Groups like Southsiders for Peace and Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice came, along with some of the north suburban and west suburban peace projects, a number of activist/youth projects from the African American community, and a couple of contingents from the Palestinian community. The overwhelming majority of the crowd of several thousand came from right there in the neighborhood. Major shout-outs to local groups in the Mexican community for the fantastic organizing -- despite the outrageous presence of hundreds of state troopers who were there only to intimidate and harass, and to the cops who tore down street signs every day for weeks in the run-up to the action ... and every night local groups would repost them. Notable no-shows: many of the liberal anglo groups who are apparently too busy giving Obama a chance to show up south of Madison Ave. or west of Michigan Ave. to stand in solidarity with the rest of us. One activist reported that an Evanston group refused to endorse the action or build for it because, to the astonishment of the member who pitched participation, they 'didn't agree that there is a war on immigrants. Pinche gueros.

Great pics, Christine. I was happy to be out, to seem so many friends and aqaintances on a beautiful day. We know our actions matter; look at how much trouble they went through to stop it. Kudos to the organizers and their hard work.

I decided to shoot my black and white film camera, will finish my pics tomorrow. :)

Great pics, Geo.

What a joke. I’ve give up on these Iraq demonstrations. How many people? What location for the war this? It was even referred as the “war and immigration demonstration.” Simply because the Iraq issue has become the backroom topic at these.

Young men & ladies aren’t forcing anymore into the armed forces. Yeah the draft is over for a couple of years. Illegal immigrants covered 75% of the time at the rallies last year. Iran isn’t at war. Believe it or not, the gay and lesbian movement has made great strides. The Zionist pigs don’t kill every Palestinian. Nuclear weapons haven’t been dropped on Afghanistan. Two years I received a flyer to support the Communists in the Philippines. It will be a long time before all Americans become vegetarians. The million 9/11 conspiracies, some directed by the CIA.

The state and city police in full outfits were probably drifting between boredom and laughter.

I’ll save my photo album from previous years and I had bought DVD version from cantv to remember from some other times. Show up again, (and probably many of people for the same reason,) no. I bet a lot more people would show up if not so screwed up over there.

Better luck in the future.

Anonymous Poster - Next time, try and use complete sentences. Or just post to your favorite rightwing blog. Kudos to the Pilsen organizers for a great job. For a neighborhood march, this was a breath of fresh air.

that last comment was unintelligible

there was a march and the atrocities the U.S. commits here and elsewhere are not one step closer to ending

A couple of the posters seem to think that marching is irrelevant. If that were true, why would the authorities continue to work so hard to prevent these kinds of marches? Anything that punctures the complacency of the dominant paradigm is important and useful. And while a lot of white folks that have marched in the past were uncomfortable about the 'immigrant' issue, the reality is that we've got to start doing a better job of connecting the dots as a nation if we're ever going to get a collective handle on pushing back against the core class that is interested in fucking the rest of us. THEY don't see difference, they just see the opportunity to screw the rest of us. This march was a great local effort in mutuality and solidarity, and many of the Latino groups that organized for it have vowed to join efforts in the African American community to fight back against the ethnic cleansing and waste that is at the heart of the city's Olympic bid. Grassroots alliances -- what the elites fear most and what those who sat this out missed out on.

Kudos to the Pilsen organizers for a great job. For a neighborhood march, this was a breath of fresh air - and appreciated by many folks here who are tired of Latino/a youth being targeted for military recruitment.

It seems to me that the movement is losing sight... focus, focus, focus.

thank you

Where's the pictures of the Green Party? They've always been strong supporters of peace, social justice, civil rights and feminism, among other positions. See the Ten Key Values. And, they're not on the corporate dole, like the Chicago Machine Democrats.

www.GP.org

Couple things. First, I expected to see more Greens out. Maybe I missed their banners, but I was looking, and I also didn't see a number of the more recent activists who've come on since Nader's first run in 2000. Were you folks there? Did I just miss you with the camera? Second, re the call to focus the peace movement, this action did focus -- on a key targeted community that recruiters have been swarming over for the last five years. One of the most pernicious aspects of the so-called Dream Act that ILL Senator Dick Durbin is so fond of is an incentive to give citizenship to young Latinos who enlist. Naturally, this hasn't prevented ICE from moving to deport the family members of immigrant troopers killed in Iraq. The war on immigrants at home IS related to US wars for empire abroad. It IS related to the general national war on youth and people of color. These issues are not disconnected, no matter how much white liberals might want to believe this -- or to believe that we just need to give Obama a chance. That magical thinking got us a Democratic majority in Congress two years ago that did nothing to stop funding for the war, filibuster against expanding the war, or pushing against US foreign policy extremes. This administration, despite the magical thinking, can be expected to do no better -- unless we make them.

Green Party was there. Fifth district candidate Matt Reichel (MattReichel.us) won the primary and will be on the ballot for the special election April 7th. I'm not much of an electoral politics person, but I do enjoy voting Green. It's also my favorite color. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture, I was distracted by something or another. If you contact them very soon, you can get a yard sign.

Also, talking about the militarization youth of color, it breaks my heart on a personal level. Today I saw one of our former students who is now in High School. She was wearing a JROTC uniform. JROTC attracts a lot of nice kids who have been disadvantaged from the privileged high schools because of their English as a Second Language barrier. It is a stable environment which discludes troubled kids with behavior problems. Check out the JROTC entry on Wikipedia. It is very informative. While the program cuts back on "active recruiting" of it's cadets into full time military service, the results are the same. 30-50% of cadets do go on to join the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy. It is also important to note that their goal of "teaching patriotic citizenship" does much to neutralize political citizenship.

Lastly, the requirements to become an "instructor" at one of the city's military schools is disturbing. As long as you are a retired military officer, you can do the on-line tutorial here: www.usarmyjrotc.com/jrotcRes/downloads/qualifications/Initial_Qualification.html There is a ten question quiz you can take as many times as you need to. Print out your certificate and take it to your interview. Voila!

What obviously don't need military schools. What we need are schools on urban gardening, social work, establishing local economies, etc.

One of the parent from the school I teach at saw the march- she was pretty floored by it. That was cool.

Hmm. Nothing prevents members of the Green Party from taking their own pics of activities they participate in and posting them here on Indymedia -- or to the GP's own own websites for that matter.