the initial picket and rally at Dick Durbins office was interesting because it actually ended with having students go up to Dick Durbin's office and pressuring the Chief of Staff Mike Daley to give us Durbin's Washinton, D.C. office number.

that resulted in getting in contact with the office, and getting assurances that Dick Durbin would vote against War funding in October.

He lied (and its on tape!) and the senator later visited NEIU for a talk on Immigration. It was basically a plug to promote his racist DREAM ACT which is just another piece of racist legislation that drives undocumented workers and their children to register in the military in exchange for "legal" status.

This demonstration involved having NEIU and UIC can members, as well as one IVAW representative unite to do two things while Dick Durbin spoke.

for one, we got our members into the speech and had them sit down at various spots in groups of about 3-4.

one group after another stood up as soon as he spoke, turned their backs to him, and held up signs with various slogans like "DREAM ACT: exporting latino soldiers, deporting latino families" and similar lines.

after awhile, the cops asked people if the protesters were being a problem, and many in the audience said "no."

awhile later, the cops then insisted that the protesters move out of the seating area, so THEY MOVED BESIDE THE STAGE THAT DURBIN WAS SPEAKING FROM!!!!

so there they were, wonderful signs waving, while our members quietly, but visually frustrated Durbin. and he did get very frustrated! he tried to say that he was anti-war (even though he consistenly funds it), and claimed that we as protesters were a disturbance at his office.

the crowd supported our members, and just before Durbin was done speaking, we left to hold a small rally outside to celebrate our success!