Revolutionary Worker #1191, March 16, 2003, posted at http://rwor.org
"They want us to shut up. They want us to be tame. They want us to stay in our homes filled up with fears of the terrorists and cover up all our windows and doors with duct tape and plastic sheets. But I just gotta say: we gotta put that shit away. We just gotta put it away! We need to live! We need to dream our dreams! We need to dream of another world and be willing to make it happen. We need to resist! Let's resist! Another world is possible and we pledge to make it real!"
NION speaker in Seattle
"I believe that people of peacemaking now must cross a line that they have not crossed heretofore to embody their beliefs about how insane, how reckless, how inexcusable these war plans are."
Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, arrested at the "Ashes to Ashes" anti-war action called by Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
"I came from Belmont High School. I was the first one to walk out. Oh, man, I was shaking in my pants! Yeah, because all the pressure was on me. They had pigs all around. I stood up to the cops. I told 'em, `I'm walking out.' It was like controlled mayhem. We're telling everybody, `Kick it!' Then when the administration got there, everybody just rushed the hell away. But I told 'em, `Everybody stay! They do something to us, it's more attention to us.' So everybody came back.
"They always tell me I'm stupid, that I don't know anything. Today, I was a soldier. All the organizers are telling me, `Hey, everybody's looking at you!' I looked around, I said, `What the fuck. Let's start walking.' And the pigs were all in front of me, and I didn't know what was going to happen. I stepped. They just opened and I kept going. And as I was stepping, I turned around, and it was like a dream: all the people were following! The energy was just, like, floating around. It was the most beautiful thing!
"I'm 18. I'm a U.S. citizen - supposedly - and they want me to sign up for that crap. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna sell my soul to the U.S. government. I'd rather burn the fucker down!
18-year-old Latino proletarian from Belmont High School in Pico-Union who walked out with about 70 other students, carrying a tattered upside-down American flag which said "Fuck Bush" "Fuck This War" "Fuck the Fascist State" "Liberty My Ass!"
"The only way people can get the truth is from us. And they also need the example of resistance that we can give them. We must act like the future depends on it because it does. The future depends on us standing together with the people of the world. And the party I represent, the RCP, will also be out here standing with you. Whether they come at us with trickery or brutality, we're going to stand together with you to take it on and overcome it. But it's going to be the young generation who have to spearhead the fight."
Carl Dix, RCP National Spokesperson, at Union Square rally in NYC
"We face terrorists in blue every day... The NYPD can never be our heroes after they killed Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez, Malcolm Ferguson, Patrick Dorismond... We have a list of over 150 stolen lives--and they want us to fight their wars."
Rosa Clemente, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, NYC
The sign on the door of the business on a trendy shopping street in Los Angeles said they were closed for business March 5, "In support of the national call to action by Not In Our Name." A message urged people to come by and check out their garage sale: "Instead of supporting the war machine, we are using our time today to put more money and power into the hands of the people for peace."
All day the business owner and volunteers had a garage sale near her business. One of her neighbors who has a shoe store donated 10 pairs of shoes. In the middle of the day, the owner of a pizza parlor came by and asked for the owner by name. Unsure what his reaction would be, she went to talk to him. He explained that he had decided to remain open, partly so his workers could get paid for the day. But he wanted her to know he supported her. He ended by asking how many pizzas she and her volunteers needed for lunch.
At the end of the day, they had raised $500.
"How can I fight for a country that would rather put me in jail than in college... They don't care if you come back, they care if they win."
Young Black woman, NYC
"This needs to happen every day... Our generation, from the West Bank to Baghdad to Los Angeles where 50 schools are walking out today, to Ground Zero, are sending a message around the world that this war is not in our name, and we're going to take the world by storm to bring another world into being."
Miles Solay, Refuse & Resist!
A student at Marina High in Orange County in southern California was organizing at his school and told his friend at Ocean View High in Huntington Beach about the moratorium. The friend made plans with a NION activist and stayed up printing leaflets and making signs. The next morning he passed out leaflets--after the principal said he couldn't. When he walked out at 11:15, 300-400 students were in front of the school waiting to march.
*****
"Today we say to President Bush--Not In Our Name... As clergy, we come together to say that we will not stand for injustice.... President Bush, you've called 250,000 of our young men and women to the borders of Iraq. Send them home now. We don't want to preach at their funerals."
Rev. Vernon Williams, Washington Square Park, NYC
The Oakland Education Association voted to oppose any disciplinary action for students who walk out on March 5. From the text of the motion:
Whereas, the Oakland Education Association recognizes that Oakland schools are 95% youth of color and predominantly students of working class parents.
Whereas, the OEA recognizes that youth of color and youth of working class parents are more likely than white youth to be recruited into the military. For example, 10% of the U.S. population is Black, while 20% of the military is Black.
Whereas, the Oakland Education Association recognizes that youth of color are more likely to be targeted by the prison system. (In California youth of color are 6.2 times more likely to be sent to juvenile hall than white youth.)
Whereas, President George Bush has proposed significant increases in military spending and Governor Gray Davis has proposed an increase in prison spending, while our schools are in economic crisis.
Whereas, the OEA wants our students to have access to quality education and affordable higher education and we do not want our students incarcerated or sent to die in an unjust war to kill other poor people of color around the world.
Whereas, the OEA stands firmly against a war on Iraq.
Whereas, a teacher and student walk-out and march in Selma, Alabama played a major role in achieving the Civil Rights Act.
*****
The OEA discourages teachers and administrators from taking disciplinary action against those who choose to participate in student-led walkouts on March 5 ...
"I do not appreciate that the Bush administration is basically making us an enemy of every country in the world. If they do not follow exactly what we want here in the United States or what we say, then we are being punitive and threatening violence against these other countries... This is wrong. I'm very upset. I can't sleep at night. But I have to keep moving on because I believe if enough people stand up and speak out this war can be stopped."
Student who called in to WBAI radio, NYC
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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