The Star Tribune | 100 Minnesotans will join NATO protest in Chicago

Posted on May 16, 2012 by The Star Tribune

About 100 antiwar protesters wiil be climbing on buses in Minneapolis on Saturday night and heading to Chicago to participate in a large march on Sunday to express opposition to NATO which is holding a summit meeting there next week. Chicago authorities say the demonstrations in the coming week could be massive and police are girding up for what they say could be major confrontations.

Local protesters say they plan to participate in a peaceful, legal march, for which parade permits have been obtained, Thousands of demonstratiors are expected to descend on Chicago from the midwest and the east coast. “Chicago police, who have a reputation for dealing toughly with protesters, will be prepared for the worst,” Reuters reports.

Representatives from 50 countries and many world leaders are expected to attend the NATO summit.

Sarah Martin, a member of the board of Women Against Military Madness in Minneapolis, said the local buses are sponsored by her group and the locally based Anti-War Committee. “Many other people are driving themselves,” said Coleen Rowley, the former FBI agent and whistleblower, who became active in the antiwar movement after her retirement. Rowley will be one of the speakers at a Friday news conference to talk about about the participation of Twin Cities activists in the Chicago protest.

There is some talk among law enforcement authorities that demonstrations in Chicago could become a repeat of the1999 protest in Seattle in which there were major confrontations during demonstrations over an international meeting of the World Trade Organization.

Martin, however, said local protesters going by bus are not intending to get arrested. They will climb aboard buses at 10 p.m. on Saturday at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis and then get back on the buses for their return trip at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, she said.

Martin said the purpose of the demonstration is “to voice our opposition to NATO, the war in Afghanistan, the bombing in Libya and talk of the missile shield” in Europe. Asked about President Obama’s announced plans to withdraw from Afghanistan, Martin said, “We want to make sure they get out sooner rather than later.” Rowley said NATO should been disbanded when the Cold War ended. She contends it went from “a defensive alliance to wars of aggression,” such as the NATO intervention in Libya.
Not everyone is pleased by the protesters’ plans. ”Protesters, anarchists, rogues, and dunces will descend on Chicago from all over the globe this week,” writes Peter Bella, a retired Chicago police officer, in the Washington Times. “They will create mayhem, consternation and enormous inconvenience in celebration of the NATO summit that will be held here this weekend.”

News Advisory | Minnesotans going to protest at NATO summit in Chicago to hold news conference

For release: Friday, May 18, 2012 

Minnesotans going to protest at NATO summit in Chicago to hold news conference:

Friday, May 18 at 3:00 pm

Logistics information for the NATO bus trip on 5/19

Leaving on Saturday, May 19th:

FightBack! News | Minnesotans to join anti-war protest at NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday, May 20

Posted on May 13, 2012 by FightBack! News

Minneapolis, MN – This coming weekend, Minnesotans will fill two buses headed for Chicago to participate in an anti-war march and rally outside the NATO summit meeting on Sunday, May 20.

The NATO summit is set for May 20-21 in Chicago.

The Chicago anti-war protest will greet the NATO summit meeting with a call to end the U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan and to call for funds for human needs, not war.

A main topic of the meetings of the NATO summit will be the war in Afghanistan.

A statement issued by organizers of the Minnesotan delegation to the Chicago protest says in part, “While the NATO leaders look for ways to continue the war and occupation of Afghanistan, thousands of people will be in the streets of Chicago to say ‘get out of Afghanistan now.’”

The buses from Minneapolis will leave at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 from the parking lot of Saint Joan of Arc Church, 4537 3rd Avenue S in Minneapolis. The buses will drive through the night to arrive in Chicago in time for the protest.

Meredith Aby of the Anti-War Committee said, “Going on the buses from Minneapolis will be a cross section of Minnesotans, students, working people, low-income families, long time activists and people attending their first major anti-war protest.”

In addition to the people riding the buses, organizers understand that many Minnesotans are planning their own transportation to the Chicago event. “The people on the bus are only a portion of the people from Minnesota who intend on bringing an anti-war message to the door of the NATO summit. People need jobs, education, housing and health care, not billions for war and occupation,” said Steph Taylor of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota.

The recent agreement signed by President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, “Is not about ending the war, the agreement actually lays the basis for thousands of U.S. and other foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan until 2024. Despite what the politicians are telling us, U.S. troops are not leaving Afghanistan any time soon unless people demand an end to the war,” said Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness.

Martin continued, “Many of the people going to Chicago have been part of the Occupy movement. We understand that NATO is really the armed force of the 1%. NATO conducts wars and interventions, not in the interests of the 99%, but in support of corporate economic and political interests.”

In order to have the march and rally at the NATO summit, anti-war organizers in Chicago and around the country carried out an ongoing campaign of letters, statements and other public pressure to defend the right to protest, including a months-long effort to secure a permit for the May 20 march and rally.

“The Sunday protest is an opportunity for all people to come together and exercise our civil liberties and call for an end to the war and occupation,” said Aby.

In addition to opposing the war in Afghanistan, the protest will speak out against the threat of a new war against Iran.

A wide range of organizations from across the U.S. have endorsed the May 20 anti-war event in Chicago, including peace, anti-war, student, labor as well as many groups started as part of the Occupy movement.

Why YOU Should Ride the bus to Chicago with the Anti-War Committee

FightBack! News | Minneapolis forum on NATO and the wars and interventions of the 1%

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Fight Back! News

Meredith Aby introduces speakers at forum on role of NATO. (Fight Back! News/Staff)

Minneapolis, MN – Speaking to a standing room only crowd at May Day Book Store, April 7, leaders of the Twin Cities anti-war movement denounced NATO as an aggressive alliance of western imperialism and urged listeners to join them at the massive protest planned for the NATO Summit. The protest will coincide the Summit’s opening, May 20.

Presenters included April Knutson of Woman Against Military Madness (WAMM), who spoke on the history of NATO, including its imperialist beginnings; Sarah Martin, also of WAMM, who spoke on the role of NATO in the war on Yugoslavia; Jess Sundin, Anti-War Committee, who talked about NATO’s role in the war on Afghanistan; and Mary Beaudoin of WAMM, who spoke on the new stage of NATO in its war on Libya and its potential new targets, such as Syria.

Beaudoin said, “The two most powerful organizations in the world – one that divides up the wealth and the other the enforcer – roam the world stealing and killing with impunity. Growing ever larger, blazing new trails of death and destruction, they decide who eats and who doesn’t, who lives and who dies. The G8 holds the economic strings. NATO provides the military might to ensure the decisions of the G8 are enforced. Both are spearheaded by the U.S. The two sociopathic entities hide behind lies about humanitarian intervention and the ‘right to protect’ and are sustained by complicit institutional systems worldwide. Profit and power are their gods and anyone and anything, no matter how old or young, ancient or new, sacred or profane can be mowed down in their path.”

Sarah Martin analyzed NATO’s war on Yugoslavia stating, “This brutal bombing campaign aimed to destroy the economy of Yugoslavia by targeting its infrastructure – bridges, factories, power plants, the state TV station and the Chinese embassy. The bombing of Kosovo drove thousands from the country, making them refugees, and was strangely accepted by U.S. and European citizens as a humanitarian intervention. A precedent was set and we – or rather the people of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya – have been living and dying with the consequences ever since.”

Martin continued, “And so on its 50th birthday in 1999 NATO had successfully morphed from an anti-Soviet alliance to the hired guns of the 1% with the U.S. firmly in control. It had grown enormously and there were now bases in Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary and the enormous camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. And Yugoslavia is the gift that keeps on giving and is held up as the shining example of humanitarian intervention. In reality a country was torn apart, people that live in the areas where there was bombing, live with the effects of DU [depleted uranium]. In Kosovo, ethnic cleansing really happened and only a handful of Serbians who live with the threat of harassment from the majority.”

Jess Sundin, of the Anti-War Committee stated, “Afghanistan is a test for the NATO, and especially for the US. If they become the first successful foreign occupiers in the history of Afghanistan, it would be a huge blow not only to the people of Afghanistan, but to all the peace-loving peoples of the world.

“There are some barriers to that success. First and foremost, the people of Afghanistan, who have refused to accept the twin evils of a brutal military occupation and the corrupt puppet government of Hamid Karzai. The Afghan people, like any occupied people, have a right to resist. And resist they have. The incidents I described earlier – the killing of civilians, the dishonoring of the bodies of the dead, the desecration of the Koran – these were each answered with acts of resistance. Afghan people have protested and they have fought back. Their resistance is why U.S. troops are dying in greater numbers every year,” said Sundin.

Sundin also talked about FBI repression that is being directed at anti-war activists and urged support for Carlos Montes, who will soon go on trial in Los Angeles.

The event was organized by the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and Women Against Military Madness. For more info on the protest in Chicago go to cang8.org. For more info on the buses from Minneapolis visit antiwarcommittee.org.

Jess Sundin: Speech on Afghanistan (4/7/2012)

Jess Sundin, a member of the Anti-War Committee, gave this speech on NATO’s war and occupation of Afghanistan on Saturday, April 7th at the forum “NATO and the wars and interventions of the 1%”.  The forum was organized by the Anti-War Committee, May Day Books, the MN Peace Action Coalition and Women Against Military Madness to educate and motivate Minnesotans to go to Chicago to protest the NATO Summit on May 20th.  

NATO Forum: Speech on Afghanistan 4/7/12

The day after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 (known as Operation Enduring Freedom), the Secretary General of NATO publicly stated the Alliance’s support. Two and a half months later, a UN Security Council resolution established the International Security Assistance Force as the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Initially, NATO was only deployed to the Kabul and surrounding areas; but in October 2003, the Security Council expanded the ISAF mission throughout Afghanistan. At the outset, the NATO and US missions in Afghanistan were separate. However, the operations merged in 2010 (under Gen. David Patraeus), and now under the joint command of US Gen. John Allen.

Today, there are about 130,000 NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan from 50 contributing nations. Of these, about 99,000 are US troops. Britain – the second largest contributor to the operation – has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan.  Although there is talk of withdrawing some US troops before the November elections, 68,000 US troops are set to remain in Afghanistan after the end of 2012.

These troops are engaged in the deadly acts of war.

According to a BBC on March 11, 2012: “British PM David Cameron said that the reason his troops were based in Afghanistan was ‘to prevent the country from being a safe haven to al-Qaeda, from where they might plan attacks on the UK or our allies.’ Most analysts agree that by that yardstick, the NATO operation has been successful. But if improving security for the average Afghan is the criterion by which success is measured, the answer is very different. Civilian deaths in the conflict have risen steadily in recent years.”

Among these deaths are some shocking cases, like the recent report of US Army Sergeant Robert Bales, who broke into the homes of sleeping civilians in Panjwai, slaughtering 17 people, nine of them children, 4 of those girls younger than my own daughter. [US paid $50,000 dollars for each person killed, and &11,000 for everyone injured.]

Before that, there were the 6 children killed by an airstrike in November in Zhare, Afghanistan. And the death squad within the 5^th Stryker brigade, where US soldiers killed unarmed civilians for sport, staging fake combat scenes, and taking photos, or even body parts from the dead, as trophies. The ringleader of those premeditated murders, and will be eligible for parole in 10 years. The other guys got off with less.

On top of these murders, we have videos of US marines urinating on dead Afghans, and the burning of the Korans at Baghram Airbase.

On March 14, 2012, the UK Guardian reported: “Last year was a record for civilian deaths in the Afghan war: 3,021 were reported killed by the UN, which blamed NATO and its Afghan allies for 410 of them – though Afghan human rights organizations insist that such tallies heavily understate the numbers killed by foreign troops, whose casualties are said routinely to be blamed on the Taliban or not reported at all. Many civilians are killed in night raids or air attacks, such as the one that incinerated eight shepherd boys aged 6 to 18 in northern Afghanistan last month. Across the border in Pakistan, … drone attacks have killed 2,300, including hundreds of civilians and 175 children – a massacre of another kind …”

Among the dead, we must also count the troop casualties. The vast majority have been from the US: 1929. 407 from the UK, and 158 from Canada, and so on, relative to how many troops various countries have contributed to the NATO operation. Two-thirds of these deaths have been since Obama’s troop surge in 2009.

This deadly reality is not popular.

Several recent polls reveal that most people agree with those of us planning to protest against NATO at the summit in Chicago: A CNN/ORC International survey released last Friday (3/30/12) said that only 25% of Americans support the war in Afghanistan, a new all time low. Even most Republicans voiced opposition, which had not previously happened at any point in this war. A New York Times/CBS News poll confirms the same thing: 69 percent oppose the war in Afghanistan, up from 53 percent just four months ago. Opposition in the other NATO countries was always higher than in the US, and has grown steadily. Similar poll results around the globe show most Canadians want to end the occupation, just like most Brits, most Germans, most French, and so on…

But as you might imagine, NATO is not a democratic institution, responsive or accountable to the people in the countries its troops are deployed from. And while the mission is carried out under NATO’s banner, it is clearly commanded, armed and funded, principally by the United States. However, support from NATO allies impacts what the US can and cannot do.

As we learned from April, NATO was established in 1949 supposedly as a “defensive” military alliance (against the Soviet Union). However, according to the Congressional Research Service in December 2009, “…the allies have sought to create a ‘new’ NATO, capable of operating beyond the European theater to combat emerging threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Afghanistan is NATO’s first ‘out-of-area’ mission beyond Europe.” And importantly, it continues, “The ultimate outcome of NATO’s effort to stabilize Afghanistan and U.S. leadership of that effort may well affect the cohesiveness of the alliance and Washington’s ability to shape NATO’s future.”

To put it another way, Afghanistan is a test for the NATO, and especially for the US. If they become the first successful foreign occupiers in the history of Afghanistan, it would be a huge blow not only to the people of Afghanistan, but to all the peace-loving peoples of the world.

There are some barriers to that success. First and foremost, the people of Afghanistan, who have refused to accept the twin evils of a brutal military occupation and the corrupt puppet government of Hamid Karzai. The Afghan people, like any occupied people, have a right to resist. And resist they have. The incidents I described earlier – the killing of civilians, the dishonoring of the bodies of the dead, the desecration of the Koran – these were each answered with acts of resistance. Afghan people have protested, and they have fought back. Their resistance is why US troops are dying in greater numbers every year.

And so, the coalition of the willing gets less and less willing every year.

Following Obama’s December 2009 speech at West Point, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed his support for the troop surge plan and his willingness to commit a significant number of U.S. troops to the effort. Rasmussen said that NATO “would provide at least 5,000 more soldiers and probably more.”

However, he had a hard time convincing member states to contribute forces. Of those who did commit forces, many imposed restrictions on tasks those forces could undertake. Almost half the forces in ISAF have some form of restrictions, for example prohibiting their troops from participating in combat except in self-defense, or disallowing their deployment to certain conflicted areas within Afghanistan.

I was not previously aware of this, but when a member state agrees to deploy troops to a NATO operation, that nation must pay the costs associated with that deployment. There is a built-in disincentive for nations to agree to commit any troops to a mission or to increase the number of troops deployed. In these times of massive economic collapse, it’s no doubt that many NATO member nations won’t contribute more to this losing proposition.

Which brings us to the NATO summit in Chicago this May. What will NATO leaders do there?

Afghanistan is at the top of their agenda. On Monday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “In Chicago we will map out how we are going to complete the transition and how we will continue to support Afghanistan beyond 2014. We will agree what kind of mission NATO will have after 2014…”

At this meeting, they will no doubt speak in very concrete terms about the troop commitments of every member state. Which is to say, they will be talking about the size and scope of the continued war and occupation in Afghanistan, for the next two years, and beyond.

We absolutely need to be there, to be part of a global protest movement to say no to NATO, and demand the troops get out of Afghanistan now!

Chicago’s NATO Summit vs. the 1st Amendment – Why We Are Appealing the City’s Attack on Our Right to March

City “alternative” march route would allow authorities to “kettle” NATO protesters in Grant Park, deny 1st Amendment rights

Chicago Officials are using the new ‘Sit Down and Shut Up’ ordinances to deny protest permit they had previously approved

CHICAGO — Late Thursday afternoon, the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8) appealed the City’s rejection of our permit application for a march on the opening day of the NATO Summit here – Sunday, May 20.

CANG8 will have a mass, non-violent march on May 20th, and it is our intention to secure a permit to do so.  Out-of-towners should make their travel plans accordingly.

The City’s rejection of our permit to march has to be seen in the context of decades of efforts by Chicago mayors to sideline and diminish anti-war voices.  We believe that our struggle for the right to peacefully march on May 20th, without police or other government harassment, is much bigger than any one organization or group of individuals.

We have a responsibility to undertake this struggle not just for our own 1st Amendment freedoms, but for all who wish to regain the freedoms that have diminished so frightfully over the past few years.

To reverse this attack on the right to protest in our city, we need your help in three ways:

1) Please plan on attending the appeals hearing at 10:30 AM, next Tuesday, March 27 at 400 W. Superior Street, Room 111;

2) Please share this notice widely – email it to your friends and list-serves.  If you are on Facebook, please go to the Facebook event page here, invite your FB friends, and post the link widely on Facebook and other social media; and,

3) Contact the Mayor’s office with your messages of protest.  Call 312.744.5000 or go here http://webapps.cityofchicago.org/eforms/org/cityofchicago/eforms/controller/contactUsForm/preFeedbackForm.do to email your complaint.

Background to the Current Struggle

On January 3rd – the earliest legally permissible date – CANG8 applied with the City for a permit to march from Daley Plaza to the edge of McCormick Place on May 19, the day that would soon be designated as the first date of the joint G8 and NATO summits in Chicago.  The permit was rapidly granted by the City, without reservation.

On March 13, the day after the White House yanked the G8 portion of the summits from Chicago, in apparent response to growing controversy, CANG8 applied for the exact same march route and time as we had previously, but for May 20, the new opening date of the diminished summit.  The City’s Assistant Director of Transportation, Michael Simon, told a CANG8 representative that “we think we can turn this around for you [i.e., grant approval] today.”

But despite repeated calls to them through the course of the week, the City waited until March 18, the last possible date on which they could legally do so, to respond with a rejection of the CANG8 application to march on May 20th.

Their reasoning? That there are not “a sufficient number of on-duty police officers or other city employees” to deal with the proposed May 20th march. But given that the G8 meeting is now relocated to Camp David and Sundays have less civilian traffic than Saturdays, arguably the City would have significantly greater police resources available for our protest on May 20th.

But there was another agenda at work.  By claiming that the City does not have sufficient “on-duty” personnel, Chicago officials were now utilizing the language of the new “sit-down and shut-up” ordinances to justify their rejection of the permit. Under the old ordinance, the city could only reject an application if there were not “a sufficient number of peace officers and traffic control aides” — on- or off-duty.

If the City truly lacked sufficient police and other resources to host the summits and accommodate meaningful expressions of the First Amendment, then City officials should have declined to host the summits in the first place.

The Real Agenda Behind the City’s Permit Rejection

Under the terms of the old and new parade permit ordinance, the City is required to offer a “comparable” alternative route to any proposed march route it rejects.  In our experience, the City’s “comparable” alternatives are seldom that.  This was time was no exception.

We rejected the City’s “comparable” routes for three reasons:

1) Starting at the Petrillo Band Shell as the City proposed would vastly enhance authorities’ ability to “kettle” peace activists in Grant Park, far from the NATO summits, and derail our First Amendment rights to free speech.  Kettling — unconstitutionally surrounding demonstrators, isolating and preventing them from leaving — has become a common practice for police departments around the country in recent years, and was used by the by the Chicago Police Department in 2003 to take revenge on a mass march at the start of the Iraq War (the ultimate result was a $6.5 million settlement for protesters reached last month).

The City is already pressuring National Nurses United to end their Friday, May 18 march at Hutchinson Field at the south end of Grant Park, even though NNU has both a march permit and rally permit that would have them end at Daley Plaza.

We have two sources from within the City’s side who have confirmed that the City wants all marches on the summit to end at Hutchinson Field, at the southeast end of the Grant Park, using the federal government’s “security perimeter” as the excuse;

2) The City rejected our using Daley Plaza as the starting point for the May 20th march even though we secured an agreement with the other applicant for the Plaza on that day to share the space. 

This is reminiscent of the Public Building Commission’s blanket ban on use of the plaza from May 15-22 (the original dates of the summits) announced in an email to us in November.  But we didn’t take the rejection lying down.  We forced Mayor Emanuel to rescind that ban when we confronted him at a meeting of the PBC with several news cameras whirring.

3) The “comparable” alternative routes that the City offered in its rejection letter and in negotiations following that were seriously flawed in that they either lacked public visibility – a requirement for meaningful expression of the 1st Amendment – or they added much greater length to an already long march route.

CANG8′s Logistics Committee continued negotiations with the City until the last day permissible under the law, twice extending our deadline on that day so that the City could put together its “last and best offer.”  Alas, they stuck to an unreasonable stance of refusing to grant a permit for the same route that they had granted when the summits were to begin a day previously, using transparently disingenuous reasoning to justify their changed stance.

Next Steps 

Our next struggle will be in the courts — and in the court of public opinion.  That’s where you come in.  Our appeal of the City’s permit rejection will be at 10:30 AM next Tuesday, March 27 at the courthouse located at 400 W. Superior, Room 111.

We are committed to holding a peaceful, permitted march to the NATO Summit on Sunday, May 20th. But we won’t be able to do it without your help.  Contact City Hall and voice your protest – call 312.744.5000 or go here.

And next Tuesday morning, please the courtroom – 10:30 AM, 400 W. Superior, Room 111.  Come yourself, invite your friends, spread the word!

Thank you!!

The Logistics Committee of CANG8

Press Related to Chicago Denial of NATO protest permit

Protesters: Is city admitting it lacks the cops to handle NATO summit?
By Fran Spielman
Chicago Sun-Times
March 22, 2012
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/11471774-418/protesters-is-city-admitting-it-lacks-the-cops-to-handle-nato-summit.html

Activists to appeal NATO protest permit denial
ABC Channel 7
March 22, 2012
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8591616

Occupy to protest at NATO summit
By David Heinzmann
Chicago Tribune
March 19, 2012
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsworldnation/954014-227/occupy-to-protest-at-nato-summit.html

NATO protesters one step closer to marching
By Paul Merrion
Crain’s Chicago Business
March 19, 2012
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120319/NEWS02/120319793/nato-protestors-one-step-closer-to-marching

Chicago officials deny permit for May 20 NATO protest march
By David Heinzmann
Clout Street
Chicago Tribune
March 19, 2012
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120319/NEWS02/120319793/nato-protestors-one-step-closer-to-marching

Chicago officials deny permit for May 20 NATO protest march
RedEye
March 19, 2012
http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/chi-chicago-officials-deny-permit-for-may-20-nato-protest-march-20120319,0,4491457.story

Chicago rejects NATO summit protest march plans 
By Kim Janssen
Chicago Sun-Times
March 19, 2012
http://www.suntimes.com/news/11395738-418/chicago-rejects-plans-for-nato-summit-march.html

Protesters denied changes in summit march
By Paul Meincke
ABC Channel 7
March 19, 2012
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8586889

Chicago denies NATO protest permit
By Alex Keefe
WBEZ-FM Chicago Public Radio
March 19, 2012
http://www.wbez.org/story/chicago-denies-nato-protest-permit-97440

G-8 relocation has LGBT protest up in the air
By Kate Sosin
Windy City Times
March 21, 2012
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/G-8-relocation-has-LGBT-protest-up-in-the-air/36840.html

NATO protesters eye court battle over Chicago march permit
By Paul Merrion
Crain’s Chicago Business
March 21, 2012
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120321/NEWS02/120329932/nato-protestors-eye-court-battle-over-chicago-march-permit

Kill the Quiet With a Riot 
Global Tremors
Social Commentary on the World
March 19, 2012
http://manalshakir.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/kill-the-quiet-with-a-riot-copyright-phoenix-foundation/

Protesters appeal denial of NATO march plans
By David Heinzmann
Clout Street
Chicago Tribune
March 22, 2012
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-protesters-appeal-denial-of-nato-march-plans-20120322,0,7276157.story

Protesters appeal denial of parade permit for NATO summit, say city’s alternative unacceptable
Associated Press
March 22, 2012
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9a7c29941eb048b2a4c747ae08bf69d9/IL–NATO-Summit-Protesters/

Activists to Announce Change of Plans for Protest v. G8-NATO

For Immediate Release: 3/14/2012

For Information: Andy Thayer, 773.209.1187, CCAWR@aol.com, Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8)
Joe Iosbaker (773.301.0109, joeiosbaker@gmail.com, Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8)

Activists to Announce
Change of Plans
For Protest v. G8-NATO

CHICAGO — New plans for the only currently permitted march to go to the doorstep of this city’s NATO summit May 20-21 will be announced 10 AM Thursday at a press conference to be held on the southwest corner of Daley Plaza (Washington Blvd. & Clark Street), site of opening rally for the May protest.

While activists see the moving of the G8 summit to the mountains of western Maryland as an attempt to blunt the protests to be held here, most reports indicate that activists are instead taking confidence from what they see as a victory over an institution that’s so unpopular that it once again shuns holding its meetings in major urban areas.

“The removal of the G8 from Chicago shows the value of protests,” said Pat Hunt, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (www.CANG8.org). “If protest can score such a victory, then people draw the logical conclusion that even more protest can score additional victories.”

“With the Sunday murder of 16 Afghan civilians by one or more U.S. service members and the unprovoked Israeli air strikes on Gaza which have killed 21 over the past few days, the occupation policies promoted by NATO and its allies are showing why May’s protests in Chicago are going to the focus of the progressive movement this spring,” said Joe Iosbaker, also of CANG8.

Other representatives at the press conference will include:

** Mark Banks representing Occupy Chicago
** Mary Dean, who recently visited Afghanistan as part of a Voices For Creative Non-Violence delegation
** Bishop Reuel Marigza, General Secretary, United Church of Christ in the Philippines and Vice Chair, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
** The Right Reverend Felixberto Calang, IRI, Supreme Council of Bishops of the Philippine Independent Church and Convener, Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao
** Ms. Angelina Bisuna-Ipong, former political prisoner in The Philippines and author, Garden Behind Bars
** Jan Rodolfo, RN, who is the Midwest Director of the National Nurses Union, which is hosting another anti-G8/NATO march on Friday, May 18
** Darrius Lightfoot, Fearless Leading by the Youth and Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP)
** Nick Egnatz of Northwest Indiana Veterans for Peace
and,
** Joe Iosbaker and Andy Thayer representing the Logistics Committee of CANG8.
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