The World Can't Wait (WCW) is a coalition group in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

dedicated to mobilizing mass resistance to what it describes as crimes committed by the US government.2010 Statement Crimes Are Crimes No Matter Who Does Them
/ref> Initially formed as an ad-hoc coalition to organize mass protests to force the

George W. Bush Administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...

from office, WCW has also protested against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the continued operation of the

Guantanamo Bay prison The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...

, the use of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

by the U.S. government under both the Bush and Obama administrations, and against anti-abortion groups and legislation.

History

Formation and ''Call''

World Can't Wait was officially formed in September 2005, at a meeting of hundreds in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

chaired by Sunsara Taylor and Debra Sweet, two activists and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. WCW attempted during the Bush years to create a mass popular movement strong enough to force George W. Bush and Richard Cheney from office in disgrace. According to its original (2005) mission statement, by organizing people living in the United States, WCW seeks "to create a political situation where the Bush administration's program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking U.S. society is reversed." This statement, known as the "Call" was signed by prominent people in both activist circles and in the arts, such as

Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor. He began acting in the late 1980s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play ''This Is Our Youth'' (1996) and drama film ''You Can Count on Me'' (2000) ...

, Cindy Sheehan,

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released th ...

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

, and

Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is known for his tenure with the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, Morello was a membe ...

, among thousands of others. WCW levied many accusations against the Bush administration, including: the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

, prisoner abuse, torture of military detainees, the abrogation of their rights to habeas corpus, ubiquitous domestic wire-tapping and surveillance activities ordered personally by the President, the administration's response to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

, and the administration's support for anti-abortion legislation which they state has a basis in the goals of the

Christian Right The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation ...

. WCW has been described as a Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) "affiliate". WCW was initiated by the RCP. Its website said it had "Greens, Christians, Republicans, anarchists, Muslims, Jews, feminists, Democrats, pacifists, and people who claim no affiliation" as members. Organizing in high schools, college campuses and on the Internet, by October 2006, the group gathered 24,000 supporters, including actor

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. List of awards and nominations received by Sean Penn, His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Gl ...

, writers

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for ''The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histor ...

and

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

, Democratic state assemblyman Mark Leno and anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, and was able to organize protests in 150 cities across the United States, Canada and Switzerland. According to WCW director Debra Sweet, "In the beginning, we were what you might call the voice-of-conscience usual suspects. Since then, we've been opening our umbrella wider." World Can't Wait stated during the 2008 presidential race that

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

would not be a redemptive figure.

Activities Post-Bush Administration

In 2009 the WCW adopted a new mission statement that incorporated the major elements of its original statement and ended with: “This direction cannot and will not be reversed by leaders who tell us to seek common ground with fascists, religious fanatics, and empire. It can only be possible by the people building a community of resistance - an independent mass movement of people - acting in the interests of humanity to stop, and demand prosecution, of these crimes.” In the fall of 2010 WCW took out an ad entitled "Crimes Are Crimes No Matter Who Does Them," stating that the Obama administration "either continued Bush policies or went even further than Bush". The ad appeared in the ''New York Review of Books'', ''The Nation'' and the ''New York Times''. WCW shares a mailing address on West Broadway with Refuse Fascism.

Events organized

* November 2, 2005: Demonstrations attended in protest of the anniversary of the 2004 presidential elections; some 2,000 participate in each of the

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

events, with 1,200 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. * January 31, 2006: Demonstrations attended in protest of President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a Joint session of the United States Congress, joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning ...

address. * February 4, 2006: Demonstration in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

outside the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. * May 12, 2006: Demonstration at Wachovia Stadium to protest

Battle Cry A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religio ...

. * January 4, 2007: Rally in Upper Senate Park in Washington, D.C. at noon on the opening day of the

110th United States Congress The 110th United States Congress was a List of United States Congresses, meeting of the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, between January 3, 2007, and J ...

. * January 23, 2007: Demonstrations attended in protest of Bush's

address. * February 17, 2007: "Emergency Summit to Impeach Bush for War Crimes" was held in New York City. * January 18, 2009: Disruption of

Rick Warren Richard Duane Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder of Saddleback Church, an evangelical Baptists, Baptist megachurch in Lake Forest, California. Since 2022, he serves as execut ...

's King Memorial Speech, Atlanta.Rick Warren protestors diverge over tactics at Ebenezer
''Atlanta Progressive'' 18 January 2009 * March 19, 2009: First national day of protest against the wars under President

. New York City event including a rally at Union Square and a march to the US Armed Forces Recruiting Center in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

. * December 1 and 2, 2009: World Can’t Wait participated, with other groups, in the demonstrations outside Obama’s West Point announcement of the increase in troops to Afghanistan, and the protests in New York City the day after.

References

External links