Chicago peace activists haven't had such an eventful week since they were arrested by the busload in the days after U.S. missiles began to rain down on Baghdad.

On Monday, the City Council Committee on Human Relations approved a resolution "urging cessation of combat operations in Iraq and the return of U.S. troops."

On Tuesday, about 300 protesters gathered in front of Daley Plaza, performed a "die-in" and marched around City Hall in a show of support for the resolution.

And on Wednesday afternoon, the full City Council approved the proposal by a 29 to 9 vote. Michael Lynn of Peace Pledge Chicago - one of the two groups that dreamed up the resolution - said there would have been several more "ayes" if 12 aldermen had not left the chambers when Ald. Burt Natarus (42nd) became ill and was taken away on a gurney.

City Council meetings are usually sleepy affairs, but Wednesday was an exception. In addition to the Iraq resolution, aldermen were also scheduled to vote on whether to order city lawyers to settle the Ryan Harris case. The press galleries were full, the police presence was conspicuous, and it was difficult to tell which activists were there to support which cause.

When the Iraq withdrawal debate finally began, about four hours into the meeting, Ald. Bernie Stone (50th) got up and went into a speech about his miltary service and why he thought going into Iraq was a good idea. "I thought we had him in our corner," said Lynn. "But I wasn't sure where he was going with this." Ald. Stone eventually concluded that the war was a mistake and voted for the resolution. "At that point I knew we were going to win," said Lynn.

Read more - including a list of the aldermen who voted against the resolution - in
Chicago FreeSpeechZone, a new independent journalistic project.