The Future Is Waiting\r\nWanted: More Than a Million in NYC to Deliver a Big NO to Bush and All That He Stands For\r\n\r\n<\/p>
by Sunsara Taylor<\/p>\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1247, July 25,\r\n2004<\/em>, posted at http:\/\/rwor.org<\/p>\r\n NEW YORK CITY--I fish 50 cents out of my pocket and the Arab man\r\nbehind the counter puts a newspaper in a bag for me. The front photo\r\nshows a rubber-banded pile of U.S. bills being counted out by brown\r\nhands--$500 blood money to the family of each Iraqi the U.S. admits to\r\nhaving killed. Most of the victims will never be named or counted- -but\r\nin the photo you can make out the faces of the dead presidents on the\r\nbills. I think of the slave-owning presidents and the war-making\r\npresidents, and all the toil and exploitation around the world that\r\nthose bills represent, and I am horrified to say that all of this is\r\nbeing outdone today--by the born-again, genocidal president Bush and\r\nhis team of world domination strategists Rumsfeld, Cheney and the\r\nrest.<\/p>\r\n For nearly three years now, they have cynically used New York City'\r\nloss on September 11 as their cloak and their mantle for carrying out\r\ncrimes they had long before planned. And now, after having stolen the\r\npresidency in the first place, and then defying the will of the people\r\nrepeatedly, they have the audacity to come to this city--as part of\r\ntheir \"esteemed democratic process--to carry out their Republican\r\nNational Convention. This must be exposed and opposed! There must be a\r\ngigantic, undeniable, unmistakable NO! to the whole Bush gang's\r\nworldwide juggernaut of war and repression. All across the country and\r\nall around the world, the people and the powerful must see that right\r\nhere, in the home of the Twin Towers, more than a million take the\r\nstreets to say \"NO!\"<\/p>\r\n The stakes for doing this are very high. The way this deadly gang of\r\nRepublicans ignored the \"rule-of- law\" and grabbed the presidency was\r\njust the beginning as they disregard international law and grab for\r\npower all over the world. \"You are with us or against us\" they\r\nsay--making clear to their allies, to the rest of the power structure\r\nof the U.S., and to the people they rule over that if you don't fall\r\ninto their goose-step, they will target you too.<\/p>\r\n Even after millions took the streets from New York to Rome, from\r\nMexico to Australia, Bush came out and said he wouldn't listen to\r\n\"focus groups\" and then he, and his team, proceeded to invade, destroy,\r\nand brutally occupy Iraq.<\/p>\r\n This has some people wondering if our resistance mattered and\r\nwhether and how they will ever be stopped. It is painful to look at the\r\nwork and struggle and sacrifice that went into the anti-war movement\r\nand confront the fact that the war went forward anyway. It hurts to\r\nthink of the mothers who lost children or the prisoners who'll be\r\nhaunted for life from the brutal sexual torture they were forced to\r\nendure and know that we weren't able to prevent it. It leaves you\r\naching inside--longing for anything that might stop them.<\/p>\r\n It is this<\/i> aching that the elections are meant to play off.\r\n\"Your resistance didn't work, so instead go back to voting. If you\r\ndon't like Bush, vote him out, this is how your voice will\r\n\r\nfinally<\/i> be heard.\"<\/p>\r\n And it's tempting.but what were people saying when millions took to\r\nthe streets, hung banners and staged die-ins? When over 100 towns\r\npassed legislation refusing to enforce Ashcroft's Patriot Act? When\r\ninternationally known poets turned down invitations to the White House\r\nand instead offered their words and their hearts to the people and our\r\nresistance? When Black and Latino youth, who live under the baton every\r\nday, defied billyclubs and pepper spray to stand with our sisters and\r\nbrothers halfway around the world?<\/p>\r\n Wasn't that our voice? Wasn't our message clear and enormous? Who in\r\npower could miss it? And what about the Democrats--where were they\r\nthen? Isn't it a fact that the Democrats refused<\/i> to take a stand\r\nagainst the war or the repression--even though the people they claim to\r\nspeak for obviously were against it, were begging<\/i> them to oppose\r\nit--and isn't this a key reason why so many poured into the streets in\r\nthe first place?! People realized that no one in power was listening\r\nand acted on the understanding that we had to take history into our own\r\nhands--and that was right! And it is even more urgent today!<\/p>\r\n So, why all the stir around the elections--what's the real offer\r\nbeing made? The Democrats want to harness the hatred Bush has\r\nengendered and argue that Kerry is the only \"electable\" contender. They\r\nknow that many feel so angry and betrayed they'd vote for anybody\r\nbut Bush.<\/i> But what's really up here is that the U.S. rulers are\r\ntrying to set certain terms with their elections. You can vote for\r\nwhoever you want, but you can't cast a vote against the war and\r\nrepression--because, the logic goes, in order to defeat Bush, you have\r\nto vote for Kerry. But to do this, you have to accept major parts of\r\nthe whole Bush Agenda--because while the people were busy opposing this\r\nin a million ways, Kerry was busy voting right down the line to approve\r\nthe war, to approve the Patriot Act, and now only brags that he could\r\nwage the war better.<\/p>\r\n\r\n This is because there is a consensus in the U.S. ruling class that\r\nit is time for the U.S. imperialists to grab for permanent planet-wide\r\npower -- to more fully penetrate world markets and to control critical\r\nresources of the global economy, thereby strengthening their position\r\nin relation to other imperialists. This is what they are trying to\r\naccomplish in Iraq and this is why they are willing to risk stirring\r\nup, and then trying to pound down, the people's resistance along the\r\nway--because they are united in their strategic goals to recast the\r\nwhole world. There are serious concerns among the ruling class that the\r\naggressive, unilateralist, program of the Bush team to recast the world\r\nthrough war will backfire -- that it will strengthen their rivals and\r\ntouch off a wave of resistance that threatens the credibility of the\r\nruling institutions in the country and internationally. But, in the\r\nwake of September 11, the Bush team has seized the initiative to carry\r\nout their wild ambitions, and they are fiercely determined to hang on\r\nto the reigns of power and press forward with their extreme agenda. So\r\npeople need to look at the world as it is and what it will take to stop\r\nthis juggernaut.<\/p>\r\n We too must think strategically and not be thrown by the fact that\r\nwe haven't yet stopped them. We are in a fierce fight for the direction\r\nof the country and the planet, up against a calculating and\r\ncold-hearted agenda, and we are in the opening rounds. So we, too, must\r\nset terms, favorable to our side, that shape the way this fight\r\nunfolds.<\/b> Not because we expect anyone in the power structure to\r\nlisten to reason or the truth, but to bring the energy and\r\ndetermination of the masses onto the stage to defeat this terrible\r\nagenda. And denying this Bush program a mandate is a crucial part of\r\nthat--so that when they claim to speak for us, or say that America is\r\nunited, the whole country and planet are clear that we said, \"NO!\" So\r\nthat everyone who hates what these monsters are doing, everywhere\r\naround the world, knows that there is an opposition that they need to\r\nstrengthen and join.<\/p>\r\n *****<\/p>\r\n The truth is that Bush and his gang have been paying a big political\r\nprice for the resistance that has hounded them all over the planet. And\r\nthe more the U.S. has pushed forward with their brutal occupation, the\r\nmore this has taken a toll on their credibility and legitimacy. They\r\nwent to war without their allies and without even the fig-leaf of\r\napproval of the UN. Millions and millions of people around the world\r\nknow the war was based on lies and against the will of the people and\r\nnow the more it presses ahead, the more the anger boils.<\/p>\r\n This is what the rulers--and their two rival front-men, Bush\r\nand<\/i> Kerry--seek to change through the election. They want and\r\ndesperately<\/i> need<\/i> to be able to say--as they always do\r\nafter an election--as they carry forward their horrors--\"This is the\r\nwill of the people! They voted for us and we are just carrying out\r\ntheir will.\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n On the one hand, they are trying to entice people with the\r\nDemocrats--trying to lure back in all those who broke out of the normal\r\nconfines of the acceptable political activity, only to be set up and\r\ndemoralized once again.<\/p>\r\n And<\/i> , on the other hand, they are trying to scare<\/i>\r\npeople out of the streets. As New York City braces itself for the\r\nRepublican National Convention, every day the media carries new threats\r\nand distortions. They tell us the city is opening special holding areas\r\nso they can arrest record numbers, and the police display their force\r\non the streets in \"practice\" drills in Manhattan. They tell people--\r\non the news--<\/i> to take their vacations during the RNC, to avoid\r\nthe hassles...and the threats<\/i> , they say, from terrorists and\r\nanarchists, implying they are the same thing.<\/p>\r\n So, first<\/i> , they tell us not<\/i> to protest, desperately\r\ntrying to convince us that our voices will be better heard if we step\r\nsolo into the ballot box. Then<\/i> they viciously tell us we\r\n\r\nbetter not<\/i> protest, or they'll be even more brutal in the\r\nstreets than they've been in the past. And with that<\/i> they try to\r\nwhip up a mood where the millions who hate what is happening are too\r\nscared, and those who are determined enough are isolated, and\r\nmeanwhile--they'll be freed up to keep rolling over the planet. These\r\nare the monsters who saw September 11 as an \"opportunity\" to launch\r\nbrutal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--whose pursuit of their global\r\nambitions has unleashed forces all around the world who hate them, and\r\nnow they whip up and play off the \"fear factor\" to try to prevent\r\nanyone from calling them out.<\/p>\r\n *****<\/p>\r\n But let's be real. I think again of the blood money that will never\r\npay for the loss of Iraqi children, of the dead wrapped in plastic from\r\nAbu Ghraib prison, of the nameless held blindfolded in\r\nGuantánamo, of the immigrants rounded up and the Black youth\r\npressed up against walls or shot down in the streets, of the wire-taps\r\nand police spies, and feds demanding lists of women who've had\r\nabortions, of the Christian foot-soldiers whipped up by Mel Gibson's\r\nugly Passion<\/i> , and I imagine how scary the world will be if this\r\nspreads--if they are allowed a free hand to continue. That is totally\r\nunacceptable; no short-term fear tactics or lies should be allowed to\r\nobscure this.<\/p>\r\n Besides, the future is not written yet and I believe our world's\r\nworth fighting for--and I know there are millions and millions who can\r\nbe won to fight too. I close my eyes and see the young people pounding\r\nthe pavement through urban streets, the librarians shredding records to\r\nprotect people's privacy, the millions who have just gone to Michael\r\nMoore's movie. I think of the outpourings across oceans and continents\r\nand I hear Bob Avakian's voice, \"We don't have to hide from the future\r\nbecause the future belongs to us if we dare to rise up.\" And I believe\r\nhim!<\/p>\r\n\r\n And I know, because he taught me, that never does an empire more\r\nneed the timid acquiescence of the people than they do at a time of\r\nwar, when they are extending their reach, because even while they look\r\ntheir most vicious and powerful, in reality they are vulnerable. And I\r\nknow, because he taught me, that \"one of the things that leads to a\r\nrevolutionary situation is that millions and millions of people feel\r\nthe situation is intolerable. They want certain leaders at the top of\r\nsociety to lead them in doing something about it, but those leaders are\r\nnot in position to and don't want to lead them in doing it so whom do\r\nthey turn to? The people who are willing and determined to lead them to\r\ndo it and to take it somewhere.\" And I know, and I've seen for myself,\r\nthat Chairman Avakian is the leader who could do this and that if we\r\nspread his voice and influence, with his leadership we can take it\r\nsomewhere that we'd all want to live!<\/p>\r\n So my mind races to the future--where our opposition has grown\r\nfiercer and more deeply rooted. Where we establish a dynamic that with\r\nevery new lie and every new crime we call forward more outrage and more\r\nresistance. So that the more we oppose them, the more desperately they\r\nlash back, but the more they do this, the more outrage we bring forth.\r\nWhere no longer is their use of force--around the world or at home\r\nagainst immigrants or the youth or the resistance in the streets--seen\r\nas justifiable, and this begins to undermine their ability to rule. And\r\nat the right time-- those who've been preparing can lead millions to\r\nrise up and claim the future.<\/p>\r\n And I think: NOW! Now is the time that the future gets shaped--the\r\nmore powerfully we challenge them, the more trouble they'll have.<\/p>\r\n In particular, soon<\/i> , just next month--when the cowboy in the\r\nWhite House comes to New York with his crew for a showdown, we must\r\nread our lines like the old black-and-white westerns and say to this\r\nwhole vicious juggernaut, \"There isn't room enough on this planet for\r\nthe both of us.\" Just as they are trying to coax people back into their\r\nelection trap, at the moment when the Bush gang seeks to reaffirm their\r\ncourse and strengthen its base of support--a raging river of humanity\r\nin the streets of New York City must rip off the coronation cloak and\r\ncrown with a mighty NO! The would-be king of the twin-towers must be\r\nstripped of any right to claim that he speaks for or acts in our\r\ninterests, or in our name.<\/p>\r\n We must issue a refusal--by more than a million--to live our\r\nlives as normal as long as \"our\" government continues to plunder the\r\nplanet in illegitimate, immoral wars! A refusal--by more than a\r\nmillion--to sit by and let the machinery of elections and democracy\r\n\"take its course\"! A refusal-- by more than a million--to submit to the\r\ngrowing Christian fascist morals and enforcement at every level of\r\nsociety. A refusal--by more than a million--to stand by as Arabs,\r\nMuslims and South Asian are rounded up.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\r\n The NO! must be so massive, so determined that it cannot be hidden,\r\ndenied or misrepresented.It must echo around the world helping\r\nbreak people out of the dead-end choices of McWorld and Jihad. It must\r\nresound within the halls of power, contributing to contradictions among\r\nthe rulers which have not yet, but could potentially as things develop,\r\ndeepen more fully into splits among them--making it harder for them to\r\ngo forward, and hastening the conditions for them to be stopped. This\r\nNO! must reach people's ears and their hearts across the\r\ncountry--firming up their outrage and repudiation of the whole Bush\r\nprogram and calling forth more anger and opposition into the streets\r\nand throughout society as the rulers press forward with their crimes\r\nagainst the world.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\r\n I turn back to the newspaper I bought on the corner and at the end\r\nof the article I find a story which holds promise. A man named Hamed\r\nreturns to the military office, walks up to the soldier behind the desk\r\nand he throws down his five $100 bills. He says, \"It's no good and I\r\nwon't accept any of it\".and we must say that too. I picture again the\r\nlegacy of those dead presidents. The millions dead in the middle\r\npassage, the whip and the auction block, the smallpox blankets handed\r\nout to the Native Americans, and the mass graves from Guatemala to El\r\nSalvador, from the Philippines to Vietnam, of the millions turned to\r\nshadows under the atom bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I\r\nthink--Let's have none of it, let's throw it all back!<\/p>\r\n\r\n What if we could be the ones to bring this bloody history to an end?\r\nWhat if Iraq was one of the last crimes they never<\/i> get away\r\nwith? What if now, in our resistance, we can begin their undoing? What\r\nif soon, in our lifetimes, people could taste a better world?<\/p>\r\n If we want that--we must fight for it. We must call forward all our\r\nstrength, more than a million for whom every day seems like a\r\nnightmare. We must say--WAKE UP! The future is waiting!<\/p>\r\n Not \"just a protest,\" not a \"showing,\" or a token objection--but\r\nMORE THAN A MILLION in the most massive, most love-filled, most\r\npowerful outpouring this country has ever seen. Someday, they'll write\r\nsongs about it--and remember it in legends. We must give them that\r\nchance--we must seize new ground on August 29, setting things in motion\r\nthat can bring this agenda of horrors to a halt. A denial of the\r\nmandate that the rulers so desperately need. An obstacle in their path\r\nas they try to bludgeon the world. A promise--to our planet and to the\r\nfuture--that we will fight till we win. A gathering of strength so that\r\none day soon<\/i> we will.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\nThis article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker\r\nOnline
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\r\n<\/div>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"We must issue a refusal--by more than a million--to live our lives as normal as long as "our" government continues to plunder the planet in illegitimate, immoral wars! A refusal--by more than a million--to sit by and let the machinery of elections and democracy "take its course"! A refusal-- by more than a million--to submit to the growing Christian fascist morals and enforcement at every level of society. A refusal--by more than a million--to stand by as Arabs, Muslims and South Asian are rounded up.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/07\/114603.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":114615,"heading":"fresca","article":"That's all fine and good you hysterical whining commie but the facts are the facts:\r\n\r\nWe were attacked AGAIN by arab\/muslim subhumans on 9-11 and enough was enough.\r\n\r\nNow we are finally committed to killing as many of these animals as possible.\r\n\r\nGet used to it.\r\n\r\nIt's the absolute correct thing to do.","author":"yeah...uh..","parent_id":114603,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-07-25 00:18:18","modified":"2004-07-25 00:18:18","fileurl":""},{"id":114621,"heading":"drivel","article":"Ignore this stupid marxist drivel.\r\n\r\nanother dope's lame claptrap which needs a-launchin' down the memory hole","author":"tailgunner","parent_id":114603,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-07-25 02:14:19","modified":"2004-07-25 02:14:19","fileurl":""},{"id":114629,"heading":"DNC!","article":"If they were serious, they'd focus their organizing on the protests at the Democratic national convention.\r\n\r\nThink about it. By supporting this big demo, they're just legitimizing the anti-Bush strategy, while implicitly supporing the Kerry position in favor of the occupation.","author":"more rational","parent_id":114603,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-07-25 08:31:58","modified":"2004-07-25 08:31:58","fileurl":""}]}