From New Orleans to Jena to American Fascism
Resistance and Repudiation
By Mark James
September 2005: Hurricane Katrina left the poorest and predominantly black neighborhoods in New Orleans under water. The National Guard was under orders to shoot everyone who dared leave their rooftops in search of food and water.
September 2006: Black students at Louisiana’s Jena High School dared to sit under the campus shade tree that had been reserved for whites only. Skirmishes broke out leaving six black students with criminal charges that could result in prison sentences.
September 2007: A student at University of Florida dared to ask John Kerry at a Q and A why he has and is continuing to acquiesce to the Bush agenda. This student was dragged away by police and tasered.
September 2007: Just on the heels of the firing of Professor Ward Churchill from the University of Colorado for teaching the truths of the colonial and imperial attacks on indigenous peoples, Professor Norman Finkelstein is forced to resign from his position at DePaul University for daring to criticize Israel and Zionism.
Our government is sending a clear message to the people: Accept poverty as the will of God. Accept the authority of the White House. But most of all – if you dare to resist – accept the loss of positions in academia, accept nooses hung from trees, accept being tasered and accept brutality from local henchmen. The Bush White House is using its last 15 months in office to ensure that its radical remaking of society toward fascism is so embedded in society that the next administration will be given free reign to continue its global empire without resistance from the people.
We are at a time and place in history where everything we do or don’t do will help determine the outcome of a battle between two very different visions of the future. People must dare to resist everything that enables Bush’s program to be further accepted as the norm. People must learn to resist in small ways and in large ways. By wearing orange as part of everyday life, people can demonstrate their opposition to the Bush program. By tens of thousands going to Jena to protest Jim Crow resurgence, the power of resistance emboldens others to act. By students at DePaul wearing shirts that say “We Are All Finkelstein”, others are forced to recognize the stakes in the battle for true academic freedom – the kind of freedom that encourages students to question a political program based on global empire and home-spun fascism.
Unlike most of the victims of Katrina in 2005, people in 2007 don’t have to accept dehydration and starvation on their rooftops with no hope of salvation; people can unite and resist the authorized program in search of a future worth living. The Bush Regime must be driven from power before the end of its term to ensure the repudiation of its program. The World Can’t Wait is accessing the potential of driving out this regime and setting a course of political resistance to all that’s unleashed by Bush in ways that will make it most difficult for his agenda to be furthered and his authority to be considered legitimate throughout society.
World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime is taking the responsibility of fanning the flames of resistance while spreading orange, educating people to the truth about Bush’s fascist agenda and, most importantly, building a movement that can drive out this regime.