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October 27th - Los Angeles

Here's a photo of part of the WCW contingent in L.A. There was a great spirit in the air that day, with many young people participating. Highlights included the powerful die-in that kicked off the rally and the empassioned speech by Mark Ruffalo, with an orange scarf in his raised fist. 100 people signed up with WCW, and we sold all of our picket signs and buttons, and distributed 9,000 flyers in packets. Orange was worn by many with bandanas and orange flagging tape as headbands and armbands.

Actor Mark Ruffalo spoke for World Can’t Wait in Los Angeles, and is shown here with Ron Kovic, the Vietnam veteran of “Born of the 4th of July”.

See Mark speaking here. Mark said: “I’ve been around the world in the last eight months, and I’m telling you, the eyes of the world are on us! The world can’t wait another 13 months of bloodshed, and another illegal war and another act of American supported terrorism.

The World Can't Wait at the protest at USC against IFAW* speaker, Ann "I want to kill them all" Coulter. Check out the LA Times, Thursday 10-25-07, p. 2 of California section

* Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

JANUARY 27th BRINGS OUT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS NATIONWIDE:

A Swell of Opposition to the War

1/28/07: Just weeks after Bush announced his escalation of the Iraq war, massive numbers of people came out to protest to demand the war stop on January 27. The rally in Washington, DC brought people from 40 states, with crowd estimates ranging from tens of thousands (by the mainstream news media) to hundreds of thousands. In Los Angeles and San Francisco thousands came out to protest, and rallies were held in cities and towns across the country. Read more...

January 27th in Los Angeles:

On January 27th about 3,000 people marched, rallied and braved the rain in Los Angeles to demand an end to the war NOW in an anti-war protest endorsed by over 100 groups. The day before, the LA Times had run an article mainly about the coming protest in Washington, D.C. but within it (and in the title) mentioned the protest in Los Angeles, and gave the details of time, place and 2 main speakers. Radio news and interviews ran several spots before and after the protest about D.C., LA and other cities. Several people said they first heard about a big march happening in D.C. and then went on the internet to find out if there was one in L.A. People of all nationalities and ages came out, a lot of activists, but some for the first time. One older couple said they had never demonstrated before, but with the troop escalation, “this is not what we voted for, so we felt we needed to be here to express our anger.” Some of the main questions people posed were: How can we stop Bush and Cheney (and part of that is, why is he still in office)? How can we get more people? And where are the students?

Iraqi war veterans had a powerful contingent leading the March, as well as military families against the war and Vietnam veterans. Cindy Sheehan and Ron Kovic led the march, and rallied the crowd. Some of the biggest cheers and chants for “Strike!” came when a WCW youth activist, welcomed to the stage by Cindy Sheehan, read the statement from UC Santa Barbara students and faculty calling for a student strike on February 15th. WCW organized an orange jumpsuit contingent under the slogan, “Stop the War Now – Impeach Bush for War Crimes!”, distributed close to 10,000 Calls, collected sign-ups and sold Bush Crimes Commission DVD’s. One organizer felt the people who signed up were mainly not only wanting information, but were looking for a way to act to drive out the Bush regime and stop this madness.

Yahoo News

LA Indymedia

An initial report on October 5th protests from Sunsara Taylor of the World Can’t Wait Advisory Board with input from Prachi Noor of the World Can't Wait national steering committee.

Something new is rising - a movement of thousands of very diverse kinds of people from hundreds of cities and towns across the country who see the need to drive the Bush regime from power and are taking responsibility to do it. These thousands are consciously breaking with the dominant pattern of day by day accommodating to new outrages. Many of them feel very acutely that the fate of humanity is hinging on what people living in this country do now, but this is not weighing them down. Instead, they are shaking off denial and despair and stepping into unfamiliar territory of taking history into their own hands - and they are expressing a lot of joy and determination at having connected with a nation-wide movement to drive the Bush regime from power. Read More...

March 17th Anti-War Protest in LA

10,000 demonstrators converged at the corner of Hollywood and Vine on a balmy seventy-degree day in Los Angeles, and marched the streets of Hollywood to the sound of drums with a churning determination. The crowd reflected a variety of perspectives, from urging others to achieve inner peace, and running a full spectrum all the way to demanding an end to the war and impeachment, of not just Bush and Cheney, but of the entire regime. “The whole gang!” one man kept calling to the crowd, as they responded with wild shouts of agreement. There were young and old, families with baby strollers, and representatives from Asian, Middle Eastern, Latino, and Chicano groups. There were Democrats, Greens, Teachers, Religious groups and Progressive Democrats.

Protester in orange jumpsuit and black hood, kneeling

World Can't Wait was there in full spirited force, with a contingent that was led by orange jumpsuited activists in hoods (to represent Guantanamo detainees), followed by big orange drums beating out a rhythm to the chants that were full voiced and loud. “STOP IRAQ WAR, NO IRAN WAR, IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH CHENEY AND BUSH!” Behind them came “the Bush Regime”; huge paper machet heads of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice worn by new WCW volunteers with black and white striped prison suits. Other activists would shout...”Look out! Criminals on the loose!” The crowd would hiss and boo, as chanting would switch to “CRIMINALS! CRIMINALS! IMPEACH THE CRIMINALS!”

NEW THINGS:

New Voices Advocating for Driving Out the Regime

Snowballing Momentum in the Weeks Leading Up to October 5th

PAID ADVERTISEMENTS

MEDIA

QUESTIONS

Which future we get is up to us

Other Actions:

Bakersfield

On Sunday July 30th, World Can't Wait was in Bakersfield to protest In God We Trust - America's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the motto: "In God We Trust" and the displaying of those words in their city council chambers.
Read more...

October 5th, 2006 in Los Angeles

The World Can't Wait / LA rally October5 / "Cold Criminals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVfc-P7eqLA

View a slide show of photos from the Los Angeles event taken by Stephen Sakulsky

January 31st Bush Step Down March And Rally

Email your pictures, feedback, articles from the Bush Step Down march and rally to worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com. You can also post your reports to la.indymedia.org or www.actionla.org or as a letter-to-the-editor or op-ed piece submission to a local paper.

Also checkout the national website www.worldcantwait.org for reports from around the country.

Preliminary Los Angeles Report:

They came with drums, pots and pans, trumpets, clarinets, cans filled with beans, noisemakers of all sizes, shapes and sounds - young, old, of all nationalities and backgrounds - with one simple demand: BUSH STEP DOWN!

About 3,000 people gathered and marched in Los Angeles to refuse to recognize this regime and to drown out Bush’s lies. The march was led by the Aztec dancers, and when it took off from Hollywood and Highland, many tourists and shoppers from all over the world who hadn’t heard of the protest joined in. The Watts drum corps had organized in south central and put out their own call to take up the demand, Bush Step Down; and there was a significant number of black people, old and young, in the crowd. The high school youth were once again in the lead - with several walk-outs that we know of and over 27 schools in the house. Many youth had come to the office for materials and organized friends and others when they heard of the protest through My Space. About 7 or 8 colleges that we know of mobilized, including: Cerritos College Mecha, who have been actively organizing against the Minutemen hunting down of immigrants at the border and who wrote a call to all activists to take up the World Can’t Wait; Occidental College students from “Oxi Conscious” who have been holding “Bloody Mondays” on their campus against the nomination of Alito and sounding the alarm about the attack on women’s reproductive rights - and who bought their tickets to Washington, D.C. as soon as they heard about it - and called on everyone to do the same. But not far behind were the 60's generation people who remembered driving out Nixon, and grandparents who don’t want to see a world of war and torture for their grandchildren.

Speakers and performers included: actress Lucia Marano reading Eve Ensler’s poem, “Fire His Ass” and who later did a dramatic reading of a major statement from Gore Vidal; Rev. Lewis Chase; Dolly Veale (Revolutionary Communist Party, USA); Jane & Jim Bright (Gold Star Families); Blase Bonpane (Office of the Americas); Dwight Trible (jazz vocalist); rap producer Fredwreck reading Harry Belafonte’s statement to the Bush Crimes Commission; Suzanne Gage (Progressive Health Services); Jan Lundberg (energy conservation advocate from Culturechange.org); Jim Lafferty (Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Guild, L.A. Chapter); Rev. Meri Ka Ra Byrd (KRST Unity Center).

The event was covered by all the major media channels, college newspapers, alternative press and many international press, including a pre-rally interview on CNN spanish from Atlanta. Scattered reports so far: Indy Media, L.A. called to report they had put up major coverage on their website and that they had seen a very favorable report on Channel 5, KTLA. Some students reported watching Channel 11 Fox news, that had more coverage of the protest than of the State of the Union, and closed their report for the evening by saying, “We were skeptical at first, but Nixon was forced to resign - these people may have a point.” On to Washington, D.C.!

Jan 31st Bush Step Down Reports on la.indymedia.org

Photos from Bush Step Down rally in Hollywood by Pacifist Vegan Frog
BuSh gets Drowned Out in Hollywood & VIDEO: Music at Hollywood protest by A
protest pictures by patrick allers
VIDEO: Anti-BuSh Protest in Hollywood by A
Report on Bush Step Down in LA by World Can't Wait--LA
Protest: Bush Step Down in Hollywood by Marcus | | WORLD CANT WAIT - PROTEST HOLLYWOOD, CA by Stephen Sakulsky

Close to 2,000 people marched in the streets of Hollywood tonight in respond to Bush's speech. The protest initiated by worldcantwait.net drew a diverse group of people all in agreement that the Bush administration is a failed presidency and that he and his administration must be removed from office. The slogan “The world can’t wait” is derived from the idea that if the people wait for the 2008 election it may be to late. The protest and march was militant and noisy, yet peaceful. There have been no reports of police violence or arrests.

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Check out the November 2nd Reports