Today Obama announced that NATO and the G8--quite literally, the organizational representations of the world's imperialist powers and economic elite--will be meeting back-to-back in May 2012, in Chicago.
Whoever planned this is a fucking idiot. Or possibly just very, very arrogant.
The G8 developed a pattern over the years of meeting in increasingly isolated locations--like an island off the coast of Georgia--to avoid protests by thousands of people angered by the economic policies of austerity and neoliberalism enforced by the west's most powerful governments.
Now, in an about-face that I'm sure was partially engineered by Obama as a centerpiece of his 2012 presidential campaign, they're meeting in the US's second-largest city. A city with a large, multi-racial, well-organized left, easily accessible from many points in North America, with a decent public transit system to ferry around lots and lots and lots of protesters. A city that has been a historic center of protest since the fight for the eight-hour work day (remember when we had those?) A city where police brutality is kind of an issue, and people might not react well to their streets being taken over by the phalanxes of riot police it will take to defend these rich, murdering asshats. A city where there might just be a few people who are angry about slashing social services to the bone while pouring money into endless war.
In short: It. Is. So. ON.
Whoever planned this is a fucking idiot. Or possibly just very, very arrogant.
The G8 developed a pattern over the years of meeting in increasingly isolated locations--like an island off the coast of Georgia--to avoid protests by thousands of people angered by the economic policies of austerity and neoliberalism enforced by the west's most powerful governments.
Now, in an about-face that I'm sure was partially engineered by Obama as a centerpiece of his 2012 presidential campaign, they're meeting in the US's second-largest city. A city with a large, multi-racial, well-organized left, easily accessible from many points in North America, with a decent public transit system to ferry around lots and lots and lots of protesters. A city that has been a historic center of protest since the fight for the eight-hour work day (remember when we had those?) A city where police brutality is kind of an issue, and people might not react well to their streets being taken over by the phalanxes of riot police it will take to defend these rich, murdering asshats. A city where there might just be a few people who are angry about slashing social services to the bone while pouring money into endless war.
In short: It. Is. So. ON.
No comments:
Post a Comment