via ChicagoSpring.org
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 NATOG8, 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.
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!
The Coalition Against NATO/G8 is a broad formation that includes labor unions, community groups, anti-war and international solidarity groups and faith based activists. From the CANG8 website:
- Protest the NATO/G8 Summit on Saturday, May 19th, 2012!
- Noon rally at Daley Plaza, then march to McCormick Place!
- Join in a legal, permitted, family-friendly march and rally that will end within sight and sound of the summit at McCormick Place!
At the invitation of the White House, 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 are meeting in Chicago, May 19-21, 2012. To that we say…
- 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:
http://cang8.wordpress.com
May 12-13: Peoples Summit
May 14: Money for Education not War
May 15: Immigration: No Human is Illegal
May 16: Foreclosure: Housing is a Right: No Evictions, No Foreclosures!
May 17: Environment: Planet over Profits!
May 18: Austerity/NNU March for the Robin Hood Tax
May 19: Health Care
May 21: Democracy - Shut Down Boeing!
For full schedule, see below. For more:
NATOprotest.org |
ChicagoSpring.org |
OccupyChi.org
May 12-13
People's Summit
Occupy Chicago is working with other occupations and various activist groups to develop a coalition-built People’s Summit for the weekend of May 12th and 13th, as a direct response to the NATO summit the subsequent weekend, May 19th-21st. JOIN US!
For more,
see here.
May 14
Money for Education not War
Rally and Art Celebration
When and Where: 3pm at Dyett High School (555 East 51st Street) Chicago, IL
Defend Dyett High School! For over a year students have been deprived of an arts program. Now CPS wants to close the school. Stop CPS from starving our schools: All student deserve Art, world language and support staff. According to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cawley: "If we think there’s a chance that a building is going to be a school, we’re not going to invest in that building.”
RSVP on Facebook
May 15
Immigration: No Human is Illegal
Vigil for Immigrant Rights and Family Unity
When and Where: 11am at Immigration Court Building 525 W. Van Buren
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.
RSVP on Facebook
May 16
Foreclosure: Housing is a Right: No Evictions, No Foreclosures!
Action to Demand a One-year Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions!
When and Where: 10am: Rally at Jackson and LaSalle
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!
RSVP on Facebook
May 17
Environment: Planet over Profits!
Occupy Chicago's Day of Environmental Action: Planet over Profits and War!
When and Where: 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)
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!
RSVP on Facebook
May 18
Austerity/NNU March for the Robin Hood Tax
The People's G-8: National Nurses United March & Rally
When and Where: 12 p.m. Noon at Daley Plaza
We must send 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!
Join National Nurses United as we protest the global one percent and demand a tax on Wall Street.
The rally will feature Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.
11 a.m. March - Starts at Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers
12 p.m. Noon Rally - Daley Plaza
Promo Video
May 19
Health Care
YOU'LL NEVER GUESS When and Where: BIG NEWS COMING SOON
Occupy Chicago Day of Action
May 21
Democracy
Boeing: SHUT IT DOWN
When and Where: TBA
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.
Join us in the streets in Chicago on the last day of the NATO summit to SHUT DOWN this war machine!
RSVP on Facebook
by OccupyWallSt
#SaveOurClinic #MHMChicago #OccupyChi
OCCUPY CLINICS – HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE!
A call from Mental Health Movement to Occupy Wall Street and all others coming to Chicago to protest NATO and the war and austerity agenda of the 1%
To all our family from the global 99%, To all those who believe that healthcare is a human right, To all those coming to protest NATO and its wars for profit around the globe, To all those who have struggled with mental illness personally or with loved ones, To all those who have been denied healthcare, To all those who have waited all day in emergency rooms, To all those public servants facing layoffs or cuts to salary and pension, To all those who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, To all those who believe that another world is possible beyond this madness.
The Mental Health Movement calls on all protesters coming to Chicago to join us in the fight for healthcare not warfare. As NATO war-makers come to this city to plan wars that leave people traumatized and cost trillions of dollars, clinics that help people heal from trauma and deal with mental illness are being shuttered for lack of $2.3 million dollars. As our battle to save our clinics has intensified, Occupy Chicago and other Occupy groups around the city have become powerful allies. Now we ask members of Occupy Wall Street, other Occupy groups and all other sectors of the social movements coming to Chicago to protest NATO to join us in occupying clinics by setting up a 24/7 presence outside of recently closed mental health clinics. We will dramatize the contradictions of a system that finds billions to wage NATO’s endless wars for profit but leaves its most vulnerable without basic healthcare.
For 26 days, we have maintained an around-the-clock presence at the Woodlawn Clinic at 6337 S. Woodlawn, one of six mental health clinics recently closed by Mayor 1% Emanuel. On April 12th 23 people – most of us patients from clinics facing closure - barricaded ourselves inside of the Woodlawn Clinic, only to be evicted and arrested by the SWAT team and Chicago Police and sent to jail, the future home for the mentally ill who cannot find treatment. Upon release, we returned to the clinic and have been camped out 24/7 ever since. Through this struggle we have seen 41 people arrested but have reached thousands of Chicago residents with our stories. We will not be held back. The Huffington Post has called the struggle to save Chicago’s mental health clinics “the Birmingham and Stonewall of the mental health movement.” We consider this fight ground zero in the struggle for a world that sees healthcare as a right and invests in healing and human rights, not warfare and corporate subsidies.
Today, we are expanding our campaign to the Northwest Mental Health Clinic in Logan Square at 2354 N. Milwaukee. This clinic has served the predominately Latino community of Logan Square for 30 years. This is the first site of our expanded resistance to clinic closure. We know that we can count on the people mobilizing for the NATO demonstrations to respond to our call with the tactic of non-violence and in a way that continues to lift up the voices of those of us whose lives hang in the balance of this struggle. We are clear that our enemy is the system that deprives us of healthcare and other basic human rights, the politicians that administer that system, and the 1% who profit from it, not the police sent in to do Mayor 1%’s dirty work. Just as Occupy Chicago has stood with us, taken arrests with us, and been a true example of dignity and solidarity, we know that you too will see that our causes are one and the same and that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by connecting local and global struggles.
Mayor 1% claims that closing clinics is a way to expand mental health services by throwing a few crumbs to private clinics. He has ignored our cries about the importance of the trust built through years with our therapists. He has ignored our cries about the importance of having safe spaces like these clinics in our communities. He has ignored our cries about his plan’s complete elimination of all black male therapists. He has ignored our cries about his plan’s 50% reduction in the number of Spanish-speaking therapists. He has ignored our cries about the 18 people who have already been hospitalized due to stress surrounding the clinic closures and loss of therapists. He has ignored our cries about the difficulty of finding care in the private sector given prohibitive co-pays, Medicaid cuts, and a steady decline in mental health funding for all providers. He has ignored our cries that a small fraction of the hundreds of millions in tax breaks he got for his campaign donors at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange could save our clinics. He has ignored our cries that Cook County Jail is the largest provider of mental health care in the state of Illinois. He has ignored our cries that closing clinics when the need for mental health services is growing, destabilizes communities and makes the wars on Chicago’s streets even worse. He only spoke personally about the clinic closures after representatives of the Nobel Summit visited our clinic occupation and denounced his plans. But he spoke of bus passes and his words were just another reminder that he has ignored our cries.
But we know that one man cannot hold back the power of a people’s movement. We know that with our struggle we create space to talk about the trauma and mental illness that is too often buried under mountains of silence and pain. We know when Occupy Wall Street and others stand with us it will help amplify our cry around the world: HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE!
In solidarity,
Mental Health Movement
LOGISTICS FOR JOINING US IN THE FIGHT FOR HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE: Show up at 2354 N. Milwaukee or 6337 S. Woodlawn when you get to town, whenever you come we will be there. Email us at MentalHealthMovement@gmail.com or call (773) 340-9598 if you need help with directions.
by OccupyWallSt
As hundreds of thousands of people around the world prepare to
take to the streets this weekend as part of a global call for change, the International ‘Global Spring’ Assembly – an international and inter-movement assembly formed of supporters of Occupy, Take the Square and Latin American, African, Asian and Middle Eastern social movements – has released its first statement describing concrete suggestions for a ‘global change’.
The statement – the
Global May Manifesto – calls for systemic change in the global economy: the radical democratisation of international institutions like the IMF, BIS and UN; the replacement of the G8/20 with a democratic UN assembly; a system of global taxation on financial transactions; and for the abolition of tax havens. It does not represent the position of any local or city assembly; rather it is offered for their consideration.
Endorsed by consensus on 4 May 2012 by the International Assembly, this statement has been in development since January 2012. It was a process that has seen thousands of people from six continents and hundreds of cities participating in the discussion and planning for the international days of protests this month – particularly focusing on the 1, 12, 15 and 18 May. These International Assembly meetings have been convened in bi-weekly assemblies, over an online VoIP platform (called Mumble, which enables mass conference calls and give the assembly its formal name – the International General Assembly on Mumble).
The process for developing this global manifesto – which is a work in progress – started by collecting statements from the different local and city assemblies, then merging these into a common statement. Individuals were then invited to make new proposals through a public website and a number of mailing lists that are used for international inter-movement communication.
Alvaro Rodriguez, 31, of the Indignados movement in Spain, who participated in the process of writing the statement, said: “This is the beginning of a new global process of bringing the opinions of many people around the world together. It represents the beginnings of a form of global democracy in its infancy which is direct and participatory – of the people, by the people and for the people. While the statement does not represent the position of local and city assemblies, the next step is to present it to assemblies around the world for consideration, discussion and revisions, as part of a dialogue of the ‘Global Spring’ movements taking place across six continents.”
Next steps for international coordinationIndividuals around the world are invited to participate in this process of further developing this global manifesto through their local and city assemblies, through the
facebook group and through the
website.
Global May Manifesto
The statement below does not speak, or claim to speak, on behalf of everyone in the global spring/Occupy/Take the Square movements. This is an attempt by some inside the movements to reconcile statements written and endorsed in the different assemblies around the world. The process of writing the statement was consensus based, open to all, and regularly announced on our international communications platforms, that are also open to all (e.g. the ‘squares’ mailing list, the weekly global roundtables and the ‘international’ facebook group). It was a long and difficult process, full of compromises. This statement is offered to peoples’ assemblies around the world for discussions, revisions and endorsements.
There will be a process of a global dialogue, and this statement is part of it, a work-in-progress. We do not make demands from governments, corporations or parliament members, which some of us see as illegitimate, unaccountable or corrupt. We speak to the people of the world, both inside and outside our movements. We want another world, and such a world is possible:
[1.] The economy must be put to the service of people’s welfare, and to support and serve the environment, not private profit. We want a system where labour is appreciated by its social utility, not its financial or commercial profit. Therefore, we demand:
- Free and universal access to health, education from primary school through higher education and housing for all human beings, through appropriate policies to get this. We reject outright the privatization of public services management, and the use of these essential services for private profit.
- Full respect for children’s rights, including free child care for everyone.
- Retirement pensions so we may have dignity at all ages. Mandatory universal sick leave and holiday pay.
- Every human being should have access to an adequate income for their livelihood, so we ask for work or, alternatively, universal basic income guarantee.
- Corporations should be held accountable for their actions. For example, corporate subsidies and tax cuts should be done away with if a company outsources jobs to decrease salaries, harms the environment or the rights of workers.
- Apart from bread, we want roses. Everyone has the right to enjoy culture, participate in a creative and enriching leisure in service of the progress of humankind. Therefore, we demand the progressive reduction of working hours, without reducing income.
- Food sovereignty through sustainable farming should be promoted as an instrument of food security for the benefit of all. This should include an indefinite moratorium on the production and marketing of GMOs and immediate reduction of agrochemical use.
- We demand policies that function under the understanding that our changing patterns of life should either be organic/ecological or else not occur. These policies should be based on a simple rule: one should not spoil the balance of ecosystems for profit. Violations of this policy should be prosecuted around the world as an environmental crime, with severe sanctions for convicted.
- Policies to promote the change from fossil fuels to renewable energy, through massive investment which should help to change the production model.
- We demand the creation of international environmental standards, mandatory for countries, companies, corporations, and individuals. Ecocide (willful damage to the environment, ecosystems, biodiversity) should be internationally recognised as a crime of the greatest magnitude.
[2.] To achieve these objectives, we believe that the economy should be run democratically at all levels, from local to global. People must get democratic control over financial institutions, transnational corporations and their lobbies. To this end, we demand:
- Control and regulation of financial speculation by abolishing tax havens, and establishing a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). As long as they exist, the IMF, World Bank and the Basel Committee on Banking Regulation must be radically democratised. Their duty from now on should be fostering economic development based on democratic decision making. Rich governments cannot have more votes because they are rich. International institutions must be controlled on the principle that each human is equal to all other humans – African, Argentinean or American; Greek or German.
- As long as they exist, radical reform and democratisation of the global trading system and the World Trade Organization must take place. Commercialization of life and resources, as well as wage and trade dumping between countries must stop.
- We want democratic control of the global commons, defined as the natural resources and economic institutions essential for proper economic management. These commons are: water, energy, air, telecommunications and a fair and stable economic system. In all these cases, decisions must be accountable to citizens and ensure their interests, not the interests of a small minority or financial elite.
- As long as social inequalities exist, taxation at all levels should maintain the principle of solidarity. Those who have more should contribute to maintain services for collective welfare. Maximum income should be limited, and minimum income set to reduce the outrageous social divisions in our societies and their social political and economic effects.
- No more money to rescue banks. As long as debt exists, following the examples of Ecuador and Iceland, we demand a social audit of the debts owed by countries. Illegitimate debt owed to financial institutions should not be paid.
- An absolute end to fiscal austerity policies that benefit only a minority, and cause great suffering to the majority.
- As long as banks exist, separation of commercial and financial banks, avoiding banks “too big to fail”.
- End of the legal personhood of corporations. Companies cannot be elevated to the same level of rights as people. The public’s right to protect workers, citizens and the environment should prevail over protection of private property or investment.
[3.] We believe that political systems must be fully democratic. We therefore demand full democratization of international institutions, and the elimination of the veto power of a few governments. We want a political system which really represents the variety and diversity of our societies:
- All decisions affecting all mankind should be taken in democratic forums like a participatory and direct UN Parliamentary Assembly or a UN people’s assembly, not rich clubs such as G20 or G8.
- At all levels we ask for the development of a democracy that is as participatory as possible, including non representative direct democracy.
- As long as they are practiced, electoral systems should be as fair and representative as possible, avoiding biases that distort the principle of proportionality.
- We call for the democratization of access to and management of media (MSM). These should serve to educate the public, as opposed to the creation of an artificial consensus about unjust policies.
- We ask for democracy in companies and corporations. Workers, regardless of wage level or gender, should have real decision-making power in the companies and corporations they work in. We want to promote cooperative companies and corporations, as real democratic economic institutions.
- Zero tolerance of corruption in economic policy. We must stop the excessive influence of big business in politics, which is today a major threat to true democracy.
- We demand complete freedom of expression, assembly and demonstration, as well as the cessation of attempts to censor the Internet.
- We demand respect for privacy rights on and off the internet. Companies and the government should not engage in data mining.
- We believe that military spending is politically counterproductive to a society’s advance, so we demand its reduction to a minimum.
- Ethnic, cultural and sexual minorities should have their civil, cultural, political and economic rights fully recognized.
- Some of us believe a new Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fit for the 21st century, written in a participatory, direct and democratic way, needs to be written. As long as the current Declaration of Human Rights defines our rights, it must be enforced in relation to all – in both rich and poor countries. Implementing institutions that force compliance and penalize violators need to be established, such as a Global Court to prosecute social, economic and environmental crimes perpetrated by governments, corporations and individuals. At all levels – local, national, regional and global – new constitutions for political institutions need to be considered, like in Iceland or in some Latin American countries. Justice and law must work for all, otherwise justice is not justice, and law is not law.
This is a worldwide Global Spring. We will be there in May 2012; we will fight until we win. We will not stop being people. We are not numbers. We are free women and men.
For a Global Spring!
For global democracy and social justice!
Take to the streets on May 2012!
