Part of the Series
The Whole World Is Watching: NATO in Chicago
After the scheduled #noNATO march ended Sunday afternoon, May 20, a much-broadcast clash with police resulted in a fracture of the main protest group. Those who remained were almost all young, antiwar protesters who found themselves with several options: go home, head north or continue south to McCormick Place. The mix of around 150 local and visiting youth chose the latter and, around an hour later, wound up at the entrance to the NATO summit. They also met what appeared to be the most heavily equipped law enforcement officers in the area.
After brushing up against the gates and guards surrounding McCormick Place, the roaming protesters began a long march north from 26th Street (led in part by local activists). The group was forced into circuitous routes by police in an effort to detour them from Michigan Ave and other main lines to the South Loop, but, after being led west for several blocks, was eventually reunited with a second group of protesters near State and Jackson.
Do you support Truthout’s reporting and analysis? Click here to help fund it this week!
The following story picks up at that meeting. In the subsequent hours (around 7-11 PM), the NATO protest took to the open streets, in effect taking over downtown Chicago proper. On the way, they met with support from city residents and run-ins with police, eventually settling for a sit-in at the Art Institute, where Michelle Obama was holding a dinner for NATO spouses.
We think the march from the southern entrance of McCormick Place to the Art Institute was largely unreported (and, in some cases, poorly reported) by local mainstream media outlets. They missed out.
Click here or on the comic below to open it in a new window and click again to zoom in.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy