Report from Los Angeles On April 18th
At 3:30pm on April 18th, there was spirited repudiation of the Bush Regime
at
the East Los Angeles Military Recruiting Center. Students from
nearby Roosevelt High School came out to make their voices heard, after they
had seen some World Can’t Wait presentations in their school about the
truth of the war, and what the armed forces are recruiting for. Video
testimony of Iraq war vets at the Winter Soldier Investigation, as well as
the Declare It Now video were viewed. Bandanas were taken up with
enthusiasm, as well as several rolls of orange flagging tape, which has
become a popular political statement worn on backpacks and wrists
throughout the school.
This was the students' first WCW demonstration. They joined with other World Can’t Wait supporters in the powerful chant
“What are they recruiting for? Murder! Rape! Torture! War!“ Soon students
took the bullhorn and were chanting anti-Bush Regime chants in Spanish and
English.
Military recruiters who had been inside the open center on our
arrival, shut the lights and left by the back door soon after. We declared
victory and the front doors and windows were decorated with posters,
orange flagging tape, No Torture banners and individually signed eviction
notices in Spanish and English, to the approving honks of traffic passing
by.
A small contingent of students and others took off down the
sidewalk holding banners and chanting:
“Students United will never be
defeated!"
"What are they recruiting for? Murder! Rape! Torture!
War!"
"There’s a killer in the White House! Time to drive his ass
out!"
"Si, Se Puede!"
"We won’t be your murderers! We won’t be your
torturers!
We have our convictions! This is an eviction!"
"Stay out of
our schools! Cause this is what you get! An army of none! An army of
none!"
And one other memorable Spanish language chant that this writer was
informed refers to Bush as an assassin and a pig.
One woman who came, a social worker, had heard about this action on Jim Lafferty’s radio show on
KPFK. She said she usually spent her Fridays across town at an anti-war
vigil, but thought this was an important action. She got on the phone to
call the vigil people to join us, and said she was thinking that this might
be a more important place to have their weekly vigils from now on.
We ended the action reading an excerpt of Ron Kovic’s statement of support for
the Berkeley actions, and his call for these kinds of actions nationwide. We
also invited students to the national meeting in SF and will be connecting
with them in the coming weeks to strengthen and deepen their political
activism. One young man who had been talking with us at school about how he
thought that protest did not work, told us that this experience has changed
his mind.
Next National Action Days
Saturday, May 17
“Drive The Recruiters Out – Off Our Campuses
and From Our Communities!”
April 18th - 3:30 p.m. converge at EAST LOS ANGELES RECRUITING STATION
Plaza del Sol • Boyle and Soto Ave in Boyle Heights
Endorsed by:
- American Friends Service Committee-LA
- Ron Kovic, veteran, author of "Born on the 4th of July"
- Jim Lafferty - Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild-LA
- Fernando Suarez del Solar, Guerrero Azteca Peace Project
Tell everyone you know around the country: on these days, let’s all go to military
recruiting stations and stand for something real. Should they be
exposed? Should they be evicted? Should they be shut down through the mass
action campaigns of the people, including protests and nonviolent civil
resistance? No Business As Usual!
Help plan and prepare for:
* Friday, April 18. Throughout the day, on your campus or at the local
recruiting station, you can -
- a) give the recruiters a big stack of eviction notices
signed by students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community
members(download eviction notice here).
- b) display photos of some of the million dead, tortured,
or injured Iraqi civilians
These photos can be downloaded from here http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_page1.htm
These visuals are powerful representations of this horrendous war. In Tacoma,
WA at the recruiter station action, up against 50 defenders of the war, these
photos established terms of what this war is and put the pro-war crowd on the
defensive: this is what you are defending.
- c) give the recruiters an earful: Murder, Rape, Torture,
War - This is what they're recruiting
for!
- d) have a march around campus or the recruiting station,
and then hold a die-in.
- e) wear and spread orange, the color of
resistance
Military recruiters have NO right to do their “business” if the
Iraqi people are to have their right to live free of this horrific war and
occupation.
* Saturday, May 17: Armed Forces Day, a perfect occasion for people across the country to
speak out and act in concert to say NO to military recruiters, NO to this
illegal and immoral war/occupation, and NO to everything the Bush regime
concentrates.
Important WCW Chapter Meeting
Sat., April 19th, 10 AM - Noon
Peace Center (2nd Floor Conference Room of Office of the Americas)
8124 W. 3rd St. (near Crescent Hts.), Los Angeles
World Can’t
Wait is unfolding a whole campaign to drive the recruiters out of our schools
and communities. The “Battle of Berkeley” in February caught the whole
country’s attention and a new door was opened. An entire American city was
officially saying NO to this war, as an illegal and immoral one – and declaring
that military recruiters are “unwelcome intruders.” This must spread!
This IS actually how this war might be stopped, community by community, saying
“we do not want this war, we refuse to contribute to it, and we refuse our
consent to a government that wants it.”
Your help is urgently required. New things we’re planning include work with teachers and
students, as many house parties and classroom presentations as we can
arrange, cultural and educational events, getting many
posters and banners displayed to counter the passivity of millions
who oppose this regime. Of course, ongoing protest actions will be called when
war criminals come to town and when presidential candidates appear (and due to
the political importance of California, this is becoming really frequent). We
also want to mobilize for regular freeway bannering.
Come to the chapter meeting to learn more, share your thoughts & ideas, and get
involved.
National World Can’t Wait Conference:
May 3-4 In Berkeley
Our first conference to be held on West Coast!
You’re Invited! Save the Dates!
You’re invited to be in the hall for this important organizers’ conference! It comes
at a crucial juncture for the World Can’t Wait movement. Meeting in California
for the first time, WCW organizers from around the country will spend the
weekend delving deeply into the challenges facing our movement, sharing
experiences, and setting the direction for the coming months of 2008. More info
coming soon about the conference agenda, Saturday evening event, and
registration.
Please go now to the national WCW website
– and as you browse the new articles, action reports, and commentaries there,
think about what a difference it has already made that the World Can’t Wait
movement has been out here for these past three Bush Regime years! Calling war
crimes and war criminals out for what they truly are . . . Demanding
impeachment . . . Taking on the Christian Right . . . and the military
recruiters . . . and Fox News . . . and the architects of torture . . .
Inspiring a new wave of youth and students to take heart and take to the
streets. Have you been part of bringing all this forward, in these past 3
years? Do you want to be part of it now and in the months ahead? Then come to
this conference and jump in.
More protests coming up, including May
1st events protesting attacks on immigrant rights
and more candidate events
Watch here for details
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Winter Soldier Investigation: Iraq and Afghanistan
March 13-16, Winter Soldier Investigation: Iraq and
Afghanistan was held in Washington D.C. At these hearings, organized by
the Iraq Veterans Against the War, almost 50 American veterans testified about
what they had done to the people and land of Iraq and Afghanistan. The audience,
about 350 people at any time, were mostly American veterans, military families,
and parents whose children were killed in the war. The four-day event brought
together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in
Iraq and Afghanistan—and present video and photographic evidence. In addition,
panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists gave context to
the testimony. These panels covered everything from the history of the GI
resistance movement to the fight for veterans’ health benefits and
support. You can listen to
testimony at ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony.
Wednesday, MARCH 19th – 5 Years of
Illegitimate War on Iraq ! End the War! Shut Down Recruitment Centers! Drive
the War Criminals from Office!
March 19th
in Los Angeles began early at a local high school, where a couple of us reached
out to students as they came off the bus and into school. We asked them what
they thought about the war; not surprisingly the vast majority of them said
they hated it or ‘it sucks’. Many of them didn’t think they could do anything
about it; and when we asked them how many Iraqis they thought had died during
the five years of the war, all but one said a million – most answers were in
the low thousands. We handed out eviction notices, which they liked and took up
and we asked them to take a stand and join with us that afternoon to shut down
recruitment center.
We returned that afternoon before the last bell, armed with Robert
Fiske’s enlarged photograph of the child whose leg had been blown off and an
enlarged Eviction Notice. We planted ourselves directly in front of the
students’ path to buses and the busy crosswalk. That did the trick; the photos
were stark, very shocking to many, some didn’t want to see it and turned their
heads away. Others just stood and stared, taking it all in. Students took up
March 19th flyers and eviction notices and promised to get them out.
All day we were also handing out postcards announcing the Winter Soldier
testimonies and asking them to check the website; hear it from U.S. soldiers
themselves who hate what they’ve done and want this war to stop. A handful of students were in ROTC uniforms,
but they still took flyers and Winter Soldier postcards. Some student
administrators came over, read our flyers, saw our signs and told us we had to
leave the premises, but we countered with the fact that we were on a public
sidewalk, not school property. They responded “we’ll see about that” but never
came back.
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While some of us were at the high school, one WCW organizer
went door to door to businesses in a 3 block area of the Hollywood recruiting
station or The Armed Forces Career Center. She took the orange Iraq Get Out,
Iran Stay Out, Bush/Cheney Drive Out and found seven businesses that agreed to
put up the posters in their windows or near the cash registers. The majority of
these businesses were run by either Middle Eastern or Asian immigrants, who
wanted to visibly express their outrage on the 5th anniversary of
the invasion. Some workers went ahead and put them up even if they weren’t sure
that their boss would approve. This was a different response than in Berkeley,
where the same activist had approached shops along in a five block area around
Shattuck Avenue. Shops were asked to put up a cut out ad from the Berkeley
Daily Planet that read, Berkeley says No
Torture, No War, No Recruiters. While she was able to get some of the
stores to post this ad, many declined stating they were worried about what
their customers would think or they were unsure of the No Recruiters message.
Nine WCW activists joined the Answer-LA youth and student
coalition who had called for shutting down the armed forces recruitment center
in Hollywood. We had our orange, three orange suited detainees formed part of
the WCW group. There were approximately
75 protesters; vast majority youth who formed a picket line and led determined chants
about No to Oil, No to War; Money for Jobs, not Oil; Education not Occupation; No
Peace/No Justice, and others. Many of
these youth were the same determined youth who had taken part in Saturday’s
march against the war, the spirit was strong and constant.
We brought in the stark enlarged photograph and large
Eviction notice to the mix; both at the curb while many cars passed by and in the
middle of the picketing. Later, a group of us joined with the picketers in a
sidewalk march down Hollywood Blvd. We were two orange jump suited and hooded
detainees, a person on a bull horn and the enlarged Robert Fisk photo. This
visual caused many to stare. Hollywood Blvd was full of tourists, many families
with young children. No one shouted at us to put the photographs away, and we
decided to stand and agitate for awhile in front of the Kodak Theatre, site of
the January 31st Democratic debate. We got a lot of thumbs up, lots
of sober faces as people took in the horror of the photographs and the orange
hooded detainees. People’s site-seeing and shopping as usual was paused for at
least a while. Similar to students,
many who we talked to were unaware of the numbers of Iraqis dead and displaced over
the past five years – guesses were in the low thousands and people were taken
aback when we gave them numbers of dead, Iraqis and number of U.S. soldiers who
had committed suicide, which far exceeds those killed in war.  |
While small, the anti-recruiting protest was significant b/c
some people had traveled numerous hours from San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura
and Fullerton to take part. There were student media teams from two local
community colleges; one of who interviewed Prof. Dennis Loo who had been at the
center throughout the demonstration. There were other people documenting,
including one group focusing on immigrants in the military, many of these lured
by recruiters with promise of citizenship. There was also a couple documenting
protests writing for a Japanese publication. And typical Hollywood, Spiderman
joined in and got photo op with the signs.
The recruiters shut their doors at 4:00 p.m.
March 20th
– Inspired by Berkeley action, Code Pink has started weekly anti-military
recruiting action in front of the Santa Monica Military Recruiting Center. Two
WCW activists joined up with two Code Pink activists and were immediately
joined by three middle school kids on skate boards who had passed by. They wrote
“Honk 4 Peace” on the WCW picket signs and got out flyers as they skated around
the block several times, counting 30+ honks of support as they skateboarded.
Orange Ribbons at the Oscars
Director Paul Haggis wore an orange ribbon. He
said:
"the ribbons are the color of
the jumpsuits at Guantanamo Bay, and at our secret detention camps,
where prisoners are kept indefinitely, in violation of our
constitution, and tortured. This is something that our government
has long condemned as the heinous behavior of dictators, but
something that unbelievably we now condone."
To Read More...
To Read more reports of Past Actions, Demos in Los Angeles go to the Reports Page
New MP3s
Click here to go to the interview page to listen/download new MP3s from Adam
Kodesh on the upcoming Winter Soldier II Investigation, Ray McGovern, talking about his
new article "Creeping Fascism, Lessons form the Past", and Michael Rapkin, an ACLU lawyer who
represents a Guantanamo detainee
"Just Found!"
The World Can't Wait / LA rally October5 / "Cold Criminals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVfc-P7eqLA
We Pledge: No Attack on Iran!
Bush and Cheney are committing war crimes in Iraq.
We refuse to be silent.
Bush and Cheney are readying another war on Iran,
We refuse to be complicit.
We declare now:
We will do everything possible to stop a war on Iran.
We pledge to bring business as usual to a halt if the US bombs Iran.
We will draw forward many others to act.
We pledge our resistance now because the world cannot wait.
Iraq – Get Out!
Iran – Stay Out!
Bush and Cheney – Drive Out!
This is the time to stop accepting what we are told: that nothing we do will make a
difference in ending the global disaster represented by the Bush regime.
Bush & Cheney can be driven from office by a movement independent of “politics
as usual”. 14 months is too long, and waiting to vote in 2008 is too
late!
Challenge the people you know to raise their voices and act. Ask 3 people to
Declare it Now by wearing orange (ribbons,
buttons, bandanas, shirts) to make this determination visible. Ask each
of them to talk to 3 more people, and check back with them in 3 days.
Sign
this pledge now
Click here to download the Pledge to distribute
in either PDF or MSWord format.
Envision these new posters on campuses, in store windows, in your homes, in the streets!
Donate generously to make that possible.
Send checks made out to "World Can't Wait" to our office at 5507 Santa
Monica Blvd., #207, LA, CA 90038. For tax deductible contributions of
$100 or more, make the check out to "Alliance for Global
Justice" (and put WCW in the reference field) and mail it to our
office. To donate online via PayPal (not tax deductible) by click on the donate button on this page
New Powerful 2 minute - Declare It Now! Video on YouTube
New!
PASS IT NOW TO EVERYONE
Declare It Now - Wear Orange!
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 - must become the color of a
gathering sentiment to end all this. This spreading of orange is part of
seizing the moral high ground and showing our collective determination to bring
these crimes to a halt NOW by Driving Out the Bush Regime.
A groundswell of orange, assisted and amplified by the
voices of prominent people and musicians wearing and promoting orange on TV,
radio, and on stage at concerts can break people out of this conundrum where
millions are just furious but still paralyzed by the paralysis of the loyal
opposition Party and by the anaesthetizing effects of the presidential
elections.
Click here to Download flyers to distribute with orange ribbons, bandanas, etc. And let us know how it
goes!
Donate!
Donate via PayPal at worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com
Or send a check to:
World Can't Wait
5507 Santa Monica Blvd., #207, LA, CA 90038
Now is the time to donate – You are one of millions
of people who hate this regime and what it is doing.
Your financial support can make a huge difference
in the chances of driving this regime out.
We urgently need money to pay for more ads
to break into the media and reach the homes and
hearts of millions across the country who are looking
for a way to act, to support our volunteers working
full-time in our National Office and in DC, to supply
millions of pieces of materials and much more. We
need you to dig deep, but more than that to reach
out to many others (friends, family, colleagues)
who also dream of a very different world, and ask
them also to give as if the future depends
on it...because it does.
Donations over $100 are tax-deductible, and
those checks must be made out to the Alliance
for Global Justice and earmarked for WCW.
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World Can’t Wait Bandana – Make a Strong Statement.
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