J writes - " It's a crock only if you guage your effectiveness by your confrontation of the cops. The Clark street people weren't there to confront the cops. Sure, there was more confrontation on Dearborn, but that was the permitted march at that point. The Clark Street people were there to march. And they marched where they wanted to, and not where the cops told them to."

Well, J, just in case you were out of town, or just not following developments aroun M-19 too closely, the City of Chicago demanded that protesters abandon any effort to march down Michigan and instead comply with the city's alternative proposal for a rally at Bug House Square and a march route down Clark weeks ago.

The M-19 Coalition vowed not to comply with the city's demand to march down Clark St under any circumstances. The appeal for an emergency injuction against the City in Federal court alleged accurately that the City's proposal for Clark St was meant to exile protesters into a dead zone, and did not provide comparable exposure to the public. - hence the M-19 Coalition's bottomline about refusing to accept this outrageous demand.

When it became clear that the CPD was determined to prevent a Michigan Ave. march, the M-19 Coalition called for a press conference at Oak and Michigan shortly before noon to condemn the suspension of constitutional liberties in Chicago. They also distributed a flyer on the spot calling on folks concerned about arrest to make their way to Federal Plaza anyway they could if ordered to disperse - except Clark St - and exercise their First Amendment rights to flyer along the way. The flip side of this flyer also contained info on the economic impact of the war in Iraq on Chicago, and the devastating human costs to the Iraqi people. This appeal was targeted at those folks who began arriving at the Oak St/Michigan location for the proposed noon rally, independently of the combined feeder march on Dearborn.

During the negotiations with the stalled feeder march at Oak and Michigan, police tendered the demand that protesters march down either Clark or Dearborn, but rejected demands for State St and threatened mass arrests if marchers refused to comply. Stalemate. Meanwhile, some groups including those trapped inside Bughouse Square, blocked from joining the marchers on Dearborn, decided to move out onto Clark, the only available exit from the Square. This was not the case for the Dearborn marchers, but nevertheless precipitated a move from some groups in the Dearborn march to follow, for a variety of reasons. Eagerness to get to the rally, frustration, and the growing fear of arrest, as the futile negotiations at the head of the march ground on

The CPD command staff at Dearborn and Oak, while initially surprised by the breakway, made no effort to redeploy detachments of riot police being held in reserve two blocks north of the Oak and Dearborn intersection to intercept the Clark St. marchers - quite accurately assessing that these protesters only wanted to get to Federal Plaza for the rally with minimum fuss, and would be no trouble. They did however, dispatch State Police units to block traffic on Clark and prevent any move east to rejoin the Dearborn marchers, or points beyond.

The point has already been made that police were far more concerned about those remaining on Deaborn still locked in stalemated negotiations for State St. - the street next to Michigan with the heaviest foot traffic flow in the Loop. And it's here the cops drew the final line, all too conscious that the corporate media was hovering, waiting for a confrontation.

When it became clear that the police would not budge, the remaining protesters after considerable debate, decided to return down Dearborn - but with a contingency plan to move onto State if the opportunity presented itself. It didn't. No one was happy with this decision. But by doing so at the very minimum, they could keep faith with the overall M-19 committement to avoid Clark St. Both marches ended up returning to Federal Plaza via largely deserted streets. (a fact the Chicago Tribune article on M-19 was at pains to point out) The Sun-Times described the refusal to march down Clark as a 'small victory' for protesters.

So what happened to those folks who arrived at Oak and Michigan who were turned back by the police, but were not part of the drama at Oak and Dearborn? Many headed down via multiple routes - including Rush, State, and in several cases, Michigan Ave, individually or in small groups, flyering along the way. In fact, about 7000 anti-war flyers were distributed this way to people who might not have been exposed to any anti-war message at all if this hadn't happened.

In the final analysis, these folks -- in their ones and twos, moving under the cop radar screen -- may have had the most success in getting the word out. And without having to comply with City demands to march down a depopulated corridor.