October 27 anti war demonstration
October 2, 2002 – perhaps best known now as the day that presidential candidate Barack Obama came out at a rally in Chicago in opposition to the impending invasion of Iraq. Came out against the impending war at a moment when it was virtually unheard of for any political leader to come out against any policy of the then popular president. Came out against the war, calling it unfounded, rash and dumb’ at a time when virtually all politicians, including Senators Clinton and Edwards, all media outlets, including the venerable New York Times, were marching lock-step with Bush towards the abyss of war.
Barack’s words were, in fact prescient and memorable:
“ I don’t oppose all wars What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.
"You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East… stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.
"You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.
"The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.”
And his presence as the most senior elected official at the first popular rally against the war made him a hero to what was to become a massive anti-war movement and propelled him, in great part, to his senate victory and his presidential run. For in his words and presence, people saw a leader willing to speak truth to power, to speak from his convictions not political convenience. A leader whose words they believed.
But October 2nd 2002 is also — in fact perhaps more fundamentally about, something else — the power of ordinary American citizens.
The rally in Chicago on October 2nd, 2002 was not organized by a politician or a recognized political force. Quite the contrary. It was organized by a loose group of friends — veterans of the women’s movement, the student movement, the civil rights movement, who alarmed by the prospect of what they considered an unwise and unfounded march to war and aware, yet seeing no on — from politicians to pundits to the press daring to speak out against a seemingly all-powerful republican juggernaut, – and fearing that if they did not speak out the war, the very room for disagreement with the White House on any issue would vanish, took it upon themselves to reclaim the public space for dissent.
Meeting in a living room in Chicago just ten days earlier, we chose to act agreeing that on October 2nd, 2002, we would assemble in Chicago’s Federal Plaza to stand against the war. With a gut feeling that other Americans also thought the invasion of Iraq was foolhardy, if not immoral and absurd, but with no assurance than anyone would come to a demonstration we agreed that “If we were five, we would be five." “If we were without any elected officials, we would be an involved citizenry. But we would take a stand."
But we were not alone.
In fact nearly 3,000 people assembled in Federal Plaza on that day responding to the flurry of emails (a new organizing technology for us) that seemingly liberated people from their sense of isolation and offered them the opportunity of collective action — of community. Black, Latino, White, veterans of the peace and women’s movements, the 60s, high school and college youth, community activist – a mosaic of the City of Chicago. Long time leaders like Jesse Jackson , Juan Andrade and Julie Hamos and a new voice …..not yet known to the crowd, to the media or to the nation…the voice of State Senator Barack Obama.
October 2nd didn’t stop the war it is true. But it did what it was intended to – assert and regain the public space for dissent.
And it paved the way for the taking back of our nation by the American people.
By January of 2003 hundreds of thousands of Americans felt the freedom to demonstrate against Bush’s war. By March of that year, 195 cities representing 23 million Americans had come out in opposition to the war. And while popular sentiment did not prevail, and sitting senators, like Clinton and Edwards, continued to support Bush’s folly, the truth put forth on October 2, 2002, in Chicago by citizen activists and Barack Obama steadily gained credence, propelling Barack into his Senate office in 2004, ousting the Republicans from Congress in 2006, and paving the way for a Democratic President in 2008 — a president that understands as Barack did in 2002 where our nation’s real battles lie.
Yes, for many, particularly in the media, October 2nd 2002 is known as the day that Barack Obama was ‘discovered’ as the voice of the yearnings of the American people, as a hope for a new way of traversing what admittedly is a complex world, fraught with challenges and dangers. But equally important, to Barack, to the future of the nation, it is the day – like many days that constitute the history of this nation — when ordinary citizens asserted their determination and right to speak truth to power – no matter what the cost – and take the actions necessary to return the nation to the course of justice and fairness herein its past and future greatness must lie.
Nothing that we care about – health care, education, investment in our nation’s housing or infrastructure can be accomplished while this war drains lives and dollars. The movement ignited in the Fall of 2002 will not stop until the war does. Join up once again on October 27th to speak truth, to assert our will and demand an end to the war that never should have begun.
Marilyn Katz
Chicago
MarilynMKC@aol.com
