How do we get two million people to DC on January 6, 2005?

[Karmadillo]

We can't count on the corporate media to generate turnout. Stealing votes from Democrats, especially African-American Democrats, is simply a non-issue. In the land of the free, photo op trips to Iraq will always trump serious allegations of election fraud.

Can concerned groups, the NAACP, DU, and others I'm not aware of, network together to actually turn out large numbers of people? Right now, I'm thinking they can't. I certainly haven't seen the public efforts that might inspire large numbers to suffer the inconvenience of a trip to DC in the middle of winter.

So what do we do? If we do nothing, we'll be left with the couple of hundred or few thousand turnout we've seen at recent protests. This does us absolutely no good and just reinforces fence-sitters' inertia since they can then say, "See? There was no point in my going. No one else showed up, either."

For this to work, we need to have a fairly good guarantee in advance that hundreds of thousands or millions will show up. This will get the fence-sitters out of their homes and into buses. As much as I like to think movements need to be run by the grassroots, something like this will take the kind of leadership that can use the media for its own purposes. I think this means a united Democratic Party, led by John Kerry and John Edwards, asking Americans to come to Washington DC to demand electoral reform.

The election of 2000 was stolen. The Democrats said nothing and even refused to raise the issue this year. As a result, the election of 2004 may have been stolen. Yes, the corporate media pretends everything is fine (and for their corporate masters, that is, indeed, the case). Yes, the corporate media will wonder why the Democrats are rocking the boat. So what? The corporate media will never be the friend of a reform movement dedicated to reducing the power of the ruling elite. If we wait for its support, we'll be waiting forever. There comes a time when waiting for a more propitious moment to act is not evidence of wisdom as much as it is evidence of cowardice.

We simply can't allow party officeholders elected with our time and our money and our votes to sit on their hands while the Bush Administration proceeds to dismantle everything that ever made this country something to believe in. Even if we can't reverse the results of this election (though as long as the recounts and lawsuits are still in process, there's no point giving up hope), we can start laying the groundwork for free and fair elections in 2008. Two million people in DC on January 6, 2005 supporting Senators who refuse to accept this year's tainted results can begin the process. Continued silence and inaction our part can kill it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Follow the examples...

Of the organizers of the 60s and 70s.

I assure you that the right does.

[Karmadillo]

3. That's a little before my time. What, in particular, did they do?

Having the Vietnam War and the draft to worry about must have inspired more than a few to turn out for protests, but were they any organizational techniques we could use today?

Thanks.

[YvonneCa]

2. January 6th in Washington D C

We need to notify local grassroots organizations. Many of us regularly receive e-mail from local Democratic Party organizations, most of which seem to know nothing about the protest on January 6th.:hi: