Unions, Jobs with Justice to join Occupy Chicago Friday, October 28, for another encampment in Chicago's Grant Park
In what may grow into an even bigger confrontation, Occupy Chicago has gained allies in its struggle to establish an encampment in Chicago's Grant Park, following a second round of weekend arrests by Chicago police of those who have sought to pitch tents in the famous lakefront public park. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Jobs with Justice have announced that they intend to mobilize their members to help Occupy Chicago secure a site for their protest encampment on Friday, October 28, 2011, which will mark the third weekend that Chicago protesters will have squared off against former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (currently Chicago's mayor) over whether Chicago will remain the only major city where "Occupy" protesters are barred from putting tents in public parks. On October 16 and October 23, Chicago police arrested more than 300 persons, total, when Emanuel ordered the police to enforce a city curfew that "closes" the parks at 11:00 p.m.
Jobs with Justice had earlier publicized its support for the Occupy Chicago move towards Grant Park and had joined the protesters on the weekend of October 22 - 24. A Jobs with Justice notice on the organization's website prior to the weekend said: "Join the Movement! Occupy Chicago!
Chicago Jobs with Justice and union members across the city will march with the protesters of Occupy Chicago to help win a space at Grant Park. We need people to march with us but also stay until morning to prevent arrest and removal. Several thousand expected. Be a part of the movement. Saturday October 22nd, 6:00 PM, LaSalle & Jackson. March to Michigan and Congress. Dress warm and prepare to stay overnight!"
VARIOUS PRESS REPORTS FOLLOW:
Chicago: The Occupation Will Continue!, by occupychiadmin, Occupy Chicago
October 23, 2011 http://occupychi.org/2011/10/23/chicago-the-occupation-will-continue/#more-1445
Second occupation attempt brings harsher consequences for peaceful protesters.
CHICAGO 10/23/11 - -Early this morning, roughly 130 people from Occupy Chicago were arrested while attempting for the second time to build a new, permanent home for the Occupation, exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble. Arrestees were taken to the District 1 Police Station at 18th & State, where they were charged with disturbing the peace.
This weekend follows up 175 arrests from last weekend's demonstration in the same park. Those 175 were released on bond a few hours after their arrests. Individuals arrested this morning have been held much longer, some over 16 hours. These arrestees were denied phone calls and legal counsel.
Six protesters were arrested last week as well as this morning. Despite Occupy Chicago's attempt to post bond
for these individuals, only one, Joey Young, 27, was
released. The rest are being held until they meet
individually with a judge on Monday, each at separate
locations. Young was told he could speak with a public
defender but that never manifested. After a very brief
meeting with a bond judge, Young was released around
3:00 PM with a $10,000 i-bond. His possessions,
including his phone, shoelaces and wallet, were not
returned. He has a court date scheduled for October 26.
Those arrested Sunday morning included registered nurses
and other members from National Nurses United, who
erected a medical tent at the action. NNU and Occupy
Chicago plan a protest outside City Hall at 11:00 AM
Monday to denounce the arrests and demand that charges
be dropped.
Occupy Chicago questions why city resources are being
used to arrest non-violent protestors. First Amendment
rights guarantee the right to peaceful assembly, and
park curfews should not restrict these rights.
Since the completion of arrests around 3:00 AM, dozens
of supporters have been waiting outside the police
station with donations of hot food for the release of
their fellow Occupiers.
Since Sept. 23, Occupy Chicago has been utilizing the
sidewalks of the financial district to raise awareness
of the corruption and complicity in the banking industry
and government.
Nurses Condemn Chicago Mayor Emanuel for Arrest Of Nurses, Medical Volunteers at Occupy Chicago
National Nurses United
October 23, 2011 (For Immediate Release)
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/nurses-condemn-chicago-mayor-emanuel-for-arrest-of-nurses-medical-voluntee/
RNs to Picket Mayor's Office Monday Morning at 10 am
Registered nurses from across the U.S. today condemned
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his decision to arrest
nurse volunteers, as well as peaceful protesters, in a
late night crackdown Saturday night at the Occupy
Chicago protest.
NNU is asking supporters to call Mayor Emanuel's office
at 312-744-5000 and demand they immediately drop all
charges against the nurses and other protesters, and
stop the harassment and arrests of the nurses and others
peacefully exercising their free speech rights. Nurses
will also picket the mayor's office at 10 a.m. Monday
morning, at City Hall at the LaSalle entrance.
Nurse leaders of National Nurses United who set up a
nurses' station to provide basic first aid to Chicago
protesters - as NNU has done peacefully in five other
cities across the U.S. - were among the some 130 people
arrested by Chicago police. The police also tore down
the first aid station, and arrested scores of others who
had peacefully assembled to support the station.
"Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses
and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and
Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as
they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free
speech and assembly." said NNU Executive Director
RoseAnn DeMoro. "These arrests are disgraceful and
unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from
continuing this mission, setting up the station again,
and continuing to support the protests."
Occupy Chicago defense NNU first aid station in Chicago
just before the arrests Saturday night
Emanuel has been perhaps the most aggressive mayor in
the nation in repression of the occupy Wall Street
movement with mass arrests on at least two occasions
now. The Chicago Tribune Saturday reported that city
officials are trying to send a message to world leaders
of being "tough" on demonstrators in advance of upcoming
meetings of G-8 and NATO leaders in May.
"Instead of showing off for world leaders, and paying
allegiance to protecting the economic interests of the
top 1 percent, Mayor Emanuel should stop, and start
representing the 99 percent, the people for whom the
occupy movement has become a clear voice," DeMoro said.
NNU also has first aid stations now established at
occupy protests in New York's Zuccotti Park, site of the
first Occupy Wall Street protests, Los Angeles,
Washington, San Francisco, and Detroit, and will be
opening up others in coming days.
Occupy Chicago Grows, Looks for a Permanent Home
by: Yana Kunichoff
Truthout
18 October 2011
http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-chicago-grows-looks-permanent-home/1318964043
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase
all have their own slice of downtown Chicago, but the
grassroots occupation movement Occupy Chicago has yet to
find a permanent home.
Since Occupy Chicago's attempt to start an encampment at
a swathe of prominent Grant Park on Saturday ended with
a mass civil disobedience in which 200 activists were
arrested, the movement has been offered a meeting with
Emanuel.
But organizers say that Emanuel's tactic does not aim to
accommodate the protests but to diffuse them before
Chicago becomes the central point of anticorporate anger
when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and
the G8 hold their summit in the city next year and Obama
begins his re-election campaign out of Chicago.
"The Chicago Police Department and the city of Chicago
itself are playing a different game than we are seeing
around the rest of the country," said Matthew Camp, an
organizer with Occupy Chicago. "They are not trying to
physically repress the movement, but instead, they are
denying it the chance to exist as an occupation."
Positions at Monday's general assembly on whether to
accept Emanuel's offer were divided between demanding
that Emanuel come to the protest site, sending
representatives to his office and asking him to hold a
general assembly in City Hall.
A motion was passed to issue a formal statement to
Emanuel. His office did not respond to requests for
comment on the current status of the offer.
Twenty-six days since Occupy Chicago started, the
movement maintains a picket 24 hours a day, seven days a
week in front of the city's financial district, but
activists say that starting an encampment is key to
building solidarity among different groups and in
keeping their resistance visible.
Camp, who calls himself "overeducated and
underemployed," said that if the protest were able to
move to Grant Park, "thousands of people would be
exposed to the occupation a day, and I think once it
moves to a public space we will see a much broader level
of participation."
Chris Alvarez, 23, a military veteran who was medically
discharged and had his benefits cut, spoke to Truthout
as he secured a tent in Chicago's Grant Park among the
more than 2,000-strong crowd on Saturday night.
"The strategy is pretty much to set up headquarters,"
said Alvarez. "People are ready to take a stand."
Cassie Bee said she was hoping that Saturday's
encampment would come together because, "I was hoping I
could have a place to sleep tonight."
Bee, 22, a trans woman, said that her parents had kicked
her out and, since graduating with a degree in geography
and earth sciences in July, she had been unable to find
a job.
"I would like to see more diversity in this," said Bee,
who recognized that, with her degree, things will be
better for her in a couple of years, "but for a lot of
people that won't be the case."
Occupy Chicago plans to attempt to set up an encampment
again on Friday, but this time, they have new allies -
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) will be
bussing in its members, according to Camp, and the
director of Jobs With Justice made a statement at
Monday's general assembly offering the support of its
members to help Occupy Chicago find a permanent home.
"We need to not only do this for one month, but we need
to continue this fight," said Matthew Scott, media
director for the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign. "You
can really feel the frustrations and hopes of people
here. We're of the people and for the people."
