Midwest Unrest was a small collective in
Chicago formed by
anarchists and
anti-capitalists
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
in a planning meeting for that city's mobilization to the protests against the
Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in
Miami in November 2003. Midwest Unrest organized a pre-mobilization consulta, and took part in the week of protests that was met with a style of repression now often referred to as the
Miami model
The Miami model are the tactics employed by coordinated law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies during demonstrations in Miami, Florida relating to the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) trade agreement in Novembe ...
. It then organized a protest locally against the
Central American Free Trade Agreement that December, and became something of a fixture of citywide and anti-fascist protests in Chicago. Additionally, as a result of connections made via the anti-FTAA consulta, it attempted to formalize networking with similar groups regionally.
The collective experienced internal conflict the next August over allegations of
rape that were leveled against one of its members, who was then expelled from the group.
More recently, the Midwest Unrest collective participated in a citywide campaign to prevent threatened service cuts and fare increases by the
Chicago Transit Authority. Through aggressive
agitation in public hearings, meetings and flyering, the group pushed the
Fare Strike tactic set for December 15 of 2004. The CTA postponed its decision for six months in what many community groups in the city heralded as a victory.
As of 2006, the Midwest Unrest collective has disbanded.
External links
Midwest Unrest document archive at libcom.org
Organizations based in Chicago
Defunct anarchist organizations in North America
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