Revolution Special Edition
Revolution #033, February 5, 2006, posted at revcom.us
This special "extra" issue of Revolution should be read together with issue #33. Issue #33 analyzed George W. Bush's vicious January 31 State of the Union speech. It printed pictures of demonstrations in over 60 cities, politically drowning out the speech with noise, and demanding that Bush step down. It also carried testimony from the final session of the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.
In this "extra" we cover two further stories of great significance. On February 2, in Washington, DC, the International Commission delivered verdicts on the Bush administration: Guilty of conducting a war of aggression. Guilty of illegal detention and torture. Guilty of crimes against humanity through its wanton destruction of the environment. Guilty of crimes against humanity for its failure to act before and after Hurricane Katrina to prevent devastation and death.
The Commission had taken testimony from former military and government officials, from lawyers for torture victims, from doctors and scientists, from victims of Bush regime's actions, and from many others. Never before have distinguished people of conscience come together to indict the regime ruling their own country of such crimes, to join with others from around the world to carry through a rigorous trial, and to find their own rulers guilty. Now the verdicts that have been delivered—and the evidence and testimony behind them—must be taken far and wide, arousing people to be, as Commission member Michael Ratner put it, "as radical as the reality we are facing."
Two days later, people marched through pouring rain to the gates of the White House, demanding that "Bush Step Down and take your program with you." In these pages are pictures from the demonstration and excerpts from some of the speeches that give a sense of the scope and determination of this action, and the movement that brought it forward. In the days leading up to the demonstration, a wide range of people from the spheres of politics and government, the arts and sciences, the clergy and law, signed on to the call entitled The World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime! And some wrote and published special appeals for people to join this movement and take up its cause.
In following issues, we will have additional, continuing coverage of these two stories.
Bush's State of the Union speech marked a further step into the abyss of a new, high-tech dark ages, another leap in the direction of fascism. But with the ferment and resistance in this extraordinary two-week period, there is a sense of something beginning to take root and emerge from below—a movement with the moral clarity and determination to change the course of history.