Revolution #013, August 28, 2005, posted at revcom.us
This call is from worldcantwait.org:
Your government,on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
Your government suppresses the science that doesn’t fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
People look at all this and think of Hitler--and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.
Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.
There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they’re on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.
There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.
But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn--or be forced--to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.
And there is a way. We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting Bush’s outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim 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. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history.
To that end, on November 2, the first anniversary of Bush’s "re-election," we will take the first major step in this by organizing a truly massive day of resistance all over this country. People everywhere will walk out of school, they will take off work, they will come to the downtowns and town squares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to JOIN US. They will repudiate this criminal regime, making a powerful statement: "NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US! AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!"
NOVEMBER 2 must be a massive and public proclamation that WE REFUSE TO BE RULED IN THIS WAY. November 2 must call out to the tens of millions more who are now agonizing and disgusted. November 2 will be the beginning--a giant first step in forcing Bush to step down, and a powerful announcement that we will not stop until he does so--and it will join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped.
This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.
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 ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.
These next two months are crucial. The call you are reading has to get out to millions right away--on the internet, passed out as flyers in communities, published as ads in newspapers. DO NOT WAIT!! GET ORGANIZED!!If you agree with this statement, add your name to it!!! And do more than that: send it to friends, get them to sign it, organize a meeting, take it to your church, your school, your union, your health club, your barber shop, to concerts and libraries and family gatherings, everywhere you go. Raise money, lots of money. Get people together, make plans to be there on November 2, and to build for it. GET IN TOUCH WITH US AT OUR WEBSITE, worldcantwait.org
Help build the vehicle people need! The leaders of this movement will come out of this meeting. And this will include people who have never organized anything before. Come envision, together, the mass outpouring needed to Drive Out the Bush Regime. Come and take responsibility for putting together the organization, plans, and structure to do it.Years from now, people will look back and say that on Labor Day, 2005, in New York City, an extraordinary meeting started something that many people at the time thought was impossible.
This can happen in the two short months we have until November 2,
but it will take organizing on a scale and with a vision that has not been
seen in our time. We invite you to be there on Day 1.
Where:
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York City
Register to participate: (347) 693-3319
Fee: $25-$100 sliding scale
SCHEDULE: (times are firm, program may be adjusted)
Saturday, September 3rd
10 am--Registration
11 am--Presentation by the initiators of the World Can’t Wait Call
12:30pm--Working lunch (provided) Break into small groups brainstorming for
November 2nd
2 pm--Report back into larger discussion on November 2nd
4 pm--Workshops: website, publicity, students and youth, Art & Culture, Fundraising
6 pm-8:30 pm--Public Forum: How we are going to drive out the Bush Regime
Sunday, September 4th
10 am--Working group sessions
12 pm--Lunch
1 pm-6 pm--Planning for November 2nd and Beyond
Monday, September 5th
Work groups and travel day or stay and come with World Can’t Wait to the giant West Indian Parade in Brooklyn.If you are planning or even thinking about attending, e-mail us now: conference@worldcantwait.org