CHICAGO — On February 15, close to 10,000 Chicagoans participated in a spirited march and demonstration opposing the impending US war against Iraq. Given the brutally cold weather, the size of the march was all the more remarkable.

Organisers took an imaginative departure from traditional marches and demonstrations in Chicago by routing the march down Devon Avenue on the city's far northside, home to the city's large Indian and Pakistani community. Previous demonstrations had been held in or near Chicago's city centre, the “Loop”, which is very sterile and relatively empty on weekends. In contrast, the Devon area was very much alive.

The change of venue facilitated a change in the composition of the marchers. Unlike previous demonstrations, the march included a considerable number of South Asians and other people of colour. While there was no significant African-American presence and relatively few Mexican-Americans, for the first time ever a march was not monochromatically white.

Participants were mainly young people but there were also sizeable numbers of people who had been activists who opposed the US war in Vietnam more than three decades ago. Many carried hand-lettered signs and banners. Groups of friends and co-workers learned about the march from the internet, arranged to meet at locations near the assembly point and formed their own contingents. The breadth of the participants was evidenced by the presence of many church groups from Chicago's suburbs, contingents of high school and grammar school students and whole families. All in all, it was a most encouraging event.

The march and demonstration in Chicago paled in comparison to the massive turnouts in New York and San Francisco, and especially the major cities of Europe. But it nonetheless reflected the growing anti-war sentiment in the US. It has been estimated that there were more than 1600 separate anti-war demonstrations of one kind or another throughout the country on February 15. Never before has there been this level of anti-war sentiment in the United States prior to the beginning of a war, the isolationist sentiment preceding World War II notwithstanding.

Sadly, it seems that US President George Bush and the cabal of war hawks at the core of his administration are determined to launch an attack on Iraq despite the massive global opposition.

To be sure, there will be some drop-off in anti-war sentiment in the US if the United Nations were to sanction the war. And there will be another drop in anti-war sentiment once the war begins. However, the ultimate sustainability of the anti-war movement will depend upon the duration of the war, the number of US casualties, the number of Iraqi civilian casualties and the degree of devastation visited on Iraq by the US.

Several factors are contributing to the rise on anti-war sentiment: the perceived injustice of, and lack of logical rationale or provocation for, a war against Iraq; a desire to be left alone in peace and live a normal life in the wake of 9/11; and a realisation that the US economy is in serious trouble and the government should give it its highest priority of attention.

While the anti-war sentiment expressed on February 15 may not deter Bush and his cabal from waging war on Iraq, it will certainly be an inhibiting factor as Bush et al consider the next venue for imposing the New World Order.

[Patrick Quinn is an activist in the US socialist organisation Solidarity.]

From Green Left Weekly, February 26, 2003.
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