As the NATO summit approached, the May 20 demonstration
gained impressive support from many diverse groups, including Jesse Jackson and
Operation PUSH, area unions including many SEIU locals, the Chicago Teachers
Union, UE locals, National Nurses United, and many others. Peace
organizations, community organizations and Occupy groups from around the
country supported the actions, as did groups from many countries around the
world. International anti-NATO fighters came from several countries and
solidarity demonstrations were held in London
and several other European cities as well as in Iran,
India,
Bangladesh,
Russia
and Canada.
Speakers at the rally included Jesse
Jackson, Sr., a member of the German Legislature, Inge
Hoger, Malik Mujahid of the Muslim Peace Coalition, Vijay Prashad, author of “Arab Spring, Libyan Winter,” Kathy
Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Medea Benjamin
of Code Pink, Col. Ann Wright, Leah Bolger, president of Veterans for Peace,
Carlos Montes of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, and United National Antiwar
Coalition leaders, among others.
The march was initiated by the United National Antiwar
Coalition (UNAC), and, organized by an ad hoc coalition called the Coalition
against NATO and the G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8),
filled the wide Chicago
streets from curb to curb for several blocks. Those attending were
predominantly youthful and energetic. The march was lead by the Iraq
and Afghanistan
war veterans who, at the end of the march, conducted a powerful and historic
ceremony in which they threw their military medals, in the direction of the
NATO summit meeting where more wars in the interest of the 1% were being
planned. There was also a moving reconciliation ceremony with some of the war
victims being represented by members of Afghans for Peace. Click here for
the Democracy Now report of the medal ceremony: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/21/no_nato_no_war_us_veterans.
At the end of the ceremony, as organizers urged people to
start leaving the area, long lines of police in riot gear started moving
towards the stage, preventing many from leaving.
Police pushed with their clubs into the crowd as people fell against the metal
barricades erected to contain the demonstrators. Soon the police were
swinging their clubs at protesters in full view of the TV cameras and
reporters; many people were hurt, some seriously. These were not
lone-individual, out of control cops; this was clearly a planned attack.
Perhaps it was needed by the city to justify the tremendous costs of the
security apparatus used by the Emanuel administration, including pre-summit
scare tactics and violence baiting protestors.
The
civil liberties fight
UNAC
first put in an application for a permit to march and rally in July of 2011.
Five months later, we were informed that there would be no protests during the
summits. But as a huge outcry developed, and after press conferences and
protests organized by CANG8, Occupy Chicago and many unions, we were granted a
permit. During this period, UNAC put a full page ad in the Chicago Sun
Times with a statement in support of the right to protest signed by hundreds of
people from the U.S.
and people from 13 other countries. During this period the Emanuel
administration also proposed, and got passed, new restrictive ordnances
governing protests. These were also protested by CANG8, Occupy and the unions.
For
months leading up to the anti-NATO and G8 protests, the Chicago
police and city administration urged people to leave the area and scared people
with stories of how the protesters would be violent. CANG8
representatives continually told people that we were holding a peaceful, family
friendly demonstration. We organized “peace guides” to ensure that the
march and rally would happen as planned. Up until the police attack on
the demonstration at the end of the rally, it had been peaceful.
In
the days leading up to May 20th, the police raided the homes of several demonstrators
and made several arrests. A total of around100 people were arrested in
the week preceding the demonstration. Three young men, now known as the
NATO 3, were charged with very serious terrorism crimes. It appears that
this was a set-up similar to the preemptive prosecutions that Muslims have
faced, as a provocateur was used in the same ways they are used to frame
Muslims as terrorists. Click here for the Democracy Now segment on these
charges: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/22/attorney_nato_3_activists_detained_on.
Click
here for Indymedia videos of the police attack: http://chicago.indymedia.org/node/946.
Click
here for an essay by Carl Sack on how the actions of the Black Block unecessarily
complicated matters:
Please donate to the defense of the NATO 3 by clicking here:
How did the protest come about?
Last
June, a UNAC leadership meeting in New
York City took note of the fact
that both NATO and the G8 countries would be holding their summits in the U.S.
We did not know where they would be taking place, but we decided that we would
make it a priority to organize opposition to these summits. We felt that
having both summits together was a unique opportunity to draw the link between
the economic and military policies of the ruling 1%.
When
it became known that Chicago
would be the place, we sought permits and held a meeting in Chicago
last August, where CANG8 was set up as an ad hoc coalition to organize for a
mass demonstration and the People’s Summit.
Over the next months, many other groups joined the effort, and the actions were
able to get broad sponsorship.
What
was gained?
The
May 20th demonstration was one of the largest antiwar demonstrations
ever held in Chicago.
Most national antiwar demonstrations have been held in Washington,
New York,
or on the West Coast. The distance from these large coastal population
centers made it difficult to get people from these areas to Chicago,
yet we were able to hold a large action and support a week of activity that
created a discussion about the role of NATO and the G8. Without our
presence and our actions, this would not have happened. This may have
been the first time people in the U.S.
have protested against NATO, and our demonstration may have been the largest
anti-NATO demonstration ever.
The
Chicago
city and federal administrations went on a relentless campaign to try and keep
people away by saying that we were going to be violent. New regulations
were proposed in Chicago
to silence demonstrators. At every stage we countered this with a
campaign in support of our right to protest and for civil liberties. This
helped push back their attacks on civil liberties and will help all those who
seek to have their voices heard. However, it is clear that the violence
baiting did play a role in scaring some people away from the demonstration.
We
know from past experience that it is very difficult to build large
demonstrations during election periods. We knew Chicago
would be an especially difficult place to build a demonstration during this
election period, but we still managed to do so.
The
activists on the ground in Chicago
did a great job of pulling together the demonstration and leading the fight in
defense of our civil liberties and the right to protest. Their actions
strengthened the movement in Chicago
and nationally.
We
made new international contacts that will strengthen and broaden UNAC and the U.S.
antiwar movement in the future.
UNAC
will now move forward helping to build actions at the national political
conventions and on Oct 7, the anniversary of the beginning of Afghanistan
war. In New
York
on June 17th, we will join with the NAACP and others to demonstrate
against racial profiling and Stop and Frisk practices. We will continue
to fight along with our Muslim brothers and sister against Islomophobia
and against the wars at home and abroad. Join us!
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