Couple things. First, M19 was organized as part of an international day of action against the war on the 2nd anniversary of the invasion and occupation. Of course other stuff should happen other days. But many groups wanted to organize an M19 action in solidarity with protests going off around the planet. Nothing wrong with that.

Second, tactical communication on the ground needs to be better. I wasn't involved in tactics for day-of, but being a lippy person I admit I put in more than my two cents for State over Dearborn during the pseudo-negotiations. There was no actual 'negotiation' -- the mayor's poodles Mecklenberg and Cline were not going to 'permit' State, Michigan or anything but Dearborn or Clark. Some of the other brass might have been more flexible had they had actual decision-making power, but they didn't, and they won't buck their bosses.

Someone told me about an on-the-fly spokescouncil meeting that some of the anarchists organized that had a lot of utility. Again, we're back to the issue of communication, and more importantly a flexible tactical plan developed on the front end. Can anyone spell text mob? Would have at least allowed some of the people at the back end of the Dearborn assembly to know what was going on on the front end, and even to participate. For that matter, we didn't need 'technology' to do that -- we simply needed to shout back in an organized way what the M19 'negotiators' were discussing with the cops. At least the conversation would have been more participatory.

There were, as far as I know, no formal provisions made for non-violent civil disobedience, or any of the other strategies that have been deployed in other mobilizations under attack from law enforcement in other cities. There were certainly, at least to my eye, not enough people on any line on Dearborn prepared to press back on the police. I personally don't see the utility in suicide moves, and in Chicago it has always been a question at least in part of superior numbers and crafty chess moves on the ground. Autonomously organized strategies set for the gold coast could have been very helpful on Saturday.

It was a bit of a nightmare on Oak and Michigan. I don't think police really wanted a mass arrest situation there, because it would have made them look like the fuck-heads they are. That's why they pushed people west instead with shields and clubs. Minimal arrests, so the cops must have been nice to your constitutional rights after all! It set the stage for the spin they deployed for the rest of the day: "people got to march, people's rights were respected."

No, they weren't, but the police actually REFUSED to arrest several people at Oak and Michigan, including Bill Massey, who tried desperately to go with Andy Thayer when superintendent Cline ordered Thayer's arrest. On the other hand, if three hundred of us would have made a break for the street and laid down in the middle of Michigan Ave., that might have made the difference.

Of course, that would have further stressed out the alderman who shall not be named and others who didn't want the 'anti-war' message to be trumped by the 'free speech' message, as if the two aren't related.

I hate being shoved by billy clubs.