Santa Cruz Coronation Protest!

Action Agenda



As you know, this Saturday, Jan. 20th, the Republicans will inaugurate
one more president who doesn't' really represent our interests. The Santa
Cruz organizing team wants you to join us with human billboarding
reaching audiences at the Mission/Chestnut, Town Clock, and Ocean/Water
intersections with our calls for reform. We'll be headquartered with
plenty of signs and partners at the Town Clock at high noon. While we're
billboarding, Art and Revolution will be staging the Coronation of King
George at Cooper St. on the mall. The different groups will all
rendezvous at the Clock at 12.45 for a colorful procession down Water St.
to the Courthouse where we will be met by some of the best speakers from
the progressive community. Come down and join the progressive community
this Saturday at noon for an Un-Inaurguration Extravaganza!



This year the absurdity of the electoral college hit us hard and the
injustice of legally disenfranchising thousands of minority voters, not
to mention Felons, was inescapable in Florida and can no longer be
ignored around the nation. The presidential debate process, clearly of
the utmost public importance, is chained to a private corporation
controlled by some of the worst corporate criminals in the world. Our
entire campaign structure rests squarely on the shoulders of national and
global corporate empires. Half of the voters in this country didn't even
vote, and of the half that did, most voted for the losers. And it's a
good thing for the Nation-State that half the electorate stayed home
because polling places in many parts of the country couldn't even handle
the 51% that did come out. The shame of seeing this go on in a
"developed" nation by a repressive corporate dictatorship, reaching deep
into in our communities is unbearable.

We believe that there is real momentum right now for significant change
in our elections process. We call on our elected representatives
throughout all levels of government to begin action on the following
initiatives:

1) Real Campaign Finance Reform- We're tired of having our most
important choices made by corporations whose sole reason for existence
and for every action, is making a profit either off our wages or off our
backs.
2) Abolition of the Electoral College- It is repulsive to the ideals of
justice that this relic of the slave south, designed to use the huge
slave population to augment the power of southern politicians, is still
controlling our elections 140 years after the Civil War. It's time to
elect our most important representative through a direct democracy vote.

3) Federal Oversight of Elections- It has become abundantly clear that we
cannot rely on state governments to run consistently fair elections.
Poor voting equipment in minority communities, the confusing butterfly
ballot, voter intimidation, all indicate a clear need for uniform voting
mechanisms and federal jurisdiction over the election process.
4) Restore the Vote to the Disenfranchised- All citizens of this country
have an equal right to influence its political future, including felons.
Laws in over a quarter of our fifty states, including our own liberal
California, need to be realigned with the rest of the nation restoring
the right of ex-convicts to vote.

As a nation we must develop mechanisms to facilitate equal participation
in the electoral process by all our citizens. We can begin to achieve
all these changes by channelling the phenomenal energy of disillusioned
Americans after the recent election debacle and coming out to defend our
democracy this Saturday for the Un-Inaurgural Extravaganza.

Hasta la Victoria!