{"id":358,"date":"2012-02-25T00:37:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T05:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=358"},"modified":"2021-02-21T13:51:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T18:51:27","slug":"american-spring-coming-occupy-g8-nato-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/25\/american-spring-coming-occupy-g8-nato-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"American Spring Coming: Occupy G8 and NATO in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the G8 and NATO summits coming to Chicago in the middle of May, the occupy movement is poised to jump start the American Spring.\u00a0 The Occupy Wall Street movement has already called for a general strike on May Day, May 1.\u00a0 This is a call for No Work, No School, No Housework, No Shopping, No Banking,\u00a0 TAKE THE STREETS!\u00a0 My own local occupy, Occupy Toledo<\/a>, is planning to retake a public place with a long-term occupation on May Day.\u00a0 With continued dissatisfaction with economic conditions, better weather on the horizon, and the convergence of large-scale occupations, this May could very well be the American spring.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Matt Reichel <\/em>of AlterNet<\/a> writes of\u00a0 4 Signs the American Spring May Be Coming to Chicago:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Against the backdrop of a global uprising that is simmering in dozens of countries and thousands of cities and towns, the G8 and NATO will hold a rare simultaneous summit in Chicago this May. The world\u2019s military and political elites, heads of state, 7,500 officials from 80 nations, and more than 2,500 journalists will be there.<\/em>
\nAnd so will we.<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

…The political establishment in Chicago has been particularly brash in its treatment of the movement. Occupy Chicago is one of the few to never succeed in maintaining an encampment, as two attempts were met with over 300 arrests in the city\u2019s famed Grant Park last fall. While clearly intended to deflate the movement\u2019s momentum ahead of the coming summits in May, this political repression only served to place the plight of Occupy in the limelight.<\/em>Not content with cracking down on the Occupy camps, the mayor then escalated his assault by introducing a whole new set of rules for protests. Just prior to the holiday recess in December, he proposed changes to the two city ordinances dealing with demonstrations and parades, including increased fines for offenses to draconian new filing requirements for parade organizers.<\/em><\/p>\n

…The American Spring will not materialize out of resentment from just a few isolated incidents of political repression. Like its Arab-world counterpart, it will be the product of a population that has reached its breaking point after years of systemic abuse. The fact is that the assault on basic civil liberties in this country has been so widespread that focusing on a handful of examples risks trivializing the issue. From the Patriot Act and FISA to NDAA to the president\u2019s newfound right to assassinate, the federal government has acted with marked impunity from Bush to Obama. Meanwhile, the state and local level governments maintain the bulk of the world\u2019s largest system of incarceration, still rooted in age-old prejudices and sociological biases. In many ways, Occupy is reflective of an awakening generation: the babies of the baby-boomers who no longer buy the petty propaganda spoon-fed in school about this nation being a \u201cbeacon of peace.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

…Another important factor informing a possible American Spring is the promulgation of hysteria by the political, economic and media elite. As with the enactment of repressive policies, hysteria is designed to drive fear into the masses in order to dissuade them from protest. It is also an indication of a ruling elite that has become increasingly desperate and a political class that is rapidly losing its moral authority. As people begin to recognize this, they may be less inclined to trust the vilification of protesters as \u201cdestructive and dangerous anarchists,\u201d and may be more likely to identify with them.<\/em><\/p>\n

…Another compelling sign of a coming American Spring is the inspiring level of political organization present in Chicago. On the one hand, there is the \u201cCoalition Against the NATO G8 War and Poverty Agenda\u201d (CANG8), which has been planning the massive demonstration on May 19th since the summits were announced. They also organized much of the resistance to the city\u2019s new anti-protester ordinance, including a picket at City Hall on the day of the vote. In that latter effort, they were joined by dozens of supporters of Occupy Chicago in what culminated a strong joint effort among protest groups throughout the city. Organizer Andy Thayer told me: \u201cThe battle over the ordinance really brought together these various movements. I think the city was really taken aback by the response.\u201d He further said that he was expecting to see the same few regular faces at the work-time picket at City Hall, only to find that Occupy had substantially energized their efforts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

…While the power elite make their destructive plans inside, the American people will be constructing a better world on the outside.<\/em>“<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I hope that you will join me and the thousands and thousands of people from across the United States and from around the planet that will be giving the peoples’ message about making our world a better place for all of us to live.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the G8 and NATO summits coming to Chicago in the middle of May, the occupy movement is poised to jump start the American Spring.\u00a0 The Occupy Wall Street movement has already called for a general strike on May Day, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174,57,38,15],"tags":[434,577,108,462,136,148,388,181,343,109,187,155,137,71,48,23,698,17,112,110,491,530,270,298,46,350,496,600,186,529,19,464,4,203,380],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-peace","category-political-action","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-authority","tag-economic","tag-elite","tag-fear","tag-g8","tag-government","tag-hope","tag-journalists","tag-may-day","tag-media","tag-military","tag-moral","tag-nato","tag-obama","tag-occupy-toledo","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-patriot","tag-political","tag-poverty","tag-power","tag-present","tag-president","tag-propaganda","tag-protesters","tag-protests","tag-resentment","tag-resistance","tag-rules","tag-state","tag-time","tag-toledo","tag-trust","tag-wall-street","tag-war","tag-work"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Spring Coming: Occupy G8 and NATO in Chicago | News, Peace, Political Action, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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