G8 gone but its agenda is left behind – Clinic closure and privatization is the local face of the G8 agenda
Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) calls on reinvestment of funds raised for G8 summit in saving city clinics
Undoubtedly out of fear of growing opposition by community, labor and anti-war movements, the G8 summits have been moved from Chicago. This symbolic victory does not, however, change the local face of the G8 agenda – privatization and corporate power. The impending closure of mental health clinics and privatization of neighborhood health centers are part of a global trend towards privatization and austerity advanced by the G8 and its partners at the IMF and World Bank and enforced by the military powers of NATO. When we are told that closing clinics will improve efficiency, we are reminded that in Argentina, Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa, Greece and hundreds of other countries G8 economics promised efficiency and delivered disaster.
The Chicago that Mayor 1% Emanuel wanted to showcase with these G8 summits was not the Chicago of the thousands of people being pushed out of their clinics. It was not the Chicago of the thousands of families facing foreclosure. It was not the Chicago of the thousands of youth losing their schools and teachers. It was not the Chicago of the thousands of victims of violence in communities starved of jobs and resources who are denied life-saving medical care because the south side lacks trauma centers. It was not the Chicago of homeless veterans sleeping under Wacker drive or tenants evicted from public housing. No, the Chicago that Mayor 1% Emanuel was preparing to showcase with his G8 summit was the Chicago of the Gold Coast, the Chicago where roads, parking meters, water, clinics and airports are fair game for privatization, the Chicago of multi-million subsidy packages to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Sears even as they shed jobs. To do so he was prepared to sweep aside people battling mental illness into prisons and hospitals, to sweep aside unions and protesters with assaults on the right to organize and to protest, to sweep aside any role for the citizenry in making decisions, especially those where there is a direct contradiction between the interests of the 99% who make this city work, and the 1% of this city who think this city works for them alone.
The cancellation of the G8 summits comes as this city sits at a crossroads. Will we be a global city based on strong neighborhoods, robust public services, human rights and active public participation or a global city based on catering to corporations and hiding the poverty left in their wake? A good first step towards choosing the former path and putting people before profit would be to use a chunk of the $60+ million raised by the city to cover the costs of the G8 summits to stop the closure of the 6 mental health clinics and the privatization of all seven of its neighborhood health centers and use the rest towards creating jobs, saving and improving schools and taking care of the people and communities that make up this city. STOP calls on Mayor Emanuel to immediately halt the closure of the mental health clinics and privatization of its neighborhood health centers as a first step in showcasing to the world the Chicago that the people demand and deserve.
STOP will take action to make this point tomorrow, joining labor and community allies in pickets around the city at all 13 of the clinics facing closure and privatization. Press conferences will be at 5:15pm at the following clinics:
Auburn Gresham (1140 W. 79th st)
Rogers Park (1607 W. Howard St)
Northwest (2354 N. Milwaukee)
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