The People's Summit: Alternatives to War & Poverty
Posted 12 years ago on May 7, 2012, 11:56 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
via The People's Summit Chicago
Sponsored by the Coalition Against NATO/G8, Occupy Chicago and many others.
NATO war makers are preparing to meet in Chicago on May 20-21 following the meeting of the G8 heads of state behind the fortified walls of Camp David.
By contrast, the People's Summit invites community groups, labor unions, anti-racist organizers, Occupy activists, environmentalists, faith leaders, immigrant rights activists and anyone else committed to social justice to a grassroots, bottom-up forum of, by and for the 99 percent.
There will be large plenary sessions as well as more than 40 workshops that will provide everyone the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about the many pressing issues facing our world today.
All those opposed to the NATO/G8 war and poverty agenda are invited to attend the People's Summit, and then join the mass march on Sunday, May 20, beginning at 12 noon at the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park. Don't miss your chance to be a part of history as people around the U.S. and the world engage in solidarity actions with our May 20 march.
A better world is possible, and we have a responsibility to become the change that we want to see in this world. See you at the People's Summit and the May 20 march!
For more information and registration, please check out our website! Childcare will be provided!
Though the People's Summit will be free to everyone it is still going to cost around $10,000+ to pull off. With that said, we are requesting donations for those able to do so in order to finance the summit. Donate here.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Malalai Joya, former Afghan member of Parliament and internationally renowned opponent of NATO's occupation of Afghanistan; Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH coalition; Reiner Braun, International Coordinating Committee of the European No to NATO network; Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; death row prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal via speakerphone; Malik Mujahid, Muslim Peace Coalition; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink; Col. Ann Wright (ret.), antiwar activist
Please join us Saturday for a night of music and live entertainment hosted by the Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective and Rebel Diaz!
What is the People's Summit?
On May 20th and 21st, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be hijacking Chicago to house an undemocratic meeting for its “band of hostile brothers.” The military and political leaders of countries that account for 70 percent of world military spending will be meeting to discuss how to use their vast military might in pursuit of the interests of the global 1 percent. As they meet in their walled fortress, CANG8 and Occupy Chicago will be hosting an event of an utterly different sort. The People’s Summit is a radically democratic meeting to discuss the type of world we would like to see, a world that transcends our present condition of corporate plutocracy and military empire.
What is the purpose?
To educate our communities about war, austerity, global capitalism, and corporatization in the 21st century, and what it means for the ways we live in this world. Topics can range from the increasing cost of a loaf of bread in Chicago to the 1.4 billion people worldwide living in immiseration; from the ‘war on terror’ and global homeland security industries to increased militarization of domestic policing; from global wage depression and the creation of disposable labor reserves to devastating climate change, destruction of environments, and the privatization of common resources. Within each of these threads (and many more), the power of global economics determines the material state of contemporary world affairs. Major events around the globe in 2011, from Tahrir Square to Liberty Square, have instilled a great urgency in us all; we need to understand how the complex conditioning by global processes has given the 99% of the world more in common than we dared to imagine before.
To mobilize our communities for radical democracy, including dissent in the form of non-violent protest during the NATO/G8 summit and beyond, and the nurturing of long-term collaborative mobilizations between local, national and international communities. We accept Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent challenge to our civil liberties, and will work ceaselessly for all people to realize their right to participate in a truly democratic forum.
To present alternative visions of the world we all know to be possible through critical reflection, humor, art, direct democracy, collaboration, and informed dialogue. Our educational axiom is grounded in providing a radically democratic space, where the People in all our multiplicities contribute intellectually, artistically and collaboratively to this process. Our educational axiom is not based on the delivery of information and theories by experts to a consuming audience, a process by which thought becomes a pacifying and alienating product. That is neoliberal education. In the face of our repressive states and corporate militarized regimes, we have a responsibility to adopt new modes of thought; therefore, most powerfully, our axiom is the call for a concrete manifestation of an ethically guided, politically truthful demand: that a response to the current crisis of global capitalism must arise collectively through creative and imaginative thinking about a society based on equality and emancipation for all across the globe.
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A larger voting base will not support war
Support the 99% ... demand elections be national and state holidays
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History repeats itself because the same minority ruling elites are always in power and carrying out class war against the majority. There were majority uprisings in the past and there will be majority uprisings in the future as long as the ruling elites are in power. They will de-legitimize majority uprising through propaganda so that they can use force against it. They have a lot of money to hire propagandists and militants but the majority has the numbers.
And now the Internet.
the great mountain that fills the whole earth of daniel2.
"....a responsibility to adopt new modes of thought...." That is exactly what we have to do. We need "creative and imaginative thinking." I believe that you can learn a lot from history , but the solutions to most of our problems cannot be found there.
the problems arose in history. the control over money and property rights and corporate america arose in history. the destruction of the family, extended family and tribe was a deliberate policy of the christian religion which arose from historical LIES. "the first day of creation wrote what the last day of reckoning shall read!"
I do understand that Christianity has played a terrible role in human history, but it is not alone. I deplore religious fanaticism, no matter where it comes from...Christian...Muslims..Jews, etc. I also believe that neoliberalism is the cause of a lot of the world's problems today.
it is the queen of england who is the source of corruption. corruption begins at the top. she controls corporate america. blaming neoliberals is blaming your fellow man!? the queen is a german fascist and head of the christian church. the pope is a german fascist and head of the christian church. this is not a coincidence!
I do blame my fellow man. Is any religion without corruption? Look sufinaga, my view of the world is not a small one. I have family on three other continents besides this one. I feel empathetic to their plights. And I realize that there are evil forces in the world, but I do not believe that they are only to be found in the West, or in Christianity alone. In the last 7-8 months i have under-gone an extraoridinary period of learning. I will take both what you, and RK have said here, and learn and process it to the best of my ability.
In mid April, I attended a big assembly, and GA in Central Park. There were people there that were protesting against Islamophobia, having a bunch of posters, and literature. They did not look like they were Muslim, and/or Arab though, as like me, they were quite pale looking. :-) I asked them about it...why they were there. They said that they were there for their Muslim/Arab neighbors in Queens, NY. That brought a tear to my eyes.
i am a hippy, a psychedelic, a reincarnating spirit, a hindu. i have family on three continents and christians and muslims too! christianity is caucasian tyranny. islam is arab tyranny. child protection will destroy christianity. womens liberation will destroy islam. both the bible and the koran end with marijuana growing everywhere. both islam and christianity are CORPORATE religions supporting the prohibition of marijuana. tears of love are the best. "pain is the kernel; friendship is only the husk to it." that concern for others reaches out to all mankind past present and future. we feel the pain of our ancestors in their struggles. we feel the pain of our children in their struggles against this evil medieval tyranny we live under. we feel the pain of our future lives being born into this psychopathic war mongering society crucifying a jew as its "religion"!
Religion did not cause these problems. You ignore thousands of years of militarism when you try to blame wars on religion. Roman conquest was not based on religious beliefs, as evidenced by their adoption of Greek beliefs. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, religion was not their main thrust. Currently, religions provide a pretense for war, a backdrop for war, a justification of war, but does not in and of itself cause war. Guns make war more effective, but bows and arrows would suffice, swords or spears, sticks or rocks. We have fought long before the gun. As the gun made war more "civilized" and impersonal and efficient, so too has the religious context made it more palatable to "civilized" sensibilities. It is not-so-naked aggression, kind of like a bar fight. One of them is stupid and the other can't let it go and it's sometimes hard to tell which is which. But they both came looking to fight.
it's the other way around! religion is used to brainwash the boy soldiers into killing. onward christian soldiers? THOU SHALT NOT KILL. corruption begins at the top with queen elisabeth 2 the whore of babylon of revelations riding on the back of the great beast, corporate america! see how the israelis justify genocide and crimes against humanity in response to the rockets! see how the americans justify the war on terror and excessive security expense in response to a CIA agent provocateur pretending to be a muslim terrorist with explosives in his underwear!? see how the christians support this "religious" war on muslims!? this religious war BS obsesses the rednecks and shock-jocks! their ego delusion depends on rabble rousing against the evil enemy (and they get a percentage of the war machine's profits!) wars have always been to cull the surplus males and develop the technology for tge elite's posturing. look at the changing of the guard and the space race.
That's just silly.
only by asking the silliest questions do we get the wisest answers! step outside yourself and be objective. the "taliban" are afghanis defending afghanistan. jesus is NOT the only way. mohammad is NOT the last prophet. those are silly and petty dogmas. all marijuana charges are MALICIOUS PROSECUTIONS. end the prohibition of marijuana NOW. 911INSIDE JOB. gw bush staged this FAKE terrorist attack to start his crusade against the muslims, his war on terror. gw bush's two grandfathers started WW2. all to make money and maintain this tyranny.
You are undouboubtedly much better educated on this history than me. I do feel that religion is the cloak that people often use to carry out huge amounts of inhumanity to their fellow human beings. Once a people...a religion can be dehumanized, then other people then feel justified in carrying out an unbelievable amount of human misery on them.
Yes, that's exactly it. It is a cloak that hides the greed. Radical Muslims today feel marginalized, oppressed by the West economically and culturally, and are tired of it. They see their traditional values being eroded by blue jeans and Baywatch. Their governments are co-opted and corrupted and the general populace oppressed. They find legitimacy in their religion to do what they do, but they would do it anyway. Religion can spur people to acts of great kindness or horrible evil. It seems like the greater the good a thing can do the greater the evil. Like nuclear energy. Powerful, but also dangerous. The choice is always ours.
Yes, I understand what you are saying, perhaps better than most Westerners do. I am not alone here in my feelings though. There are many people here who feel the same way as I do, as evidenced by the comment i made to sufinaga. You are sick and tired of being "oppressed", and many of us are also sick and tired of oppressing you as it is bankrupting us financially, but more importantly.....it is bankrupting us morally.
I also understand that what you want is the same thing that all people want, and that is a chance to be treated with respect, and also a chance for you and your chidren to have a better life. I have broken bread with Muslims, slept in their homes, have been wished a 'good morning' with a cheek to cheek kiss by a young Muslim woman.....I have eaten my share of lamb and couscous, and those pancake-like things with melted butter and honey..yummy. Far more importantly though, one of my well-educated daughters volunteered (without compensation) to teach recently arrived young Muslim girls to this country, English, and helped them adjust to life here. Two of those girls are now in universities, one for criminal justice, and the other one for medicine. Salam.
I feel kind of bad. Your graciousness was touching, but I am an American. I guess my screen must have caused confusion. I do appreciate your actions however. If we can apply the same understanding to conservatives in the United States, this all has a chance of working. They are a lot like us, they are trying to do the right thing for the country, too. That means we should be able to find common ground. It is so easy to get lost in the rhetoric of the conflict and forget that.
Together with a lot of other like-minded people...things will get better. That is why we are here.....isn't it?
I'm not always so sure. I think some people like the discord.
In my lifetime, if there has ever been a chance, it is now. So we must do our small part to see that it happens.
faith groups have a CORPORATE POLICY directly against our community. putting an image of a man nailed to a cross into children's minds is CHILD ABUSE. the muslim separation of women is not the real future. child protection will destroy christianity just as surely as women's liberation will destroy islam. both the bible and the koran end with marijuana growing everywhere. both christians and muslims follow the corporate policy supporting the prohibition of marijuana. telling children "jesus is the only way" or "mohammad is the last prophet" is BULLYING into submission to these petty and false dogmas. christians, muslims and atheists all preach we have just this one life and condemn us to eternal hellfire for not submitting to their bullying. we are reincarnating spirits. we suffered the barbaric injustices of the past and we are here to build a future society for all our many happy returns!
Atheists don't preach hell and thus don't threaten anyone with it-they espouse nothing but reason. We WILL be turned to dust no matter if we adhere to a dogma or not, they believe- that's why believing in dogmas saves no-one and we have to make a change as long as we're alive and live our life to the full.
Then we will live forever in memory.
But all are free to believe what they want.
they have not found the higgs boson so is the dust real? have a sense of humour! "jesus christ" is a curse in our community! atheists say "go to hell"!
you are so ignorant about nato.
just continue to hold your grouptink sound board meetings to reenforce that feeling that you are changing something.