Tomás Global: Food Security at the G8
Chicago may no longer be hosting the G8 Summit, but the City remains a part of the discussion. With the G8 Agricultural Development Working Group Proposal: U.S. Leadership in Global Agricultural Development and Food Security, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is intent on promoting global…
Anti-war protesters again denied permit for NATO summit march
A judge on Thursday rejected a request from anti-war protesters to demonstrate during the NATO summit of world leaders in May, but organizers said they would protest anyway and hope to draw 10,000 people or more opposed to war inAfghanistan.
“I can say definitively we are marching on May 20. We will hold a peaceful protest,” leader Andy Thayer said. He said organizers would get together to decide whether to appeal to a higher court.
Anti-war protesters want to march on May 20 and frustrated by the city’s refusal to allow a march that day. Activists have warned there could be a confrontation such as that during the anti-Vietnam War protests at the Democratic convention in 1968, which has marred Chicago’s image ever since.
The judge’s ruling on Thursday agreed with the city of Chicago, which had earlier denied the permit after a hearing at which city officials said the march would clog traffic and over-tax police resources.
The city had granted protesters a permit to hold a virtually identical rally and march on the day before, May 19, which coincided with a scheduled G8 summit prior to the NATO meeting. But the G8 summit was shifted to Camp David, near Washington, and Chicago protesters asked to move their demonstration a day later.
“Common sense tells you the city said it had enough resources to approve our application for May 19, when it had two summits. Now they say they don’t have enough personnel. It totally defies logic,” Thayer said.
A city spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
During the hearing, city officials said the summit of the NATO military alliance, which will include a host of world leaders, would bring more officials than the G8 summit, and more traffic.
They offered march organizers to move the planned demonstration from downtown Chicago to Grant Park, a lakefront expanse where President Barack Obama held his victory rally in 2008.
Protest organizers rejected the alternative, saying it would reduce their visibility to residents and the NATO leaders.
Part of the security costs for the summit will be defrayed by private donors. The city’s host committee for the NATO summit announced it had raised $55 million, including $36 million from corporations and other private donors and $19 million in U.S. government grants.
(Cover Photo) International Socialist Review - ISSUE 81 January-February 2012 »
“NATO and G8: Enforcers for the global 1%”
plus Hadas Thier on capitalism in the Gulf Arab states; Leela Yellesetty on the unfinished revolution in gender roles; Roger Annis on Haiti: from independence to occupation; Phil Gasper on Alex Callinicos’ The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx; Julien Ball on the Sacco and Vanzetti trial; Khury Petersen-Smith on twenty-first century colonialism in the Pacific; Rory Fanning on the war on terror; Ron Jacobs on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers; and Dan Sharber on a Marxist view of the environmental crisis
Chicago Police are already setting up wooden barricades at McCormick Place in preparation for the NATO protests.
KnowTooMuch: #NoNATO: Breaking The Cycle And Building A Better World
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
After assuming command of NATO in 1950, then General Eisenhower said “If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.” The Cold War…
After weeks of blaming Obama for rising gas prices, Fox News now asks if the lowering prices may be a bad thing by linking a drop in gas prices to a weak economy and, again, blaming Obama.
Logic is hard.
(via oldenough2burmom)
- Republicans: Let's pass a constitutional amendment to keep gays from marrying the people they love
- Republicans: And let's make it as hard as possible for women (and other people who can get pregnant) to get abortions
- Republicans: And let's make it harder for the poor, the elderly and minorities to vote
- Republicans: And let's make it so that the police can stop brown people randomly to ask for their papers
- Republicans: Because we believe in freedom



