Thousands begin NATO protest march through Chicago

Thousands of demonstrators upset with the war in Afghanistan, climate change and the erosion of union rights marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday, taking their discontent on a wide range of issues to world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.

The protest, one of the city’s largest in years, was to end at the lakeside convention center hosting the two-day meeting, which is focused on the war in Afghanistan, European missile defense and other international security matters.

Some participants called for the dissolution of NATO, the 63-year-old military alliance that is holding its 25th formal meeting in Chicago. It was the first time the gathering was held in a U.S. city other than Washington.

“Basically NATO is used to keep the poor poor and the rich rich,” said John Schraufnagel, who took a bus from Minneapolis to Chicago to take part in the march. Since the end of the Cold War, he said, the alliance has become “the enforcement arm of the ruling 1 percent, of the capitalist 1 percent.”

Peace activists joined with war veterans and people more focused on the economy for the protest. Marchers assembled at Grant Park with signs denouncing NATO, including ones that read: “War(equals)Debt” and “NATO, Go Home.”

But the crowd was mostly filled with protesters whose primary concerns have little to do with the discussions at the summit.

The march lacks the size and single message that shaped the last major protest moment in Chicago, when nearly half a million people filled the city’s downtown in 2006 to protest making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant.

“I’ll be walking all day and guiding all day, trying to keep tempers calm,” said Sue Eleuterio of Highland, Ind., a longtime activist who plans to act as a “peace guide” by mediating problems between police and protesters. “Our goal, believe it or not, is to have a family friendly protest that is peaceful.”

Organizers of Sunday’s rally had initially predicted tens of thousands of protesters this weekend. But that was when the G-8 summit of leading industrial nations was also scheduled to be in Chicago. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama moved the Group of 8 economic meeting to Camp David, the secluded retreat in rural Maryland.

Chicago kept the NATO summit, which is not addressing the economy specifically. That left activists with the challenge of persuading groups as diverse as teachers, nurses and union laborers to show up for the Chicago protests even though the summit’s main focus doesn’t align with their most heart-felt issues.

Sunday’s protest followed several smaller demonstrations over the previous two days, including a march Saturday to the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff.

Later that evening, hundreds of demonstrators zigzagged through downtown, some decrying terrorism-related charges leveled against three young men earlier in the day.

Increasingly tense clashes Saturday night tested police who used bicycles to barricade off streets and horseback officers to coax them in different directions. Eighteen people were arrested.

Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said officers would be ready with quick but targeted arrests of any demonstrators who turn violent Sunday.

“If anything else happens, the plan is to go in and get the people who create the violent acts, take them out of the crowd and arrest them,” warned McCarthy. “We’re not going to charge the crowd wholesale — that’s the bottom line.”

Security has been tight throughout the city. As police gathered en masse on street corners, near parks and landmarks, the city’s streets remained largely vacant and many downtown buildings closed.

“It’s strange because downtown is empty,” said Gabe Labovitz, an economist out for a walk near his home. “The police presence is reassuring but unnerving.”

Three activists who traveled to Chicago for the summit were accused Saturday of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack Obama’s campaign headquarters, Emanuel’s home and other targets.

Defense lawyers argued that the police had trumped up the charges to frighten away peaceful protesters. They told a judge it was undercover officers who brought the firebombs to an apartment in Chicago’s South Side where the men were arrested.

On Sunday, police said two other men were in custody after being accused of planning to make Molotov cocktails to be used during the NATO summit.

Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, was charged with one felony count of terrorism/making a false threat. Mark Neiweem, 28, was charged with attempted possession of explosives. Both men were scheduled to appear in court later Sunday.

It was not immediately clear if those arrests were related to the other three.

Kris Hermes of the National Lawyers Guild said the charges seem to be part of a wider effort to scare people and diminish the size of the demonstrations.