300,000 to 500,000 people marched in Chicago to protest The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.
The Police estimated 300,000 according to Channel 2 News Chicago. Which means there were at least 400,000 to 500,000 people.
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_069125525.html
I live in Chicago. I didn’t know anything about it until I heard about the march on the news. It was a march apparently organized by word of mouth and internally in various communities. Yet I live in Uptown which claims to be the most diverse community in Chicago. Maybe I’m out of it. I didn’t see anything in the papers about an upcoming march. It got a few minutes of coverage on TV. 300,000 to 500,000 people gets a few minutes of coverage in Chicago, I can’t imagine what the coverage was in the rest of the country.
Here’s the on line link to the Chicago Tribune. If you look very carefully you will find a single link called “immigrant march”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
The Saturday Chicago Tribune did show a front page picture of the crowd with a headline and then a not very detailed article. Seems like they don’t really know much about it either. Their estimate was 100.000 people. Amazing how they low-balled the police estimate which low balls the organizers estimates as a rule. If the police say there were 300.000 people then that is AT LEAST how many people were there.
Minor on line Coverage from the Chicago Suntimes
http://www.suntimes.com/index/
But it doesn’t matter because all the awful politicians in Chicago were there to support the crowd. They had to. That’s 300,000 to 1/2 million votes ( if everybody there were all to be registered) they could lose. Even Mayor Daley who has installed TV cameras on many city corners and hopes to have the entire city monitored electronically ala Big Brother and who did not endorse John Kerry for president was there.
There is nothing that scares a government more than to see 300 to 500 thousand people in the street…protesting.
And they were protesting against Bush too. They were protesting about a bill sponsored by Jim Sensenbrenner that seeks mass deportations of Illegal immigrants, sending illegal workers to jail and making it a crime to have aided an illegal immigrant.
I also live in the Chicago area. The word I heard about this demonstration was passed around in the university communities (I’m near Northwestern and Loyola), the coffeehouses, and, above all, the churches: very grass-roots. The politicos didn’t start it, and so their PR offices didn’t flog it with the media. I would guess that Richie (Daley) and Co. hopped aboard when they saw estimates of the turnout numbers, figuring they needed not to be among the silent or the missing.
No guesses yet, though, as to whether they intend to be among the useful or the effective.
Holy Moley Batman.
I am also in Chicago–have not been out of my hobbit hole much lately, but heard nothing about this–unless I missed a World Cant Wait email.
Fuck. I’d a been there. Looks like it was one helluva party.
(What’d I say the other day, Maryb? moccasin telegraph).
Geez, maybe it is safe to go back in the water after all–I should get out more.
Pls people, rec this diary–word on this should spread. This was a big f-in protest.
BRING. IT. ON.
Holy shit did you see those pictures? Who is the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights? They did a great job.
well, and in terms of our conversations the other day about creative ways to stage BIG protests: two things stand out to me here
1. the ‘theme’ was a significant, absolutely essential domestic issue
(and an immigration march is the perfect theme for this issue in chicago, I believe we have since surpassed LA in terms of Mexican immigrant population; wonder how a march organized around labor/auto industry issues would fare in Detroit; GLBT issues in San Francisco, etc.)
2. (sorry folks, but it’s conspicuous): most of the protesters were not ‘native born’ Americans: Well, so be it, if our fellow americans who happen to come from places where people are more inclined to protest, let them take the lead–and let’s get on board next time.
I went back through my emails and found no announcement from any org (and I’m on quite a number of lists).
#2 is not only conspicuous, it is logical in this instance.
People are more apt to come out for something that DIRECTLY affects them or their family in an immediate way. If there was a law in the works that was going to directly discriminate against red headed people — you’d see a lot of red headed people and their families and friends protesting.
what I’m saying is that maybe this is a better way to attract large crowds than the big answer, moveon, ufpj, etc. marches: nothing to say that other ‘interest’ groups can’t ‘latch on’ to a single-issue march that effects huge numbers of people–obviously, that happened here–but if the march is organized around ONE issue pertinent to a huge demographic….
you know, sometimes I feel like the whole ‘hodge-podge’ marches are a ‘turn-off’ for some people (kinda like: if I’m going to march against everything, I may as well not march at all); but specific DOMESTIC issues affecting large demographics might be the ticket.
I agree.
IMO single tangible issues are preferable to multiple amorphous issues in every case — from demonstrations to voter turnout. People can understand a single tangible issue. They can explain to their friends why they are going to protest it or vote against it (or for it) and they can convince their family and friends to join them.
this march worked because it was planned by the grass roots, the people actually involved in the issue. Unless you are involved in an issue, it will be difficult to plan a march.
Would someone tell me what good Move On is?
These people put together a real grass roots movement. That’s a lot of power that could be channneled for real political change.
Fuck MoveOn.
MoveOver. 😉
David Swanson has posted a whole list of Marches happening in the month of March here at TruthOut
We should maybe try to spread the word on each of these individual marches a day or two before they happen, no?
(some of them require longer planning. But, harking back to the “single-issue” thing, maybe it is a good idea to diary each one separately–sorry, I’m bogged down with work right now, and just keep popping over between paragraphs).
Anyway– a good long list is in the TruthOut link, with links to individual marches.
Maybe Booman would agree to do a frontpage series on March Madness (as in pissed as hell ness!) and keep announcements for these marches frontpaged …. in a “calendar of events” type fashion?
that kind of power IS political change.
Now I am wondering if something went down in Mexicantown that was not reported…wouldn’t suprise me in the least.
(SW Detroit w/a large Hispanic population.)
I would think that we’ll have to wait for the Metro Times to come out on Wednesday.
And … anyone who lives in or around Round Lake Beach needs to start buying from Jalapeno Produce. They CLOSED for this and sent 100 people.
The protest was covered in the Santa Fe newspaper today. I was mightily heartened by the turnout. Before I moved last fall, it seemed that a crowd of 50 was good for the protest about the Supreme Court nominees.
I am sitting here looking at these images, just awestruck.
And to think I MISSED it.
But: this could be the start of something big.
So call me a dumb American with a ‘big-ness’ fetish (I freely fess up). I can no longer ‘get my groove’ on for teeny, tiny little symbolic marches: had I known this was going on, and if it were going on EVERY weekend, I’d be there. And I bet if this were happening in every major city, everyone would be there (minus the faithful remaining few [currently 37%]).
Look at the pictures, folks, that was one helluva party.
Damn. Missed it. Grrrr.
quite a while. I hope that the numbers will grow, and that larger demonstrations will be seen in many cities.
Not all those marching are voters, they are just taxed without representation, however they are more important than voters in many ways. If everyone working in the US without papers purchased from Washington stayed home from work just one day….
as I keep saying, it’s not about VOTES (or voters).
My suggestion immediately after the election in fact was:
OK. Everybody out on the street.
Red to the Right.
Blue to the left.
Let’s see which line is longer.
As long as the vote is rigged, it is the only way to determine what we the people in the US of A really want.
Out. On. The. Street.
<pls step away from that blog! ;^)<p>
We need big demos like this in every city every weekend.
Enough is enough.
Thanks for the diary, Stu. I’m gonna be offline for the next couple of days but will see what I can dig up from the organizers, perhaps they are organizing something on a national level. Paz
Like others here, I’m on a ton of immigration related lists and heard nothing about this until the night before… but that’s not the weird part…
I knew something was up in Chicago because for the past week the traffic at my site quadrupled… all from Chicago, all looking for info on 4437, and I said to my wife a few days ago that something was going on but I didn’t know what.
What a pleasant surprise to see a half a million people in the streets protesting this bill… now if that doesn’t give you some hope.. hooray for Chicago , well done!!!
Lovely demonstration of People Power & grassroots organing!
I’d heard about it in CA; FlashpointsRadio did a story on it last night
it’s a great program to try to catch on a regular basis . . .
lower numbers were reported.
This is from Channel 2 local News. It is their report that the police estimated 300,000. Both the Sun times and Tribune said over 100,000. Why? The Police are always the source of estimates that are always below the organizers no matter what march or protest.
Oh, ok…
Lou Dobbs reported the number of people at 75,000. He wondered aloud as to why there were so many American flags in the march.
A one year federal offense is inhuman and draconian.
Remember, Halliburton is building the concentration camps in which these people will be housed, a step away from imprisoning American citizens there.
Half a million might alarm them, and surprisingly, I agree with Lou on this one. I wouldn’t want them to get alarmed either. This was one march. Hopefully, as I said in the previous comment, there will be more marches, and larger ones. No need for trumpets in these situations, if it is a promise of spring, we will know by the sea of daffodils, and Lou can keep on showing consideration for his audience, and no one will need to alarm him by pointing out the exact moment that it begins to be dubbed in Spanish. 😉
The Chicago Police do not overestimate. But the Chicago Tribune, Suntimes and Lou Dobbs do. I guess this march was supposed to be a secret, it’s being buried by the lack of interest and comment.
Duranta mentioned Detention centers:
This is one of the reasons for the March. The people marching know what may be happening to them and or those that they know.
We have a secrutiy state coming upon us, it’s sneaking up slowly. I thought they would intern the Katrina people in camps but they just spread them out all over the country so they couldn’t revolt.
THese 300,000 people in Chicago….I think the minorities in the North are going to respond much more violently to an imposition of this law or any placement of people they know in camps.
I just saw a madman on TV interviewed by Tim Russert. His name is Gary Bernsten. He of ” Bin Laden I almost got em’ ” fame.
He says this country needs national unity in the war on terror. He wants to run for public office.
Translation: We need to impose national unity on the population through state security enforcement. There can be no dissent in this war.
The people who were protesting know what’s coming.
I left out the most salient part from above…..
Here is the write up from Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Who kicked the sleeping giant?
But that is not the only place a march has taken place. The article goes one to mention other marches.
Yes, the sleeping giant has awakened.
Hoy Marchamos! Manana Votamos! (“We March Today. Tomorrow we Vote!”)
Yes, weird, indeed. I heard about this from my sister last night (Friday). She said she was listening to WGN radio on the way home from work. For the first, she noted, WGN, reported something about the political environment by way of a traffic report. She heard WGN say that traffic out of the city on the way home would be delayed by the immigration bill protest.
My question is how the blogs missed that this would happen or was happening?
This, I say, from the district of the district of the despicable Sensenbrenner.
that involved with blogs. ;->
WTF? There’s no excuse for this people. The “blogs” need to send some “ambassadors” into these communities, like NOW!
This is the very first I’ve heard a word about it.
Thanks for the this headsup diary Stu Piddy.
Heh, “they do the jobs Americans don’t want to do”
like march in the streets..
Shame on the media
and Shame on us for sitting on our asses.
You said it all
They do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do like March in the Streets.
I say turn the country over to the immigrants…Let them run it. We will all be better off.
actually “turning this country over to the immigrants” is what got us into this mess to begin with (AIM: Fighting Domestic Terrorism since 1492).
Could be that we just turned it over to the WRONG immigrants.
So, the second time around, turning it over to these immigrants from the South–may be the ticket!
It certainly would be a more liberal country to begin with.
I’ll be damned. I honestly thought everybody around town knew this was happening (perhaps I was suckered by the folks with whom I spoke, who thought of it simply and wholly as an obstacle to getting home!), and never imagined that I should have spoken up. Apologies, gang. I had no idea that I had something under my hat that y’all needed to know.
I will surely remedy that in future, and post dates/times of other demonstrations as I find news of them, on this topic and others.