Chicago, IL – 1000 people took to the streets in an unpermitted march from the Chicago Board of Trade Building at Jackson and LaSalle and over to Grant Park for the April 7 Spring to Action by Occupy Chicago.

Chicago, IL – A press conference was held here today, March 15, to announce a change of plans for anti NATO/G8 marchers.

In February, the National Lawyers Guild reached a $6.2 million settlement in the case of Vodak v City of Chicago, which arose from the arrest of 800 protesters on the night the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq began. The case is named after Kevin Vodak, an attorney who attended the protest as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild. Vodak was arrested along with the protesters. Under Mayor Emanuel, the city has frustrated attempts by organizers to get permits for protests against NATO/G8. Emanuel has attempted to force drastic changes to ordinances governing protests, trying to restrict the right to protest. Fight Back! posed questions to Jim Fennerty, one of the lawyers in this nine-year legal fight for the right to protest. Fight Back!: What is the Vodak case about?

Chicago, IL – Alderman Rick Munoz will introduce legislation at the next City Council meeting, Feb. 15, prohibiting the Chicago Police Department from attempting to block access to social networking sites and cell phone networks during the upcoming NATO/G8 summits. The measure will also restrict the police from cooperating with any agency involved in attempts to limit access to social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. “These summits are a chance for us to show the best of Chicago off to the rest of the world,” Rick Munoz said. “That should include our commitment to civil rights and our democratic right to protest.”

Chicago, IL – The U.S. State Department and City of Chicago officially announced Dec. 8 that the May 2012 meetings of NATO and the G8 will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Chicago, IL – Mayor Rahm Emanuel has again refused to guarantee the First Amendment right to protest in Chicago.

Chicago, IL – More than 200 activists from 73 organizations met at the Kent College of Law here, Aug. 28, to lay the groundwork for massive protests at the G8 and NATO summit is scheduled for May of 2012. The conference, initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) served as the founding meeting of the “Coalition Against NATO / G8 War and Poverty Agenda.” Participants agreed that the meeting was a resounding success.

Minneapolis, MN – Organizers from across the country are meeting in Chicago, August 28, to plan major protests at the joint G8/NATO summit in May. Fourteen Twin Cities activists from the Anti-War Committee, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and U of M Students for a Democratic Society will be at the conference to bring experience and lessons from organizing protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Twin Cities activists are also planning to organize hundreds of people from Minnesota to travel to Chicago in May to protest the first joint meeting of the G8 and NATO in Chicago.