Despite large crowd sizes, protesters remain peaceful. Occupy Chicago reminded people to remain peaceful by tweeting “March to be Heard, and not to be feared!”

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NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance), is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the cold-war North Atlantic Treaty of 1949. It is a system of collective defense, in which member states must mutually defend each other in response to an attack by an external party. Many Occupy protesters say that it’s time to disarm the Alliance, which has outlived its initial defense purpose, and has transformed itself into the muscle behind the worst excesses of economic imperialism.

G8, or The Group of Eight, is a forum for governments of the largest eight economies in the world–excluding some, like China and Brazil. It originated in 1975 with six members: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US. Since then, Canada and Russia have been added to the ranks. G8, one of the least democratic institutions imaginable, has NATO in its arsenal as military enforcer of whatever policy they might benefit from–at the expense of how many others. We are calling for our governments to fund social services, not wars, and to end the global slavery that keeps the conflicts going.

Keep updated about what’s going on in Chicago today–and keep it peaceful.

MAIN RALLY / MARCH: Sunday, May 20, 2012
RALLY at 12:00 Noon rally at Petrillo Bandshell (Chicago Time)
(corner of Jackson and Columbus)

Among those scheduled to appear at the rally:
Jesse Jackson, Sr. – Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Reiner Braun – ICC No to War – No to NATO, Germany
Malik Mujahid – Muslim Peace Council
Kathy Kelly – Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Vijay Prashad – author of “Arab Spring, Libyan Winter”
Leah Bolger – President, Veterans For Peace
Carlos Montes – Committee Stop FBI Repression
Kari Fulton – Environmental Justice Network
Larry Holmes – International Action Center

MARCH directly after the rally, at about 1:45 to 4:00 (Chicago time)

This is a fast 3 mile march that takes 2 hours and 15 minutes.  The march will be in the street on a designated route and no off-shoots or detours will be allowed. The march heads toward McCormick Place, which is patrolled by the US Secret Service. The march is planned to be peaceful, lawful, permitted, and family-friendly.  Please help keep it that way.

Occupyhighschool.org administrators will be on site, marching with the Students for a Democratic Society contingent (SDS). If you want to march with us, meet at the Northeast corner of Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard, right behind the Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (near Jackson Blvd curb). We’re under the “OPPOSING WAR IS NOT A CRIME” banner, and will be joined by contingents from The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR), the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), and group from Palestine, under a giant flag.

Info about March/Protest from: http://natoprotest.org/events/   and  http://occupypeace.blogspot.com/2012/04/update-g8-camp-david-and-nato-chicago.html

Continual Updates at: http://blogs.suntimes.com/nato/

See a concise article by Mira Oberman about NATO, G8, and what the protests are all about here: NATO protesters occupy Chicago streets

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“The media loves the story about Occupy dwindling but the truth is we’re stronger than ever. These protests will only make us more cohesive and more powerful.”–Rachael Perrotta, Occupy Chicago organizer

Occupy’s Liberation from Liberalism: The Real Meaning of May Day

Article by David Graeber on The Guardian

“Occupy’s May Day rebirth, forging a new alliance of activists and union members, was a historic moment of anti-capitalist struggle.” Read about where the movement is now.

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On May 17th, about 175 teachers and their supporters from all across Illinois gathered with other union members, Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice, and Occupy Naperville to protest proposed cuts to their pensions.

I had the liberty of joining them and gathered a great deal of information from teachers and administrators themselves. One of the speakers was a retired principal who explained that he visited a teacher conference in Springfield and met two students. He asked those students “Why were they there?” and “What would you like to see done?” The students explained that they would like to see more funding for text books, more classes for skills, more guidance counselors, and more recognition and voice in the decision that schools and the state make about their education.

The state decided to ‘reform’ (a.k.a cut) Illinois teachers’ pensions in order to avoid the obligation of paying the teachers back what they teachers paid in. One of the members of Gov. Pat Quinn’s reform committee is Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville. The protesters and the teachers marched to her office and left a giant petition signed by all the teachers and protesters.

The Petition laid in front of Representative Darlene Senger's office.

The petition read: “We, the undersigned, call upon members of the Illinois General Assembly to hold more public forums to debate the pension issue before ramming damaging legislation through without public input. Whereas the State of Illinois has failed to fund pension obligations for 40 years for teachers and public employees, we also call on our representatives to uphold the Illinois Constitution and enact fair and viable pension funding solutions”

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About 50 Rhinelander High School students walked out in protest of budget cuts that would fire some of their teachers. School administrators are now thinking about punishing these students for walking out.  Dalton Rose, a student, said that the teachers must “have someone who will stick up for them.”

The principal responded by sending a letter home to the parents of the walkout students claiming that the students disrupted the educational environment.

The school officials claimed that they will not fine students, but the local sheriffs department gave students tickets with fines attach.

In short, these students stood up  for their teachers when no one else would and took the punishments that they received. They are an example of youth who are punished for standing up for what’s right, what’s important, and for opening their minds to create a better world and a plan to make it happen. Schools today don’t encourage students to be active or critical thinkers, they encourage them to be good test-takers so the school meets its standards and gets federal funding; this is why art and music programs are the first to go, because they don’t encourage testing, but rather encourage kids to be creative and think openly, and to draw out or express their thoughts and their idea of a better world. The corporations and administrations that run our society don’t want an educated set of people because educated people are harder to lie to and to be controlled. They don’t want people rising up and standing up for what’s right because that doesn’t create profit for the controllers, but rather creates a better and more rich world for everyone else.

To the Rhinelander High School students who walked out, I applaud you and thank you for standing up.

And to those who didn’t, I hope you realize the truth and become brave enough to stand up.

Video:

More information about it at these links.

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120510/APC0101/305100096/High-school-students-walk-out-class-protest-teacher-layoff-notices?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|APC-News

http://www.wjfw.com/stories.html?sku=20120509185141

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