Radical Critique of Chicago's Antiwar Demos

This assessment of the March 18th antiwar march is broken up into two sections. The first is a recap of the march and a general criticism and the second part is what radicals should do to increase the militancy of marches so we don’t ever have to march behind floats that stop at streetlights and chant to the backs of heads, surrounded by riot cops. This critique is not for someone content with the fact we were led around like kids in a parade by riot cops. Honest Assessment of the Chicago Anti-War March

This assessment of the March 18th antiwar march is broken up into two sections. The first is a recap of the march and a general criticism and the second part is what radicals should do to increase the militancy of marches so we don’t ever have to march behind floats that stop at streetlights and chant to the backs of heads, surrounded by riot cops. This critique is not for someone content with the fact we were led around like kids in a parade by riot cops. If the sad state of affairs continues we will more than likely end up with corporate sponsorships of the annual Iraqi war protest parade, with Whole Foods and Trader Joes having floats. M18 was the ultimate form of recuperation by the spectacle to use the terminology of situationism, most people actually convinced themselves that they were participating in resistance, instead of participating in perfectly acceptable spectrums of opinion. If the same liberals who called Bush a new Hitler or the war immoral are actually content to be marched around by the police for a few hours in a parade they are either too cowardly to attack Bush like they would attack fascist Germany, or their moral system is so weak that any mortal insult to one’s morals is tolerated, or they are just blatantly hypocritical since they defend other morals and the fight real Hitler with more vigor. This assessment’s second part will hopefully lead to a successful formula on how to coordinate actual resistance for the majority of the march that was radically oriented at some level (not necessarily openly anarchist of socialist) and ready to take action but couldn’t due to tactical and strategic constraints.


This analysis is going to start out at the Union Park rally and end with the march on Michigan Avenue. The beginning convergence at Union Park was a fun quasi festive atmosphere of protest. It was fun to hang out with friends, the Food Not Bombs table came through again with delicious meals and instead of the casual conversations about the weather and sports and the like one could hear heated political discussions being held all over the park. The stage provided good hip hop background music, and the music brigade was awesome as always with its brass and drum sections. The stage wasn’t the main focus of the Union Park convergence, most people were off hanging out with friends or engaging people with different political ideas. It was pretty much the same hundred people who listen to speakers at EVERY Chicago demo that were listening to the speakers on the Union Park stage. My friend and I had fun looking around for and trying to take a picture of the undercover agent who had asked a friend and then myself if we belonged to the anarchist contingent, what was going on that day and if we were planning a black block. Unfortunately she took off immediately after she talked to me and wasn’t seen the rest of the day. After awhile busses pulled up and the participants were advocated to board them from some speaker on the stage. Now I don’t know who paid for the busses or if they were graciously provided by the City of Chicago but it was a huge waste of money and allowed the City to politely contain the protestors. Meanwhile the anarcho’s and a few other radicals weren’t going to be bussed by the city to the demonstration zone and gathered near the Food Not Bombs table.

Once all the free drums were handed out and the banners put together we began a quick march that caught the cops off guard. We went pretty much where we wanted except for a token officer or two for a few blocks. Then a few cars pulled up and cops came out with batons and started ordering us onto the sidewalk (which we had to obey since we didn’t plan for any conflict even though we still vastly outnumbered the cops at this point. A few more attempts at autonomously determining the trajectory of the march were attempted and a few of them were successful until some police reinforcements came. We still doubled their number but they had a strong enough presence to lead our march to the general convergence. Once I realized it was hopeless to break away I left the leading banner and just went to the middle of our contingent. There was no strategy or even tactical knowledge in the march and we were effectively split in half most of the time between people who walked faster at the front and those at the back who didn’t really see the need of marching faster once the cops came to decide where we were going.

When we were unencumbered by the police presence and determining our own course the spirit was unparalleled compared to the rest of the day. The mood was also different as well, instead of boredom and weak spirited chants, people were engaged in resistance and passionately calling for the end of the war on life that Iraq is only a skirmish of. Anyone at the march knew that simply ignoring police commands wasn’t going to change the system itself but that it was still resistance at the most rudimentary level of being able to determine freedom of movement.

Once we finally were led to the convergence for the Michigan march people were confused and boredom started to set in so people just started heckling riot cops with run of the mill chants about taking off the police gear and that the rally was about peace and that the protestors were going to be “peaceful.” Luckily someone brought chalk so that provided entertainment for a good while along with the drum and dance circles. Predictably another stage with the same leftist circuit speakers was set up by World Can’t Wait. The only reason why more people were listening to the speeches this time than at Union Park was because space was limited so the only available space was in front of the stage. So while we were dancing and chalking up Oak street waiting for the permitted march on Michigan Avenue we were told by the police to clear the street. The reason became know a few minutes later as the march “organizers” came behind the cops telling everybody to clear the street for the FLOATS to come through.

This was the most embarrassing part of the march. I understand that people who made the floats dropped a lot of money and effort into the floats but seriously this IS ABOUT RESISTANCE NOT PARADES!!!! I was insulted that there was money left to rent vehicles to have the floats on. Seriously folks if there is time and money to build floats for the annual Iraq war demonstration we need to rethink our tactics. So we cleared the street because once again nobody came prepared to say no to the cops. Then the demonstration started being first led by a row of cops then the floats then the liberals’ banners then marchers. It was the most ridiculous spectacle I have ever seen.

I was again insulted when I saw the same liberals carrying signs about how Bush is another Hitler. Their hypocrisy was so blatant it made me cringe. How can you accept being told where to demonstrate, how can you fail to criticize the system that brought about Hitler, how can you fail to call for the system’s destruction that created Hitler, and how can you not arm yourselves and fight to bring down Hitler’s regime (Or use your body as the ultimate weapon in non-violent resistance that disables the system’s ability to function). I can understand why World War II veterans and Holocaust victims despise liberals who call Bush a new Hitler. They were on the front lines destroying Hitler’s regime with every once of being they had while people who think Bush is Hitler today are content to demonstrate once a year behind floats and yell dispassionate chants to the backs of other protestors heads. They need to seriously revise their theory to avoid being totally hypocritical or being to cowardly to go out and fight a neo-Hitler’s regime in the street.

My friend isn’t well versed in any politics but has experienced first hand both sides of the role of the police, from the perspective of the working class being kept down and seeing people thrown in jails for arbitrary reasons and their other role, keeping the system from imploding by arresting the antisocial abusive fathers and gangbangers churned out by the class system. She initially argued that the anarchists wanting to defy the police were just asking for trouble and that the protest was against the war. She didn’t want to have the message against the war distorted and have it turn into a bunch of arrests and a brawl with cops, since after all that happens every day outside of suburbia anyhow. However after experiencing what focusing on the single issue of the war lead to, mainly the boring repetitive chanting of the same suburbia she wasn’t apart of, she changed her mind. The limited freedom of the anarchist march was infinitely more fun and she thought that it got the point across that we were against the war and willing to actually stop it. Instead of dully chanting “The Constitution is the Law, Impeach Bush” to the back of someone’s head who is blindly following some lame float that stops at red lights the anarchist march presented a glimpse of an alternative with its limited reclaiming of the streets and adrenaline rushes as we briefly resisted the will of the city.

If the liberals can be criticized for their theory, then the anarcho’s and other radicals who want to reclaim the streets deserved just as much criticism for their lack of any tactics whatsoever. The outcome of being told what to do by police is inevitable unless we come with a strategy and a tactical outlook to do something about it. Sure the crowd outnumbered the police but nobody really wants to be part of the first few hundred arrested while breaking out of a line. I believe that there were a whole lot more radically thinking people at this march then the cautious anti-Bush people. They were hamstringed however by not having any plan to resist the police and city dictates. If there was a hundred or so determined and tactically well versed militants in the crowd to make a break we might have been able to march anywhere in the city.

If we would have tried to make a break during the protest however it would have only ended in police brutality and probably the arrest of any anarchist the police could get their hand on. Confronting the large officers at the front of the anarchist parade was a group of ardent yet physically small anarchists behind a few thin pvc supported banners. We just didn’t come prepared to do anything in terms of resistance. The conclusion to this article is going to be a few suggestions on how to increase the likelihood of successful militancy. I believe that militant protests do allow the participants to experience the resistance they preach and the can have an eureka effect on those who are the border of wanting to resistance. They also convey the message of whatever the cause is gilded on top of the resistance to the system that is the basis for militant protests much better than the march around in circles yelling lame chants theory of protests. They obviously aren’t the endgame of any revolution but they are a necessary stepping stone to allow people to confront the system enough to actually change it. Those who claim that radical militancy at demos doesn’t do squat are also usually the first to reserve any radical change to theory and are content to keep the revolution to listserves and myspace profiles.

PART II:

Suggestions on where to go from here:

It is patently obviously that some coordination of radical activity is needed if we are going to get anywhere in terms of resistance. Even from an anarchist perspective a city wide consulate that leads to a federation is necessary to coordinate activity. The basic tactical considerations that would enable a radical protest can’t be compromised by police infiltration. Giving mass workshops on locking arms and distribution of supplies of resistance to affinity groups can and must be coordinated at a city wide level and even if the cops have a plant somewhere in the organization they still can’t do anything about its actions. Planning specific intersections where marches will break off or where people will do lockdowns can be compromised but that should be left to the affinity groups. The key here is giving affinity groups the tools needed to resist.

Body armor and shields would be key for the front line of people that will lead a break away march. The acquisition of the material needed to make enough body protection and shields to arm the actual part of the breakaway along with numerous other decoy groups could be easily done by a city wide working group dedicated to it. The mass training of people who won’t have armor in other tactics such as locking arms or sitting or charging could be done through a few workshops. You would only need to train a decent sized group for the effect to ripple through the entire protest. An unfortunate quality of protest marches is that they happen to have a mob quality, but this could work to our advantage if played correctly. If a critical mass of trained organizers started locking up arms and following the front line of shielded people then there would be quite a large number of people going with and following.

The acquisition and distribution of body armor, shields, and things for workshops to train people on militant resistance can happen regardless of police infiltrators. The tactics can be planned by trusted working groups and can be decentralized. People who have training and materials to take action will be far more likely to organize and act in affinity groups then people who just listen to people preach on listserves and go back expecting something to happen at a protest. This kind of coordinated decentralized can be roughly applied to other situations as well and would definitely lead to organized resistance on other mediums other than simply demonstrations.

Personally I am going to work for a citywide group to help coordinate decentralized resistance. One final point that is necessary is that the group should not be affiliated with any ideology per se, other than revolutionary change. Labels at this stage of development can only hinder the development of a broad composition of militancy. Indeed it is an anarchist inspired organizational model but we don’t need to call it anarchist and conjure harbored prejudices. After all, this group would be a revived model of strategy that has not been associated with explicitly anarchist groups in Chicago at least since the Iraq War started. At the same time it is essential that it doesn’t advance some socialist leader or become another paper pushing group. Its focus should be on training and enabling people to actively resist and experience resistance at demonstrations. It should be composed of different affinity groups that already exist and be open for anyone who has a radical leaning. This is the effective expression of what affinity groups can accomplish, where yesterday’s march was the ineffective expression we have seen time and again.