Bush Step Down and Take Your Program With You! Bring the Noise and Drown out the State of the Union Address. You Can’t Say it enough. Click below for a report from the World Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime’s National Organizer’s Conference and plans that came out of the Student and Youth Workshop.
This past week’s World Can’t Wait Drive Out The Bush Regime’s National Conference was a decisive meeting for organizers from around the country who gathered for 2 intense days of brainstorming, plan making and political discussion on what we’ve accomplished and what we must do to Drive Out the Bush Regime. We emerged out of it more determined to actually drive out the regime, with a greater understanding of how we can accomplish this, and some beginning plans for the State of The Union Protests and building for it. We need to immediately build off of this conference, and in particular in the youth and student aspect, make leaps in organizing a student movement across the country, and also call for actions to Drown Out Bush when he delivers the State of the Union Protest and a National Convergence in D.C the following Saturday.(and start building for them).
Dozens of Colleges and High Schools were represented as part of the 180 organizers who gathered in New York City Nov.19th and 20th. Debra Sweet, National Coordinator of World Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime, delivered the keynote speech which can be viewed here. The afternoon seemed to fly by too fast as organizers broke up into groups discussing the World Can’t Wait Call and a larger discussion around the 2 -Part State of the Union Protests to demand BUSH STEP DOWN and Take Your Program With You.
We can unlock a tremendous amount of momentum in this unprecedented effort to mobilize for nation-wide convergences on the night of the State of the Union Protest, in hundreds of local areas and swarm into the Nation’s Capitol in the tens of thousands to deliver an indictment of Guilty Against War Crimes and Crimes of Humanity and demand BUSH STEP DOWN. Part of the keynote speech highlights we can not solely weigh our own strengths disconnected from the stakes the world is facing laid out in the Call and the monumental events developing in the world like the Supreme Court Alito Nomination on Jan.9th and the anniversary of Roe V Wade on Jan. 22nd.
In all of our plans we must be aiming towards making a qualitative and quantitative leap beyond the November 2nd Protests. We need to mobilize a broader spectrum of society on a larger scale going into the State of the Union Protests and create a much larger outpouring of people that politically drowns out the lies Bush will be spewing out during the State of the Union Address.
There some key things we need to accomplish in the next week and making plans for students to raise funds and come to D.C and NYC for their Winter Break. Organizationally there are plans to establish a functioning National Student and Youth collectivity comprised of World Can’t Wait Organizers from around the country. Building for November 2nd, organizers learned the more students were able to connect up The Call and create a synergy in all their plans, the more students were unleashed the day of 11/2.
WHAT TO DO NOW
**Saturation**
The first needed component is visually saturating your campus, school and areas in your town where youth hang out. Thousands of flyers need to scream out: Bush Step Down and Take Your Whole Program With You– Mobilize for local Protests the Night of the State of the State of the Union address and travel to D.C the following Saturday for a National Mobilization. Stickers demanding Bush Step Down need to find their way onto poles, bathroom stalls, back packs and a million other places. The World Can’t Wait Call and the demand for Bush To Step Down need to be brought everywhere and anywhere we go, whether a Progressive Forum a Church Service a meeting with Sociology Professors. We need to bring others into taking part in this historic event and one way is leaving bundles of flyers in establishments and handing out stacks to students when we do outreach at school. High School students can stuff all of the lockers and teachers mailboxes with flyers. Make announcements at cafeterias and dinning halls.
We have to create a scene when we do outreach with BIG visuals, loud agitators and lots of materials for people to take and become organizers on the spot. Posters that read; State of the Union- with Union crossed out and Emergency written over it- and our demand Bush Step Down need to be plastered on all the Kiosks, bulletin boards, windows, hallways and doors. Writing on Chalkboards/ Dy Erase Boards before class and chalking the ground need to be interwoven with bold skits that bring out the 7 Governments in a living way. The “Bring Home the Reality of the Back Alley Abortion Days” Street Theatre and posters/signs of the Today’s Reason to Drive Out the Bush Regime are necessary in spurring debates through campus, polarizing the student body with the aim of bringing into being a student movement dedicated to Driving Out the Bush Regime.
** Meeting with Professors, Student Groups and Student Governments**
Professors
Summing up after Nov.2nd, student organizers from Universities that had students participating in the hundreds, all worked closely with progressive professors. We need to transform the terrain and build a CAMPUS movement against the Bush Regime with students and faculty throwing in fully around World Can’t Wait. Organizers at Columbia College in Chicago spoke in 50 classrooms and at times professors opened up the entire period to discuss the stakes humanity is facing and what WE need to be doing. Professors are not just a lever or tool to be used, but can play a powerful role in exposing the Bush Regime and contribute to the much needed discussion of why and how we can Drive Out the Bush Regime.
World Can’t Wait Organizers spoke in many High School Classrooms leading up to November 2nd and raised students sights about what the world was facing and how we can make a real impact in society by launching this movement Nov. 2nd. We need to be back in those classrooms; bringing out living examples of the 7 Your Governments, what we accomplished November 2nd, sharing inspiring stories of High School walk outs around the country and why the State of the Union Protests need to be a leap beyond the 2nd. We Will Not Stop and We Will Not Rest Until this Regime is Driven From Power.
Student Groups
There is not one part of society that Bush is avoiding sinking his claws in and rapidly remaking in a fascistic way. Science, Law, Women’s Studies. The Regime’s Racist Program and Genocidal Implications for Black People was utterly exposed during Katrina and Bush’s low-key nod to vigilante groups like the Minutemen create an opening for us to unite with groups on different levels, but at the very basic level of demanding Bush Step Down in a massive show of resistance during the State of the Union Address. Also many student groups have chapters around the country which is a very positive factor in being able to mobilize people in a short period of time.
Student Governments
Our Student Groups TOO official to be approached to demand one of the most hated tyrants in the history of humanity Step Down? Do we need to establish a certain amount of political clout before we approach the Student Government? No and No. We should be approaching people in student government as soon as possible to propose resolutions demanding Bush Step Down and supporting events the night of the State of the Union Address. Student Governments should help organize transportation to Washington D.C the following Saturday and can lend their voices to why Bush needs to Step Down.
**Media**
Leading up to Nov.2nd we needed to be circulating through Colleges in the Campus Press and broadcasted on the radio a lot more. Following up off of the 2nd we need to be meeting with Journalism Professors, editors and writers for the Paper, Radio Hosts and community/ city media outlets about writing articles on the upcoming plans, the Student Organizers who are part of leading these efforts and getting the Call published in Campus Newspapers.
**DVD Screenings**
Film showings can bring together all types of people, be used at meetings or for classroom presentations. The Nov.2nd DVD featuring segments from the Nov.2nd protests in L.A, the Bay Area and Sunsara Taylor’s Speech in Times Square can bring out what we launched on Nov.2nd in a compelling and unique way. We can also organize house party screenings or utilize University screening rooms to show sections of the Tribunal DVD, documentaries like Falluja or films like The Handmaid’s Tale or Swing Kids.
** Fundraising **
Organize house parties as a way to raise funds and in particular throwing New Year’s Eve parties to raise funds for Student Organizers volunteering in D.C and NYC for Winter Break. We can also approach Professors/ Teachers to donate funds or organize Dinner Parties to raise money. A key thing in raising money is asking people: How Much Would You Give to Drive Out the Bush Regime? Get into people how raising money is a necessary part of any social justice movement and tell people specifically what the funds are being raised for. An ad in the local paper, money for a student to spend their winter break changing the course of history, an advertisement in the New York Times)
**Study Sessions of the World Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime Call**
A big thing hammered at during the conference and leading up to Nov.2nd is the importance of organizers being united around the Call. Every sentence in this call is important and provides the ground work and fuel we will need to make Bush Step Down the central question in society during the State of the Union Address. Organize study sessions with High School students to get into the 7 Your Governments. What will a theocracy in this society look like? Can Fascisism come about in America? What has been the history of people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious? Why do students today need to be the catalyst of a movement to drive out the Bush Regime?
Deeply get into; “There is not going to be some magical “pendulum swing.” People who steal elections and believe they’re on a “mission from God” will not go without a fight” what does that mean and invite professors to give guest presentations about the realities of the 7 Your Government points.
All these components are crucial in making the needed leaps and breakthroughs between now and the State of the Union Address. We had a good start of initial Student Volunteers coming to D.C and NYC for their Winter Break. Those numbers need to multiply and we need to mobilize students to not go to school the day of the State of the Union Address and be in the streets all day on flat bed trucks, on the trains and down towns calling on people to Bring The Noise and Drown Out the Bush’s Lies that night.