There were two red marches on Saturday, the one on Oak, and the one on Clark. There was an effort toward a red march on Dearborn/State, but it was aborted by the police, first with resistance, and then with permission.

The Clark Street march may have started the day as "green", but it was red when they hit the street.

At that point, the organizers had agreed with the cops on a Dearborn route. Dearborn was now green, and Clark was red. The people in the park just decided to hit Clark, without consulting anyone else. They were tired of waiting.

The police were unprepared for that, and very nervous about it. Most of their forces were on Dearborn. But the Clark Street marchers just plunged ahead, oblivious to both cops and organizers.

The cops went along with the Clark Street march because they had no choice. They simply didn't have the manpower on Clark to stop it -- most of their manpower was tied up on Dearborn. Only a hastily-arranged skeleton crew was on Clark. We greatly out-numbered them -- there wasn't much they could do to us.

These people on Clark understood that, if you hit the street with enough people, noise and color, without warning, the cops really have no choice but to go along with it. I don't think it was any accident that the Rat Patrol, and the Band, both experienced with un-permitted street demonstrations, were central to the Clark Street march. As it was, the Clark street march made it to the Federal Plaza a lot quicker, because we moved at our own pace, and weren't bogged down with horses and Ninjas in the front.

The Clark street marchers should be proud of themselves. They did an end-run around the police, and the organizers. They did what they wanted to, without getting anyone's permission, And they did it with a spontaneous consensus, which worked very effectively.

The cops didn't split us. We split the cops.

The anarchists were on Clark.