[Debate] Fwd: [IHRO] Thousands Begin NATO Protest March Through Chicago

Sun May 20 22:09:09 BST 2012

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Worlds in movement…
Thousands Begin NATO Protest March Through Chicago

	   JS
fwd
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> From: Adsm <andym1997 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [IHRO] Re : Thousands Begin NATO Protest March Through Chicago
> Date: May 20, 2012 4:16:56 PM EDT
> To: IHRO <ihro at yahoogroups.com>, "sikh at yahoogroups.com" <sikh at yahoogroups.com>, "sikh_news at yahoogroups.com" <sikh_news at yahoogroups.com>, "info at voicesforfreedom.org" <info at voicesforfreedom.org>, "sikh_in_the_bay_area at yahoogroups.com" <sikh_in_the_bay_area at yahoogroups.com>, "SSNews at yahoogroups.com" <SSNews at yahoogroups.com>, COMMUNITY AWARENESS <public_awareness2005 at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: IHRO at yahoogroups.com
> 
> 
> Thousands Begin NATO Protest March Through Chicago
> 
> 
> By NOMAAN MERCHANT and RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press
> CHICAGO May 20, 2012 (AP)
> Thousands of demonstrators upset with the war in Afghanistan, climate change and the erosion of union rights marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday, taking their discontent on a wide range of issues to world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.
> The protest, one of the city's largest in years, was to end at the lakeside convention center hosting the two-day meeting, which is focused on the war in Afghanistan, European missile defense and other international security matters.
> Some participants called for the dissolution of NATO, the 63-year-old military alliance that is holding its 25th formal meeting in Chicago. It was the first time the gathering was held in a U.S. city other than Washington.
> "Basically NATO is used to keep the poor poor and the rich rich," said John Schraufnagel, who took a bus from Minneapolis to Chicago to take part in the march. Since the end of the Cold War, he said, the alliance has become "the enforcement arm of the ruling 1 percent, of the capitalist 1 percent."
> Peace activists joined with war veterans and people more focused on the economy for the protest. Marchers assembled at Grant Park with signs denouncing NATO, including ones that read: "War(equals)Debt" and "NATO, Go Home."
> 
> AP
> Anti-NATO protestors form a barricade in... View Full Caption
> Anti-NATO protestors form a barricade in front of mounted police officers during a march, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in Chicago. On Sunday, the start of the two-day NATO summit, thousands of protesters are expected to march to the McCormick Place convention center, where NATO delegates will be meeting. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Close
> But the crowd was mostly filled with protesters whose primary concerns have little to do with the discussions at the summit.
> The march lacks the size and single message that shaped the last major protest moment in Chicago, when nearly half a million people filled the city's downtown in 2006 to protest making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant.
> "I'll be walking all day and guiding all day, trying to keep tempers calm," said Sue Eleuterio of Highland, Ind., a longtime activist who plans to act as a "peace guide" by mediating problems between police and protesters. "Our goal, believe it or not, is to have a family friendly protest that is peaceful."
> Organizers of Sunday's rally had initially predicted tens of thousands of protesters this weekend. But that was when the G-8 summit of leading industrial nations was also scheduled to be in Chicago. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama moved the Group of 8 economic meeting to Camp David, the secluded retreat in rural Maryland.
> Chicago kept the NATO summit, which is not addressing the economy specifically. That left activists with the challenge of persuading groups as diverse as teachers, nurses and union laborers to show up for the Chicago protests even though the summit's main focus doesn't align with their most heart-felt issues.
> Sunday's protest followed several smaller demonstrations over the previous two days, including a march Saturday to the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff.
> Later that evening, hundreds of demonstrators zigzagged through downtown, some decrying terrorism-related charges leveled against three young men earlier in the day.
> Increasingly tense clashes Saturday night tested police who used bicycles to barricade off streets and horseback officers to coax them in different directions. Eighteen people were arrested.
> Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said officers would be ready with quick but targeted arrests of any demonstrators who turn violent Sunday.
>  
> http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protesters-prepare-larger-nato-demonstration-16388325
>  
> http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protesters-prepare-larger-nato-demonstration-16388325
> 
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______________________________
Jai Sen
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www.cacim.net / http://www.openword.in
Now based in Ottawa, Canada, and New Delhi, India
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