For Immediate Release:
THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT(DRIVE OUT
THE BUSH REGIME
February 5, 2006
Press contact: Connie Julian, 866.973.4463, ext 4, press@worldcantwait.org www.worldcantwait.org
‘BUSH
STEP DOWN’ Demand Taken to White House Gates
On
Saturday, February 4, the national organization and movement, World Can’t
Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime, brought a clear and simple demand to the gates
of the White House: ‘Bush Step Down and Take Your Program With You.’ Some 2,000 protestors, many traveling from
Atlanta, Kentucky, New York, Chicago, and as far away as California and Hawaii,
braved cold and often driving rain to rally in the shadow of the Washington
Monument.
After toppling a 30-foot statue of Bush, demonstrators set
out on a spirited march that took them to the front of the White House, where
people surged to the barricades.
Saturday’s demonstration followed the group’s ‘State of
Emergency’ January 31 protests in 68 cities nationwide where, simultaneously at
9PM EST, crowds ‘drowned out’ Bush’s State of the Union address. This new movement, launched with national
actions on November 2, is a response to what increasing numbers see as an
unprecedented situation: an
administration committed to unilateral war-making, torture, suppression of
science, obliterating separation of church and state and creating a ‘unitary
executive,’ accountable to no one. As
their Call says, ‘The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society
very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come.’
In this extreme climate, World Can’t Wait is attracting an
unusual range of support including Black US Congressmen, government
whistleblowers, public intellectuals, actors and artists, gay politicians,
legions of high school and college students, and increasing numbers of ordinary
citizens, including recent Bush voters. Two recent New York Times ads have been
signed by Sean Penn, Jessica Lange, Jonathan Kozol, Cindy Sheehan, Lewis
Lapham, US Cong. Maxine Waters, Harold Pinter and other public figures.
A
statement from 60s Pentagon Papers government truth-teller, Daniel Ellsberg,
was read at Saturday’s demonstration by actress Kathleen Chalfant, calling on
current government officials to bring the administration to account, ‘even at
cost to their positions and their careers…Nothing less is appropriate to this
constitutional crisis.’ In a recorded
message to the crowd, which also aired on Air America radio last week, actor
Mark Ruffalo said, ‘I think we all are terrified to a degree… [But] there are
millions of us out there who are frustrated and angry….If you come out, you
will see that others will greet and support you and enfold you into something
that is greater than your fear of what we are being led to believe America is
about.’
‘What
distinguishes this movement? We will not stop until this administration is
driven from office,’ said World Can’t Wait national secretary Debra Sweet, ‘and
this whole disastrous course is reversed.’
The
demonstration was covered on CNN TV, national NPR radio, Washington Post,
Washington Times, ABC 7 News, AP, and other news outlets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401128.html
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20060204-105559-3230r.htm
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0206/300117.html
Interviews available with former US diplomat Ann Wright, WCW initiator Sunsara
Taylor, NY Senator Tom Duane, 1st amendment lawyer Martin Garbus, Ctr. for
Constitutional Rights pres. Michael Ratner, and others.
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