Tuesday, May 22, 2012

NATO, Militarization, (and Honduras): Protests in Chicago






Thousands of protesters organized protests and events in  Chicago from May 12 - 21st to protest the NATO summit being held in the city and attended by heads of state, including Barack Obama, and military and security officials. Events included a Peoples’ Summit, a Counter-Summit and numerous street protests linking NATO and militarization to the wars, economic disparity and austerity programs against working and poor people in the U.S. and around the world. The biggest protest was on May 20th where many thousands of protesters  marched through Chicago streets to the NATO summit site and more than 40 Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) members threw their medals away and renounced the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced U.S. military aggression around the world and conditions inside the U.S. for the 99%. As the closing rally was ending the protest was attacked by the police with more than 40 people arrested and numerous injuries from beatings by police. 
La Voz de los de Abajo presented a workshop at the Peoples’ Summit on US militarization in Honduras during and since the coup and our contingent in the May 20th march demanded an end to US military funding and activity in Honduras. The situation in Honduras becomes more urgent every day with violence against activists, journalists, campesinos and members of the LBGT community increasing (see the news section of this blog for recent events).  The U.S. government's role in Honduras has been and continues to be aimed at increasing militarization and support for the impunity and violence against the Honduran people. 

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