The report below was submitted by ANSWER Chicago (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). The PSL is a member organization of ANSWER.
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Click the Play button above to watch a slideshow of the demonstration. |
Traveling from all over the Midwest, students, working people and
antiwar activists, converged in Chicago on October 16 for a regional
march and rally on the 9th Anniversary of the Afghanistan war. The
October 16 regional protest demanded, “End the Wars and Occupations!
Jobs, Peace and Equality Now!” and was coordinated with actions all
across the country in the first weeks of October.
Exceeding
organizers’ expectations, it was the largest protest in the region
against the Afghanistan war since the 2001 invasion. Over 1,500 people
attended October 16. The great numbers of young people at the protest,
and the growing numbers of young people who are joining the movement,
energized marchers
and was a vital component of October 16’s success.
Protesters
carried hundreds of vibrant anti-war banners and placards with them on
the march up Michigan Avenue through downtown Chicago. Youth and student
contingents raised their fists high in the air and chanted together:
“Money for Jobs and Education, Not for War and Occupation!”
Donate Now: To make a very important financial contribution to the antiwar movement, click here now. We cannot continue our organizing efforts to end the wars and occupations without your help!
The
ANSWER Coalition had a powerful multinational contingent in the march
with booming sound that was led by young people from around the Midwest.
Placards in the contingent read “Stand Against War & Racism: Jobs
& Schools, Not War” and
“End Occupation: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq.”
Steven
Latimer, a college student who traveled from Columbus, Ohio for the
mass action, said, “I joined the October 16 protest to make a
difference. I saw people there who joined the march from across the city
as we marched through town. Talking to other activists and
communicating with other like-minded people was very important. October
16 was a good step forward for the movement.”
Students came from
many campuses to march on the streets of Chicago. From the Chicago area
students came from: Columbia College, Wright College, Harold Washington
College, Truman College, Triton College, Northeastern University of
Illinois, UIC, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Dominican
University and Loyola University.
From around the Midwest,
students came from: University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Saint Mary’s
University, Minnesota; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Capital University in Columbus, Ohio; Purdue University; St. Ambrose
University in Davenport, Iowa; Florissant Valley Community College in
St. Louis; Lincoln University of Missouri; Knox College in Galesburg,
Ill.; and Manchester College in Indiana, among others.
Speakers
at the October 16 protest included: John Beacham, ANSWER Coalition;
Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report; Awad Hamdan, American Muslims for
Palestine; Monica Heffner, Chicago ADAPT; Lori Perdue, CodePINK; Mike
Ferner, Veterans for Peace; Alexy Lanza, La Voz de los de Abajo; Andy
Thayer, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism; and Mick Kelly,
Minnesota Anti-war activist who was one of the targets of the recent FBI
raids.
To see video of ANSWER Chicago’s John Beacham speaking at the Oct. 16 demonstration, click here.
In
the weeks before the protest in Chicago, ANSWER volunteers passed out
tens of thousands of leaflets at schools and L stops. At a street
meeting on October 7 at the busy downtown corner of State and Madison,
organizers passed out thousands of leaflets, held up a banner promoting
October 16 and used a bullhorn to speak out against war and racism.
