the different groups are, what their political focus and
philosophy is, and when their meetings, actions and events are.
Ask if you can give a short presentation about WCW at one of
their meetings. Attend their meetings
and offer WCW perspective to the process. Attend events and actions that they
plan if you believe their political orientation fit the Call or is compatible
with WCW principles. Get their agreement
to set up a WCW table at their actions and events. Invite them to your chapter meetings. Ask them to give a sort presentation of their
group’s political perspective and philosophy.
Keep them informed of WCW activities and planned events. Invite them to join in planning collective
events. Plan and create opportunities
for political discussions with other groups.
Usually these groups have a focus on what the Call outlines as “fighting
one outrage at a time”, and so it is our challenge to pose questions and ideas
to them about how people need to step back and consider the entire fascist
package of the Bush Regime, and how we must unite to push back collectively,
mobilizing masses of people to take independent political action, if we are to
change the direction society is being pulled.
OFFICE/OPERATIONS
Organizing and maintaining contact records and other
pertinent data. Office space can be rented as your chapter grows. The office
can become the hub of your chapter, where meetings can take place, where people
can come to pick up materials, where groups can phone bank together, or just
meet and have political discussions, etc.
Sometimes, office space is donated by supporters. Sometimes people work out of their own homes.
YOUTH AND STUDENTS
WCW needs to engage young people on college and high school
campuses in this movement. The energy and passion, determination that young
people contribute is essential to the success of driving this regime from
power. Young people are looking at a
bleak future, and many know this, but do not know that WCW is a vehicle of
expression of their frustration and anger at a system that manipulates,
discounts, fears or criminalizes them.
The best way to find youth is to go where they gather,
(coffee shops, skate parks, concerts, clubs, malls, college campuses and/or
near high schools). Bring flyers and WCW
info to them. Engage them in conversation about the political terrain and how
they can become involved in change. Talk to them about the stakes. Listen.
Invite them to meetings. Involve
them in planning teach-ins and actions that have more youth focus. Encourage them to plan their own meetings and
activities around WCW principles and to connect to youth and student
coordinators at the national office.
FUNDRAISING
The people need to drive out the Bush Regime. WCW provides a vehicle to do that. If we convey this well, then we have laid the
basis to ask for support from people in all kinds of ways, including
funds. And we should! Funding is one of the ways people can
contribute to building this movement.
This must be ongoing and factored into everything we do. WCW
is a volunteer organization, and depends on funding that is raised by us.
Phonebanking, calling previous donors to solicit funds,
fundraising events and house parties are some of the ways funds will be
raised. Selling merchandise that also
spreads the WCW message is another aspect (t-shirts, buttons, bracelets,
posters, bandanas).
ARTS
Engaging visual, written, performance and musical artists in
this movement deepens and enhances our ability to communicate and inspire folks
to come forward on a variety of levels.
LOGISTICS
This involves detailed planning of events and actions
(teach-ins, demos and marches, campaigns (such as “Declare It Now!-Wear Orange! fundraising
events).
COMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA
It is important to learn how to contact press, how to write
a press release, how to call a press conference.
Use film, dvd and video, music and other technology to
inform.