Photos by Aaron Cynic and John Robb except where otherwise noted. View the full gallery. Additional photo and news aggregation by Paul M. Davis using Storify.
My feet are completely blistered, my bones are sore. I'm dehydrated, bruised and beyond exhausted. I've spent four days on the streets of Chicago, running through streets and alleys, cameras strapped to my body, frantically trying to take in as much information about the protests surrounding the NATO summit on Sunday and Monday.
For two days, world leaders gathered in Chicago to discuss what tens of thousands of activists described as the world's largest game of Risk, where the stakes amount to life and death for citizens around the globe.
Some might accuse me of hyperbole, but considering the massive amount of civilian casualties (including women and children) in countries like Libya and Kosovo, bombed by NATO forces, the silent voices of the dead would probably disagree.
Smile, 99%. You looked beautiful at #NoNATO today:yfrog.com/h8dfvcqij
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) May 21, 2012
For the average Chicago resident, hosting the NATO summit fell short of what Mayor Rahm Emanuel predicted in nearly every way. City officials and other higher-ups in the Democratic party heralded the meeting of world leaders as a chance to showcase Chicago as a “world class city,” hoping it would be a boon to the local economy. We were assured of peace in the streets. According to officials, massive security spending will be reimbursed by the federal government, though the city's coffers remain empty.
The city spent months preparing to host the summits, as did activists both locally and nationally. Thousands bused into town beginning many days before the summit, but Chicago residents had been chattering about them many months prior. Many concerns were over logistics – hosting world leaders means an incredible amount of security which would snarl traffic, make traveling difficult, and shut down business as usual in the city for days.
NATO protest night march 5/20/12. Photo by Kate Harnedy.
Between media hype surrounding potential protester violence, resulting in local businesses boarding up their windows (and shutting down completely for a few days, in some cases,) and the logistical inconveniences created, authorities did half the job of protesters for them by effectively shutting down the city. Places often bustling with tourists and traffic were virtual ghost towns, as many people wanted to avoid dealing with the drama a meeting of world leaders who often ignore their subjects creates.
On Saturday, May 19th, activists who came to Chicago to protest the NATO summit held over the weekend headed to the city’s north side in a show of solidarity with local activists fighting to save six neighborhood mental health clinics already closed or slated for closure. Photos by Aaron Cynic, more at Diatribe Media.
During the months of buildup to the summit, local activists managed to connect NATO to a host of issues which affect the residents of Chicago on a daily basis. Our mayor and city can afford to pay for the 1% to play, but can't afford to fix our crumbling school system, mental health care system, public transportation and more. Members of various activist groups, including the Mental Health Movement, Stand Up Chicago, Occupy Chicago and many more staged countless marches, rallies, sit ins and occupations.
Two local clinics closed by the city still have a 24 hour presence maintained outside their barred doors. A coalition called CANG8 and Occupy Chicago both spent months making banners, obtaining permits, planning routes and rallying activists to shout through the streets in one clear, deafening voice “NONATO.” Meanwhile, the city prepared for war, militarizing its police force with shiny new “less than lethal” weapons, body armor, and surveillance equipment to confront what most activists were planning as a peaceful protest.
The march continued snaking through the streets for hours, and the crowd slowly dissipated, but hundreds still swarmed the streets. Eventually, at another point where protesters were stopped, a Chicago police van attempted to push its way through the crowd. As protesters attempted to stop the van from pushing its way through demonstrators, the driver hit the accelerator, striking at least two people and sending one to the hospital.
These instances and others were the catalyst for the mood of Sunday's march on McCormick Place, where more than ten thousand marched for miles down Michigan Avenue to show their disapproval for NATO. The main march was completely peaceful and permitted, but as we drew nearer to the end point, one could feel the tension on both sides of police lines. A group of veterans ceremoniously threw medals they had been awarded in the direction of their generals from a makeshift stage, each telling their story of why they no longer wanted them. 
a group of veterans against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan join anti-Nato protest in Chicago May 20 #OWS twitpic.com/9ngbfd
— Khalid Khan (@khalidkhan787) May 20, 2012
A woman from Afghans For Peace spoke of the continued struggle Afghan people face under NATO occupation. Well before the planned conclusion of the rally, police began massing, riot gear at the ready, and the more militant marchers readied themselves for an imminent confrontation everyone seemed to know would take place when dispersal orders went down.
Marching north on Michigan toward van buren #noNATO twitter.com/mollyknefel/st…
— Molly Knefel (@mollyknefel) May 21, 2012
Sit down protest #nato twitter.com/PennyRed/statu…
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) May 21, 2012
Thousands of people streamed out of the area while others decided to stay and attempt to push forward, towards the actual location of the summit, and the gloves came off. Police wielded their batons indiscriminately, striking protesters, journalists and legal observers. Protesters pushed back, flinging a barricade at one point, throwing bottles at another. Many were injured or arrested. The area was cordoned off, no one was allowed in or out. Friends, family and colleagues were cut off from information regarding their brothers and sisters, and the predictions of blood staining the streets of Chicago came true. In the aftermath, protesters regrouped and led non-permitted marches through The Loop. On Sunday evening, they converged on the Art Institute, where Michelle Obama hosted dinner for NATO dignitaries. The mood was tense. Throughout the rest of the summit, protesters and police played cat and mouse games in the streets, but thankfully, the same level of violence did not occur.
On Monday, they marched on Boeing headquarters to highlight the corporation's connection to the military industrial complex, and later held a press conference which turned into a dance party in front of President Obama's campaign headquarters. In the evening, a few hundred marched through the loop to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, responsible for so many detentions and deportations.
What I witnessed on the streets of my city for nearly a week showed the dichotomy which exists between the state and those who want to change or completely oppose it. Activists who fight for change always face intimidation tactics. But the larger the organization, the harder the push back. Fighting city hall to keep a mental health clinic open or create an encampment in the park was difficult enough, but fighting a global war machine engendered a reaction the likes of which some people had never seen.
Still, activists persevered, adapted, and took care of each other. When I ran out of water, everyone from legal observers to masked anarchists were happy to share what little they had left. When various protesters faced targeted arrests, others stepped in to try to prevent them. Hundreds marched for miles to show solidarity at the jail the arrested were taken. Street medics took care of the injured and reminded the exhausted of the wellness center created for them. Independent journalists from all over the world banded together in solidarity, sharing information, looking after each other and supporting those who were targeted for surveillance or arrest by law enforcement. People who were relative strangers before they hit the streets together shared some of the longest and most caring hugs I have ever seen.
Photo by Paul Weiskel.
If it's one thing I can take away from observing, writing about, and participating in the protests at the NATO summit, it's that creating community will be what saves the world. Systems of alliances and mutual defense pacts continue the same “us versus them” Cold War mentality which has left the world littered with a class structure that no state can fix. But while the rich and powerful ate well and sat in comfortable air conditioning moving pawns across their chessboards, those in the streets forged friendships and shared struggles which created bonds that will outlast any empire.
A world-class city boasting outsized political and economic influence, a vibrant tech community, and an intense commitment to civic participation, Chicago points the way to the peer-to-peer cities of tomorrow.
Shareable Chicago is an ongoing series exploring the city's significant contributions to the emerging sharing economy.
Actually, you have not learned anything. I will elaborate.
Protests such as this do not work. Anywhere there is a large agenda, such as the WTO or NATO, protests like this have virtually zero chance to change anything.
They can ONLY work on a local level (and even then, rarely do, but it has worked on occasion).
The model that activist use -- "Let's Protest!" is absolutely pointless, accomplishing next to nothing except the illusion of solidarity.
Protests play in to the rules and designs of the very institutions you are trying to protest against. You get permission slips, protest permits, parking permits, licenses and even insurance, all which fund many of the institutions you're claiming you do not want to support anymore.
You then submit yourselves to police presence, abuse, tasers, mace, water cannons, batons, invectives and so much more -- which by your very presence there, justifies and validates the police, their budgets and so forth.
You decry their tactics, abuse, violence, perhaps gaining 15 minutes of fame sometimes, but mostly only to your other protesters, and then to be quickly forgotten, risking injury, arrest and even death. Criminal records are created by your actions, to follow you around for life, effecting your ability for jobs, promotions and credibility in the eyes of your so-called peers.
But in the end, after all this, nothing changes. The protests have accomplished exactly nothing. No agendas were changed, no petitions were recognized, no goals are moved, the point of the protests to "effect change" have done absolutely nothing at all toward the desires of the protesters.
Yet millions of dollars are being spent by the protesters themselves by simply showing up. Transportation, food, lodging, incidentals, directly and indirectly fueling the very system that they are hoping to change. The city too (any city) injects even more money into security, cameras, barricades, outside assistance, equipment, bathrooms and so much more.
It's like a whirlpool, circulating around the drain, going faster and faster, seeing who can outspend, outshout, out "presence" the other, but it's already a forgone conclusion under these "rules" your following, who's going to win. And in the end, nothing changes. Not a single thing.
Which makes the model of peaceful protest by activist pretty damned stupid. An incredible waste of time, money, manpower, credibility, integrity and effort.
And then you all go home, back to wherever you came from, having "done something", at least, gotten it all off your chest (this time). But you all know, every single one of you, that it's not over. And you all know, every single one of you, that you have changed nothing.
You have your pictures, your video tapes, your arrest reports, court dates and trials, your blisters, your fatigue, all of your prizes in hand, the 'evidence' that you've tried to change the world. Good for you. But does it even matter that what you did was effectively useless? I think it does, because it leads millions to believe that playing into the design of this system of "this is how it's done" (most of you stupidly call it "democracy") is all that there is.
It's a steam valve, effectively dissipating any chance of real change because you will have exhausted yourselves by playing into this game that they've designed and setup for you.
But what exactly have you actually done, what have you actually accomplished, besides just show up and play into the very mechanisms you're trying to change?
Self-delusion should not be a reward, but an indictment that something is seriously wrong. Past protests (and there are many) should be examined in this regard. What worked? What didn't? What changed?
You didn't "persevere" -- you endured what was being done to you. And that's all. Perseverance means you succeeded.
If by success, you suggest that you accomplished your goals, then you need to seriously reexamine what your goals really are and why you even bothered to go. You could have stayed home, shouting into the bathroom mirror and had just as much effect. Now ask yourself why anybody even bothered to go and play this game.
Do you think that the attendees even care that protesters show up? Show me the evidence on any major protests in the last ten years where this is true. It does not exist. This means you are protesting purely for the sake of protests, reinforcing the delusion that it is "accomplishing something" when it is not. If you are not having any effect on the attendees, or their agendas or on any of the goals and outcomes they have designed and desired -- then you have not done anything to stop them. Simply showing up to protest DOES NOT WORK.
I firmly believe in protest, but not like this, not when it simply perpetuates the status-quo, and when it only reinforces exactly what you think you're trying to stop.
Pick an attendant scheduled to arrive at one of these events. Perhaps a key speaker or "VIP". Now prevent this slime ball from showing up.
Now you've actually done something.
Now imagine if ten of these dirtbags didn't arrive.
Now imagine if these alleged leaders would finally wake the fuck up that the people are in fact serious.
Too radical for you? Then you simply not serious about making any changes at all. Play protester and see exactly how far this gets you and your goal of change. Document your time, effort, expense and then multiply this by the average number of everyone else that showed up. Count it all up and ask yourselves -- for all this expenditure, in time, money and effort -- what did we change?
The world if falling apart, faster and faster because our alleged leaders are taking us all there. You will have to actually do something effective if you honestly and truly want to stop any of this.
Playing the game according to the rules which constrain you is self-defeating and will never accomplish anything.