Chicago activist urges ECC community to protest NATO summit

Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism and the Gay Liberation Network, made his case Thursday for why people should protest the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago.

He told a group of Elgin Community College students and community members that protesters need to demand the United States remove troops from the 130 countries in which they are based worldwide, stop threatening war on nations like Iran, stop supporting regimes abroad that repress their own people, such as Saudi Arabia, and make a dramatic cut in military spending.

“United States military spending equals the rest of the world combined,” Thayer said Thursday during his talk, which was part of the Humanities Center Speaker Series.

He called NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) the world’s most expansive, most dominating empire in history, likening it to the way the Roman empire functioned. And he said the organization is the key to the United States’ power abroad while its economic might lessens.

In his call to protest the summit, scheduled for May 20-21 in Chicago, Thayer said demonstrating is critical to forcing political change, arguing all the sweeping changes in U.S. history have come from the ground up.

“From people taking history into their own hands and doing things despite the best wishes of those who happen to be in office,” Thayer said.

Several members of the audience planned to attend the May 20 protest in Grant Park. Roger Fraser, of Rolling Meadows, is ready to take protesting a step further with civil disobedience, hoping to join thousands willing to be arrested in the name of their cause.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we get people to come out,” Fraser said. “The proper place to be after May 20 is in jail.”

The NATO summit will bring more than 50 heads of state to Chicago to discuss the alliance’s future steps. It will immediately follow the G-8 Summit, being held at Camp David.

David Burke, director of the Humanities Center at ECC, said the goal of the speaker series is to bring a variety of perspectives to campus so students can hear opinions outside of the mainstream and make informed decisions.

While Thayer’s speech was not as well-attended as previous ones in the series, Burke said the event was still a success.

“We had an engaged audience with a lot of good questions and responses,” Burke said.