Our goal is to organize and sustain a committee of individuals who recognize the U.S. government, regardless of which major party dominates, as the principal purveyor of violence and perpetrator of war and injustice in the world, and to rebuild—on a new, more solid strategic footing—a large anti-war, anti-racist movement in the Chicago area and beyond.
Contact Us
chicagoantiwar (at) gmail.com
Notes on CCAWR’s Early Days
CCAWR formed just days after 9/11, the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism has initiated or played a leading in role in most of Chicago’s large anti-war, pro-civil liberties protests since that time:
In December 2001, just a few weeks after Chicago’s Arab American Community Center suffered a devastating arson which destroyed nearly all of its assets, CCAWR organized a packed local banquet hall for a benefit to help rebuild the Center.
When the Bush administration used the 9/11 tragedy to begin organizing an invasion of Afghanistan and clamp down on civil liberties, CCAWR organized many of city’s protests against the impending war.
When without criminal charges the federal government imprisoned Rabih Haddad, the founder of Global Relief Foundation, one of the nation’s largest Muslim charities, CCAWR launched a defense campaign for him and GRF . After a year and half of vilifying Haddad and GRF as supporters of terrorism, the government released Mr. Haddad and deported him . By failing to criminally prosecute him, the feds tacitly acknowledged that their accusations were false — but not before they succeeded in spreading fear throughout the community, putting Haddad’s family through hell, and destroying a charity that had helped desperately needy people in more than a dozen countries around the world.
In the run-up to the Iraq invasion and the Bush administration’s racist “registrations” of people from predominantly Muslim countries, CCAWR worked with South Asian activists in the Devon Avenue community to launch Chicago’s first large, multi-racial protest against the war on February 15, 2003 , Some 7,000 people braved one of the coldest days of the year to march against U.S. war, including thousands of people from Chicago’s South Asian community, whose community activists also shaped half of the program.
Besides organizing numerous protests to oppose the Bush regime’s push to war on Iraq, CCAWR also organized an emergency response demonstration once the U.S. started the invasion, highlighted by the now legendary march of some 15,000 peace protesters on Lake Shore Drive , Memorialized in the award winning film, “Where We Stood,” the march ended in the illegal arrests of over 800 people by the Chicago Police Department – the largest mass arrest in Chicago history, and – given that all of the charges were dropped — the largest mass false arrest in Chicago history. Those false arrests, injuries and property damage perpetrated by Chicago Police that evening are the subject of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the City led by the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
On each anniversary of the Iraq invasion, CCAWR activists have played leading roles in organizing protests against war and occupation, focusing on the connection between war abroad and the attacks on civil liberties and social and economic rights and needs at home. After battling the City for three years for the legal right to march on Michigan Avenue to protest the war and commemorate the 2003 mass arrests, on March 18, 2006, civil liberties advocates could claim victory with what became the largest anti-war protest in the U.S. on that date.
CCAWR continues to organize for peace with justice at home and abroad – through projects that include forums, speakouts, teach-ins, skillshares, protests and a plan for the peace movement’s emergency response should the United States or a proxy launch war on Iran or other countries. As with the Iraq emergency response, the new emergency response plan calls for people to assemble at 5 PM at Federal Plaza (Dearborn & Adams Streets) on the night of the start of a new war, and on the night after as well.