CHICAGO - Last Monday, May 1st, Occupy Chicago launched its 2012 Spring effort with a mere hundred or so marchers - a dismal turnout compared to the 50,000 the Canadian Adbusters.com website expected. From WBEZ's website:
“On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen,” a January blog post reads.
Instead, a small group marched Chicago's streets (see photo and You Tube below). They carried signs and flags promoting anarchy as they'll do in two weeks during the NATO Summit.
While the crowd was small, the message the Chicago Springers were sending in the flags they were carrying is noteworthy. The red and black "WW" flag is a symbol of anarchy, with the WW standing for "Workers of the World," advocating socialism or communism worldwide. From Wikipedia:
The red-and-black flag is the symbol of the anarcho-syndicalist and anarcho-communist movements. Black is the traditional color of anarchism, and red is the traditional color of socialism. The red-and-black flag combines the two colors in equal parts, with a simple diagonal split. Typically, the red section is placed on the top-left corner, with the black on the bottom-right corner of the flag. This symbolizes the co-existence of anarchist and socialist ideals within the anarcho-syndicalism movement, and to symbolize the more socialistic means of the movement leading to a more anarchistic end.
Planning meetings for the NATO Summit protests are listed on the Occupy Chicago website. They're looking for area residents that are willing to let Occupiers "couchsurf" while they're protesting the weekend of May 18 through 20.
