By United National Antiwar Coalition, May 23, 2012
Led by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, 15,000 people took to
the streets of Chicago to protest on May 20, the opening day of the NATO
summit. The demonstration was the largest antiwar demonstration in the U.S. in
several years. The mass demonstration was the culmination of a week of activity
against NATO and the G8 summits. Both summit meetings were originally
planned for Chicago, but as protest organizing gained momentum, the G8 summit
was moved to Camp David while the NATO summit was reduced to only two days
from the week long summits originally planned.
As
the 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. Click here for pictures and reports
of some of the international solidarity actions: http://nepajac.org/internationChicago.htm.
Speakers
at the rally included Jesse Jackson, Sr., 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 UNAC leaders, among others. Click here for UNAC
leader Chris Gauvreau’s message to the rally: http://nepajac.org/chris.htm.
The
march, 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 months of
pre-summit scare tactics and violence baiting protestors. But it was not the
demonstrators who were violent, it was the police. It is not peace
activists who are violent, it is NATO.
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 placed 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 pictures of the police provocateurs:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9273-more-nato-summit-activists-charged-five-linked-by-two-informants
Please donate to the defense of the NATO 3 by clicking here: http://www.wepay.com/donations/nato-arrestee-bail-fund.
Close
to 800 people attended the People’s Summit, which took place at the Occupy
Chicago indoor space on May 12th and 13th. Sponsored by CANG8
and Occupy Chicago, the People’s Summit had people coming together to project a
different future than the one being planned by NATO and the G8. Messages
were read to the Summit from the Afghan Youth Volunteers and from Malalai Joya,
an antiwar activist and former member of Afghanistan's parliament, who was
scheduled to attend the Summit and the May 20th demonstration but
was sick and unable to attend. Suraia Sahar, a member of Afghans
for Peace based in Toronto read these messages. The Summit also heard from
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who addressed the crowd from prison by phone. Other
speakers included, Kathy Kelly, Ann Wright, Abdul Malik Mujahid, a leader of
the Muslim Peace Coalition, Occupy leaders, National Nurses United, and other
union leaders as well as UNAC leaders and activists from other countries.
Following
the People’s Summit, Occupy Chicago organized actions every day leading up to
and during the NATO summit. There were also actions organized by other
groups as Chicago became a protest town during this period, with the media
covering all the actions.
One
very important action was a demonstration organized by the National Nurses
United union. This action pushed for a stock transfer tax, which would
solve some of the country’s economic problems by forcing the rich to pay a
share for the financial crisis they created. This demonstration included
several thousand nurses and their supporters. NNU also provided free buses for
people to come to their demonstration and to the May 20th mass
demonstration.
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. By the time of the demonstration,
all national peace and justice groups and coalitions, including UFPJ and
ANSWER, marched together in the streets of Chicago, while the eyes of the world
were on us, proving that the antiwar and social justice movements were alive
and growing
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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