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LOCAL Commentary :: Protest Activity

March 19: NorthSide Long March & Account of Downtown

The following is not a complete round-up of M-19-05 in Chicago. It is as reportback from the NorthSide march, and then one organizer's perspective of events. From Urban Guerrilla Blog.
The following is not a complete round-up of M-19-05 in Chicago. It is as reportback from the NorthSide march, and then one organizer's perspective of events. I want to begin with links to other parts of the story:
Chris Geovanis great account

Fight Back's account

Arrests & Discussion of Numbers

Breaking News Archive

Video 1, 2

Audio

Photos 1, 2, 3

Tribune, Sun-Times accounts

"What organizes action?"
Talcott Parsons, as quoted by Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto

Someone was ranting and raving. We were stopped at the Fullerton EL on the Red Line for ten minutes, as the operator walked back to deal with the situation. It was 5:35am, March 19 2005, and every second counted. We were on our way to the Thorndale stop to get to Senn High School to officially begin the NorthSide 15-Mile Long March, while our comrades and channel 7 waited for us.

We did a quick show for their live television audience, and then we began on our way with fifteen activists, including local pacifists who had been protesting the aggression against Viet Nam almost forty years ago, anarchist youth, and others. We sang everything from "Onward Christian Soldier" to "A Las Barricadas" to "L'Internationale" to "It's a Beautiful Morning," with two feigned coffins, black flags and red flags, anti-recruitment signs, and tremendous hope.

North on Glenwood, we took the streets up on Clark and kept them through Devon Avenue, where we stopped to decorate a statue of a soldier by putting a black flag in one hand and a Che banner in the other. We were on and off the streets South on California, and gots lots of support from a community which has been a prime target of mass deportations and the "War of Terrorism." Truckers, cabdrivers and bus operators were especially supportive. In one taxi, the rider shook her head at us, whilst her driver gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and smile. Class struggle in a cab.

We took a right on Foster after passing school children and then made our way up to, no joke, the JOSEPH MCCARTHY MARINE RESERVE TRAINING CENTER (I hate to dissapoint, but it's a different Joseph McCarthy), where we made an unannounced visit that was nevertheless met with several cop cars and five soldiers. "What do we want? Mutiny? When do we want it? Now!"

South on Kimball, half a dozen people were waiting for us at the Brown Line Stop with a large banner that read "No to Military Recruitment" as we turned east onto Lawrence, and a cop stood passing out flyers with the police threat of arrest if we went to Oak & Michigan. It then offered a police-designated route, but the officer had a grin like he knew this was the wrong crowd for that. We laughed off the ludicrous little flyer, and continued on our way to Oak and Michigan.

Our next stop after a stroll down Western (with sympathetic truckers cheering us over their loud speaker) was the military recruitment center across the street from Lane Tech HS, where another ten or so counter-recruitment organizers and anti-war activists were waiting for us in front of CLTV and NBC Channel 5 cameras. Very late, we decided to forego a rest until our next pitstop. The streets were filled with traffic, and we stayed along major thoroughfares to keep visibility in defiance of da Mare's attempts to prevent it. All along the way we flyered people about the big downtown protest.

Finally, we reached Healing Earth at Ashland and Belmont, where we were graciously given food, water, coffee, a bathroom break, and a brief rest. About that time, we started hearing a lot of reports from downtown, and it sounded like the city had prepared a full police state welcome for all of the protesters.

Healing Earth put us in a wealthier neighborhood than we had planned, permitting us a window into the contrasts between the border of the richest neighborhoods in town and our next pit stop: Cabrini Green. Four more joined us on the Halsted side, as we marched over to the militarty recruitment center across the street. Until now, our police escorted averaged two or three squad cars, but many more were awaiting us here. About fifteen more activists were also waiting there, with more banners, including one which defiantly proclaimed "From the Middle East to Michiagan Ave: RESIST" and now it was time to make some hard decisions.

The reports were coming in rapidly. The Gay Liberation Network feeder was being given a dispersal order to our north which was clearly at least in part because of a targeting of Andy Thayer and an attempt to prevent any rally at Oak & Michigan, and the feeders south of the river (the thirty-person South Side march, the Leo Burnett, Israeli Consulate, and other feeders) were surrounded, and the protest at the Colombia Consulate on Michigan Ave (which had a verbal agreement with the cops for a small rally) was also being harassed. We quickly discussed several times, and the overall decision was to make it to Oak and Michigan whereever we might have a chance, but to support the feeders south of the river. We marched south on Dearborn, hoping to meet with the South of the River feeders that were marching north on same. They were right ahead of us, and I quickly noticed Commanders Byrne and Radke were pointing at me directly. We decided best to merge into the larger, northbound group, after all of our failed attempts to move east.

More groups joined us along the way as we moved North toward Oak. At Chicago, the police called in the calvary, cops mounted on horses, and despite a clear promise from Commander Radke to get rid of the horses, they remained the entire way, abused animals dangerously close to a crowd, with one eventually steppping on a protester who was then arrested. I was pulled into pictures by Com. Radke. There were also vicious dogs(which some older protesters opined that they hadn't seen since the 1960s).

The big stall was there, just before Oak, and just after a Bughouse Square, where hundreds more had capitulated to police demands and followed City Hall's rally and route. Funny, if the city is going to propose a rally and march for us, why couldn't Da Mare and other officials show up and build for it. It was a blatant effort to divide the demonstrators.

The police MO is simple: phalanx the protesters, have reinforced strength at the directions you don't want them going (in this case east and north), stop them and begin 'negotiations,' then reinforce your lines while giving their tactical team a run-around. the police, in their patronizing fashion, were led by Radke and their chief legal counsel Sherrie Mecklenberg (I really don't care how you correctly spell her name). As usual, they were merely tools for the fifth floor, and would submit no rationale or explanation for their moronic positions. The point would seem simple, let the protesters go where they want, and they will lead straight to their closing rallying point, but the city is too ideological to listen to common sense. It's victories are based on damaging the morale of the oppposition. So they couldn't give us Michigan- the big victory- nor State- the partial victory- and had to humiliate us to the best of our capacity.

For our tactical team, which was primarily the (replaceable) tactical leadership of each of the feeders with the honorable late addition of Reverend Paul Jakes, since our Oak and Michigan rally had broken down, there was debate, and it hinged largely on the feel of the people. Some sections of crowd demanded State, while others would take the police offer to fall back south down dearborn. All wanted those in Bughouse Square to merge. Impatience and undue tension was setting in. The police claimed they would allow the march to turn around and go southbound down dearborn.

At this point, and for better or for worse, the entirety of the protesters here divided. Most of those in BugHouse Square, as well as many confused participants in the feeders, took down Clark. Intentions differed. Some wanted to capitulate entirely, others believed the police agreement was to circle back onto Dearborn, and others were simply caught up in the crowd. Another section, perhaps two-fifths of the crowd took a slower pace southbound down dearborn, about three or four blocks behind the Clark march. People in the Dearborn march were told by police commanders to communicate with Clark St marchers to go east to Dearborn and merge in, but every time this was tried (re: the police's request was attempted), a scuffle would break out and riot police would cover the eastbound side of an intersection. Debate ensued, and those protesters who desired capitulating won out.

However, as riot police that were lining the Clark march to the east were told that they were obstructing the requests of higher commanders, a sudden look of puzzlement overcame them. But the marches were never allowed to merge. Some militants attempted to break through, and while none were arrested, they were prevented. The police had successfully bisected the crowd, one of their favorite tactics in an arsenal of terrorism.

By now, six or seven had been arrested in different situations, probably so that police could prove that there was some reason to come out with such Evil Empire-style force that included fifteen hundred Imperial stormtroopers. Imperialist Rightwing Goons were pitifully poor at carrying out their 'super-secret' surprise missions, although they provide us with interesting photos and video.

At Federal Plaza, Food Not Bombs/Business quickly emptied their contributions, and the crowd proved that its size ranged from 3500 to possibly 5000 as some had left earlier. Juan Torres spoke about the loss of his soldier son to what the family believes was a secret execution (hundreds of military families from the past fifteen years believe they have evidence proving their sons were executed while in the military), representatives from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Palestinian activists, Iranian activists, Fred Hampton Jr., a representative from the Boricua Human Rights Network, and others, as well as US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga), Lila Lipscomb, and Jesse Jackson took the stage with several musical acts. One anarchist speaker challenged Chicago's anti-war/anti-Empire movement to take a more militant leap, "The image of the Palestinian child throwing a rock at a tank has become a cliche in this movement. It's a child throwing a rock at a tank, yet the Chicago police don't have a tank and we aren't even able to take Michigan Ave?"

This has not been a complete depiction of the protest events of March 19 in Chicago. It is a reportback from the NorthSide Long March Against Empire, and one organizer's perspective of downtown events. Now, political, tactical, and strategic discourses shall recommence. But let me offer at least one observartion.

In the strategy of a city's protest movement, it makes sense to use different weapons in the arsenal. In the case of the anniversary of the war, it makes sense to hold our largest, most openly organized, old-school protest. But we make multiple mistakes, and the biggest is to create a battle out of ONE DAY.

Let me explain. I totally support the one-major protest for all tactic. But largescale battles over the events of one day are usually disastrous for the opposition. Look at the RNC in New York. The battle over 8-29 was not a winnable one. Concentrating on the protest over that one day would have ended in defeat no matter what, bcuz the city could focus on destroying our most empowering plans. But the RNC resistance was a success bcuz it was a week and a half of massive resistance. Then look at last year March 20 in Chicago. The police remember every victory they receive, and once you give these dobermans an inch, they'll seize a mile. We concentrated on M20 last year, and took a defeat by capitulating to Clark. Or, outside of protest, the moderates focused their energies on Nov 2, and see how much victory they claim.

The biggest merit that focusing on a day event can give us is numbers. We can do a lot of the things we did Saturday on any damn day. What we need to figure out is a.) how to get numbers- bcuz numbers is not our thing. We have got to figure out how to bring forty thousand people into the street. And b.) how can we prevent the entire battle from concentrating on split-second moments in one day, so that we can create much more resistance. I am obviously a fan of militant resistance, but more importantly we have to figure out how to make the protest sector of our struggle more participatory, wider, more space and time encompassing. The feeder marches help us widen the lense of the media and of our own perspectives on success versus failure, but we still concentrate it all on just one make-or-break day.

I only wanted to stir some debate briefly. But it needs to be discussed more. A bigger vision is needed, one that incorporates radicals, hipsters, moderates, communists, anarchists, one that sees people as people not as numbers but is also able to galvanize much larger numbers of people.

M19 was defiant, it was big, and we came away with integrity intact. Now let's step it up, and bring the power to the people!

hasta la victoria, siempre
 
 

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