Why We Oppose NATO

GLN permalink 5-13-2012

NATO is one of a handful of guises used by American politicians and their hangers-on to give the illusion of broad consent for policies whose real aim is to boost U.S. government power over other nations, peoples, and their resources.

It would be bad public relations for the U.S. government, which claims to speak for only 4% of the world's population, to nakedly assert its "right" to rule over the majority. History has shown that the most efficient way to rule is to fool populations into believing they have a stake in being ruled, rather than baldly asserting that rule through force. And so phrases like "international opinion" and "the world community" are bandied about by politicians and commentators to cover for a system ruled by a tiny minority, and driven by greed and contempt for real democracy. When George H. W. Bush announced his grand coalition to launch the first U.S.-Iraq war, he dubbed it "the coalition of the willing." In the anti-war movement, we dubbed it "the coalition of the bribed and bullied," a motley collection of dictators and "elected" rulers whose "willingness" was purchased through arms deals and threats. In supporting the war, they were thumbing their noses at the express wishes of the overwhelming majorities of their populations.

Today NATO has taken on much the same character, with smaller nations providing funding and handfuls of troops to an essentially American enterprise. In this it is more reminiscent of Roman Empire legions, and its tributary hangers-on, than it is of any grand democratic experiment.

Our primary objections to the U.S. government, and the NATO and other military alliances it leads, can be boiled down to five points:

1) The U.S. and other foreign troops have no right to occupy and coerce people in countries who do not want them. U.S. troops are currently in at least 130 countries around the world, and poll after poll shows that the overwhelming majorities of most of these countries do not want them there.

The profoundly anti-democratic nature of these occupations can be seen in places like the Philippines, where a clause of that country's constitution expressly prohibits stationing of foreign troops on their territory. The toothless Pakistani parliament has outlawed U.S. drone attacks and bases on their territory time and again, without effect.

This abrogation of the popular will of other nations, in concert with corrupt leaders bolstered by the U.S., goes a long way to explain why the U.S./NATO "war on terror" is ultimately a fruitless exercise. It's really not concerned with opposing terror per se, but about using NATO terror to coerce other nations to do the United States' bidding.

The peoples of the Third World are but chess pieces on the "great game" of the U.S. government versus other emerging economic/military powers such as China, and the peoples of the world largely know this. Hence, the U.S. government is the single best recruiter for terrorism that there is.

2) With no real provocation, the U.S. repeatedly threatens war on other countries. All of the excuses that were used to launch war on Iraq, for example, are now being recycled to justify war on Iran:

WMD's? No real evidence for them, but who can blame Iran for wanting nukes given that it is surrounded by nuclear-armed Pakistan and India on the east, nuclear-armed Russia on the north, nuclear-armed U.S. war vessels on the south, and nuclear-armed Israel on the west.

Violating international treaties? The U.S. and Israel do this routinely, and the latter refuses to even sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and collaborated with apartheid South Africa on their respective nuke programs.

Brutally suppressing its own people? The U.S. sends arms to a host of governments which equal the Iranian theocracy's horrible human rights record.

3) The U.S. and its NATO allies support dictators who routinely commit gross human rights abuses. Through "extraordinary rendition" of people to the dictators' torture chambers, NATO countries actively abet this brutality. The Wikileaks revelations of U.S. diplomatic cables showed the deep cynicism of both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. Our State Department clucked about the brutality shown by Syria's Assad, Mubarak's Egypt and Ghadafi's Libya, while shipping innocent people to be tortured by those regimes.

The Saudi dictatorship is guilty of every human rights abuse that Iran is accused of – the brutal suppression of religious minorities, women, and gays. Freedom of the press, speech and labor rights are non-existent. Last year the Saudis committed the same sin that was the alleged cause of George H. W. Bush's war on Iraq – invading another nation. Where as Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait to grab more oil supplies, the Saudi dictatorship invaded Bahrain so as to crush that country's democracy movement. And the Obama administration's response? More arms to the Saudi dictators so that they can repress their own people and others.

4) The U.S. and NATO funding of war robs the peoples of the world of resources for basic necessities. The U.S. spends as much on war as the rest of the world combined, while more than half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day. With our military spending at record levels under the Obama administration, it is no accident that the U.S. is alone among industrialized countries in not providing low-cost or free higher education and health care. It is no accident that our primary education and public transit systems are third rate, and our level of homelessness an international embarrassment.

5) The increased propensity for war destroys civil liberties at home. Through the National Defense Authorization Act, we've seen the destruction of habeas corpus, a right won with the Magna Carta in 1215. Through his policy of assassinating people abroad, we have the irony of a constitutional law scholar president who thinks he has the right to play judge, jury, and executioner. Whereas our country had only sporadic wars a few decades ago, we are now in permanent war. Empire and military coercion abroad cannot help but militarize and brutalize our domestic life. Andy Thayer is an organizer for the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & PovertyAgenda (www.CANG8.org) and a co-founder of GLN.

NATO/G8 protest organizer Andy Thayer gives reasons to protest the NATO summit at Elgin Community College on April 12, 2012. The summit will be held in Chicago, May 20-21, 2012.

Why Protest NATO?
Why is there so much protest activity surrounding the Chicago 2012 NATO summit?
We hear now from one activist who offers his take on the issue.

Chicago G8/NATO

WTTW Chicago Tonight | Yasmin Rammohan | January 25, 2012 12:00 pm - LINK

The NATO and G8 host committee is on the defensive as it lays out plans for the May events. Carol Marin and her panel have more.

Originally broadcast September 9, 2011
Leaders of the G8 ("Group of 8") nations, generally the wealthiest in the world, will hold a summit in May 2012 in Chicago, along with the heads of the NATO military alliance. The meetings represent the single biggest confab of war-making leaders in many years, and if past meetings are any indication, a focus for 10's of thousands of protesters. Long-time anti-war activists and GLN members Bob Schwartz and Andy Thayer discuss why people should actively oppose the forthcoming G8 and NATO summits in Chicago.

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NATO reps to debate protesters at 'Chicago Week'

Public forum to be held Thurs., May 17 at the Pritzker Military Library

By Dick Johnson and BJ Lutz, NBCChicago.com LINK
Thursday, May 10, 2012 | Updated 12:23 PM CDT

GLN permalink 5-10-2012

NATO representatives will meet with members of the largest anti-NATO protest group will meet next Thursday at the Pritzker Military Library. Dick Johnson reports.

NATO representatives will meet with members of the largest anti-NATO protest group next week for an unprecedented one-hour public debate, NBC Chicago has exclusively learned.

Word of the strategic gesture toward the protesters came Wednesday afternoon from NATO's secretary-general following his meeting with the president at the White House.

"Our public diplomacy people are reaching out to these groups," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "They will organize some meetings where there will be a possibility to exchange views."

The event will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 17 at -- in a bit of irony -- the Pritzker Military Library.

"We get to have a public forum where we are able to convince our fellow residents of this city just how bad and nasty an institution NATO is," said Andy Thayer, an organizer of the Coalition Against the NATO / G8 War & Poverty Agenda.

Thayer and other protesters take issue with the money spent on NATO operations and its occupations in sovereign lands, and he said he hopes the public demonstrations and next week's dialogue will enlighten more people to NATO's actions.

"I would argue that most people in this country, when they get to know the facts about what NATO is ... and what NATO does to places like Afghanistan, they would agree that this is not something that should be supported, that our city should not be supporting the NATO Summit," Thayer said.

During "Chicago Week" at NATO Headquarters in Brussels in March, there may have been a preview of how NATO representatives will respond.

Upon being told of the protest slogan that "NATO is the war machine of the one percent," U.S. Ambassador Ivo Daalder rejected the notion, saying he believes NATO's true mission is sometimes misunderstood.

"I wouldn't regard NATO as a war machine for any percent," he said at the time. "What NATO is is an organization that brings together 28 countries."

The summit is May 20 and 21.

Protest Groups Detail Plans For NATO Summit

CBS Chicago May 10, 2012 1:31 PM | Updated 05/10/12 – 4:54 p.m. - LINK

GLN permalink 5-10-2012

Members of Occupy Chicago and other protest groups discuss their plans for protest rallies, marches, and other events leading up to and during the NATO summit, scheduled for May 20-21 in Chicago. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) - Activists planning anti-NATO protests, marches, concerts and counter-summits gathered Thursday at the headquarters of Occupy Chicago to discuss a week's worth of events leading up to the NATO summit on May 20 and 21.

WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, with the permit hassles protesters have been having with city officials, protest organizer Andy Thayer said he's looking for some presidential intervention.

"This president has got to say to Rahm Emanuel, 'Cut the hell out, guarantee people's First Amendment rights in the city of Chicago," Thayer said. "In terms of public convergence, the last time I checked, the First Amendment had not been annulled in the city of Chicago, and so people should feel free to walk the streets."

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser Reports

Occupy Chicago representative Rachael Perrotta said the First Amendment is the only permit the group needs to stage protests, so the group won't be seeking any permits for their events protesting the NATO summit. The only event they're involved in that has applied for a city permit is the largest protest, which was organized by several protest groups, set to coincide with the opening day of the summit.

CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports, starting this Sunday, Occupy Chicago will join forces with the Anti-Nato Coalition to stage a weeklong series of demonstrations and forums, addressing issues ranging from foreclosures to immigration reform, and from education to the environment.

From May 18 to May 20, organizers plan to stage a so-called "barefoot summit" at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park – a kind of Chicago Woodstock with local bands, poetry readings, and speeches.

David Myers, a representative of the barefoot summit said, "It is basically a love letter from the people of Chicago to the world."

Anti-war veterans will lead the biggest event, a protest march and rally on May 20, the opening day of the summit. Those veterans will end the march at McCormick Place by throwing away their war medals.

Protesters said they are still talking with security officials about providing a stage and sound system for that rally, but they've already made one concession: only the veterans' medals ceremony will happen at the end of the march. There will be no other speakers.

Organizers cited peaceful protests on May Day and earlier in the spring as serving as practice runs for the much bigger NATO demonstrations, and they downplayed concerns about disruptions sparked by outsiders coming to Chicago to cause trouble.

Joe Iosbaker, with the Coalition Against NATO/G8, said, "I'm sure the protests during the workdays will be smaller, and remember ... 8 out of of 10 people who march and protest next week are going to have 606 zip codes. These are Chicagoans, overwhelmingly."

That's why organizers are pleading with local sympathizers not to be put off by fears of disorder.

"We expect huge crowds, and huge crowds will happen as long as Chicago comes out – and doesn't believe the fear-mongering of the mayor – to join us in standing up for our rights to peace, and a world without foreign wars," Perrotta said.

The final protest rally they are planning is to shut down Boeing's headquarters, located at 100 N. Riverside Plaza, on the last day of the summit on Monday, May 21. Occupy Chicago says Boeing is a war criminal that plays a major role in the NATO war machine.

"The Boeing Corporation is one of the biggest producers of military war machines in the nation, and they're also one of the sponsors of the NATO summit in Chicago," said Occupy Chicago member Zoe Sigman.

Poking fun at rumors that downtown Chicago workers have been told to wear casual clothing around the time of the summit, to avoid being targeted by protesters, peace activist Michael McConnell wore a suit to Thursday's meeting.

"I wore a suit today because I hear that the downtown Chicago workers are being told not to wear suits and camouflage themselves as protesters," he said. "My advice to the local office workers is don't ditch the suits, ditch your job and join us. ... Come be a protester. Don't just dress like one, actually be one."

McConnell, regional director of the peace group American Friends Service Committee, said NATO is no longer living up to its original mission of providing collective defense to its member nations.

"The NATO alliance has now turned offensive, aggressive and interventionist," McConnell said.

On the Friday before the summit, National Nurses United is planning a rally from the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers - where the president will stay during the summit - to downtown Chicago for a protest rally and a performance by musician Tom Morello, the guitarist for the band Rage Against The Machine. That protest was originally planned to coincide with the G8 summit, which has been moved to Camp David.

The nurses originally wanted to hold their rally in Daley Plaza, but after booking Morello and a major advertisement push for the rally, city officials believed the event would be much larger than the original estimate of 1,000 people and forced the group to change the rally's location to Grant Park.

City moves NATO protest from Daley Plaza

By David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune reporters LINK

May 9, 2012

GLN permalink 5-9-2012

Banners are up along LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago as preparations are made for the NATO summit.
(Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune / May 8, 2012)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration pulled the plug Tuesday on the only NATO protest planned for a workday in the Loop business district, revoking permission for a May 18 Daley Plaza rally barely a week before world leaders are to arrive in Chicago.

The National Nurses United group that planned the demonstration and other protest groups called the move a violation of free speech and said it fits a pattern of City Hall trying to marginalize demonstrations against the May 20-21 gathering.

"If the nurses are a threat to Rahm Emanuel, then heaven help the U.S.," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United. "He's been trying to move us into an obscure forum."

In a May 8 letter to the nurses group, the city said the group's midday parade along Michigan Avenue downtown can go on as planned with one major difference - instead of ending with a rally in the heart of the Loop, participants must swing east and gather in Grant Park for their rally.

The city said it needed to move the rally because organizers promoted the event so much that it was likely to exceed the group's attendance estimate of 1,000 people. The city also noted that the group had added an appearance by singer Tom Morello, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine.

"The addition to your event of a performance by a popular, nationally known musician who regularly draws large crowds under similar circumstances, along with the active recruitment of other organizations to join in your event, will likely increase the number of participants in your event far beyond the number estimated on your application," wrote Mike Simon, assistant commissioner of the city's Department of Transportation.

A larger crowd on a workday in the Loop could strain city resources, administration officials said, citing aggravating factors including the Crosstown Series pitting the White Sox against the Cubs several miles away in Wrigley Field.

"You're talking about a downtown area on a workday," said Roderick Drew, spokesman for the city Law Department.

In the letter, the city said the group's attempts to promote the rally meant it could exceed the maximum capacity of Daley Plaza, which the city said is 5,000 people.

It was the second NATO-related protest moved out of Daley Plaza since President Barack Obama announced that the G-8 economic summit, originally scheduled to run back-to-back with NATO in Chicago, was being moved to Camp David, Md.

The nurses association had held the permit for the rally since February, and the group put out a news release April 20 announcing the addition of Morello, who has long performed with left-wing polemic rock groups.

The city had approached the nurses group about the changes but did not act until Tuesday. The group consulted the American Civil Liberties Union about challenging the move in court but has not made a decision. But they planned to protest the move at City Hall at noon Wednesday, said Chuck Idelson, a spokesman for the California-based group.

Protest organizers argue that the city is discriminating against the demonstration because the mayor doesn't like the message of the nurses march. National Nurses United is specifically advocating for a transaction tax on Wall Street deals.

Protesters point to other rallies in the recent past that have been allowed to crowd thousands of people into the confined spaces of downtown streets.

"The city has accommodated many overflow crowds there. It's infuriating," said Andy Thayer, organizer of a May 20 anti-war protest that was originally scheduled for Daley Plaza on May 19, the first day of the G-8 meeting.

But when Thayer applied to have the same rally for an estimated 5,000 people a day later, the city balked and cited similar reasons to push the demonstration to Grant Park.

An April 2011 union rally in support of Wisconsin workers was allowed to use Daley Plaza even though it overflowed the plaza and surrounding streets, according to a Tribune account of the event. Likewise, a 2010 May Day march attended by an estimated 8,000 people was allowed to end at the plaza.

When the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, the city permitted a workday parade through the streets of the Loop that drew a sea of humanity that officials estimated to be as many as 2 million people. In 2009, the city allowed Oprah Winfrey to shut down North Michigan Avenue for 21/2 days in order to film her TV show before 20,000 people standing in the street for a program that included a live performance by the Black Eyed Peas.

Morello, who grew up in north suburban Libertyville, said he's used to government agencies taking a confrontational tack with causes he supports.

"It's interesting to be blacklisted in my own hometown," Morello joked. "At the same time it's not going to stop anything we do, the number of people who come out in the streets ... or the songs I'm going to play."

On Tuesday night, city and host committee officials wrapped up their series of pre-NATO community briefings meant to reassure residents that the summit and demonstrations will cause only minor inconveniences to their routines.

Despite myriad road closings, a security perimeter and other restrictions prompted by dozens of heavily guarded motorcades rolling through the city, the Secret Service's Frank Benedetto said life would be "as close to normal as possible."

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told Loop business leaders at the meeting that the police response to any NATO demonstrations "will be very fluid and agile."

After the meeting, he said the department was involved in discussions about the nurses permit change but declined to discuss details.

"There's a whole bunch of issues that surround it," McCarthy said. "It has to do with transportation and a hundred other things."

Tribune reporter Ryan Haggerty contributed.

dheinzmann@tribune.com

jcoen@tribune.com

Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Nurses, Veterans Furious With City's Changes To NATO Protests

CBS Chicago May 9, 2012 2:48 PM Updated 05/09/12 – 5:19 p.m. LINK

GLN permalink 5-9-2012

Members of National Nurses United protest at City Hall, after city officials decided to move their protest rally on the weekend of the NATO summit from Daley Plaza to Grant Park. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) – Is the city of Chicago double-crossing demonstrators planning protests during the weekend of the NATO summit? That's what protest organizers are charging, claiming the city is going back on its word on where and how two big marches will conclude.

CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports veterans planning an anti-NATO protest thought they could rally near McCormick Place, but have been told they can't. Nurses planning their own protest rally that weekend wanted to go to Daley Plaza, but have now been told to go to Grant Park.

Both groups claim the city is unfairly changing the rules very late in the game.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports

A group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were planning a protest against NATO on Sunday, May 20, at the corner of Cermak Road and Michigan Avenue. Veterans like Iraq war veteran Aaron Hughes said they planned to give back their war medals in protest against NATO.

Hughes said the city assured them they'd be able to set up a stage and sound system at Cermak and Michigan for their rally, which is part of a major protest rally organized by several activist groups, including the Occupy movement. But Hughes said they were recently told they can't have a stage or sound system at Cermak and Michigan.

"They're going back on what they've told us," he said.

It's a similar charge to the one levied by protesting nurses on Wednesday. Their original permit for a protest on Friday, May 18, called for a rally at Daley Plaza, but the city modified that permit to place the rally at Grant Park instead.

The nurses were furious with the change. They never intended their protest to be a walk in the park. So National Nurses United has threatened to file a lawsuit challenging the city's changes to their protest route.

"When people want to march along, look at us, and say, 'Yes, that's right,' it's the start of a movement, and we don't want to be shunted off to the side in some far-away place," said Jean Ross, with National Nurses United.

However, Butler Field at Grant Park, where the city has moved the nurses' rally, is less than a mile from Daley Plaza.

As WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, National Nurses United organizer Jan Rodolfo said the Emanuel administration is trying to marginalize their rally, planned for May 18.

The nurses' protest rally is scheduled to include musician Tom Morello, guitarist for the band Rage Against The Machine.

City officials said that is part of the reason they decided to change the nurses' protest route to place the rally in Grant Park, rather than Daley Plaza. The city also expects far more than the 1,000 protesters that organizers originally estimated would take part in the rally.

The city has said that Morello's performance during the rally is likely to draw a much larger crowd than Daley Plaza can hold. The plaza has a capacity of about 5,000, but the nurses said they're not expecting that many people.

"Two thousand nurses and one musician holding an acoustic guitar; we think that Daley Plaza can accommodate that," Rodolfo said. "And we think it's an embarrassment to the city of Chicago, as a whole, to claim otherwise."

But Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday the move was made because the nature of the rally has changed since the nurses first submitted their request for a permit.

"If you go back to their actual position, they talked about 1,000 people, and nothing about kind of a rock concert," Emanuel said. "And if you want to change the type of event you're going to have, it's more appropriate to have it in Grant Park, rather than on Daley Plaza during the work day."

But all the protesters see is a disturbing pattern.

Andy Thayer, who is an organizer of a large-scale protest rally on Sunday, May 20, which will include the war veterans' rally, said, "What the city is trying to do right now, is they're trying to marginalize pro-worker and pro-peace messages."

The nurses have said Grant Park is not an acceptable alternative to Daley Plaza for their rally on May 18, because it is not nearly as visible to people who work and visit downtown.

The nurses said they will rally somewhere regardless. They said they plan to file a lawsuit challenging the city's decision to change the location of their protest rally.

It would be the first scheduled protest rally the weekend of the summit, and the only one scheduled for a work day.

Originally, the city had approved a march route that would go from the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Tower to Daley Plaza, and organizers had said they were expecting about 1,000 protesters. The protesters planned to gather at the hotel - where President Barack Obama will be staying during the NATO summit - at 10 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. protest march to Daley Plaza. Now they must go to Grant Park instead.

The original route would have taken protesters from the hotel at Columbus Drive and North Water Street, north to Illinois Street, west to Michigan Avenue, south to Wacker Drive, west to State Street, south to Randolph Street, then west to Dearborn Street and into Daley Plaza.

The new route will instead take the protesters south on Michigan Avenue, all the way to Monroe Drive, and east into Grant Park, at Butler Field. The date and time of the march will not be changed. The protest must wrap up by 1 p.m.

The group will be allowed to use the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park for Morello's musical performance.

Morello also blasted the decision to move the rally to Grant Park, in a phone interview with CBS 2.

"My first reaction was one of surprise, because let's get this straight - NATO, the defender of the free world, is afraid of a musician and a few nurses?" Morello said. "I mean, Daley Plaza was big enough for Batman, it was big enough for the Blues Brothers, but it's not big enough for me?"

Morello, who was raised in the Chicago area, said he agreed to perform at the nurses' rally "to support them and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their quest for a more just and equitable world, and to help amplify their voice."

He also said if Emanuel is so afraid of Morello's popularity, maybe he should run against Emanuel in the next mayoral election.

The nurses said they're consulting with the American Civil Liberties Union about a federal lawsuit to fight the changes to their rally plans. Meantime, Thayer said his protest coalition will hold emergency meetings this weekend to decide how to respond to the lack of a stage or sound system for the big Sunday protest rally near McCormick Place.

What kind of NATO protests could we see?

May 3, 2012 WBEZ 91.5 By: Eilee Heikenen-Weiss LINK

GLN permalink 5-3-2012

(Flickr/Erin! Nekervis)

Back in January, the anti-consumerist website Adbusters had high hopes for mass protests in Chicago right around this time.

"On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we'll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen," a January blog post reads.

No protests of that scale have actually materialized so far, but many protest organizers have their sights set on later in the month. Just yesterday, Occupy Chicago announced plans to "shut down" Boeing's headquarters in downtown Chicago on May 21, the last day of the NATO summit.

To get a better sense for what kind of protests we might expect during and leading up to the NATO summit on May 20 and 21, Steve Edwards talks with two protest organizers Thursday on Afternoon Shift. Occupy Chicago member Micah Philbrook and longtime protestor and spokesperson for the Coalition Against NATO/G8 Andy Thayer stop by to talk about what they expect later this month.

LISTEN! Andy Thayer of CANG8 and Micah Philbrook of Occupy Chicago talk with WBEZ about the NATO protests.

South Side church offers camping for NATO protest group

WGN Radio 720 By Manya A. Brachear and David Heinzmann Tribune reporters LINK

9:22 p.m. CDT, May 3, 2012

GLN permalink 5-3-2012

Map of where church offered camping for NATO protesters (Photo Illustration, Chicago Tribune / May 3, 2012)

An Episcopal church on the South Side will serve as a sanctuary for protesters coming to the NATO summit later this month.

Trinity Episcopal Church's small fenced yard at 26th Street and Michigan Avenue is to serve as a campsite for a group of about 40 demonstrators planning to ride bicycles from Madison, Wis., to Chicago for the NATO summit the weekend of May 19.

Andy Thayer, a lead organizer of the May 20 march against NATO, said the campsite will be public and, per the priest's request, a team will keep an eye out to make sure campers treat the church and property with respect.

On Thursday, Chicago Episcopal Bishop Jeffrey Lee told the Rev. Errol Narain that he should not be present when the camp site is on the property.

Narain, the church's rector, was placed on restrictions after a woman made what church officials believe to be credible allegations that he forced himself on her inside his family's home in 1994, then-Bishop William Persell told the Tribune in 2005.

The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, director of networking for the Chicago Episcopal Diocese, said that after a Tribune inquiry Thursday, Lee spoke to the accuser and told her Narain would not be present the same time as protesters.

Narain denied the allegations. No criminal charges or civil lawsuits were ever filed in the matter.

Narain is no longer under restrictions, Baskerville-Burrows said.

Contacted Thursday, Narain said the congregation was hosting the protesters, not him.

dheinzmann@tribune.com

mbrachear@tribune.com

Twitter: @TribSeeker

Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

NATO Security Perimeter Leaked

Michael Lipkin | April 25, 2012 11:00 am
WTTW Chicago Tonight - LINK

GLN permalink 4-25-2012

The NATO security perimeter around McCormick Place is disclosed. Does it protect protesters as well as NATO ministers? Carol Marin and her panel have the details on Chicago Tonight at 7:00 pm.

According to Coalition Against NATO/G8 organizer Andy Thayer and ACLU-Illinois legal director Harvey Grossman, the security perimeter around McCormick Place will be bounded by 21st Street, 25th Street, Indiana Avenue and Lake Michigan. East of Lake Shore Drive, the northern boundary will be McFetridge Drive.

Thayer and Grossman said they met with Secret Service officials Tuesday, who detailed the plan. According to Thayer, this zone would interfere with CAN/G8's planned protest, which would have proceeded from Grant Park to the steps of McCormick Place.

Secret Service officials dispute Thayer and Grossman's description of the NATO security zone.

"That's not our official plan. I don't want to comment on theirs. It's not ours," said Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie. "We still hold fast to our 2-4 week time frame. I know we're in that window, but it's still being developed."

Andy Thayer

According to Thayer, the northern boundary of the zone may be moved to Roosevelt Road when NATO delegates visit the Museum Campus. Lake Shore Drive between 31st Street and Roosevelt Road, and I-55 from McCormick Place to the Dan Ryan, may also be closed during part of the weekend summit, Thayer said.

Secret Service officials did not disclose what would be required to get inside the security perimeter, Thayer said. "We didn't probe adequately who will be allowed inside this zone."

The entire area will probably not be closed to all visitors, according to Tom Kasza, managing director of Hillard Heintze, a security consulting firm working with the city to prep Chicago businesses for the summit.

Kasza said he had not seen the zone Thayer and Grossman described and did not want to comment on it, but from his experience as a Secret Service agent, people who live inside the zone or want to visit a business, would be allowed inside. Notions that people would be kicked out of their homes for the weekend were overblown, he said.

"There will be a hard checkpoint where you need a credential," he said. "But there might be soft checkpoints, where you say 'I live down the block.' They're not going to eliminate people's right to go to their properties."

Activists protest on behalf of Manning

Special to the online edition of Windy City Times - LINK

2012-04-24

GLN permalink 4-24-2012

Roger Fraser. Photos for Windy City Times by Mike Kalas-Multikulti

Using the slogan "Nobel Laureates SHOULDN'T IMPRISON Nobel Nominees," anti-war and LGBT-rights activists protested what they called "the Obama administration's prosecution of alleged WikiLeaker Private Bradley Manning" outside the UIC Forum April 23.

Photos for Windy City Times by Mike Kalas-Multikulti

Photos for Windy City Times by Mike Kalas-Multikulti

Cathy Sugar of Occupy Chicago. Photos for Windy City Times by Mike Kalas-Multikulti

Eldon Grossman and Joe Scarry. Photos for Windy City Times by Mike Kalas-Multikulti

Manning, a nominee, is facing life in prison for allegedly providing WikiLeaks various U.S. State Department cables. The cables, according to a press release from the Gay Liberation Network ( GLN ) , "exposed the Bush and Obama administrations' dirty dealings with a host of dictators and human rights abusers around the world, and evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

GLN and Occupy Chicago sponsored the protest.

Protesters declare victory, but say: 'Our protests will go forward'

BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com March 5, 2012 6:40PM - LINK

GLN permalink 3-5-2012

Updated: March 6, 2012 2:14AM

The NATO summit is two months away and protesters are already declaring victory.

Activists cheered the White House's announcement Monday that Chicago will no longer host the G-8 summit in May. A NATO summit is still planned for Chicago on May 20-21.

"We're claiming victory," said Joe Iosbaker of the Coalition Against NATO/G-8, speaking for that group and Occupy Chicago. "They realized this would be an enormous embarrassment for the Obama administration."

But no one is calling off the protests.

"Our protest will go forward because NATO is the military arm of the G-8. NATO has bombed whole countries to smithereens and is currently engaged in the U.S.'s longest war in history," said Andy Thayer, a spokesman for the Coalition Against NATO/G-8.

"I'd say plenty of people have got tons to be upset with NATO about. If anything, people understood much more readily what NATO was about than G-8, which is more of a shadowy institution in people's minds."

Protesters originally received parade permits for the G-8 economic summit on May 19. Now they plan to apply for permits to march on the NATO military summit on May 20, he said.

"We're going to ask the city to adjust our permits to conform to the dates of the summit. If the opening day is the 20th, we will want permits on the 20th," Iosbaker said.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the ACLU will continue to focus on making sure demonstrators who show up for the NATO summit "have their freedom of expression respected."

The ACLU has sued the Cook County state's attorney's office for enforcing the state's eavesdropping law. On Friday, a Cook County judge declared the law unconstitutional, but an appeal is expected.

Protesters want to record audio and video of officers during the planned demonstrations in May. Currently, it's illegal to make audio recordings of officers under the eavesdropping law.

Experts say they doubt the court challenges to the law will be sorted out before the NATO summit.

LGBTs protest outside Holy Name Cathedral

by Kate Sosin, Windy City Times - LINK
2012-02-12

GLN permalink 2-12-2012

Photo for Windy City Times by Kate Sosin - More pictures here.

Despite a blistering cold morning, more than 20 LGBT activists protested outside of Holy Name Cathedral Feb. 12, a demonstration held in conjunction with National Freedom to Marry Day.

The protest, held every year outside the church around Valentine's Day, carried special weight this year after Catholic Cardinal Francis George compared the annual Pride Parade to a Ku Klux Klan gathering in December.

The pro-gay protesters were greeted by a counter-protest of approximately 10 people on the steps of the Cathedral, who came bearing signs that read "one man, one woman."

Protesters marched outside the church for more than an hour, chanting "equal rights for everybody" and "stop politicizing love."

"This is not an anti-Catholic demonstration," said Andy Thayer of Gay Liberation Network, one of the groups that organized the protest. "This is a demonstration against the Catholic leadership."

While some chanted that George was a "bigot" and "archbigot," others expressed discomfort with the intensity of that message or simply greeted parishioners exiting church rather than chanting.

Blane Roberts of Dignity/Chicago, which also sponsored the protest, wished parishioners a good morning and shook hands with those exiting the church.

"We believe that we're all God's children," Roberts said, adding that Dignity had come to recognize George's apology for his KKK remarks but also challenge him on gay issues.

Activists from Rainbow Sash Movement ( RSM ) also sponsored the event. Executive Director Joe Murray said that RSM had come to show support for marriage equality and also women's healthcare issues.

"We're witnessing the politicizing of theology," Murray said.

The protest fell on the same day that a statement from George opposing President Obama's birth-control insurance policy was read in Catholic churches throughout the city.

But largely, the demonstration focused on marriage equality, with activists noting that just days before, Illinois lawmakers had submitted a marriage quality bill to the General Assembly. Activists have acknowledged that passing such a bill this year might be a long shot, but many expressed hope that 2012 could be the year for marriage equality in Illinois.

"I look forward to marrying the love of my life in the next year," said Kia Walker, a native Chicagoan who wants to eventually marry in her home state. "I shouldn't have to cross the border."

Among the anti-gay protesters this year was Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. LaBarbera came bearing a sign with an arrow pointing to protesters that read "Gay K-K" on one side, and "The Real Haters" on the other side.

Protesters verbally sparred with counter-protesters, but a handful of police kept the two groups apart.

The demonstration drew fewer activists than in past years. Many believed the cold deterred a strong turnout. While the morning temperatures peaked at 25 degrees, the wind chill lingered at approximately 15 degrees.

The protest was supported by the 8th Day Center for Justice and Equality Illinois.

Adbusters Wants 50,000 G8/NATO Protesters in Chicago

By Lisa Balde and Phil Rogers | Thursday, Jan 26, 2012 | 5 NBC Chicago - LINK

GLN permalink 1-26-2012

The activist group that helped initiate Occupy Wall Street is rallying troops for a "big bang in Chicago" ahead of the G8/NATO summits this May.

In a statement issued Thursday, Adbusters called on 50,000 people to descend on the city to "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades" and join Occupy Chicago for a month leading up to the May 15-22 summits expected to draw 7,500 officials.

"With a bit of luck, we'll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen," the statement read.

"And this time around we're not going to put up with the kind of police repression that happened ... nor will we abide by any phony restrictions the City of Chicago may want to impose on our first amendment rights. We'll go there with our heads held high and assemble for a month-long people's summit ... we'll march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want ... the constitution will be our guide.

And when the G8 and NATO meet behind closed doors on May 19, we'll be ready with our demands: a Robin Hood Tax ... a ban on high frequency 'flash' trading ... a binding climate change accord ... a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals ... an all out initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East ... whatever we decide in our general assemblies and in our global internet brainstorm - we the people will set the agenda for the next few years and demand our leaders carry it out.

And if that doesn't happen? Adbusters promises flash mobs in the streets, the shutdowns of campuses and corporate headquarters, and making "the price of doing business as usual too much to bear."

"We want to get within sight and sound of the G8 and NATO conference," said protest organizer Andy Thayer. "If people can't hear you, what good is the first amendment?"

It almost goes without saying that whatever happens, it will test the mettle, and restraint, of protesters and police alike.

"Certain people want to be arrested," says Debra Kirby, the Chicago Police Department's Chief of International Relations. "When you violate the law, we will accommodate you. You will be arrested."

In a way, they are the two opposing bookends of the big event in Chicago on the third weekend in May. Thayer, the pro-forma face of the opposition, insists the predictions of violence are overblown. He said familiar scenes like those of the chaos at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, were the fault of police, not protesters.

"Norm Stamper, the former chief of police, wrote a whole book about how the city screwed up," said Thayer. "Stamper said the overwhelming amount of violence in that case was caused by the police department themselves."

Thayer insisted that suggestions of mayhem, and calls for downtown businesses to prepare for the worst are nothing but hype; if there is trouble in Chicago's streets, he said, the mayor and police will be responsible.

"We've got police blogs that are now bragging about how they're going to violate people's rights here," he said. "Do we hear Debra Kirby, or other officials saying this is absolutely wrong, we've got to stop this kind of conduct?"

In a week where still another multi-million dollar payout against police was approved, Thayer predicted the conference in May could get expensive.

"This city's going to be on the hook for millions of dollars, post NATO/G8, because it doesn't control its own officers," he said.

For her part, Kirby rejected those suggestions, and said she is going to great lengths to make certain that her officers know the boundaries of what kind of protests are allowed, and when those protests become scenarios where arrests are necessary.

"We've equipped our officers with a full understanding of the law and what is happening within the current landscape around First Amendment protest and activity," she said.

She added:

"We have enlisted heavily in training our officers, and allowing them to understand that sometimes they are there to have verbal abuse thrown at them."

Indeed, said said she sees hers as a twofold mission, facilitating protests and keeping the peace.

"Certain activities that are engaged with, by what I'm going to say are criminal activists, as opposed to protesters, have certain traits and similarities, and that's what we're training our officers to look for," she said. "For the officers that we anticipate will be on the front line, they are receiving over 40 hours of training."

It would appear that right now there is very little common ground. Kirby said she is determined to balance the rights of the protesters to get their message out, against the needs of the rest of Chicago and the protection of her officers. Thayer said he finds it ironic that some fear violence from his fellow demonstrators, considering others who have been invited to attend.

"We're talking Vladmir Putin of Russia, who's cracking heads in Moscow right now," he said. "You want to talk about violence? Why are these people coming to Chicago?"

This week, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce president warned stores along State Street and the Mag Mile to add additional security and allow employees to work from home.

City officials fought that sentiment during a press conference the next day, saying they plan to use the summit to showcase the city, saying "this is not 1968."

But there already have been rumblings about protester frustration with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's handling of First Amendment rights. Some anti-G8 protesters have even said they'll sue the city.

In response Emanuel backed off this month on proposed increased fines for those convicted of resisting arrest. But the City Council approved other measures last week despite loud shouts from protesters.

Adbusters on Thursday didn't appear to be backing down. In closing, the activist group called for protesters to "pack your tents, muster up your courage and prepare for a big bang in Chicago this Spring."

Emanuel has said Chicago is working with the Secret Service and Federal Security Planning teams to establish an official protest area where the City "will provide sound amplification equipment, portable toilets, and other resources for protesters who wish to use it."