Downtown Anti-War Protest Set For Tomorrow

You wouldn't know it by reading the papers, but it's likely that tomorrow a few thousand people will march downtown to Federal Plaza to protest the American military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places. The march, organized primarily by the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism has a number of starting points, Senn High School at 6:00 am for the "North Side Long March Against Empire", Michigan and Oak Streets at Noon for the regular, or 2:00 pm at the Adams and Dearborn Federal Plaza for just the protest.

The actual marching routes are still to be determined, since the marchers want to walk down Michigan Avenue, and the city wants the route to go down Clark Street. Two weeks ago the Police Department laid down the rules for the protest route, but the protesters insisted that the Clark Street route was not as prominent as their proposed Michigan Avenue route and took the case to federal court. They argued that since Mayor Richard M. Daley didn't like the protests, the Clark Street route, "disfavors the content of the coalition's speech." The court upheld the city's Clark Street route, but protest organizer websites suggest that they'll head down Michigan Avenue anyway.

March 19, 2005 is the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and this is the second downtown march to mark the date. Last year's protest, held on March 20, attracted about 7,000-8,000 protestors, according to the Chicago Police Department. (The picture above is from that march. See more at Rachelleb.com.) Depending on weather, we might expect to see about the same.