four days of measured chaos, of working myself blissfully ragged to enable tens of thousands of folks to raise their voices and fists. in the past i have said ‘the movement’ blithely, easily, like it was something i was on familiar terms with. and lobbying, networking, existing as a radical in my respective circles—professional, personal, familial—i have felt a part of the movement. but marching with tens of thousands of people in the streets of my city, assessing them for wellness & illness, proofreading their copy, watching their livestreams, listening to their interviews, hearing their stories—i have met the movement now. the movement has many faces, distinct to me in a crowd. i have hugged the movement, fed the movement, bummed its cigarettes, made it laugh, given it directions, invited it home. mass mobilization is transformative in countless ways. the months leading up to NATO were stressful. the mainstream media blitz in chicago about the extent of police weaponry and presence worked its voodoo on my courage. but my radical heart always wins. so i rallied, marched, and worked as a medic on the ground, at the convergence space & on dispatch. it was exhausting but incredible. and now, on the other side of this 4-day weekend, every day of which i worked fulltime in and for the streets, i have been transformed by large scale direct action with its complexities, its beauty and its blood. i experienced a sliver of what NATO-occupied countries experience daily and i met the people with whom i am building a radical revolution. the thing is, rahm, barack, NATO, G8: we don’t need your broken system. we are creative. as your infrastructure collapses, we’re pouring a foundation next-door for a home far more inviting, sheltering & inhabitable. so send your thousands of cops in riot gear down to our peaceful gatherings, so that they can find liberation & lose their own blue collar shackles & star-shaped ballasts. spin the media til its sick with its own lies and commercial sponsors, as the populace gets bored & goes on the internet to reblog our galleries & hear real voices. the problem is, y’all: we love each other & we’re not willing to give that up. we love palestinians even though you tell us not to. we love prisoners even though you tell us not to. we love anarchist kids running with the black bloc. we love muslim folks who love allah. we love cops and nurses and vets. we are a movement knit together tightly by love and ferocity. do. not. fuck with us. cause we’ll win; we are winning.
