the only numbers i've seen are 7000, posted at the chicago imc. i'm pretty sure i saw about 4k, myself, so 7k may be optimistic, but not by much. it was a good-sized rally in 8degree windchill weather. of course, we can't match new york numbers, which iis too bad for such a big city, but what are you going to do?
the demo took place up in the devon area, the pakistani-indian neighborhood in chicago. speakers up front were pretty good, as demo speeches go, and included a reasonably rowsing speech from the alderman who was the lead sponsor on chicago's anti-war city council resolution, as well, as representatives of pueblas sin fronteras, not in my name, a couple arab-american organizations, and a blgt group, among others i may have missed.
the march went about five blocks to another platform with more speakers i mostly ignored while talking to people, but they included the rev paul jakes, who fancies himself taking on mayor daley.
the only "counter-protest" i saw was during the march, on one side of the street, a handful of guys -- literally 6-8 people, with maybe one woman -- chanting saddam must go or something like that. the woman was holding a red white and blue sign saying, "anti-war communist propaganda" (now *that's* what i'd call "red-baiting" <cough>). of course, about ten yards further on were the people's labor party handing out fliers that said, "SMASH WAR FOR OIL PROFITS WITH COMMUNIST REVOLUTION" [caps in original], but the best part was they were smiling and dancing and had a good rap going. there were a number of good signs, but i admit my favorites were four giant cut-out headshots of bush, cheney, rumsfeld, and wolfowitz (i think) on sticks. the eyes had been blacked out, which had a great creepy effect (reminded me of the x-files schtick with the oil in the eyes, no pun intended). written on their foreheads in red lettering were their assignments as the four horsemen of the apocalypse: war, death, famine, and pestilence. someone standing near me asked why cheney was "pestilence." one of the guys carrying the signs replied, "he had the biggest forehead." seemed like a reasonable answer, to me. only saw one or maybe two answer signs. one nion sign. there were lots of "no blood for oil" signs, with "chicago coalition against war and racism." i don't know enough to know who they might be affiliated with. maybe someone else does.