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Iraq anti-war vet Matthis Chiroux Hearing March 12 with/Army reactivation to Iraq

2009-02-02T21:30:00.001-05:00

Statement from Matthis Chrioux

February 2, 2009

I have a date with the military.

March 12, I'll attend a board hearing in St. Louis, Missouri, to determine what the nature of my discharge from the Individual Ready Reserve will be. The Army has alleged "misconduct" and they're shooting for a "general discharge," but I'm pushing for "honorable," as my refusal to deploy was not an act of misconduct.

I will attend this hearing in uniform as ordered, but only for the purpose of these administrative proceedings. I'm not contesting the fact that I did not report as ordered to deploy to Iraq. However, I intend to paint a clear picture of my convictions to the military, and I seek to corroborate them with first hand accounts of occupation.

No person is bound to act against the dictates of conscience, let alone their understanding of the law. I know the occupation of Iraq and further the Global War on Terror to be an illegitimate and ultimately murderous campaign waged for economic gain, fueled by misinformation and greed. I know it to be in violation of not only international law, but the U.S. Constitution. Far more importantly, it is against the dictates of my own conscience, and never again will I compromise my humanity to support or ignore the crimes of my government.

I will be working closely with Iraq Veterans Against the War to plan what we hope will reflect a Winter Soldier event in the form of our members testifying under oath to the military about their experiences in the Global War on Terror.

I seek only truth to be heard and considered by the military. If reconciliation is possible, I seek that, as well.

If we are a democracy, than ultimately we the people are responsible for the actions of our government. When those actions bring about crimes against humanity in the forms of occupation, torture and war profiteering, it is our duty as people to resist.

I stand for humanity, the rule of law and the rights of people, be they Arab or American, to cast off their oppressors, be they foreign or domestic...and even challenge them in court, which is what, in essence, I am doing.

The Army in no way has forced this hearing upon me. I demanded this hearing from them to oppose the General Discharge, and I thank them for providing me due process.

We are continuing to gather funds needed to cover travel expenses and accommodation for those who will be testifying. I hope anywhere from fifteen to thirty veterans, military family members, Iraqi civilians and constitutional experts will appear before my board. Please consider making a donation to my defense campaign either through my website, matthisresists.us, or through ivaw.org.

This information, when presented to the military, will provide a clear contrast to the official narrative of the Global War on Terror and establish a firm base for my actions in reality as recalled by those who lived it.

As well, I have recently returned to New York from Washington D.C. where in addition to watching our new president be inaugurated and demanding our old one be prosecuted, I visited the offices of the Congressional Signatories to my support letter from last summer.

As I write this, they are penning another letter of support which will be more widely circulated in Congress than the first to be sent to President Obama before my hearing. As well, several Members have expressed interest in appearing in person to voice support for me and troops like me in March.

I will mobilize as much media as possible to put the critical issue of war resistence to the American people for judgment, but I need your help to get the word out. Please forward this information far and wide, especially in St. Louis, and contact me if you'd be interested in helping organize or participating in a national day of action to support war resisters on March 12. I'd like to make it a day to send a clear demand to President Obama that he halt the military from prosecuting troops refusing to participate in the Global War on Terror.

In these most critical times for our service members and the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and others, I ask the American people to consider that change will not manifest itself in this country until society halts the unjust practices of the past, among them prosecuting Soldiers of conscience.

We tried to bring this message to President Obama at the final presidential debate. Tragically, Joe the plumber took precedence that evening, and Nick Morgan the Iraq Vet was nearly crushed by a police horse during a violent crackdown on our peaceful demonstration.

Hopefully, President Obama will hear our voices this time and understand that enough blood has been shed in Baghdad, Kabul, Waziristan and Hempstead alike. It is time for a just peace, at home and abroad.

But for peace to exist, first must occur reconciliation, and for reconciliation to occur, first must exist truth.

Truth is what led me to resist, and it is that truth now that leads me to St. Louis. Win or loose, my life WILL reflect truth and is dedicated to preserving human rights. The truth is, there is no other path I can walk. The Army proved that to me and now I'll prove it to them.

More to follow on various fundraisers, events and our national day of action. As always, I am grateful to all for your interest, support and dedication to peace and justice. I look forward to the whirlwind of activism that will be the next 39 days.

Peace and Solidarity,

Matthis Chiroux
matthisresists.us

Statement by Luis Barrios concerning sentencing for protest to Close the School of the Americas

2009-02-02T21:29:00.001-05:00

My Transgression Turns Me Into a Prisoner of Conscience

Father Luis Barrios

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of
great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. Dante (1265-1321)

A solidarity greeting and blessings

On Monday, January 26, 2009, in the city of Columbus, Georgia, the Honorable Judge G. Mallon Faircloth, Federal Court, found me along with five others – Sister Diane T. Pinchot, Louis N. Wolf, Theresa Cusimano, Albert L. Simmon, and Krysten L. Holm - guilty of crossing and entering the gates of the military base Fort Benning which houses the School of the Américas. This SOA is the military school where Latin American soldiers are trained in torture, disappearance, and assassination techniques, to protect anti-democratic governments and, of course, the imperialist interests of the political, economic, and military hegemony of the US government in Latin America.

At the time of our arrest, due to the act of civil disobedience, our message was clear and precise: shut down the school of the assassins! I added to this process the element of being able to bring justice for my saint and spiritual guide, San Romero of The Américas (San Romero de Las Américas), assassinated by graduates of the School of the Américas. This is my offering of gratefulness to him.

After the court hearing, four federal officials drove me to be finger-printed and photographed, and later to listen to other officials, who made sure to remind me on countless occasions that I now belong to the prison system. The sentence requires us to serve two months at a federal prison, the actual location to be selected by the prison system, and it will become effective in approximately three or four weeks. In the interim, I must report to an officer on a weekly basis so they can track my whereabouts and actions.

Why, then, a prisoner of conscience?

A prisoner of conscience (POC) is any person that has been imprisoned because of his race, religion, color of skin, language, sexual orientation, or creed, as long as the person has not committed or practiced violence. The term was created by the Association for the Defense of Human Rights Amnesty International, at the beginning of the 1960’s (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preso_de_conciencia).

On this occasion, the action for which I am going to be imprisoned is of a social, political, moral, and spiritual character. This action was very well planed, within the context of non-violent, civil disobedience and resistance. I am not guilty of committing any crime against humanity. However, I recognize that I am guilty of being a transgressor of any “law” that pretends to justify oppression, exclusion, or assassination! I do it because these are not laws!

What did I want to make clear to the Judge?

First, that it is not correct when it is said that there are pre-established laws and that it is my duty to obey them. I told the judge very clearly that he was wrong, because unjust laws are not laws, thus it was not my duty to obey what is not just. Furthermore, I clarified that those were the exact reasons why Jesus disobeyed in Palestine, Mahatma Gandhi in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Cesar Chávez and Rosa Park here in the United States, Luisa Capetillo in Puerto Rico, just to mention a few. However, I want to emphasize that I am not comparing myself to these teachers of justice, their shoes being too large for me. I was humbly looking for examples that could illustrate my actions.

Similarly, the message was clear when it was explained that it is not correct try to divorce US government foreign policy from the creation of the School of the Americas. Namely, it has become clear, since the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 –which promotes the isolationism of the new continent and the veto of the European nations’ intentions to intervene in the Americas, that there is a project of dominance and control that corresponds to the colonialist and imperialists interests from this government. All of this taking place with the intention of maintaining the pattern of US intervention and dominance over the countries in Latin America. Hence this doctrine gave the US government the opportunity to expand greatly its territories. Obviously, there was the need for institutions that would secure that “order.” These institutions were to protect this expansionist ideology. This is the reality that has victimized my homeland, Puerto Rico, since 1898, having become a US colony. This reality emerged as well from the School of the Americas, located from 1946 to 1984 in Panama, and then relocated to the military base of Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia.

Along the same line, I asked the Honorable Judge Faircloth, that if he truly believed in processes of justice, he could be of great help in achieving on one side that the International Penal Court conducts the hearings for the School of the Americas and those graduates who have committed the following crimes: Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes.

When will be the time?

For those that wrote or called to me with a melancholic and short-sighted message, saying that it was not the time for this type of action, I would like to respond to them that I very much appreciate their concern. Yet, only a single question emerges, which I am not sure that I could answer: when is the right time to fight for peace with justice to reign? If anybody knows the response, I kindly ask him or her to share it with me. Perhaps is that I am not up to date with all these affairs, which become pop culture references, and maybe I missed the recipe or season.

Something that I have always believed in are issues related to revolutionary activism –including Christians, Marxists, and atheists, among others. This labor towards justice allows for no vacation, no fixed location, no concrete moment, or particular people. Furthermore, these are not temporary, fashionable businesses. You and I know very well that the most effective way of criticizing is by acting. Namely, show me what you are doing in favor of peace with justice, and that way I will learn.

That remains clear, I do not play the idiocies of being neither hero nor great less to looking for personal recognitions. I overcame many years ago, this stage of egoism, narcissism or individualism. It is for this that I realize well that the struggle for the peace with justice is not a goal, but rather it is a process it continued. The wealthy classes invented the opportunist style in order to justify their lack of involvement or their quietness, so that they could escape the personal sacrifice that was realized for the benefit of the community. That personal sacrifice they skip is done with the sole purpose of benefitting the community. This personal sacrifice must become a duty, and later a personal satisfaction. As we evolve socio-spiritually at this level, I want to explain that I am not against appreciation from the people, which often intends to bless us through the act of sharing. I am categorically criticizing those individuals who put public recognition as a pre-condition to their work in favor of peace with justice. In any case, as our brother Pablo Milanes says: what shines with its own light, nobody will be able to shut down. Therefore, do not put the shine aside and let your actions speak for themselves.

Let me put it in rice and beans, as my grandmother, Ms. Barbara, would say: while graduates from the School of the Americas continue harassing, torturing, disappearing, and/or killing rural workers, labor movement leaders, labor union leaders, students, journalists, communists, etc. in Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and other places, the time for our actions to result in peace with justice is now. Period.

Once again, as a priest, my spiritual activism holds as the ultimate goal being able to organize the religiosity of the people, so they can reach their liberation. This does not need social recognition, economic compensation, or psychological gratifications in order to be fulfilled. This is my socio-political duty, to walk with the people and become a companion in their struggles. It is beautiful to learn to live without glory or personal recognition and we continue satisfying our corresponding duties, to build a world of peace with justice! Here, we could say that we reached the gates to immortality. This is my challenge each day, when I have the opportunity to open my eyes and thank God for still being alive in this world. This of course, at the same time has granted me the right to die in peace when the time comes, because I fulfilled my duty to our Goddess to build a better world. From this point on, this small sacrifice is a contribution to the struggle.

What to do as a collectivity?

For those who have been in communication, and expressed interest in receiving suggestions about how they could be contributing, here are some ideas:

First, we need to morally, spiritually, economically, socially, and politically provide unconditional support to the work developed by SOA Watch (www.soaw.org). This is a serious struggle that challenges power structures.

Similarly, we need to begin a wide-range educational campaign, so that our communities here, in the United States, may comprehend the existence and modus operandi of the School of the Americas. Above all, we must spread the word so that everyone may be aware of the atrocities against civil and human rights committed by SOA’s graduates in our Latin American countries.

Also, the support of this framework must be geared towards all the prisoners of conscience. There were six of us being sentenced, and each person’s sacrifice must be recognized.

We ought to have the ability to connect in this campaign with the relationship that exists between our political prisoners and our prisoners of conscience, until we achieve their freedom. For instance, we must connect all struggles: the brothers and sisters, and compañera/os political prisoners from Puerto Rico (Carlos Alberto Torres, Oscar López Rivera, Avelino González Claudio and Haydeé Beltrán); the five brothers and compañeros Cuban heroes (René González, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañimo); our brother and compañero black political activist and US journalist, Mumia Abul-Jamal; and our brother and compañero from the Nations Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota, Leonard Peltier; only to mention some names. Let’s remember that these struggles for peace with justice are not antagonistic, they complement.

Last, but not least, use your creativity and come up with your own initiatives. Please see the attached declaration of defense in front of the judge last Monday. Thank you so much for your attention to this matter.

In solidarity love, hugs, and blessings,

Fr. Luis Barrios
St. Mary’s’ Episcopal Church
January 27th of 2009
New York, New York
Lbarrios@jjay.cuny.edu

Mi trasgresión me convierte en un prisionero de conciencia

Padre Luis Barrios

Los lugares más calientes en el infierno están reservados para aquellos/as
que, en tiempos de gran crisis moral, mantienen su neutralidad. Dante (1265-1321)

Un saludo solidario y bendiciones.

Como ya es de conocimiento en algunos/as de ustedes, en el día de ayer –lunes, 26 de enero de 2009- en la ciudad de Columbus, Georgia el Juez G. Mallon Faircloth, Magistrado de la Corte Federal, en unión a otros/as cinco compañeros/as –Diane T. Pinchot, Louis N. Wolf, Theresa Cusimano, Albert L. Simmon, y Krysten L. Holm- me encontró culpable de cruzar los portones y entrar a la base militar Fort Benning, lugar donde protegen a la Escuela de Las Américas. Esta es la escuela militar donde entrenan a soldados latinoamericanos en tácticas de torturas, desapariciones y asesinatos, para que protejan a gobiernos antidemocráticos y por supuesto, asimismo los intereses imperialistas de la hegemonía política, económica y militar del gobierno estadounidense en América Latina.

Nuestro mensaje cuando nos arrestaron en nuestra acción de desobediencia civil el pasado 23 de noviembre de 2008 dentro de la base militar fue claro y preciso: ¡cierren ya esta escuela de asesinos! Yo le añadí a todo este proceso el poder traer justicia para mi guía espiritual y beato, San Romero de Las Américas, asesinado por graduados de la Escuela de Las Américas. Esta es mi ofrenda de agradecimiento para él.

Luego del juicio, cuatro oficiales federales me condujeron a tomar las huellas digitales y fotos y más adelante a escuchar la letanía de otros oficiales quienes se encargaron de recordarme no se cuantas veces que ahora yo le pertenezco al sistema de prisiones. La sentencia en el juicio de ayer son dos meses en una cárcel federal que el sistema de prisiones decidirá y la misma comenzará más o menos en tres o cuatro semanas. De todas maneras tengo que reportarme semanalmente para ellos saber lo que estoy haciendo con mi vida.

Ahora bien, ¿por qué digo un prisionero de conciencia?

Se dice que un preso de conciencia o prisionero/a de conciencia (POC por sus siglas en inglés Prisioner of conscience) es cualquier persona encarcelada por su raza, religión, color de piel, idioma, orientación sexual o credo, mientras no haya defendido o practicado la violencia. El término fue creado por la asociación defensora de los derechos humanos Amnistía Internacional a principios de los años 60. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preso_de_conciencia).

En esta ocasión la acción que me está llevando a la cárcel es una de carácter social, política, moral y espiritual. La misma se realizó muy bien calculada dentro del contexto de la resistencia de la desobediencia civil no violenta. Yo no soy culpable de cometer algún crimen contra la humanidad. Sin embargo, reconozco que soy culpable de ser un transgresor de cualquier "ley" que pretende justificar la injusticia de opresión, exclusión, o asesinato! ¡Lo hago porque éstas no son leyes!

¿Qué quise dejarle claro al Juez?

Primeramente, que no es correcto cuando se quiere decir que hay unas leyes establecidas y que mi deber es obedecerlas. Le dije claramente que estaba equivocado, porque las leyes injustas no son leyes, por lo tanto no tengo ningún deber de obedecer lo que no es justo. Asimismo le clarifiqué que esta son las razones por las cuales Jesús las desobedeció en Palestina, Mahatma Gandhi en la India, Nelson Mandela en Sur África, Cesar Chávez y Rosa Park aquí en Estados Unidos, Luisa Capetillo en Puerto Rico, por solo mencionar unos nombres. Eso si, que quede claro, yo no me estoy comparando con estos/as maestros/as de la justicia, sus zapatos me quedan muy grandes. Solo estaba humildemente buscando ejemplos para ilustrar mi acción.

Igualmente, el mensaje estuvo claro cuando se explicó que no es correcto tratar de divorciar la política exterior del gobierno de Estados Unidos de la creación de la Escuela de Las Américas. O sea, que desde la implementación de la Doctrina Monroe en el año 1823 -la cual consiste básicamente en el aislacionismo del nuevo continente y un veto frente a las pretensiones de las naciones europeas de intervenir en las Américas- ha quedado claro que existe un proyecto de dominio y control que responde a los intereses colonialistas e imperialistas de este gobierno con la intención de mantener una intervención y dominio de los países de América Latina. De aquí el que esta doctrina le dio la oportunidad al gobierno de Estados Unidos de poder lograr mayor expansión territorial. Pero por supuesto, hacían falta instituciones del “orden” que pudiesen proteger esta ideología expansionista. De esta realidad desde 1898 sigue siendo víctima mi patria Puerto Rico, al ser una colonia de Estados Unidos. Asimismo de esta realidad surgió la Escuela de Las Américas situada desde 1946 a 1984 en Panamá y luego la mudaron a la base militar de Fort Benning en Columbus, Georgia.

De la misma forma, se le pidió al juez, que si en verdad cree en procesos de justicia, él podría ser de gran ayuda en lograr por un lado que la Corte Penal Internacional juzgue a la Escuela de Las Américas y a sus graduados que han cometido los siguientes crímenes: Crimen de Genocidio, Crímenes de Lesa Humanidad, y Crímenes de Guerra.

¿Cuándo es el tiempo?

Para quienes me escribieron o me llamaron con el mensaje melancólico desatinado que no era el tiempo para este tipo de acción quiero decirles que aprecio mucho su preocupación. Solo que me surge una pregunta que no se o no puedo contestar: ¿Cuándo es el tiempo para luchar por la justicia para que la paz reine? Si alguien sabe que me lo diga. Tal vez es que yo no estoy al día con todos estos asuntos que se ponen de moda y de aquí entonces me perdí la receta o la temporada.

Eso si, yo siempre he creído, que en asuntos de activismos revolucionarios –esto incluye a los/as cristianos/as, a las/os marxistas y a la gente atea, entre otras- este trabajo por la justicia no tiene vacaciones, no establece un lugar, no tiene un momento específico, ni mucho menos a unas personas. Aun más, no son asuntos de modas. Además usted y yo sabemos muy bien que la mejor manera de criticar es haciendo. O sea, enséñame lo que estas haciendo por la paz con justicia y así de esa manera yo aprendo.

Que quede claro, yo no juego a las necedades de ser héroe ni mucho menos a buscar reconocimientos personales. Esa etapa de egoísmo, narcisismo o individualismo yo la superé hace muchos años. Es por esto que tengo claro que la lucha por la paz con justicia no es una meta, sino más bien es un proceso continuo. El estilo oportunista se lo inventaron la gente acomodada para justificar su no envolvimiento o quietismo, y así de esa manera evadir el sacrifico personal que se realiza para beneficiar a la colectividad. Ese sacrifico personal por supuesto, debe de convertirse en un deber y ese deber en una satisfacción personal. Una vez evolucionamos socio-espiritualmente a este nivel, ya no son necesarios los reconocimientos y se puede disfrutar en paz y armonía, hasta lo que es clandestino o anónimo. Quiero aclarar que no estoy en contra de los agradecimientos del pueblo que muchas veces desea bendecir a alguien con el compartir de algo. Lo que estoy rígidamente criticando es a aquellas personas que condicionan su trabajo por la paz con justicia esperando estos halagos. De todas maneras ya lo dice muy bien nuestro hermano Pablo Milanes: lo que brilla con luz propia, nadie lo puede apagar. Por lo tanto, no pierda el brillo y deje que sus acciones hablen por usted.

Déjenme ponerlo en arroz y habichuelas como me decía mi abuela Doña Bárbara: Mientras los graduados de la Escuela de Las Américas sigan hostigando, torturando, desapareciendo, y/o matando campesinos/as, líderes obreras/os, sindicalistas, estudiantes, periodistas, comunistas, etc., en Colombia, Perú, Guatemala, República Dominicana, Honduras, y otros lugares, el tiempo para nuestra acción que deje como resultado la paz con justicia es ahora, punto.

De nuevo, como sacerdote mi activismo espiritual tiene como meta el poder organizar la religiosidad del pueblo para que alcance su liberación. Esto no necesita de reconocimientos sociales, compensaciones económicas o gratificaciones psicológicas para ser realizado. Es mi deber socio-político de caminar con el pueblo y acompañarle en sus luchas. ¡Qué hermoso es cuando se aprende a vivir sin glorias o reconocimientos personales y se continúa realizando el deber que nos corresponde para construir un mundo de paz con justicia! Aquí podemos decir que hemos llegado a las puertas de la inmortalidad. Este es mi reto cada día cuando tengo la oportunidad de abrir mis ojos y dar gracias a Dios de que todavía sigo con vida en este mundo. Y todo esto a su vez me otorga el derecho a morir en paz cuando me llegue mi momento porque cumplí con mi deber ante nuestra Diosa de construir un mundo mejor. De aquí el que este pequeño sacrificio es una aportación a toda esta lucha.

¿Qué hacer como colectividad?

Para quienes han estado comunicándose con la preocupación de qué hacer, aquí les van unas recomendaciones;

En primer lugar un respaldo incondicional moralmente, espiritualmente, económicamente, socialmente y políticamente a todo el trabajo que se realiza en SOA Watch (www.soaw.org). Este es un trabajo serio que reta las estructuras de poder.

Asimismo, comenzar ampliamente la campaña educativa para que nuestros pueblos aquí en Estados Unidos puedan comprender sobre la existencia y operación de la Escuela de Las Américas. Sobre todo, que puedan concienciarse sobre las atrocidades contra los derechos humanos y civiles que se cometen por sus graduados en nuestros países latinoamericanos.

También, el apoyo dentro de este contexto debe dirigirse a todos/as los prisioneros/as de conciencia. Fuimos seis personas condenadas y su sacrificio debe de ser reconocido.

Igualmente tener la capacidad de poder conectar en esta campaña a todos/os nuestros/as prisioneros políticos con prisioneros/as de conciencia hasta lograr su excarcelación. Por ejemplo los/as hermanos/as y compañeros/as prisioneros/as políticos/os puertorriqueños/as (Carlos Alberto Torres, Oscar López Rivera, Avelino González Claudio y Haydeé Beltrán); los cinco hermano y compañeros héroes cubanos (René González, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández y Ramón Labañimo); el compañero y hermano periodista y activista político negro estadounidense, Mumia Abul-Jamal; el compañero y hermano de las naciones Anishinabe y Dakota/Lakota, Leonard Peltier; por solo mencionar algunos nombres. Recordemos que estas luchas por la paz con justicia no son antagónicas, sino más bien complementarias.

Por último y no menos importante, use la creatividad e invéntese algo.

Adjunto les incluyo mi declaración de defensa ante el juez en el día de ayer. Muchas gracias por su atención.

En el amor solidario, abrazos y bendiciones,

P. Luis Barrios
Iglesia de Santa María
27 de enero de 2009
New York, New York
Lbarrios@jjay.cuny.edu

Thursday, January 15 - Day of Conscience to Act Against U.S. role in Supporting the War Crime going on in Gaza

2009-01-14T23:56:00.002-05:00

Report from Jan. 15th NYC Day of Conscience:
Act Against U.S. Support of Israeli War Crimes

From the Emergency Town Hall Meeting (see previous emails) a DAY OF CONSCIENCE Against the U.S. support for war crimes was called on two day's notice, of which World Can't Wait was an initiator and one of the organizers. Here is a brief report:

FIRST ACT: Noon In front of U.S. Consulate to the United Nations

70 people turned out, the majority high-school students. This display of youthful defiance was very important and encouraging, and needs to multiply exponentially in the weeks and months to come! During a spirited rally in front of the Consulate, chants included "If you see something/say something/stop the war crimes now!" Some of us brought shoes, pacifie rs, and baby bottles and laid them on the street to symbolize Israel's horrific massacre of children in Gaza.

SECOND ACT: Grand Central Station

We saw a photo of the Samouni family, who had lost 30 members, including 3 infants, when the Israeli's bombed their homes during the assault on Gaza. The funeral procession photo became what we wanted to present to the public. Artists from PriceTagsArt helped design the action, which included dozens of people holding shrouds of infants. Others held signs.

When we arrived, there were dozens of police. The commander told us we could not do the action, because people coming through the terminal were upset about the airplane that had landed that afternoon in the Hudson River. By that time all the passengers had been reported safe, but we knew that people in Gaza were not. We said we were going ahead, as there is the right to freedom of assembly and speech. People going by were mixed; this being New York, some called us names. Others said, thanks for doing this.

After an hour, the police told us we had to finish up. But more people were arriving, including students from Hunter College, and the police backed off and didn't act to stop the protest, others joined back in, chanted some, and the whole thing went on, with more joining in, for two hours.

Emergency Town Hall Meeting

2009-01-11T01:10:00.000-05:00

Stop the Israeli Massacre in Gaza!

A Call To Act:

We Condemn the U.S. Role in this War Crime!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:00 PM
New York Society for Ethical Culture
2 West 64th Street @ Central Park West NYC
$10 admission

Speakers:
Chris Hedges-Pulitzer prize winning journalist, former New York Times Mideast Bureau Chief, author of many books including Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians

Cynthia McKinney-2008 presidential candidate, who was on a Free Gaza Movement boat bearing aid for Gaza that was fired upon by the Israeli Navy on December 29, 2008

Alan Goodman-writer for Revolution newspaper who held a banner at the Holocaust Museum stating, "After the Holocaust, the worst thing that has happened to Jewish people is the state of Israel."

Adam Shapiro-filmmaker, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement

Peter Weiss- Vice President, Center for Constitutional Rights

Najla Said- playwright and actor, performing an excerpt from her play PALESTINE about a visit to Gaza in early 1980 with her father Edward Said and their family

Others to be announced...

A great crime is being committed. The horror of Israel's invasion of Gaza mounts daily. The 1.5 million people of Gaza - fenced in on all sides - are being subjected to a brutal military assault from land and air. Civilian casualties are in the thousands. Food, medicine, and fuel are blockaded. Israel has declared this to be a "war to the bitter end." The United States has backed Israel both with new, sophisticated military weaponry and with full diplomatic support.

We, living in this country have a great and urgent responsibility to act against what must be recognized as a War Crime by Israel with the full support of the United States. Too many who watch the assault on Gaza with horror and outrage, have remained silent. Too few have acted. This must, and can, change. On Tuesday January 13, 2009, at this Emergency Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society, we will carve open space for the truth to be spoken and we will call on people to act now to stop the massacre in Gaza.

Whether the world sees political protest and resistance, and mass outpourings of opposition and outrage in different forms in this country...or whether it sees continued support for and passive complicity with these attacks coming from the people here...all this will matter greatly, not only here in the US, but to people all over the world.

Initiated by Revolution Books

Endorsed by: World Can't Wait; James Abourezk; Brooklyn Greens; Henry Chalfant; Kathleen Chalfant; Mitchell Cohen; Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism; Shreen Elkenani; Daniel Ellsberg; Nina Felshin; Dennis James; Joel Kovel; Adam Shapiro; Michael Steven Smith; Leonard Weinglass

To help, and for more information, call 917-548-4853:

From Guantanamo to Gaza: Stop the U.S. War OF Terror and Torture!

2009-01-11T01:06:00.000-05:00

January 21st - Marks the 7th Anniversary of the U.S. torture center at Guantanamo!

End to the U.S. torture state NOW!

January 21st - 700 Palestineans kills, thousands more wounded and Israel promising to further escalate.

Stop the U.S.-backed Massacre in Gaza!

March and Rally: Sunday, January 11th, 1:00 PM Times Square

Join the Orange Jumpsuit / World Can't Wait contingent and declare:

From Guantanamo to Gaza:
Stop the U.S. War OF Terror and Torture!

Be part of a procession dressed as those tortured in Guantanamo have been forced to dress, in orange jumpsuits and black hoods. Stand with those who have been tortured in our names, and demand an and the U.S. backed massacre in Gaza. Hook up at 12:30 PM in front of "Juan Valdez Coffee", 41st and Broadway. Volunteers needed: call 347-678-5905 or email: nyc@worldcantwait.org

***********************************

(photo above:) In Harlem Saturday, a very diverse crowd braved the snow and freezing cold to denounce the U.S.- backed war crimes in Gaza. Demonstrators held signs reading "Trail of U.S. War Crimes: Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza" and "From Guantanamo to Gaza: Stop the U.S. War OF Terror and Torture" Others carried images of Palestinians who have been massacred by Israel. Marching down 125th Street, energetic chants rang out: "From Harlem to Gaza/ We're All Palestinians"

One particularly positive thing about the Harlem demonstration was that people of many different ethnic backgrounds joined together to denounce Israel's criminal assault on Gaza. This was great to see, because it is critical that the massacre of Gaza not be viewed simply as a "Palestinian issue" or an "Arab issue, " but rather as a human issue. People of all races and backgrounds share a moral responsibility to speak out against the crimes Israel is committing with full U.S. backing.

Hundreds of NYC youth engage with the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" anti-recruiter tour! Tour now extended a second week in NYC

2008-12-10T22:12:00.003-05:00

The tour has been to classes and assemblies at City College and a number of high school classes.

There has been intense discussion, about the war, the military and what can be done. In one school several students asked for passes so they could attend it again.

This leg of the tour has featured two GI resisters:

Carl Dix -- one of the "Fort Lewis 6" - Black soldiers who refused orders to go to Vietnam (listen/view Carl's talk at City College) and

Matthis Chiroux who served 5 years in the Army, was honorably discharged, and then was called up again to go to Iraq, and has publicly refused those orders.

An example of what happened in the classrooms: One high school student raised her hand after hearing their testimony and angrily declared, "but those are human beings over there [in Iraq and Afghanistan] just like us!", leading to some deep interplay between the students and the visiting speakers.

Arrangements have been made for the tour to continue next week in NYC area. Already they are scheduled for five more classes.

If you are a student or teacher and want to have the tour come to your school, contact us immediately.

If you are a student, and want to get involved in the tour and in organizing protests to stop these recruiters from spewing their poisonous lies unapposed, contact us.

If you are a parent or anyone else who wants to support this tour, with a generous donation, or your time, contact us. Donate on line.

nyc@worldcantwait.org or 347-678-5905 or 866-973-4463

For more detail news and on-line discussion of the progress of the tour nationally: www.wearenotyoursoldiers.org

Bring "We are Not Your Soliders to your school!

2008-11-30T10:34:00.000-05:00

Bring the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" anti-recruiter Tour to your school!
Coming to NYC Area
December 8-12
Contact us NOW to help make this happen!

Barack Obama says he will increase the US military by 92,000. Where will all these troops come from? The military recruiters have a huge budget to recruit youth who are in high school now. They roam the hallways and lunch-rooms, call students at home, and set up at malls where kids hang out.

The military cannot fight and cannot expand the "war on terror" in Afghanistan without this fresh infusion of cannon fodder. Military recruiters now have almost unlimited access to reach high school students because the "No Child Left Behind" law ties funding for schools to whether recruiters can get access to all the students.

The tour will bring to students the desperately-missing truth of what the "war on terror" is all about, no matter who is president. The military is already selling the idea that Obama will "end the war in Iraq, so people who join now won't be sent to war at all." This is a lie! Many people don't know that Obama has plans to expand the unjust war on the people of Afghanistan, and also to attack Pakistan, and perhaps, Iran.

The tour will explain, through the words of veterans themselves, how the US occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed over a million people; displaced more than four million, and destroyed the infrastructure of both countries.

When recruiters come into their schools, students need to know exactly what they are being recruited for. Not "freedom," not "democracy" and not better "career options." Most people dying in Iraq are civilians, not combatants. The US forces have detained tens of thousands in their own countries. Women in the US military report widespread sexual assault by their own peers.

Speakers on the tour will give students reasons not to go into the military, and will help organize collective resistance to recruiters' lies. We think we can help create a situation where students and teachers are stepping out of their silent hatred for recruiters, and spreading visible mass resistance to joining this military as a big part of stopping this war of terror for empire.

Classroom presentations will include:

A short presentation by a World Can't Wait youth organizer and either an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran or a military family member;

An open discussion;
A 10-minute video clip of testimony by Iraq veterans from the March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings about what they witnessed and perpetrated and footage of high school students protesting military recruiters, and;
A short survey that students will take to give us all a sense of what they think.

Speakers for the NYC-area part of Tour will include:

Matthis Chiroux. Matthis is an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran, honorably discharged after 5 years in the army. Subsequently, he received forced reactivation orders for Iraq, and has publicly refused those orders. Thus, he is now a military resister. Matthis organized the anti-war veterans' protest at the last presidential debate at Hofstra University and is a student at Brooklyn College.

Carl Dix. Carl was one of the "Fort Lewis 6", Black GI's who refused to go to Vietnam in 1970, and he did time at Fort Leavenworth Military Penitentiary for this "crime." A lifelong revolutionary, Carl is a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Elaine Brower. Elaine is a leader of World Can't Wait and outspoken activist against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her son is currently stationed in Iraq.

Contact us as soon as possible to arrange for the tour to come to your school, for more information and to help organize:

nyc@worldcantwait.org 347-678-5905 or 866-973-4463

***

Come to next World Can't Wait meeting

Monday, Dec. 1st, 6:30 PM

632 Broadway, 3rd Floor

We will:

Make plans for the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" tour (see above)
Report back from national conference of World Can't Wait
Make plans for "STOP Endless Wars for Empire" action in mid-December

A message for our times/report from Nov. 11th forum

2008-11-16T20:14:00.000-05:00

Tuesday's successful event in New York City, "The Change We're Fighting For: STOP the Endless Wars for Empire!" showed that there is widespread concern that the atrocities the U.S. is committing in the Middle East will continue even with Obama, and not Bush in the White House.

Almost 200 people attended this event, organized only one week after the election, and the speakers- Scott Ritter, Larry Everest and Elaine Brower- delivered critical, powerful and thought-provoking presentations, documenting the crimes now being committed by our government in our names, as well as Barack Obama's position on all this.

That so many attended and engaged in this intense discussion drove home the message that people don't think we should "wait and see" what Obama does, but rather see the need to act immediately to stop crimes committed in our name.

In building for this event, it was striking how both the flyer and press release spoke to a deeply-felt urgency not to wait, but to act now, particularly against the escalating war in Afghanistan. As that flyer, which was updated the day after the elections, put it:

"While people in the U.S. were voting for President Obama, a U.S. air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 34 civilians. On November 5th, another killed 7 civilians. U.S. drones daily cross the border into Pakistan, where scores of civilians have been bombed. Obama, the 'anti-war' candidate wants to leave 50 to 80,000 troops in Iraq, and move more combat brigades to Afghanistan. He promises to increase the U.S. military by 92,000…"

One of several indications that the statements in this flyer spoke to what a lot of people are thinking in the aftermath of the election was the front-page news story in the Metro, a widely-distributed newspaper, on Friday November 7: The article noted that, "One anti-war group has already protested against Obama - three months before he assumes control" and then extensively quoted Elaine Brower, speaking on behalf of World Can't Wait.

Some highlights from among the speakers many important points:

Larry Everest spoke extensively about why the war in Afghanistan is not a "good war", but --like the war in Iraq-- is an unjust war for empire. "There's nothing good about this so-called 'war on terror.'" Everest said. "It's a war for greater empire." Everest added: "Those who, through their conscience and beliefs find these wars intolerable, need to be coming together."

As part of exposing the lies and preparations for a U.S. attack on Iran, Scott Ritter responded to Obama's recent statement on Iran, saying Obama made the same unsubstantiated charges that Bush & Company have been making for several years. "What evidence does Obama have that Iran has nukes? There is no evidence that Iran is pursuing nukes."

Elaine Brower spoke from the heart on her conflicting emotions on election night - happiness that a Black person had finally become president, yet dismayed and depressed at the recognition that what Obama had been chosen for was commander-in-chief of the U.S. empire.

The audience at the event was diverse, with a broad range of views on the past election - many had voted for Obama, while others had voted for the Green Party or Nader or don't advocate voting at all. And there was sharp debate on some issues, which reflects the intensity and complexity of the times. Yet there was a general sense that it is up to the people not to sit back and wait, but to act now to fight to do what this government is not doing and will not do - end these endless wars for empire.

The program did not sufficiently address one of its stated objectives, to "begin making plans immediately to build a movement" of powerful resistance that is urgently needed. But these will be addressed this week: WCW has a national meeting planned for Nov 22-23 in Chicago (click here for more information and to register) to further analyze this new political situation we're in and to decide what role WCW needs to play within that. Some plans are in the process of being developed and others must be made, including:

The "We Are Not Your Soldiers" national tour with Iraq war vets to high school students in their classrooms, to get on MTV, creating an atmosphere in the national culture, which would effect youth not to join the military. The tour is coming to NYC in January.

Proposals for creative protest action in early December against the wars.

Come to this NYC planning meeting!

Monday, Nov. 17th, 6:30 PM

632 Broadway, 3rd Floor (near Bleecker St)

We urge all those who came on Tuesday, and many more, to come Monday to this meeting and to work together to make this all happen. The future is unwritten. Join us. Forward this email to your e-lists.

Three separate crews video taped the event, one for public access in NYC, one for NYU, and one for anti-recruiter organizing in New Jersey, and we hope to have the presentations available on the internet for those who missed it.

The Change We’re Fighting For:

2008-10-24T16:20:00.007-04:00

STOP the Endless Wars for Empire!

Tuesday November 11 (Veterans’ Day), 7:00 pm

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC

Speakers:

Scott Ritter, former US weapons inspector, author of Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement and Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change

Larry Everest, writer for Revolution newspaper, author of Oil, Power and Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Agenda

Jeremy Scahill, correspondent for Democracy Now, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Elaine Brower, military family member and leader of The World Can’t Wait

While people in the US were voting for President Obama, a US air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 34 civilians. On November 5, another killed 7 civilians. US drones daily cross the border into Pakistan, where scores of civilians have been bombed.

Obama, the “anti-war” candidate wants to leave 50 to 80,000 troops in Iraq, and move more combat brigades to Afghanistan. He promises to increase the US military by 92,000, ready to project American empire further on the lives of kids in high school now. Obama proposed sending drones and special forces into Pakistan - a sovereign country - and the Bush regime secretly began attacks on Pakistan in July, which have killed scores of civilians, as part of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war.

Participate in an intensive look at what to expect under Obama, what must be yet stopped under Bush, and begin making plans immediately to build a movement to stop the crimes done by our government in our name.

Tickets: $10 / $5 students/low-income / $60 sustainer (includes 5:30 reception & front-row seating, information below). To ensure a seat, purchase in advance.

Purchase tickets on line.

Those who prefer to pay via check or cash can call 866-973-4463 to arrange in-person purchase/pick-up of tickets.

Time is short. Download the flyer and spread the word.

Please Join us at a special "Meet the Speakers" Reception:

Apple Restaurant
17 Waverly Place, across Washington Sqare Park from Judson Church

$60 per person includes front row seat at Judson, reception at Apple, and gift bag

Purchase tickets online

Those wanting to purchase tickets in advance but who would prefer to pay by check or cash, call 866-973-4463.

IF you cannot attend, please make a donation to World Can't Wait to cover the expenses of immediate organizing in the wake of the election.

Are we a people at peace with being at war? Speak out when the candidates appear in NYC!

2008-10-10T23:59:00.000-04:00

George Bush & Co. remain unrelenting and self-assured that they can drive the savageness of their program of expanding endless war, spying on people in the U.S. and torture abroad into the next administration. U.S. military moves and diplomatic maneuvering have not let up. A campaign of lies similar to those leading to the attack on Iraq are being put out to justify an attack on Iran. Bush, McCain and Obama have all refused to rule out the use of NUCLEAR weapons in an attack on Iran. All three call for an escalation - more troops and more money – for the war in Afghanistan. The Presidential debates have become an ugly contest over who can call for the more aggressive policy – now expanding the war with attacks into Pakistan is “on the table”. Who will speak up? Who will stop this?

It is up to us. People of conscience take responsibility for what their own governments do. People of conscience should not allow themselves to be demobilized by the political and moral terms of an election that calls for “national unity” while carrying out and expanding unjust wars for empire.

Will there be a pole of opposition that inspires with its moral clarity and fearless truth-telling that people can join with until this whole criminal program is brought to a halt? Join us.

Join Iraq Veterans Against the War, World Can’t Wait, Long Island Alliance & more:

Demonstrate at final debate:
Wednesday, October 15 Hempstead, Long Island

2:00 PM Rally at Hempstead LIRR, 4:30 proceed to Hofstra University, followed by actions there. (See http://nyc.worldcantwait.org or call 866-973-4463 for directions and details. )

Also demonstrate when Obama & McCain will speak at the Al Smith Dinner, a fundraiser for the Catholic Charities, at Waldorf Astoria. Thursday, Oct. 16, 5:00 - 7:00 PM, Park Ave & 49th St.

Directions/details for October 15th Protest at Hempstead/Hofstra Presidential Debate

2008-10-10T13:29:00.004-04:00

2:00 PM: Rally in parking lot of Hempstead LIRR Station sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) & Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Tomorrows. Take the train from Penn Station in NYC to Hempstead. The train ride is approximately 45-50 minutes from NYC. On the train platform, you will be greeted and directed to the rally point.

4:15 PM: Proceed in mass to protest along Hempstead Turnpike located by Hofstra University (bring your signs, whistles, flashlights for later).

5:15 – 6:30 PM: Join protests sponsored by Long Island Alliance inside campus of Hofstra University authorized "free speech" zone.

6:30 PM to 10:00 PM – There will be continued "Speak Outs" in "free speech" area by protesters

7:00 PM -- Action by Iraq Veterans Against the War & designated allies (further information on this below)

Organizers tell us that there will be a shuttle bus and/or escorts to assist people in getting back to the Hempstead LIRR station after the protests.

World Can't Wait, Code-PINK, Workplace Project, UFPJ, Peace Action NYS, and a number of other organizations support and are participating in these actions.

There has been some confusion about the details of the protest at Hempstead and Hofstra. To clarify matters and to answer questions, we are printing here sections of a letter from Long Island Iraq Veterans Against the War member Kris Goldsmith. Parts in quotation marks are taken exactly from Kris' letter. Other parts are summary for brevity. Hope this is helpful and many will come out!
-- NYC World Can't Wait.

"We the People, will have our voices be heard!"
"We the People, Do Not Want War!!"

Rally Starting at 2:00 PM:
Rally sponsored by Iraqi Veterans Against the War and the "We the People movement" (coalition formed in Long Island). The permitted area will be a parking lot close to the Hempstead Train/Bus Station off the Long Island Rail Road.

After rally "we will walk- un-permitted and on the sidewalk (completely legal here) to the debate. We remain committed to non-violence, and non-aggression during this walk. Notice I'm not calling it a 'march' because we aren't taking over the streets at this point."

"Walking approximately 1.2 miles east of the Hempstead train station along Hempstead Turnpike, we will arrive at the Hofstra University Campus. There we will converge with the main body of the Long Island Alliance. We expect at least 500 people to be waiting for us there.
At this location/time there will be a multitude of groups there... including those outside of the Long Island Alliance like the Gathering of Eagles [reactionary pro-war grouping], so be mentally prepared for idiots screaming- and remain non-violent! "

"At 6:30pm the Long Island Alliance led action is scheduled to come to a close, and this is the time when IVAW will announce it's intent to change the tone a bit- and prepare for Civil Disobedience and a possibly arrestable action." [see separate entry below for details on their possible civil disobedience action]

Iraqi Veterans Against the War - Plans/statement for action at Oct. 15 debate at Hofstra

2008-10-10T13:09:00.000-04:00

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will lead non-violent demonstrations at Hofstra University prior to the final presidential debate Oct. 15 to demand two IVAW members be allowed to ask each candidate one question.

Should IVAW's demands not be met in full by 7 p.m., members of the organization are willing to risk arrest by entering the debate to have their voices heard by the candidates.

IVAW intends to "force the issue" that service members and veterans are not being heard or cared for by our leaders. The next president should make caring for our wounded military a top domestic priority, in addition to ending the war in Iraq.

"Right now there are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan going homeless, hungry, into debt and contemplating suicide," said Matthis Chiroux, an IVAW member from Brooklyn. "But the government says we don't have the money to care for those war heroes, so the V.A. continues its mission underfunded and understaffed. But now we've found almost a trillion to bail out banks? Where's the humanity in this?"

IVAW is currently working to contact debate moderator Bob Schieffer to make its demands known.

"I watched the first debate the other night, for which the topic was supposed to be 'foreign policy', yet it took 34 minutes before the words 'Iraq' or 'Veteran' left either candidates' mouths," said Kris Goldsmith, an IVAW member from Long Island. "I'm not convinced that either Obama or McCain care about what is most important to today's military and veterans. IVAW is committed to changing that."

Participants should begin assembling at the Hempstead Long Island Railroad station at 2:30 p.m. At five, we will "walk" to Hempstead University for further demonstrations.

IVAW was founded by Iraq war veterans in July 2004 to allow servicemen and women from all branches of the military a chance to come together and speak out against an unjust, unwinnable and illegal occupation. Today, IVAW has over 1,300 members in 49 states, Washington, D.C. and Canada, and on military bases in the U.S. and overseas, including Iraq.

What is the Sarah Palin Candidacy About?

2008-10-09T22:12:00.000-04:00

What are the implications of the 2008 election on reproductive rights?

A discussion sponsored by World Can't Wait with writers who dig deeply into Christian fundamentalism, reproductive rights and sex education.

Presenters:

Esther Kaplan, author of With God on Their Side: George Bush and the Christian Right.

Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution, currently on national speaking tour on Away with All Gods; Unchaining the Mind & Radically Changing the World

Monday October 20
7:00 pm

THINK Coffee
250 Mercer Street

@ 3rd Street NYC

$5.00 donation

This is an extremely timely event. Volunteers are urgently needed to help organize and publicize this event: Call 866-973-4463 or email nyc@worldcantwait.org to volunteer.

Spread the word, download 4-to-a-page flyer

Are we a people at peace with being at war?

2008-10-02T12:57:00.000-04:00

No government should be allowed to do what the Bush regime has done the past 7 years!
With no regard for human cost or conscience the Bush regime pushes expanding endless war, spies on people here, and tortures abroad. Only you – and not your government – can bring this all to a halt. The World Can’t Wait.
Yet George Bush remains unrelenting and self-assured that he can drive the savageness of his agenda into the next administration. U.S. military moves and diplomatic maneuvering have not let up. A campaign of lies similar to those leading to the attack on Iraq are being put out to justify an attack on Iran. Bush, McCain and Obama have all refused to rule out the use of NUCLEAR weapons in an attack on Iran. All three call for an escalation - more troops and more money – for the war in Afghanistan. Last Friday’s Presidential debate became a contest of who can call for the more aggressive policy – now expanding the war with attacks into Pakistan is “on the table”. Who will speak up? Who will stop this?
It is up to us. People of conscience take responsibility for what their own governments do. People of conscience should not allow themselves to be demobilized by the political and moral terms of an election that calls for “national unity” while carrying out and expanding unjust wars for empire.
Will there be a pole of opposition that inspires with its moral clarity and fearless truth-telling? An increasingly visible independent political force of resistance, protest, and acts of conscience that people can join with and persevere with until this whole criminal program is brought to a halt? Join us.

Tuesday, Sept. 23rd: War Criminal George W. Bush will be at UN

2008-09-18T22:41:00.001-04:00

Tuesday morning, September 23rd:

War Criminal George W. Bush
will be speaking at the U.N.

Rally & other creative actions (PINK POLICE SQUAD ON HAND TO ARREST THE WORLD'S #1 WAR CRIMINAL, and ORANGE JUMPSUIT contingent and Water Boarding demonstration anti-torture actions, and more) -- all to tell the world that we demand:

U.S. Out of Iraq & Afghanistan!
NO ATTACK ON IRAN!

Bush & Cheney must be held
accountable for their crimes!

Bush & Cheney should be indicted, arrested and tried before U.S. and international courts for their crimes, including: Wars of aggression, torture!

Converge at: 8:30 AM
Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza

(E. 47th St,, between 1st and 2nd Ave.)

Further details & plans will be posted at

Sponsors include: World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime, Code Pink-NYC, Troops Out Now Coalition, Grandmothers Against the War, International Action Center and Military Families Speak Out-NYC, MDS-SI, and Granny Peace Brigade [Additional organizations: email us to add your name to final press release.]

Grito de Lares - A cry for justice!

Bush's speaks to the U.N. on "Grito de Lares", exactly three years after FBI stormtroopers in Puerto Rico, on orders from Washington, surrounded and fired into the home of Puerto Rican activist, Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Despite the cries for help from his wife, the FBI prevented access by medical team for several hours, causing Filiberto to bleed to death. For this cold-blooded political assassination, the Bush regime must also be held accountable. There will be a gathering marking Grito de Lares and exposing the FBI assassination of Filiberto on Tuesday evening, Sept. 23 at 6:30 PM, at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th Street (between Amsterdam & Broadway). For more information, http://wcw-nyc.blogspot.com/2008/09/grito-de-lares-cry-for-justice.html.

Grito de Lares - A cry for justice! - September 23

2008-09-18T14:09:00.001-04:00

Bush's speech to the U.N. is occurring on "Grito de Lares", exactly three years after FBI stormtroopers in Puerto Rico, on orders from Washington, surrounded and fired into the home of Puerto Rican activist, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, the longtime leader of the Ejercito Popular Boricua-Los Macheteros, a Puerto Rican independence organization.

For years he has been known to his supporters through tape-recorded speeches played at rallies and gatherings on the island. In fact, the very same afternoon that federal sharpshooters were closing in, Filiberto Ojeda’s recorded speech was echoing through the nearby town of Lares --where hundreds of people had rallied for the anniversary of the “Grito de Lares,” the 1868 uprising celebrated as a symbol of Puerto Rican nationhood and independence.

Despite the cries for help from his wife, the FBI prevented access by medical team for several hours, causing Filiberto to bleed to death. For this cold-blooded political assassination, the Bush regime must also be held accountable.

There will be a gathering marking Grito de Lares and exposing the FBI assassination of Filiberto on Tuesday evening, Sept. 23 at 6:30 PM, at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th Street (between Amsterdam and Broadway). For more information on the event, contact Luis Barrios at (212) 237-8747 or lbarrios@jjay.cuny.edu.

Below is reprinted the announcement for the event:

LARES EN CONTEXTO INTERNACIONAL:
EN CONTRA DE LA CRIMINALIZACIÓN DE LA SOLIDARIDAD INTERNACIONAL CON LOS MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES EN NUESTRA AMERICA

El próximo 23 de septiembre, al cumplirse 140 años de la gesta anti-colonialista e independentista conocida como el Grito de Lares, personalidades de la comunidad dominicana, puertorriqueña, colombiana, chilena, mexicana, guatemalteca, salvadoreña y otras nacionalidades, representadas en diversas entidades comunitarias, políticas, religiosas, y culturales de la comunidad latinoamericana de Nueva York, se han unido para la celebración de esta fecha histórica del pueblo puertorriqueño; ubicándola en el contexto internacional de las luchas aún inconclusas por la Independencia de las Antillas y del resto de toda nuestra América. De igual forma esta commemoración será un acto de apoyo a favor de aquellos/as que sufren persecución, opresión o exclusión por ejercer su solidaridad con los movimientos y resistencias sociales que persiguen la liberación de los pueblos.
El Grito de Lares como grito por la libertad, la dignidad y contra la exclusión, la esclavitud y el colonialismo, mantiene su vigencia continental y en ese grito libertario se ver reflejados todos los pueblos de Nuestra América. Esa misma noche del 23 de septiembre se cumple el tercer aniversario del asesinato de Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, símbolo de la resistencia descolonizadora e independentista puertorriqueña, a quien se le rinderá tributo.Lares en el contexto internacional será una noche de arte, música y pensamiento para la solidaridad. En ella se dará a conocer un manifiesto de respaldo hacia la española Remedio García Abert; los dominicanos Narciso Isa Conde y Alfredo Pierre; el italiano Ramón Montaveani y Carlos Cosolo; el venezolano Amilcar Figueroa; las/os colombianas/os Piedad Córdoba, Gloria Inés Ramírez, Carlos Lozano, Wilson Borja y William Parra; el chileno Victor Toro; los/as puertorriqueños/as Carlos Alberto Torres, Haydee Beltrán Torres, Oscar López Rivera, Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, Tania Frontera, Christopher Torres y Elliot Monteverde; los cubanos Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González; los estadounidenses Leonard Peltier y Mumia Abu-Jamal; entre muchos/as otros/as. Asimismo Lares en este contexto también es un rechazo y condena a todo lo que atenta contra la paz con justicia: clasismo, sexismo, homofobia/heterosexismo, xenofobia, racismo, etnocentrismo, brutalidad/corrupción policía, adultocentrismo, etc.

Criminalizando las acciones de solidaridad se estarían acertando un duro golpe a los diversos procesos de cambio que están en marcha en nuestra América y a escala internacional, por constituir esta una de las claves fundamentales para su consolidación y avances; por eso una celebración del Grito de Lares no puede ser indiferente a estas realidades, como de igual manera la vive el movimiento independentista puertorriqueño, cuya hostigamiento y persecución se ha acrecentado desde el asesinato de Feliberto Ojeda Ríos.

Este evento de unidad y solidaridad latinoamerica se llevará a cabo el próximo martes, 23 de septiembre, a partir de la 6:30 PM, en la Iglesia Episcopal Santa Maria, ubicada en el 521 al oeste de la calle 126, entre las avenida Amsterdam y Broadway, en Manhattan.

En el programa de la noche el Abogado Salvador Tio, de la Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana-PR, disertará sobre el 140 aniversario de la gesta patriótica del Grito de Lares y del 3er. Aniversario del asesinato de Filiberto Ojeda Ríos; el Abogado Álvaro Tobón, de la Universidad Libre de Colombia, hablará sobre la persecución política en Colombia y el Padre Luis Barrios, de la Iglesia Episcopal Santa María, reflexionará sobre la construcción social del crimen en el contexto del libro Crimen y poder: Reinado de la impunidad (de Narciso Isa Conde, 2008). También habrá un reconocimiento al incansable luchador chileno Víctor Toro, quien con una gran trayectoria de servicio comunitario actualmente esta enjuiciado con amenaza de deportación por su enérgica oposición a las leyes inmigratorias. Además estará abierta la Exhibición Fotográfica de Isaías Amaro, Imágenes de la Frontera Dominicano-Haitiana, junto con otras participaciones artísticas.

La música estará a cargo del grupo de hip-hop Rebel Diaz y de plena el Grupo Quenepas (con la participación de Luisito Ayala, Sammy Tanco y Franky Vélez, entre otras/os).

Este evento es un producto solidario organizado por la Iglesia Episcopal de Santa María, el proyecto Nueva Izquierda-Círculos Campañistas y la Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana-Capítulo Puerto Rico, y cuenta con el auspicio solidario de La Campaña ProLibertad, El Proyecto de Educación Popular para Liberar los Cinco Cubanos, El Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico-Comité de Nueva York, Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico-Junta de Nueva York, Fuerza de la Revolución, Fundación Minerva Mirabal, Movimiento Revolucionario Nueva Patria, Nueva Alternativa, PTD (ML), Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas y La Red 27 de Octubre.

Thurs.-9-11 - Obama & McCain at Columbia University - NO to war in Iraq and Afghanistan!

2008-09-11T13:40:00.002-04:00

Amidst reports of U.S. military massacre of civilians in Afghanistan, what are both Obama and McCain calling for?

– An ESCALATION of war in Afghanistan! (see facts below)

We must say: No to the atrocities, no to the massacres!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Now!

Meet up at 5:00 PM at 116th and Broadway

Today, on September 11, Barack Obama and John McCain are speaking at Columbia about “service” in a “Post -9/11 world”. The outrage of 9-11 has often been twisted in “service” of justifying endless and expanding U.S. wars for empire. Our grief is NOT a cry for war!

• On August 22nd, according to the United Nations and even the U.S.-installed Afghanistan government, U.S. airstrikes on the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan killed 90 civilians, including 60 children. The New York Times later reported: “Accounts from survivors, including three people wounded in the bombing, described repeated strikes on houses where dozens of children were sleeping, grandparents and uncles and aunts huddled inside with them.”

• George W. Bush’s response? He has announced sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan in the next several months! McCain chimed in: “It is clear that we need additional forces in Afghanistan, and I support the new deployments.” Obama expressed being “glad that the president is moving in the direction of the policy that I have advocated for years.” Obama criticized Bush for not being harsh enough: “His plan comes up short -- it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency.”

If you are opposed to our government launching immoral and illegal wars, killing innocent civilians for oil and empire, it is time to realize: neither Barack Obama nor John McCain wants what you want.

It is up to us. The only chance of stopping these atrocities and these wars is a movement of mass independent political action demanding these atrocities and wars stop! Join us.

NYC debut screening: IRAN (Is Not the Problem) - Thursday, Sept 4th

2008-08-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

NYC Debut screening:

IRAN (Is Not the Problem)

Thursday, Sept. 4th @ 6:30 PM

MLK Labor Center/1199,
310 West 43rd Street

(between 8th and 9th)

IRAN (is not the problem) is a new feature film responding to the failure of the American mass media to provide the public with accurate information about the standoff between the US and Iran, as happened before with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.

We have heard that Iran is a nuclear menace in defiance of the international community, bent on "wiping Israel off the map", supporting terrorism, and unwilling to negotiate. This documentary disputes these claims and puts them in the context of present and historical US imperialism and hypocrisy with respect to Iran.

It looks at the struggle for a more just society inside Iran, the consequences of the current escalation and the potential US and/or Israeli attack, and suggests some alternatives to consider.

This 79 minute documentary features Antonia Juhasz (The Bu$h Agenda), Larry Everest (Oil, Power, and Empire), and other activists and Iranian-Americans.

***

After the screening, people are encouraged to stay for discussion, inclouding organizing many more screenings around the NYC-NJ-Long Island-Westchester County area, future "Freeze" actions, and other ideas about mobilizing to stop a U.S. attack on Iran.

Copies of the DVD will also be available for $15.00. Teachers and students, especially, should know that the DVD also contains a 20-minute preview version, ideal for showings in classrooms. Please contact us about organizing shows in high schools and colleges around the area.

Basic Facts about Waterboarding

2008-08-15T14:54:00.001-04:00

1) Waterboarding is NOT an “enhanced interrogation technique.” It is torture. It is not a slick way to beguile people into talking. It is the application of unbearable physical suffering and terrifying panic to compel a desired behavior.

2) Waterboarding is NOT “simulated drowning.” It IS drowning. Water is forced into the lungs and breathing made impossible in a controlled manner, producing a slow motion suffocation. That is not simulation. News media that perpetuate the description “simu-lated drowning” are accomplices after the fact.

3) Waterboarding IS illegal under U.S. and international law, and no quantity of Presidential signing statements or memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel can change that fact. Following World War II the United States prosecuted as war criminals the Japanese officers responsible for waterboarding captured U.S. servicemen.

4) Waterboarding has the “advantage” of leaving no physical scars. It is part of an arsenal of U.S. psychological torture methods that include sensory deprivation, stress positions, extreme cold, loud incessant music, sleep deprivation, and disorientation through the manipulation of meal times, light, and lack of human contact.

5) The excuse has been offered that if Judge Mukasey were to admit that waterboarding is torture, then U.S. operatives might be subject to criminal or civil penalties. If U.S. operatives have committed acts of torture, then they SHOULD be subject to criminal and civil penalties. After World War II, were war criminals granted retroactive immunity?

6) All students at the Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego are required to undergo waterboarding and become completely familiar with this technique. This school is used by Navy SEALS and other special forces.

WHAT IS WATERBOARDING?

Waterboarding is a form of torture that our government has admitted authorizing for use on military detainees. The practice involves tying a person down to a board, covering their face with a cloth, and pouring water into their nose and mouth, causing suffocation as the victim’s lungs fill with water. It leaves no physical scars, which is one reason why governments and militaries throughout history –including ours—have employed it.

Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. Navy instructor who witnessed, supervised, and led waterboarding hundreds of times as part of a naval training program, has said:

“In the media, waterboarding is called ‘simulated drowning,’ but that's a misnomer. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning….Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.”
[NY DAILY NEWS, Oct 31, 2007] http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/10/31/2007-10-31_i_know_waterboarding_is_torture__because.html
WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF WATERBOARDING?
The history of waterboarding is long and brutal. University of Pennsylvania historian Ed Peters has said the practice was used to extract confessions as far back as the 1300s. In any event, over the centuries, the use of waterboarding has been documented: Against accused “heretics” during the Spanish Inquisition ; at the turn of the 19th century, by the U.S. military in its war against the Phillipines; in the 1960s, again by the U.S. military, this time during the Vietnam War; under the Pinochet Regime in Chile; and in 1983, by Texas Sheriff James Parker, who sought to force confessions from prisoners.
Following World War II, the United States filed war crimes charges against a Japanese officer, accusing him of waterboarding a U.S. civilian. The officer, Yukio Asano, was convicted and received a 15-year-sentence.
[NPR] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15886834

THE BUSH REGIME HAS ADMITTED TO AUTHORIZING WATERBOARDING-- AND THEREFORE TO COMMITTING WAR CRIMES
While the use of waterboarding dates back centuries, a government openly acknowledging authorizing it is a new phenomenon. But that is exactly what the Bush Regime has done.
*On February 5, 2008, CIA Director Michael Hayden stood before Congress and admitted CIA officers waterboarded three detainees: Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim Nashiri.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/TheLaw/story?id=4244423&page=1

*On April 9, 2008, ABC News reported that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, and George Tenet met regularly in the White House to discuss and approve various forms of torture—including waterboarding—for use on detainees.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4583256&page=1

*On April 11, 2008, President George W. Bush himself admitted approving these meetings, saying: “And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4583256&page=1

Under international law, waterboarding is torture – and thus a war crime:
*Article 1 of The United Nations Convention Against Torture –which the United States ratified in 1994- defines torture as: “Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html

There is zero doubt that waterboarding carried out by our government constitutes excruciating mental and physical pain intentionally inflicted in order to intimidate and gain information. Therefore, it is clearly torture.

The Convention Against Torture also makes clear that there are no exceptions – “whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency” in which a country may practice torture (Article 2) and that it is illegal for an individual nation to pass laws legalizing torture (Article 4).

*But if there were somehow any doubt… On February 7, 2008 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour officially declared that waterboarding is torture. She added that those who violate the UN Convention Against Torture should be prosecuted as war criminals.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN0852061620080208

WE WILL NOT LIVE IN A TORTURE STATE: DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!
While a particularly brutal and sickening practice, waterboarding is only one part of an entire package of torture and illegal detention polices approved at the highest levels of our government, and carried out systematically:

*As of December 2007, the U.S. was known to be holding 275 detainees in Guantanamo Bay, (“Gitmo” )Cuba. All but a handful of these detainees have never been charged, and have never received trial. The vast majority of these detainees were turned over to the U.S. by warlords – not captured in battlefield.

The U.S. military only characterizes 8 percent of these detainees as Al-Qaeda fighters.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/86_Days/Guantanamo_Fact_Sheet/page.do?id=1051177&n1=3&n2=38&n3=1447

*As shown in the Oscar-winning documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side”, detainees at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan are routinely subjected to forms of torture including extreme sensory deprivation, isolation, attacks with dogs, and vicious physical and sexual abuse. All of which is sanctioned by the highest levels of our government.

Conclusions:
Waterboarding is torture.
Torture is a war crime and crime against humanity.
It must be brought to a halt, and those responsible held accountable as war criminals.
We won’t live in a torture state.

"Freeze" Action on Aug 6th/Hiroshima Day @ Staten Island Ferry Terminal

2008-08-01T00:37:00.000-04:00

"FREEZE" action at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal:

"No Attack on Iran!"

Part of nation-wide "freeze" actions on "Hiroshima Day":
Wednesday, August 6th

Meet at 5:00 PM lower Manhattan, under Staten Island Ferry blue sign outside terminal. Take #1 Train to South Ferry. "Freeze" at precisely 5:30.

Our message: NO ATTACK ON IRAN!
U.S. military moves and diplomatic maneuvering have not let up. A campaign of charges and lies reminiscent of the run-up to Iraq war continues. Lies similar to those leading to the attack on Iraq are being put out to convince people in this country that an attack on Iran would be justified.

Why should proven liars on Iraq now be trusted around Iran? Massive new crimes against humanity are in preparation, all as the carnage continues in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must act now to stop it.

"Freeze" actions at Grand Central and Penn Station drew the creativity of 100-200 participants, and was seen directly by thousands, and on You-Tube throughout the world, including Iran. Building on that, on Hiroshima Day - August 6th, we will be part of a national day of "freeze" actions around the country, at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Manhattan.

Who is the real nuclear threat in the world today?

On the anniversary of the U.S. dropping the atom bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing over a hundred thousand civilians -- we will hold another freeze action - against a possible attack on Iran. Bush, McCain and Obama have all refused to rule out the use of NUCLEAR weapons in such an attack.

Our plan for "freeze" action at
Staten Island Ferry terminal:

We cannot carry signs in the terminal, but your shirts will be carrying the message of "No Attack on Iran!" and passersby will see it and witness you standing frozen. The point is to act as if you are a mannequin. This is not an illegal action, and will only be 5 minutes, but we will make an impact. Afterwards, gather nearby at Battery Park. Join us!

We don't want to lose the effect of the "silent protest" - key is all of us acting together with precision. That is why we need to gather outside 30 minutes before the action, to prepare and "synchronize our watches" so that at exactly 5:30 PM inside, everyone will stop exactly where they are and freeze what they were doing and hold that pose for 5 MINUTES. To participate, email: wcwfreeze@gmail.com. Hope you can make it! This will be determined, but fun.

[photos courtesy of Garry Rissman]

***

Join World Can't Wait Saturday, August 2nd
March & Rally: No Attack On Iran

beginning at 12:00 pm at Times Square, 43rd Street & Broadway
**

Volunteers are needed to help make all this happen, as well for organizing "premier" showings throughout the area of the new film "Iran is not the problem" (dates and times to be announced soon) 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.

New Movie: Stealing America - Vote by Vote

2008-07-31T00:40:00.000-04:00

Over the last decade, millions of votes have disappeared. A nation can be stolen without guns or tanks. A nation can be stolen vote by vote.

Direct Cinema Limited presents a Concentric Media Film:

A new feature length documentary film

Narrated by PETER COYOTE

Original music LAURENCE ROSENTHAL

Produced and Directed by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning Filmmaker DOROTHY FADIMAN

August 1st thru 7th at the Quad Cinema

34 West 13th St.

"Compelling, meticulously accurate, poignant"

First-person stories from the election trenches paint a chilling picture of problems affecting election outcomes, "glitches" and "irregularities" which cannot be explained away as random errors.

Successful Freeze Action at Grand Central Station:

2008-07-13T09:35:00.003-04:00

175+ declare "No Attack on Iran!"

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

Slide show

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

Come to Denver August 25-28 when Democrats meet

2008-07-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

Be there to make your sentiments loud and visible:

If you think no government should be allowed to do what the Bush regime has done the past 7 years, come to Denver and join others building a movement to that end.

If you are sickened by your government waging an endless, illegitimate, immoral war and occupation in Iraq, with ominous and immediate threats on Iran, and demand that U.S. aggression in the Middle East be stopped now, come to Denver and say it loudly to the world press.

If you don't buy the justification of your government spying on private calls and mail, no matter which party makes it, come to Denver to repudiate the new FISA law. . If you're tired of politics as usual selling “change”; while Obama refines the Bush program from “faith-based” initiatives to 80,000 troops “stabilizing” Iraq, and refuse to settle for less and less, come to Denver make a moral and political declaration.

If you know it's up to the people to take responsibility for the future we want,

Then join with all of us in Denver to politically fight for it.

World Can't Wait, other national organizations, and thousands of Denver activists will march against the war & torture, attacks on immigrants & women's rights; gather in parks with permits, drop banners, and be in front of DNC delegates and world press with our demand to bring the Bush program to a halt, no matter who is president.

****

Bush May Be on His Way Out, But the Nightmare is Not Over!

We Need a Movement to Bring All This to A Halt!

Check out new World Can't Wait program/plan

Attention Rebel Youth: The "Warped Tour" is coming!

2008-07-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

The Warped Tour is bringing alternative and rebel music, all across the country. [go to warpedtour.com for more information on bands and details.] Be part of World Can't Wait team at each stop in our area:

July 26th- Uniondale NY
July 27th- Scranton PA
July 28th -Englishtown NJ

To volunteer, call: Sharon at 866-973-4463 or email: nyc@worldcantwait.org

June 26: Emergency Forum: The danger of a U.S. attack on Iran is real and growing - We must act now!

2008-06-22T09:29:00.001-04:00

Emergency Forum:

The danger of a U.S. attack on Iran is real and growing –

We must act now!

6:30 pm Thursday June 26

1199/MLK Labor Center Auditorium, 310 West 43rd Street

(between 8th & 9th Avenue) (A,E, C to 42nd St. / 1,2,3, N, R, Q to Times Sq.)

U.S. military moves and diplomatic maneuvering are escalating. A campaign of charges and lies reminiscent of the run-up to Iraq is being ramped up. Leading political figures – from President Bush to John McCain and Barack Obama – threaten Iran that “all options are on the table.” Israel threatens to attack Iran and its Deputy Prime Minister Mofaz calls war “unavoidable”.

Why should proven liars on Iraq now be trusted around Iran? Massive new crimes against humanity are in preparation, all as the carnage continues in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you are outraged by all this, and NOT willing to accept it, then join with us on June 26. This emergency meeting aims to raise awareness of the rapidly escalating danger of a possible U.S. attack on Iran – perhaps before Bush leaves office – and to organize mass opposition to any U.S. military action against Iran.

Come hear deep, cutting-edge analysis. Speakers will detail the escalation of military and diplomatic moves and the campaign of charges and lies about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and role in Iraq. They’ll challenge notions that U.S. threats have been simply “sabre-rattling” or that an attack can’t happen because Bush is a “lame duck” and/or the U.S. is too bogged down in Iraq.

Speakers will stress our urgent responsibility to act. World Can’t Wait and others will detail plans to step up resistance. A short preview of forthcoming movie Iran is not the problem will be shown.

Speakers will include:
Ervand Abrahamian
Distinguished Prof. of History at CUNY and author of many books on Iran including A Modern History of Iran.

Larry Everest
Revolution newspaper correspondent and author of Oil, Power & Empire -- Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda.

Gareth Porter
Author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam who has written extensively on Iraq and Iran for Inter Press Service, The American Prospect, The Nation¸ The Huffington Post and Salon.com.

Debra Sweet
National Director, World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime

Suggested donation: $10 (plus fund-raising refreshments will be available)

Sponsored by World Can’t Wait.
Co-sponsored by Peace Action – NYS, Grandmothers Against the War and Granny Peace Brigade [List of co-sponsors in formation].

***

Time is short and the word must spread very broadly. Volunteers needed: for publicity, fundraising, phone banking, spreading the word at the Human Rights Film Festival and Hudson River Clearwater Revival, and much more. To pick up flyers or volunteer, or for more information, contact 347-678-5905 or 866-973-4463, nyc@worldcantwait.org

Download flyers and widely distribute them:

Two-to-a-page, one sided flyer

Full page, one sided flyer for posting

Full page, one sided flyer with bi-lingual English/Farsi headline for posting and use in areas where there will be significant Iranian and/or Afghani people.

Growing-Danger-of-Attack-on-Iran Factsheet (adaptation of previous flyer) for giving people further information. Can be printed on back of flyer.

ACT NOW to expose/oppose: ominous new drum beats for a U.S. attack on Iran

2008-06-05T10:50:00.001-04:00

Friday, June 6th: Press Conference/Rally/March
Begin at 11:00 am in front of United Nations,
First Avenue between 42nd & 43rd.
Noon- march to Times Square

Sudden new suspicious “evidence”
It was reminiscent of the build-up to the war on Iraq. This week, the New York Times and other major U.S. media outlets have pounced on references in a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to 18 alleged secret documents, which the Times suggests shows that Iran had made significant advances towards developing a nuclear weapon before its program was ended in 2003.

Enboldened by this IAEA report, Tuesday, Condoleeza Rice accused Iran of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons and opposed diplomatic talks with Iran. As Associated Press noted: “The Bush administration long claimed Iran was hiding a bomb program, a view shared by Israel and presumably the rationale for any military attack either country might launch against Iran. Rice’s words were striking because U.S. officials have backed off pointed accusations since the publication in December of a declassified intelligence report that concluded Iran once had an active warhead program but had shelved it in 2003.”

The primary source of these alleged secret documents is the United States. Why should proven liars on Iraq now be trusted around Iran? Bush’s longtime former Press Secretary Scott McLellan’s memoir charges Bush with using a “political propaganda campaign” and “manipulating sources of public opinion” to prepare for Iraq war. The Center for Public Integrity documents 935 false statements by Bush and his seven top administration officials leading up to the Iraq war.

Who’s the real nuclear threat?
Not quoted in the major media is El Baradei’s statement last week: “We haven’t seen indications or any concrete evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons and I’ve been saying that consistently for the last five years.”

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter said last week that the U.S. has more than 12,000 nukes and Israel has 150 or more. The U.S. is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons.

The New York Times on June 2 expressed alarm about possible future capabilities of Iran’s missile program. Yet nothing is said about the intercontinental ballistic weapons that the U.S. already has, poised and ready to deliver nuclear weapons. Hillary Clinton threatened to use them to “obliterate Iran” and the remaining presidential candidates refuse to take the option of use of nuclear weapons against Iran “off the table”.

The danger of a U.S. attack on Iran is real and growing – we must act now!
There are numerous other recent reports pointing to a growing danger of an U.S. attack on Iran.
Go to http://nyc.worldcantwait.org and www.worldcantwait.org for more information, mobilization plans & source material - it will be posted over the next few days.

Mobilize and come to the Press Conference/Rally/March on Friday, June 6th.
Download, print and distribute widely the flyer for it.

and the night before...
Come World Can't Wait Meeting
Thursday, June 5th

6:30 PM, @1199/MLK Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street, 7th Floor

Our main topic will be:

Mobilizating to STOP an attack on Iran

Our work began two weeks ago. Out of that meeting and some followup discussions the following action plan has developed which would include:

Organize educational events in your school, community or a “house party”, to discuss this growing danger, and make plans to respond.

World Can’t Wait is assembling a kit for teachers and organizers for this, including a 10-minute preview version of excellent forthcoming movie: Iran is Not the Problem.

Be part of emergency response network

With every step towards an attack, we must be immediately in the streets. Join with World Can’t Wait in creating a text-message alert network. In the event of any new incident, escalation, etc., when news is received, we will send you a text message:

"Converge at Times Square in front of Recruiting Center (43rd & Broadway) TODAY beginning at 4:00"

Set up a “group” and forward the text message to 10+ friends, call others, and come to protest.
(In the event of news of an escalation/attack coming in the evening, our protest would be on the following afternoon.)

Join in efforts to organize major town hall meeting, and a city-wide coalition, against an attack on Iran.

We urgently need to move forward will all of these plans (and more). That will be the focus of this meeting.

A 10-minute preview of forth-coming documentary movie: Iran is NOT the Problem will be shown. (This was supposed to have been shown at our last meeting, but we ran into technical difficulties, which have now been resolved.)

Come, bring your friends, if you are part of an organization, bring representatives to be part of building this from the ground up and fast. Every person's action and every day counts!

Rumors of War: Is Bush Gearing Up to Attack Iran?

By Conn Hallinan, Portside
Posted on June 5, 2008, Printed on June 5, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/87079/

The May 8 letter from U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to George W. Bush received virtually no media coverage, in spite of the fact that it warned the president that an attack on Iran without Congressional approval would be grounds for impeachment. Rumor has it several senators have been briefed about the possibility of war with Iran.

Something is afoot.

Just what is not clear, but over the past several months, several moves by the White House strongly suggest that the Bush administration will attack Iran sometime in the near future. According to the Asia Times, "a former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community" said an air attack will target the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force garrisons. Not even the White House is bonkers enough to put troops on the ground amid 65 million Iranians.

There is a certain disconnect to all this, particularly given December's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that Iran had abandoned its program to build a nuclear weapon. The NIE is the consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence services. At the time, the report seemed to shelve any possibility of war with Iran.

However, shortly after the intelligence estimate on Iran was released, the old "into Iraq gang" went to work undermining it.

According to Newsweek, during his Middle East tour in January, Bush "all but disowned the document" to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A "senior administration official" told the magazine, "He [Bush] told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views."

Neither do they reflect the views of Vice President Dick Cheney or Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In an interview with ABC during his recent 10-day visit to the region, Cheney downplayed the NIE: "We don't know whether or not they've [the Iranians have] restarted." Cheney also said Iran was seeking to build missiles capable of reaching the United States sometime in the next decade.

On April 21, Gates said that Iran was "hell-bent" on acquiring nuclear weapons, and that, while he was not advocating war with Iran, the military option should be kept on the table.

A month before Gates' comment, the White House quietly extended an executive order stating that Iran represented an "ongoing threat" to U.S. national security. The Bush administration claims that the 2002 resolution that led to the war in Iraq gives it the right to strike at "terrorists" wherever they are. Last September, the Kyl-Lieberman Sense of the Senate resolution designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "terrorist organization."

The administration has sharply increased its rhetorical attacks on Iran in a way that is disquietingly similar to the campaign that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Take the current charge that the Quds Force is arming anti-American groups in Iraq and providing them with high-tech roadside bombs and sophisticated rockets.

Gen. David Petraeus, the new head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Committee on Armed Services that "special groups" are "funded, trained, armed and directed by Iran's Quds Force. … It was these groups that launched Iranian rockets and mortar rounds at Iraq's seat of government" in the Green Zone.

Patraeus replaced Adm. William "Fox" Fallon, who had openly opposed a military confrontation with Iran.

But the United States has never presented any evidence to back up those charges. U.S. officials say the rockets pounding the Green Zone have Iranian markings on them, but they have yet to show any evidence to that effect. And, as for the special roadside bombs, or the explosively formed penetrators (EFP), the evidence is entirely deductive.

The United States argues that the copper cores used in these bombs requires using a heavy machine press and that Iraq has no such presses. But before the invasion, Iraq was the most industrialized Arab country, with a sophisticated machine tool industry, and a study by Time magazine says the cities of Basra, Karbala and Najaf "may indeed have such presses."

The Time article, "Doubting the Evidence Against Iran," concludes, "No concrete evidence has emerged in public that Iran was behind the weapons [EFPs]. U.S. officials have revealed no captured shipments of such devices and offered no other proof."

The lack of evidence has hardly cooled down the rhetoric. Bush said in a speech at the White House that "two of the greatest threats to America" were Iran and al-Qaeda.

U.S. preparations for war, however, have been more than rhetorical.

According to the Israeli website DEBKAfile, Cheney's trip to the Middle East in March was seen in the region as a possible harbinger of war. "The vice president's choice of capitals for his tour is a pointer to the fact that the military option, off since December, may be on again," DEBKA concluded. "America will need the cooperation of all four [countries he visited] -- Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey."

There has also been a steady buildup of naval and air power in the region. A new aircraft carrier battle group has been assigned to the area, Patriot anti-missile missiles have been deployed, and U.S. Naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean have been beefed up.

What would likely happen if the United States did elect to attack?

Militarily, there is little Tehran could do in response.

Iran's army is smaller than it was during the Iran-Iraq war, and in a recent "show of force," its air force mustered a total of 140 out-of-date fighters. It navy is mostly small craft, and while it has anti-ship missiles, Tehran would probably think twice about trying to shut down the Gulf. The current regime depends on the sale of oil and gas to shore up its fragile economy.

While the White House portrays the militias in Iraq and Hezbollah as Tehran's cat's-paw, that is nonsense. The militias in both countries will act on the basis of what is in their own interests, not Iran's.

There is talk that Iran might target Israel, but the Israelis have made it clear that any such attack would be met with a massive retaliation, probably nuclear. "An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned, "which would destroy the Iranian nation."

In any case, it is far more likely that Israel would attack Iran than vice versa.

Any U.S. attack would further isolate the United States in the Middle East. Ethan Chorin, of the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies, says U.S. threats against Iran are running cross-current to efforts by other nations in the Gulf region to establish a détente with Tehran. "The U.S. seeks to defend the Arabs from Iran, but they are increasingly trying to defend themselves from the U.S. efforts to defend them against Iran," he wrote in a recent commentary in the Financial Times.

All the war talk, says Chorin, "is translating into increasing open sympathy on the part of many Gulf Arabs for Iran and increasing skepticism about U.S. efforts to isolate the country."

A U.S. war would deeply divide Europe as well, and might lead to a German withdrawal from Afghanistan. What Russia's, China's and India's responses would be is not clear. China and India are major clients for Iranian natural gas.

Domestically, the Bush administration may see this as its only opportunity to hold on to the White House. The Republicans know they are going to lose seats in the House and the Senate, but at this point the race for the presidency is still tight. Might a new war against the demonized Iranians make voters stick with "war hero" John McCain? It's a long shot, but this administration has always had a major streak of riverboat gambler about it.

All this talk of war, of course, could be sound and fury signifying nothing. But it might also be the run-up to a limited conflict, maybe one set off by a manufactured incident.

Once unleashed, however, no one controls the dogs of war. As hard as it is to imagine, war with Iran might top the Iraq War as a foreign policy disaster.

Conn Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus.

"Jazz Means Peace" Benefit Concert saluting World Can't Wait - June 24th

2008-06-04T10:54:00.000-04:00

Benefit Concert saluting World Can't Wait
with music by THE RICK PARKER COLLECTIVE

TUESDAY JUNE 24TH 7 - 9:30 pm
@ The Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery @ Bleecker st.
F train to Second Ave / 6 train to Bleecker / 212-614-0505
http://www.bowerypoetry.com

Reserve your tickets now
($8 each) by emailing stephanie@worldcantwait.org

"Jazz Means Peace": A jazz series dedicated to building a permanent alternative peace culture by supporting Peace Organizations and celebrating America’s unique classical musical art form.

NO to Torture! - Fire and Dis-Bar John Yoo!

2008-05-15T21:31:00.002-04:00

Reach out at NYU Law School Graduation - Wednesday morning:

NO TO TORTURE!
FIRE AND DIS-BAR
JOHN YOO!
A battle is taking shape around torture.
John Yoo is the legal architect of the Bush Regime’s torture policies.

While working as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, wrote the legal justification for torture and providing immunity for the torturers. Under his direction, if George Bush declares someone to be an “enemy combatant,” the person can be snatched from their home in the middle of the night, thrown in a dungeon somewhere in the world, and tortured – with no right to a lawyer and no habeas corpus.

“John Yoo’s complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the U.S. War Crimes Act,” according to testimony in Congress on May 6 by National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.

John Yoo can not be allowed to remain a professor at the University of California Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall). The issue is not John Yoo’s “academic freedom” but the gruesome reality of torture that he helped to facilitate. By the Nuremberg standards, John Yoo is a war criminal and must be dealt with accordingly. He can not be allowed to continue teaching at a leading law school.

200 Protest: Fire/Disbar/Prosecute John Yoo at U C Berkeley Law School Graduation

As thousands of friends and family members of graduates, and then Boalt Hall Dean Edley and the graduates themselves, filed into the stadium, World Can't Wait, National Lawyers Guild members, Act Against Torture, and many others called on them to wear orange and take a stand on this important occasion -- not only against torture, but against the normalization and acceptance of war criminals on a supposedly liberal campus. Inside the graduation, two UC students unfurled a banner calling for Yoo to be fired. Protesters called on the students to use this opportunity to go out into the world and right a terrible wrong, to take their degree and use it to prosecute John Yoo for war crimes! See coverage in San Francisco Chronicle.

We need to spread the resistance coast to coast. If you are a lawyer or law student, if you have friends who are, if you want to reach out broadly around this, contact us as soon as possible.

One place to go right now is the graduation of the NYU Law School, this Wednesday at the WaMu Theater, Madison Square Garden. We would like to leaflet and engage, calling on people to join in demanding John Yoo's firing and zero tolerance for torture and those who orchestrate it.

Meet at 9:00 AM, 4 Penn Plaza (31st Street & 8th Avenue). Contact us to let us know you're coming at 347-678-5905.

We want to know what you think

2008-05-15T21:22:00.002-04:00

Highlight this page beginning here, copy and paste it into your email program and answer this questionnaire and sent it to nyc@worldcantwait.org

We want to know better your thinking on the current situation in this country and the world and what can and should be done to change it in this period ahead.

Please take a few minutes to answer this, and sent it back to us at nyc@worldcantwait.org

1. Do you still see importance and possibility to DRIVING OUT the Bush Regime, including through impeachment? __Yes, __ No, __ Maybe/Not sure

Further thoughts:

2. Do you see importance and possibility to act now to BRING TO A HALT KEY PARTS OF THE CRIMINAL PROGRAM and DIRECTION brought forward by BUSH & Co. -- the wars, torture, attacks on civil liberties, etc.? __Yes, __No, __Maybe/Not sure. Please further thoughts:

Do you see this criminal program continuing past 2008, if we don't act?
__ Yes, __ No , __Maybe/not sure. Further thoughts:

3. How do you see the outcome of the elections affecting all this?
No change__, Big change__ Other__ Futher thoughts:

WHAT ACTIONS DO YOU SEE TAKING?

Anti-war activities

___Counter-recruiting (more details in future email).

___Help launch No Attack on Iran Coalition (more details in future email)

___Emergency response team (react to attack on Iran or other events )

___Help organize demonstrations (Out of Iraq/No War with Iran)

___Work on team to plan forums/events

___Other _____________________________

Anti-Torture activities

___Work on team to press for firing of John Yoo (author of torture memos)

___Get “No Torture” Banners to churches and other groups

___Participate in “No Torture” actions, including waterboarding demonstrations

___Write “Letters to the Editor” on the issue of torture as illegal and immoral

___Other_______________________

Impeachment activities

___Press Jerrold Nadler (CD8—chair of Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee) who is sitting on the Kucinich resolution to hold hearings on Cheney impeachment

___Leaflet for impeachment

___Other____________________________

Truth Squads & Demonstration at Democratic Party Convention

___Be part of team to ask pointed questions of candidates, or their representatives, at debates, rallies and forums

___Work to create a calendar of forums/debates in the metropolitan region

___Travel to Denver for protest at Democratic Party Convention (more details in future email)

Chapter Activities

___Help spread orange as the color of resistance to the Bush program

___Organize a house party with friends and/or co-workers -- contact us for info on speakers, videos and other resources for this.

___Do press/media for events

___Office work—data entry, telephones, etc (National Office)

___Do web design for the chapter

___Phone-banking

___Outreach, getting out fliers and other information

Donating

___Become a WCW member

___Make a donation (on-line donations can be made at end of this email).

___Approach others to donate

Other ideas/proposals that you think will make a difference and are willing to help organize:

Thanks for taking to time to fill out this survey. However you answer, it will help us get a picture of where we all are!

Stop an Attack on Iran - Urgent Call for Mobilization

2008-05-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

Bush is on his way out!

... oh wait a minute...

He still has months to attack another country!

We must act now

Signs of impending War Against Iran are rapidly growing:

Cheney’s
“Peace Keeping Mission” to Saudi Arabia

-The next day Saudi newspapers told the people to
prepare for nuclear fallout if the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites

Demonization of Iran

-Declaring a threat of nuclear weapons even though the
“National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reported in November 2007 the consensus of all the American intelligence agencies “with high confidence” was that Iran is not actively seeking to develop nuclear weapons. (Polk)”

-Statement from IAEA head says that this is a reminder of pre-war Iraq… “We have not seen any weaponization of their program, nor have we received any information to that affect — no smoking gun or information from intelligence. Based on the evidence, we have, we do not see ... a clear and present danger that requires that you go beyond diplomacy... For the last few years,we have been told by the Security Council ... that we needed to clarify the outstanding issues. We obviously had to welcome Tehran's decision to cooperate with the agency.”

-Declaring Iran a member of the “Axis of Evil” and labeling its military a terrorist
organization

-Blaming Iran for the rise in violence in the Iraq

Admiral Fallon's Resignation in March

-Fallon was said to be “a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.” (Atlas)

-“Apparently, President Bush’s firing of Admiral Fallon was meant to signal to the Iranians that
“all options remain on the table.” This is the publicly proclaimed policy of the Bush administration and has also been adopted by the Democratic Party aspirants to the White House, notably even by Barack Obama who recently said, “all options, and I mean all options, are on the table.” (Polk)

Israel Bombs Syria

-Israel bombed Syria in what may be an attempt to force Syria to activate their anti-aircraft electronics. This would allow Israel to discover the gaps in their defenses and to be able to
develop a flight path to Iran

A major part of the U.S. Navy is deployed in and around the Persian Gulf.

- “The numbers are stunning and include not only a vast array of weapons, including nuclear weapons, cruise and other missiles and hundreds of aircraft but also
“insertion” (invasion) forces and equipment” (Polk)

As this is being written, more and more evidence of a massive build-up and preparation for an attack is being documented. See article by Larry Everest with many more details and information sources.

Are you ready to DO something about
this??

Noticing the beat of the war drums is only the beginning.

From here we need to own the responsibility and capability we have to fight this.

We will no longer allow people to die, countries to be destroyed, and lives to be ruined in our name.

We will not tolerate an escalation of militarization in the Middle East.

We will not be distracted by the glitter of the elections and will remain strong in our convictions.

We have truth and morality on our side and will not stand by to let this administration quietly destroy another country and its innocent civilians.

Come Thursday, May 22nd

6:30 PM, @1199/MLK Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street, 7th Floor

Be part of Launching a mobilization to STOP impending war on Iran

Proposal for forging city-wide No Attack On Iran Coalition, with teach-ins, protests, and forging of emergency response network, so that every major step towards the war is met immediately by the a growing wrath of the people. The Chicago chapter of World Can't Wait has worked with other to launched such a coalition. Check out their web site.

A 10-minute preview of forth-coming documentary movie: Iran is NOT the Problem will be shown.

Come, bring your friends, if you are part of an organization, bring representatives to be part of building this from the ground up and fast. Every person's action and every day counts!

***

Also reports on other parts of the plans for Resisting & Repudiating the Bush Program
which came out of recent World Can't Wait National Meeting, including No to Torture/Fire John Yoo action in Berkeley. Join outreach Wednesday, May 21st at NYU Law School Commencement.

U.S. Steps Up Bullying and War Moves Against Iran

2008-05-10T23:08:00.000-04:00

by Larry Everest

Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. has been on a reactionary, imperialist crusade to crush Islamic Fundamentalism, overthrow governments not under its thumb, and forcibly restructure the entire Middle East-Central Asian regions. Today the U.S. is targeting Iran, saying it is one of the biggest problems it faces globally. And in recent weeks U.S. threats against Iran have sharply escalated on many fronts. This points, at the very least, to an intensification of U.S. efforts to bully and isolate Iran—but may also portend preparations for an attack on Iran, perhaps coupled with possible Israeli attacks against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, even Syria.

Top Bush administration officials have ratcheted up the breadth, vehemence, and strategic character of their charges and threats against Iran.

Defense Secretary Gates claims Iran is “hell bent” on getting nuclear weapons, adding to Israeli claims that Iran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons and could use them in a preemptive attack. General Petreaus charges that Iran is the main source of instability in Iraq, and on April 30, CIA Director Michael Hayden declared that Iranian policy, at the highest government level, is to help kill Americans in Iraq. A few days later, the New York Times (May 5) added another dimension to these charges by reporting that U.S. interrogators had elicited testimony from captured Shi’a fighters that “Militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran.” The State Department recently labeled Iran the world’s leading sponsor of “terrorism.” Secretary of State Rice says Iran is waging a “proxy war” with Israel via Hamas in Gaza, Pentagon officials recently claimed Iran is arming Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and on May 9, the Bush administration blamed Iran and Syria for the outbreak of street fighting in Lebanon between pro-U.S. government forces and Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran.

The Bush regime is trying to build a case for possible war on Iran—like what they did with the claims that Saddam Hussein’s regime supported “terrorism” and had WMDs leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

U.S. charges against the Islamic Republic are a mixture of lies, distortions, and exaggerations, along with reflections of the real necessity U.S. imperialism faces. The Iranian government is acting to counter U.S. moves and further its own reactionary interests and ambitions on many fronts. Iran’s influence has grown in the region, and this is intolerable to the U.S. rulers who are bent on unchallenged hegemony. This move-countermove dynamic is intensifying with many potentially explosive “trigger points.”

On April 25, for the first time, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen stated that the Pentagon was actively considering military options against Iran and warned “it would be a mistake to think we’re out of combat capacity.”

On April 29, CBS news reported, “A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran.” (In March the U.S. had dispatched a nuclear submarine.) According to CBS, “Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq.” As the U.S. demands Iran halt its alleged interference in Iraq (this from the country that invaded Iraq in the first place!), the State Department has also, according to CBS, “begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off—or else.”

On May 2, Andrew Cockburn reported, “Six weeks ago President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, [is] ‘unprecedented in its scope.’ Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area—from Lebanon to Afghanistan—but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines—up to and including the assassination of targeted officials.” Cockburn also reported, “A Marine amphibious force, originally due to leave San Diego for the Persian Gulf in mid June, has had its sailing date abruptly moved up to May 4.”

The Sunday Times of London (May 4) reports, “The U.S. military is drawing up plans for a ‘surgical strike’ against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilize Iraq.”

The recent U.S.-Iraqi assault on Basra, its current campaign against Shi’ite forces in Sadr City, the renewed fighting in Lebanon (reportedly provoked by the U.S.-backed government’s attempt to remove Hezbollah personnel from their airport positions and close down a Hezbollah-run phone system), as well as the September Israeli strike against a site in Syria may also be linked to military preparations for war on Iran.

These U.S. moves to confront Iran and position itself for possible war are themselves acts of imperialist bullying and aggression. Any U.S. attack on Iran—no matter the scale and scope, no matter the pretext or justification—would constitute criminal aggression and a war crime. The potential consequences for the people of Iran and the region are horrific. It’s urgent that people condemn and protest these U.S. threats and war preparations, and sound the alarm—now!

Justice for Sean Bell!

2008-05-06T23:22:00.001-04:00

Justice for Sean Bell!

"YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance."
(from the World Can't Wait Call)

Sean Bell - an unarmed man shot 50 times and
now his killers are all acquitted!

To all justice-minded people this verdict
should call us to action

UPDATE:

We Are All SEAN BELL!
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!

THURSDAY - MAY 22
ALL DAY IN SCHOOLS EVERYWHERE

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS
4 PM ASSEMBLE: RUFUS KING PARK- JAMAICA AVE AND 150TH ST

When the Judge lets the cops who murdered Sean Bell walk free, the system says to us:
50 shots at unarmed Black youth is no crime!
when the police brutalize or murder Black and Latino people the victims, not the cops, get disrespected and treated as criminals in court!
the police can kill again and again and again and we just have to learn to accept it.
We say Enough! This must stop! Justice for Sean Bell!

On May 22 many, many high school students and other youth need to say to the world:
We Refuse to Accept the Future this System Says We Must Accept!
We refuse to accept the murder of Sean Bell and a system that says his life and ours don’t count!
We count and we will make our own future!
MAKE THIS THE TOPIC FOR THE DAY: IN SCHOOL, IN THE STREETS
THURSDAY, MAY 22
Hundreds of young people have taken to the streets in Queens to protest this verdict. Many, many older people from all over NYC, and from different walks of life and nationalities must join the youth.

May 22: Wear Black! Take it to the Street! Count!
ALL EYES ON US!

***
Statement by Elaine Brower, member of National Steering Committee of World Can't Wait, who was among those arrested in civil disobedience actions:

The egregious acts of violence perpetrated by our own police department, members of which are allegedly here to protect and serve our communities, must be stopped. The verdict handed down by Justice Arthur Cooperman did not represent justice served. Allowing 3 police officers who fired randomly into a car and surrounding neighborhood to walk free, is totally unacceptable to me.

50 shots is a massacre, and is not defendable by any laws, or "legal opinions." We all know this; we are all effected by this on every single human level possible. It is absurd that these police officers will be allowed to walk free, keep their jobs, and live in their homes, totally unaffected by the events of murdering Sean Bell and wounding Joseph Guzman and Trent Bennefield.

What we call "justice" in this City, and all the way to Baghdad, is not just. The people are not being protected, they are being oppressed. So it is time the people respond! In fact, it is way past time. We have sat by long enough and watched the NYPD inflict pain and suffering on people in this City. They have free reign to "stop and frisk" specifically targeting youths in communities of color. They have entered our subway systems with machine guns and attack dogs in the name of security. They have installed thousands upon thousands of video surveillance systems all around our City in the name of safety. And they are free to unleash gunfire at their will, or as NYPD regulations say "…until the threat or the perceived threat is over…"

What kind of nonsense is this? It represents a policy that is ridiculous and extremely dangerous to people of color who are routinely discriminated against and considered expendable. In 2006 (the most recent year for which there is information), police officers fired an average of five shots per incident when they were the only ones shooting, which is the highest number for the entire eight years for which these figures have been reported.

World Can't Wait meeting: April 24th at 6:30 PM

2008-04-22T22:30:00.000-04:00

@ 1199/ MLK Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street, 7th fl.

World Can't Wait activists old and new, come to this important discussion:

Preparing for World Can't Wait National Conference, May 3-4 in Berkeley, CA

This will be our first conference to be held on West Coast, on the UC Berkeley Campus!

It is a time of decision: You are Invited!

WCW organizers and leaders from all over the country will spend two days delving deeply into the challenges facing our movement, sharing experiences and setting the direction for the coming months of 2008.

Everyone who has been part of and/or supporting the World Can't Wait movement is urged to come take part!

We'll be making bold plans to repudiate the program still firmly in place under George Bush.
We will discuss factors that may yet make it possible to drive Bush and Cheney from office, and the need for people to act independently of the politics defined and allowed by the coming election (witness the fact that no campaign is making the obvious moral call for impeachment based on lying to Congress or war crimes). We'll tackle assessing the Bush program; the disparity between the hopes people have in the presidential candidates, and the candidates' actual political programs; the possibility of a Bush attack on Iran.
We'll dig into World Can't Wait's work against military recruiting and torture, and make concrete plans through the fall for spreading the movement among youth and students.
Most importantly, we'll discuss our responsibility as people living in this country, to bring a halt to those actions most associated with the crimes of the Bush regime: the illegitimate war and occupation of the Middle East, the torture state assembled at the highest White House level and the fascist remaking of the society for generations to come.

Whether you can make the trip to California or not, join us to discuss these issue and others that you want to bring into this important meeting!

Can the world wait? Our movement will discuss the demands placed by history on those who have identified the Bush regime as a danger to the world which can and must be isolated, its program defeated and the basis laid for a movement on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world.

Monday, April 21st - Demonstration against War Criminal Cheney

2008-04-20T20:47:00.004-04:00

Monday, April 21st:
Vice President "Dick" Cheney appeared at a
Republican fundraising luncheon on Park Avenue

With the direct involvement of Bush and Cheney in directing torture now documented,

With the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on their hands,

We must protest
this war criminal!

Upper East Side, April 21st:

About 50 people came together on Monday in front of building where Vice President “Dick” Cheney was coming to a fundraiser for Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.

Joining WCW activists and friends, Code Pink, and the Raging Grannies, was a group came from Staten Island, including a number dressed as “Filthy Rich for Fossella”. Steve Harrison, a candidate running against Fossella also came.

Chants called out Cheney’s recently documented role in torture of detainees, his key role in the launching of the war in Iraq.

(from the flyer calling for action:)

After five years of an illegal U.S. occupation of Iraq that has taken the lives of estimated one million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. soldiers, the U.S. has stepped up the fighting in Iraq (with McCain pledging to "stay in Iraq for 100 years" if necessary), anad Bush & Cheney escalating threats of expanding the war to attacking Iran. The Democratic-controlled Congress again authorizes spending billions for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recent reports document the role of Bush and Cheney in carrying out torture in violation of U.S. and international law, – blatantly impeachable acts – yet Congressional leaders declare "impeachment is off the table".

The stage is being set for the course begun by Bush to continue, even if a Democrat becomes president. Neither Clinton nor Obama promise to repeal of the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act,or the domestic spying program. Neither call for dismantling the U.S. military bases newly strung across the Middle East and Africa. Dig into the specifics behind the vague "anti-war" statements of both candidates and one finds a debate over who can best "responsibly" project U.S. military strength in the region, not pledges to immediately and unconditionally end these criminal wars.

It’s up to us. This nightmare will continue until people in this country take independent and determined political action to repudiate and reverse the whole program begun by the Bush regime.

We must aim at nothing less than bringing all these towering crimes to a halt now.
The criminals responsible should be impeached and DRIVEN from office.

Forum: A New Wave? War, Empire and Dissent in Cinema

2008-04-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

World Can't Wait and Campus Progress Present:

A New Wave? War, Empire and Dissent in Cinema

Friday, April 25th 6:30 - 9:00 P.M.

NYU's Cantor Film Center, 36 East 8th St., NYC

Join us as a distinguished group of filmmakers and writers convene to explore the growing phenomena of films that expose the crimes of the Bush Regime and portray the powerful and vital role of dissent.

Featured Panelist Include:
*Patricia Foulkrod, director/producer The Ground Truth
*Tami Gold filmmaker/producer and Film Studies Professor at Hunter College
*Paul Farhi, staff writer for the Washington Post
*Sheril Antonio, Associate Dean for Film, Television & New Media at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
*Sinan Antoon, co-produced About Baghdadl
*Michael Tucker, writer and director of The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

In a time when mainstream media and the major political parties steadfastly refuse to - air the majority demands for impeachment, to end the unjust, immoral, illegal war on Iraq, to respond to the emergency of global warming, to stop the slide into unfettered, dictatorial rule and hold Bush and Cheney accountable - books, music, and art (including movies, graphic artists, and comedians) have had to shoulder an unusually heavy burden to convey truth and facts to the people. The truth has never been more strangled, restricted and distorted in its dissemination to the American people than today.

Event co-sponsored by Campus Antiwar Network (CAN)-NYU

Questions? Contact youth_students@worlcantwait.org

Crimes in Broad Daylight

2008-04-14T20:41:00.000-04:00

by Malcolm Shore, April 13, 2008

Who gives a shit if there is a naked woman reflected in Dick Cheney’s sunglasses? There is a river of blood on his hands.

And now, those red-drenched paws have been held up to the light for the whole world to see, thanks to a report that broke last week from ABC News: ABC revealed that in the aftermath of 9/11, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, and George Tenet held dozens of top-secret meetings in the White House. On the agenda for these meetings? Planning, in vivid and gruesome detail, exactly how to torture people—and how many times. These top-level Bush Regime officials approved techniques including waterboarding, physical abuse, and sleep deprivation. According to the report, former CIA director Tenet proposed combining these torture methods into a single interrogation, and Cheney personally gave him the thumbs up.

Later, in 2004, after the Justice Department had ostensibly rescinded one of its infamous torture memos, Tenet again asked for permission to torture. According to ABC News, Condoleeza Rice responded, “This is your baby. Go do it.”

Finally, the AP reports that Bush Regime officials were careful to give the president himself plausible deniability. “The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved,” the AP reported Thursday.

There you have it, in broad daylight—the Bush Regime directly, and meticulously planned torture. To review further: Even some sections of the mainstream media are now acknowledging that the implementation of torture—a clear war crime under international law— goes at least as high up as Dick Cheney. And that these officials were perfectly clear they were committing war crimes, which is why they sought to politically shelter the president.

Hey, America: Can we all please agree to make a big deal out of this?

Can we make a pact to let our anger override our despair? Is it too much to ask for us to make sure that everyone we know is aware that Dick Cheney is confirmed to have ordered the drowning, beating, and psychological torment of human beings? And, while we’re at it, can we finally come together to raise the demand for Bush, Cheney, and the whole crew to be driven from office and prosecuted for war crimes?

Endless List of Crimes Against Humanity

The list of crimes against humanity and impeachable offenses committed by the Bush Regime is—of course—so long, and expands so rapidly, that it is often hard to keep track of. But let’s say that the only thing you knew about this government was that it ordered torture to be carried out. That’s not outrageous enough to inspire you to resist? Seriously?

Some progressives, including those already actively resisting the Bush Regime, may greet the news that Cheney approved and planned torture with a sarcastic “Big surprise. We already knew that.” Well, whether we already knew it is not the point. The point is that massive sections of American society are ignorant—whether willfully or not—of the crimes their government is committing. And far too many of those who are not ignorant are pretending to be—perhaps because their personal responsibility in the face of these crimes is an uncomfortable reality to face, and perhaps because they feel the absence of a mass independent movement of resistance reinforcing them if they do speak out.

The louder and more persistently we call out Bush, Cheney, and the gang for being the war criminals they so clearly are, the fewer Americans will remain ignorant or complicit, and the more who will feel inspired and compelled to act.

Reacting to reports that Cheney, Rice, and other top Bush officials planned torture , Senator Ted Kennedy observed, in chilling fashion: “Who would have thought that in the United States of America in the 21st century, the top officials of the executive branch would routinely gather in the White House to approve torture?" What is equally astonishing—if not surprising—is that with the exception of the ABC News and the AP, the mainstream media has basically ignored this story. As of April 13, the New York Times apparently didn’t classify news that the vice-president of the United States authorized torture as “fit to print.” And CNN’s Web site apparently didn’t carry the story either, although apparently there was space, time, and resources available for the site to report on Britney Spears getting in a minor car accident.

Shout It From the Rooftops

However, while the silence of CNN, The Times, and other major news outlets is an appalling reminder of the complicity of our nation’s media in war crimes, this is no excuse for we the American people to join in this complicity. We must, as the saying goes, “shout from the rooftops” that our nation is being ruled by war criminals, and not cease until these criminals are brought to justice. The good news is that, while its crimes are certainly premeditated and planned with precious, the Bush Regime also ranks as one of the sloppier criminal enterprises in world history. In its mammoth crime of systematic torture ordered from top levels of government, the regime has left behind mountains of evidence. It has gotten to the point where this government may as well convene a press conference with top officials holding a giant reading: “YES, WE ARE WAR CRIMINALS!”

For instance, on February 5, CIA Director Michael Hayden admitted to Congress that his agency had waterboarded detainees. Two days later, the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, officially deemed waterboarding torture and declared that those who committed it should be prosecuted for war crimes. You do the math: Michael Hayden admitted that his agency committing war crimes for which he and other officials should be prosecuted. (True to form, the New York Times devoted mere sentences to this news).

Then there are the numerous “torture memos” – official government documents written since 9/11 in which the Bush Regime has sought to establish a legal basis to carry out torture. To cite just a few of these documents : In August of 2002, the Justice Department issued a memo that suggested international law banning torture did not apply to the “war on terror,” defined physical torture as pain “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death,” and described the threshold for mental torture as psychological abuse spanning months or years.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon released a March 2003 Justice Department memo written by John Yoo, a war criminal employed by the University of California at Berkeley who will one day have his own wing in the Torture Hall of Shame. Yoo, who was then the deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, explicitly stated that the Bush Regime did not have to follow international law outlawing torture. “Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law,” Yoo wrote, “and that the president is free to override it at his discretion.” Yoo went on to say that for prisoner abuse to constitute torture, it must involve the “intended sum” of severe mental pain, threat of death, and physical pain that causes organ failure or death. And he suggested that if interrogators were charged with violating international law, they could use “necessity” or “self-defense” as a justification.

In early 2005, the Justice Department issued a memo that explicitly authorized torture methods including waterboarding detainees, beating them, and subjecting them to freezing temperatures.

Then, of course, in 2006, Congress passed and Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, which in addition to allowing Bush to order the indefinite detention without trial of anyone he pleases, gave him the exclusive right to define what is and is not torture and discarded the Geneva Conventions for those deemed “enemy combatants.”

And now, on top of all this, comes the news that Cheney, Rice, and other top government officials planned, in detail, the execution of specific torture methods on specific detainees.

Brazen Admission of Torture

Precisely because this administration is seeking to legalize torture in order to prevent prosecution of those who carry it out, the Bush Regime has—out of necessity—been very open about its use of torture. In other words, the harder the regime pushes to legalize torture, the more it has been forced to leave behind overwhelming evidence of its own criminality. But here’s some bad news for the Bush Regime: Legalizing torture is itself a violation of international law.

Article 4 of the United Nations Convention on Torture, which the United States has signed and ratified—and which the ACLU identifies as “the most important international human rights treaty that deals exclusively with torture” — makes it illegal for individual nations to rewrite their laws to permit torture. The article states: “Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.”

So, in other words, when Yoo said in the 2003 torture memo that, “customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion,” this was complete bullshit. That memo is illegal, as are all the other torture memos written by the Bush Regime. The Military Commissions Act? ILLEGAL! The meetings held in the White House to plan torture? ILLEGAL!

In case you’re looking for some other quick reference points to show people who don’t believe the Bush Regime has really violated international law, here you go: To begin with, let’s look further at the U.N. Convention Against Torture. This document defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

That’s a mouthful, but the meaning is clear: Intentionally inflicting mental or physical pain for the purpose of obtaining information is torture. Compare that definition to the one John Yoo tried to establish in his infamous torture memo to the Justice Department in 2003—that torture refers to the “intended sum”of severe mental pain, threat of death, and physical pain that causes organ failure or death.

Other articles of the U.N. Convention Against Torture apply so directly to the actions of the Bush Regime that one could be forgiven for thinking its authors anticipated the methods by which this government would seek to justify torture. Article 2, for instance, clearly states, “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” It also states that “an order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”

Article 3 bans rendition: “No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”

Or let’s look at the Third Geneva Convention, adopted in 1949. This convention clearly states that its provisions apply to “all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.”

This Convention further states that, in relation to non-combatants—a category that explicitly includes detainees and prisoners of war—“the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; b) Taking of hostages; (c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.” Article 13 of the third Geneva Convention reads: “Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.”

So, when current Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez infamously referred to the Geneva Conventions as “quaint” and claimed they did not apply to detainees of the war on terror, this statement was not only morally despicable but—much like Yoo’s argument that the Bush Regime can override international law—complete bullshit.

And so, here we are in the spring of 2008, living under a regime whose arrogance and cruelty have reached such heights that its leaders are committing war crimes in broad daylight, practically daring the citizenry to stop them.

It is a challenge the American public is long overdue in answering.

According to the ABC News, during the top secret White House meetings authorizing torture, former Attorney General John Ashcroft exclaimed at one point: “Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.”

Indeed, let us hope that when all is said and done, it is the Bush Regime—and not us—that lives in historical infamy.

Special WCW Benefit Performance of "DIRT"

2008-03-22T22:20:00.005-04:00

"YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance." - World Can't Wait's Call

Come to a special performance of
"DIRT"
to benefit World Can't Wait.

A special talk-back with the actor Chris Domig will follow the performance immediately after the show.

8:00 pm April 9th at "Under Saint Marks" Theater

94 St. Marks Place (between 1st Avenue and Avenue A)

About Dirt:

A powerful, mesmerizing play about racism and the havoc it wreaks upon the human soul.

Dirt is a 75 minute monologue. Sad is its narrator. A desperately alienated illegal immigrant from Iraq, Sad lives on the fringes of Western society. He confronts xenophobia, latent racism, and ethnocentrism as he peddles roses to eke out an existence. Issues of identity, anti-foreign sentiment, and self-worth are brought hauntingly to life through the character's disturbing pychological self-portrait.

Sad's gripping, heart-wrenching monologue by Austrian novelist and playwright Robert Schneider is as highly relevant today in New York City in 2008 as it was in Vienna where it was published over 15 years ago.

Performed in German, Dirt was the most performed solo show in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the mid 90's and the leading European theater magazine Theater Heute awarded Robert Schneider Best New Playwright Of The Year.

Originally Dirt is currently having its U.S. premiere and Austrian/American actor Christopher Domig was awarded the Outstanding Actor Award for his performance while critics rave:

"See this show!!!" - NYTheatre

"Riveting" - Time Out

"Stunning" - Back Stage (Critic's Pick)

"I start with the premise that the war was important. Even necessary. When one compares the pictures of the great American cities with the pictures of our cities. The pictures of the beautiful people with pale skin. Then the war has meaning. That's the premise I start with." - Dirt excerpt

Seating: General Admission

You choose your seats when you get to the theater.

TO BUY TICKETS:

Regular Tickets ($30 each)*

Student Tickets ($20 each)*

(*prices for this show are slightly elevated from normal show prices because this is a fundraising

performance for World Can't Wait, also featuring a talk-back with the actor.)

Length: 1 hr 15 mins / Intermission: None For more information on this play go to: http://www.dirt-nyc.com

If you have problems with buttons for purchasing tickets click here for alternative route.

Mobilize in Washington, D.C. Wednesday March 19

2008-03-14T19:29:00.002-04:00

After a weekend of powerful testimony of U.S. veterans
of the U.S. wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan Winter Soldier,
what will you do to end these endless and criminal wars NOW?

After Bush vetoes ban on torture, including waterboarding,
what will you do to tell the world that
we won't live in a torture state?

On the 5th Anniversary of Endless and Criminal War in Iraq,
what will the world see on March 19th?

Be in Washington, DC
on Wednesday, March 19th!

Join in mobilizing, leafleting, phone banking, donating funds for determined protest!

In the next five days, there is much you can do:

1. Make plans to go to Washington, D.C. on the 19th.

World Can't Wait is organizing rides, vans, car caravan, leaving at 7:00 am from Union Square (east side of park at 16th Street). Call or email to reserve a spot, if you have a car or van call and volunteer to join and take others. Very important to RSVP so there will be space for everyone [ call 347-678-5905, email: nyc@worldcantwait.org to RSVP]. Estimated cost $40.00 round trip. Donate/reserve a space belwo so that we can rent vans if needed. Description of plans in D.C. below.

Gather with friends to view the Winter Soldier hearings and then make plans to act, going to DC and/or plans below. There will be a group showing on Friday night at Judson Memorial Church and live audio and video coverage on the internet.

2. Join in phone banking, Saturday 3-6, Sunday 4-7, and youth phone banking on Monday evening. Call 347-678-5905 to hookup. And call all your friends as well.

3. Do flyering and outreach. There will be important events to flyer at and enlist people to go to DC over the next few days: Left Forum (Saturday and Sunday), Richard Dawkins at Ethical Cultural Society on Saturday, Speak Up!/Speak Out! concert and expo on Tuesday evening Call 347-678-5905 to hookup. And do your own flyering over the next four days -- download flyer, print it and spread it.

4. Donate generously. Funds are urgently needed. Donate yourself, ask for donation from your friends. You can donate on-line below.

5. For those who can't go to D.C., meet at Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn at 6:00 PM and march on military recruitment center, join World Can't Wait Contingent.

***

Take action in Washington, D.C. Wednesday March 19

Too Many Years of a Criminal Regime!
5 Years of Illegitimate War! End It!
Drive the War Criminals from Office!

On March 19, World Can’t Wait, along with other organizations, plans to disrupt business as usual in Washington, D.C. Come to the home of the criminals!

Gather in Lafayette Park at 1:30 pm with people in a sea of orange jumpsuits, in solidarity with and representing those that are being tortured in Guantanamo Bay Prison, Abu Ghraib, Bagram in Afghanistan, and CIA “black sites” around the globe. A demonstration showing that waterboarding IS torture, is planned directly in front of the residence of the biggest war criminal in history.

The Park will become a rallying point for those determined to put an end to this illegitimate and immoral war, and who demand justice by driving the war criminals from Office now, not waiting until 2009! We are done with secret renditions, spying on people, lying to the public, using hundreds of signing statements to disobey laws, rounding up immigrants and detaining them in facilities still being built.

JOIN US in Washington, D.C. at the SCENE of the CRIME!

WRAP THE WHITE HOUSE IN TAPE!!!

Visit www.5yearstoomany.org and www.resistinmarch.org for info about daytime events in D.C.

Also Brooklyn, March 19, march on military recruitment center, meet at Grand Army Plaza @ 6:00 PM

March 22nd - 14th Street "River to River" against the war - Be part of World Can't Wait / No Torture / No War / Stop the recruiters contingent. Stay tuned for time and place and other details.

Download and distribute flyer to mobilize for March 19!

Iraq Veterans Against the War Brings Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

YOU can participate by watching live, or later, and by inviting many others to join you. Plan an event to watch the testimony together.

When: Thursday March 13 to Sunday March 16 WATCH & LISTEN LIVE

Winter Soldier will be broadcast live. Here's how you can watch and listen:

Live Video Satellite TV Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 Get satellite details

Streaming video on ivaw.org Thursday, March 13 through Sunday, March 16

Live Audio

Streaming audio at warcomeshome.org Friday, March 14 through Sunday, March 16

Video and audio archives of Winter Soldier will be available after the event ivaw.org

Make a Generous Contribution

2008-03-14T14:12:00.001-04:00

On-line (via paypal) - Don't forget to include your contact info!

If you are donating for specific purpose: such as reserving a space on van to DC, note this on the notation line of the PayPal form.

Or by mail: Send checks, payable to NYC-World Can't Wait, to NYC World Can't Wait, 305 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165

To make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more in support of WCW’s educational activities, make check out to: “Alliance for Global Justice”, a 501(3(c) organization, and designate “for WCW” on check memo line and mail to NYC World Can't Wait, 305 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165.

Carry forward the actions Against the Military Recruiters and the War!

2008-03-06T18:40:00.003-05:00

Important actions have been taking place around the country, especially in Berkley, but also here in DC (see report below), and people want to take it higher.

Come to a meeting to plan for the next action.
Thursday, March 13th, 6:30 at 1199/MLK Labor Center
310 West 43rd St, 7th Floor between 8th and 9th Avenues (closer to 8th Avenue)

Report from NYC:
February 15th Actions against the Military Recruiters and the War
Two NYC recruiting stations were closed and thousands were touched in various ways by actions that were part of a national day of action against the military recruiters and against the war in Iraq, on the 6th Iraq Moratorium Day. Our actions were charged and inspired by the battle shaping up in Berkeley and hope to seize on this moment to popularize the outpouring of resistance to the new recruiting center in Berkeley, among students from Berkeley High and from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

At 1:00 P.M., organizers held a press conference on the steps of City Hall. Debra Sweet, national director of World Can't Wait, Elaine Brower, a national steering committee member of World Can't Wait whose son was stationed in Iraq, and representatives of CodePink and the Granny Peace Brigades spoke stations about the day's protest in East Harlem and delivered a strong message in support of the protests in Berkeley over the past week. The American Friends Service Committee came with their "Cost of War" exhibition. Lots of press were there including: El Diario/La Prensa, New York Times, NY1, CNN, IndyMedia and WBAI.

At 3:00 PM people from World Can't Wait, college students from Students for a Democratic Society, the Granny Peace Brigade, MDS-SI, the Harlem Revolution Club, and CodePink gathered outside the Army Carrier Center in East Harlem/"El Barrio". Again, lots of media were there: CNN, New Tang Dynasty TV, the New York Times, Next Left Notes and the student paper at Yeshiva University.

Though it was only mid-afternoon, the center was closed with its gate down. A number of news media were there and the on-line edition of New York Times had an article about it entitled "the Army Recruiter Is Not In", which included the following reporting:

"'The question of military recruitment is important because you can't carry out this war without fresh troops,' said Debra Sweet, the director of an organization called World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime. 'These troops are being trained to carry out war crimes. We're sending a message that military recruiters are not welcome to prey on youth. The war will be stopped by the action of the people. That is the only way it will be stopped'."

"'What are they recruiting for?' the protesters chanted, replying, "Murder, rape, torture, war!"
"They held aloft signs with the messages 'Say No to the Military Recruitment Center' and 'Shut Down The Military Recruiters! No Iraq War! Drive Out Bush Regime!""

This picture was posted on NY Times on-line edition (Photo: Jennifer S. Altman):

"Capt. Charles V. Jaquillard, the Army Recruitment Command's company commander for New York City, said the East Harlem office was not closed because of the protest. 'We were conducting a training,' he said, 'We had everybody out at Fort Hamilton today."
What occurred as further protest actions continued that day appears to contradict the Army's explanation for the center's closing. (see below)

With the East Harlem recruitment center closed, protesters marched to another recruitment station, in central Harlem on 125th Street. The spirited march of 40, joined at this point by students coming from Fordham Students Against the War action, marched up through East Harlem/"El Barrio", and then across on 125th Street. It was warmly greeted by many of the hundreds it passed along its route. Several street vendors took signs. Some joined the march along the way, including a very outspoken Afro-American woman from East Harlem, whose son is now in Iraq, who came and spoke the bitterness of many of how the lives of their sons were being jeopardized in an unjust war, based on lies.

Caught by surprise, this central Harlem recruiting station was still open. A crowd gathered as demonstrators stood in front of the doors. There was an informal "speak out" as a small crowd gathered. Minor scuffles broke out when a couple of people tried to brush through the protesters standing in front of the door entrance to the recruiting center and eventually the police were called to escort the military recruiters out of the recruitment center. By 5:00 PM, the central Harlem recruiting center was closed.

2 closed recruitment centers in one day - not bad.

Friday February 15 – Iraq Moratorium Day: NYC Day of Action vs. Military Recruiters

2008-02-13T06:43:00.002-05:00

Friday February 15 – Iraq Moratorium Day
Recruitment Keeps the Illegitimate War Going – Bring it to a Halt!
National Day of Action Against the Military Recruiters
More and more military recruitment centers have recently opened to pull high school students into the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Stop the business as usual of dragging youth into the war machine!

With righteous indignation, ridicule, and reality, we will gather youth, grannies, anti-war protesters, and public office holders to say NO! We’re going on FIVE years of this immoral, unjust war. The people must stop it.

Actions in Berkeley, California have repeatedly shut down the new recruiting station near Berkeley High School and the city council of Berkeley California recently passed a resolution that this new recruiting station “is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” Pro-war Senators are threatening to take the city’s federal money away, and pro-war protesters are vilifying the council’s stand against the war.

More people should take the stand of those in Berkeley - it needs to spread across the country. The majority of people in this country ARE against the war and ARE against torture, and many people ARE searching for something tangible beyond protest-as-usual to end the war.
World Can’t Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime!

In New York City:
1:00 PM Press Conference
Manhattan City Hall Steps (between Park Row and Broadway)
Join World Can’t Wait, CodePink, Women for Peace NYC, Students for a Democratic Society, the Granny Peace Brigade, Campus Anti-war Network (CAN)- Fordham, American Friends Service Committee (with their Cost of War Exhibition), MDS-SI, invited City Council members and many others (list in formation) in this 6th Iraq Moratorium event. AND:
3:00 PM Take Action / No Business As Usual
Beginning at Army Recruitment Center
East Harlem / “El Barrio”, 126 East 103rd Street
(near corner of Lexington Avenue, 6 train to 103rd)

This new recruitment center in East Harlem / “El Barrio” is an example of how the recruiters particularly target Black and Latino youth and immigrants with their lies and to steal more lives for the U.S. war machine. Join us.

Wear orange - the color of resistance to whole Bush program of war, torture, spying, lying and repression. The world can't wait - DRIVE OUT the Bush regime!

Download and print flyers and distributed them widely:
English
Spanish
English one side / Spanish one side

January 31 - Protest - No Torture - No Business As Usual

2008-01-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

Report on NYC - January 31:

Protesters gathered in front of the CNN offices at the TimeWarner Building, amid heavy police presence. Professional actors did a demonstration of waterboarding, which a crowd stopped to watch.

Many people stopped to say they didn't know what waterboarding was, or that they had heard something on the news about Mukasey not identifying it as torture. [click below to get except of waterboarding demo at Columbus Circle]

40 people took off on a march to Fox News, and then to the Armed Forces Recruiting Office at Times Square, where the building was closed all day. Several high school students sat in front of the doors. The last stop was at a corner of Bryant Park, across from the former Verizon Headquarters, where we talked to passersby about torture adn the "Protect America Act" expanding the powers of the federal government to surveil citizens' email and phone calls.

What kind of regime subjects prisoners to waterboarding, and then claims it’s not torture? What kind of regime videotapes this and then destroys the tapes? What kind of regime holds hundreds of prisoners for years without charges, access to lawyers or family or granting them a trial?
Answer: A regime that needs to be driven from office!

Torture concentrates the whole package of crimes against humanity committed by the Bush regime – murderous war in Iraq, snatching of immigrant children from the arms of their mothers, systematic spying, and much more – horrors done for global empire and domestic order. All this must be brought to a halt.

Will the elections repudiate or reverse this? NO!

Leading Republican presidential candidates want more of the Bush program, and no leading Democratic presidential candidate will reverse what’s been set in place by the Bush regime. Leading Democrats knew - and said nothing for years - about the CIA’s torture tapes and waterboarding. Who among the leading candidates is making the repeal of the Military Commissions Act or the Patriot Act; or an immediate and unconditional end to the slaughter in Iraq a major part of their campaign?

January 31 – days before the election circus kicks into high gear on “Super Tuesday”– needs to be marked by the voice of the people who repudiate the Bush Regime and its criminal program.

The time to act is now. The scandal of the destroyed torture tapes continues, heightening both the opportunity and the necessity for a mass outpouring of resistance to torture and to the entire Bush program that it represents.

We will make the future.
We pledge to stop endless war for empire.
We refuse consent to a torture state.
We won’t swallow a hateful culture of bigotry & intolerance.
We will not go silently into a fascist nightmare.
We will engage in an act of civil resistance to make a better world.
We are what we’ve been waiting for.

Download a flyer and spread the word!

Download a small poster and spread the word!

Support those defying Federal Grand Jury Repression of Puerto Rican Independence Movement

2008-01-26T23:33:00.000-05:00

Friday, February 1st, 9:30 AM Federal Court, Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn.

Meet at corner Tillary St & Cadman Plaza East for rally; hearing at Federal Courthouse, Cadman Plaza E & Tillary St, Brooklyn (A/C to HighSt, 2/3 to Clark St, M/R to Court St-Boro Hall, 4/5 to Boro Hall,F to Jay St-Boro Hall, G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn).

As those who read Juan Gonzales' Daily News column three weeks ago have learned, another "front" in the moves towards "police state America" are underway. Three young Puerto Rican activists have been subpoenaedto testify fore a grand jury. As is often the case, in these Federal Grand Jury probes, those subpoenaded are not be charged with any crimes, nor is even the general purpose of their investigation stated. But "off the record" it has been revealed that this is an investigation of the Puerto Rican movement and especially the Machetero movement in Puerto Rico. There are indications that more will be targetted. (The three were originally called to testify on January 11th, but this was postponed to February 1st.)

Like the "Thought Crimes" legislation now in Congress, HR1955 ("Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007") this kind of action is aimed at government surveilance and intimidation of any or all opposition political forces. As Bob Boyle of NYC National Lawyers' Guild said about this case: "Federal grand juries have long been used to gather information on legitimate political activities". There is a history of dragging activists in, demanding that they "name names" and information on other activists. Those who have righteously refused have faced long periods in prison, including some in the Federal government's new "super Max" sensory deprivation/isolation dungeons. It is important to rally in support of those resisting all this.

We will be posting more on this case and on the whole issue of the grand jury probes as a tool of political repression soon.

Drop the charges on the Nadler office 4! Pack the court on Tuesday, February 5th!

2008-01-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

Come to court in support of four defendants accused of asking to discuss impeachment with Congressmember Jerrold Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee, who is blockading the proceedings.

Elaine Brower, Sharon Pavlovich, Stephanie Rugoff and Eileen Ryan will appear Tuesday February 5 at 9:30 a.m. in Part AR2 at 120 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn.

Some of these activists face misdemeanor Criminal Trespass 3rd Degree charges as of the time of this message.

Said Elaine, "All out to support us because I think Nadler's henchman, Gottheim, will put the screws to us if he can!" Kings (Brooklyn) Criminal Court, 120 Schermerhorn St. btw. Smith St./Jay St. & Boerum Pl/Adams St.: R or M (not N) to Lawrence Street; G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn; A, F or C to Jay Street; 2, 3, 4 or 5 to Borough Hall.

Demanding that Bush & Cheney be Impeached for War Crimes is no crime!

Silence and complicity with a government that tortures, spies, and wages endless wars based on lies is what is criminal!

Drop the charges on all the Nadler office defendants.

The struggle and truth squads continue:

On Sunday, January 13th three of the WCW Nadler office arrestees along with several WCW supporters attended a local presidential forum in Chelsea attended by 300-400 people. (Congressman Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution where H. Res. 333/779 languishes, was speaking as the representative of Hillary Clinton). We sported our orange bandanas as we gave out orange leaflets to the attendees .

We had put out a wide call for impeachment activists to attend the forum. We were joined by Code Pink, ImpeachBush.org, AskNadler2Impeach.org,a group with letters spelling out I-M-P-E-A-C-H, and others. When Nadler got up to speak, we also stood, called out "Impeach Now" and then sang the song "Dayenu" which means "Enough."

At various points during the question and answer period impeachment activists took the mike raising loudly and clearly the impeachment issue, as well as the ongoing war on Iraq and threats to attack Iran helping change the forum's "terms of debate."

The representatives of Gravel and Kucinich also spoke to these issues, the Gravel representative especially clearly and forcefully. There are many of these forums coming up in the next few weeks. We urge you to attend them and raise the issues that the "leading" candidates want to avoid. You may want to visit Congressman Nadler at one of his offices as well.

Stop the Deportation of Victor Toro - January 18

2008-01-15T00:56:00.000-05:00

Victor Toro faces deportation hearing on January 18:

Stop the Deportation of Victor Toro!

Stop the ICE Raids on Immigrants!

Demonstrate: Friday, January 18, 2008, at 9:00 am

26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan(at the corner of Worth Street & Lafayette St)

On July 6, agents of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) went down the aisles of an Amtrak train near Rochester, NY, checking the documents of people who they profiled as immigrants. The ICE agents pulled off the train 35 people who were unable to provide proof of citizenship or legal residency and took them to jail.

This was an outrageous example of an increasingly common outrage -- immigrants being terrorized by ICE raids where they live and work, and while traveling in cars and on public transportation. In fact, in July, Bush’s Homeland Security Secretary warned that the increase of mass arrests of undocumented immigrants is “gonna get ugly” – terrorizing tens of thousands more immigrants. And presidential debates have often become contests over who promises to bash immigrants the hardest. All this must be brought to a halt!

What has brought this particular raid to wide public attention is that among those detained on July 6 was Victor Toro, a Chilean exile and political activist. Toro is known by thousands for his decades of struggle in revolutionary and progressive movements, originally in Chile and now in the U.S. Toro was detained as he was returning to New York from a national immigrants rights conference in California. His detention was reported twice on the front page of New York’s El Diario/La Prensa newspaper and the New York Times described him as “one of the best known advocates for immigrants and other disposed people in New York City.”

Toro and others pulled out from the train were taken to a county jail:

“When I was in jail, on the first day they put us in these orange jumpsuits like what you have seen so many times in that Guantánamo concentration camp. That for sure brought out a ton of memories, seeing so many Asian brothers, Mexican brothers, and all our brothers who come here without documents, dressed in that same color… My first response was great anger. Everyone has seen the prisoners in Guantánamo in those horrible clothes, their feet and hands tied, almost falling over. That’s the first response, and it makes you think. But as the days pass, you realize that all of them are dressed in orange.”

As Toro told El Diario/La Prensa,

“Those orange jumpsuits are horrible and cause terror. I will not forget their inscription: ‘Cayuga County.’ I felt the same humiliation as the prisoners in Guantánamo, and also it made me recall when I was a political prisoner of the military dictatorship in Chile.”
Victor Toro and his wife Nieves Ayress were among the many thousands of Chileans who were arrested and tortured by the Pinochet regime, which seized power through a U.S.-backed coup on September 11, 1973. Many thousands more were outright murdered or “disappeared”. When the fascist generals took over radio stations and announced their coup, they identified Toro by name as one of the 13 most wanted people -- “dead or alive.” Victor’s past persecution in Chile is well documented and his political work has been the subject of books, including Alistair Horne’s Small Earthquake in Chile.

In the late 1970s Victor and Nieves were able to escape from Chile. In 1984 they made the dangerous crossing into the U.S. without papers and settled in the South Bronx. Soon after that, the Chilean government declared Toro to be legally “dead,” complicating his ability to obtain legal status.

His defense team has documented that his deportation to Chile would be extremely dangerous for Victor and has filed for political asylum.

World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime joins in demanding that deportation proceedings be stopped and political asylum be granted for Victor Toro and urges everyone to come to pack the hearing room in his support on January 18th.

Letters of support and donations for his defense (checks made payable to “Las Peñitas Inc.”) can be sent to: Vamos a La Pena, PO Box 739, Bronx, NY 10454. Messages of support can be e-mailed to lapena2006@hotmail.com

Pack the Hearing Room, Rally in front of the court!
Wear Orange!
Stop the deportation of Victor Toro!
Stop the immigration raids!
Drive Out the Bush Regime!

January 11th in NYC will be scene of a broad array of actions against torture and government repression.

2008-01-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

January 11th in NYC will be scene of a broad array of actions against torture and government repression. (details below)
Be there, spread the word, and make these as powerful as possible!
*******
National actions against torture and to shut down Guantanamo detention center
Six years ago, on January 11, 2002, the U.S. opened its torture camp at Guantánamo. Bush claims "the U.S. does not torture" as he orders the destruction of videotapes that document the C.I.A. torturing prisoners. Leading Democrats like Nancy Pelosi were aware of these crimes and remained silent... but WE CANNOT. Torture is emblematic of the Bush agenda and direction it is taking society. We will not live in a Torture State!
In this spirit, World Can't Wait, joins with the ACLU, Amnesty International, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, to:
Get Anti-Torture Orange on the TODAY SHOW! 6:15 AM
The idea is to attend the Today Show – where audience members outside the studio and are seen by millions of home viewers. The ACLU is printing up special "Close Guantanamo" orange T-shirts for this. Meet on the north side of 48th Street between 5th and 6th avenues between 6:15 and 6:30 AM. Please do not bring signs. ACLU organizers will guide you from there. [Reserve shirt/RSVP to arosmarin@nyclu.org.]

Ribbons, bandanas, and special No torture sticker. Color NYC High schools Orange!
-- Special emphasis on mobilizing mass orange actions in area high schools. (Call tonight to hook up with a team going to a high school in the morning. Schools, churches, community centers and others are urged to hang banners and signs declaring "No Torture".
Join vigil starting at 1:00 PM, Foley Square Near 26 Federal Plaza, J/M/Z to Chambers St, 4/5/6 to Bkn Bridge-City Hall, R/W to City Hall). World Can't Wait is joining Witness Against Torture and others.
Demonstration of waterboarding in Times Square, 44th and Broadway, at 2:00 pm Waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime against humanity. (Performed by professional actors before news media. Assistance needed with leafleting and more, call 917-204-0927 to volunteer.)
***
Support those defying Federal Grand Jury Repression of Puerto Rican Independence Movement
9:30 AM Federal Court, Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. As those who read Juan Gonzales' Daily News column yesterday have learned, another "front" in the moves towards "police state America" will also occur on January 11. Bringing to mind recent "Thought Crimes" legislation now in Congress, HR1955 ("Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007"), a number of young Puerto Ricans have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating the Puerto Rican independence movement. As Bob Boyle of NYC National Lawyers' Guild said at a press conference today: "Federal grand juries have long been used to gather information on legitimate political activities". Support those resisting this. (Simultaneous emergency demonstrations are set in 9 U.S. cities and in Puerto Rico.)
***
Evening program:
An Evening of Voices Against Torture
Shayana Kadidal, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, speaking on U.S. government's use of torture and passing the Military Commissions Act. He works on CCR's major case on the illegal NSA domestic spying program and CCR's Patriot Act case.
Dr. Steven Reisner, a psychoanalyst and faculty member at NYU Medical School and at the International Trauma Studies program at Columbia. Dr Reisner has been on the forefront of the campaign to ban psychologist involvement in detainee interrogations.
Rev. N.J. L'Heureux, Executive Director of Queens Federation of Churches and outspoken minister against torture.
Organizers from World Can’t Wait who will present plans to make January a month of resistance to the monstrous crimes being committed in our name.
There will also be "report-backs" from the day's activities, including a representative of Puerto Rican Grand Jury resistance case.

St. Mary's Episcopal Church - 6:00 PM,
521 West 126th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.) Take #1 train to 125th stop
***
Looking towards Thursday Jan 31: Repudiating the Whole Bush Program
No business as usual.
Starting at 12:30 PM at Columbus Circle.(Bring a metro card.)Details to be announced at http://nyc.worldcantwait.org/ "We can and must through mass political resistance create a political situation where this criminal regime is driven from office before their term is up - and the whole fascistic direction George Bush has been taking society is reversed. Only people highly mobilized and motivated by values that repudiate unjust war, bigotry and greed can bring the Bush agenda to a halt. Only the people who will not remain silent when their government tortures, terrorizes whole peoples and moves to quash dissent and critical thinking can change the course of history." - Read full January 2008 statement from WCW.
We won't live in a torture state!
Take action on January 11th: Be there, mobilize, donate generously.
Volunteers urgently needed. Contact us. Also everyone bring a digital camera or camera phone and take lots of photos and send them to us at the end of the night. The whole world is watching.

An Evening of Voice Against Torture - January 11

2008-01-09T07:43:00.000-05:00

January 11th marks the anniversary of when the U.S. opened its torture camp at Guantanamo. Bush claims “ the U.S. does not torture” as he orders the destruction of videotapes that document the C.I.A. torturing prisoners. Torture is emblematic of the Bush agenda and direction it is taking society. At a time when no "viable candidate" is calling for the immediate repeal of the Military Commissions Act or the Patriot Act, it is on the people to bring these crimes to a halt.

Join us Jan 11 @ 6:00 PM

Speakers include:

Shayana Kadidal, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, speaking on U.S. government's use of torture and passing the Military Commissions Act. He works on CCR's major case on the illegal NSA domestic spying program and CCR's Patriot Act case.

Dr. Steven Reisner, a psychoanalyst and faculty member at NYU Medical School and at the International Trauma Studies program at Columbia. Dr Reisner has been on the forefront of the campaign to ban psychologist involvement in detainee interrogations.

Rev. N.J. L'Heureux, Executive Director of Queens Federation of Churches and outspoken minister against torture.

A report from Brooklyn where Puerto Rican activists have been subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury in what Juan Gonzales termed a "fishing expedition" are confronting an important case of grand jury repression. (Supporters will be gathering at 9:30 am in front of Brooklyn Federal Court, 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn.)

Organizers from World Can’t Wait who will present plans to make January a month of resistance to the monstrous crimes being committed in our name.

The event will take place at

St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 6:00 PM

521 West 126th Street

(between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.) Take #1 train to 125th stop

We won't live in a torture state!

Download a flyer for January 11 actions.

No to torture & Shut Down Guantanemo - Forum & meeting January 3

2008-01-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

This January the world needs to see that the people of this country rise to say NO to torture.

Torture is a crime against humanity.

Torture is an impeachable offense, ordered by the White House and still being sanctioned by Congress.

We won't live in a torture state!

Come learn more and plan/mobilize:

Thursday, January 3, 6:30 PM

MLK Labor Center/1199
310 West 43rd St, 7th Floor
between 8th and 9th Avenues

Featuring the 30 minute section of the Bush Crimes Commission Hearings on Torture and Illegal Detection and speaker from American Civil Liberties Union on torture

Followed by discussion and planning for:

January 11th, day of national actions against torture and to shut down Quantanamo:

Mobilizing people to travel to
Washington, DC for actions at Supreme Court.
Mobilizing youth and students -- plans for mass wearing of orange in school, teach-ins and assemblies with expert speakers on torture.
Mobilizing schools, churches, community centers, tenants organizations, etc. to display giant orange banners declaring: "No torture".

Looking towards January 31st - National day of actions to Drive Out the Bush Regime and beyond:

Bush & Company have been caught red-handed lying, torturing, and covering it up. Their "justifications" to expand their wars into Iran have been shown to be lies, as reported by their own "National Intelligence Estimate". People are shocked and outraged. Yet the crimes continue. Official politics have proven to be a disaster. Your government does not want you want and it is becoming clear that the Democratic nominee of 2008 will not speak for us. January 31st will be the last time to mobilize people to act to DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME before the nominees are selected on "Super Tuesday". [for more analysis, read new national January statement by World Can't Wait.]

Bring your questions, bring your determination to bring to a halt this crime against humanity being done in our name, bring your ideas and creativity!

See you then!

Report on "Stand Against Torture Sunday", Dec. 23rd

2007-12-18T12:31:00.001-05:00

It was a powerful scene, provoking many to think about the issue of torture and what is being done in our name, some for the first time, drawing expressions of sympathy and support from many, and a violent/vicious response from some hard-core, torture-hardened, reactionaries.

Despite a drizzle and forecasts of cold, heavy rain, all together, 40 people turned out at one point or another throughout the afternoon – activists and supporters from World Can’t Wait, A.R.T. (Activist Response Team), Catholic Worker and Witness against Torture. A group of youth who had planned an action against the war in Iraq themselves in the same area later that day, joined us and we “fused” our two plans into one, first in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then going around Rockefeller Center and in front of its world famous annual Christmas tree.

Many held printed signs: “NO TORTURE – We Won’t Live in a Torture State – Impeach/Drive Out the Bush Regime”, along with “Waterboarding is Torture – Torture is a Crime Against Humanity”, while others knelt in orange jumpsuits and chains. There was a giant banner “Lies + Torture” that had previously been hung at an action in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. An agitator brought out the basic message: “Today, this government is torturing people in Iraq and Guantanemo, Cuba in our name. Torture is wrong, it’s a crime against humanity, it’s criminal, and it must be stopped. The criminals in the White House need to be impeached for their crimes and driven out.”
A number of people took orange ribbons or got “impeach the war criminals” buttons. A woman who came by with her children was heard telling them when she first spotted us, “listen to them – we are going to learn something important here today”.

The response of reactionaries was striking. None denied that torture was being done, and instead were brazenly upholding it. Several times they jumped out of the crowd and hit the heads of people kneeling in jump suits and hoods. Twice they started to attack our speakers. It was a scene right out of “Redacted”. Their wives and families seemed ashamed/horrified by their actions and would try to pull them away.

At 4:00 PM we switched, with a smaller number of us heading swiftly through Rockefeller Center and in front of the Christmas tree, led by the youth with a boom box playing the John Lennon song, “The War is Over – Merry Christmas” and along with our anti-torture signs, two hand-made displays: “This is a Christmas to Remember” and giving the number of Iraqis and Americans who have died in the war. It was a memorable scene, and we got an extremely favorable response from the crowds coming out to see the tree. All sorts of media photographers appeared, snapping lots of photos.

It is hard to estimate precisely, but several thousand altogether saw our actions and some were deeply affected by it.

WCW Gift Ideas: Give a gift declaring your committment to peace, justice and end of the crimes of Bush Regime.

2007-12-14T17:59:00.000-05:00

Give gifts with a conscience and a vision.

Some ideas:

Get/give the new 2008 calendar with stunning / inspiring photos: $15.00 (plus $10.00 for shipping/handling if ordered on line). Get 5 or more to give to everyone on your list -- 5 or more, $10.00 each. Email us to arrange getting them to you: nyc@worldcantwait.org

Give a $50 or $100 donation to World Can't Wait on behalf of a loved one or friend as your present. We will send you a certificate to put in your holiday card to the person, if you like. You can donate on line.

Give a package of orange ribbons, a bandana, or tshirt.

Gifts are available on line at http://www.worldcantwait.net/stor e/ and we will have an assortment of gifts at the above concert, or call us.

Jazz Means Peace Benefit December 17th

2007-12-01T19:18:00.000-05:00

"JAZZ MEANS PEACE” IS BACK!!

@ The Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery @ Bleecker st.

A Jazz series dedicated to building a permanent alternative peace culture by supporting Peace Organizations and celebrating America’s unique classical musical art form; JAZZ

Monday December 17th. 8pm – 10pm: RADAM SCHWARTZ & “CONSPIRACY FOR POSITIVITY” with Radam Schwartz – organ, James Gibbs III - trumpet, Anthony Ware – alto sax, Misha Fatkiev – guitar, Joe Brown Jr.– drums

308 Bowery: F train to Second Ave 6 train to Bleecker 212-614-0505
http://www.bowerypoetry.com

Monday December 17th. 8pm – 10pm:

$8 admission + 1 drink minimum

Benefiting: Brooklyn For Peace, World Can’t Wait, Peace Action NY, and War Resisters League

Get your ticket now (Get them here on-line - your PayPal computer receipt will be honored at the door in leiu of a paper ticket) or reserve a ticket to be picked up at the door by emailing stephanie@worldcantwait.org .

Regular admission tickets: $8

Make a donation: Urgently needed for organizing to BRING TO A HALT the criminal program of the Bush Regime. Give the gift that will keep driving through the new year!

Tuesday, November 27th: Support all those arrested on September 25th when Bush came to the UN

2007-11-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

Waging unjust wars based on lies and torture is CRIMINAL.

Resisting all this is NOT!

In fact, NOT speaking up is what’s criminal.

On September 25th, while Bush was speaking at the UN, deriding what he considers the “brutal regimes” of the world (while it his that has made torture legal, invaded and occupied two countries with one million people dead, and is making plans to attack a third country), hundreds of people were outside the UN in protest. A sea of orange filled the plaza, with a contingent marching in wearing the orange jumpsuits and hoods that Guantanamo detainees are forced to wear everyday, as well as a plethora of orange bandanas, flags, clothes, etc. The authorities clearly did not like this showing of resistance, cutting off the sound permit an hour early. When more than a dozen people sat down on a sidewalk just over the police barricade in an act of civil disobedience, police arrested them. And they also arrested three who protested the initial arrests and they were held overnight and slapped with more serious charges. This did not deter people, hundreds of people took off downtown, marching all the way from the UN to Washington Square Park. [see full report]

SUPPORT ALL THOSE ARRESTED -- DROP ALL THE CHARGES NOW!

People are rightly disgusted with the way protesters are herded in pens, off to the side and marginalized. That people who sat down a few feet outside those pens, on a street already closed to traffic would be arrested is an outrage. Then several weeks later, rather than dropping these charges, the highly unusual step of adding additional charges against those who engaged in this civil disobedience action. This is an additional outrage which should be called out and reversed.

On November 27th, the three who spoke out against the arrests and then themselves were arrested are to appear in court and the initial group of 14 arrested are to appear in January 17. We call on people to stand with all of these defendants. Their actions should be applauded, not punished!
Pack the courtroom:
Tuesday, November 27th, 9:30 AM

Part A, Criminal Court, 100 Centre Street, Manhattan
and
January 17th, 9:30 AM

Criminal Court, 100 Centre Street, Manhattan

And beginning immediately, call or send letters or faxes to:

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney:
One Hogan Place, New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212-335-9000
Fax: 212-385-9789
To demand:
DROP ALL THE CHARGES NOW AGAINST ALL ARRESTED AT THE SEPTEMBER 25TH ANTI-BUSH PROTEST!

NYC October 27: "Orange Alert" in unity with Iraq Moratorium - No Attack on Iran! Bush and Cheney Out Now!

2007-11-19T13:31:00.000-05:00

It was a great day!

At 1pm,about 50 people representing World Can't Wait, Code Pink, Raging Grannies, Students for a Democratic Society, Movement for a Democratic Society, "Arrest Bush", a spirited delegation of students from John Jay College and others, joined in a press conference on the steps of City Hall. Six rousing speeches about ending the war in Iraq, not attacking Iran and Driving Out the Bush regime, along with several different pledges to resist an attack on Iran, including World Can't Wait's new Pledge of Resistance to a war on Iran (which over 1,000 people have already taken) where given in the presence of Columbia University TV and WBAI Pacifica Radio. Enlarged photos of one of the speaker’s family in Iran were used to demonstrate the human aspect of what is at risk if Iran were attacked. WBAI aired part of the conference on the radio later in the day.

Then in a joint effort with Students for Democratic Society, Code Pink and the Iraq Moratorium, over 100, and at times 150, converged at Union Square and then proceeded on a “resistance tour to midtown office of global criminals & enablers of the Bush regime.” The crowd was overwhelmingly youth and students. A sizable and spirited contingent from John Jay College led the way, along with a group from Fashion Industries High School, and students from Hunter College, Columbia University, New School, NYU, PACE and Queens College. We marched to the offices of “L-3 Titan”, where orange-jumped suited protesters knelled down in the entrance of this notorious “private contractor” similar to Blackwater operating in Iraq, then to Bechtel Corporation, a major military contractor in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then to the Times Square Military Recruitment Center.

In the days and weeks leading up to the 16th, hundreds of people, mainly students at John Jay, Columbia University, and Hunter College took the Iran Quiz: Who Is the Real Nuclear Threat?, pointed to and documenting the extent to which people have been systematically lied to concerning basic facts about what is happening in the Middle East.

This "orange alert" was nation-wide and reports of actions around the country are being posted at worldcantwait.org.
[all photos courtesy ThomasGood / Next Left Notes]

November 16: Orange ALERT to PREVENT Bush Bombing Iran

2007-11-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

The moves towards a U.S. attack on Iran should be alarming every peace and justice loving person on the planet.
Just a couple of recent examples: Bush invokes “World War 3.” Cheney is reported to be cooking up plans for Israel to attack Iran , and then for the U.S. to dive into the war when Iran counter-attacks. The massive concentration of U.S. naval power off the coast of Iran puts the U.S. in position to attack at any time. Unfortunately, this is just a small part of the evidence of preparations for an attack that is extensive and growing.

Where are the voices of opposition and resistance to this? Where the voices of people determined to PREVENT a new war beginning in Iran, which could quickly engulf the whole Middle East and beyond? Many people are closing their eyes to this threat, are in a state of paralysis and/or denial. Meanwhile the Bush regime, the leaders of the Democratic Party and the major media are all pumping out and repeating blatant lies to keep people in the dark about what is really going on there.

We need to change this situation and fast! “We” is all of us, coming together, bringing together our anger, our creativity, our determination to act. Here are some plans and proposals:
Friday, November 16th – “ORANGE ALERT” – PREVENT Bush Bombing Iran!
On November 16th, and on campuses on the days leading up to it, there will be actions declaring: No Attack on Iran! Bush & Cheney Out Now! These actions are being planned in unity with Iraq Moratorium nationwide.

Plans in New York:
1:00 PM on the steps of City Hall, Press conference and speak-out with prominent voices will be publicly pledging resistance to an attack on Iran (details to be announced).

3:00 PM Union Square, rally with World Can’t Wait, Students for Democratic Society and many others (complete list to be announced).
This will be followed by a resistance tour to the mid-town offices of global criminals, benefactors and enablers whose hands are bloody from the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and endanger far more with a war on Iran.
There are many nominees for tour stops: the Times Square recruitment center, Fox news, the NY Times, Hillary Clinton's office, and various military contractors. Details will be announced at the rally.
People will be carrying photos of ordinary Iranians, young people, families, children – those facing death unless we PREVENT an attack on Iran.

Take/give the IRAN QUIZ in classes, dorms and town squares, and tabulate the results!
On campuses, November 13, 14, and 15, there will be speak outs and thousands will be taking the “Iran Quiz”. These will speak to important questions holding people back:
Many people ARE very concerned about the spread of nuclear weapons and worry of the real danger that they will get used. But Bush & Company are feeding people a massive, daily dose of lies and misinformation, so that people's just concerns are being manipulated and misdirected into supporting the very forces who are the greatest danger here. The extent of this is powerfully shown when lots of people take the WCW IRAN QUIZ. The questions on the quiz are very basic, elementary questions, that anyone ought to be able to answer. Yet most people who have taken the quiz in the U.S., under the barrage of misinformation from the Bush regime, Congress and their enablers and press agents in the mass media -- can't correctly answer all of them. Download the quiz in a form for passing out in classes.

What does it mean when you learn that you have been lied to and your concerns manipulated? Students shouldn’t “take our word” on this, in addition to the Quiz we’ll provide not only an answer sheet, but documentation. [http://worldcantwait.net/materials/iran_quiz/IranQuiz-AnswersSources.doc] Taking and “grading” this quiz will document how much people are being lied to and manipulated. [Please send us the results so that we can document them nationally. nyc@worldcantwait.org ] It will be a real “eye opener” and makes many angry and needing/wanting to act. The campuses need to be alive this coming week with discussions, debate and planning for mobilizing to PREVENT the next war, and to drive out the criminals responsible for such massive war crimes.

Wear Orange Everywhere!
Why an “Orange” alert? Because launching yet a third unjust and criminal war is part of the larger “package” of Bush crimes. Orange is the color that those they torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib must wear. Wear orange everywhere to declare that torture, that “waterboarding” must stop, that the wars must end, that all the crimes of Bush & Cheney must stop, that these war criminals need to be impeached and driven from office.

Check http://nyc.worldcantwait.org/ for updates and more details between now and November 16th.
Contact us to share your plans, to invite a speaker to come to your school, class, or community center, to give the Iran Quiz and speak about the danger of war against Iran.

Come to House Party on Monday, Nov. 12th with Cristina Page and Debra Sweet!

2007-11-08T00:36:00.000-05:00

Come to an empowering evening with Cristina Page and Debra Sweet at Upper West Side supporter of World Can't Waith. Suggested donation $100, refreshments provided.

Debra Sweet will speak about the danger of an attack on Iran, and The World Can't Wait's plans to prevent such an attack. Cristina Page will give a presentation on the Bush Regime's assault on reproductive rights.

Cristina Page, author and spokesperson for birthcontrolwatch.org will give a presentation on the Bush Regime's assualt on women's reproductive rights.

If you are interested in coming email to: nycmle@yahoo.com or nyc@worldcantwait.org
or call 347-678-5905.

If you cannot attend please consider making a donation at nyc.worldcantwait.org

*Cristina Page is the author of "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War On Sex", and a spokesperson for birthcontrolwatch.org. Page is also a consultant for several national pro-choice groups, and her policy proposals have been adopted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New Jersey State Legislature.
* Page has worked in the editorial departments of Glamour and Ms. magazines, ran a gubernatorial campaign in New York, and edited The Smart Girl's Guide to College. Her op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, Newsday, Guardian UK, Tampa Tribune, Baltimore Sun, the Huffington Post, and TomPaine.com

Jazz for Peace benefit for WCW on Monday, Nov. 12th at Bowery Poetry

2007-11-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

Please invite friends to these events benefiting The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime!
MONDAY NOVEMBER 12th 8pm to 10pm:
The Russell Branca Quintet plays "THE MUSIC OF WAYNE SHORTER" with Russell Branca-bass, Ada Rovatti - sax, Tom Beckham - vibes, Heather Bennett - piano, Ken Salters - drums, This will be a very special program saluting one of the all time great saxophonist/composers in jazz. One of the last "living legends".

Wayne Shorter

MONDAY DECEMBER 17th. from 8pm to 10pm.
RADAM SCHWARTZ & “CONSPIRACY FOR POSITIVITY” with Radam Schwartz – organ, James Gibbs III - trumpet, Anthony Ware – alto sax, Misha Fatkiev – guitar, Joe Brown Jr. – drums With his Hammond B3 organ, Arabesque Records recording artist Radam Schwartz energizes every room he plays with the joyous groove of hard driving modern jazz. "Jazz for Peace" is organized by misician Russell Branca (of theResistance Cinema). It is held at the Bowery Poetry Club where it gives a
performance space to jazz musicians and benefits various progressive
organizations. For Monday, November 12th, WORLD CAN'T WAIT, is one of the
four beneficiaries. Tickets cost $8 each. WCW receives $4 for each
ticket we sell. The ticket can then be used on either November 12th or
for a different performance on December 17th.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 12th 8pm to 10pm:
The Russell Branca Quintet plays "THE MUSIC OF WAYNE SHORTER" with
Russell Branca-bass, Ada Rovatti - sax, Tom Beckham - vibes, Heather
Bennett - piano, Ken Salters - drums, This will be a very special program
saluting one of the all time great saxophonist/composers in jazz. One of
the last "living legends".
You can reserve your tickets by emailing http://us.f531.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=stephanie@worldcantwait.org (I
will hold the tickets for you, upon receipt of payment) at the door.
This is the kind of event that appeals to a sector of the population that
may not necessarily by interested in other kinds of events. Please ask
your neighbors, coworkers, family and friends. And, get back to me ASAP
at http://us.f531.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=stephanie@worldcantwait.org.

Have you booked your WCW house party?

2007-10-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

What can YOU do to end this regime of torture, war, brutality and greed? Well, have you set the date for your house party yet? It couldn't be easier. Click here for all the resources you need to bring family, friends, people you work with, neighbors together to make a difference.

October 27: Iraq--Get Out! Iran--Stay Out! Bush/Cheney--Drive Out!

2007-10-26T18:41:00.001-04:00

October 27: Iraq--Get Out! Iran--Stay Out! Bush/Cheney--Drive Out!
OCTOBER 27, A CALL TO ACTION:
NO ATTACK ON IRAN ! BUSH AND CHENEY OUT NOW!
Tomorrow, Saturday October 27, hundreds of thousands will gather in New York and other cities in regional demonstrations called by the anti-war movement. These protests will bring people together to denounce this illegal and illegitimate war and occupation of Iraq, call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and bring forward this message to the people: NO ATTACK ON IRAN !BUSH AND CHENEY OUT NOW!

We as people living in the United States must act with determination, joining with and giving support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped. Join the orange contingent in tomorrow's march to Foley Square. Declare It Now! By wearing ORANGE-- the color of resistance and solidarity with those who are suffering at the hands of torturers in Guantanamo and in secret prisons around the world--we are declaring to the world that we are determined to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
The organizers of the San Francisco march, including World Can’t Wait, are asking everyone to “die-in” along the march. This die-in will represent all those that have suffered under the terror of U.S. forces across the Middle East.
We can’t be silent in the face of this terror. We can’t rely on politics as usual to meet the enormity of this horror. We must and can rely on the millions in this country that hate the Bush program to DECLARE IT NOW! WEAR ORANGE!
Meet at 11:00 am 20th Street east of Broadway . We also need volunteers to:
1) Show up one hour early -- at 10am -- at 20th Street east of Broadway, to get out tons of our brand new placards in the crowd reading: "Iraq: Get Out! / Iran: Stay Out!/ Bush and Cheney: Drive Out!"
2) Be at nearby subway stations at 11am to distribute placards to folks getting off the trains. We need teams of people who can commit to being at the "6" train stop at 23rd and Park Avenue South, and the "N" / "R" train stop at he 23rd and Broadway.
3) Staff the World Can’t Wait table at the end of the march in Foley Square.

Need two people in suits (we will provide the Bush and Cheney masks) for street theater.

Mark your calendars: Village Halloween Parade - October 31

2007-10-26T18:41:00.000-04:00

Village Halloween Parade
What Could Be Scarier than Where Bush/Cheney is Taking Us? MARK your calendarfor the Village Halloween Parade Wednesday October 31 Spring Street & 6 th 5:30 pm Join the Orange Jumpsuit Contingent to march with the ARREST BUSH parade.

Confront the Horowitz Fascists: RESIST “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week”

2007-10-14T20:32:00.000-04:00

David Horowitz and his army of Campus Republicans are launching "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" October 22-26 on hundreds of campuses across the country. They are ominously calling this "the biggest conservative campus protest ever."
Invoking ‘60’s themes like "free speech" and combating the "oppression of women in Islam" as a cover, they plan to harass Muslim Student Associations and Women’s Studies Departments, and silence anyone that questions the Bush regime’s official narrative, including even those concerned about global warming!
Given the Bush regime’s escalating threats toward Iran, the danger of a complicit campus environment cannot be underestimated. The College Republicans can claim to be the victim of the "academic left," but people like them run this country and dominate the world. They are the ones holding "catch an illegal immigrant day" at the same time as the Bush regime’s ICE raids are ripping apart immigrant families. This is not just a question of campus politics and a few loud mouth bigots. If we ignore them, they will NOT go away. They have their sights set on the last remaining bastions of critical thinking with the aim of transforming all of society. If they can create an atmosphere at these colleges where it is okay to be openly racist and reactionary, where progressive faculty are intimidated by ridiculous claims of "left-wing academic dictatorship," and radical dissenting ideas are ruled beyond the pale and off the table…then they have won, not only at the universities, but in their efforts to remake the social fabric of this country in a fascist way.
On the other hand, if we can politically confront these college Republicans and their "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," expose their real agenda, raise awareness of the growing danger of U.S. fascism and the real fascist direction that the Bush regime has been taking this country in—the endless war, the torture, the Patriot Act, the unlimited domestic spying, and the whole police state infrastructure, the Christian Fundamentalism that is undermining women’s rights, gay peoples rights, science, and rational thought—and if we can bring forward a radical student movement that refuses to choose between Islamic Fundamentalism and the Bush Regime’s Christian Fascist war on the world…then we can turn Horowitz’s plan upside down.
This week will either strengthen their side or strengthen OUR side.
By bringing forward a determined and uncomprimising student movement on campuses October 22-26th we can paralyze Horowitz' ability to further target and blacklist professors and be a major part of transforming campuses into centers of intellectual ferment, activism, and organized resistance that are so desperately needed at times like these.

Join us in Protests and Forums

Wear the Color Orange, the color of torture victims in Guantanamo and turn it into a color of mass opposition.

Come to discussion of what this "Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week" is all about and help forge NYC plans to resist:
October 18th, 6:30 PM at MLK Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street (near 8th Avenue), 7th floor.

The Horowitz fascists have not fully revealed the details of their plans. As their plans become known, and various plans to resist are developed, we will post updates on this web site with details.

Coming soon: World Can't Wait plans for mobilization for NYC march against the war on October 27

2007-10-14T20:19:00.000-04:00

Plans around mobilization for the NYC anti-war marches on October 27th will be posted soon.

Resistance in the Streets While Bush Spoke at the UN

2007-09-26T22:19:00.000-04:00

While Bush was speaking at the UN on Tuesday, deriding what he considers the “brutal regimes” of the world (while his that has made torture legal, invaded and occupied two countries with one million people dead, and is making plans to attack a third country), about one thousand people were outside the UN in protest. A sea of orange filled the plaza, with a contingent marching in wearing the orange jumpsuits and hoods that Guantanamo detainees are forced to wear everyday, as well as a plethora of orange bandanas, flags, clothes, etc. From the stage, speakers called attention to the growing threat of Bush launching a war on Iran and the urgent need for this to be stopped by massive resistance. The crowd consisted of a high number of youth and students from high schools and colleges in NYC who had (correctly) decided that showing the people of the world that we oppose this war criminal was more important than attending class.

The protest was organized by The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime together with War Resisters League, Code-Pink, Granny Peace Brigade, Students for Democratic Society, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas, Movement for a Democratic Society-NYC.

The authorities clearly did not like this showing of resistance, cutting off the sound permit an hour early. When a dozen people sat down on a sidewalk just over the police barricade in an act of civil disobedience, police arrested them.

They also arrested three who have been active with World Can't Wait who weren’t part of the civil disobedience but protested the arrests and they were held overnight and have been slapped with more serious charges. The defense of these three will the focus of future postings.

After the rally, hundreds of people took off down the sidewalk for an un-permitted march through Manhattan. Flanked by a troop of police on motorcycle, on foot, and in vans, there was a spirit of defiance to this march. Marching all the way from the UN to Washington Square Park (about 45 blocks!), the busy streets of Manhattan were greeted by chants of “This country is too quiet / I want to hear you scream: / The world can’t wait – drive out the bush regime”, “Taser this: Fuck Bush”, and “Come out, resist, throw up your fist”. While the march never quite made it out into the streets (and maybe had more than hundreds come out, it could have), it did certainly bring a spirit of resistance to the streets of NYC that is much needed. A good time was had by all.

Make a generous donation - see box on left of screen.

It cost thousands of dollars to make this powerful action happen and most of it still needs to be raised to pay the bills. Please give generously.

Tuesday, September 25 - Take to the streets when criminal Bush comes to the UN!

2007-09-22T18:18:00.000-04:00

All Out Mobilization for powerful protest actions on September 25 when Bush speaks at the UN!

When Bush speaks at the United Nations Tuesday, to tell the world the United States is a permanent presence in the Middle East and to drum up support for attacking Iran, there must be a powerful and defiant resistance out in the streets that makes clear our intent to stop the whole disastrous course Bush is taking the world.

Converge at the UN beginning at 8:30 am for a whole morning of protests.

Make sure to WEAR ORANGE to the protests, and cover NYC in orange that day to show a sea of visible opposition to Bush and everything he represents.

Join with World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime, the War Resisters League, Code-Pink, Granny Peace Brigade, student organizations including Columbia Coalition Against the War and Students for Democratic Society, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas, Movement for a Democratic Society-NYC, National Lawyers Guild - NYC chapter, Center for Constitutional Rights, Troops Out Now Coalition, Stop War on Iran Committee and many more in a broad range of bold and determined actions (more below) including:

Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street & 1st Avenue
Speakers will include Cindy Sheehan and Ret. Col. Ann Wright

And come that evening at Judson Memorial Church, for an
Emergency Forum: Threat of U.S. Attack on Iran & Our Responsibility to Stop It
with Chris Hedges, Cindy Sheehan, and Sunsara Taylor. (more info below)

Commit to wear Orange!
The color orange means that we stand against torture, tyranny and war crimes. Wear it to the rally. Wear it every day. Wear an orange ribbon or button or armband.Ask your friends and neighbors to express their views: "Declare It Now--Wear Orange!" Spread the word!
Join an orange jumpsuit contingent that will act throughout the day on the 25th. E-mail your commitment to wear a jumpsuit to orangejumpsuits@worldcantwait.org.
Take orange to the streets on the 25th!
Hang orange flags from your windows.
Wrap the streets in orange.
Ask your favorite stores to put orange in their windows, including the orange poster for the 25th actions.

Join in Outreach plans:
The word needs to get out all over, with a "sea of orange".
Many are making plans, including:
Sunday, 1:00 Meet at Washington Square Park, wear Orange, for a hole afternoon of spreading orange/mobiling for action on the 25th around the area.
Churches everywhere should be having an "orange Sunday", contact us to join in making it happen.
Schools: Students are organizing at many campuses around the area, including Hunter, John Jay, Columbia. High school students need to be mobilized. Contact us to join with others at your school. Or meet at 11:00 am in front of Hunter West building, 68th and Lexington on Monday for a day of mobilization at that campus.

Join phone banking team!
We have the numbers of hundreds of interested people to call and enlist in various ways for the 25th and beyond. Contact us to join a phone banking crew.

Donate generously! Thousands of dollars is urgently needed:
For sound and stage, tens of thousands of flyers, and much more.
Donate on-line with PayPal or credit card (see left side of this page).

Pick up quantities of the flyer and miniposter and get them out everywhere!
Currently available at:
Revolution Books, 9 West 19th Street from noon to 7 PM
Office of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department, John Jay College, 59th & 10th Avenue, 9 am to 5 PM.
If you can arrange other pickup locations, please contact us and we will include them here.
Or...

Download and distribute this flyer, pictured above widely!
English edition 2 copies per page, with back on Wear Orange: http://chapters.worldcantwait.org/nyc/BushUNSept25.pdf
Spanish edition 2 per page leaflet with back on Wear Orange:
http://chapters.worldcantwait.org/nyc/BushUNSept25(2topage)spanish.pdf English edition of 8 1/2 x 11 miniposter:
http://chapters.worldcantwait.org/nyc/BushUNSept25(2topage).pdf
Spanish edition 8 1/2" x 11 miniposter: http://chapters.worldcantwait.org/nyc/BushUNSept25spanish.pdf Student and special group organizing materials for special "feeder marches" and "feeder gathering points", we have version of the flyers and posters with an empty box at the bottom to insert your campus or your group's gathering point, etc. for the march. http://chapters.worldcantwait.org/nyc/BushUNSept25(students).pdf
NYC World Can’t Wait will be posting updates and further information here on plans and protests as they are developed. Keep checking this web site.

Banned In NYC!

2007-09-22T15:59:00.001-04:00

“A belligerent President Bush comes to the United Nations to impress upon the world that the U.S. is in the Middle East to stay, that the war on terror will be endless, and to threaten a murderous war on Iran.”

This message is being censored. We’re calling on you to stand up to suppression of political dissent.

On Thursday Metro newspaper in NYC refused to run an ad headlined “Who is the Real Nuclear Threat” from the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush regime in its September 21 issue. The reason given by the publisher was that the content was “too inflammatory” for the prominent back page. On Friday, a second ad “One Million Dead in Iraq” was first rejected for placement on the September 25 back page explicitly because of its content. Then they offered placement on an inside page at a price almost four times higher than what was originally agreed upon.

This move by Metro is undoubtedly related to the “watch what you say” atmosphere created by the White House. Also on Thursday, George Bush said to the White House press, “I thought the [MoveOn] ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org -- or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military. That was a sorry deal.”
Hours after Bush’s remarks , the Senate passed a resolution condemning the ad in The New York Times by MoveOn titled “General Betray-Us” (the ad predicted Petraeus would give the White House version in reporting on the troop surge in Iraq). Republican senators are threatening an investigation of The New York Times policy of offering discounts for stand-by advocacy ads.
This Senate condemned MoveOn for a paid ad which dissents from the ongoing war, but won’t censure George Bush, a proven liar, for repeatedly using falsified intelligence to justify the war on Iraq. Now there is another wave of White House propaganda geared to justifying a war on Iran. The major media repeated their lies about Iraq for years. And now they’re doing it all over again on Iran.

We do not know if the Metro publisher opposes in principle the content of these ads, or is reacting with cowardice to defending the principle of freedom of expression. We don’t know, but it doesn’t matter, ultimately, because the effect is the same. One of the few avenues to get the truth into the major media – buying advocacy ads—will be in effect closed down if publishers are afraid to sell space. The White House will be the strong-arm arbiter of what is acceptable in terms of political criticism.

What will the consequences be if publishers and political opinion makers back down on something so fundamental to protecting dissent in society…not to mention stopping the monstrous crimes that are being done by this government in our name? Where is society going if people do what they’re told and allow this?

Dan Rather raised the alarm this week about the danger to news reporting when he announced a lawsuit against CBS for firing him over his story about Bush’s phony military reserve career. He said, “You can't have freedom of the press if you're going to have large, big corporations and big government intruding and intimidating in newsrooms. The chilling effect on investigative reporting is going to be something we don't want to see."

World Can’t Wait has bought many ads in The New York Times, USA Today, and in local weeklies, including NY Metro, aimed at reaching the people who want stop what the Bush regime is doing. This ad focuses on making such opposition visible by organizing millions of people to declare it by wearing orange. We are fighting for space in the public sphere, and all our efforts indicate that there’s the basis to win this battle for ad space, including raising the necessary money. Another indication is the fact that MoveOn raised half a million dollars in one day from people who told them “don’t back down!”

Here is a message for you to send the publisher of The Metro :
We know you are feeling the chill of the threat to publishers because of the MoveOn ad.
1) If your reason for refusing to run the World Can’t Wait ad is just monetary, then shame on you.
2) If you have political objections to the content, we would like to know them.
3) If you are worried about the chill Bush is trying to send through the advertising world, and you want to stand up to it, there are thousands of us ready to support you.
Call the Metro Publisher Daniel Magnus 212-952-1500 to ask that they publish on Tuesday 9/25.

You can reach World Can’t Wait at 866 973 4463.

And, donate generously (see column to left on screen) to get these ads published in more newspaper.

Emergency Forum: Threat of U.S. Attack on Iran & Our Responsibility to Stop It

2007-09-21T14:59:00.000-04:00

Presentation by Chris Hedges

Panel discussion with Chris Hedges, Cindy Sheehan and Sunsara Taylor
September 25th, 7:30 PM

Judson Memorial Church

55 washington Square South
(donation requested at door)

Where and when to Meet Sept 25 for "Arrest Bush!" Coffin Feeder Marches

2007-09-20T00:35:00.000-04:00

Feeder lists get revised. Please keep checking for changes, corrections or newly approved add'l contact info. All below are Tuesday morning sidewalk coffin processions, needing no parade or sound permits, either marching to the Dag Hammarskjold protest by 9:30 or ending in a subway procession to the protest. Organizers ask we arrive ten minutes early to assemble coffins or assign procession roles. Carry extra water.

125th & St. Nicholas Ave.
7:30 or 7:45 a.m. Please check back about time. Meeting above A/D train station, then processing across 125th then south on Lexington or by train.

96th St. & Broadway
7:00 a.m., processing south on Broadway, pausing at 72nd & Broadway, 66th & Broadway, 59th & Broadway, then turning east onto 57th St. Contact: Ann Shirazi 917 670 1787

E. 68th & Lexington - Hunter College
Departing 8:00, in front of Hunter West Building.
To get to this location, take the 6 Train to 68th Street. [SW corner]
CUNY - Hunter Students for a Democratic Society
Contact: Freddy Bastone - WhiteRiotFred@aol.com
http://studentsforademocraticsociety.org/mailman/listinfo/sdsnyc_student...

Penn Station
Assemble by 7:30 a.m. at Penn Station LIRR ticket booth (under 8th Ave. near 33rd St.) Contact: Thomas Brinson 631 889 0203

Chelsea
Leaving promptly 8:30 a.m. from 137 W. 19th St. between 6th & 7th Aves (fourth floor buzzer). Please arrive early. Contact: Merry Conway 212.206.7467

West Village
Assemble by 7:30 a.m.: West 4th St. & Christopher St. at
Contact: Jenny Heinz 917 697 7602

Union Square
Assemble 7:45 a.m.: 14th St. & Broadway (NE corner) outside the small park across from Virgin Megastore 52 East 14th Street, i.e., across Broadway from the east edge of Union Sq. South Plaza steps. Contact: Joseph 646-467-4939.

Times Square 8:00 a.m. at recruiting station island betw. Broadway, 7th Avenue, 43rd St. & 44th St.
Contact: WRL 718-768-7306 or Donna 212 366 9279

Rockefeller Center Assemble 8:15 a.m. Fifth Ave. 49th St. & 50th St.
Contact: Granny Peace Brigade, Joanwile263@ aol.com, 917-846-0617

Staten Island Ferry Terminal, ferry arriving 7:30 a.m. with Cindy Sheehan; meet on sidewalk outside Whitehall St. Terminal. Contacts: Elaine B. 917.520.0767; Tom G. 347.524.5631.

Brooklyn Bridge walking all the way then coffin procession
6:30 a.m. Assemble at Tillary St & Adams St. a.k.a. Brooklyn Bridge Blvd. Contacts: Laurie Arbeiter 917.615. 6115; Joan Pleume 718.855.2581

Trains: A, C to High St. (exit Manhattan end of platform); #2, 3 to Clark St.-Brooklyn Heights; #4, 5 to Borough Hall; F to Jay St.-Borough Hall or take G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn & walk 6 blocks to meeting point. It's the bike/chair ramp where traffic enters bridge in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Bridge then subway (Bklyn For Peace, formerly Brooklyn Parents for Peace)
Assemble 7:30 a.m. on Tillary St. between Cadman Plaza West & Cadman Plaza East for coffin procession over bridge to subway. Contact: David 201 259 6788

Get on the bus! Declare it Now - Drive Out the Bush Regime - Spread "Orange Resistance" at Troops Out Now September 29 March

2007-09-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

Join World Can't Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime
At the September 29th March on Washington to:

STOP THE WAR at home & abroad!
Troops Out Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes

FLASH: As of Friday, Sept. 28th, we no longer have any tickets available.

Busses are full!

DECLARE IT NOW: WEAR ORANGE!

2007-09-16T23:59:00.000-04:00

Do you want to see the Bush regime impeached and driven out?
DECLARE IT NOW: WEAR ORANGE!
The World Can’t Wait!
Drive Out the Bush Regime!

The urgent color of orange – the color that has been assigned to those detained and tortured with no due process in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib – must become the color of a gathering sentiment to drive Bush and Cheney from offi ce and reverse the whole direction they’ve taken this country.

The world demands that a determined and massive movement arise that cries out “enough” - of unjust wars and threats of further wars, of torture and endless imprisonment, of an encroaching police state with pervasive and permanent government spying.

Wearing orange is part of seizing the moral high ground and showing our collective determination to bring these crimes to a halt NOW! Declaring it now through a groundswell of people spreading orange everywhere – amplifi ed by the voices of prominent people and artists
wearing and promoting orange on TV, radio, and on stage at concerts – can break people out of this conundrum where millions are furious but still numbed inactive by the complicity of the loyal Democratic Party opposition.

From the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime:
“We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and the world. We need more than fi ghting Bush’s outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where
the Bush regime’s program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history.” (go to www.worldcantwait.org for full
text and to join the tens of thousands who have signed this Call).

Orange means we’re are against torture, tyranny and war crimes!
Wear Orange and spread it!

Two years after Katrina: August 31st, 5:30 PM Union Square

2007-08-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

Two years after Katrina -- Neither forgive nor forget the continuing crimes of the Bush regime!
Declare It Now - Wear Orange: Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Two years - since the names Katrina and Lower Ninth Ward seared into the world’s vocabulary, along with Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Falluja, as one of the monstrous crimes of the Bush Regime.
Two years - since the world watched in horror as bodies fl oated in the streets of New Orleans.
Two years – since the Bush Regime allowed tens of thousands of people – overwhelmingly Black people – to suffer, starve, dehydrate and die in the unbearable heat and humidity and toxic sludge of a fl ooded city, and people trying to escape were turned around at gunpoint by racist police at the Gretna city line.
Two years – since tens of thousands of people were packed into the Superdome and Convention Center of New Orleans, in horrifi c, murderous conditions that recalled the enslavement that had originally brought African people to the “new world”.
Two years - since tens of thousands of Black people were scattered throughout the country, separated from their families.
Two years – tourist sections and a football stadium have now been restored while public housing is shuttered and surrounded with barbed wire, returning people evicted by SWAT teams, and the public hospital remains closed, never to reopen.
TWO YEARS TOO LONG – the verdict is in; the Bush Regime is guilty, guilty, guilty, of towering crimes against humanity. (see Bush Crimes Commission Report and DVD, available from World Can’t Wait).
One more day of this regime is too long. Now is the time for people everywhere to act with a defi ance, rage and determination that is as radical as the times demand, fully determined to wrest the fate of our planet and its people from the likes of Bush and Cheney, determined not just to call them out for their crimes but to put an end to them.
The urgent color of orange -- the color that has been assigned to those detained and tortured with no due process in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib-- must become the color of a gathering sentiment to drive out the Bush regime and reverse its program.
As people gather to mark the two years that have gone by since Katrina, the color orange needs to burst out in neighborhoods, workplaces, on campuses.
The monstrous crimes committed against the people of New Orleans and the Louisiana/Mississippi Gulf Coast of Katrina by Bush and his crew can never be forgiven. They
must be driven out.
Spreading orange everywhere is a vital way of breaking the paralyzing choke hold the tag team partnership of Bush/Cheney and the Democratic Party leadership has put on the people.
By impeachment, resignation or indictment, this regime must be held accountable for its crimes and driven out!
August 31st, 5:30 PM Union Square
Wear orange, bring your friends, pick up lots of orange bandanas, ribbons, buttons, T-shirts and more. Rally, reports fromNew Orleans, speak outs, New Orleans Jazz Funeral march, bring instruments, and more.

World Can’t Wait – Movie showing & discussion: Hitler: The Rise of Evil

2007-08-21T09:51:00.000-04:00

Thursday, August 23rd at 6:00 pm
MLK Labor Center/1199, 310 West 43rd St, 7th Floor

With the government sanctioning of torture, massive wire-taps, a recent “Executive Order” to declare martial law when they deem it necessary, many people are rightly concerned and debating the issue of fascism in America. As the World Can’t Wait Call points out:

“People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.”

Much can be learned from historical experience. In that spirit, instead of our regular organizing meeting, this week NYC World Can’t Wait will be showing and discussing the second part of Hitler: The Rise of Evil. The movie opens with a quote from Edmond Burke, which provides a theme for the whole series: “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”

Hitler: The Rise of Evil was originally aired in the U.S. as a CBC two-part mini-series in 2003. However, Ed Gernon, the longtime head of the movie and miniseries division of the Canadian-based production company that produced the mini-series for CBS, was fired after an interview with him in TV Guide reported:

"’It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole world into war. I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now,’ Gernon said. Gernon tells the upcoming TV Guide that he, [actress Julianna] Margulies and director Christian Duguay believe it's a good idea to look at the Bush White House through the prism of . . . Germany's genocidal psychopath."

Despite being a powerful production with a star-studded cast, including Robert Carlyle as Hitler, Julianna Margules, Liev Schreiber, Mathew Modine and Peter O’toole, since 2003 Hitler: The Rise of Evil has not been available in the U.S. – the copy presented Thursday by World Can’t Wait was obtained from Canada.

Due to the length of the mini-series, and our desire to have some discussion afterwards, we are only going to be showing the second part of the mini-series, and not the part on Hitler’s childhood and early development, to focus on the parts showing his rise to power. We encourage people to come and see the movie, and join discussion afterwards. The whole DVD will be available for “house party” showings in people’s homes, community centers, churches and schools. Contact us.

See you Thursday!

Photos from Saturday's Washington Hgts anti-war march

2007-08-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos from the march.

Declare It Now: Wear Orange! Drive Out the Bush Regime!

2007-07-20T16:55:00.000-04:00

The urgent color of orange -- the color that has been assigned to those detained and tortured with no due process -- must become the color of a gathering sentiment to end the Bush regime and reverse its program.
Think of the millions of people in this country who are deeply distressed over the direction in which the Bush regime is dragging the country - and the world…
All the people who are outraged over the way in which this regime is still so arrogantly seeking to bludgeon into submission people in the Middle East, and throughout the world, while trampling on the rights of the people in the U.S. itself...
All the people who care about the future of humanity and the planet we live on, and who recognize the many ways in which this is increasingly in peril…
All the people who are stirred with a profound restlessness by these feelings but are held back by the fear that they are alone and powerless; or who say that they wish something could be done to stop and reverse this whole disastrous course, but nothing will make a difference; or who hope that somehow the Democrats will do something to change this, when everyday it becomes more clear that they will not.
If the Bush program is not massively repudiated through impeachment, then everything he has set into motion will continue under the next president. If you want the torture, the detentions and secret prisons, NSA spying on the public to stop; If you are worried about the future of habeas corpus and civil rights, and refuse to accept the creeping obliteration of secular society, the rights of women, science, reason and the freedom to dissent, then it’s time to stand up and Declare It Now. By impeachment, resignation or indictment, this regime must be held accountable for the crimes they have committed. They must be driven from power!
What if out of this deep reservoir of people, there was a way to break people out of this conundrum where millions are furious but still paralyzed, a way to make visible what is objectively already there – but frustrated and diffuse without a vehicle that really measures up the immensity of the challenge?
Join in a campaign to Declare It Now: Wear Orange that can give people the heart, courage and sense of collective strength to rouse themselves and others as a powerful counter-force. This counter-force can alter the political atmosphere from one of paralysis and despair into one of massive mobilization and of people acting independently to change all this. A groundswell of orange that can turn into a groundswell that rises up from below and has the potential of sweeping Bush from office before his term is up.
Declare It Now: Wear Orange! Wear orange everywhere you go and beginning
this Friday, and every Friday thereafter, join up with others in a mass way, gatherings of people wearing orange leafleting, doing street theater, holding up posters of the Bush regime’s crimes swell in size in a regular places each week.
Orange Fridays will help make visible a movement of the millions to force Bush and Cheney from office, repudiate the Bush regime’s program, and reverse the direction of this country.
Nationwide launching of “Orange Fridays”: July 27th
In NYC, converge at: Union Square, 5:00 PM

Converge at Union Square, 5pm. Hear Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Victor Toro, Rev. Billy, Elaine Brower, Carlos Arredondo, Jonathan Tasini and local elected officials indict the Bush Regime, and explain why they are part of a movement to "Declare It Now" and wear orange to show their resistance to the Bush Regime.

Listen to music, join a marching band to bring more people in and help cover Union Square with the urgent color of orange.

BE THERE! WEAR ORANGE! DECLARE IT NOW!

Help make it happen!

2007-06-29T20:12:00.000-04:00

There are three broad areas of work to do this week: Outreach, fundraising, and media

Outreach:
Flyering (with orange bandanas, ribbons, and contact sheets) for Friday’s event
Visiting store owners near Union Square about selling orange bandanas/displaying posters for the event.
Emailing or telephoning the leaders of organizations urging them to post this event on their listservs and, of course, to attend themselves.
Help design an eye-catching banner for Friday's event.
Fundraising:
Bandanas, flyers, ribbons, and other materials all cost money!
We want to print a powerful ad in the West Side Spirit, Our Town, Downtown, The Westsider, and Chelsea Clinton News:

The price for the ad to appear in all five papers is $2500--help make it possible for this Thursday's printing! Donate online through paypal at nyc.worldcantwait.org (link at bottom of email). Or donate by checkend checks payable to NYC-World Can't Wait to: NYC World Can't Wait, 305 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165.
We also need people who are able to call and/or email potential donors this week. If you have never done this before, don’t worry—it’s easy and we will show you the ropes!
Finally, we need volunteers to research the cost of various materials.
Media:
We need volunteers to help with contacting local print, radio, and television media about covering Friday’s event. In the case of radio, we need to get Public Service Annoucements on the air.
We are of course open also to other ideas you have for how to help make Friday a success. Please email nyc@worldcantwait.org or call 347-678-5905 to let us know how and when you could help this week.

Outreach Plans -

2007-05-23T20:24:00.000-04:00

Thousands saw the World Can't Wait ad in Friday New York Times www.worldcantwait.org ! Between now and June 25th, tens of thousands more need to hear about the Town meeting, get flyers and tickets! Join us.

Call 347-678-5905 to hook up, please RSVP. (We need to know ahead of time of how many people to expect at each place to cover as many of these as possible, and to insure that sufficient flyers are available.)

You can pick up flyers are available for pickup at: Westsider Rare & Used Books on Broadway between 80th & 81st (across from Zabars); at Revolution Books (9 West 19th Street) or from the WCW National Office.

Sunday: June 24th

Gay Pride March. We aim to have a World Can’t Wait contingent in the march! Meet at 54th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue at 12:30. (Allow extra time to get there due to crowds.) Bring banners and signs (as many as possible in orange) along with the new orange bandanas, and LOTS of flyers for Monday night. We would like to have at least 15 people, to have a presence in the parade and have a leafleting team on each side getting out flyers to people on the side. March will go to Greenwich Village.

We also encourage people to take flyers to churches. Suggestions are: Riverside Church; St. Paul and St. Andrew, 86th St. & West Side Avenue; St. Mary’s Church, 126th St., one block east of Broadway; Community Church, 35th St. & Park Avenue; Judson Church, Washington Square South; West Park Presbyterian, 86th & Amsterdam; Unitarian Church, 79th & CWP, Metropolitan Community Church, 34th Street, between 9th &10th Avenues

In front of Cort Theater, of performances of “Radio Golf”, play by August Wilson. 138 W. 48th St. Fri, 8pm, Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 3pm (come 40 minutes before show times or 2 hours after to catch people as they leave)

Volunteer for PHONE BANKING Sunday late afternoon and evening: call 347-678-5905.

Monday, June 25th
Lots of volunteers needed for set-up of June 25th event at Ethical Culture Society and for last-minute flyering in area near the event. Meet at 5:00 PM in front of Ethical Culture Society.
Plus throughout the day.

Forge an emergency response network:Mobilize immediate response to any attack on Iran

2007-05-18T14:27:00.000-04:00

Converge at Times Square – 5:00 P.M.
(in front of Military Recruitment Center, 43rd and Broadway)
Respond to any attack on Iran, protest at 5:00 PM
Form phone-trees and text message and email networks with people you know.

Preparations are mounting for a U.S. or U.S.-backed attack on Iran. This would be profoundly unjust and greatly add to the suffering and devastation already being unleashed on the people of the Middle East.
Stop the Iraq War, No Iran war, Impeach Bush for War Crimes!

Contact World Can’t Wait at 347-678-5905 / nyc@worldcantwait.org to hook up. Latest info will be posted on "hotline" at 212-969-0772 and at http://nyc.worldcantwait.org/

Father Barrios: Daring to declare Bush a war criminal at the UN. Assaulted, jailed, faced with heavy charges… 7 months later, jury acquits on major c

2007-05-03T11:55:00.000-04:00

On September 19, 2006, George Bush spoke before the United Nations to defend the war in Iraq and the torture of detainees and the rest of his criminal program before the world.
Shortly after noon, nearby, right as Bush stepped to the podium to deliver his speech before the U.N. General Assembly, a line of anti-Bush activists stretched across 44th Street at 1st Avenue chanting "Arrest Bush" and "Bush is a War Criminal". Their statement said: “We have come to the United Nations today to engage in non-violent civil disobedience. We demand the war on Iraq end immediately. We oppose any attack on Iran. We declare to the world that President George W. Bush has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He does not speak for us.”
The response was swift and vicious. Besides arresting all 16 protestors for disorderly conduct, two were targeted for more. Geoff Millard, a disabled Iraq war vet and member of Iraqi Veterans Against the War, his cane needed for walking taken from him by police, fell down trying to board the police wagon and received the additional charge of resisting arrest. Father Barrios, as was documented on video, was tackled from behind by a group of cops, who piled on and pushed his face into the pavement. And Father Barrios, the victim of this assault, was then hit with additional charges of felony assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. This injustice continued for another 7 months as the government proceeded to trial with this outrageous case.
On May 9th, after a 7-month legal battle, a NYC jury acquitted Father Luis Barrios on all major charges: “Not guilty” to assault charges and “Not guilty” to resisting arrest. Only the minor charge of disorderly conduct was upheld, for which the Judge ordering Father Barrios to pay a $95 fine.
The voice of Father Barrios is well-known to tens of thousands in the New York area. He is associate priest at St. Mary’s Church and minister of the Spanish-language church, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas, head of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department at John Jay College and is on the national steering committee of World Can’t Wait. In his regular bi-weekly column in the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa column near the time of Bush’s visit to the UN, he had called for Bush to driven from office and put on trial for his crimes.
Charges against 14 of the defendants were dropped early on and Geoff Mullard’s case was settled after 5 months. But despite numerous calls for the absurd charges to be dropped against Father Barrios, the prosecution insisted on pursuing the case against Father Barrios, making only one adjustment, reducing felony assault on a police officer to misdemeanor assault, a charge carrying a possible one year sentence.
Dozens of people came to each of Father Barrios’ court appearances, only to have the case repeatedly postponed and rescheduled. When the trial actually began on May 7th, supporters filled the courtroom, including NYC City Councilman Charles Barron. The Judge was keenly aware that the court was packed with supporters, mentioning it several times from the bench.
On the opening day, the defense attempted to introduce the printed “Bush Crimes Commission Verdict and Findings of Fact” which the defendants were attempting to serve on Bush at the UN at the time of their arrest. The prosecutor objected to this on the basis that the charges made against Bush were “hearsay” (in court, you are not supposed to be able to attribute statements to someone unless you actually heard him or her make those statements). The defense responded that whether the points made about Bush in the Bush Crimes Commission report were direct testimony or secondary “hearsay” was irrelevant here because, while Bush ought to be the one on trial here, that Father Barrios was the defendant. The DA was left to quickly cobble together a completely different argument to prevent the jury from having access to the Bush Crimes Commission report.
The main prosecution witness, a cop, claimed Father Barrios had intentionally kicked her, causing her injury and a miscarriage six weeks later. This was contradicted by video and other evidence. Father Barrios, in his testimony, acknowledged that he and the other defendants were there to take a strong moral stand and anticipated getting arrested. The claim that they were “resisting arrest” or assaulting anyone was ridiculous. As for “disorderly conduct”, as he put it in a recent interview, if bringing out that Bush is a war criminal is considered “disorderly”, then he is “innocent as charged”.
According to comments made by jurors afterwards, it only took them a few minutes to throw out the serious charges in the case.
A young student at John Jay College who was involved in the defense committee said, “I learned a lot from this experience. It inspired me to take responsibility for what is going on this country as a young person, the need to act. The need of the community to be present in cases like this. The need to defend our right to protest.”
And Father Barrios himself has refused to be silenced. He and a number of others from the defense committee came out to defend political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal at Mumia’s hearing in Philadelpha last week (see “Federal Appeals Court Hears Case of Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal,” at revcom.us). In Philadelpha, he told Revolution, “Before we came up with World Can’t Wait I was part of ‘I Can’t Wait’. We can’t wait. We belief that impeachment is possible. We need to bring this man to trial.”~

i

Iraq anti-war vet Matthis Chiroux Hearing March 12 with/Army reactivation to Iraq

Statement by Luis Barrios concerning sentencing for protest to Close the School of the Americas

Thursday, January 15 - Day of Conscience to Act Against U.S. role in Supporting the War Crime going on in Gaza

Emergency Town Hall Meeting

From Guantanamo to Gaza: Stop the U.S. War OF Terror and Torture!

Hundreds of NYC youth engage with the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" anti-recruiter tour! Tour now extended a second week in NYC

Bring "We are Not Your Soliders to your school!

A message for our times/report from Nov. 11th forum

The Change We’re Fighting For:

Are we a people at peace with being at war? Speak out when the candidates appear in NYC!

Directions/details for October 15th Protest at Hempstead/Hofstra Presidential Debate

Iraqi Veterans Against the War - Plans/statement for action at Oct. 15 debate at Hofstra

What is the Sarah Palin Candidacy About?

Are we a people at peace with being at war?

Tuesday, Sept. 23rd: War Criminal George W. Bush will be at UN

Tuesday morning, September 23rd:

War Criminal George W. Bushwill be speaking at the U.N.

Rally & other creative actions (PINK POLICE SQUAD ON HAND TO ARREST THE WORLD'S #1 WAR CRIMINAL, and ORANGE JUMPSUIT contingent and Water Boarding demonstration anti-torture actions, and more) -- all to tell the world that we demand:

U.S. Out of Iraq & Afghanistan!NO ATTACK ON IRAN!

Bush & Cheney must be heldaccountable for their crimes!

Converge at: 8:30 AMDag Hammarskjöld Plaza

Grito de Lares - A cry for justice!

Grito de Lares - A cry for justice! - September 23

Thurs.-9-11 - Obama & McCain at Columbia University - NO to war in Iraq and Afghanistan!

NYC debut screening: IRAN (Is Not the Problem) - Thursday, Sept 4th

NYC Debut screening:

IRAN (Is Not the Problem)

Thursday, Sept. 4th @ 6:30 PM

MLK Labor Center/1199,310 West 43rd Street

Basic Facts about Waterboarding

"Freeze" Action on Aug 6th/Hiroshima Day @ Staten Island Ferry Terminal

"FREEZE" action at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal:

"No Attack on Iran!"

Part of nation-wide "freeze" actions on "Hiroshima Day":Wednesday, August 6th

Our plan for "freeze" action atStaten Island Ferry terminal:

Join World Can't Wait Saturday, August 2ndMarch & Rally: No Attack On Iran

New Movie: Stealing America - Vote by Vote

Successful Freeze Action at Grand Central Station:

Come to Denver August 25-28 when Democrats meet

Attention Rebel Youth: The "Warped Tour" is coming!

June 26: Emergency Forum: The danger of a U.S. attack on Iran is real and growing - We must act now!

ACT NOW to expose/oppose: ominous new drum beats for a U.S. attack on Iran

Rumors of War: Is Bush Gearing Up to Attack Iran?

By Conn Hallinan, PortsidePosted on June 5, 2008, Printed on June 5, 2008http://www.alternet.org/story/87079/

"Jazz Means Peace" Benefit Concert saluting World Can't Wait - June 24th

NO to Torture! - Fire and Dis-Bar John Yoo!

We want to know what you think

Stop an Attack on Iran - Urgent Call for Mobilization

U.S. Steps Up Bullying and War Moves Against Iran

Justice for Sean Bell!

World Can't Wait meeting: April 24th at 6:30 PM

Monday, April 21st - Demonstration against War Criminal Cheney

With the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on their hands,

We must protestthis war criminal!

Forum: A New Wave? War, Empire and Dissent in Cinema

Crimes in Broad Daylight

Special WCW Benefit Performance of "DIRT"

Mobilize in Washington, D.C. Wednesday March 19

Live Video Satellite TV Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 Get satellite details

Live Audio

Make a Generous Contribution

Carry forward the actions Against the Military Recruiters and the War!

Friday February 15 – Iraq Moratorium Day: NYC Day of Action vs. Military Recruiters

January 31 - Protest - No Torture - No Business As Usual

Support those defying Federal Grand Jury Repression of Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Drop the charges on the Nadler office 4! Pack the court on Tuesday, February 5th!

Stop the Deportation of Victor Toro - January 18

January 11th in NYC will be scene of a broad array of actions against torture and government repression.

An Evening of Voice Against Torture - January 11

Join us Jan 11 @ 6:00 PM

St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 6:00 PM

521 West 126th Street

No to torture & Shut Down Guantanemo - Forum & meeting January 3

We won't live in a torture state!

Report on "Stand Against Torture Sunday", Dec. 23rd

WCW Gift Ideas: Give a gift declaring your committment to peace, justice and end of the crimes of Bush Regime.

Jazz Means Peace Benefit December 17th

Tuesday, November 27th: Support all those arrested on September 25th when Bush came to the UN

NYC October 27: "Orange Alert" in unity with Iraq Moratorium - No Attack on Iran! Bush and Cheney Out Now!

War Criminal George W. Bush
will be speaking at the U.N.

U.S. Out of Iraq & Afghanistan!
NO ATTACK ON IRAN!

Bush & Cheney must be held
accountable for their crimes!

Converge at: 8:30 AM
Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza

MLK Labor Center/1199,
310 West 43rd Street

Part of nation-wide "freeze" actions on "Hiroshima Day":
Wednesday, August 6th

Our plan for "freeze" action at
Staten Island Ferry terminal:

Join World Can't Wait Saturday, August 2nd
March & Rally: No Attack On Iran

By Conn Hallinan, Portside
Posted on June 5, 2008, Printed on June 5, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/87079/

We must protest
this war criminal!