Bush says "Stay the course."
The People say "Troops Out Now!"

Now, more than ever, it is vital that the antiwar movement be in the streets. The Troops Out Now Coalition is joining with the September 24 National Coalition, which includes the National Council of Arab-Americans (NCA), the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, the Haiti Support Network, the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, and the National Lawyers Guild, in order to help build a unified demonstration against the war.

In his June 28th, 2005 speech, President Bush made it clear once again that he intends to continue the criminal war and occupation of Iraq, in defiance of international law and the will of the people.

It should be clear to everyone by now that corporate-owned politicians will not and cannot stop the war. Only a massive peoples' resistance can stop the war.

Bush's speech was a rerun of Nixon's Novemeber 1969 "Vietnamization" speech. Delivered at a time when antiwar sentiment was sweeping the nation, Nixon's speech desplayed asolute contempt for the will of the people, for international law, and for the facts on the ground. He claimed that the U.S. was making great progress in training South Vietnam's security forces, and that attacks by the resistance were decreasing.

None of this was true then, and it isn't true now in Iraq.

Bush's speech could have been written by the same speechwriter. It made the same misrepresentations and laid out the same course -- a course of continued violence, torture, and repression.

We must do everything within our power to build a united front to bring the troops home now. On September 24, tens of thousands of activists will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand "Troops Out Now!"

The Troops Out Now Coalition is working with local and national organiztions, as part of The September 24 National Coalition for the March on Washington, to build a massive united presence on September 24.

We will be organizing buses, vans, car caravans, and peace trains from all over the country to flood the streets of Washington.

Now is a critical time--military recruiting is down, Bush's approval ratings are plummeting, and opposition to the war is growing. It is up to us to make that opposition a potent force on the streets. What we do now can make a difference, and we have a responsibility to turn up the heat.

The Troops Out Now Coalition Statement on September 24 raises the following critical points:

• The vital importance of building a united front against the war. Our emphasis needs to be on building a large, militant antiwar movement that is capable of stopping the war. TONC renews its appeal to the small but influential forces in the antiwar movement who refused to work together for the fall and beyond to reverse their positions and help unleash the full mass potential of the struggle to shut the war down.
• That building a united movement means including, not excluding the struggles of oppressed people. Support for the Right of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their original homes and property in all of historic Palestine is not negotiable.
• That unity means much more than organizational unity. It means, more importantly, that the antiwar movement reaches out to and embraces the struggles of oppressed people here and internationally. It means solidarity with the struggle of communities of color, with LGBT communities, with immigrants, and with struggles against racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression. It means solidarity with the people of Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, the Philippines, and everywhere that people are struggling against U.S. colonial occupation.
• That the antiwar movement needs to look to new and more effective tactics to stop the war. Activists have raised the slogan "Troops Home Now, or We'll Shut It Down!" and discussed the idea of declaring a moratorium against the war, including walkouts, civil disobedience, and other direct actions to bring the cities to a stop until the war is ended.
• That the struggle to end the war will be won by mobilizing a massive movement in the streets. Counting on elections and pro-war politicians to end the war is, at best, a misdirection of time, energy, and resources. Only the people will stop the war. To that end, it is important to immediately begin planning and mobilizing now for the September 24 March in Washington DC, the Millions More Movement events on the weekend of October 14-16, and the Moratorium Against the War.