More than 1,500 people gathered in front of the Egyptian consulate on Chicago's gold coast Saturday afternoon to demand the ouster of the Mubarak dictatorship. Their lead chant? "Brick by brick! Wall by wall! We will see Mubarak fall!"

People came not just from Chicago's Egyptian community, but from community groups and mosques across the region, and from a range of progressive anti-war projects, left-wing political formations and immigrant communities -- Chileans, Palestinians, Irish, Polish, Greek and more. When asked how they heard about the protest, they said simply, "The Internet."

The unified message, according to organizers, who put the protest together in less than 48 hours: "We stand with the people of Egypt in their struggle for democracy and justice, and we will protest with them until their goals are met."