Protests and Rallies Planned for Week of Action Against NATO

Photo by Steve Rhodes via flickr

Gearing up for the NATO summit, organizers of the only permitted march to the summit site at McCormick Place announced their plans for the event today.

Occupy Chicago and the Coalition Against NATO/G8 (CANG8) have been negotiating with the city of Chicago for months to organize the march that will begin in Chicago’s Grant Park and end at McCormick Place on Sunday, March 20.

“After eleven months, we’ve come to the event we’ve been preparing for,” said Pat Hunt, a leading organizer for CANG8 in a press statement.  “NATO is not a defense organization:  it’s an alliance of nations engaged in warfare. We are a coalition opposed to war, and so we will march on Sunday to where the NATO war makers are holding their summit.”

Other Chicago-based organizations have planned events for local, national and international journalists arriving into the city to cover the summit.

The Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of local groups that works on policy change, has planned “Chicago 99% Tours” for May 17 and 18 to show journalists the working class neighborhoods in the city. These tours, according to the group, will help them report on the connections between Chicago struggles and their cities.

Chicago artists have also shown their solidarity to the many demonstrations taking place throughout the week. Members of Occupy Chicago’s Arts and Recreation Committee and Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective, installed a public art sculpture at the site of Trinity Episcopal Church on Monday. Named the “Wishing Tree for the 99%,” it welcomes all participants to write their wishes for the future on paper leaves and attach them to the sculpture’s many branches.

Other protests and rallies are scheduled throughout the week including a shut down of the Boeing headquarters and a rally for affordable housing. For a full list of planned events visit http://chicagostories.org/calendar/