Leadingup to, during, and after Bush’s State of the Union address, the growing
movement to drive out the Bush regime took new steps in its
determination and breadth. In an intense political situation,
with Bush’s spying and lying more exposed and much talk of impeachment,
the demand “BUSH STEP DOWN and take your program with you” resonated
throughout society. Acting on its Call,
The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime dove into this
situation in which the future is in the balance, mobilize people
outside of the killing confines of “politics as usual” to stop Bush’s
fascist remaking of society.
including politicians, movie stars, artists, activists and voices of
conscience broadcast this demand to the world. Echoing and
elaborating on this demand were statements from prominent voices such
as Daniel Ellsberg, Michael, Ratner, Mark Ruffalo, and Gore Vidal, as
well as calls to action from students at Hampton University and
Georgetown Law Students who turned their back on Attorney General
Gonzales. And Jan. 31st saw thousands of people in over 68 cities taking to the streets to drown out Bush’s lies during his State of the Union address.
held its final session, and released preliminary findings of the Bush
regime’s guilt of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Inthe wake of all this, Feb. 4th’s rally of several thousand in
Washington DC and march around the White House took the demand that
BUSH STEP DOWN right to the regime itself. It was marked by its
determination and breadth of participants, all united around this
single demand. And it garnered media coverage in the Washington Post, evening and morning TV news, and more. Click here to check out beginning reports from the Feb. 4th protest including video, audio, pictures, and news coverage.
course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED…We must, and can, aim to
create a political situationwhere the Bush regime’s program is
repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the
whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our
millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of
history. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.” –from the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime
From Debra Sweet, National Coordinator of World Can’t Wait:
When the President used the State of
the Union address January 31 to relentlessly push his case for unending war on
the world, unimpeded domestic spying, faith-based initiatives and an attack on
stem cell research and abortion, some reported this as a “moderate speech
with no new proposals.” But there
was a different response in the streets of more than 60 cities, when tens of
thousands perceived Bush’s address as a State of Emergency. Then, Saturday,
over two thousand came right to the White House to demand “Bush Step Down
and Take Your Program with You!” [more]
EXCERPTS FROM FEB. 4 RALLY:
Sunsara Taylor:
There will be no impeachment, no indictments, no
resignations without a relentless movement from below. And I gotta tell you it’s really something when people in Congress sign our call and tell us in effect that the
political process as normal is going in a disastrous direction — that people
need to get out in the streets and call for driving out this regime.
And it matters that you came out here today.. It matters all the people who wrote
statements for our website, signed the Call, gave money to this movement.
Because without a vehicle for people to set completely different terms than the
ones being set in Washington there is no way out of the endless war this regime
has declared on the world and on way out of
the increasingly fascist political atmosphere enveloping every
aspect of public life in this society. This is the vehicle that will be
decisive in giving people a way to act on the desire of millions
– that
from office.
But to do that this
vehicle has to get a whole lot stronger.
We need to be known to millions. We need to hound this regime on our website,
with more people writing for it and coming to it, and we need to be holding
huge mass forums and teach-ins and
programs, where we bring the truth about the whole scope of what this regime is
doing, and bringing people together in communities of resistance, based on the
real truth about what we face.
We need to have our call out to millions who have not yet
seen it — we need to paper the town with it – continue circulating it from
hand to hand and though organized networks.
We need to get into
the mass media — from the alternative press to the mainstream media .
We need to on TV – not only challenging O’Reilly
and those outright fascists but on the rest of TV too and breaking open this
stifling atmosphere, changing the whole terms of the discussion, changing
how millions see what is going on.
We need to be organized
on a whole higher level with chapters in more cities, with more people
plugging into the committees, and with ways for people to participate and bring
this movement into the networks of their lives, and with paid staff and
organizers and media and with ties into a million institutions — book clubs,
professional networks, unions, and more.
And when people tell us they are busy doing other work – as
so many are in this atmosphere where everything progressive is constantly under
siege – we have to appreciate the importance of what they are doing and
encourage them to do more, we have to listen to them and learn from them — but
we also have to struggle with them and argue with them to see that unless we
unite drive out this regime we are going
to be constantly losing more and more ground to the whole onslaught . And there will be times when everyone from
different perspectives will have to come together and put this struggle to
drive out this regime front and center.
And we have to continue to base ourselves on the truth and
this is the greatest strength of our Call.
It doesn’t mince words, it puts the whole challenge before people. It’s not just about the war. It’s not just about torture. It’s not just about the moves each day to
make the law based on the Bible. It’s
not just about the suppression of science and the growing dangers of global
warming. It’s the whole thing, the whole
global program that we have to confront and defeat.
So I’m challenging everyone here. I’m challenging you not
just to be activists but to be leaders. And
I’m also challenging those who are already leaders – some who are here and too
many who aren’t – you are urgently needed to throw in with this movement, to
join together, and to build something bigger than all of us, that can really
change the direction of society and create a future of real possibility.
This is the challenge we all confront together.
This is the mission we need to be on.
It is true that the World Can’t Wait.
It is on us to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
As it says in the closing words of our call: “The point
is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side
fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively
hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they
ever imagined. The future is unwritten.
WHICH
IS UP TO US.” [more]
Rev. Deborah Lake at Feb. 4 Rally in DC
The Religious Reich
and its president would have us believe in hate and homophobia. Just
yesterday, there was a story in the news about an 18 year-old boy in
Massachusetts who violated a gay bar and attacked three people with a
gun and a hatchet. This is hate! This is homophobia! This is the kind
of country the Religous Reich and its president stands for.
We believe in what America stands for. We believe in a better world, all while we know America is heading for disaster. [more]
Rebecca Schaeffer, Georgetown Law School Student with Stand
Up for the Law (which organized 30 students to turn their back on
Attorney General Gonzales):
I want to speak
especially to the students right now. I believe we have that movement, that it is nascent within our existing
communities. We can draw inspiration from past generations, but you know it’s
challenging for us, it’s not like it was in Vietnam, because we were born into
this conservative culture war, and it may be difficult for us to imagine life
another way. Our generation has grown up so de-politicized. And some of us may not have been able to
vote in a Presidential Election before the coup of 2000. But my experiences of my classmates, and the
response we’ve received from students all over the nation, and all the young
people here today, all strengthen my faith in a renewed progressive student
movement. The world can’t wait for us
to run for office, it can’t wait for the next election, it can’t even wait for
us to graduate. We students have a
small window to be at school, with the luxury to talk about ideas every day, to
have a built in community for organizing and direct action. I’d like to issue a call to all students
everywhere to participate in direct action, in political campaigning, in campus
organizing, on all fronts, to remove Bush from office. I want to see students sitting in on their
presidents’ offices to demand a living wage, to demand divestment for mercenary
multinationals who prop our our institutions, to protest the war, and most of
all to stand up and turn your backs when your school hosts guests who advocate
torturing and spying. We do not know yet what our revolution will
look like, because it is only now being conceived, and must be different from
every one before it. But when I look at
your faces, when I see the young people, the students, and their parents, and
neighbors, from all parts of society, my imagination widens, and I think I can
glimpse it. And it’s a beautiful
thing. I’m looking at the face of the
revolution right now. Because there’s
no one but us to do it. We can’t wait
for the Democrats to stand up. We can’t
wait for some savior. We are the ones
we’ve been waiting for! The World Can’t
Wait for someone else to take up the lead!
It must be us! Impeachment
NOW. Bush step Down, and bring your
programs with you!!! [more]
Tomorrow is Today: the Time for Resistance is Now: speech by Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights at the Bush Crimes Commission [read]
The International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration
released its preliminary findings Thursday, Feb. 2, at the National
Press Club in Washington DC. The Commission indicted the
Bush regime on 5 counts:
1) Wars of Aggression,
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention,
3) Destruction of the Global Environment,
4) Attacks on Global Public Health & Reproductive Rights; and
5) Knowing Failure to Protect Life During Hurricane Katrina.
[more]
DONATE NOW!
[click here]
The protests on Jan. 31st & Feb. 4 show that a
movement to drive out the Bush regime is coming together, involving a
broad array of people – from ministers to movie stars to the parents of
soldiers who died in Iraq; from writers to congresspeople to
scientists; from lawyers to activists to students to those who’ve quit
this regime in disgust; to thousands and thousands of “ordinary people.”
But this movement urgently needs the funds to connect with millions
more who want a vehicle to change the direction of society, with more
ads in newspapers and radio. And it needs the funds to sustain offices
in NYC and Washington DC, and to pay off debt incured from this weeks
state of emergency protests.
To make this happen, we need donations large and small – but especially large – immediately! And before writing your check, consider this: Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule. How much is it worth to you to change the whole direction of society?