By Connie
Julian, 9/4/06
The
World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime is calling for protests in cities
and towns across the country on October 5. The national organization published
a full-page ad in the New York Times
on August 30 which read: ‘ENDLESS WARS. TORTURE. KATRINA. THEOCRACY. BRING THIS
TO A HALT.”
The ad calls on people to come out in the
streets on October 5– no work, no school, no shopping.
The World Can’t
Wait Call says the Bush regime is “radically remaking society very
quickly, in a fascist way and for generations to come”. People who steal
elections and believe they’re on a ‘mission from God’ will not go without a
fight.” They add, “There is not going to be some savior from the
Democratic Party'”
Travis Morales,
a World Can’t Wait spokesperson said: “This movement opposes the whole
Bush agenda and direction, not only this or that particular issue. And our goal
is not to ‘register our protest.’ We’re
demanding a halt to the crimes of this administration, and we won’t stop they
are driven out.”
He noted that
the Democratic Party has refused to mount any opposition or alternative (except
Bush-lite) to the regime. Hillary Clinton, for example, rivals many
Republicans’ in her cold-blooded approach to immigrants: “During my tenure
in the Senate, I have supported efforts to increase exponentially the number of
Border Patrol agents” But the problem is not simply one of manpower. We also
need to deploy new technology that can help our Border Patrol agents be more
effective in stopping the thousands of undocumented immigrants who enter the
country each day.”
To reach the
millions who are deeply disturbed with where Bush is taking the country, WCW is
launching a national ad campaign, raising money from thousands of people. So
far, they have taken out 4 full-page ads in the New York Times, and this week
their ads will also appear in 4 weekly city newspapers in LA, Washington
DC, Chicago and
San Francisco,
and ads will run in rotation on the Air America national radio network.
Morales:
“The whole world is depending on the people who live in this country to
stop this unprecedented regime. We can’t wait till 2008, and the world can’t
wait till 2008, and if we do wait it may be too late. The potential is there to
do turn this around because of the extremity of the situation and how many
people detest it — and because World Can’t Wait has a plan that matches the
need. “
“Think of the effect if millions of
people of all nationalities in this country were taking action like millions
are in Mexico– surrounding government buildings, taking over the downtown
streets, bringing business as usual to a halt, camping out in the streets, and
refusing to stop until this hated regime was driven from power. This is the aim
of World Can’t Wait — to create a political
situation where 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.”
Speaking candidly, Morales said, “For immigrants and other outcasts
in society to enter into the forbidden territory beyond the boundaries of
relying on one or the other political parties — to repudiate the legitimacy of
the Bush regime — would inspire and challenge others in society. The fact that
there are those willing to go up against great odds to make this clear
statement would matter. Will there be
obstacles to overcome to do this? Yes.
We need to confront them and find ways over these barriers. One counter argument is that taking this kind
of stand is none of our business — and too dangerous. Is there a basis for
this fear? Yes.
“We
must tell people the truth. What will
happen if we FAIL to act in this way?
Immigrants are in the crosshairs of the Bush regime. From Sensenbrenner
to Specter to Hegal and Martinez
to McCain and Kennedy, the debate in Congress for so-called comprehensive
immigration reform is only over HOW to greatly step up the repression of
immigrants with horrific consequences for millions. President Bush has posed as
the ‘moderate.’ But what is his program? Setting loose the military on
immigrants inside the U.S. and at the border, beefing up the ‘show me your
papers’ police, massive expansion of detention centers, mandatory deportation,
biometric identification cards, legalized apartheid, and thousands of starving
people driven to their deaths at the border.
This is what millions of immigrants face in 2006.”
WCW is holding
meetings in cities across the country on September 7th to organize for October
5. (Locations listed at worldcantwait.org).
World Can’t Wait
has already brought together tens of thousands in protests on November 2, 2005
and January 31, 2006 during Bush’s State of the Union Address. HARRY BELAFONTE,
JESSE DIAZ, ARMANDO NAVARRO, REV. AL SHARPTON, FR. LUIS BARRIOS, SEAN PENN,
LEWIS LAPHAM, U.S. REP. JOHN CONYERS, SUSAN SARANDON, NILES ELDREDGE, MARGARET
CHO, CORNEL WEST, DANIEL ELLSBERG, HOWARD ZINN, GORE VIDAL, JANE FONDA, CINDY
SHEEHAN, PAUL HAGGIS, ALICE WALKER, REV. JESSE JACKSON, and many others have
signed the World Can’t Wait Call.