re: m19 2nd anniversary of the invasion and illegal war in iraq

qualification: this is written from the perspective of the third
person however the writers feeling are meant to convey common thoughts
shared by many..

my perspective as a radical/revolutionary:

ignorance i can understand but not willfull ignorance.
the very same people who i would consider willfully ignorant would
find me misguided and deluded. half of them would deny that there were
any problem inherent in the exsiting system- as if wage slavery,
institutional genocide, school shootings, substandard education,
terrorism, nuclear weapons, lack of universal health care and the
decay of civilization can be so easily forgotten. the other half might
admit there was a problem, but thay would shy away accepting open
insurgency against the "legitimate" government as a solution. for
those people working within the system or creating cliques that talk
not act is their solution to change. what they have failed to realize
is that when the mechanism of the state and the reactionary forces
which prop it up have become so corrupted and vile as the exsiting "
evil empire" backed by its legitimizer - the corperate military
industrial entertainment complex, significant change is impossible
without shattering the current power structure.

the trick of it all is this (and this is universally applicable) is
that all sides can make reasonable and logical arguments from their
points of view. therin is the problem wih politics. since it is the
art of compromise, round upon round of discussion ends in no real
solution being acheived. the only time that true change has occurred
has been when an indivdual or a group is willing to die and or kill
for what they believed. absent that basic commitment - a commitment
most are unwilling or unable to make - the exsiting system will
continue its reign of terror and exploitation in one form or another
institutionalizing evil.
better no life than one lived in fear.

the rationalization for these beliefs are that everything has a
starting point. that in revoultuion, (revolt, revolve) there is a
place where things began to turn and that they willl at sometime or
another return to that point.

the turning of the wheel:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bandw which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes thich impel them to the separation. We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal: that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that
mankind are moree disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than
to right themselves by abolishing to forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism. It is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is
now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems
of government. The history of the present king of Great Britian is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To
prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and
necessary for public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and
pressing imporance, unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend them.
He has refused to pass laws for the accommodation of large
districts of poepl unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with
his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause
others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise,
the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states for
that purpose obstruction the laws for naturalization of foreigners,
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and
raising the conditions of new appropriations of land.
He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing hiss
assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of
their offices, and the amount of payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms
of officers to harass our people and eat our their substance.
He has kept amoung us in times of peace standing armies without
the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of, and
superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his
assent to their acts of pretended legislation: for quartering large
bodies of armed troops among us: for protecting them by a mock trial
from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the
inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts
of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for
depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; for
transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretend offenses; for
abolishing the free system of English laws in neighboring province,
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its
boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; for taking
away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering
fundamentally the forms of our governments; for suspending our own
legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his
protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head
of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high
seas to bear arms against their country, to be executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavored to bring the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been
answered only by repeated injury.
A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them
that of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We
have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity and we have
conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these
usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of
consanguinity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which
denounces our separation and hold them, as we hold the rest of
mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, threfore, the representatives of the United States of America
in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free
and independent states: that they are absolved from all allegiance to
the British Cworn, and that all political connection between them and
the state of Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved; and that as
free and independent states, they have full power to levy war,
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which independent states may of right do.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

these causes echo as loudly now as they did on the day they were
writtten and no less meaningful.

amendment 1, the bill of rights
(these are still our rights)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

reflecting on the overall sucess of the j20 counter inaguaral from a
revolutionary's perspective and having worked directly with my local
moderate anti_______ (insert war or anything which is amongst the long
list of causes that brought us together). these activists communities,
for many like me who worked within them to build an unbelievible
nation and worldwide turnout it was a very vindicating moment. the
hours of planning, flyers, testing new ways to accomplish things and
meeting new people. i am sure at times there are those amongst us
who found the the exersise a rocky road with almost every individual
and group having internal agendas that at times seemed to sufficate
the whole reason we came together. that reason, that common cause was
to become our battle cry "bush has no mandate". this was a bold
declaration from both moderate and radical alike to spread aloft the
banner that we no longer recognize the illegal authority vested in the
bush presidency. we took our message to the streets and we shared
with many others in our own towns and cities and also with many others
in solidarity all over the world. then we left the streets. radical
and moderate alike came together and made our voices heard.

so we have patted our selves on the back, and returned to our agendas.
some have kept contact and others have drifted off in to the silence
in pursuit of our own version of action. again we have days ahead
where there have been calls to action, mobilizations across the
country to take place on the second anniversary of this terrible lie
that bleeeds our brothers and sisters lives daily. we as a movement
are a reflection of the great lie that is our american society, we
move from one cause to the next basking breifly in the hard fought
success. we ssek to commoditify our message. we search for headline
grabbers and guest speakers from outside our ranks to express our
motivations for taking to the streets. we should be looking within to
find our rally speakers, after all it us we bring our network of
friends and that provide the numbers for these days of action. it is
those that organize and take the action and passsion of the protest
with them and live it everyday not just act as weekend warriors. it
would go a long way to stregthen and empower the movement as a whole
if local organizers and activists took their individual/collective
message to the stage with the passion and drive that has brought us
all to the streets to begin with. instead we seek pander to the
center of our colalition so that there is no isolation amongst us. we
invite idealogues and mouth pieces of watered down idealism to inspire
us with diluted promises and tired slogans to motivate us to continue
the struggle forth. we need to put our own voices out front, we need
to speak on our behalf and no longer allow this sermon of meaningless
rhetoric. i make these statements not as insult to anyone who may
feel that i am devaluing our efforts, instead i make it as an
obsevation and a suggestion.

presently we appear to ourselves and to the masses that our slogans
are disposable. in doing this we seem to continuosly confuse our
objectives and loose our direction not in only our eyes but in the
eyes of the world. we declared on jan 20 that "bush has no mandate".
did he get one between then and today? no he did not, then why do
we not continue to use this for every point of dissent that we have
with the existing regime? simply put bush has no mandate for war and
occupation in iraq or elsewhere. this should be our voice and our
message, not the endless varations of this one and above all else
important theme.

definitions of terms: moderate & radical

in writing this i wanted it to be both objective and subjective, in
recent years the divide between moderate and radical has began to
close, they have become common cause allies. for me a moderate is one
who is willing to participate in reform of the existing situation.
one who is willing to believe that through this lie of a government
and a travisty of a society that change can be achieved and a better
world can reached. a radical is one who feels that a 359 degree turn
of the wheel is not enough. that only their courage or stupidity will
limit thier actions in defense of their beliefs. thing is these are
common beliefs that both moderate and radical alike share.

action

for me action is a daily thing, it is my life. it is my promise to my
beliefs and as such i feel no problem with being labeled a radical.
however there is no limit to action so long as it taken. if your
action is as simple as putting up flyers, participating in a drum
circle or manufaturing faux coffins to represent our dead brothers and
sisters it just as meaningful as the actions of your radical comrades.
there should be no condemnation from the from either side of our
collective struggle for what actions are engaged in to further our
cause. painfully put "if you want make an omeltte, you must first
crack some eggs". for some this may be a bit extreeme and for others
just another day of action. the whole purpose is action on many
levels and to not discrimnate over what is politically correct or
doesn't alienate others within the colalition. radicals need
understand and accept their role to entire cause that we are the
vanguard, the militant defenders of our movement. modrates let it be
said in this comparison it is the blood and toil of the radical
soldier that gives strength to our collective voice. all action
should be cosidered mutually supporting of the entire cause. action
should not be specific agena orientated after all we as a movement may
have individual motivtions for what brings us to the streets but it is
the same street. no matter if it is globalization, anti-war, anti
neo-con, gay rights, enviromentalism social structure or politics we
all are fighting a common foe. action is the life blood of the
movement the people is its soul.

solidarity

agian i reflect back on the recent past and the growing solidarity by
all elements within the sruggle. i am sure there are many others who
feel similarly that j20 brought out the best in us in regards to
solidarity. radical and moderate alike organized, took the streets
and in d.c . rushed check points. we stood together shoulder to
shoulder on the streets of america in one common voice representing
the spectrum of ideas that brought us together. for me and many of
my comrades this was a rush of optimism an encouraging sensation to
feel that we no longer were are alone in our struggle but that we had
the strength to make a difference. we must consider the wide spread
goodwill and cooperation amongst the factions as a new day in the
efforts of our movement. we must continue this level of solidarity if
we are to succeed in our struggle.

the world looks to us to inspire and to be a beacon yet we fail
miseribly at this both our government and our people are a
disappointment not just to the globe but to us as well. we need to
look at other movements in recent days to inspire our actions. we
plan week-long actions and marches led by figurehead organizers and
mouthpieces. we need to put our people out front and let those in the
trenchs, those that are the ones that bring the turn out in numbers
speak and lead these actions. the passion and the desire of those who
are organizing the struggle are the ones who make it a reality, not
some mediawhore shouting the rhetoric of a long dead idealism. we
need orators not guest speakers. we need to speak our beliefs for our
selfs.

we declared in solidarity on j20 that "bush has no mandate". okay
well what now? this was a bold statement or was it just more
meaningless rhetoric and drivel? if this is our point of action then
we need to begin organizing locally, regionally and then nationally a
counter government. we have already laid our frame work by our local
orgainizing committees. now we just need to again come together in a
strong showing of solidarity as we did for for j20 and put into action
the the follow up to the declaration that "bush has no mandate". if
he has no mandate then there is no government and we need to draft our
own in dissent against the illegal one that is in power.

so we take it to the streets, we march, we chant, we listen to speechs
to inspire us. then we peacibly disperse and return to our daily
lives. why do we do this?
has it not become evident that this is getting less and less response
from the illegal authority and the mainstream press, to them it is
"well the activists are out there again and they'll be gone tomorrow
until the next time". we are losing mometum and have been steadily
since the 99 wto battle for seattle. the security forces of the state
have developed and deployed more and more succesful means to counter
the traditional tactics of the movement. by the time of last years
politcal conventions the creation of free speech zones had all but
sileced the voice of dissent at these traditional venues of protest.

as a radical i theorize and test new means of radical direct action.
i believe in the slogan "of become the media", and i engage in radical
skill shares, seminars and confrences. i also look constantly for
solutions to the efforts of thought police to counter our efforts.
some of these tactics are best kept secret while others are meant for
us all to participate. why do we not instead of just taking to the
streets this time we keep them. we don't leave and go home we stay, i
realize it is not practical for us all but for a small number to do so
and for those who return to their daily lives to support those who
camp out in defiance of the policies we oppose. a small cadre of of
radicals and moderates alike camp out in the city sqaure or a park,
supported by those who continue the daily grind would be a powerful
statement to the regime, it would be an inspiratiion to our movement.
look at the ukrainian protests over their presidential elections,
they protested continuously for weeks, now in lebanon the voice of
dissent to syrain occupation has kept people on the streets for days.
of course how could one forget the tragedy of tiananmen square in
1989. we take to the streets and this time we keep them, we take our
own media as we posses the technology to stream live or provide timely
updates of the scene and with the mainstream media covering the events
the puppets of authority will not dare act in violence to this
demonstration of dissent. it will inspire others to participate, it
will carry our message further than we can hope. and most importantly
it will hellp to educate the people that may be blind to our cause and
gain their understanding and support.

let us take to the street in the upcoming days and for those of who
can lets keep them. these streets are ours not theirs, lets create
our own media coverage, outreach programs, skill shares and confrences
to help to continue this tactic until our voice is irresistible. let
these be peolpes occupations for conventions to create our own counter
government as well as a powerful statement for all to witness.

we will see eachother in the streets but this time i am i staying who
will join me?