“No Fire and Fury”: Vets Protest War Moves on North Korea at Trump Tower in Chicago

August 14, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

August 13—About 50 participants in the Veterans for Peace national convention in Chicago marched out of the hotel where the event was held to Trump Tower, blocks away, for a protest against the Trump regime’s nuclear threats and war moves on North Korea. Some carried Refuse Fascism “NO!” signs in English, Spanish, and Korean. A Refuse Fascism member started a chant, “No nukes, no KKK, no fascist USA!” that was enthusiastically taken up and led by vets.

A family staying at the hotel joined the march because “we felt we had to.” One of them is a student in a city where she said “everything you hear about [what’s] being done to immigrants is going on.” She said that the frequency of people being stopped in their cars, because they are thought to be immigrants, and forced to show papers, and of raids, has created an atmosphere of fear where few immigrants go out at night.

At one point the march passed through the busy theater district in the Chicago Loop where hundreds of people were getting out of plays. Many theatergoers joined the “no nukes” chant or clapped and cheered. At the “Real Fake” art installation across from Trump Tower, protesters held candles and signs that included “No Fire and Fury,” “No Racism, No Hate,” and “Trump, Stop Inciting Violence.” The vets did a mic-check style apology to the North Korean people for U.S. aggression against them, repeatedly chanting “We Are Sorry.” It was very moving, reminiscent of when vets who went to Standing Rock to join the struggle against the Dakota Access oil pipeline apologized for U.S. genocide of Native American people.

Speaking at the protest were Ann Wright, a retired U.S. colonel and retired State Department official; Kathy Kelly, an author and longtime antiwar activist; John Kim, head of the Veterans for Peace’s Korea project, who did a powerful workshop at the convention on the history of U.S. military aggression in Korea; and Will Griffin, a young vet who praised the South Korean people for impeaching their president, and called for Trump to be driven from office. A member of Refuse Fascism made an announcement about the protest the same day at Michigan and Randolph at 1 pm against the rally of white supremacists (unleashed by Trump) in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the killing of one counter-protester and injuring of other by one of the fascist thugs. She reminded the crowd that the South Korean people had driven out their president when millions went into the streets every night till she was gone. And she urged vets to join sustained protests beginning November 4, with thousands becoming millions until the fascist Trump regime is driven from power.

On the way back to the hotel, marchers took the streets, as the whole march chanted “No Nukes, No KKK, No Fascist USA,” and their shouts echoed through the Chicago Loop.

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