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News from the People's Summit in Chicago this past weekend...<br>
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-------- Original Message --------
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject: </th>
<td>[ufpj-activist] Kerl: Report on the People's Summit
against NATO/G8</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Tue, 15 May 2012 07:51:28 -0500</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Ashley Smith <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ashley05401@yahoo.com"><ashley05401@yahoo.com></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:v-mgj@lists.riseup.net"><v-mgj@lists.riseup.net></a>, peace list vtjp
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vtjp@yahoogroups.com"><vtjp@yahoogroups.com></a>, ufpj-activist
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org"><ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org></a>, massaction-boston
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:massaction-boston@googlegroups.com"><massaction-boston@googlegroups.com></a>,
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vtsf@lists.riseup.net"><vtsf@lists.riseup.net></a>, UFPJ Discussion List
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ufpj-disc@lists.mayfirst.org"><ufpj-disc@lists.mayfirst.org></a>,
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ufpj-news@yahoogroups.com"><ufpj-news@yahoogroups.com></a></td>
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<h1 class="headline" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;
margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.3em;
margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1; font-weight: normal;
font-size: 29px; ">A summit to represent us</h1>
<div class="introduction" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px;
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<div style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0.5em;
margin-bottom: 0.9em; "><span class="sw_author"
style="font-weight: bold; ">Eric Kerl</span> reports on
the People's Summit--an event designed to provide an
alternative vision to the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago.</div>
</div>
<p class="dateline" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 1em; margin-right: 0px;
margin-left: 0px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(104, 104,
104); ">May 15, 2012</p>
<div class="body">
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; "><span class="sw image inline-right"
style="float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px;
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margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5em;
width: 330px; "><span class="image-330" style="margin-top:
0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left:
0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px;
padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><img
alt="Hundreds attend a plenary discussion at the
People's Summit in Chicago" title="Hundreds attend a
plenary discussion at the People's Summit in Chicago"
class="image-330" style="border-top-width: 0px;
border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px;
border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial;
border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right:
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0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 0; border-style:
initial; border-color: initial; "
id="d609aaa9-9910-420d-bdfd-90deb0f4fbca"
apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes"
src="cid:part10.01080100.00000303@gmail.com"
height="232" width="330"></span><span class="caption"
style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;
line-height: normal; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);
margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px;
padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Hundreds
attend a plenary discussion at the People's Summit in
Chicago</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">MORE THAN 800 activists from the
U.S., Europe and the Middle East gathered in Chicago for the
People's Summit over the May 12-13 weekend <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://occupychi.org/2012/05/14/may-14-21-nato-week-action"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(142, 4, 4); ">to
kick off a week of action</a> before the summit of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planned for May
20-21.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">During the summit, government
leaders will review their plans for maintaining control of
war-torn Afghanistan, Africa and Kosovo; dramatically
increasing weapon deployments in allied countries; and
implementing new surveillance technologies under the
American-led "war on terror."</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Initially, the Group of Eight (G8)
club of the world's dominant countries planned to host its
summit in Chicago at the same time as NATO, but the venue
was abruptly changed to Camp David in early March. The
stated reason was to provide a more "intimate" setting, in
the words of Obama's National Security Office. But the real
motivation certainly included avoiding a significant
mobilization against the program of austerity in the service
of corporate greed.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">The People's Summit was hosted by <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://occupychi.org/"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(142, 4, 4); ">Occupy
Chicago</a> and the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://cang8.org/" style="text-decoration: none;
color: rgb(142, 4, 4); ">Coalition Against NATO and G8 War
and Poverty Agenda</a> (CANG8) at Occupy Chicago's
headquarters--an early 19th-century warehouse a few miles
from the location of the NATO summit a week later.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Activists planned the People's
Summit to educate larger numbers about the G8 and NATO, and
to mobilize for a mass march during the opening of the NATO
summit on May 20--as well as a week of activities in
between, with each day devoted to a different theme, ranging
from education to immigrant rights to housing and
homelessness and more.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">THE CONTENT of the People's Summit
wasn't limited to critical analysis of the 1 percent's
global agenda. The more than 40 workshops and four plenary
sessions offered an alternative vision of a world based on
peace, justice and equality.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">The summit featured voices from
occupied Afghanistan who debunked the misconception,
perpetuated by the Obama administration, that the war is
"coming to an end."</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Malalai Joya--an antiwar activist,
former member of Afghanistan's parliament and a fierce
critic of NATO's occupation as well as the Taliban and the
current warlord government headed by the U.S. puppet
President Hamid Karzai--was unable to travel for health
reasons, but sent a statement to the People's Summit:</p>
<blockquote style="line-height: 1em; font-size: 12px; ">
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em;
margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">[Obama and Karzai]
claim the war will end in 2014, while on the other hand,
they say that U.S. troops will remain in some capacity
until 2024. My friends, when 2024 comes closer, they will
say they plan to remain in Afghanistan until 2034. The
reality is that the U.S. and their NATO allies plan to
dominate Afghanistan and the larger region militarily for
the next generation...</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em;
margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Do not believe the
words of Obama and others who say they are working for
peace even while they continue to make war and to kill our
people in bombings, night raids a,nd now more and more
drone attacks that kill civilians every week and sometimes
every day in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Suraia Sahar, a member of Afghans
for Peace based in Toronto, read Joya's statement to the
summit and also spoke on the closing plenary about the
moving struggle of Afghan youth. She read a statement from
Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers that addressed their efforts
to overcome divisions foisted on them in order to retake
control of their country.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">The Summit also addressed the
connection between war spending abroad and the drive to
impose austerity on the 99 percent at home.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Jerome Fuller, a Chicago transit
worker and member of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local
308, and Jan Rodolfo, Midwest organizing director for
National Nurses United, talked about the urgent need for the
labor movement to stop pleading and start fighting.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">In stating their defense of
public-sector unions, both stressed that stronger wages and
benefits for public workers are important in setting a
standard that other workers should likewise demand, and that
their efforts are also essential to a defense of decent
social services for working-class people generally.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Abdul Malik Mujahid, a leader of
the Muslim Peace Coalition, described how Arabs and Muslims
in the U.S. have been targeted, harassed, detained, deported
and scapegoated in the wake of the U.S. wars and occupations
in the Middle East and Central Asia. He explained in
chilling detail the everyday harassment that millions of
Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. have faced, as well as his own
personal experience of hours upon hours spent answering
questions of law enforcement agents, simply because of his
Muslim faith.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
also addressed the conference live via speakerphone from a
prison in Pennsylvania. He electrified the crowd with a
stirring call to abolish NATO and his analysis of NATO's
aggressive and destructive military campaigns from Kosovo to
Afghanistan to Libya.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">THE PEOPLE'S Summit served to bring
together activists from a number of social movements--Occupy
activists, antiwar and antiracist activists, trade unionists
and independent journalists, environmentalists, defenders of
civil liberties and Palestine solidarity activists, among
others. Members of the United National Antiwar Coalition,
National Nurses United, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Occupy activists from around the
country participated during the weekend.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">International activists also made
their way to the People's Summit, including Reiner Braun and
Elsa Rassback from Germany and a number of activists from
several countries, including the Philippines, Sweden,
Ireland, Canada, Palestine and Puerto Rico.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Among the 40 different workshops
were sessions on "Public-sector unions and the fight against
austerity," "Consent and gender liberation," "The post-911
targeting of Mulims" and "Obama's new imperialism."</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">One activist, Taylor Bradley, a
22-year-old from Louisville, Ky., said the summit
represented a new stage for the Occupy movement. "I was a
student at the University of Louisville, but I dropped out
to be a full-time activist with Occupy," said Bradley.
"After a while, things started to fall apart--fewer people
at assemblies and actions...But now, there's a greater
awareness of the connections with different movements, and
more serious people putting together things like this."</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">While opposition to NATO was the
theme of the People's Summit, there was a clear
anti-capitalist perspective among many summit-goers. The
Occupy movement has certainly cleared the way for a biting
critique of an economic system that only benefits the few.
The People's Summit helped to make the connection between
this economic system and the drive by the American military
to dominate the world.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">The closing plenary of the People's
Summit ended with a stirring call by Joe Lombardo of the
United National Antiwar Coalition to mobilize <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://cang8.org/"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(142, 4, 4); ">for
the May 20 march against the NATO summit</a>.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom:
1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">Joya perhaps best captured this
message at the conclusion of her statement:</p>
<blockquote style="line-height: 1em; font-size: 12px; ">
<p style="line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 0.5em;
margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; ">I and millions of
other Afghans are with you in heart and in spirit. On May
20, peace-loving people in every country of the world will
be watching you in Chicago and wishing you solidarity. In
the long run, our desire for true justice and democracy
will defeat all of NATO's guns and bombs. Long live peace
and freedom!</p>
</blockquote>
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