SDS Rallies Against NATO in Chicago

Mark, Maf, and Adam on enjoying the bus ride

By Lisa Grab

Summary

On Thursday, May 17th at 2 am, 12 students from Montclair State University's SDS chapter travelled into New York City to take a 17 hour free bus ride to Chicago. 99% Solidarity and the National Nurses  Union supplied the buses.

The SDS delegation consisted of Adam Cetiner,

Esha, Mike, Jon, and Emily on the bus

Jordan Fullam (adjunct professor), Emily Fox (community member), Lisa Grab, Jon Husarik, Esha Kallianpur, Shawmaf Khubba, Mark Ludas, Mike Pacyna, Thea Stelzle, Leah Stone, and Justin Wooten. The SDSers later met up with their comrade and student from MSU, Brennan McFarlane, who travelled from Washington DC.

The buses finally arrived around 8pm in Chicago. The SDS members gathered their belongings and trekked to the community space where they would be spending the night. Finally, around midnight, everyone was able to go to sleep for the night. 

SDS delegation at the NNU rally on Friday

The next day--Friday--the SDSers went to downtown Chicago for the National Nurses United rally. At the rally, some members went around and did interviews to gain publicity for SDS and to reveal NATO's true intentions as a terrorist organization. Press coverage included Associated Press, National Turkish TV, local Chicago press, and RT. 

After the rally, SDS met up with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn for lunch at a local cafe. While at the cafe, Bill and Bernadine got to know some of the newer members and caught up with everyone they already know.

Later in the day, SDS travelled to north Chicago to the Left Lounge and attended a lecture about Libya. 

On Saturday, the SDS delegation attended a rally to protest the entrapment of fellow activists and police brutality. Although organized in a short amount of time, the rally was successful and drew in hundreds of protesters taking the streets in Chicago. Specifically, the protest was against the arrests of activists for terrorist charges. These activists were infiltrated by an undercover cop, who suggested making molotov cocktails. When the activists jokingly agreed, they were arrested.

Screen shot from the front page of RT America

Next, SDS attended an anti-capitalist march that lasted late into the night. This march included numerous confrontations with the police, where the police backed down and allowed the protesters to go where they wanted. However, later in the night, a police van hit and injured a protester from New York. 

Mike, Lisa, and Brennan peacefully sitting in front of a line a cops who temporarily blocked protesters from continuing down the street during the anti-capitalist march. The cops later backed down and allowed the protesters to march. 

Lisa speaking at the No NATO rally on May 20th

SDS with banner on the news

Sunday, May 20th was the main rally against NATO. Several thousand gathered in Millennium Park to listen to the speakers. Among the speakers was Lisa Grab, who spoke on behalf of National SDS. At the rally, the SDSers ran into socialist candidate for US Senate, Greg Pason. Pason also travelled from Montclair to be at the rally. Shortly after the rally, there was a massive march, led by US veterans. At the formal end of the march, the veterans returned their metals of "honor." Many of the protesters continued marching, but were blocked off by police. The police pushed groups of protestors and threatened them with the L-rod. Many protesters were beaten in the head. 

Lisa and Mike Marching against NATO

Although the police successfully dispersed most of the crowd, smaller marches broke off and regrouped toward the evening. Everyone met up in front of the Art Institute in Millennium Park, where Michelle and Barack Obama were supposedly having dinner. Protestors gathered outside and chanted, but multiple rows of cops blocked protesters from going near the building. Unable to decide on the next move, the protesters had a general assembly to discuss whether they should march or occupy the space in front of the Art Institution. The final decision was to continue marching, although the final destination was not decided. The marching continued. At one point, a group of cars escorting members of NATO (we are not sure which members) drove through the crowd. Angry protesters yelled at the car, one man punched the window, and another person threw her sign onto their window. After some time, someone led the march north claiming that the protesters should go for jail support. As protesters marched northward, there were less and less bystanders around. Cops in riot gear began to run up from behind and grab and arrest protesters from the back. The crowd of marchers was getting smaller and smaller. Eventually SDS dropped out and returned to the hotel to escape the rain and get rest. 

Monday, SDS spent most of the time relaxing. A group went to University of Chicago to walk around. Another group stayed at the convergence space, where all the occupiers from other cities gathered to catch the bus. At around 10pm, the buses left and SDS returned to New York City at around 3pm the next day. 

Reflection

Overall, I thought the trip to Chicago was a worthwhile experience. While our chapter was not at the forefront of the actual organizing, we played an important role by bringing numbers, creating a visible SDS presence, and networking with other individuals and organizations. 

It is difficult to organize an action that is half way across the country. I think we made the right decision by being in the foreground instead of the background of the operations in Chicago. There will be other opportunities to do more actual organizing closer to home. We successfully were in the foreground and actively sought out the media. We provided a banner for the front of marches when there were no other banners. We wore our SDS pins and many students approached us seeming interested in our organization. One aspect of our outreach that I think could have been better would be to have contact lists for the national SDS prepared so we could actively gather contact info from interested students and youth instead of waiting for them to approach us and then take down their names and numbers in our phones. 

Jon, Mike, Jordan, Maf, and Adam chilling in Millennium Park

The trip to Chicago was also a great experience for the SDS members to bond with one another (especially with the new members) and form connections with others across the country. The trip demonstrated our organization's ability to tolerate one another, share, and look out for each other. Although we split into groups, I think it was for the better as long as no one was by themselves. It is difficult to do as much with a large group and breaking into smaller groups allowed people more freedom. One criticism is that we could have communicated better when we split up into groups. There were several times when it was difficult to get in touch and meet up.

I really enjoyed getting to know some of the newer SDS members. It was really cool watching them grow as people and thinkers and take on positions within the organization. We discovered that Mike was great at leading chants, carrying the US distress flag, and filming the action. We discovered that Maf knows a lot about philosophy and was great at looking out for his comrades. 

We also met some cool people from across the country. Cole was from Washington DC and had a local occupy group on his college campus. Dan had a newly formed SDS chapter in Boston that was not yet connected with National SDS. Moondog was from Vermont and dedicates his life to participating in movements across the country. Anya was an anarchist from Colorado who flew in for the Chicago protests. I was reunited with someone I briefly met at Occupy Vegas--Luis. Luis had an SDS chapter at UChicago and now works with a union in Portland. 

Overall, it was amazing that we got 12 people to Chicago and back safely. We have yet to debrief the trip--things have gotten kind of crazy since the trip because people have been looking for jobs and trying to find money so we can meet up again.  

Next time, I think it would be productive to discuss our goals for the trip beforehand and encourage more leadership in organizing the logistics for the group's travel plans. However, I am pretty sure that everyone learned something valuable.