Reports on actions against the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialog summit, TABD, from Thursday to Saturday, November 7-9, 2002 follow:

Thursday, November 7: More than 2500 marched to protest TABD. Before the march, protesters applauded various anti-war, anti-Boeing and pro-worker speakers who addressed the crowd outside of Boeing headquarters at Washington and Riverfront Plaza. Demonstrators expressed grave concerns with TABD corporations' bloody thirst for profits at the expense of bombed civilians and laid-off workers. Various social justice movements were clearly represented--as evidenced by signs and chants: labor (including workers striking Azteca Foods), peace, global justice (pro global social justice & anti-imf/wto/wef/etc.), anarchist, etc.

Posters depicting the TABD businessmen as vampires espoused one theme of the protest: corporations as bloodsucking, arrogant, greedy, power hungry, amoral, etc. in their murderous exploitation of workers and destruction of the environment. Youths were dressed in suits and wearing fangs. Thousands watched the march. One activist reports and indymedia reporters observed that downtown Chicago residents lined up to get fliers about the TABD issues.

Protesters were spirited and peaceful as the march progressed east on Washington and north on Michigan. The streets were lined by thousands of police officers. There are multiple reports of police pushing people away who were trying to join the march in progress. Two arrests are reported, including one of Mike D., an animal rights activist who was ridiculously accused of trying to punch a horse. For update, see: Mike D released: his story.

Corporate press reports paid the most attention to the massive number of police, including reports of infiltrating cops. The corporate press did research the costs of policing the march, which came to millions of tax payers' dollars, and some did address the issues.

Organizers have noted that the TABD protests were organized without a lot of lead time or effort (in competition with the election and anti-war work locally). It was noted that the turn out was very good for an event (TABD) which has not been a major rallying point in the global justice movement. For background on the protest issues, see these Chicago IMC features: November 7, October 22.

Protest coverage:
Reports:
- Chicago Peacefully Protests Boeing, Militarization, Attacks on Jobs
- Over 2500 march in first anti-TABD action
- Peaceful tabd protestors and police presence (photos also)
- Flyering Report Against The TABD
- Correct protest count is 2500

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (slide show)
- Corporate Media provides (comments): 1 | 2

Video: 1

Commentary:
- Why We Protested the TABD
- TABD, WTO, and our lovely Police State
- An anarchist's account of the TABD protests
- report back from anti TABD activities
- Portrait of an Anarchist - Trib Repost
- Aggressive policing of global justice mobilizations: sketches and possibilities

Friday, November 8: Autonomous Actions were held at Daley Plaza (Dearborn and Washington) including a vampiric business bloc, spontaneous march of up to several hundred people which evaded the police, a half dozen snake marches throughout the day, and carpet feeding with food not bombs for twelve hours. See these reports:
- A Rag Tag but Spirited Protest in Chicago
- Anarchists Bring Anti-CEO, Pro-Worker Message to Sidewalks

A couple dozen folks turned out for a critical mass bike ride called at the last minute. Two young women were arrested for bike riding and charged with felonies. Update: They were released the next day -- after 40 people had showed up to do jail solidarity. Note: On the last Fridays of the month, over a 1000 folks have been doing critical mass rides in Chicago.

Saturday, November 9: An Alternatives-Anarchist Economics Summit was held at the Autonomous Zone. DePaul University's president cancelled the space reserved at DePaul's downtown campus at the last minute. An open source workshop was given, which defined the public nature of open source publishing and then discussed its application in areas such as software creation, law, recipes, and even the protection of rare genomes. We are awaiting more reports back from the conference. If you would like to share a report, please post it.

[ Chicago IMC on TABD: November 7, October 22 | Anti-TABD Protest pages ]