Nov. 2 - The Beginning of the End of the Bush Regime

The World Can’t Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime...Coast to Coast

Two teachers from a middle school in San Francisco took the day off and bought 42 BART tickets for students to get to the march.

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High school student in New York: "During my first WCW meeting the youth organizers spoke of people nationwide that watch the news, aware of what is happening; who cry at night, and have trouble sleeping, yet do NOTHING. For too long, I was one of those people; aware of the atrocities performed by the Bush Regime, feeling lonely and helpless. Thinking that as a high school student, there was nothing I could do to stop atrocities such as torture in Guantánamo Bay, our government being led by Christian fundamentalists, the suppression of science as well as the suppression of the rights of women, and the lack of aid for the Hurricane Katrina victims. But through WCW I found an outlet which allows me to make a difference regardless of my age. Through WCW I found that I wasn’t alone and that only by boldly stepping forward did I find myself among thousands of others in this city alone who feel the same way and who are determined to act on these feelings."

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28-year-old Black man from southside of Chicago, watching the march: "I love it, I would join but I got a court date. But I agree totally. My heart is just like full of joy right now that people are stepping out, making a movement about something. Hopefully it will spark something, I'm for it. Bush is bogus, bottom line, everybody know it, it's not a secret. I think the troops over there fighting, it's for an unjust cause. I could see fighting for something righteous but this is for an unjust cause, the government been crooked for so long."

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Sign carried by 19-year-old NY student protesting government's response to Katrina: "No Iraqi ever left me on my rooftop to die."

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Juan Torres: My name is Juan Torres, my son was Juan Torres, Jr. He died July 12, 2004 in Afghanistan. I am here today because I know how I am feeling. I know how families of over 2,000 are feeling. All the families have say to me – we're dying. I have a new mission to stop the war and I go to the schools. They lie to my kid, I see them continually lying to a lot of kids... Many of the kids, they don't want to be in this war. Most of the kids are lied to in the schools. I say, why does the military lie, why does the military have so much power in the school. The schools are for education not for lies and killing other people… This is a start now, we can't stop now, we need to continue it. We need to continue this every single day. We don't want to wait until next year, next year it will be another 2,000.

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A 20-something guy got on the bus to go to the rally. The bus driver not only let him on for free, but stopped at different places that weren’t appointed stops, and filled the whole bus up with protesters. The whole bus was rallying--kids were taping posters up on the windows, shouting out at cars, and talking about the future and how we can change this country.

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Mt. Vernon, a small city 60 miles north of Seattle, in overall a fairly conservative area that is 25% Latino, more than 200 students out of 1,700 walked out of the high school and marched to the courthouse to protest. One of the organizers had found WCW on the web, put up some fliers in the school and told people to show up at the flagpole in front of school and 200 people showed up to their surprise.

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Reverend Deborah Lake, Sankofa Way Spiritual Services and founder of the Chicago chapter of the Interfaith Alliance: "I'm here today because I see what religious ‘leaders’ are doing with theology and dogma and they're using it to scare people and frighten people and oppress people and to take over this country. And I'm here because I stand against that type of tactic regardless of who does it

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23-year-old Black UIC student from Southside Chicago: "This is definitely a beautiful thing, people rise up and raise their awareness as far as this crooked regime, this government that's not, isn't even established legitimately, this government that raped and persecuted around the world. People are showing that they can rise up against the powers that be and not be oppressed and not be victims of oppression and be exploited."

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Young veteran of four years in the Marines: I'm against the war in Iraq totally. You know, the frontline guys who are 18, 19, 20-year-olds: when you are given orders to kick in doors and put guys in flex-cuffs, and there is a language barrier, and you're just taking guys out of their homes, that shit sucks. It’s a baseless war.

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Two teachers from a middle school in San Francisco took the day off and bought 42 BART tickets for students to get to the march.

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Karen Fiore, pro-choice activist in Chicago:"Now, even women's fundamental right to choose, established with the groundbreaking Roe v. Wade decision, is in jeopardy. No one should underestimate the potential of the Supreme Court vacancy to push back women's rights. Bush can now transform social rights in the U.S. for decades by replacing Justice O'Connor with an anti-choice judge. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, many states would quickly ban abortion altogether, with devastating consequences for tens of millions of women across the U.S. The shock waves would be felt throughout the world.

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Demonstrator in Chicago. I think the most important thing is the voice. When there is a cry there is a voice. And when there is pain, there needs to be a voice so they can be heard, so somebody can answer the cry. And I think that's definitely the solution, and this is a beginning of something great.

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At Roberto Clemente High School in Chicago, security guards and police stopped students from walking out. Students said the fire exits were locked with padlocks (breaking the fire code) and there were squad cars in a four-block radius going around the school. One student told Revolution:

"First we got the students fired up. We ran into a lot of students who were just totally apathetic about the situation. But we got across to some students and we explained to them what is happening, many of them weren't aware, and as soon as they started hearing the facts they got emotional because some students have family members in Iraq and people dying. So it's not something you can avoid and brush over your shoulder, it's something you have to fight head on. So a lot of students were excited about coming here but again the security and administration were trying to stop us. We posted posters up in our school, we made fliers. There were a lot of people who were supposed to be here and only a small portion of them got out. But I think that it's good that at least some of us are here to represent our school. Somebody pulled the fire alarm – it was true luck – and we used that to come here. I just hope [other students] learn from us. We're being part of history and when future generations look into the open history books and say, hey, what did you do on that day, I can say, I was there. I helped save thousands of lives. And I'm guessing they're just going to put their heads down and say I did nothing."

Another student said, "The message is to do what actually is right. If you believe in it, you should go for it. Like we believe that Bush has to go down, so we actually believed it and we took a lot of risks trying to get here. So risk what you got and do it for what you think is right."

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Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma: Inspired by the WCW training video, three men knelt down wearing sand-colored jumpsuits, burlap sacks over their heads, and chains around their necks attached to black leashes that were offered to people walking by. "Take the leash! Does this make you sick to your stomach? It should, because people are being tortured!" A crowd quickly gathered - passionate responses, lots of controversy and shouting back and forth. Some students flashed peace signs or thanked the protestors and some were offended, even brought to tears and angrily challenged the "in-your-face demonstraton."

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Austin, Texas:300-500 gathered at the Capitol. Speakers included a University of Texas student, a senior at Elgin High School who organized a walkout, an Army veteran and former staff sergeant last stationed in Kuwait, representing Unitarian Universalist fellowship of Bell County, central Texas; an environmental activist and teacher from Elgin, Texas; a Minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin; and a former State Representative.

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UC Berkeley student:I was worried about missing class and my grades but then I thought 'how much does one class matter when it has to do with the whole world?'

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Julie Hurwitz, National Lawyers Guild; Director, Sugar Law Center: "We are witnessing the culmination of another unprecedented movement--not a mass movement, rather, a movement of the few--the few who own the vast majority of wealth and resources in this country/the world; the few who seek to garner control over our individual rights; the few who seek to move this country in a direction frighteningly akin to what we witnessed in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s."

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Harry T. Cook, Episcopal priest,St. Andrews Church in Clawson, Michigan, author and former editor of theDetroit Free Press: "What is called for in the 21st Century is courage, not faith; knowledge, not belief. Courage is that which enables a person to seek for and deal with what is real, rather than what is imagined or wished for. Knowledge is that which is arrived at by observation and rationalized experience. Courage to seek and accept knowledge rather than relying upon blind belief in what some religious or political authority claims to be true is the key to establishing a just society...History bears witness to the fact that widespread reliance upon faith in unseen deities or systems based upon appeal to deities and their alleged laws, always mediated by a ruling hierarchy and defended by personal preference, leads inexorably to theocracy, meaning government by ruthlessly applied central authority and suppression of dissent. It also goes by another name: fascism."

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Atlanta, GA: 500 to 600 people, mainly college and high school students, gathered downtown. At least seven high schools and one middle school had walkouts. The rally, emceed by two students from historically Black colleges, Georgia State University and Spelman College, featured a local hip-hop group, The Expatriots. Speakers included the mother of the first soldier from Georgia to be killed in the Iraq War; the deputy director for the Southern Region of Amnesty International; the vice president of Concerned Black Clergy; and a representative of A Justice for All coalition.

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Columbia College: Someone on a bullhorn started listing the crimes and atrocities of the Bush regime. A cheer went up as bunches of people arrived after walking out of class and 200 marched together to the Chicago convergence.

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Lynn Duff, Pacifica Radio, reading a statement from Haiti, in Detroit: "Today our country is governed by the human rights abusers, the sweatshop owners, the drug lords and the modern day slaveholders who align themselves with the policies of the Bush regime which call for domination and control of the poor throughout the world… We join with our brothers and sisters in the United States to say that the world can’t wait. Tet ansam nou gen fos, together we have power. Tet ansam nou dejouke George Bush, together we can uproot George Bush. Tet ansam nou ka chanje le monde, together we can change the world."

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University of Wisconsin, Madison: 400-500 rallied on the campus, one of at least 40 college campuses where protests took place. Among others: UC Berkeley, five colleges in Amherst, Wayne State University, University of Arizona, Univ. of Oklahoma, Hampton University.

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Daniel Montoly, poet and writer from the Dominican Republic: "I came from the Dominican Republic, one small country in the Caribbean. My country was occupied twice by the American government in the 20th century. For this reason, I know what it means to be an occupied people and to live in a miserable situation. LOOK, LOOK, 100,000 civilians are dead and the whole country of Iraq is a nightmare. We, the people, white, African American, Asian, Latino, we have to stop the genocide against humanity. Another world is possible. We need to rebuild a new world with justice and peace for everybody."

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Dr. Assad Pino, Professor at Kent State University: "All of us gathered together wielding this mass weapon of public consciousness, a political consciousness of linking our struggles to other struggles, to struggles all over the world. Do this not just for yourselves, do it for people all over the world. This is a global effort. When I say public consciousness, I mean during the last year millions have risen up against Bush from New Orleans to Baghdad to the Philippines to Colombia. This is a global movement, millions stand behind you now."

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Tucson, Arizona:The WCW Call was published full-page in the Tucson Weekly and the University of Arizona paper. 200 marched from UA and rallied downtown. Shopowners came out and applauded, clearly excited there is a movement to take down the Bush Regime.

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Elaine Broward, of Staten Island; her Marine son served in Afghanistan and is about to get sent to Iraq:"This regime is criminal. They’re stealing our money, our hearts, and our children. I’m no longer afraid of terrorists coming from outside; there are terrorists in the White House. I don’t like being lied to; "Osama Dead or Alive" was a smokescreen. This war is genocide and a crusade against the world."

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Gerardo, Day Laborer’s Organization: "These are historic days for the world. We, the Latino workers, are in struggle because we will not let the vigilantes on the border kill our people. Day laborers have contributed millions of dollars to the economy of this country. We, immigrant workers are not criminals, we are not terrorists, we are workers! And we say the biggest terrorist in the world is George Bush. We have to get Bush out of the White House."

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E-mail message in Tucson: "I participated in today’s Nov. 2, march in Tucson. I have never felt more joy and more pain at the same time. I am a political science senior at the University and I am shocked at the disintegration of the morals of the government that has been put into office. I am glad to take a stand against the Bush Regime and the Regime that not only denies us freedoms like women’s right to choice and soldiers’ right to life, but also lies and cheats us out of our civil liberties and collective independence. I would love to do anything to help here in Tucson and wherever else. Thanks for EVERYTHING."

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Man with neon green sign, Chicago: "I am a Christian and I think the war in Iraq is a sin against god. As a Christian I was taught ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and war is about killing."

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Hampton University, Virginia: Black fraternity members who took part in the recent Millions More March in Washington, DC organized a WCW action. More than 20 students gathered to voice their opposition to the Bush regime and hand out fliers. Police officers questioned any student possessing political "contraband" (leaflets) and videotaped students.

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Springfield, Missouri (John Ashcroft's hometown): Very colorful, loud and impossible to ignore rally included radical cheerleaders and a mock hooded torture victim in the center of the square. Public schools imposed a lockdown and pre-empted planned walkouts but some students were able to attend.

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Woman student:"I got literature for this in my Philosophy of God class, and it couldn't have been more ironic or fabulous! I felt a real compulsion--I just had to be here."

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Van Nuys H.S. student in L.A. area, where thousands of students walked out and joined convergences along Wilshire Blvd.: "They told us, ‘If you go to this protest you will get suspended and get expelled’--but we were like, ‘Forget that, we’re standing up!"

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The eve of Nov. 2, Black and Latino homeless activists, day laborers and WCW organizers built a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar on a corner in the Mission that commemorated people who have died needlessly in natural disasters, crossing the border, or in imperialist wars.

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Eureka, a small city along the coast in the far northern part of California: Some 40 cyclists making their way to join the rally were accosted by police and sheriffs, including helicopters. One woman cyclist was grabbed by an officer and flung to the road, landing on her head. The cyclists regrouped only to be met by Sheriffs with teargas canisters, another roadblock, and other cruisers. Four people were arrested. The rest rode on to join the rally downtown. A press release posted on Bay Area Indymedia said; "We stand on the verge of no longer being willing to submit! The World Can't Wait is no simple theme, but a driving force of our refusal to obey wretched policies and acts which violate too much of what we hold sacred and worth living for. We must begin tooling up as never before in preparing for a tough and lengthy nonviolent struggle...because it is this brutally violent regime which perpetuates the terrorism we no longer dare tolerate!"

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Oakland High student: "We’re tired of the whole Bush regime. What he did with Hurricane Katrina, that pissed us off. My grandmother was down there in water up to her neck. She’s 57 years old. And there’s alligators out there too, she could have gotten eaten. And the water was poisonous too. And he left those people out there for five days. People were dying. And they didn’t send trucks. They sent body bags. That’s messed up. They weren’t even trying to rescue people. ...Teachers threatened to flunk kids and they threatened us with suspensions. They were pushing and shoving us, telling us to go back to class. Only a few people made it and those people had to climb over a barbed wire fence to get out of school… We’re going to continue no matter what. They can have 20 cops out there, 50 cops, 100 cops out there. We’re still going to protest. That’s how it is."

Following are excerpts from statements by prominent people leading into Nov. 2 and at the rallies on the day itself.

Harold Pinter, playwright, Nobel laureate: The Bush administration is the most dangerous force that has ever existed. It is more dangerous than Nazi Germany because of the range and depth of its activities and intentions worldwide. I give my full support to the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime.

Howard Zinn: We are at a historic turning point in this country where we will need to turn the country in a different direction if we are not going to be headed towards collapse and disaster... I see the November 2 action as something really important [that] might be a turning point in the development of a student movement and then a national movement to change the direction in which the country has been going. I don’t think the world can wait, I don’t think the nation can wait, I don’t think history can wait.

Gore Vidal: As the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen...so, with eight years to prepare, 2008 will perhaps be the last such election, ending the republic unless that 70 percent who are beginning to grasp just what is going on join together in a popular movement dedicated to ending pre-emptive wars and restoring the nation to its traditional tax base which repaired levees, educated the citizenry, and at regular intervals repaired the wall that Thomas Jefferson wisely put in place to separate church from state. Join the demonstrations this Wednesday, November 2, to launch a movement to drive out the Bush regime.

Cindy Sheehan, speaking in San Francisco: The people being killed in Iraq are not terrorists. They are citizens of Iraq. They are members of the human race. They are our brothers and sisters. Last year I worked really hard to defeat George Bush. But you know what? He refuses to be defeated. If he loses he cheats. So he cheated himself into a second term. I wrote a letter on November 4. I took a day off. I was very devastated, very depressed. The next day though I was out in the rain in Sacramento in front of the Federal Building holding a sign that said "Bush Lied, My Son Died." …The only place for moral people is to resist immoral laws and immoral leaders… Don’t let them steal your humanity and don’t let them steal your rights. Resist, stand up, speak out. We’re going to Camp Casey on Thanksgiving. Join us.

Boots Riley from The Coup: ":The Bush regime is out to remake the world. Unending war, a devastated environment, forced religion, no right to abortion, no dissent, no critical thought. We have to stop this now. If we don't we'll be forced to accept it. The future we get is up to us." (From a paid radio ad that ran on Democracy Now and Air America Radio. Hot 97, a popular hip hop radio station in New York, refused to run the ad.)

Tom Duane, N.Y. State Senator, speaking in NYC: You want to know what's illegal? Putting up judges that are going to restrict women's rights to reproductive health care... You want to know what's illegal? Leaving the people of New Orleans to suffer while spending billions on an illegal war in Iraq... What's illegal is prosecuting civil rights attorneys and clergy members because they speak out against injustice... The bottom line, President Bush, is--you are an illegal president because you are destroying our nation and destroying our world. And we're going to get you out of office.

From the poem "Fire His Ass" by Eve Ensler, read at some Nov. 2 rallies: When you lie to your stockholders and board and then spend nearly 1.3 trillion dollars and kill hundreds of thousands of people for no reason that makes sense to anyone, they
FIRE YOUR ASS
Sometimes they even put you in prison.
When you openly practice racist policies whether they want to or not, they
FIRE YOUR ASS
When you openly break the law, order torture and get caught they
FIRE YOUR ASS

Lynne Stewart, defense attorney: In April 2002, Bush sent his gremlin Ashcroft to arrest me, saying my work as a lawyer was aiding terrorism. I am facing 30 years in prison. I have no regrets. And when I see this crowd – this is the face of America. Resistance! Resistance! We must drive this regime out – so one day we can all say, "All my life, I have fought them, and we have won."

Rev. Meri Ka Ra, KRST Unity Center for African Spirituality: They're not going to be driven out by indictments. They're not going to be driven out by Senate committees. They're going to be driven out by the activity of me and you, out in these streets, screaming at the top of our voices, protesting, moving, acting, demonstrating, that the world cannot wait. So let's not depend on what they are going to do to police themselves. They are not going to do it. They have proven that time and time again. It's going to be up to you and me--informed citizens who've had enough and won't take any more

Ann Wright, former U.S. diplomat, speaking in NYC: We are complicit if we don’t stop the war. We’ve got to drive them out. Join us at Thanksgiving in Crawford, Texas, with the biggest turkey.

Studs Terkel: It’s time we assert ourselves,
And said to these outrageous liars
Who offended our sense of decency
And native intelligence
It’s time to BUGGER OFF!
Get lost!
And let’s unite on behalf of peace and sanity
and all that makes life rich and worthwhile...

Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner: Any movement against the madcap Bush regime must be at bottom a movement against imperialism. It must oppose these wild adventures of wars for oil and war in defense of lies. For ultimately, protests such as this are protests not so much against others, as it is for yourselves... When people protest, they open up other doors of the possible. When people protest and organize, they can stop the fanatical defenders of wealth and privilege who try to turn back the clock of history, where unions are but a memory, and torture--in your name--is but winked away. So I say: protest, protest, protest. It is the right thing to do. If you don't protest, things will only get worse and worse.

Bianca Jagger, speaking in L.A.: From the moment his administration came to power, it became evident that he was intent on challenging global rule. George W. Bush and his administration embarked on a full-scale assault on civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law, walking away from his international obligations, tearing up international treaties, protocols and UN conventions…

California State Senator Carol Migden, speaking in S.F.: A crime has been perpetrated on the American people. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Our arrogant use of torture at Guantánamo Bay, our detaining of good citizens, our absolute rewriting of the protections of the U.S. Constitution--we will not stand for this.

Michael Ratner, President of Center for Constitutional Rights, speaking in NYC: They’re a criminal administration. Today, they claim they can torture worldwide. They have CIA hellholes worldwide. The victims of the administration are worldwide; Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, detention facilities, etc. You’re all here at the beginning to end this administration! I represent Guantánamo detainees. They’re on a hunger strike right now, and what the government is doing, they call it assisted eating – it means a tube down the nose without anesthesia. One of our lawyers went to visit one of our clients, and he was hanging from the ceiling, blood streaming from his hands.

Medea Benjamin, Code Pink: I think its great that the theme today is the world can’t wait. I just got back from Thailand yesterday. I was at a meeting of 1,800 women activists from all over the world. And their message was the same message: THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT. They said the Bush administration is taking away women’s reproductive rights around the world, it’s driving down environmental standards around the world, it’s weakening labor around the world and it’s driving militarism all over the world. And the women said the same thing: THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT.

Jeff Adachi, SF Public Defender, speaking in S.F.: I’m glad it’s a windy day today because these are the winds of change. We’ve got to ACT! And we’re going to act together and we’re going to seize the time.

Armando Navarro, Professor and Chair of Ethnic Studies Dept. at UC Riverside, one of the founders of La Raza Unida Party, leading opponent of the Minutemen: It was young people like yourselves who were involved in UMAS and MEChA and other organizations that made a difference in stopping the war in Vietnam. You can make a difference today in terms of this century in mobilizing and continuing to organize...