Dissent Is Patriotic
By Teofilo Reyes.

A jog down the road people made a B-line for Michigan Avenue – Chicago’s fabled Magnificent Mile. This is where the cops drew their line in the sand. By now a few hundred of those entrusted to serve and protect OPProperty had gathered, and they were well positioned in front of Chicago’s gucci shops and sweatshop retailers. They were deaf to the crowd’s chants of “Let us Shop,” but they did put away their gas masks to the chant of “No Chemical Weapons!” A few smiles must have cracked that wall.

The crowd eventually marched back down Lake Shore before dispersing, but not before over 600 people were arrested when a march tributary tried to veer back towards Michigan and was corralled-off by police.

Dozens more were arrested the following day at die-ins sponsored by Iraqi Peace Pledge. That Friday evening thousands again gathered to march, but this time under a tight and strict police escort. The march was literally surrounded by a line of cops and quickly became a forced march for anyone who wanted to drop back. Once in the march there was no way out – all the beat cops from around the city made sure of that.

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by Teofilo Reyes for Vivos Voco

March 27, 2003

The war is in full swing now, but things don’t seem to be going as planned. Well prepared militias are putting up an unexpected fight, and US supply lines are stretching thin. Here in the US, thousands have been arrested protesting the war in Iraq. And the protests continue.

San Francisco was shut down for days, as well organized protesters engaged in massive civil disobedience that shut down over 30 city intersections to express their opposition.

Seemingly staid Albuquerque, New Mexico erupted in violence as riot police used tear gas to subdue a crowd of demonstrators.

Hundreds of thousands marched in New York, And daily blockades of intersections occur throughout that city.

In Chicago, massive crowds took to the streets in uncharacteristic defiance.

I had the pleasure of speaking out in Chicago, where thousands gathered Thursday to protest the first bombs raining on Baghdad. Protest organizers had finagled a permit for 3,000. The final count was closer to 15,000. The police were outnumbered and ill-prepared.

I was at the back of the rally when the back of the crowd surged out onto the street. There was a rumor that the police weren’t letting people march out the front of the rally. Before long there were thousands of people streaming behind us. A few blocks later and we were on Lake Shore Drive – one of the main thoroughfares out of downtown. A handful of police tried to stop the crowd, but it easily veered around them. Rush hour traffic rushed nowhere.

Police intermittently set out lines of cops to break the tide, but it was too large. Protesters had now taken over both directions of Lake Shore and were streaming through the idling cars. Amazingly, (miraculously?, expectedly?) a chorus of honks rose with the crowd. Many commuters were pissed, but many others put down their cell phones to honk incessantly, flash peace signs, high-five the peds, hold impromptu boogey sessions, and greet the inconvenience warmly.

A jog down the road people made a B-line for Michigan Avenue – Chicago’s fabled Magnificent Mile. This is where the cops drew their line in the sand. By now a few hundred of those entrusted to serve and protect OPProperty had gathered, and they were well positioned in front of Chicago’s gucci shops and sweatshop retailers. They were deaf to the crowd’s chants of “Let us Shop,” but they did put away their gas masks to the chant of “No Chemical Weapons!” A few smiles must have cracked that wall.

The crowd eventually marched back down Lake Shore before dispersing, but not before over 600 people were arrested when a march tributary tried to veer back towards Michigan and was corralled-off by police.

Dozens more were arrested the following day at die-ins sponsored by Iraqi Peace Pledge. That Friday evening thousands again gathered to march, but this time under a tight and strict police escort. The march was literally surrounded by a line of cops and quickly became a forced march for anyone who wanted to drop back. Once in the march there was no way out – all the beat cops from around the city made sure of that.

Along with all the anti-war protests, many cities held fairly large pro-war rallies brought to us by [Clear Channel Communications], a close ally and funder of the Bush administration and owner of over one thousand radio stations across the country. The company used its vast network of radio stations to organize support for the war, much as it uses it now to squeeze profits from the music industry and ensure a bland and tepid rock and roll (in a nut shell, we listen to what record execs are willing to pay Clear Channel to play.)

As expected, “Love It or Leave It” signs were abundant at the corporate sponsored rallies. At one rally, a stack of the Dixie Chicks’ latest CD was crushed by a bulldozer in retaliation for the group daring to cast aspersions on our Generalissimo Bush. There was all this talk about how radio stations had pulled Dixie Chicks off their play lists – not hard to do if one corporate office gets to call the shots. This is the same company that sent its affiliates a long list of verboten songs after September 11th. The real story is that the Chicks’ tune Travelin’ Soldier is continuing its climb up the charts.

The stakes for dissent are high: careers have been threatened; anti-war Iraqi Americans have been called in for FBI interviews; [lone dissidents have been summarily arrested]; authorities are trying to charge protest organizers for police overtime. Most established institutions want you to rally round the flag and marginalize dissent. The road to “Iraqi freedom” runs ram shod over ours.

At this point only visible and constant dissent will ensure a political cost for the administration’s neo-imperial adventures. The natural and patriotic groundswell of support for troops does not translate into a visceral belief in this war. The rationale for war is paper thin and getting thinner: Iraq has so far failed to use any chemical or biological weapons, and popular resistance to the US invasion force seems to grow on a daily basis. The more visible dissent, the more people will gird their loins and speak out.

The good news is that opposition in the US remains strong – students keep walking out of classes, protests have been held in over [60] big and small towns across the country, protesters are diversifying their tactics, the cathartic demos at deadline were well received by local media, even the threatened Hollywood black-list didn’t affect the anti-war tone on Oscar night.

Now more than ever dissent is the republican thing to do. We do not want a post-cold war empire. If you love this country defend it, dissent.