NATO Summit
On May 19, Mayor 1% Emanuel will bring to Chicago military and civilian representatives of the 28-nation US-commanded and largely US-financed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and heads of state and finance ministers of the G-8 world economic powers.
They meet on behalf of the 1% of the world, the rich and the powerful, the bankers and generals. Their agenda is to continue to impose austerity, or poverty, by cutting social spending for workers and the poor to maintain profitability for the rich and to launch more wars to stop the rise of the poor nations of the Third World.
The people of this fine city do not want these summits. The mayor has his own agenda. In anticipation of widespread opposition to the war & poverty agenda of the NATO, Mayor Emanuel passed a set of first-amendment crushing ordinances, known as "Sit Down Shut Up", to stifle the exercise of free speech and assembly during the summits. The mayor single-handedly gave himself the abililty to issue no-bid security contracts and deputize out-of-town law enforcement while imposing harsh restrictions on parades, marches and demonstrations.
See a mosaic of photos from the protests.
But we will not be silenced. We will stand up to this corrupt system and say enough! Join Occupy Chicago, Coalition Against NATO/G8 (CANG8), the Midwest Antiwar Mobilization and many more as we gather in Chicago in May!
- No to War and Austerity!
- Money out of politics! Represent for the people, not the money!
- No to NATO/G-8 Warmakers!
- Jobs, Healthcare, Education, Pensions, Housing & the Environment, Not War!
Download the "Chicago Principles"
For parade maps and other information, please visit:
5/15 - Immigration: No Human is Illegal
When and Where: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 11am at Immigration Court Building 525 W. Van Buren
What: Vigil for Immigrant Rights and Family Unity
We denounce the unjust and inhumane decisions that immigration judges are making towards the lives of our immigrant communities. They have failed to follow prosecutorial discretion and consequently are destroying thousands of families every single day.
Denunciamos las injustas e inhumanas que los jueces de inmigración hacen en contra de nuestras familias inmigrantes.
Join us for a morning vigil in front of the immigration court building.
Acompáñenos a una vigilia enfrente de las cortes de inmigración.
5/16 - Foreclosure : Housing is a Right: No Evictions, No Foreclosures!
When and Where: Wednesday, May 16 at 10am: Rally at Jackson and LaSalle
What: Action to Demand a One-year Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions!
Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction and Occupy Chicago demand that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart STOP all profit-oriented evictions and foreclosures from May 16, 2012 to May 16, 2013.
We are moved to this action because of the intolerable losses suffered by our communities, friends, and families that we have witnessed: losses to businesses, to community life, and to family life; disruptions to the educational and social life of our children; and heightened neighborhood crime and insecurity.
Because the “housing crisis” was generated by banks flagrantly violating all standards of responsible banking, this national disaster is more accurately called a “banking crisis,” and through this moratorium, we are requesting that you stand with us to protect our ravaged communities from the many predations we have suffered.
This moratorium will place the human right to housing above the "right" of banks to make a profit off of empty homes. If Sheriff Dart does not grant the moratorium, the People will enforce one themselves!
5/17 - Environment: Planet over Profits!
When and Where: Thursday, May 17, the Bike Mass will be gathering at Jackson and LaSalle at 2pm. The action will take place at 3pm at the Canadian Consulate (180 N. Stetson Ave)
What: Occupy Chicago's Day of Environmental Action: Planet over Profits and War!
On May 17th, join Occupy Chicago’s Day of Environment action! Stand with us to fight for the Planet over Profit and War! We will GET DIRTY and DIE at the Canadian Consulate to symbolize how the dirty oil extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands is sending life on this planet to an early grave, fueling G8/NATO’s war machines and the global climate crises.
The extraction of heavy and thick crude oil from the tar sands deposits in northern Alberta, Canada - the site of the largest industrial project on the planet - requires the complete destruction of boreal forest the size of England. This ecosystem is an essential storehouse of carbon, and its preservation is critical in protecting our planet from climate change, especially since annual tar sands emissions are expected to quadruple from 27 to 126 million tonnes by 2015. Visible from space, the toxic ponds along the Athabasca River seep contaminants into groundwater and the surrounding soil. This has already begun to threaten the lives of local indigenous communities. "The river used to be blue. Now it's brown. Nobody can fish or drink from it. The air is bad. This has all happened so fast," said Elsie Fabian, an elder in a First Nation community along the Athabasca River.
Canada is also a member nation of both the G8 and NATO. The anti-planet, for-profit, oil-driven policy of the Tar Sands reflects the larger imperial goals of these bankrupt, undemocratic and imperialistic groups that won’t stop their capitalist exploitation of the environment until our planet - and our future - is in ruins like the Althabasca river. On May 17th, let’s MAKE them stop. Planet over Profit and War! GET DIRTY!
5/18 - Austerity/NNU March for the Robin Hood Tax
We sent a message to our world leaders: No more cuts to our communities. Make Wall Street and the banks pay for global recovery.
No Cuts!
No Austerity!
Tax on Wall Street!
National Nurses United protested the global one percent and demanded a tax on Wall Street.
The rally featured Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.
5/19 - Health Care Not Warfare
When and Where: Saturday, May 19 at 10am at Irving Park Brown Line Stop, Horner Park (Irving and California) 12pm, then march to Rahm's house
What: March On Rham's House
The Mental Health Movement called on all NATO protesters to occupy the public clinics being closed by Mayor 1% Emanuel. On May 19, NATO demonstrators took the fight to #SaveOurClinics to the Mayor's doorstep.
5/21 - Democracy
When and Where: TBA
What: Boeing: SHUT IT DOWN
Boeing has received over $12,231,152,299 from the US Department of Defense to produce war machines, which are used to terrorize civilians and communities the world over. These tools of destruction are produced using prison labor, allowing Boeing to make weaponized products for pennies on the dollar. When using non-prison labor Boeing goes out of it's way to bust unions, even moving factories across the country to stifle worker's rights. Boeing production facilities are continually found to be massive polluters, leading to the company being listed as one of the top 50 corporate criminals responsible for environmental destruction.
In 2001, Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago in a plan that stole over $60 million and 20 years worth of free rent from Illinois taxpayers. In 2010 Boeing made over $4.5 billion, yet in the past three years they have managed to avoid paying taxes. In 2010 they received a federal tax subsidy of $1.56 billion. This cost the State of Illinois $65 million in revenue. This money could have been used to serve an additional 16,000 Medicaid clients, provide Medicare Part B coverage to 13,000 seniors, provide 36 million meals to the hungry, or create 1,625 living wage jobs for the unemployed. Instead this money was given to Boeing in the form of corporate welfare by our elected officials.
Boeing is a war criminal and plays a huge role in NATO's war machine. Occupy Chicago will SHUT IT DOWN on May 21, 2012. We've had enough of their war planes, pollution, prison labor, union busting, border wall building, extraordinary rendition plane chartering, drone building, non-tax-paying exploitation of the people of Chicago and the people of the world. This May Chicagoans along with concerned citizens from all over the world will tell Boeing we've had enough.
Boeing protests took place in Chicago on the last day of the NATO summit to SHUT DOWN this war machine!