Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

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Step Down! Step Down! Bush Must Go!

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

This statement from The World Can't Wait was read at events across the country on November 2.

We are serving notice today that George W. Bush MUST STEP DOWN, GET OUT AND TAKE HIS PROGRAM WITH HIM! And we are further serving notice that this January we intend to make this demand resound throughout the country.

We remember how Bush used his State of the Union in 2003 to make his lying case for the war against Iraq. We know that he will want to use it this year to lay out his plans for another year of his literally horrific agenda and set the political terms for the whole country.

But imagine this:

a movement spreading in the next two months that demands that . . . BUSH STEP DOWN.

A movement growing, getting more organized, reaching deeper into the country and reverberating around the world with the simple phrase that . . . BUSH STEP DOWN.

A movement that, as Bush steps to the podium, politically drowns out his address with the simple demand that . . . BUSH STEP DOWN.

And on the day and night of the State of the Union even more thousands and tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands in the streets demanding that . . . BUSH STEP DOWN.

We’ll be saying step down and take your program with you. That’s right--take your whole program with you. And we’ll be chanting:

STEP DOWN! STEP DOWN! BUSH MUST GO!

DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!

STEP DOWN! STEP DOWN! BUSH MUST GO!

DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!

This is our next step--a concrete demand, beginning now, that Bush step down and, in particular, major demonstrations at the time of the State of the Union. We don’t intend to fail. Our actions today, and especially the tremendous buildup of the last two weeks as we came from way behind to make this incredible day happen, show that there is every basis to go forward and to win.

But we must realize the basis through work and through struggle and through every person here--every person--themselves becoming an organizer. Not just writing the State of the Union down in your datebook, but getting plugged into the local committee or the website and doing everything you can to spread the word. Taking what we have and growing this movement, getting more organized, stronger and more determined and actually driving out this horrible regime and changing the whole direction of society.

THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!!

Send us your comments.

 

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

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

On November 2--exactly a year after George W. Bush was re-elected and claimed a "mandate" for his criminal regime--something new and urgently needed emerged across this country. In cities coast to coast, in suburbs and outlying towns, on college campuses, and especially at many, many high schools--people stepped forward, joining together in spirit and action to give living expression to the call: The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!

Those who answered the Call on November 2 had a real sense that "the future is in the balance" and took responsibility to step forward and call on others to "Join us!" in the movement to drive out Bush.

Worldcantwait.org reports that in addition to the thousands who rallied in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, protests took place in over 60 other cities, hundreds of high schools, and at least 40 college campuses. Statements of support came from prominent public intellectuals and artists.

Many college and high school students walked out of school, often defying threats and outrageous attempts to stop them. These youths felt they had to take the future into their hands--as one high school student in Chicago said, "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."

In San Francisco, Latino day laborers joined with thousands at the Civic Center as Cindy Sheehan, California State Senator Carol Midgden, and others spoke from the stage. A Black man at the Chicago rally said that what he found significant was "having a lot of different races of people--not just all Black people, not just white, but a bunch of different races of people coming together showing Bush that he can't use religion and race against us anymore, that we can unite together."

As The World Can't Wait says, "November 2 marked a tremendous first step toward forcing Bush to step down and changing the whole direction of society."

What's next? On Nov. 2 the World Can't Wait announced a call for people to "drown out" Bush's January State of the Union speech with massive protest to demand "Bush, step down. And take your whole program with you."

For more reports from various cities and towns, and for plans for January, go online to worldcantwait.org. The following are "sights and sounds" of Nov. 2 gathered by Revolution.


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.

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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?'

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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."

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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."

*****

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!"

*****

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.

*****

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!"

*****

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.

Alan Jones, Dean of Faculty, Pitzer College, speaking in L.A.: When someone is burning down your house, you don’t respectfully consider that viewpoint. You don’t suggest that burning the right side of your house might be sufficient to their needs. You fight the effort in its totality and there is not bargaining. Burning down the house is unacceptable, period. Right now this administration is burning down the house.

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...

Send us your comments.

 

RCP Statement on Nov. 2

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

This is the text of the statement from the Revolutionary Communist Party which was read at some of the Nov. 2 rallies.

We want to salute the people who have come out today dead set and determined to drive the Bush Regime from power! You represent not just yourselves, but the hopes of many millions more here and around the world.

Others today have already spoken eloquently on the many great evils already unleashed on the world by the Bush regime. But listen up – the machinery for much greater evil is being locked into place as we speak. The Bush regime is in a headlong rush toward a new dark ages, toward what can only be called Christian fascism. As our paper Revolution so aptly puts it, "Conservative my ass, these people are Nazis!!!!"

And who can we rely on to stop this madness? Most of the top Democratic Party leaders agree with Bush on the war and the Patriot Act. And they refuse to put up any real fight even on the things that they claim to oppose. So WE have to stop it – WE in our millions must and can take responsibility to change the whole direction of society.

WE have to fight for a very different future. WE have to challenge those things that we know to be wrong, and we have to challenge people who go along with this madness. We have to go up against the ways they try to numb and condition us to all kinds of atrocities and abominations and get us to accept the unacceptable.

But most of all, we have to come together as a force that not only repudiates this whole agenda, that not only says "no more," but that actually FORCES THIS REGIME FROM POWER. Nothing less than that – nothing less. And just think for a minute what that would mean in terms of all the abuses that have been so powerfully exposed today.

And think what it would mean for coming together to build a just society. As we join together to drive out Bush, we all need to talk about our different ideas about what that means. Our Party stands for revolution – a revolution to end a setup where the wealth created by the people of the whole world is controlled by a relative handful of imperialists, where the fate of the people and the planet itself is subordinated to the relentless drive for profit, and where the machinery of state is used to enforce that order. And we stand for a revolution where the people themselves bring into being and create a NEW society and a NEW state which would put the interests of the vast majority of people at the foundation of everything it stands for and everything it does. We have the understanding, we have the strategy and we have the leadership – our Chairman, Bob Avakian – to get there, and we invite everyone here to engage with us on this.

But right now our common objective is this: to DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME. Right now we have to step into these streets and powerfully join our voices together – calling out to others, making it clear that something new, very diverse and very united, and fiercely determined is being born here today. Today we join together in truly making this day the beginning of the end of this justly hated Regime.

The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.

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Under Siege and Lashing out

Bush Calls for Endless, Borderless War Without Limits

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

Under siege in the form of a scandal that has so far led to the indictment of Vice President Cheney's right-hand man, and facing fire from both the public and ruling class critics over the war in Iraq, Bush set out to rally support for the "war on terror" in October. In similar speeches given to the National Endowment on Democracy and to military spouses, Bush demanded a retooled "war on terror" with no boundaries, no deadlines, and no limit to the sacrifices people will be called on to make.

Mass-murdering ex-bomber pilot Senator John McCain, who has complained that Bush isn't selling the "war on terror" properly, applauded this speech for telling people that the forces the U.S. is fighting in Iraq "are the same guys who would be in New York if we don't win in Iraq."

Some Bush critics called the speeches a distraction or diversion from "real issues" at home or abroad. That's not at all the case. The speech, in fact, is a broad, escalated, re-tooled call for a very real open-ended, and endless war on the world.

Other critics correctly pointed out that the speeches repeat the same old lies about why the U.S. invaded and is occupying Iraq. The speech even invokes again, for instance, the lie that the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq.

But again, there is something much worse and more dangerous reflected in Bush's speech.

War on the World

Bush's speech is not just a defense of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Far from that. It is a call for much more war, against many more targets--some named, some "to be named later." It is a call for much more sacrifice on the part of Americans who will send their children to kill and die to "stop terrorism."

When are we pulling out of Iraq? Don't ask me, Bush warns his audience. Wrong question. Wrong framework. Instead, he demands, compare the "war on terror" to the great struggles of the "civilized world" against Hitler, and especially the "cold war" against the former Soviet Union.1 Don't count the bodies in thousands, Bush demands. Don't count the costs in billions. Don't ask me which countries we will invade before this is all over.

This war, Bush tells the troops (both nearly literally in the case of his address to military spouses, and more broadly in terms of his support base and ruling class critics), a global battle between good and evil. One that will last--as Dick Cheney put it--"for generations."

An Agenda Behind the Madness

Many people have heard, or suspect, that plans for the U.S. invasion of Iraq were sitting on the shelf long before September 11, 2001. This is true. The Downing Street Memo from British intelligence says straight up: the U.S. wants to overthrow Saddam Hussein and "intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy." But there is a larger, far more drastic and more dangerous agenda in effect, underlying even the occupation of Iraq.

The basic blueprint for war unconstrained by borders, costs, or traditional standards of conduct called for in Bush's speech evolved over decades in ruling class think tanks, going back to the "cold war" between the U.S. and Soviet-led nuclear blocs. 2 This neocon (for neo, or new conservative) approach to global domination is described in James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans:"The underlying assumption was that the United States should not and need not reach an accommodation with any other of the world's major powers."

During the "cold war," the U.S. confronted a rival nuclear superpower bloc, and the prevailing doctrine identified a need for a coalition with countries like France and Germany, as well as China (an alliance influential neocons like Paul Wolfowitz always opposed). But the collapse of the Soviet Union brought the opportunity to "overrule" existing alliances, along with the danger that the disintegrating Soviet bloc would loosen the glue that held the U.S. bloc together. In a way, world events caught up with the neocons and their no-rivals-allowed strategy. Wolfowitz's team put together the "1992 Defense Planning Guidance" that was, as Rise of the Vulcans describes it, "the vision of the United States as the world's sole superpower, actively warding off potential rivals." The key author of this document was none other than recently indicted Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby.

For much of the 90s, however, the neocon agenda was not fully implemented. They fumed at Bush I's decision not to occupy Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. To the neocons, the decision to simply bomb Iraq into submission, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of deaths (including the child-killing "sanctions" enforced with zeal by Clinton), was a blown opportunity, and left the door open to rivals. And they saw the Clinton years as wasted time, when the U.S. should have been asserting global dominance in a more focused and belligerent way. With the "election" of Bush II in 2000, the neocons finally were given full reign. And when the events of 9/11 provided the excuse, plans not just for an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, but for an unprecedented war on the world were pulled off the shelf and put in effect.

Controlling Mideast Oil

The critical flashpoint in the "war on terror" is controlling the Middle East and the tumultuous Central Asian republics, and with that the flow of the world's most strategic oil reserves. This is not just or mainly about fueling the SUV lifestyle of some Americans, but even more strategically imposing control over this region to prevent and preempt the emergence of global rivals or out-of-control regional powers.

Now the Iranian regime, for instance, finds itself at the top of the current "terrorist" list. Control over Iran, a regional power with large oil resources, is essential to locking down control over Mideast oil. And the tremendous difficulties the U.S. has run into in trying to piece together an alliance of compliant comprador (subservient) capitalist forces in Iraq has contributed to growing Iranian strength and influence in Iraq itself, and the region overall. That puts more pressure on the U.S. to "finish the job" in this region, replacing the Iranian regime a necessary next phase.

In the occupation of Iraq, we can see an example of how each move the U.S. makes to implement its wildly ambitious objectives in turn creates new dangers and problems for the people of the world, and for the U.S. as well. The invasion of Iraq turned a country that was causing trouble for the U.S. in the region into a country that--if they pull out now--could cause a traumatic setback for this whole agenda. This --not some sudden attack of altruistic concern over sectarian violence (which they themselves helped provoke)--is why even forces within the U.S. imperialist ruling class like former Bush I adviser Brent Scowcroft, who disagreed with the original decision to occupy Iraq, argue that we "are stuck" in Iraq, and caution that "we cannot pull out."

"Radical Islam" and European Rivals

The "war on terror" is mainly, at this point, aimed at Islamic fundamentalist forces who are associated with terrorist attacks on the U.S. and U.S. interests. These forces do have a following, and an agenda of their own that in some cases involves driving the U.S. and it's interests out of areas of the world where they have strength.3

While these forces pose real problems to U.S. interests in the Middle East, and beyond, they don't have the capital, resources, or the military forces to really string together an empire from "Spain to Indonesia," as Bush claims in his speech. Where these forces come to power, like in Afghanistan under the Taliban, or in Iran, they can only be comprador capitalists--dependent on technology, military force, and capital investment from imperialist countries.4

At the same time, there are rival imperialists hovering over the Middle East and other regions of trouble for US imperialism, like Latin America.5 Islamic fundamentalist forces are something of a wildcard in this rivalry, which expresses itself in behind-the-scenes maneuvering over things like "Iran's nuclear program," which is both enabled by and checked by European powers, and intensive European investment in Iran. In USA Today 2/22/05, an Iranian government spokesman says Europe has 100 billion euros invested in Iran. Like Russian and French investment in Iraq's oil industry before the 2nd Iraq war, Europe's investments in Iran could be trumped by direct U.S. military intervention.

The conflicts between European and U.S. capital are being fought out behind codewords of "diplomatic vs military options," "resolute opposition to terror vs. European half-stepping," spats over treaties and arguments over "working through the United Nations." These conflicts are also expressed more overtly. Reactionary foreign policy adviser Richard Perle says, "There are important elements in France and Germany that don't want the U.S. policy to succeed in Iraq."

All this has created a complex web of aggression and intrigue in the Middle East, and a situation that will not by itself lead to anything good for anyone. But this highly combustible situation also presents dangers for all the oppressive forces in the mix.

Bringing U.S.-Dominated Democracy to the Middle East

A major theme of Bush's speech is painting U.S. imperialism as bringing democracy to the Middle East. In his speech, Bush says, "We're encouraging our friends in the Middle East, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to take the path of reform, to strengthen their own societies." This is best understood as not simply hypocrisy (and it includes an element of vying for the "high ground" in contention with the European powers), but also as a goal (in opposition to more limited objectives argued for by experts associated with the Bush I regime like Scowcroft) of fundamental, imposed restructuring of the economies and governments of the Middle East. In fact, in a different speech given October 25 to a Republican fundraising event, Bush invoked the restructuring and transformation of Japan after World War II as a model for the scope of changes to be imposed on this region.

Certain democratic reforms, including tightly managed elections, a thin layer of tolerated loyal dissent, or the opening of certain doors to women (who can't even drive in Saudi Arabia) facilitate the exploitation of the resources and people of the Middle East by foreign capital. An important element of that is imposing cultural norms that allow for the introduction of U.S. military bases and the requisite infrastructure into areas with heavy Islamic fundamentalist influence--including open prostitution around those bases and other "benefits" of imperialist-framed modernization. All of this a source of real tension between U.S. objectives and their loyal regimes in the region!

The democracy that U.S. imperialism imposes on the Middle East cannot, of course, include the democratic right of national self-determination, to be free of U.S. military occupation, and U.S.-orchestrated exploitation and plunder by foreign corporations and banks. No one will ever be allowed to vote that away.

And, even as Bush invokes democracy, dissent, tolerance, and rule of law to justify the "war on terror," there is a very sharp and obvious contradiction between those words, and his implementation of a repressive, intolerant and fundamentalist theocracy at home.

Bush has to deal with another equally extreme contradiction in claiming, as he does repeatedly in his speech, that the "war on terror" is not anti-Muslim, and at the same time mobilizing his Christian fascist base to support the war. His Undersecretary of Defense said, about conflict between the US invaders of Somalia (a mostly Muslim nation) that "My god was bigger than his god." And shortly after 9/11, Bush called the war on "terror" a "crusade,"6 (followed of course by: Oops, you can't think I meant that?).

McWorld, Jihad, and Another World Is Possible

The "war on terror," an open-ended, endless war on the world, both enforces real oppression and misery, and brings much more. As it does, it provokes resistance in many forms, not all of them progressive or positive. Under these circumstances, it is a shameful cop-out to point to the obscurantist and oppressive nature of "the other" fundamentalists, and on that basis to not confront and oppose our own--much more dangerous--fundamentalist regime.

Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter spoke with important perspective when he said that "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."

This "most dangerous" agenda has terrible consequences for the people of the world. It requires domestic repression like the PATRIOT Act and the detention of U.S. citizens without charges simply on the President's say-so. It also involves tremendous risks for the rulers. Listen in on the current debate within the ruling class--these warnings are from Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell:

"I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence. Read it some time again. ... . Read in there what they say about the necessity of people to ... throw off ineptitude or to throw off that which is not doing what the people want it to do. And you're talking about the potential for, I think, real dangerous times if we don't get our act together." (Talk to The American Foundation, October 19).

Bush's new "war on terror" speech is in part a rebuttal to forces in the ruling class who are genuinely concerned about how all this could go terribly wrong for them. It is a call to rally the faithful for the great crusade.And, it is an attempt to reach out beyond his most fanatical base, to repackage the "war on terror" as a war for democracy, liberation, tolerance (!) and progress. To argue that the choices are his way, or "evil Islamic radicalism... militant Jihadism... Islamo-fascism."

All of which highlights the importance of stepping up opposition to the war, and demanding immediate withdrawal now. And, the importance of the struggle for the ouster of the whole Bush regime and its package.


Defining "Terrorist"

Apply the very criteria Bush uses in his "war on terror" speech to identify "terrorism" and see who best fits his own definition of "terrorists":

"The terrorists" are "unconstrained by any notion of common humanity and the rules of warfare." This from the country that brought the world Guantnamo, Abu Ghraib, the secret torture chambers in Eastern Europe, the outsourcing of torture, and an Attorney General who ruled that the Geneva Convention prohibition against torture is "quaint" and irrelevant.

"The terrorists" want "to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world." Actually, according to Bush's speech, "the terrorists" are out to control a region from Spain to Indonesia, whereas Bush demands the right to enslave and intimidate the whole world.

"The terrorists" leaders come from "wealth and privilege" and have no regard for "poor." Tell this one to the people in the 9th Ward in New Orleans.

"The terrorists" seek "weapons of mass murder."This from the leader of the only country to ever use atomic weapons for mass murder, the country with an arsenal of more than 10,640 nuclear weapons (more than all the next four countries combined).

We could go on and on, but this list should help the critical-minded reader identify which country and which "world leader" it is who embodies terrorism-- even by his own definition.

And if anyone wants to argue that there is a fundamental distinction between terrorist acts carried out by forces who do not control countries, and forces who do, two quick points: First, why is a non-state terrorist worse than a terrorist state? And, if you insist on making that distinction, look at the U.S. record for backing forces like the Contras in Nicaragua, RENAMO in Mozambique, the Colombian "paramilitaries," the Ton Ton Macoutes in Haiti, and let's not forget that former U.S. ally Osama bin Laden when he was causing trouble for the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Beyond the hypocrisy of the world's biggest terrorist calling for a "war on terrorism," a quick comparative look at the "target" vs. "allied" countries in this war, again even using Bush's own definition, makes it clear that who and what is identified as a target in this war has nothing to do with any particular repressive internal measures, development of "weapons of mass destruction," association with September 11, 2001, or any other criteria supposedly driving the "war on terror." As many have pointed out, Saudi Arabia--where most of the 9/11 attackers came from--is an ally in the "war on terror," while Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11, became the main target of this war.

Bush's speech puts Iran in the crosshairs of the "war on terror" because, he charges, the country has "ballistic missile programs." Pakistan (along with India) upheld as a model citizen in the "war on terror," has a nuclear arsenal. The list of draconian, brutally repressive regimes in the region that fall into the category of "allies" in the "war on terror" goes on and on, including the three model countries singled out in Bush's speech: Egypt (with its torture chambers full of dissidents), Saudi Arabia (where robbers and adulterers are executed and women who walk on the street unaccompanied are subject to arrest), and, again, Pakistan--a military dictatorship with powerful Islamic fundamentalist influence in the state security apparatus.

The apparently random madness of Bush's "terrorist" and "terrorist allies" hit lists--which not only target states and movements he claims are linked to Islamic fundamentalism but also are aimed at genuine popular revolutionary movements--including the People's War in Nepal--can only be understood this way: "The terrorists" and their "enablers" are whoever pose an impediment to the interests of U.S. imperialism--in particular in the strategic region of the Middle East.


On Bill's Maher's Offer to Richard Perle

On Bill Maher's HBO show Real Time, Maher offered neocon hack Richard Perle a deal: If Perle admitted that Bush and his crew had sold the war on Iraq with lies, Maher would consider the argument that bringing U.S.-defined democracy to the Middle East might be a justifiable or at least an admirable goal.

Perle turned down the deal. But Maher should reflect on the child laborers in democratic Pakistan, the warlord and opium regime of newly democratic Afghanistan, the mass death and torture being rained on newly democratic Iraq, and other "success stories" in bringing U.S. imperialist democracy to the Middle East.


Notes:

1. The repeated invocation of "the struggle against communism" in Bush's speech is mainly for the purposes of instilling his audiences with a commitment to war on the scale and scope of the cold war. But it also, importantly, serves to paint revolutionary change and socialism and communism in particular with the brush of terrorism, and demands that the oppressed and freedom-loving people of the world accept his verdict that the experience of communist revolution has been one of "shameless cruelty" and "heartless zealotry that led to the gulags, and to the Cultural Revolution, and the killing fields." It is beyond the scope of this article to sort through and refute these anti-communist rants, but the fact that this argument is so central to Bush's speech, including in ruling out the possibility of any option besides his, should alone provoke critical thinkers broadly to re-examine their perceptions about communism. The key starting point in that process is the work of Bob Avakian--see links at revcom.us. And, in engaging in the work of the Set the Record Straight project (thisiscommunism.org).

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2. While the Soviet Union of the sixties, seventies, and eighties called itself "socialist," revolutionary communists led by Mao Tsetung identified that capitalism had been restored in the Soviet Union with the coming to power of Khrushchev].

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3. Given the historic close relationship between these forces and the US rulers--who hooked up in the alliance of Islamic fundamentalism and US imperialism against the former Soviet Union in Central Asia and other areas--it's impossible to really know the nature of these forces, and to what extent the US still has connections with them. But it is a fact that these forces, broadly speaking, have real contradictions with and conflict with the U.S.

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4. These forces, given their position and program, can't, and don't lead any genuine, much less revolutionary resistance to imperialism, and even forms of struggle they promote reflect those very limited and non-progressive aims.

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5. In the Middle East and in Latin America, the Europeans are stealing a move from the playbook of U.S. imperialism, which exploited opposition to European colonialism in the 1800s to claim Latin America as its exclusive "backyard" for exploitation at the end of the colonial era.

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6. The Crusades were a series of religious wars by Christian Europe against Muslim forces in the Middle East that lasted hundreds of years.

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Bush "Welcomed" by Protest and Rebellion in Latin America

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

While protesters in the U.S. demanded "The World Cant Wait, Drive out the Bush Regime," Bush traveled to another place were hes not wanted either, Mar del Plata, Argentina. This year that city is host to the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, where 34 heads of state will be meeting.

Even before Bush left for the summit, people began to mobilize and to let the world know that this butcher was not welcomed. On October 30 the capital city of Buenos Aires awoke covered with posters saying "Stop Bush." At press conferences, labor and student organizations called for a one-day general strike on the 4th, the first day of the summit.

A couple of weeks before the summit, Diego Armando Maradona, the soccer star, announced on his TV show that he would head up the protest in Mar del Plata, saying:

"Bush looks down on us, he steps on us, and were supposed to be at his mercy. This is not the history we were made forhe is a murderer, we have to oppose this trip to our country."

On November 4 there were tens of thousands of people in the streets, and Mar del Plata was a city under siege. The day before, one of several "Anti-Bush" trains arrived from Buenos Aires full of protesters chanting slogans against Bush and the FTAA. At a press conference announcing the opening of the Summit of the Peoples--a coalition of various protest groups--Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace laureate, said that Bush has committed "crimes against humanity" and that the FTAA represented "the re-colonization of the Americas."

In Buenos Aires, thousands protested in Plaza de Mayo, the demonstrators attacked symbols of imperialism, like Boston Bank, a French bank, a McDonalds and a Burger King. Dozens were arrested by cops dressed in civilian clothes, while riot cops battled the demonstrators.

In Recife, Brazil, students, landless peasants, trade unionists, representatives of various social movements protest against Bush's visit to Brazil, in front of the offices of a Bankers Association. From there they went to the U.S. Consulate.

As we go to press, large protests are planned in Panama, where Bush is expected on the 6th and 7th. Protest began in Panama one month ago, as soon as it was announced that he was traveling there. The Professors Association of the University of Panama (La Asociación de Profesores de la Universidad de Panamá), said it would form a "human chain" on the 7th at Parque Porras to protest Bush's visit. One of the organizers said, "We will give a fitting welcome to the biggest butcher on the planet." And the people of El Chorrillo, the neighborhood bombed by the U.S. on November 20, 1989 (see Revolution No. 17, "The U.S. Invasion of Panama 1989: The Injustice of Operation Just Cause ") have also organized a march in protest.

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Theocrats Ecstatic Over Alito

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

On October 31, Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. You can tell a lot about what this means by looking at the response of the prominent Christian Fascists to his nomination. Remember, these are the same ones who demanded that Bush drop Harriet Miers because she was not a sufficiently hard core for their cause.

The Christian fascists got early "heads up" phone calls from the White House--before any public announcment was made. Karl Rove personally called Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, while White House aide Tim Goeglein called Paul Weyrich, a gruesome founding father of the whole Christian Fascist movement.

The Christian fascist columnist Cal Thomas announced these circles are "ecstatic over Alito. Thomas said they see ahead "the ideological fight they have been seeking," concentrated on abortion and the power of religion in government. Televangelist theocrat and certifiable lunatic Pat Robertson was joined on his CBN-TV show by Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, a frothing-at-the-mouth enemy of a woman's right to choose. Sekulow gushed that the Alito nomination was a "grand slam"--adding that Alito "had clearly ruled in our favor" on abortion and that that he ruled "our way" on school prayer issues. Robertson nodded as Sekulow said, "This is the strongest nomination the President could have put forward."

Catholic League president William Donohue went into full attack mode against anyone who raised questions about how a conservative Catholic like Alito would rule on abortion and birth control. After Alito's mother said, "He's a nice Catholic boy and he doesn't believe in abortions," Donohue charged it was anti-Catholic bigotry to explore the impact such religious dogmas might have on the lives of millions of women. Donohue added, "Unlike those who would erect an impenetrable wall between church and state, Alito is not hostile to every religious symbol that sits on government property. Nor does he share the enthusiasm that church-state fanatics have for censoring the rights of Christian students in the public schools." In other words, Alito will open the public schools system for religious indoctrination and allow the use of Christian religious dogma as state standards for morality and law.

In a special broadcast of his show "Focus on the Family," James Dobson was joined by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Chuck Colson to promote the Alito nomination. Perkins argued that this is "a moment in American history that has been decades in the making"; and that "As Christian citizens of this country we should be involved in this historic moment and our voices should be heard." James Dobson himself said his support for Miers had stopped because he "wasn't absolutely sure what she stood for." Dobson added, "I don't feel that way about Judge Samuel Alito."

The founder of the "Center for Reclaiming America," D. James Kennedy hailed Alito as "very much a known quantity." Operation Rescue agreed, saying, "We believe that this nomination may fulfill Bush's promise to appoint Justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas We are trusting that we are now on the fast-track to derailing Roe v. Wade as the law of the land."

Priests for Life thanked President Bush for his announcement of Alito's nomination and added, "The nation is in a culture war, and there's no need to hide that fact."

These Christian ayatollahs--like Perkins, Dobson, Donahue and Colson--were all key figures in "Justice Sunday"--a gathering of Christian fascists last April in Louisville where they pressed their campaign for a Supreme Court in their image. It was a time when leading politicians like Senate leader Bill Frist made a show of unity.

And now Tony Perkins has announced a new "Justice Sunday" for December 4 to marshal their forces behind installing Alito.

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Bush Regime: Indicted for Crimes Against Humanity

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

On October 21-22, an extraordinary tribunal was held in New York City to indict the Bush regime for crimes against humanity. The First Session of the 2005 International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration brought four indictments against the regime:

  1. Wars of Aggression
  2. Torture and Indefinite Detentions
  3. Destruction of the Global Environment
  4. Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights

The Tribunal also held a hearing into a fifth indictment around Hurricane Katrina and the crimes of the Bush regime surrounding that disaster.

Audio files of some of the powerful indictments, testimonies, and statement at the First Session are available online at the Commission's website: bushcommission.org. Links to sections of the testimony broadcast on Democracy Now! are also available at the Commission website.

REVOLUTION coverage of this historic tribunal, including excerpts from key testimony, is online at: revcom.us

The Commission's Jury of Conscience will come to verdicts at the Second Session and publish its findings. From bushcommission.org:

"The second session will held in January. It will be at least a three-day session to present all the witnesses, experts, and documentary evidence on each of the indictments, with the comprehensiveness and standards required to prosecute the case and to fulfill the mission of the Charter. The jury of conscience will then consider the evidence and deliver its opinion on each count of the indictments.

"This Commission will itself be an audacious undertaking, one with the potential to make great societal impact. To realize this vision will require many people working in concert, on many levels."

Contact the Commission at:

bushcommission.org

Torture and Indefinite Detention

From the testimony of Barbara Olshansky, deputy legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, at the Oct. 21-22 Tribunal:

I'll start with what happened on September 12 2001. Immediately after the terrorist attacks, people were snatched from their homes all over the United States.... There were hundreds of immigrants in America, mostly Muslim and South Asian men, who were rounded up by the FBI and the INS under the rubric of an immigrant sweep...Once they were arrested these folks were all labeled as "of interest" by the 9/11 investigation and thrown basically into legal limbo. What we now know happened to these people is that they were arrested and taken in the middle of the night. Their families were not told where they were going.... It took us six weeks to find people -- we now know that was because there was a direct order from Ashcroft's Justice Department down to the individualized levels, lthe wardens of each of the facilities, to lie to us [their lawyers] about whether there were people in the jails.

They were held without an indictment. They were denied the right to counsel. They were denied the right to trial by jury. They were denied judicial review. They had no charges brought against them. They were not permitted out on bond. They couldn't call their families nor could they call their consulate....

They were brought in for minor immigration violations, which are the equivalent of traffic tickets, these are violations for which we have never in the history of the United States ever arrested anyone. They would get before an immigration judge (very often we couldn't get there because we didn't know), and the judge would say "OK, you overstayed your tourist visa.... We have to send you home, are you ready to go home?" And people said "Yes." And the FBI said "No! You can't leave until we clear you of any suspected charges of connection with terrorism."

And all of these people -- not hundreds, thousands -- were kept up to two years until the FBI determined that they could be released. These people left. They have not been charged with any crime... When they were in these facilities around the country, they were kept in federal prisons, and state and county jails, and immigration centers. They were subject for the most part to solitary confinment... They were housed with dangerous criminals who were virulantly anti-Arab, anti Muslim, anti South Asian in the wake of the attacks. They were strip searched repeatedly upon entering and exiting their cells. They were manacled amd shackled all the time. And they were brutally beaten by guards....Three hundred videotapes were taken in the Metropolitan Detention Center of the processing of these individuals as they came through the facilities. They showed the guards beating people and bashing their heads against each pillar as they brought them to their cells, forcing their heads against posters that said "These colors don't run."


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CIA Secret Prisons In Eastern Europe...
And a Modest Proposal

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

The U.S. has apparently taken over a Polish political prison to torture secretly detained suspects in the "war on terror." While they're in Poland, they might find even larger facilities nearby.

Quite a bit still remains of the old Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp. The CIA can close the gates to the public, ban the Red Cross, and prohibit access by lawyers and reporters. The White House can "refuse to confirm or deny" that they've taken over Hitler's notorious death camp.

Legal documents can be prepared by the Attorney General to exempt administration officials and collaborating doctors from war crimes prosecution, arguing that old verdicts on Nazi concentration camps are "quaint" in light of the danger posed by terrorists. Secret courts without appeal processes can OK indefinite, secret detention of suspects on the President's say-so. If a division of Halliburton provides prisoner meals, those meals can be displayed by congressmen as the official rebuttal to accusations of human rights abuses. And the training of "interrogators" can be subcontracted by the CIA to convicted sadistic psychopathic mass murderers.

To update the image of Auschwitz, the banner over the entrance can be changed from "Freedom Through Work," to "Keeping America Safe from Terrorists."

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The Fire in France

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

As we go to press, the youth of France are on their tenth day of an uprising that began in the belt of impoverished suburbs that surround Paris.

The uprisings started in Clichy-sous-Bois, a working class suburb of Paris. On October 27, two teenagers, Bouna Traore, aged 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, on their way back from playing soccer by some accounts, ran from police and, clearly afraid for their lives, climbed the 9-foot barbed wire fence of an electrical substation and burned to death.

Fed up with intense and increasing discrimination and police brutality, largely immigrant and working class youth took the streets of their communities and refused to back down in the face of heavy police attacks.

The youth, mostly the children of Arab and African immigrants, have made burning cars their symbol--setting more than 2,000 cars and buses on fire in the first week of rebellion.

In one rally in one housing project, rebel youth demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy--who has made himself notorious by called immigrant youth "scum" and saying that suburbs need to be "scoured with industrial cleanser."

Sarkozy deployed the hated and brutal national riot police against the rebels-- including 1,000 into the suburbs north of Paris. And even with such invasions, the police have still not been able to maintain control after dark.

Night after night, the uprising has spread from Paris suburbs to other parts of France: to Rouen and Lille in the north, Marseille and Toulouse in the south, Rennes in the west, and Dijon and Strasbourg in the east.

France has more than 700 working class suburbs like Clichy-sous-Bois with the endless rows of aging apartment buildings, as shown in the film La Haine (Hate).

For decades, millions of immigrant workers were drawn to France to perform hard and degrading work for the lowest wages. And then, as the economy changed, many were simply thrown out of work and abandoned in these rundown housing projects outside the major cities.

Unemployment among immigrant communities have risen to 30 percent. The youth in particular face constant beatings and worse from the police. And the abuse has intensified because of a growing anti-immigrant climate in Europe, and in France in particular--where harassment and repressive laws are encouraged by government leaders and reactionary parties, often under the guise of protecting the country from "terrorism" and "Islamic extremism."

The response of the government officials and much of the media to the rebellion has been to escalate their calls for a crackdown on working class immigrants and the youth. The youth have been demonized as "gang members." The conservative newspaper Le Figaro claimed that the current rebellions "are the consequence of an uncontrolled immigration policy", echoing the demands of the fascist politician Jean-Marie Le Pen that France be "cleansed" of immigrants.

Arab and Muslim people are treated like criminals and unwelcome strangers--after their home countries were colonized by France, after their labor was exploited in France for decades, and even after many of the youth were born and raised in France.

This righteous rebellion is their answer: that they will not accept this mistreatment and that they demand profound changes in the direction France has taken.

*****

"When you're an immigrant here, you're just stuck in your shit. Does it really surprise you it's going up in flames?"

Momo, Age 26, Aulnay-sous-Bois

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From A World to Win News Service

London/Turkey: Stepping Forward to Fill the Shoes of the Fallen

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

October 31, 2005. A World to Win News Service. There had been many large meetings of Turkish and Kurdish revolutionary immigrants in east London over the years, but October 15 was no ordinary occasion. It was a memorial for Maoist Communist Party of Turkey (MKP) Secretary-General Cafer Cangoz and 16 other party leaders and members murdered by the Turkish armed forces on their way to the 2nd Party Congress last June 16. [ Revolution coverage of this is available online at revcom.us] Those attending this London commemoration were only too aware of the stakes posed by that massacre: the Turkish media had featured front-page stories proclaiming that the Turkish government had "destroyed the Maoists with a single blow."

The more than 500 people at the memorial had a message too, but a very different one: not only that revolution was alive in the hearts of millions of Turkey’s oppressed, but that they were going to transform their grief into new, greater determination in the battle against oppression.

Tears came to the eyes of many men and women as they listened to presentations of how ordinary people from every walk of life in the country had been transformed into fighters for the cause of the international working class and had devoted and ultimately sacrificed their lives on the battlefield for a new world. A 25-minute video documentary that showed the events following the massacre gripped the crowd. As footage of the mass reaction to their deaths in Turkey and in the Turkish and Kurdish immigrant communities in Europe unrolled on the screen, showing the crowds of thousands in Istanbul, Dersim and other cities that carried the coffins of their comrades, the hall rang with defiant chants.

A speech from the party declared that the enemy’s boasts in the aftermath of the assassination had died on their lips as the whole country witnessed thousands pouring onto the streets to mark their respect for the fallen comrades and the cause for which they gave their lives. But the speech also issued a pointed challenge to those who had come to this and other such meetings. It recalled that the party had faced grievous days like this before, not least of all when its founding chairman Ibrahim Kaypakayya was murdered within a year of the party’s creation in 1972. It also emphasized how he had raised the Maoist banner at a time when he had only a small handful of followers, yet this had been the crucial basis for great advances that followed.

There has been much wrangling among revolutionaries in Turkey about what led to the murder of these comrades. A veteran revolutionary spoke to set this discussion in its proper context. First, it is necessary to grasp firmly and deeply that "these were our Spartacuses," referring to the leader of the greatest of the slave rebellions against the Roman Empire who was eventually captured and killed by the Romans. When the enemy strikes down our leaders, the first question to be asked is not what they might or might not have done better, but were they right to rebel? Were they right to raise the red flag of revolution and fight heart and soul for another world? When the enemy inflicts a hard blow, it is only by rallying first to the vanguard and its core principles that the basis for future advances can be laid. As a statement in honour of these fallen comrades by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement put it, "The enemy hoped to crush the MKP but the party, surrounded by the masses supporting it wholeheartedly, has begun the hard task of transforming grief and anger into scientific revolutionary plan."

The speeches also pointed out how the challenge facing people to come forward in this sense is not for some distant future, but for now. Great turmoil is already roiling the world and particularly the Middle East. Events in Turkey have greatly intensified their pace, and it is urgent for the party there to rally its ranks and make big advances. In this regard, the party speech pointed out that the many statements to the MKP from the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and its participating parties should be treated not just as expressions of internationalist solidarity, but also as initial summations of the invaluable experience acquired by the international communist movement, and that these should be studied for the precious lessons they contained.

Above all the speech emphasized the need to step forward at this crucial juncture. And it spoke plainly and powerfully to what this meant: to give your heart to the world’s oppressed, and to take up the science of revolution that enables you to fight for a world without oppressors and exploiters, a communist world.

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God the Original Fascist

Part 4d: Holy Wars--Manifest Destiny In A Biblical Setting

Revolution #022, November 13, 2005, posted at revcom.us

EDITOR'S NOTE: This series of articles was submitted by a reader who was inspired by Bob Avakian's writings and talks on religion and, further provoked by discussions and arguments with friends about the Bible, engaged in a systematic study of the first five books of the Bible. These books, which are known as the "Mosaic Books" (and which contain such crucial passages as that outlining the Ten Commandments), lay out the foundation for some of the Bible's most important themes. After having read these five, Mosaic books of the Bible, the reader was struck even more deeply by how profoundly the essence of the Bible's message has been distorted and hidden.

Part 4c talked about how the Bible repeatedly discusses the supposed justification and necessity for wiping out any people who are not God's chosen people.

Perhaps, however, in concluding the final portion of this series, it is best to do what I may not yet have done enough of: Give God a chance to speak for himself. After all, aren't these fascists always complaining about how they need "equal time" to express their views? I suppose I have been a bit unfair.

So, before ending, then, let me quote from an excerpt of a poem that God reads to Moses towards the end of Deuteronomy, the fifth and final Mosaic book. In this poem, God is prophesying that future generations of his followers will turn against him, and is illustrating the punishments he will unleash upon humanity when this occurs. Says God:

"Vengeance will I wreak, on my foes, will I deal to those who reject me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood--As my sword devours the flesh--Blood of the slain and the captive--From the long-haired enemy chiefs."

(Deuteronomy 32)

Well God, I couldn't have said it better myself!

CONCLUSION:

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery/none but ourselves can free our minds."

The above quote, of course, is a famous one from Bob Marley's very powerful composition, "Redemption Song." In some sense, the choice of that quote has a two-fold purpose here. The first, and perhaps more obvious, is that it poetically captures the notion that it is foolish to root one's quest for freedom in a belief system that is barbaric, unscientific, and archaic. The second reason for choosing this quote, however, is its irony: In that line, Bob Marley is referring to such belief systems as Christianity, which he correctly identifies as having many poisonous effects on those who strive to be free, either physically or mentally. And yet, rather than going one step further to realizing that human societies must seek to move beyond reliance on any religion, he simply adopts another, equally unscientific religion in its place --- Rastafarianism. Thus, one could say that when it came to religion's role in society, Marley powerfully captured part of the picture, yet failed profoundly to see the rest. For while Christianity certainly takes second place to no other religion when it comes to justifying, and even extolling, the commission of horrific atrocities, the simple fact remains that just about any religion under the sun has at its core the same basic problems as Christianity: It is based on an unscientific and erroneous belief in a higher power, and its core principles envision a society reflecting the dominance of certain segments of society at the expense of others.

To be sure, the new Draft Programme of the RCP, as well as numerous writings and talks by Bob Avakian, have made it clear that while fully embracing communism entails a commitment to atheism, individuals living in the kind of society communists envision never should or will be forced to give up religion. In addition, the point has been made in many of the same writings and talks that there are, and for some time will be, many, many masses of people who will continue to adhere to religious viewpoints who are in fact well-intentioned, good-hearted people who must be united with and never viewed as being part of the enemy. Both of these points are vital in working towards a society where, one day, everyone can truly be "free."

However, a fundamental distinction must be made between upholding the rights of individuals to practice their religions--which is a worthy principle--and using religious doctrines and texts as key principles by which to organize society--which would be deadly. In addition, while religious intolerance, including intolerance of people's right to practice religion, is not only immoral but would represent a significant obstacle to the ability to build a successful revolutionary movement, it also must be stated that relying on the Bible or any other religious text to initiate fundamental and radical change will never work at any level.

Next week: Conclusion to the series-why we should be glad there is no God.

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