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LOCAL News :: Peace : Protest Activity

account of the “break up with boeing party”

chicago newbie perspective on April 4 Boeing protest
I arrived at the rally point (it's Chicago, so the rally point was Daley Plaza, of course) right around 5pm, the time folks had been asked to gather. Just as I emerged from around the corner, someone was there to greet me with a flyer explaining the action. Maybe several dozen folks had assembled so far, with many press people for various media – there was no shortage of cameras or notepads on the scene (which incidentally was why I decided not to snap any pictures – I figured Indymedia would be full of them – where are they today? – please post!). Someone announced that the sound system was on the way and we'd get moving soon... more folks trickled in... bike cops began to hover in clusters around the perimeter of the plaza. Other folks passed out signs and copies of the break up letter from the people of Chicago to Boeing.

Folks warmed up with chants (your basic anti-war chants, as well as some creative chants like, “even when it's snowing, we're still gonna protest Boeing”) and wrestled the wind with “break up with boeing” and “kick boeing to the curb” signs. Finally, with a barrage of home-made drums accompanying the bicycle-driven sound system, maybe a hundred protesters walked to Randolph and then headed west on Randolph toward Boeing's headquarters at 100 N. Riverside Plaza.

At this point, I want to point out what was great about this action to me..... first, it focused on one of the motives behind war – profit (in this case, the profits of defense contractors). Stop the profit motive and you can go a long way toward stopping the war. Also, people were laughing and joking, dancing to the breakup songs.... onlookers and drivers and buses full of people inched by on their daily traffic crawl home from the loop and craned their necks to see the signs and message.... relative to the size of the protest, lots of other people saw and heard the message.

This was in contrast to the March 20 rally in which many more people participated (thousands), yet due to police blocking off the streets and diverting traffic around the route of the march, it seemed like relatively few people other than those directly participating (either as protesters or police) actually witnessed the march. A few onlookers yesterday honked their support, but many many pedestrians, drivers, bus-riders, etc. saw the signs, heard the music, and at least got the message that Boeing (the second-largest defense contractor), now hosted by the city of Chicago, is profiting off of this unpopular war with billions in military contracts and millions in tax breaks.

This action used the sidewalks, thus avoiding arrests and keeping it pretty safe for all participants. It could have blocked the streets, but there's a time and a place for that and this seemed to be effective enough at getting the message out about the purpose of yesterday's small but spirited protest. Randolph is a busy street at the end of the day, and the route took the march past lots of loop workers and tourists (or, took lots of loop workers and tourists past the protest...). Once at Boeing, someone called Boeing and read the break-up letter from the people of Chicago.

This was a fun and creative approach to protest – one that bemused onlookers and is the kind of thing that can hopefully get more people thinking about why we go to war, as well as get more people interested in joining existing antiwar groups or finding their own ways to creatively and non-violently express their views on capitalism and war.

Chicago's "break-up letter to Boeing":
kickboeingtothecurb.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/break-up-letter-to-boeing/
 
 

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