Next freeze action: Monday, July 21st - Penn Station
(details and other plans below)
At 5:00 pm on Thursday, July 10th, people started to gather on the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. We each put a sign or large sticker saying, "No Attack on Iran!" on our clothing, even if we were already wearing T-shirts calling for impeachment or an end to the war in Iraq. Excitement mounted as more and more people arrived and passersby looked, stopped, asked questions and, in some cases, joined in to go inside to freeze. At 5:25, we entered Grand Central Station. Over 175 of us walked around the main concourse. Then at exactly 5:40, as marked by the clocks in the center of the station, we froze, like statues, wherever we were. We stayed that way, completely frozen, until 5:45. People in the station stopped and stared and took pictures. Some tried to talk to us. At exactly 5:45 we broke into a loud, echoing, and long chant of "No Attack on Iran!" A significant number of the commuters clapped and joined in the chant. We left with a surge of enthusiasm that many agreed hadn't been felt at a demonstration for a long time.
This successful action, initiated by World Can't Wait, became a joint effort of many organizations with Activist Response Team (ART), United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Brooklyn For Peace, and members of Peace Action joined, playing important roles in mobilizing for this. Granny Peace Brigade, StopWarOnIran.org and Theater Against War were there. In fact, we are still learning of groups that spread the word to their email lists and came.
Laura Flanders sent her GRIT TV crew who interviewed several people, and will be airing the footage on her show on www.airamerica.com this weekend.
Watch a video of the Freeze action
For most who came, this was their first taste of such creative "theatrical" political action, but won't be their last. Many expressed hope that this action would spark many more types of creative and determined actions against a possible attack on Iran. In that spirit, plans were announced at the end of the action to do this creative and thrilling action again:
Another "FREEZE" Action: No Attack on Iran
Monday, July 21st at Penn Station (and more)
Meet up at 5:00 PM at 32nd and 7th Avenue, "Freeze" at 5:30 pm.
Those who want to participate should email wcwfreeze@gmail.com to sign up.
Volunteers are needed to help make this happen, as well for organizing "premier" showings throughout the area of the new film "Iran is not the problem", mobilizing for "No Attack on Iran" contingents at demonstrations on August 2nd, and developing a rapid response textmail network to swifly respond to any major moves towards an attack on Iran. Interested volunteers should email nyc@worldcantwait.org, and please include your telephone or cell number with your message so we can quickly pull organizing teams together.
download flyer for July 21 action
1 comment:
I wish that Bush would agree to meet with Ahmadinejad. Sadly, however, it's doubtful that Bush will seriously give negotiations a chance.
Experts have been predicting that Bush would authorize a strike on Iran for years:
“I believe President Bush is going to order air strikes (on Iran) before he leaves office”
-Norman Podhoretz (Lyons, 2007).
Bush and his cronies say they want peace and diplomacy, but the problem with the members of Bush administration is that you can't trust them. You can't take what they at face value.
The administration secretly planned and prepared for war with Iraq without disclosing it to the general public.
Yet, when asked about Iraq, Bush’s favorite response was “I have no war plans on my desk.” At one point or another after the planning began, nearly every member of the administration publicly denied any plans to go to war with Iraq.
The question remains: Why would we expect the Bush administration to start being honest and up front about its intentions now?
A better approach to Iran would be negotiations. We need to give Iran an honorable path of retreat. While Fareed Zakaria agrees that there is no reason not to use sanctions and embargoes against states such as Iran, he suggests that we also need to “allow a viable way out.” That is to say, we need to negotiate and not merely mandate.
I think we should more concerned about acquainting ourselves with the realities of Iran's foreign policy initiatives, and intelligently determining our most reasonable course of action.
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