Taking nearly everyone by surprise, the White House announced last Monday that the world’s economic leaders with the G8 would not be enjoying the sights and sounds of a democratic #ChicagoSpring. The announcement that the G8 would be skipping President Obama’s hometown in favor of the much more remote and secure Camp David location reveals the fears the administration has of public assembly and popular protest.

Huffington Post’s Julie Pace reported that “security and the possibility of protests were not factors in the decision” made by the White House. Not a security concern? That is a hard pill to swallow, considering the city expects to spend between $40 and $65 million to police the Chicago protests and Obama’s recent signing of HR 347, the “anti-Occupy” law officially known as the Federal Restricted Building and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. Clearly, the administration is anticipating “security concerns” regarding the thousands of citizens nonviolently demanding more democracy, justice and peace.

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Occupy the Food System—the day of action for food justice on February 27—could be the beginning of a broad-based food justice movement that is global in scope but local in action. A unique coalition of food justice workers, consumers, farmers and activists, organized by Rainforest Action Network, momentarily converged under the banner of ending the corporate exploitation of our food system for a day of protest and consciousness-raising.

Noticeably lacking, however, were the rural farmers. To be sure, a number of farmer-backed groups, like Family Farm Defenders and the National Family Farm Coalition endorsed the action, but endorsing is a far cry from nitty-gritty organizing that turns people out.

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Last week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled more plans to militarize the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in preparation for the NATO-G8 protests in May. Truthout’s Yana Kunichoff summarized the Emanuel police regime’s plan for security: “Face Masks, Snipers, and Aerial Surveillance.”

The apocalyptic reporting on the upcoming protests—even in many of the progressive and independent media outlets—is unwittingly confirming the fears of most of the public: in the words of Jim Morrison, there will be “blood in the streets in the town of Chicago.” The Doors’ homage to the 1968 Democratic National Convention has not been lost on protesters, as some of them try to distance themselves from the pigeonholed image of the violent protester. But, sadly, the corporate state is winning the framing war.

Many activists I’ve spoken with express concerns, fear and reluctance to join in because of what may unfold on the streets of this Chicago Spring. Certainly, the security forces will be out in full force because their narrative and legitimation depends upon it, but what of the media and political establishment predictions of anarchists flocking en masse to do battle with Chicago’s finest and wreak havoc on the Windy City?

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On Monday, nearly forty people blocked truck traffic from entering “Mount Frac”—the Winona, MN dumping site for silica sand mined in Wisconsin and Minnesota’s beautiful driftless region before being shipped out for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” sites all over the country. In the twenty or so minutes that protesters blocked the site, eleven semi-trucks were held up; it was stark and visceral reminder of how much the frac sand industry has grown since last summer. There were no arrests made, although police warned that any future attempt to block the trucks would result in citations and/or arrest.

The activists—a diverse group of students, scientists, teachers, musicians, parents, farmers and other concerned citizens—issued a statement declaring their opposition to frac sand mining and fracking:

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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Steven Pinker
Viking (2011)

Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide
Joshua S. Goldstein
Dutton (2011)

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace
Ed. Nigel J. Young
Oxford (2010)

Scholars and students in peace and nonviolent studies find their bookshelves teeming with new and intriguing works on violence, conflict, and social change. In the past year, a number of very important books—not all without controversy—have appeared, and are widely available, that have taken seriously the inquiry of what will it take for peace and a world without war. Two scholars in particular, Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined and Joshua S. Goldstein in Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide, argue that humanity is actually becoming less violent. In fact, Goldstein and Pinker penned a piece for The New York Times Sunday Review that was published at the end of December 2011 titled: “War Really is Going Out of Style.” The boldness and veracity of their claims—in that article and their books—come from different perspectives, but is suggestive of a new consciousness that reflects the global interconnectedness made possible by the Internet and intertwined economies as well as the increasing prominence of nonviolence in the mainstream purview. The 2011 publishing of The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace confirms the serious role inquiries into war, peace, nonviolence, and social change have in the classroom as well as affirms a growing dexterity with alternatives to war.

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Minnesota winters can be brutally cold, full of ice and snow, and drearily bleak come this time of year. And while this year’s winter has been unexpectedly mild and inconsistent, with temperatures fluctuating from well-below freezing to the high 40s—likely due to the instability of climate change—we still look for ways to escape cabin fever. The Frozen River Film Festival (FRFF), on the banks of the Mississippi River in Winona, Minnesota, was just the break I needed. But it was also an inspiring weekend full of hopeful films, cinematic social critique, information tables, and workshops on the environment and activism.

The festival, which began in Winona in 2006, shows films from Mountainfilm—a film festival held in Telluride, Colorado in May that takes its films on tour throughout the rest of the year. Mountainfilm “is dedicated to educating and inspiring audiences about issues that matter, cultures worth exploring, environments worth preserving and conversations worth sustaining.” Likewise, the FRFF—whose films are a combination of the Mountainfilm Tour and locally or regionally-submitted films—has a similar mission:

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On Tuesday, Stand Up Chicago—a coalition of labor and community groups working to “reclaim [tax] funds for meaningful job creation and investment in strong schools and communities, to secure a brighter future for Chicago’s working families”—invited Chicago’s wealthy elite to take a seat on the golden throne—that is, a toilet.

The coalition awarded the golden toilet to Terrence Duffy, Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), as a way of protesting the CME’s recent gift of $109 million from Illinois taxpayers. Close to a hundred Chicagoans—each representing one of the millions that the CME received from city and state tax breaks as well as TIF funding for bathroom renovations, a new fitness center, a cafe, and state-of-the art audio-visual conference room at the Chicago Board of Trade—presented Duffy with the gift and asked for a meeting with him.

Shani Smith, a working-class mother from the Calumet Heights neighborhood of Chicago, was one of the spokespersons at the event. In an interview with her afterwards, Smith said that she finds herself “between unemployment and under-employment” while social services and education services are being cut in her neighborhood. “Meanwhile, [the CME] is recording record profits at the expense of the taxpayer. We want to send a message: We want some of our money back! Our neighborhoods desperately need it.” Smith, whose home teeters on foreclosure, thought the action was spectacular and had powerful visuals. Indeed, the toilet is a creative and humorous piece of protest—reminiscent of Otpor’s famous Milosevic whack-a-barrels.

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, who has been dubbed “Mayor 1 Percent,” got mostly what he wanted.  The “Sit Down and Shut Up” ordinance that Emmanuel legislated in November just passed the City Council.

Members of Occupy Chicago and other groups protested the draconian law that further criminalizes dissent by making protest more costly and more restricted for citizens.

Emmanuel, using the upcoming NATO-G8 summit that is set to take place in Chicago this May as an opportunity to foment fear of protesters, used the legislation to limit access to public parks and beaches, increase the costs and requirements for obtaining permits, and give unilateral power to himself and Chicago Police to quickly deputize law enforcement officers and obtain special equipment for dealing with protests.

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I woke up early this morning to cook breakfast for what remains of the Witness Against Torture community. After almost two weeks, it was the first time one of us had cooked for each other, and as I sat down to reflect on our time here in Washington, D.C. for the “Hunger for Justice” campaign that so many have participated in, I find myself looking forward to be able to take a break. Most of my writing, time, organizing and reflection have dealt with some aspect of torture or detention and, to be honest, I have grown weary. I miss the work on the farm. I miss family and community. I miss being able to walk through the woods or enjoy a quite cup of coffee while reading esoteric political philosophy. And then it dawns on me. Those desires I yearn for and enjoy are the reason I am part of Witness Against Torture (WAT).

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“Rules are rules. The law is the law,” said prosecutor Brandon Long in a closing statements as he spoke for the government in the case against Witness Against Torture activists. Frida Berrigan’s recent column relates the details of the anti-torture activists trial and convictions for speaking out in the US House of Representatives as they petitioned their government to oppose the NDAA.

It struck me as odd that the government chose to frame its case in terms of law, order, and decorum so as to protect civil society and Congress from disruption so that business as usual may carry on while the legal black hole that is Guantanamo persists. Of course, it comes as no surprise that a civil disobedience trial is reduced to a mundane evidentiary trial of whether or not activists did or did not do a certain thing, in a certain place, at a certain time with no consideration given to the context or content of their speech/action.

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