Protest Demands Bush Step Down

The following are some highlights from the protests on Feb 4.  Also included is video footage of the Georgetown Law Students turning their backs on Attorney General Gonzales and a radio interview with one of the Greensboro Seven who was arrested on Jan 31 for blocking police from video taping car license plates.

 

The following are excerpts from some of the speeches at the Feb 4th Rally:

 

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. 

Ally and Leah, pro choice activists from Occidental College in L.A.

We need to take action, we need to take to the streets, and we need to join the movement.  They (the Right-Wing) don’t want birth control, they don’t want condoms, they don’t want the morning-after pill, they don’t want abortion and they don’t want sex education. So then what? Are women supposed to be slaves to their bodies, taken out of the workplace and education system every time they have sex? No! And I can tell you that if the right has it their way, women will be forced to revert to that inferior status they held just decades ago. And I am here to tell you that I will not let that happen, and we cannot let that happen! We need to resist now, because if we don’t, we are only supporting the Bush regime with our silence. We need to demand now that Bush step down!

 

from Sunsara Taylor, co-initiator of World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime

 

We need to be able to politically confront this regime everywhere they appear ( like the Georgetown students who turned their backs on Gonzales, like Cindy Sheehan courageously going up against the State of the Union and like Heather Hurwitz right here who called out Rumsfeld two days ago and demanded that he and Bush step down getting covered on CNN and BBC.

We need to be able to defend those who come under attack ( like the Hampton students, and now the 7 who were arrested in Greensboro ( and thru doing this, each time expand and strengthen our movement in the process.

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 listen ( we better be on the campuses a whole lot stronger than we are now.  I’m challenging every college student here to come together and figure out how we are going bust things open and make these campuses what they need to be ( hotbeds of critical thought and strongholds resistance.

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 drive out this regime none of this other work will be possible.  And there will be times when everyone from different perspectives will have to come together and put this struggle to drive out this regime first.

And we have to continue to base ourselves on the truth ( and this is the great strength of our Call.  It doesn’t mince words, it puts the whole challenge before people.  Its not just about the war.  Its not just about torture.  Its 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!

The Greensboro Seven are seven peaceful activists abused and arrested by police after questioning a man who was lurking around cars belonging to other members of their group after the “World Can’t Wait” SOTU protest in Greensboro, NC. The man refused to identify himself, but it turns out he was an undercover police spy. This interview was conducted by Bob Kincaid on his “Head On with Bob Kincaid” show on 2/6/2006.
 

 

Click Here to listen

Cspan 2 Video Footage of Georgetown Protest against Attorney General Gonzales.