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Update: Report from the NYC demonstrations after the break.
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Over the last eight years the Bush Regime codified a comprehensive reactionary political program: openly whipping up anti-gay
sentiment; mandating the teaching of creationism in science class; restricting abortion and birth control based on biblical literalism that women are nothing more than incubators and should have no control over their bodies; calling for an end to the constitutional separation of church and state; launching and prosecuting endless unjust wars; carrying out torture as policy; violating sacrosanct civil liberties and civil rights; surveilling us all.
Millions were thrilled to see the Republicans voted out of office.
But who is to stop the Bush Program when Obama promotes finding common ground with Christian Fascists, war criminals and torturers? While Obama said he did not support Prop 8, he stated publicly many times that marriage should be between heterosexuals only. Instead of straddling the fence, he should have called for people to vote against Prop 8. Obama in fact has pledged to extend Bush’s faith-based initiatives that have granted over $2.2 billion to religious organizations.
We Will Not Accept The Bush Program – No Matter Who Is President!
Your government does not want what you want. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn, or be forced, to accept. What is needed is not a minor course correction or meaningless “change” we are allowed to believe in.
What we need is a radical change in direction brought about by people acting outside the strangling confines of official politics. Look at what official politics has given us!
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do.
We call on all people living in the United States to RESIST the trajectory of wars, reaction and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush Regime and a complicit Congress. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world by extending a hand to those suffering from these policies and by showing our solidarity in word and deed. Join with us. www.worldcantwait.org.
Demonstrations are happening throughout the country on November 16. Information is available at this web site. Join the impact: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/?t=anon;
Protesting Prop 8 From Coast to Coast, Border to Border
Over 100,000 people poured into the streets of cities across the country on November 15 in protest of the anti-gay bigotry of California’s Proposition 8. In small towns like Appleton Wisconsin and Cummington Massachusetts, cities such as Corpus Christi Texas and Jackson Mississippi, and every major metropolis in the country, people came together to voice outrage at the denial of basic civil rights expressed in Prop 8 and similar measures passed in 3 other states, determination to overcome these assaults, and confidence and optimism based on the fact that the cause they fight for is just.
Sneering, contemptuous denial of basic rights for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people has been a cornerstone of the Bush agenda, and it is part and parcel of the political program advanced by Christian theocrats such as Sarah Palin. At every step, president elect Obama has conciliated to these fascist measures, and he never spoke against proposition 8 – in fact, as the controversy developed around proposition 8 Obama expressed his belief that marriage can only be “between a man and a woman”.
The protests that erupted in California shortly after the voting on November 4, and have since reverberated in every state of the country, are an important and refreshing expression of resistance to the fascistic trajectory this country continues to be on, and should be supported and participated in by everyone who seeks basic justice.
The following are excerpts of a report on the demonstrations against prop 8 in New York City.
Prop 8 Report from New York City
In NYC there have been two outpourings against Prop 8, the initiative in California that nullified the California Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage. The first was on Wed, Nov 12 and was very rowdy.
Thousands of people swarmed the upper Westside protesting Prop 8 Wednesday evening. People gathered across from the Mormon Temple. So many people gathered that they quickly spilled out of the “protest pens” and took over the large Avenue in front of the Temple and then the intersection of Broadway and the surrounding streets. Then it seemed like the crowd just started down Broadway taking over the whole downtown side of the avenue. People kept joining in from the side streets.
One woman told us about taking a taxi from the east side and as soon as they were within a few blocks, she could hear the roar of the crowd chanting: “1-2-3-4, separate the church and state!” This was for a demonstration that most people had heard about the night before or through emails that day.
As the march went down Broadway, it made a special point to stop at the American Bible Society at 61st Street so that the chants could be heard. When the front of the march got to Columbus Circle, a few streets further south – several thousand strong at this point – there was a face-off with the police. One woman stood out in the street and called on people to continue the protest downtown. One of the monitors said, “‘This is a peaceful vigil.’ A reply from a rebel youth was: ‘There’s nothing peaceful about Prop 8!’ The woman in the street agreed. People gathered along the streets in the area, near Central Park, chanting, milling around, not wanting to go home with some arguing to continue downtown but eventually people drifted away.
The second outpouring was on Saturday in conjunction with the national call for actions all around the country. Somewhere between 2000 and 4000 people gathered at the NYC City Hall. The people stretched the entire length of one s
ide of City Hall Park. The people were all ages but a large percentage were younger, mostly gay but many straight, with signs like “Straight Against Hate.” There was no “official” sign so there were many homemade ones with creative messages. The sign of a girl about 6 years old, in colorful letters said, “My mom got married in California and all I got was discrimination.” One woman had come from Toronto to NYC to celebrate her 50th birthday and a bunch of her women friends who had come for the birthday celebration all came to the demonstration together.
Many expressed great disappointment at the fact that while a Black man was elected president, this proposition and others around the country against gays passed. Almost all of those said something to indicate what a historic thing it was to elect a Black man as president and that they voted for him. This simply increased the anger at the ongoing discrimination and hatred toward gay people. Several said that they were not so concerned about marriage per se (arguing that civil unions giving all legal rights should be for gay and straight and then marry in a religious way if you wanted) as they are about all the many ways the discrimination and hatred comes down. They did realize it was important to defend gay marriage since this issue had come to concentrate fighting for gay rights.
Many were very receptive to the view that this anti-gay bigotry was part of a package deal that went along with the wars, theocracy, anti-abortion and birth control, etc. This provided some perspective that cut through the confusion and anguish of “Why is this happening when such a progressive thing happened with the election of a Black president.”
One group of three friends in their 20s made a point of saying they are staying mobilized after the election. When they heard about the Bush regime’s program and the need for continued independent mass political action against all the crimes of the government no matter who is the president, they were excited about coming to a WCW meeting to talk about the future of that movement and the national meeting that would take that up. On the WCW contact sheets, they signed their names and added “Mobilized!”
Several people talked about the Wednesday demonstration proudly and it clearly had set a certain tone for this turnout. When I talked about these outpourings against Prop 8 around the country are exactly the type of mass political resistance that is needed, not begging politicians, there was universal agreement. There was a palpable sense of pride at having made powerful statements in the streets around the country.
The WCW signs drew smiles and many photographs, as well as making people receptive to taking the 1200 flyers distributed. The signs said, “Ban the Marriage of Church and State. No matter who is president, we will NOT accept the Bush program! STOP PROP 8 and all anti-gay bigotry!
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Dear President-elect Obama,
As a person of Christian faith, speaking to another person of Christian faith, I want to ask you to reaffirm our country\’s commitment to freedom of conscience and keep the laws and policies of the United States religion-neutral.
The Founding Fathers experienced the consequences of mixing religion and government: favoratism, injustice, and persecution. To be frank, certain Christian Evangelicals see God\’s will in forcing observance of their personal religious convictions on our religiously diverse population through legislation.
Religion (Christianity in particular) has never been well-served by government power. Instead of making government more righteous, government tends to corrupt and co-opt religion.
There will always be many opinions about the will of God or the authenic life. American public policy must be based on the maintainence of freedom, not forced righteouness.
As persons of faith, we will have our hands full making government pursue the civic virtures of justice, honesty, responsibility, respect, stewardship, unity, and compassionate assistance. Let public policy be based on good public order and individual freedom, and let religious virtues flourish and spread without the corrupting influence of government.
Sincerely,
Thomas Meacham