Need to schedule medics at your protest action or occupation?¶

Email Chicago Action Medical at ChicagoActionMedical@riseup.net to request medic coverage.

Please share all available details as soon as you can so we can add it to the calendar. Thank you!

• Who should we contact for information about this action or occupation? (As many points of contact as possible to ensure medics can get in touch with you. For instance, phone numbers and email addresses for two people, and a website/facebook page)
• Where will medics be needed? (Address, bus line stop, etc.)
• When should medics arrive? (Date and time)
• How long would you like medics to stay? (How many hours, days, etc.; days, nights, or both?)
• Tell us more about the action or occupation. (Don’t blow your cover if you’re planning something secret. We’re looking for how many people, how high an arrest risk, and why it is important for you to have medics there.)

Upcoming Events/Plugging in¶

chicago.indymedia.org

• Mon May 14th/Tues May 15th: Small Occupy actions, and:
  • 14 May: Chicago Day of Action for Education – Money for Education not for War. 3pm (4pm Press Conference), 555 East 51st Street www.facebook.com/events/303602976380565...
  • 15 May: Immigration – No Human Is Illegal! 11am at the Detained Immigration Court Building 525 W. Van Buren. Candle Light Vigil to denounce the racist decisions made towards the lives and liberties of those in the Immigrant community. Major local donors to World Business Chicago profit daily from the inhumane and unjust criminalization of the undocumented. Boeing was awarded contracts by the Department of Homeland Security to construct a virtual fence around the Mexican Border (a reality prevented only by the mismanagement and greed of the Boeing Corporation itself). Bank of America, another major member of World Business Chicago, generates large amounts of wealth from investments in the private prison industry. This vigil is a declaration that no human is illegal and that the immense system of profiteering sustained by the stigmatization and criminalization of the undocumented must end. This action is initiated by Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission and is endorsed and promoted by Occupy El Barrio in collaboration with the NATO week of actions.
• Weds May 16th: Occupy rally/march downtown, Jackson and LaSalle, 10 am, symbolic arrest.
  • Actions to Demand A One-Year Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions! 10am: Rally at Jackson and LaSalle, 10:30am: March to Citibank. Homeowners currently facing foreclosure by Citibank will share their stories, 11am: March to Daley Plaza for Press Conference and Delivery of Petitions to Tom Dart’s office. This is part of a week of actions, the entire schedule for which can be found here: www.facebook.com/events/295772130492710
• Thurs May 17th: Environmental actions, Tar Sands, organized by Occupy, Rising Tide and other environmental groups, search Facebook for action event info. One action:
  • Occupy Chicago Day of Environmental Action: BRING BIKE; GET DIRTY. 2pm BRING BIKE: Mass for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation: Jackson and LaSalle, 3pm Rally outside of the Canadian Consulate: 180 N. Stetson Ave, 3.30pm GET DIRTY with Occupy Chicago against the Alberta Tar Sands and the environmentally destructive agendas of NATO and G8, 4pm Press Conference. www.facebook.com/events/446122835402400
• Fri May 18th: Before NNU Rally, a “feeder march” will meet at Jackson & LaSalle to march for 1 hr and ending at NNU rally. National Nurses United rally, currently fighting over end point with city, starts at 12pm at Daley Plaza (50 W Washington). Expecting 1,000 nurses, 3,000 total. After rally there will be an unpermitted environmental march probably starting from wherever the nurse march ends.
  • National Nurses United: Chicago Rally to Protest the G8 and Global 1%. 12pm – Rally Daley Plaza (50 W Washington). www.facebook.com/events/180493272068416
• Sat May 19th: Occupy health care day of action, no info currently. At night, delegates arrive, small sidewalk marches to hotels.
  • 2. NATO Popular Assembly. 6pm – 8pm, 800 S Halsted, Jane Adams Hull House Museum. www.facebook.com/events/283452085065393
• Sun May 20th: CANGATE liberal coalition march, Jackson and Columbus (Grant Park), noon. After, Iraqi vets against the war unpermitted march to as close to McCormick to return medals.
• Mon May 21st: Shut down Boeing headquarters action, affinity groups needed for arrestable actions. Occupy southside is planning a direct action, no additional info currently
• Weds May 23rd: Stockholder meeting.

Wellness Center:¶

Grace Place 637 S. Dearborn. Mon May 14th (10 am – 6 pm, Mon, 10-10 most other days) through the 21st.

Email natowellnesscenter@gmail.com for more info or to volunteer, or make herb or supply donations. Needed: cots, clean blankets, clothing, solar showers.

Chicago Action medical will have 2 first aid tents set up as well, need help staffing.

Support Local Struggles¶

There are two 24-hour occupations — outside two of the six community mental health clinics that the mayor’s office closed two weeks ago as part of his austerity package. The movement is led by clients and staff of the former facilities under the banner of the Mental Health Movement. Since the facilities were closed, 28 former clients have ended up inpatient in the mental hospital, and two former clients of Northwestern Clinic committed suicide (one on the day the clinic closed, one when he couldn’t find the new clinic he was being sent to after being lost on public transit for 9 hours). The closures impact more than 5,300 patients of the Chicago Department of Public Health-operated clinics, and include laying off 53 employees and eliminating 25 vacant positions. 48 people have been arrested in defense of the clinics in the last two weeks (mostly former clients). The city has offered concessions, but the occupations are not leaving until all of the clinics are reopened with all of their former hours and all of their former staff.

Medics try to support these actions in a 3-shift system. First shift is morning/afternoon, second shift is evening/night, third shift is overnight. Woodlawn accommodations include car camping and sleeping under the stars in a grassy lot (no tents), Northwestern Clinic accommodations are car camping only. Do not stay overnight unless you are on duty, actively supporting the Mental Health Movement.

• Woodlawn Clinic: 6337 S Woodlawn Avenue (Woodlawn Ave and 63rd St, Southside). Red Line to 63rd or Green Line to Cottage Grove, then 63rd bus west (Stony Island) to Woodlawn.
  • Press: www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/woodl...
• Northwestern Clinic: 2354 N Milwaukee Avenue (near N California and W Fullerton, Logan Square). Blue Line to California, then walk 2 bocks northwest on N Milwaukee.
  • Press: news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/ne...

Comms:¶

Medic spokescouncil to meet at Grace Place Wellness Center Mon May 14th at 6:30pm.

Celly: text message system. Login to this page or come to medic spokescouncil for more info.

Dispatch/medic jail support phone number. Login to this page or come to medic spokescouncil for more info.

GRMS radios for CAM buddy medic teams.

Housing:¶

Talk to Scott, First Trinity may be offering 20-30 cots. Login to this page for more info.

Supply:¶

CAM will stock chi-based medics, can provide some basic kits to others via donation. Resupply at tents during actions, one tent location will be Petrillo Band Shell. Depot locations pending, maybe First Trinity and Wellness Center.

Trainings¶

Upcoming action medical trainings¶

• Sunday May 13 (10AM-6PM): Affinity Group Medic Training with Finger Lakes Action Medics and Educators, Chicago Action Medical, and Atlanta Resistance Medics. Email ChicagoActionMedical@riseup.net for more info and location.
• Ongoing trainings (medic and legal) at Grace Place Wellness Center. Email natowellnesscenter@gmail.com for more info.

Want to host a training?¶

• Email Chicago Action Medical at ChicagoActionMedical@riseup.net — Invite street medics to do a training for your affinity group, working group, union, collective, or student group. We do travel!
• How to host an Action Medical Training (offsite link) — This document has info about a variety of health and medic trainings and how to make one happen in your area.

About¶

Chicago Spring Streetmedics¶

Chicago Spring Streetmedics is just the name of this webpage, and is not a group or a collective. The purpose of this page is for Chicago Action Medical and other medics active in Chicago to communicate and share information.

Action Medical¶

Action medical refers to the provision of care in the diverse and challenging environments offered by uprisings, urban protests, occupations, long marches, civil disobedience, and direct actions. Action medical has traditionally been provided by trained street medics in the United States and many parts of Europe and Australia, but some recent action medical responses have been staffed by lay first-aiders, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and nurses who are not trained street medics.

Street Medics¶

The street medic community of health workers has provided first response and medical support at protests and direct actions for over 50 years.

Chicago Action Medical (CAM)¶

Chicago Action Medical has been working in Chicago since 2002, providing medical support at direct actions for social change. Free grassrooots medical care at protests is a tradition going back centuries worldwide. Our current model of “street medicine” is based on work pioneered by members of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960′s. We are part of a nationwide network of street medics with roots in the anti-globalization movement that coalesced in Seattle in 1999.

We have helped organize and provide medical care at many actions for social change and environmental justice throughout the country. Our members were part of establishing the Common Ground Clinic in post-Katrina New Orleans, and have worked in the occupied territories of Palestine. In addition to providing medical care at actions we work to build movements by providing a model of horizontally organized healthcare, and create spaces for progressive medical professionals to work together.

In early March 2012 we organized a weekend-long street medic training which was completed by 25 people, many of whom have become new street medics and members of the group. Today, Chicago Action Medical is helping organize the Spreading the Health conference and organizing medical support for the NATO summit protests and Chicago Spring actions. We are also available to give health and safety trainings to activists; to set one up, email us at ChicagoActionMedical@riseup.net.

See chicagoactionmedical.wordpress.com for our recent doings.

How to get member access to this page¶

Even if you already have a riseup.net email address, you will need to create an account for we.riseup.net as a security measure. Then apply to join the chisp-medics group and a member of the group will approve your membership. Member access is only open to street medics serving in Chicago Spring.