This is a call for all youth and students in NION Network. Please email
nycnionyouth@hotmail.com if you want to help us organize and mobilize for the Day of Action.
Today the UN passed the resolution for a US led action to bomb Iraq in 30 days! The time is NOW to follow through with your responsibility to RESIST.
Not In Our Name
National Student & Youth Day of Action
Wednesday, November 20th
"We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our responsibility
to resist the injustices
done by our government, in our name"
In this spirit, the Not In Our Name Project is calling for a National Day of Youth & Student Action against the juggernaut of war and repression the US government has unleashed on the world. On Wed, November 20th, thousands of us must take history into our hands and do all we can to resist the unjust, immoral, and illegitimate war that the U.S. government is planning to unleash on the people of Iraq. To go up against all this we need a powerful movement of millions, refusing to let this war be waged in our names, and determined to stop it from being waged at all. Students have a special role to play in all this - throughout history it is the youth who have always been the first to step out there and build determined resistance, inspiring and making room for others to act.
Our campuses and high schools must become CENTERS OF RESISTANCE!
As they proclaim to the world that the American people are united behind this monstrous invasion of Iraq, and try to isolate and intimidate all those who don抰 agree - we must fly GLOBE flags on our schools?flag poles - in solidarity with the people of the world AND as a message to all those who are looking to resist that they are not alone. We must stage walkouts, sit-ins and marches. We must hold teach ins, wear blue triangles in solidarity with the immigrant communities that are being hit with round ups, detentions and deportations. Assemblies and debates must be held in high schools to question what is driving the government to be so hell bent on invading Iraq. Youth must be taking the Not In Our Name Pledge of Resistance everywhere to strengthen our resolve and spread the Resistance. We must create a situation so the millions of people who don抰 like these war plans know they are not alone and are inspired to join the Resistance. The troops being hauled off to Iraq must question what they're being told to do and not follow orders to massacre innocent people.
November 20th must be a big step toward making all this real.
We must do all this and more because we cannot go along with the 抧ew normalcy?while the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis rest on the whim of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. We must do this because:
· A US invasion of Iraq will cause the deaths of many thousands of Iraqi people, on top of the starvation, disease and death that US backed sanctions and bombings have already inflicted on Iraq since the Persian Gulf War.
· Bush's real aim in invading Iraq is to expand the US' global domination and deliver a gangster style message to anyone anywhere in the world that they better not even think about challenging the US strangle-hold on wealth and power.
· Thousands of immigrants have been subjected to interrogations and hundreds have been rounded up, detained and deported for nothing more than the color of their skin, the part of the world they come from or the religion they practice. ·
· Hard won civil liberties are being snatched back from the people in this country as part of the "War on Terrorism."
· If those dinosaurs in Washington have their way, our future will be one unjust war after another and a police state clampdown for generations to come.
The movement of Resistance to the war and the repression has taken giant strides in the face of the beating drums of war. On Oct. 6th, 100,000 people came together in cities across the US, and together took the Not In Our Name Pledge of Resistance against the whole steamroller of war and repression. On Oct 26th, 200,000 people marched in DC, San Francisco and other cities in opposition to a US invasion of Iraq. This movement must continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
Bush has arrogantly declared that he will stop at nothing to rain death and destruction on Iraq. Most of the Democrats in Congress rolled over and climbed aboard Bush's war wagon. If this invasion and the whole 揥ar On Terrorism?is going to be stopped, people like us have got to shoulder the responsibility to stop it.
In the 60's it was the youth who spearheaded massive movements against the Vietnam War and in the Black liberation struggle. Throughout history, it's been young people who have sparked movements for justice and change. This is the challenge our generation faces: to stand with the people of the world and stop this war and repression.
We refuse to go forward shut-eye. These Asses Of Evil have a plan for our generation--to send us off to be cannon fodder, spilling blood for oil and global domination. They need the rest of us to follow in complicity like faithful sheep. They would have us believe the lies that all this is being done to protect people in this country and 憀iberate?the people of Iraq. They need our silence, demand our subservience, and are calling on our generation to go off and fight their dirty wars against the people of the world. We must shove this evil plan back down their throats. And rallying large numbers of youth to act against the war and the repression will represent a powerful advance towards doing just that.
We must be serious about this. We have to get people organizing for November 20th going from campus to campus, high-school to high-school, from city to city spreading the word and enlisting more and more student organizations in this effort. If we succeed, we can bring into being a future far different from the one Bush & Co. have in store for us.
Contact Not In Our Name and start organizing today! As we go forward we need to increase our capacity to organize nation-wide, to escalate and spread the Resistance as they escalate their moves towards war and world domination. We need resources, financial donations, offices to work out of, and students to volunteer to organize their campuses - as well as many to reach out to other youth not yet hooked in. Students should start thinking now about taking the semester off to build this growing movement. Now is the time when what we say and do can change the course of history. Now is a time for sacrifice and struggle. Another world IS possible and we pledge make it real!
Send this to student groups and individuals and post this call on websites, list-serves, e-lists. Contact us at: www.notinourname.net 212.969.8058
info@notinourname.net