[CIMC-working] PROPSED: Framing the TABD Protests

[Doug Morris]

Thanks Chris and Chris for comments,

After proofing, This is going up now...

TABD PROTESTS

Framing the TABD Protests

At a Wednesday news conference, TABD opponents reiterated that Thursday's 
march would be peaceful. Though the protests aim, and the press conference 
aimed, to focus attention on the issues around TABD, the Chicago corporate 
media have consistently focused on the issue of potential street conflict. 
On Chicago public radio show "<a href="http://www.wbez.org/">Worldview</a>" 
today (Thursday), protest organizers were able to offer well-reasoned 
criticisms of the un-democratic TABD summit and of the narrowness of media 
coverage of the corporate press.

<p><a 
href="http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15589&group=webcast">Protesters 
are assembling</a> today beginning at 4:30 at Boeing headquarters -- which 
is cohosting the TABD -- at Washington and Canal, for a 5:00 pm rally and 
march to the Tribune Plaza at Michigan Ave., north of the Chicago River. 
Activists are also planning <a 
href="http://www.azone.org/notabd/index.php?content=events">peaceful 
autonomous actions</a> on Friday, and an Alternative Economic Summit on 
Saturday, November 9th at the DePaul University Loop Campus, 333 South 
State St., 11th floor.

<p>While today's march is organized by a combination of local community, 
direct action, and labor organizations who oppose the privitization of 
public policy, <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=215444">corporate 
press reports</a> have painted the TABD protesters as anarchists descending 
on Chicago. Downtown buildings have issued alerts and some are sending 
workers home early. The police presence will be massive. The City of 
Chicago has warned protesters that it will sue individuals for any property 
damage.

<p>A <a 
href="http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15589&group=webcast">protest 
releases</a> argues that the global economic privatization strategies of 
TABD represent "the most extreme example of  "corporate rule" because it 
the TABD is specifically designed to "privatize" public policy 
decision-making." The <a 
href="http://www.azone.org/notabd/index.php?content=history"> TABD is a 
far-reaching international corporate-state alliance</a> of 150 large 
corporations mandated by the US government and the European Commission to 
identify
"barriers to transatlantic trade". They will be drafting recommendations to 
put forth to the World Trade Organization (WTO), including strategies to 
undercut regulations that protect workers' rights and environmental 
policies. Protesters have vowed to peacefully march, in part, to reaffirm 
their <a href="http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15636">
basic civil rights to express dissent</a> in a country that increasinlgy 
criminalizes legitimate protest.

<p>See continuing coverage of the TABD protests here and previous Chicago 
IMC coverage below.

[ Background and Schedule of anti-TABD actions and events:
<a href="http://www.azone.org/notabd/index.php"> Anti-TABD Protest Party 
pages</a>  ]