CHICAGO — For activists, the NATO summit in Chicago served as one big stage from which to air a broad range of grievances — not just the war in Afghanistan or other actions of the 63-year-old military alliance.
In their effort to maximize turnout, organizers were quick to welcome a wide variety of interests, including Occupy protesters, immigration groups, the nation’s largest nurses union and others.
But after a week of protests and rallies, the all-inclusive mindset raised questions about the strength and future of some of the nation’s major protest movements.
“The issue with the protests here is that everybody is kind of protesting their own thing. There’s not really a solid voice and united message against NATO,” protester Trent Carl said Monday during a demonstration at Boeing Co. headquarters to oppose the company’s tax breaks.
Carl, who said he was not part of the Occupy crowd, was disappointed that the week’s protests weren’t more focused on NATO.
“Everybody has their own message, (and) it isn’t super-effective when you want to get a singular message across,” said Carl, who said he came out specifically to protest U.S. and NATO actions in Yemen and Pakistan, where he has friends and family.
Demonstrators launched another round of protests Monday in the final hours of the NATO summit, marching through an unusually quiet downtown to the headquarters of Boeing and President Barack Obama’s campaign.
On the second and last day of the international meeting, protests in the Loop were smaller and less confrontational.
