Protests are being organized against the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialog meetings in Chicago November 7-8, 2002. A protest march will be held in the afternoon of November 7 and creative street theater actions on November 8.

The TABD, an exclusive group of corporate CEOs and senior-level government officials from the United States and European Union (i.e. "the global north"), is a decision-making group for the World Trade Organization. The TABD summits function as a forum for architects of neo-liberal economic globalization to plan the demolition of "trade barriers" (labor rights, enviromental protections, cultural heritage).

This year, TABD will be co-chaired by two of the world's largest weapon manufacturers, Chicago-based Boeing for the US and the BAE Systems for the EU. The TABD agenda for Chicago includes strategizing how to capitalize on the war economy.

Protests were held in Cincinnati in November, 2000, against TABD, where over 50 protesters were arrested (Cincinnati CityBeat's coverage). Chicago police are rumored to be organizing to suppress the protests as was recently done in the criminalization of dissent and violation of civil liberties by police and officials in Washington, D.C., during the recent anti-IMF/World Bank protests, which were attended by Chicago police (see CIMC Sept. 28 center column feature).

See: Anti-TABD Protest webpages | Anti-TABD Protest call to action