While most of your comments have merits of their own, it has to be mentioned that there was a lot of discussion before the event, and the rout, as well as other major issues, was decided by the majority ( I believe 2/3 majority) of the participants: one person, one vote. I think the only way way you can improve the the outcome is for all of us to actively participate, with our novel and alternative plans and ideas in the planning meetings, to create a consensus to implement those ideas BEFOREHAND. See you all in the evaluation, as well as further planning meetings.

Spare me. Fact is, very few anarchists were on the scene when the first arrests occurred at the press conference at Oak and Michigan, since most were with the combined feeder march that was completely stalled on Dearborn and Oak. In retrospect, the presence at Oak and Michigan might have been sustained longer with reinforcements. Maybe not. The police were reinforced in depth, and more arrived every minute. Despite defiant resistance, the crowd at the press conference- including a mom with her beautiful daughter in a stroller - were swept back toward Dearborn and Bughouse Square by a phalanx of riot police armed with batons within minutes after the first arrests. ( Big kudos to all who showed up at Oak and Michigan to support the press conference - despite the police intimidation and the climate of fear described above)

It's also important to note that there were no visable attempts by any of the affinity group at Dearborn/Oak to initiate any form of autonomous direct action to try and break the stalemate and draw off the cops during the hour long standoff. Not one. Not CAN, MU, nobody. Where were the scouts? What were the possiblities and what preparations were in place for a either a lock down, or fast break away south to to probe east for access to State? From what I could see, the only 'autonomous action' at all occurred when PL and the ISO capitulated wholesale and broke off to march compliantly down Clark St, the preferred police route.

That said, a straight on BB charge against police lines reinforced in depth in order to access State St - which is what Liberte seemed to suggest from the Federal Plaza stage - would have been doomed to failure, since the police were clearly prepared for this and had the troops to back it up. Which is why the cops and Mecklenburg were confident enough to tell the negotiators to fuck off about State Street. To try this and fail, would have been demoralizing in the extreme. Liberte apparently missed one of the key lessons of the Intifada - Palestinian kids who face down the IDF with stones also try hard not to get caught or cut off. They are utterly courageous, but are not stupid.

Incidentally, no one broke police lines to access Lake Shore Drive in 2003. There were no police lines on Columbus Drive or at the intersection with LSD to punch through. The drive was taken because protesters outflanked them on Jackson. They were largely concentrated at the intersections of Adams, State and Michigan when protesters on Jackson raced up Columbus and moved east toward the Drive. CPD commanders accquiced to our demands for LSD at that point and waved those assembled on Adams to move forward across Michigan Ave and out onto the Drive. This strategy worked because the cops were caught by surprise. Something they've vowed never to allow to happen again.

I want to add that the 5000 figure put forward by
TDF is way high. 2500 to 3000 max. And not all were concentrated at Dearborn and Oak when the negotiators pushed for State. At most,1000 were at that intersection. The negotiators were members of the coalition leadership. Simply put, we did not have the forces to take State Street. The leadership knew this and that aggressive action had not been authorized by the coalition.

To my knowledge the event was put forth as a "green" protest, meaning that no aggressive or provocative actions would be taken, outside of protest leaders willing to put themselves at risk.

I am proud of our anarchist comrades, including those who forcefully confronted the antigay fascists at last year's gay pride parade. We need to push for a consciousness that would permit liberation and antiwar militancy by any means necessary.

When and where is the evaluation? I'd like to go. And the numbers are probably inflated. 3000 seems more reasonable?

CIMC estimates stand at 2500-3000.

"To my knowledge the event was put forth as a "green" protest, meaning that no aggressive or provocative actions would be taken, outside of protest leaders willing to put themselves at risk."

Nothing we did was green. The only green areas were the rally at Fed Plaza and the march down Clark. Everything else was in violation of city/police ordinances.

I was one of the tactical "leaders" trying to negotiate with the police and with other tactical "leaders" both those who participated in the logistics committee of the M19 coalition and a few who didn't. Maybe marches and actions with no tactical planning or "leadership" would be better, more participatory, and immediately and directly democratic, but as things were on Saturday, planning was done as Hooshi points out, beforehand.
I was fully prepared to go to jail on Saturday, and had made all the usual preparations for such. My mind was made up, I would rather be arrested than march down Clark, or Dearborn. Things didn't turn out the way I would have liked, and I surely share blame for what happened, as do you TDK.
I think you know why I finally (after an hour of getting nowhere) thought we should start marching on Dearborn. Things didn't go as planned, and as much as you may not like to look at it this way, the bulk of people involved in the march made the decision to keep marching on Dearborn to federal plaza, and no "leader" or anybody else on our side made YOU keep going. From my vantage point, the cops made you keep going, and YOU acquiesced. I wish you or other anarchists had opened up a route East, but YOU didn't. I do disagree with some of the tactical folks and other negotiators who were too concerned about people leaving early, the march down Clark having already started, and the fact we were going to be late to Federal Plaza, which would "disrespect" the speakers there. So you and I have some agreement.
I never heard the chants of "shame" but I was near the front ready to try to help in any situation that might arise.
I agree that the march down Dearborn was a defeat.
I didn't hear Liberte's comments, but if your quotes are accurate I would have to say that's a big time cop-out about what happened Saturday, and an untruth about 2003. I think it takes a lot of gall to complain at others about a situation you were personally involved in and not able to do anything better. The statement about "black bloc broke police lines and crowds of thousands took Lake Shore Drive" in 03 is utter nonsense, as I have lots of video showing exactly how we got to lake shore drive and nobody broke police lines anywhere at any time.
If you or anyone else is so good at "taking" streets in downtown Chicago, why didn't you?
Dearborn was a defeat, but instead of placing any responsibility for that on yourself, you choose to only blame others. Seems to be a trend.
I think we should organize something very soon, to re-affirm our right to march anywhere in downtown Chicago, so let's do it.

I agree. The A's were too few and there are certainly things I am critical of with CAN's performance that day. After we have a meeting to discuss this I will gladly post the minutes. (That meeting will take place either next Monday or later this week.)

I agree. The A's were too few and there are certainly things I am critical of with CAN's performance that day. After we have a meeting to discuss this I will gladly post the minutes. (That meeting will take place either next Monday or later this week.)

I'm not sure the defeatist attitude here is totally constructive, but i can't say that I don't share it. This is the third march I've participated in, and it will be my last (for the forseeable future anyway). All these rallies are about is chuffing up the egos of old-timey statist wannabe radicals like Andy Thayer and Bill Massey. Its taking a very serious issue -the war- and making a mockery of the real resistence out there. We're starting to look ridiculous.

Good luck, and goodbye for now.

wannabe radicals? andy thayer has put himself on the line COUNTLESS times simply to further the cause. How many times have you been arrested for what you stand for, nym?

I would like to beg all dear friends and courageous comrades to try to cool their tempers and direct the most effective portion of their rage and disappointment towards the real Fascist/corporatist enemies, wearing their swords in plain sight having declared a class war to the end, who are trying to choke us, either frontally or thru psychological warware and psy/op. Most of us try to present all our meager intellectual and physical fortune into advancing the cause of peace and justice. No method, tactic or strategy is carved in stone, and all and everyone of us has the right to make innocent mistakes.Kindly remember that this is not our first or last action , and that the struggle for liberation is going to be hard and very, very arduous, as it has been everywhere else on this planet. If some North Americans are under the illusion that-because they have a Manifest Destiny or they are The Chosen Nation- their freedom from corporatist dictatorship is going to be mailed first class to their address, please shake them our of their their daydreams.
Let's arrange a friendly evaluation meeting, to dissect the past and analyze the current conjuncture,only to better strategize for the actions to come. Remember: The Ultimate Judge -which is History- is harsh and unforgiving.

HASTA LA VICTORIA !

Hooshi

"Lastly, why Michigan Avenue and why downtown on a Saturday? What tactical value does this have? Why aren’t we occupying the mayor’s office? Why aren’t we doing something more effective than being herded around like animals by police?"


Then why didn't you do this? It seems that you, perhaps more than anyone else, were mindlessly following someone else's orders and participating in a way you didn't feel comfortable. If there was concensus and desire to make something happen at the head of dearborn and oak, then why were "you" just standing there doing nothing? Has anarchy been so completely deflated that the only discernible idea coming out of the anarchist block was one of "radical boredom"? For a group of people who constantly harp on words like "diversity of tactics", "decentralized action" etc. you seem totally unwilling to walk away from a mass mobilization and make something amazing, interesting, and critical happen. It is not everybody else's job at a protest to reinforce you, support you, and make you feel safe.

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.

What if we all just happened to show up on Michigan Ave.on the same day with signs.What is the point of telling the city that we're going to march?Each time,they seem to get more and more cops to surround the city.Let's just plan a day and show up.

i stopped going to these rallies/marches couple of years ago. and you know what, it has been the best desision of my life.
i went shopping at woodfield mall on march 19th with my family - and I realized that while all of you were protesting, most ppl in the mall didn't know what was going on and didn't really care.

the more i see the protests in chicago, the more i realize how they have been completely declawed by the police as well as the "safety leadership".
i agree that while all those radical communist, socialist whatevers hawk their newspapers and talk about bloody revolutions, they hide behind the masses and can barely stand up to the chicago police much less to the most technologically advanced army in the world.

so the next time you hear yet another speech about how united states is evil (and it is) think about what are you doing to fix that.

and maybe marching around the gold coast is not as important as you think.
what a city of millions managed to only attract 3000 to protest the war? do you really think its because you are so much more consious and better?
or because you are not in touch with the rest of the people?

oh by the way, i am doing something useful with my time and it will actually help all kinds of people as oppose to sticking newspapers in to the homeless ppl hands and hoping someone else is going to do the fighting for you.

Anti- war protesting is not a yearly thing, though, granted the Iraq quagmire will surely be going on still, a year from now, that is. People are doing things weekly. anti-war messages will surely be big in the May Day processions around the world. There will be another big event sooner than you think, though it may not be in Chicago.

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.

It seems to me that one of the worst moves of the day had to be the feeder marches. I was on the southside march and we had only 30 people and we were EASILY handled by four or five bike cops. By the time we all got around to forming into one larger group the riot cops were ready for us. I was at the front holding a PVC banner the WHOLE time and I knew it would be suicide if any break away marches were attempted. Hell we marched into a freaking gauntlet of riot cops and people were advocating break away marches. There wouldn't be much resisting going on between a bunch of people standing around sandwiched between rows of riot cops. We didn't necessarily need the numbers of a ew years ago just more concentration.

I say next year we go somewhere that they can't possible fence everyone in. Linkin park. THe police have the advantage in the tight streets of down town. We need to go to a park. Somewhere big. And we need to have several sights of protest. Spread out the lines. Just a thought

So CCAWR blames the PL, ISO, CAWI (and about 700 other people) for marching on Clark--ONE BLOCK--away from where they marched. [Although...I thought that march on Dearborn wasn't even the CCAWR march? I thought that was supposed to be the Michigan Ave. thing which never happened?]

And then the anarchists blame CCAWR for marching on Dearborn--TWO BLOCKS--away from the supposed "good" street to march on--Mich. Ave.

How the hell needs the Chicago cops to divide us, when we're all so willing to do it ourselves?

And you wonder why the demo was smaller this year?

What the fuck ever happened to respecting a "diversity of tactics?" Or does that not count to anarchists when it's CCAWR....or to CCAWR when it's CAWI and the ISO and the PL (and Neighbors for Peace and every other group that marched down Clark?)?

And if anarchists or CCAWR or anyone else didn't like the way these marches split, here's a novel idea: PUT OUT A PLAN AND A REAL ROUTE NEXT TIME! Don't just leave the decision in the hands of one or two people to make on the spur of the moment. Have a real team of identifiable people empowered to lead the thing, to negotiate with the police. Have a team of marshalls to relay information and keep the crowd together.

Just my $.02.

I feel as though tactical/evaluation discussions like these might be better held at a place where the CPD, FBI, etc can't see them.

But I have a few ideas, and I offer them here as nothing more than that. What if we focused less on big cities and more of the rural countryside? It's alot easier to outnumber the town sherrif than the CPD.
Another thought is, why do we still have people coming for protests prepared only for peaceful relaxed sermons? Everyone who came out saturday should have been prepared mentally, physically and otherwise to throw down and do whatever it took to get MIchigan ave.

I don't see a point in beating ourselves up to much over saturday though. Several anarchists with the feeder marches wanted to get to oak and michigan, but were unable to. I have some footage of the north side march trying to cut across the street to head east, but getting pushed back by some bike cops. By the time we were all together, the CPD had us surrounded. Even if we were to break away down a side street towards michigan ave- we would have had to break through police lines at least at every intersection. We had 3 half way decent banners, and not nearly enough militants ready and willing to attempt that.

Someone earlier on this thread made a comment about Palestinian children getting away, after throwing stones. I have to agree. One of the key rules of Guerrilla War is to strike, and to escape. Forget about major seiges until you've worn down the enemy to the point where you can realisticly accomplish it, and hold onto it for good.

It just seems to me that ever since Miami the best and most effective actions coming from people inside the Empire, have been those that occured in the dark of night, in small affinity groups, with ZERO publicity. Think ALF and ELF but focused against the state, the capitalist economy, the empire, and the war.

ONe last thing regarding numbers- one the long marches, we received many signs of support from the communities we passed though. I know a ton of people who wanted to be there but couldn't, the same way I know a ton of people who agreed with being anti-war but didn't like the idea of the rally. So you have to figure everyone there on saturday was like me and knew other people, so I would say as a conservative estimate, figure for every person there, you should really count them as 50-100 people.

Just a few comments for thought and debate.

Indymedia leaks like a seive. You are infiltrated, monitored, and tracked. You think you can have a meeting where no one finds out? It is not in the nature of your movement to keep secrets. It's all just "too cool" not to talk about. Besides, your "movement" is dead in the water, and no one's coming to your little parades any more. Why on earth would you think you'd be allowed to bother people on Michigan Ave? They don't WANT to be bothered. And they are NOT listening to your message. Old and tired.

"leaks like a sieve"?

dude.. some of the people RUNNING the thing are hacks!! but they think they're helping by playing both sides.

Now it's the secret conspiracy of Chicago Indymedia? HA! You trolls are hilarious, you really have all the activists on the run! Gimme a f'ing break.

I would like to echo the calls for solidarity, and to see the many positive aspects of Saturday.

Note that there was virtually no organized labor presence at Saturday's actions, although one AFSCME local did endorse. Not that these folks necessarily respond to being trotted out by their leadership, who are often in hot water with the rank and file for not drawing a hard enough line with management, and with some locals like Teamsters local 743, for being a bunch of mobbed up, brutish crooks as well. On the other hand, I saw a surprising number of people in union jackets, and they clearly came on their own, even tho the projects most associated with relations with their leadership made no effort to get those bases out. This is another really important constituency that the peace movement must speak to.

Irregardless of whether CCAWR, ISO, CAWI, PL, or any of the other "leadership" decided to march on boul mich or a block further to the west...does it matter? I didn't see any tanks rolling out of Baghdad the next day.

Folks need to remember that the combined feeder marches that moved north on Dearborn and were stalled at Oak were autonomously organized by students and youth, Palestine solidarity activists, and those who organized N and S side marches. They were not centrally organized by M-19 Coalition, which assisted only with intergrating their call outs in the overall publicity and outreach work. Nor did M-19 Coalition as a collective play a role in determining the any of routes they took or their tactical orientation. That was done largely on the fly by each feeder march tactical team and organizers ostensibly in collaboration with each other. The decision to move north on Dearborn was reached the same way.

The M-19 working plan called for folks to assemble at Oak and Michigan, and march down Michigan Ave. That plan was rendered dead in the water when the press conference was dispersed at baton point by the cops, and folks were arrested. The only consensed fallback plan was to distribute a flyer calling on folks who wished to avoid arrest to make their way back to Federal Plaza, anyway they could, - avoiding the police approved route on Clark and leaflet the Loop on the way down. Here's the kicker. Direct action contingency planning beyond this was left to those groups who were willing to undertake an action, either at Oak or Michgian, or elsewhere. Apparently no one was.

IMO, one question stands out.

How many actual affinity groups existed prepared to undertake direct action on M-19 in order to access Michigan Ave. ( sit downs, lockdowns in the intersection, ect) - you know, the real deal, with a plan, logistics, legal and medical support in place - prepared to act when the feeder marches became stalled or blocked by the police? Without these, it is difficult to imagine what type of contingency planning was possible beyond what actually happened that might garner consensus from a majority of participants in a feeder march.

I posted the following on an earlier thread, but here's my 0.2 cents.

Perhaps the time has come to consider Michigan Ave. and State St, a permanent red zone and plan accordingly. We've tried twice to play by their rules. Enough.

It's apparent that the cops are prepared to enforce the parade ordinance and suppress street marches whenever and whereever they want. It is at their discretion. The dispersal of the GLN sidewalk march on M-19 was a case in point. The illusion that somehow unpermitted sidewalk marches are inherently 'legal' and exempt from this ordinance needs to be dispelled. They are not. If they are allowed to happen, it is only because the cops choose not to enforce the ordinance, for whatever tactical reasons - maybe our numbers, maybe the presence of the corporate media. - or maybe because it's just too much of a pain in the ass to arrest us when little is at stake politcally from their view. We also need recognize that expecting the courts to uphold our constitutional right to free assembly is also a dead end at this time. That's not to argue that we should abandon unpermitted sidewalk or street marches, or legal challenges for that matter, but that we are clear about the realities of the situation as they exist today. And find creative ways to respond.

So, instead of attempting to leverage mass marches down Boul Mich, maybe we should consider a tactical scenario adopted by SF Direct Action Against the War. No more permitted marches - but a reclaim public space guerilla strategy. Let those who simply can't imagine anything beyond "permitted" green events organize the usual static rallies in Daley and Federal Plazas. These also do not have to compete with anything else.

(It should be noted however, that absolutely nothing currently prevents local authorities or the Feds from denying these events permits as well when the spirit moves them -- something some liberal anti-war activists haven't quite grasped. )

Meanwhile, let's concentrate on neighborhood marches, counter-recruitment and community speakouts, with an eye toward encouraging the development of real direct action affinity groups - who on the next of day of action can spread across the Loop, including Michigan Ave with a series of short, mobile creative and dramatic actions at multiple locations - guerilla theater, lockdowns, banner drops, the works. A real festival of resistance -- Chicago style.

Finally, while numbers are critical to building the anti-war movement, they are not automatically an antidote to the power structure's capacity to marginalize or contain dissent. A lesson we learned at the RNC. Consider that the NYPD was prepared to herd 500,000 (now that's a lot of people) out onto the asphalt of New York's Westside Highway for a permitted march - a move that would have rendered the largest anti-RNC protest virtually invisible to all but the participants. Remember too that UFPJ organizers actually surrendered to this demand, in order to ensure maximum turnout and a safe area ... after protracted negotiations with the authorities failed. It was only the refusal of thousands of protesters to play ball with this scheme that compelled UFPJ to reconsider this concession.

I feel like now we're getting somewhere...

Sorry, J, but that's a crock. The police did not deploy in numbers against the breakway on Clark, because there really was no reason to. They were far more interested in preventing marchers on Dearborn from making a last ditch snap effort to veer east to State St. - just one block away - and perhaps all the way to Michigan, from Deaborn. That's what they were worried about, and suspected that this possible scenario motivated the decision by the crowd to return down Dearborn after an hour of futile negotiations to demand State St. And that's why they deployed in force along intersections on the route back. They were playing defense, expecting the fast break. Little wonder they were eager to prevent anybody from Clark St from rejoining the march down Deaborn..or why they were not too disappointed by the march split.

It's also my hunch that some the groups who consciously chose Clark also weighed the possibility that just such a break out attempt might occur if the march returned southbound on Dearborn, and would result in arrests. So they played it safe instead.

Beyond the issue of keeping faith with the M-19 consensus not to march down Clark St under any circumstances, this was the practical difference between Clark and Dearborn, -- it was one block closer to State - and beyond to Michigan.

I enjoyed reading these discussions. It is about time to discuss the real issues. There will be more occupations, there will be more anti-democratic laws and regulations, waiting on our door step.
People has to organize more, and create more efficient ways and methods to carry our message to the large number of population. To join the meetings and decision making process in a democratic way is essential must.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS STOP NIT PICK, SECTARIAN, PETTY BOURGEOIS DISCUSSIONS, THEORIES AND FIND A REAL WAY TO REACH OUT MILLIONS OF WORKING PEOPLE WHO WILL SUFFER THE MOST AT THE END OF THE FUTURE WARS AND LIMITED DEMOCRACY.

One critically important thing for the ISO is to develop some cajones. If you want a safe, risk free enviroment to engage in protest and struggle, then stay at home. Go to a forum. Hold a lecture. There really are no safe spaces left, in case you haven't gotten the drift here. You also might learn to spell petit-bourgeois.

Anton,
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.

You should have seen the Deputy Chief freak out when the march hit Clark. He was sitting in a car on Clark, supervising the Dearborn negotiations by car radio. He jumped out of his car, red in the face, and started squawking orders for reinforcements into a Bike cops' radio. He said that it had just been agreed that the march would be on Dearborn, and was visibly upset when the crowd hit Clark.

But there wasn't much he could do. He had lost control of the Clark march. He had most of his troops on Dearborn, and only a skeleton crew on Clark.

It was odd to see the more militant people on Clark try to break out for Dearborn. I suppose they didn't realize that they were trying to leave the un-permitted march for the permitted march.

Yes, there is a strange irony here. The people who wanted confrontation were in fact taking the permitted march. And the people who didn't want confrontation actually ended up, spontaneously, taking the un-permitted route.

The band, and the bikers, have experience with un-permitted street demonstrations. They saw an opportunity, and they took it. No, they did not confront the cops, for the most part. But that's not what they came for. They came to protest the war, and to demonstrate their right to go where they wanted to.

And I thought that was the whole purpose of Saturday's march.

Clark may have been green when the day started. But it was red when the people hit Clark.

All around the country the reformist left has taken control of the anti-war movement and turned demonstrations into slogan-slinging parades. After two years of such pandering this war has raged on exactly as it would if no movement existed at all. Thus, there is no movement.

The goal of these demonstrations should be to physically disrupt the normal fuctioning of a state dedicated to war. I agree that occupying the mayor's office or the isreali embassy or the offices of boeing make much more sense than holding a parade.

It may well be that the Democratic party outnumbers the IWW at most of these events. Let them go. We should engage them in dialouge and try to convince them that we need something more than state-approved marches. But we don't need United For Peace and Justice to hold a more meaningful event. 100 kids willing to make some sort of sacrifice would make a harder impact than 5000 Democrats with a sign and a slogan.

is this adam? iso adam?
iso that would rather send out its middle aged "students" to sell newspapers and get the membership money?
the ppl you are calling reformist are doing all the work while you sit in your offices dreaming about a crock of a revolution.
so why didn't ISO call for an occupation of the mayor's office?
You want to disrupt the workings of the state?
DON'T MARCH THROUGH THEIR TERRITORY ON A SATURDAY!
and don't bitch about it now revolutionary wanna be - you are just upset you couldn't take over this organization and pretend to lead it.

maybe next time we can actually form affinity groups and have actions that actually wake ppl up and not just make them laugh as we pass by.

anyone has a place for a spokes counsil for may 1st?

No, the "Adam" posting here is not Adam from the ISO--who always identifies himself as being from the ISO.

Why don't you dial down the hysterical response and actually take a minute to think if that's really a post that Adam T. from the ISO would make? You and I both know it's not.

Whatever you may think of the ISO's politics, you know that that bullshit rhetoric being posted by "Adam" here is far from anything the ISO would ever say.

With ridiculous discussions and accusations like this flying, who needs the cops to divide us?

The above Adam is not me, the "ISO Adam." Just in case anybody cares.

Adam,
ISO Adam that is.

    Either there are two Adams or someone is abusing my name. I am the journalist one. Recently lots of sleaze balls or provocative agents entering this discussion. Let speak without long rhetoric. Some one was trying to correct my spelling too, it is petty bourgeois not petit we are not speaking French here!

1).The person or group who wants to take or herd  the people, to a place they don't want to go is a big problem serves only to oppressor and weaken and isolate the mass movement.

2), Important social changes can be  achieved ,only by large number of, dedicated , informed and well organized people.

3). This is a democratic mass movement, organizational success is based on democratic meetings and intelligent organizational planning.

We have lots of experience from 1968 Weatherman group and other experiences all around the world, small adventurous, self righteous, groups will achieve nothing. Government agents would love to see them in action so they can suppress the whole movement. The right wing extremists and right wing Zionists  already claming anti war movement helping terrorists. These small groups, in dark shadowy rooms, may think they are the center of the earth,or universe but in fact they are PETTY BOURGEOIS ADVENTURERS WHO SERVES NOTING BUT THEIR EGOS. Get ready it is a fogy day, and we will see more provocateurs.

"With ridiculous discussions and accusations like this flying, who needs the cops to divide us?"

One of the more insightful comments I've seen here.

Let's stop pissing on each other. There is no royal road to opposing the war, no one right way of doing things. Saturday was actually a good example of how a multi-variate approach can work.

And the sur-reality of the march routes changing from green to red without much notice proves that -- a lot of people on Clark would be surprised to find out they were taking the un-permitted route, and a lot of people on Dearborn would be surprised to find out they were taking the permitted route. When you get too caught up in the definitions applied by the state, your analysis collapses into a hall of mirrors.

Let's direct our criticism at the people supporting the war. That's probably the only thing we can agree on. As to precisely how we do that, well, there's more than one way. And hitting an issue from every conceivable side is a time-honored method of making progress.

go ted!!

Couple things. First, we should decide how we measure 'success'. I think the feeder march strategy is 'successful' when it takes marches through neighborhoods that don't typically see public displays of opposition to the war. Ideally, these neighborhoods would be flyered like crazy before-hand and the actual marches would be organized organically by base groups IN THOSE NEIGHBORHOODS.

We should take a look at where we live, and ask how we can hook up with our neighbors and get enough discourse going to generate street presence that comes from these communities. There are lots of ways to do this: house parties, barbeques, block parties, community meetings, jawing with your fellow neighbors freezing in the AM at the bus or el stop -- and putting something in their hands that gives them information they won't get from da mare's office.

Second, feeders themselves can be extremely effective if they're also used as opportunities to put information into people's hands. By this I do not mean the usual polemical tracts in the usual newspapers. I mean flyers with facts on them that people might not know, like the fact that Illinois residents have forked out more than ten billion tax dollars to bankroll the war. That document how many Chicago youth are of draft age -- and let people know a draft is coming. That talk about the number of area veterans (roughly half a million in the greater Cook County area) and link Bush's gutting of veterans' benefits to the shift in dollars to the on-site war machine. We don't need to tell people how to think about the war. We need to get people information about how disastrous this war is, and being empowered with this knowledge, they will draw the correct conclusions.

Third, I think it makes sense to try to structure more protests that stand on the principle of 'no business as usual'. People can argue about whether Clark or Dearborn was red or green, but the hope was to get to a corrider that would NOT permit business as usual, at least for an hour or two. Neither Clark nor Dearborn accomplished that. State would have been better. Michigan would have been better still, because it would have drawn a clear line in the sand to our pro-war, anti-abortion, Dubya-lovin' mare that he cannot dictate the terms without consequences.

The seventy or eighty people who came to the initial M19 organizing meeting ultimately agreed that a line in defense of civil liberties needed to be drawn. This is not just about marching and posing for the cameras -- if it was, in that respect we had a fabulous day. This is about saying to the City that we do not consent to have our core rights crushed because Daley wants Dubya to know his cops are willing to thwart any action that might impede high-rent commerce for a day, or suggest to the DC regime that they can't count on da mare to crush dissent the next time dubya comes to town.

Bear in mind that the same sort of police effort to thwart public visibility for an anti-war action will be -- and already has been -- used to shut down pickets supporting strikers and labor dissidents, community uprisings over police violence, and public outcry at community meetings organized by our craven alderpuppets.

We are not waiting for a backslide of our core rights -- we are in the middle of the slope, and it is sliding out from under us. I know one Indymedia reporter who was literally run off of Michigan Ave. (this person used to report for an NPR-affiliate on the east coast) not for carrying a sign or a flyer, but for carrying a boom mike and lacking proper police press credentials. I don't want the privilage to flyer my neighbors the day after an international day of action against the war. I want the right to flyer or carry a sign or shout on a bullhorn like the State Street preachers whenever the fuck I want. Everybody should have this right. Increasing numbers of us don't. If we can't have our rights, there should be no business as usual.

I also thought we missed the boat in not staging a Monday morning picket of da mare's office to put it out that the police did NOT respect our constitutional rights, because the goal was not to march, per se, but to march where the people were. We were denied that right, and we should not ask for it again. We should take it.

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.

I totally agree with Teds article. We need to stand up to the police department more often. They torture people and treat many people unfairly. Their shit with attack dogs barking at us on Wacker Drive is rediculous and unheard of anymore, that was a throwback to the 60's. The Halloween March in 2004 was a great success, we gotta do that more often local anarchists. Also about the 60's and 70's, it took fifteen years of mass protesting to get civil rights and to get the troops out of Vietnam. We can't expect meaningful results from just two years of organizing and mass demonstrations. When you want political change you gotta do it for the LONG haul. The mass demos like the RNC, DNC, counter-inaugural and the nationwide M19 events put a significant strain on the police state and that is one thing that really counts.

PS-fascists and other warmongers who go on this site ARE NOT welcome, if ya havent already noticed.

Since the feeder marches that arrived at Dearborn and Oak were in fact autonomously organized, maybe a spokescouncil of those groups active in organizing them should be called to review just what happened, what went wrong or right, and most importantly, what was learned?

M-19 Tac has a point. Actually, I'd like to know why Ted didn't think to organize a AG to initiate some kind of autonomous direct action along with his friends and comrades. Was he expecting somebody else to do it for him? His account sounds like he was a passive participant in the crowd, waiting for direction.

Or at the very least, why wasn't he front and center to witness or record along with other Indymedia contributors the only action of the day that resulted in any degree of real resistance that resulted in arrests -- the dispersed M-19 press conference at Oak and Michigan? That young woman with the stroller might have appreciated the solidarity.

Finally, I agree with the sentiment that says 'no more business as usual'. No more requests to Daley's hacks or the thugs of the CPD for 'permission' to exercise basic democratic rights that will only be allowed if they can be marginalized on back streets or contained in protest pits -- which both Federal or Daley Plazas, ringed by robocops or mounted police are prime examples of. It's time to raise the ante, with a strategy for creative resistance than can reclaim public space in this Chicago from the corporations, developers, and political bosses.

It's also time to get back to basics - organizing real affinity groups for creative direct action, -- something that hasn't happened very often in Chicago, skills sharing, expanding the reach of alternative community media, community rallies, marches and mobilization, banner drops, guerilla theater, grafitti campaigns, and an intensified effort to interfer with and disrupt the war machine .. whether it is Leo Burnett, Boeing, the neighborhood recruiting office, or campus recruiters.

BTW, Kudos to the streetmedics however, for being on the scene everywhere.

Adam writes "Get ready it is a fogy day, and we will see more provocateurs."

Hmm. Just what is a "fogy" day, exactly?

WHAT IS FOGY DAY?: Anybody who lived in the countryside in the midst of mother nature with farmers would know, when the fog covers the mountains and plains, wolfs began to wonder amongst the sheep looking for prey. I can say more explicitly. The fog is lack of experience and lack of proper theory of mass movement and understanding world history on this subject.

"Fogy?" Spelled with just one g? Sounds like a case of insufficent political clarity to me. Like your last polemic, an attempt to define a relevant praxis of radical social change that seems to missing a crucial objective component.

Then again, maybe you meant Hoagie - like the sandwich.

We've got to do more than mark their anniversaries and we've got to take the initiative. Leftists all around me complain that there is no left in the USA. If there isn't I wonder, than who are you and who am I? Anarchists hit the streets with their fellow travelers; and the liberals against the US war on the world seem to be waiting for their savior-some kind of Democratic wolf in peacenik clothing, I assume. Meanwhile all around, death, destruction and deception go on. Congress votes another hundred billion for the war industry under the guise of staying the course and too much of the country is wondering if Mark McGwire took steroids and/or did Michael Jackson wore pajamas to court today.

In Iraq, the battle continues. Bombs in the streets and helicopter gunships in the air. Corrupt politicians behind military police checkpoints negotiate their place in a puppet government with one of their eyes on the monetary prize. One can almost hear the players saying, Ahmed Chalabi, please show us how you scammed the ideologues in Washington and then go away. It's our turn at the trough now. Sooner or later, one or more of these leeches will lose their grip on the Pentagon monetary supply vein and fall into themselves like a college frat boy pledge trying to drink a fifth of whiskey in an hour. Puking their vanity and duplicity all over their freshly ironed overpriced clothing.
In the streets of Sadr City and Mosul, to name just a few zones where the occupiers dare not go unless accompanied by a tank or, at the very least, that behemoth they call the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Iraqi children and their parents face an indeterminate amount of time under the yoke of occupation. Elections fade into one's memory quicker than the life they had before the invasion of 2003. Here in the US of A, we watch the misery unfold-those of us who bother to pay attention, anyhow. Everyone else just wants it all to go away. Why, they wonder, is this war a war? That's not what they promised.

Of course, the US troops didn't mean to kill that Italian intelligence officer. Even when the war is wrong, our soldiers only act with the noblest intentions.

Meanwhile, the larger national organizations that organize these rallies appear to be fighting over direction (a direction that the leaders of the organizations seem to have lost). The one led by liberals and others who appear only too eager to isolate the more radical elements of the movement and cozy up to the Democratic wing of the war party disses the other communist-inspired group. At the anniversary protests, it was the latter that got out the black and Latino communities and it was the liberals who got arrested. Go figure. Meanwhile, those of us who want to do something effective to end this war (and the "war on terror") go to the rallies but ignore the national organizations and follow our own agendas or do nothing.
Bottom line-this war is a war fought to maintain and (if the war planners can pull it off) and expand the US empire. This means that the Democrats will only help the antiwar cause so much. After all, they profit from the current situation just like the GOP. To oppose this war at its fundamental level, we can't look to the democrats. After all, Bill Clinton's bombs and cruise missiles killed and destroyed with the same impunity as George Bush's. The cause of most of the world's problems is not George Bush, it's US imperialism.

That imperialism is best represented off the battlefield by the nomination of Iraq War architect and all-around evildoer Paul Wolfowitz to the presidency of the World Bank. It is further represented by Donald Rumsfeld's claim that it is Turkey's refusal to allow their countryside to be used as a launchpad for the northern invasion of Iraq that is the reason there is still armed resistance to the US occupation. Domestically, it is represented by the continued destruction of social services, tax cuts for the rich, and more money for military recruiters who have failed to make their quota for the past two months at least. It is represented in the continued imprisonment of unknown numbers of immigrants and others without charges in Guantanamo Bay and who knows where else. It is further represented in the incredible numbers of people incarcerated in the United States, often for acts that are not even crimes in other countries.

Two years is how long the Bush war on Iraq has been going on, but the US war on those who either disagree with its plans or just don't fit in to them has been going on considerably longer. The unfortunate fact of this latter war, however, is that very few people oppose it. Are we that bought off? Or are we just too busy trying to maintain the lifestyle we are accustomed to? Are these last two questions essentially the same question? Or better yet, are these last two years just a small example of what our future looks like? George Bush and his Book of Revelations Bible Study Group have got to be told that the Second Coming is not a utopian vision. Before we're all blown to hell.

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: rjacobs (at) zoo.uvm.edu

Stop being asshole himm, I don't have too much patiance with snobish jerks like you. I don't care for your god damm grammer lessons too, if you need political lesson I can talk to you face to face. I have been in the poltical strugle for 35 years, and lost four jounalsit, friends and many other political activists to neonazi bullets or military junta tortures. I have been imprisoned
five times, on three continents. I AM REALY FED UP WITH THE SNOBS LIKE YOU, IN THEIR CONFORTABLE HOUSES, HIDEN HIMM??? NAMES, LECTURING WITH SUPER SLOGANS. SO JUST SHUP UP!!!!

While we debate parade tactics on the Internet, a popular people's revolution has (again) overthrown the government of a former Soviet republic, without a shot fired - and has gone completely ignored.

I give up.

Shup up? - I think it's time for the bifocals, there, Adam. But I'm glad that being 'imprisoned on three continents' has left you with the acute political clarity to pontificate here. And just what continents were those? When you were in the mountains of Bolivia with Che? Or in the stadium in Santiago with Victor Jara? Or fighting with the fedayeen in Lebanon? With the NLF in An Loc? Or maybe with Patrice Lamumba in the Congo? Or was it when you were at the barricades in Paris in 1968? Enlighten us. But first use spell check, journalist.

Me - I wouldn't jump to any conclusions just yet about Kyrgyzstan. Like Lebanon, my hunch is there's more here than meets the eye.

BTW, Good repost of the Ron Jacobs article, whoever posted it.

And take a look at DC IMC's feature reports on M-19 Fayettesville protests. The police did bag searchs on protesters assembled there.
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/54777/index.php

Anton,
I was in town, and I knew the drill, and I was right in the thick of events on Saturday. I was at Oak & Michigan, marched down Oak, stood at Dearborn & Oak, Bughouse Square, marched down Clark, and was at the Federal Plaza. I have figured out ways to get around these events without getting hemmed in by cops. I was also standing about two feet away from the Deputy Chief as he freaked out when the crowd went down Clark.

But you and I really don't disagree much on how it happened. Yeah, the people on Clark were not the people who were inclined to mess with the cops so, despite the fact that they caught the cops unawares, and were marching in what was then a red zone, the cops really had no choice but to let it happen, and figured they had to leave the bulk of their troops on Dearborn, where people were inclined to confront the cops. But it did happen against the will of the cops. It is a basic rule of Chicago politics that, if you show people you are going to do what you want whether they like it or not, they will give you respect. The crowd on Clark was totally leaderless, and spontaneously took an opportunity left open by the cops.

In doing this, the crowd on Clark achieved the two goals that the organizers of this event had set for this march, i.e., (1) protesting the war, and
(2) doing so where they wanted to. You are right that they were not interested in confronting the cops, and the cops knew this, and that was part of what let them get away with it. But confronting the cops was not a stated goal of this demonstration. The people on Dearborn, who did want to confront the cops, effectively provided the distraction necessary for the Clark people to do what they wanted.

I think that the participation of the Band and the Rat Patrol was crucial to this coup. The Band has experience with spontaneity, and the Rat Patrol are veteran Critical Mass people. Those two groups have a lot of experience with un-permitted street demonstrations. They also have experience with spontaneous, improvised, consensus-driven operation.

I have, on many occasions, seen these groups take to the streets as they saw fit, despite the opposition of the City, and carry off very successful street actions. They have no leaders, they have no strict plan. They react to events as they occur, improvise, cooperate, and take any opportunity offered.

The Clark Street march was exactly what this march was supposed to be about. It is only if confrontation with the cops is considered a goal (which was never one of the stated goals of the march) that you can criticize the Clark Street people.

Come to a Critical Mass event some time. See how people can take control of their streets, and go where they want to. I have been down Michigan Avenue with CM. If we did it like CM, we could have gone wherever we wanted to.

The Clark street march was not what we wanted before the day started. But, in classic bottom-up, improvisational, spontaneous consensus-drive style, the people on Clark accomplished exactly what we set out to accomplish that day.

I don't belong to CM, or the Band. But I have seen, on many occasions, their success with operations like this. I think we have a lot to learn from them.

They know how to pull off street demonstrations. They were the only groups on Saturday which managed to achieve the two goals set out by the organizers (that's not to take anything away from the others on Clark, including the ISO -- I don't belong to that either -- who improvised their responses, and got what they wanted.)

I don't belong to any of those groups. I'm not a leader, not an organizer. I can take no credit whatsoever for the success they achieved (except for the credit that belongs to every person on Clark.) I'm not trying to sing my own praises, or push any ideology.

I'm just trying to say that Saturday was a success, that the people on Clark pulled off a brilliant street action. They accomplished the goals established by the organizers. And they did it without leaders, without organization, without any specific ideology.

Anton, I'm just suggesting we give some credit where credit is due, and recognize the success we achieved on Saturday. I learned a lot from watching that crowd take control of the street. And I think we can all learn from that.

Actually, J - so was I. From the beginning at the press conference at Oak and Michigan, through the arrests, and back on down to Dearborn. And I was also on the scene to view how the senior CPD command staff onsite -- including Sherry Mecklinberg - reacted when folks took off down Clark.

And I'll say it again. After recovering from the surprise, they were more than content to see you go march on down Clark, although it did create some initial deployment problems for them - particularly with closing east west traffic routes. But not many. (incidentally, the Deputy Superintendent was not calling the shots on Saturday.)They did not dispatch the CPD tac units being held in reserve after you, but the Illinois state police, because simply put, they were not particularly worried that you'd deviate from that route.

But then again, why would they be upset? After all, you guys just did what the M-19 Coalition vowed publically never to do during a press conference an hour before that had been dispersed by police batons, - which is to under no circumstance agree to repeat the march route imposed upon us by sheer force last year. Little wonder the Trib used the word "capitulate' in the description of these marches. Hardly a brilliant street action.

Like it or not, the cops saw this as a clear tactical and political victory - particuarly since it decreased their concerns about managing the shrunken Dearborn contingent - whom they suspected would try again for either State or Michigan, if they returned down Dearborn.

No doubt many in the Clark march undoubtedly felt good about being able to safely march. And being together without lots of cops around can be empowering. But marching just for the sake of marching wasn't the goal of the M-19 action. If it had been, there would have been no problem accquirng police permission to march down Clark at all..since what they offered from the beginning since the permit fight broke out. The goal, as CG stated in an earlier post, was to have an anti-war march where people actually were on a Saturday afternoon in the Loop and get the anti-war message out. And reassert our right to march down a street that some 700 people were arrested on two years earlier for trying to exercise just that right. To their credit, at least the Dearborn contingent tried to make some contingency plans for moving back to State - the second busiest street in the Loop - even if they failed to realize them.

But there was also an fallback alternative for folks who did not wish to risk arrest, but still wanted to get an anti-war message out across the Loop before the 2 PM rally. You might take the time to actually read one of the 7000 flyers the M-19 coalition distributed at Oak and Michigan with a recommendation on how to react to a cop dispersal order, avoid arrest, and avoid being herded down Clark.

As it turned out many folks who wanted to avoid a confrontation who arrived at Oak and Michigan acted on the recommendations made in this flyer, and made their own way down to the Federal Plaza rally, leafleting shoppers along the way, -- rather than repeat the Clark St. route - for just that reason. Still, some of them were threatened with arrest for just handing these suckers out. But as I said, they may have had the biggest success in getting an anti-war, pro civil liberties message out there.

BTW the All American Anti-War Marching Band was actually prevented by the CPD on two occasions from actually leaving Bughouse Square to the east. They exited the Square down Clark because that was the only exit open to them. No doubt they also didn't want to get caught up in any shit that might have gone down, as did many CAWI folks - but their options had already been limited by the police. That was not the case with folks who left Dearborn to join them.

PS - I've been riding CM since its inception in Chicago, and will be in the next ride. Black IndyFab frame.

LMAO what a bunch of stupid comments from completely clueless idiots. Whine Whimper, what a joke.

Himm such a sarcastic, arrogant attitude, you have. With this attitude you will carry messages, to the people and gain respect and confidence of them, and lead them. I have known thousands of these snobs disappearing from the scene, when they get their first job. . It is a pipe dream the for our "Le Petit Bourgeois", hiding behind HIMM name, and hiding behind sharp slogans that is all you can do. Political activism is a long patient, determined struggle, for the WORKING PEOPLE and by the WORKING PEOPLE. You dummy snob, how many languages you can speak and write, English is my fourth language. Go to your mom get your weekly allowance, and tell her to clean your nose and rear end .You know me, we will meet face to face one day

Anton,
I'm not trying to score points, or one-up you. You know CM better than me. You know how effective they can be. I'm just suggesting that maybe that sort of improvised, spontaneous, consensus-driven approach might be an effective strategy for events like this. It does seem to work.

Everybody seems to be complaining that the Clark Street people didn't obey the written orders of the organizers. That's right, I guess. They didn't obey anyone -- organizers, leaders or police. I'm just not sure they should be criticized for that.

Yeah, Adam, and I've known a lot of 'journalists' over the last 30 years as well who ruthlessly pimp progressive and revolutionary causes for the copy. They, by and large have been parasites at best. So spare me your indignation. Am still waiting to hear what you actually know from your exhaustive and personal life experience in participating in working class struggles? How many strikes, lockouts, riot police charges, beatdowns, arrests, adminstrative detentions, interrogations, and sleepless nights worrying about paying the rent or feeding your kids while behind bars? How many refugee camps have you worked in? or inner cities, or migrant labor camps?

Or was it more like the tyranny of publication deadlines, or those infrequent freelance paychecks? Inquiring minds want to know.

BTW - languages? 4 as well, English is my second language, although I've spoken it since I was a child. As for meeting face to face, just let me know what the visiting hours are in your nursing home.

Applause: Chris G.
" Fuck the police!" ( and the Protest Warriors)
I fucking hate them zionist bastards!

A note on Critical Mass:

It is *not* spontaneous or consensus driven. People arrive at the plaza with maps of where to ride and those maps are voted on. The one that gets the most votes is where the mass rides. It’s majoritarian democracy. Police are always around and usually get their hands on the winning map so they can keep tabs on CMers and follow in squad cars and bikes. It’s so predictable that it seems to be a non issue for cops. It’s just more Chicago spectacle. Also CM is not political.

Look, J, here's the deal. The cops and the corporate press (check out the Trib's Saturday coverage ) are saying just that -- whether we like it or not - that the anti-war movement ultimately capitualted to police demands. Clark has more utility for this kind of spin because that exactly what they demanded from the beginning.

As for consensus - that's what I think infuriated a lot of folks in the Dearborn march -the preception, - right or wrong - that some activists simply dismissed the consensus that existed about refusing Clark under any circumstance. - a consensus that had been developed over a period of several months, and chose this route because of fear, police intimidation, or impatience, despite the fact that there were alternatives to clashing with the police or getting locked up that also allowed folks to refuse to follow the police plan and still keep the faith. Apparently that consensus was not real.

The mechanism I've seen work the best for building consensus in action when tough decisions have to be made and there isn't a lot of time are spokescouncils, with reps from the various affinity groups involved in an action. On the fly if necessary. But first they have to self-organize. And that didn't happen. But it's gonna have to, because the days of permitted marches are coming to a close in this town.

BTW, consensus doesn't always work - Ask CMers about disputes surrounding riding through the 18th District on Chicago Ave. The cops are assholes to cyclists there, and that's where a number of CM arrests have occurred.

Also CM is not political?

Do people gather? Do they do on an unpermitted bike ride in the streets where cars want to go? Its political. Except no one sells newspapers, thank God!!!

Discussions of tactics and so forth, past, present and future, are best reserved for face-to-face meetings. Enough said.

It's very easy for people that were not involved in the day-to-day organizing, had nothing to do with the tactical discussions on the day off, were not present in the back off the Dearborn march when the split occurred, and in many cases have probably never organized anything themselves to be critical of the decision-making process and the decisions themselves over the internet.

While some of the criticism is valid much of it is being fueled by inaccurate information, assumptions, ego and emotion.

I'll save my comments regarding what actually happened before and during the demonstration for an appropriate forum...the next coalition meeting.

yeah, well i speak 19 languages, english is my 14th. have been to every continent on earth and arrested in all of them, tortured on three continents, lost my testicles in two, my eye in one. i guess i am way more hardcore than you.

A couple of points that may clear up some confusion. First, the battle around the Oak/Michigan permit was about one central issue: throwing down the gauntlet to the authorities and demanding the right to march where the people were.

Personally, I was surprised at the level of support for this approach at the first city-wide meeting, an approach that was vigorously supported by representatives from groups that included CAWI and the Communist Party USA/Chicago Branch, neither of which as organizations had previously shown any particular inclination to steer from carefully scripted, politician-heavy, city-sanctioned events. Certainly their bases and some of their organizers have supported other types of events, and many marched on LSD two years ago to oppose the beginning of the war. I merely want to point out that they have been disinclined as projects to sign on to organizing efforts that are clearly much more in-your-face towards City officials and the police.

The issue that seemed to unite people was the issue of civil liberties. So the Oak/Michigan site for a step-off essentially represented picking a fight with the City, a point all groups agreed was necessary because of the critical issue at stake, and a strategy all groups consented on.

I don't want to be hard on everyone who marched on Clark, particularly great, inspiring projects like the Anti-War Marching Band. But Clark St. was, for the coalition of groups that assembled to organize M19, the one destination point groups agreed to avoid at all costs, because it was the one ghetto stretch the police were most committed to forcing people to.

That's why the cops at Oak and Michigan told protesters who came early that the 'organizers' had relented and agreed to the Bughouse/Clark scenario, a flat-out lie, but one fueled in part by an email that went out the day before the action from one of the larger partners in the project suggesting that people adopt just this action if they wanted to be sure they could avoid arrest.

There is utility in picking a fight sometimes, and the M19 Coalition did that re Oak/Michigan. It at least gave the larger group the opportunity to demonstrate two salient points: first, that the so-called legal permit process in this town is a fraud; and second, that the hope that projects can expect a measure of relief from the courts on critical civil liberties issues is a sham. It may be painful for some to shed these illusions, but it is necessary, just as it is necessary for peace activists who still maintain some delusional sense of hope that the Democratic Party will make things better to ask themselves why so many local Democratic congressmen voted again last month to continue to bankroll the war.

What would have been better on M19 would have been a scenario, via feeder marches, organized civil disobedience, maybe a CM ride up Boul Mich, and bigger numbers, that would have allowed the coalition to reach one of its critical goals -- to take the anti-war message to where the people were. The cops, on the other hand, absolutely did not want a mass arrest situation to evolve, and went out of their way to avoid it at Oak/Michigan, by REFUSING to arrest people and instead pushing people at the point of billy clubs down Oak to Dearborn. A mass arrest situation would have handed the police a defeat in their propaganda war -- instead, they were able to spin M19 as "people got to march and their civil liberties were respected" -- an assertion that is not laughable only if there aren't a shitload of people in jail who dispute that fabrication of fact.

We should have not staked ourselves to the utility of autonomously organized feeder marches that ultimately were not structured to allow participants to exercise real pressure on the police -- and were never in a position to help win the prize...the right to march where the people were.

We should remember that one of our goals is to deny pro-war city officials the ability to conduct business as usual. And we should start considering deploying at least non-violent civil disobedience to send this message home.

Finally, we should avoid at all costs scenarios that deny us the right to take the anti-war message to the places that matter -- the places where the people are. And we have to ask ourselves, as individuals and groups, how much we are willing to put on the line to get our message out there.

I don't like jail. That said, the reality is that if 500 of us went to jail on Saturday, the City's smug bullshit about how well behaved the cops were on Saturday would die on the vine. All of this country's great movements, from the movement for civil rights to the movement for labor rights, were won not by obeying the status quo, but by defying it, and that often meant that people staked to these struggles put their bodies on the line to fight for their rights.

These have to be collective efforts to defy the imperial privilage of the authorities, rather than disorganized scenarios that produce a handful of -- in at least one case targeted -- arrests.

Mass refusal is a powerful tool. Unfortunately, whatever else people may want to say about Clark St., it did not represent mass refusal of the police scenario, but rather an acceptance of their stated goals -- to keep our message away from where the people were. I'm not saying civil disobediance is the only option. But we do nothing for this movement if we are not willing to add it to the toolkit.

So the courts, democratic members of Congress, the mayor's office, and the city council (and the police) have ALL conspired to stifle opposition to the war? That must take a lot of work!

Could it possibly - just possibly - be that the city simply doesn't want the main downtown thoroughfares congested with traffic, if there are other possible routes?

If nothing else, 'Occam,' I appreciate the obscure humor of your handle: William of Occam, the medieval philospher who invented 'Occam's Razor,' the idea that if there are two coherent explanations for something, but one is more complex or has extra steps, then cut them out and adopt the simpler argument as the better and therefore more true.

So why were our 'Mother's Day Peace Marchs' and other political marches of bygone decades able to tie up traffic a bit as they proceeded down Michigan Ave?

I'd say before and after 9/11 and the 'Patriot Act', ie, right-wing politics, has more to do with it than traffic.

Now there's 'Occam's Razor' back at you...

Ok. CM is political. Yes. But as it's become more popular it's, shall we say, become watered down. I know CMers who go just to ride their bikes because they like biking, but want nothing to do with the politics. And then there are CMers who are emersed activists.

Critical Mass is becoming increasingly more political in cities like NYC, (take a look at the NYC-IMC coverage of lastest events) - as police become increasingly repressive in trying to block the rides.

NYC is a special case because instead of letting bikers do their thing, like they do now in Chicago more or less, they are trying to come down hard, which in effect, polarizes people that wouldn't be polarized.