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Emergency Iran Forum Los Angeles 

June 25, 2008

World Can’t Wait-Los Angeles and the Westside Progressives co-sponsored an emergency Iran Forum at a community center in West Hollywood.  Out Against the War-LA, Topanga Peace Alliance, LGBT Greens, and the Union of Progressive Iranians endorsed and participated in the event.

Close to ninety people filled the room as the evening unfolded.  The first speaker, Gareth Porter, author of “Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam” laid out similarities of historical significance between the deceptive framework that this government used to justify the war in Vietnam and the more current unjustified invasion of Iraq. He drew attention to the similarities of dogmatic language used by government officials and the media as the question of Iran’s nuclear capabilities has been nationally discussed, and a case is built for the justification for an attack on Iran. Porter emphasized the need for civil dissent and debate around these issues throughout society, not discounting the effectiveness of petitioning and lobbying, but in conjunction with these things.

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Debra Sweet on KPFK - July 8, 2008

Click here to listen to Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can't Wait being interviewd by Michael Slate, Beneath the Surface, on the about the necessity for people to come to Denver this August for the DNC.

From Los Angeles City Beat Newspaper, July 3 - 9, 2008

New RATM Wears Orange Videos

Click here to watch these amazing videos or go to the Spread the Resistance - Wear Orange Daily Page on your right

WCW National Day of Resistance – Military Recruiters Off Our Campuses and Out of Our Communities
Report from Los Angeles

"May 16th - Shut Down The Recruiters!"

Friday, May 16^th - 3rd period bell sounds at an East Los Angeles high school, and 75 students & several teachers are out in the main quad chalking silhouettes of their bodies all around the school pathways. (The day before they had listened to presentations by a WCW organizer which included testimony from Winter Soldier, the Declare It Now video and the waterboarding AP clip.)  This is the period before lunch-time in this school that numbers 5,000 students, and is a heavily-targeted recruitment ground for the Armed forces and the Marines. Some of the drawings are quite powerful and include outlines of children, bodies with amputated limbs, tanks and wording on number of casualties, number of suicides among U.S. servicemen, and cost tape goes up around tree trunks, and students start sporting orange flagging tape as hair bands, wrist bands, on their backpacks, etc. Four volunteers put on the orange jumpsuits and taking seriously their detainee role, remain silent, heads cast down, arms tied as they start a procession, surrounded by other students with large poster of No Torture and enlarged photos of Iraqi war casualties. The students begin to march, amidst the clamor of lunch time and a school sponsored election campaign for senior class president. But the march was cut short because school administrators stopped the march and brought students into the office for participating in an "unauthorized activity." The jumpsuits, posters, black hoods were confiscated and the teachers were told they would be returned after a conference with the school's vice-principal to be held on Monday. One of the teachers asked what the response would have been from the administration if he had requested permission to have this lunchtime procession. The administrator told him, they probably would not have authorized it. The two WCW organizers who were invited there by the teachers were escorted out of the school due to a regulation that "does not permit outside visitors from mingling with students at lunchtime without previous clearance".

The sponsoring teachers were not on hand while this was happening – coincidentally one of them had been called outside of the school to investigate a student walk-out which turned out to be false. 

 Not to be discouraged, we met up with three teachers and about eight students in the 90+ degree heat and carpooled down to the Recruitment Center.  We were later joined by a social worker, and an impeachment activist. One teacher marched into the Marine recruitment station demanding to know why the marines go after her students, challenging the marine recruiter to stand up to her, not prey on students with their lies; sending youth off to kill and die.

Teachers repeatedly asked recruiters to come to the school and debate, but the recruiters adamantly refused. One recruiter said that they fight to protect our right to protest!  Two high school students walked into army recruiting station and one of the students recognized her classmate. All of us went in to Army recruiting with our signed eviction notices talking over the recruiters heads, directly to the two students shouting, "Don't sign,  you're being sent to kill." Six recruiters came over telling us we had to leave and we demanded to know why – why can they come onto the school and yet we have no right to be there. All six came over and escorted us out. Then we noticed another student at the Marine Center next door talking to a recruiter watching a video. The marines had locked the door, so we pounded on it, using the bull horn, demanding that he stop lying to the student. One by one, the social worker, the teacher and then the students used the bull horn shouting thru the glass to the student that he had options, don't get sent off to kill and be killed, maimed, commit suicide. We chanted loudly "Don't listen to his, we want you home alive". We knew we were getting through b/c the student turned when one of the young women, took the bull horn and said "you're too cute to go to war and kill".

Both the Federal Office of Homeland Security and the local police came, and told us we "could protest", but not disrupt the military recruiter's 'place of business.' We couldn't shout into the center or obstruct pedestrian traffic. We started a picket line, led by the students, shouting "What are they recruiting for? Murder, Rape, Torture, War. -  Shut it Down, Shut it Down!"

 All during this time, many drivers honked their support. One of the chants that drew an enthusiastic response was – "Bush, cochino, marrano y asesino!" (Bush – pig, hog, and assasin). As the protest drew to a close, one of the teachers summed it up with her students: "We hit their weak spot – the recruiters called the cops b/c we were getting to them. This is the real deal – your fellow students were in there getting fed lies, all for a $2000 commission for these recruiters. This is what it means to stand up for something you believe in". The teacher later joked that the students could call her to bail them out if they land up in jail, but she may be in the cell next to them. This was the same teacher that told her students, that one of the reasons why their high school walked out during the East Los Angeles blowouts of the 1960s was due to the disproportionate amount of Chicano youth dying in Vietnam. The Walkouts were not only about racism and inequality in the schools - it was about the Vietnam war.

Spirits were high, and both teachers and students, thought this was a great success for the awareness that it had sparked. There was a commitment among the participants to continue this battle, including with next month's 3rd Friday Iraq Moratorium.

"We Won't Live in a Torture State!"

To purchase a No Torture banner for $35, contact us at 323-462-4771 or worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com

Pledge to resist attack on Iran –

Create a No Attack on Iran Network!

An eye-opening presentation was given at last week’s national conference about the VERY REAL POSSIBILITY of an attack, including use of tactical nuclear weapons, against Iran. This is only underscored by the ‘opposition’ candidates; Clinton vows to obliterate Iran, and Obama says he will not hesitate to respond forcefully if Iran attacks Israel . WCW says NO! – we must Pledge to Resist/Stop this Attack – See 20 minute download: www.iranisnottheproblem.org.

Contact us at worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com or 323-462-4771 to:

1) Build this No Attack on Iran network.

2) Organize Emergency Meeting & Presentation/forum. 

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”, 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

The Call for Mobilization:

Sign The Call NOW!

Download the latest version of the call here. Make copies, get it out far and wide.

Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

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.

Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.

There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.

There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn — or be forced — to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.

And there is a way. We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting 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.

This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will to try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.

The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.

Sign The Call NOW!

World Can't Wait LA

5507 Santa Monica Blvd., #207, Los Angeles
323-462-4771
worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com

Local website: www.worldcantwait-la.com
National website: www.worldcantwait.org