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We Must Turn Our Outrage Over Katrina into a Movement
On the 50th Anniversary of Dec. 1, 1955, the day in Montgomery Alabama that Rosa Parks sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement --
A Call for
A National Day of Absence
Against Poverty, Racism, & War
Thursday, December 1
Thursday, December 1
No School * No Shopping * No Work
Continued Protests and Teach-Ins throught Dec. 2 and 3
Mass March on Wall St. in NYC
SHUT THE WAR DOWN
The People of New Orleans and the Gulf Must Control the Rebuilding, not Bush's Rich Friends!
Solidarity with Katrina Survivors - We demand an Independent Investigation
A Job at a Living Wage is a Human Right
Healthcare, Housing and Education, not war and occupation
Bring the Troops Home Now
Healthcare, Housing, and Education -- Not War and Occupation
The Outrage in New Orleans is a clarion call to the antiwar movement and the grassroots:
The time has arrived to take our struggle to a higher level. Let us work together and organize a National Day of Absence against Poverty, Racism and War on Dec. 1, 2005, the 50th anniversary of the day that Rosa Parks helped launch the modern civil rights movement – no work, school, or shopping – continued protest through Dec.2 and 3 – and a Mass March on Wall Street in New York City. It is time for the people to demonstrate that they can stop business as usual coast-to-coast when justice requires the people to do so.
We owe it to the victims of Katrina, to poor and working people, to the world and to ourselves to find the way to help turn the outrage over Katrina into a mass grassroots movement for social justice, the likes of which this country has not seen for some time. Moreover, it is vitally necessary, and much more possible now, to forge real unity on a phenomenal scale between the movement against the war and the movements of African Americans, people of color, and poor and working people in a struggle for economic, social and political rights.
The war and occupation of Iraq and the Katrina outrage have demonstrated to the world the urgent necessity for fundamental change and a movement that is big enough and determined enough to achieve the goal. Katrina has exposed the ugly truths about class and race, poverty, war and militarism. Our solidarity with demands of the survivors of Katrina must evolve from empathy, charity and symbolism to a mighty social force to be reckoned with. Key to this mighty potential will be the forging of a strong alliance with activists and leaders within the African American community in the Gulf States, taking direction from them regarding the kind of solidarity that they need and the demands they are making. Our demand to end the war in Iraq and to bring the troops home now must be backed up by the kind of mass tactics that signal that we mean business.
Fifty years ago, Black people in Montgomery, Alabama were forced by law to sit in the back of public buses, and give their seats to any white person who demanded it. When Rosa Parks, a garment worker and civil rights activist, refused to give up her seat to a white man, she sparked the Montgomery bus boycott against segregation on public buses, one of the most successful and truly mass boycotts in history. The Montgomery bus boycott also introduced to the world a young reverend named Martin Luther King Jr., who became the boycott’s principal public leader.
A Dec. 1 Day of Absence Working Committee was set up at a Sept. 10 Natl. Strategy Meeting of the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) attended by more than 100 activists. The working committee will develop outreach and building plans for the Dec. 1 Day of Absence.
Dec. 1 Rosa Parks National Day of Absence Against Poverty, Racism and War -- Initiating Organizations: Troops Out Now Coalition, Million Worker March Movement, Teamsters National Black Caucus, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice.