The National Mourning Day Project is a trident of 3 components:

The Counter-Inauguration Womens’ March and Funeral Procession is a collaboration of Code Pink, Ladies of Liberty, Not In our Name, (THAW) Theaters Against War, Mouths Wide Open, Artists and Activists United for Peace, Artists Network for Refuse and Resist, NOW, and various other political and art activist groups. We have synthesized a protest march in the theme of a funeral to mourn the multiple blows that the reinstallation of a Bush regime will deal to foundational causes of the progressive community. These causes include: reproductive rights, gay rights, environmental concerns, civil liberties eroded by the Patriot Act, social security, principles of inclusion, freedom from arbitrary imprisonment, respect for international law, respect for sovereign nations and peoples, and any hope for the possibility of a path to a more enlightened future for America.

The National Mourning Day Statement is a text decrying the havoc Bush has wreaked to the foundation of progressivism in America, and calling for the Inauguration Day to be an unequivocal National Day of Mourning. It is being signed by various university professors, intellectuals, artists, activists, lawmakers, non-profit and NGO leaders, and will serve as a text around which to galvanize and re-coalesce resistance against Bush, post election ‘04. It posits a no-compromises attitude towards Bush that says the antiwar and progressive movement will not moderate its message.

The National Day of Mourning Work Stoppage is calling upon people nationwide to not go into work, school, or otherwise business as usual, to mourn the reinstallation of the Bush regime. Thus far over 100 signatories and groups have agreed to not go into work on January 20 in response to the National Mourning Day Project call for a work stoppage.

These three components reinforce and reverberate in each others’ purposes. The fact that there is a populist march and protest rally against the Bush regime is reinforced by the fact that a statement is being signed by the intelligentsia that searingly indicts his administration’s misdeeds. The fact that a statement is circulating amongst the protest and intellectual community is reinforced by the fact that there is a march on the ground and a work stoppage in the office world. The fact that there is a work stoppage in the office world is reinforced by the fact that there is statement and a march on the ground. Together, these three elements create a tour-de-force of resistance against the reinstallation of Bush that cannot and will not be ignored.

The opening firing shots of the renewal of the war against Bush will be fired on Inauguration Day. We are at a historically critical juncture, where a second Bush term could cripple, if not wipe out the bedrock of the foundation of American liberalism (social security, the once taken for granted trajectory of an increasing inclusion of racial and sexual “minorities” in America.). Now more than ever it is crucial that the protest movement create a presence that WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN on Inauguration Day, as the whole world will be warily watching how Americans react to Bush II.

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Andrea Liu :: founder of National Mourning Day Project, author of statement
Sarah Long :: Ladies of Liberty, Womens' March/Funeral Procession Coordinator
Evan Giller :: NYC Union Square Funeral March coordinator
Susan Doran :: DC Organizer of Funeral March
Nancy Mancias :: Code Pink Liaison to Womens' March/Funeral Procession
Connie Julian :: artist consultant
.and many other devoted people too numerous to thank.