City Announces Civic Events Leading Up To NATO/G8 Summits

misterbuckwheattree

Business leaders in Chicago began panicking this week about the upcoming NATO/G8 summits, with Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Roper saying businesses downtown should have 24 hour security and companies should give their employees the option to work from home. In order to combat the fear that Chicago will be overtaken by “professional anarchists and rioters,” as Fraternal Order of Police President Michael Shields described them, city officials announced several events to take place during the summits and their subsequent protests.

During a press conference at the Chicago Cultural Center yesterday, the Sun-Times reports officials stated that coordinated with the summits, Chicago will host a soccer and basketball tournament for teenagers, a series of talks on NATO and the global economy, and a “dine around” to highlight Chicago’s finest culinary delights. When asked about the protests which will surround the summits, Host committee executive director Lori Healey said “all the focus on negativity is unproductive.” The summits will draw more than 10,000 participants including delegates, staffers and journalists. President and CEO of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau called this the “Super Bowl of meetings.”

Meanwhile, activists and protest organizers are also stepping up efforts to bring their message to the political elite. Adbusters put out a call to Occupy Chicago and activists across the globe to bring 50,000 people to Chicago to “set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month,” beginning May 1st:

“…(W)hen the G8 and NATO meet behind closed doors on May 19, we’ll be ready with our demands: a Robin Hood Tax … a ban on high frequency ‘flash’ trading … a binding climate change accord … a three strikes and you’re out law for corporate criminals … an all out initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East … whatever we decide in our general assemblies and in our global internet brainstorm - we the people will set the agenda for the next few years and demand our leaders carry it out.”

It looks like the city may believe that a youth soccer tournament and dining spectacle will either distract people or put a more positive spin on the negativity swirling around the summits. Given the ramped up rhetoric surrounding the demonstrations from both sides however, one can assume the city has found a PR shield in these new events. When the protests outside the summits affect the city’s events related to youth or tourism showcases, officials then have the opportunity to find yet another thing demonstrators ruined. Once again, this makes us ask - knowing the stakes surrounding the summits, is hosting them actually worth it to the city?