More photos from Friday's emergency protest.

I was very impressed with the qualitity of the speakers and with the impressive turnout on such a short notice.

Great showing everyone! Letrs keep the pressure on these bastards!

bastards are those who attack a suverene country. see who has started.

You're both wrong a bastard in the law of England and Wales was a person whose parents, at the time of his birth, were not married to each other.

Those Mohammedans and Communists aren't bastards. They are just Hezbollah's useful idiots.

Here are some pics from the protest the week before: people's newswire

while the crowd was smaller then, its still interesting that the police presence and restrictions on free speech were so much less one week, and so much harsher the next one. great photos, by the way. ei was asking me about submitting some photos, but i think yours would be better, chris

First off, I thought the turnout at this demonstration was really good. Especially considering the short notice and heat. That being said, I would like to offer some thoughts I have had about this demonstration and the peace movement in general. Take them how you will.

When I arrived at the demonstration yesterday, people were gathering and holding signs. It was a peaceful atmosphere, I was impressed. Then, the police built a caged barricade behind the protestors and eventually requested that the protestors get into the pen. There was not a single word of resistance. Andy Thayer had a conversation with the police before this request was made about how the crowd would stay under control, but when push came to shove, he went into the pen just as willingly as everyone else. (To his credit, during the M19 march two years ago, he was one of the very few people who stayed to march on Michigan Avenue and was arrested. Kudos.)

In any case, I feel like this movement has become afraid to disrupt. But, without disruption what is the point? Are we going to just get upset and yell at brick walls when some horrific act of violence occurs? Is that the goal? Do we even have goals? Yesterday we were there to speak a message, albeit not a consistent or clear message, but a message no less. The problem is that we do not even consider why we are doing this or to whom we are speaking. If we were speaking to the Israeli consulate, they certainly were not listening. If we were speaking to those passing by who might disagree with us, they definitely will ignore us after some of the more violent types shouted angrily that they were murderers for disagreeing with us. The gentleman pictured above with the “Jail the Bush Family” sticker even heckled a supporter, by violently accusing them of not doing enough to stop this. As if standing behind a cage, looking like a crazed lunatic to 80+% of the population, is doing enough. We do not have a message to give, and even if we did we do not know who we are speaking to or what we are trying to accomplish.

I'm just really tired of people trying to end a war though not so clever rhetoric. This is not action. Something violent in the world happens, we hold our cardboard and then we go home. Even that would be OK if there was a consistent and correctly spelled message, and we held cardboard when and where we wanted to, not behind cages. Everyone wants to be a martyr. We want a romantic movement, wherein we are the underdogs and are oppressed and we are standing with an oppressed people. But, we are holding ourselves back. This movement wants to stand for peace, but dismisses violence done against Israeli people as some more noble Robin Hood-esque resistance. People are still dying, and instead of trying to stop it, we are choosing sides. Even when this movement romanticizes the violent resistance in Gaza, we still will not bother to peacefully resist on the sidewalks of Chicago. We voluntarily give up our rights at the police’s request. What are we afraid of? What happens if we refuse to comply with the police? Would they arrest us? At least then, when we cry about oppression, we would be right. More importantly, we would have interrupted business-as-usual.

This movement is getting stale. Everyone is so bored. There is no energy and nobody has to risk anything. There's no passion for resistance, just the occasional burnt out asshole who wants to start a fight. What is the point of that? It just feels like there is no organization. We have no message besides anger. Anger at everything. No goals but to feel righteous about our cause. But shouldn’t we step back for a minute and find out what our cause is and how we can accomplish it, because this sure as hell isn’t working.

Matt, oh wise one, oh holy one. Even though you cannot see me, before beginning this reply I got down on hands and knees and paid my obeisances waving a boa and singing hosannas. I have some minor disagreements with your post, however, and I should like to express them here.

As to the police building a “cage” around us protestors, I think this was a reasonable thing to do. Our free speech and assembly rights do not extend to violating other people’s rights by precluding their free passage. Even under the circumstances passage for pedestrians was tight. And those logistics allowed us to message the pedestrians. As far as I can tell, the vote on the harm in this is several scores to one. But then I guess we need to keep in mind the exceptionalism of that one.

You moan about this movement not disrupting. Spoken like a true agent provocateur. Why don’t you lead us oh wise one? Why don’t you show us by example, how to disrupt? You reserve all your criticism for the handful of people concerned enough to come out; and none for the apathetic hosts who stay home. Where’s your analysis of them, holy one, and their failure to show up? You moan about consistency in message and then accuse me of engaging in “violent accusation,” an oxymoron, especially in light of F-16s and helicopter gun ships pounding the Palestinians and now the Lebanese. You accuse me of looking like a “crazed lunatic to 80+% of the population.” Which population are you talking about oh holy one? The demonstrators? The passersby? The press? Chicago? The United States? The world? And what exactly does a “crazed lunatic look like.” Someone who’s 47 years tired? Who sits on the toilet just like you? No really, I’d like to know because god forbid someone thinks me a crazed lunatic; or worse even, looks like a crazed lunatic. And what about all the pretty people passing by, mighty sage? With their fancy clothes, their Nordstrom’s packages, their banked tax-dollars financing Israeli aggression? Did they look like “crazed lunatics.” Maybe you’re just subtly pointing out the difference between looking like and actually being a crazed lunatic. Oh, and by the way, where were you while all this was going on? Were you in the cage with us? If you were in the forum right in front of us you must have been awful quiet, else you would have been ushered into the cage with us. Can’t take your own disruptive advice, oh venerable one? Or maybe you were just right there in front of us looking like a lost sheep your own self? Can you enlighten us oh revered one, oh pure one?

In all seriousness, how are you organizing against the bloodshed? What groups are you networking with? You must be the leader of one or several of them. Can we have the privilege of being members of your private club? I’ll bet the initiation must needs be as secret as at Skull and Bones.

You say, “We do not have a message to give, and even if we did we do not know who we are speaking to or what we are trying to accomplish.” I would caution you unless you become a liar on par with Bush or Bark O’Bomb ‘em. We had a message. Sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit. Stop the bombing. Stop killing civilians. Stop killing children. US stop financing Israeli aggression. Indeed, there were loud chants to this effect. Are you deaf oh holy sage? Are you like the blind master in the Kung Fu television series who makes up for his blindness with exceptional talents in his other senses? Maybe you have a sixth sense and could ascertain our true motives beneath our superficial protests at the Israelis consulate. We enjoy the bloodshed. What difference do children torn limb from limb matter? Dog munching on bloodied flesh in the streets is a sight much more attractive than a garden. I understand oh chosen one, your reservations, your qualms, your compunctions.

You say, “I'm just really tired of people trying to end a war though not so clever rhetoric.” Well that settles it. Notwithstanding the pained confusion, the groping in the dark for what is obviously just, our inexplicable torment, and as impotent as our actions have been, we thought we were at doing if not the best think at least something. Enlighten us oh master, how correctly to change our gears.

“This gobbledygook doesn’t even merit a response: “Something violent in the world happens, we hold our cardboard and then we go home. Even that would be OK if there was a consistent and correctly spelled message, and we held cardboard when and where we wanted to, not behind cages. Everyone wants to be a martyr. We want a romantic movement, wherein we are the underdogs and are oppressed and we are standing with an oppressed people.” These last two sentences especially highbrowed doctor, unbearable light, can most correctly be responded to with four words: you’re full of shit.

Lest you tell a Bushism your sovereign royalty and accuse me of being one who thinks in response to their violence, violence against Israelis is okay, let me refute you pre-emptively. I do suggest we understand the history and origins of this conflict, and recognize that Palestinian and Arab casualties run something on the order of five to one to Israel’s, pretty much a historical constant. I also suggest it be recognized [not by you august prodigy, you already know] the real villain in this charade and these massacres is the US government for not reining in its Mid-East attack dog; and then Israel. To put it more succinctly, it is overwhelmingly the US government that is at fault in this conflict for not requiring Israel to negotiate. From historical immemoriality, the US has consistently thwarted UN resolutions and actions designed to rein in Israel in votes that normally go 174-1 with two abstentions, the US being the one. I’m surprised oh sublime maharishi you’ve never read any Chomsky. You do know that the US supplies Israel $5 billion a year in aid, much of it sophisticated weaponry, and could stop Israel’s wanton aggression with a snap of its fingers. But we should acquiesce and admit to what you have so sapiently uncovered: it is we in the “peace movement,” our impotence and ill-will that is really the fault. It is a good thing we don’t have the power and influence of our senators O’Bomb em and Durbin otherwise the casualties in the Mid-East would really be astronomical. The US supplies Palestine something on the order of $325 million a year, and even that it has cut off after the non-democratic election that installed Hamas. Hama and the Palestinians ought really to learn something from our democracy don’t you think oh holy one, oh wise one? I’m assured in your wisdom that I don’t have to do that math for you to derive a percentage proportion of what the Israelis get versus the Palestinians. See, oh perspicacious profound one, despite its vicissitudes, wisdom does sometimes have its benefits. And the Palestinians are reduced to impotently tossing stones at helicopters, tanks, and F-16s. Can you tell us oh guiding light, oh leader, oh sublime authority, should we too throw stones at police in riot gear, on horseback, packing .357s? Would that be disruptive enough? Can you lead us in such a noble and courageous endeavor? Or at least enlighten us as to what would be the veracious way to disrupt.

Everyone is bored; goddammit. If that’s not the ultimate indictment of the peace movement I can’t think of one more severe. We ought to pick up our jacks, pack up our toys, and go home.

Good for you Matt. Lead by example. Organize a direct action with a few of your friends. Put together your own affinity group. Or does your committment to step up to the plate and engage in meaningful protest extend only to your keyboard and a post on IMC? You know the old saying about talk being cheap. No doubt, any initiative you take would be appreciated and supported by other antiwar activists throughout Chicago.( The most creative direct actions I've seen to date have been taken by the courageous folks of CODEPink Chicago.)

Incidentially, news of the Chicago protest ( and SF, and NY and other cities across the US and Eurpoe) have been picked up by a number of Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab outlets. As cut off from the outside world as they are folks in Gaza and Beirut are actually buoyed by accounts of international solidarity. No matter how pathetic in scope or ineffectual they may seem to us. And that has value.

As for taking sides, as an US taxpayer, you have already been forced to take sides, albeit without your consent -- your tax dollars are being used to underwrite the F-16s, 155 mm howitzers, Apache attack helicopters and naval gunboats being used to pound both Lebanon and Gaza into submission.

Finally, IMO, any suggestion of a symmetry of violence in this conflict is simply obscene, given the horrific costs both the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples have paid at the hands of the Israeli apartheid state and the United States for decades now.

Chris Hedge sums it up well in a recent editorial on Commondreams.org - "We cannot ascribe equal amounts of moral blame to all sides. Israel is the oppressor in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. America is the oppressor in Iraq. And there can be no hope for a peaceful resolution to these conflicts until Iraqis are freed from American occupation and Palestinians are allowed to build a viable state. It is the distorting and dehumanizing effects of occupation that made possible the proliferation of extremist groups that, albeit on a smaller scale, simply hand back to the occupier some of their own medicine. The numbers, after all, make clear that most of the victims are Palestinian, Iraqi and now Lebanese civilians, although the numbers game can also obscure the fact that the murder of any innocent by any group is indefensible."

nice pics. Good turnout on such short notice.

I agree with showus. You asked "besides disruption, what is the point?" Showing solidarity with the people of Lebanon and Palestine is why I was there. So that they and anyone else who cares to, can see that there is public opposition in the US to Israeli (and US) policy.
I understand the feeling of ineffectiveness as do many people I know, and we're always open to suggestions and new ways of thinking, but criticism without advice isn't very useful and gets old quick.

If you had problems with how things went down Friday, I'd wish you'd take a little time to talk with others in the movement to get a bit more info about what really went down that day before offering a critique.

When 3-4 of us got there with the sound at about 4:30 pm to set it up, a lieutenant came up to me to say that he was ordering us across the street, across 4 lanes of traffic on the north side of Wacker by the river. I replied that he had no authority to do this and that it was just such "lawful" arbitrary authority that got the City's gang loitering ordinance thrown out by the Supreme Court. He said that if we stayed on the sidewalk, he'd have us arrested. I asked him under what ordinance he proposed to do this, and he refused to name one, and instead claimed that court precedents allowed him to order us to be "within sight and sound" of the consulate, i.e., across the street, but he couldn't cite precisely WHAT precidents.

We called a National Lawyers Guild attorney who's been very involved with these free speech struggles to get his advice, and ultimately put him on the phone with the lieutenant to have an argument with him. After the attorney was through talking with the lieutenant, he continued to threaten us with arrest, and we continued arguing with him, taking down his name, etc. and saying that his actions were inviting a lawsuit. He then proposed putting us in the street next to the consulate's sidewalk which, while not everything that we wanted, seemed a damn site better than getting a few people arrested and then having everyone else herded across four lanes of traffic to the other side of the street. At the end of our "negotiations," it was almost 5 pm, the start of our protest, and yet there were only about 25 people on our side there. The balance of forces certainly did not help our side of the dispute -- one more argument for being serious enough to show up on time for demos, assuming you can get off work, etc., rather than strolling in late.

I for one was not in a position to be arrested on Friday (I'm still facing three other charges and needed to be at a live cable TV show that started @ 6:30 that night). Much more importantly, given that there were many in the Palestinian community who were expected at the event, and they've been facing a great deal of legal hassles already (one of our speakers had a traffic stop on her way to the demo), it didn't seem like a particularly good time to have busts of anyone.

Probably the single best thing about Friday's demo was the substantial turnout from the Arab and Muslim communities -- the largest I've seen at a protest about the Middle East in quite some time. I believe that the intense legal repression of several local community leaders, and day-to-day "legal" harassment of Arabs and Muslims in general, has severely stunted their level of participation in most recent Chicago protests. Friday was a welcome change from that. Their courage in coming out, in spite of the repression, made the demo a welcome change from what I've seen recently.

Regarding the question of who was our audience, I for one think that it definitely was NOT the consulate or the yahoos who gave out catcalls from the sidewalk or passing cars. No, I don't think we're going to change their minds anytime in my lifetime. The only thing worth communicating to them is our determination to resist them.

To my mind, our audience is the millions of Americans who are already convinced that the Iraq/Afghanistan wars and occupations are bullshit, and as such, are open to arguments about the barbarity of the occupation of Palestine. We reached some of these people as they went by the protest, and many more through the corporate press coverage of the event. As incredibly biased as the corporate media coverage of the national and international news regarding the Israeli offensive has been, I understand that the local broadcast media coverage of the demo was surprisingly good (okay, I DO have low standards when it comes to these things).

With the barrage of propaganda being spewed out by Bush, et al, and the national affiliates, most people who oppose the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, and who thus probably have doubts about the greatly heightened Israeli offensive, probably feel very isolated right now. Even if they caught only a sound-bite of our demo, they now know that they're not alone in their doubts, and that there are like-minded people that they can join with in direct political activity if they are so inclined.

This demo was decided on at only about 8:45 PM Wednesday, so outreach was very limited, yet the turn out was at least 200 (perhaps more) by my count. Pretty good for such short notice.

I have no problem with people thinking up creative actions, so long as they don't use people who thought they were going to a legal demo as cover for CD, etc. It's incredibly disrespectful to people already on our side, and potentially causes them serious legal consequences and possibly drives them out of the movement in the bargain.

On the other hand, when people pursue creative actions that draw attention to our issues without putting others at risk, I have nothing but admiration. Such was the case with the Hillary Clinton protest at the Auditorium Theatre by CodePINK a few months back.

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Look at your tax form and you will see a little box that you can mark to get a refund on taxes used to fund abortions. While it is just a symbolic jesture, as the rest you pay in taxes does still fund abortions, it is your religous right by law.

It is my Christian right NOT to treat my Palestinian neighbors as I would have them treating me. And supplying Zionist crusaders with the means to destroy Palestinian lives and lifes or to occupy ANY portion of the Palestinian's homeland is treating my Palestinian neighbors as i would not have them treating me.

There should be legal action implamented that would add a box to tax forms that would provide us with refunds of taxes used to support the Zionist's 1947 UN approved murderous theft of Palestinian lands.

Not only should it include refunds on taxes going to ZIonist crusaders, but it should also include refunds of taxes going to Egypt and Jordan for appeasing Zionist occupation of palestinian lands.
Why anyone would think/feel that it is the American taxpayer's job to pay the ZIonist crusader's tribute to Egypt and Jordan is a real mystery.

Also, Americans who make donations to the Zionist crusade don't pay taxes on the cash they send to the murderous thieving Zionist crusaders, which they would pay taxes on IF they didn't send it to Zionist crusaders. Other Americans have to fill in the hole left by those supporters of murderous thieves.

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