July 2011 - Newpeople

July, 2011 NEWPEOPLE - 1

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PITTSBURGH’S PEACE AND JUSTICE NEWSPAPER

Published by the Thomas Merton Center VOL. 41, No. 5 July, 2011

NO FREE PASS FOR OIL AND GAS, SAY LOCAL CITIZENS IN FAIR ECONOMY ACTION

~ Rob Conroy

On June 10, more than 300 angry

Pittsburghers stormed an Exxon

station on Pittsburgh‘s South

Side at a rally in which they

demanded—via both call-and-

response chants and handmade

signs--that Exxon pay its ―fair

share‖ of taxes to rescue

community programs like public

transportation, public education

and healthcare from budget

cuts. The rally and march, which

began downtown in Market

Square, extended across the

Smithfield Street Bridge to the

Exxon station on was the first

scheduled action by a new

coalition of community groups

bound together under the banner

of ―One Pittsburgh.‖

According to Lisa Frank, a

lifelong activist who is now One

Pittsburgh‘s coordinator, One

Pittsburgh came together

because all of the organizations

involved—a steadily expanding

list that includes, but is not

limited to, such disparate groups

as Service Employees

International Union (SEIU)

Healthcare, SEIU 32BJ, United

Food and Commercial Workers

International Union (UFCW),

Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact

Network (PIIN), Just Harvest,

the Mon Valley Unemployed

Committee, Clean Water Action,

and the Blue-Green Alliance—

wanted to fight the marked

decline in both the finances and

political clout of average

Americans. ―A lot of people and

a lot of community groups have

recognized that over the last 30

or 40 years, ordinary people have

been slipping backwards,‖ Frank

says, citing increasing school

class sizes and decreasing public

services like transportation and

community swimming pools as a

couple of indicators. ―Income

inequality has been growing at a

dramatic pace while the power of

ordinary people over their

elected officials has

been decreasing, and

it‘s not an accident

that this has been

happening as

corporate power has

increased. One

Pittsburgh is and

remains open to all of

the folks in Pittsburgh

who share that point

of view and want to

come together to

figure out how the

heck we turn that

around.‖

The Market

Square speakers at the

June 10 rally reflected

the disparity of

individuals and

programs crippled by

Governor Corbett‘s

budget cuts--Tara Marks of Just

Harvest spoke about the rapidly

increasing number of food stamp

applications and Governor

Corbett‘s proposed cuts to

funding for food stamp

programs; Ben Kessler, a Clean

Water Action volunteer,

addressed the difficulties that he

Continued on Page 6

Nuclear News

– Page 4

Dorothy Day

– Pages 3

March for Economic Fairness – Page 6, 13

TMC works to build a consciousness of values and

to raise the moral questions involved in the issues

of war, poverty, racism, classism, economic justice,

oppression and environmental justice.

TMC engages people of diverse philosophies and

faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent

struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just

world.

~ Paul LeBlanc

Decent Jobs for All! Make Big

Business Corporations Accountable

to the People! Tax the Rich! These

demands are being raised more and

more throughout the United States

in reaction to our declining

economy and assaults on the quality

of life of the working class

majority. Supporters of the peace

and social justice goals of the

Thomas Merton Center will have an

opportunity to join with hundreds of

others to give voice to these

concerns.

On Tuesday, July 18, from 6:00

p.m. to 8:00 p.m. there will be

massive community speak-out

at East Liberty‘s Kingsley

Association auditorium (6435

Frankstown Avenue). The occasion

for the mobilization is a town

meeting being organized by

representatives of the Progressive

Caucus in the U.S. Congress, at

which Representative John Conyers

(D-MI) and Representative Raul

Grihalva (D-AZ), and also

Representative Michael Doyle (D-

PA), will be on hand to hear the

thinking of Pittsburgh area

residents. This is part of a national

tour that the 77 Congressional

members of the Progressive Caucus

are organizing in cities throughout

the country.

―We need to get outside the

Washington Beltway and break

through the news bubble,‖

according to Progressive Caucus co-

chair Keith Ellison. ―Good jobs

have to be the point of conversation

and the priority. As Washington is

contemplating cuts, we‘ve got to be

talking about growing the economy

and putting people back to work.‖

Playing a central role in

mobilizing for this town meeting is

the Pittsburgh ―We Are One‖

coalition. It includes such unions as

the United Steel Workers, the

Service Employees International,

the Pittsburgh Federation of

Teachers, the United Food and Continued on Page 7

JULY 18 MASS MOBILIZATION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN PITTSBURGH

Paul LeBlanc marches for a fair economy.

Photo by Liyan Qi

2 - NEWPEOPLE July, 2011

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TMC PROJECTS and CAMPAIGNS

Anti-War Committee [email protected] www.pittsburghendthewar.org

Book‘Em (books to prisoners)

[email protected] www.thomasmertoncenter.org/bookem

CodePink (Women for Peace) [email protected], 412-389-3216

www.codepink4peace.org

Conscience 412-231-1581

www.consciencepgh.blogspot.com

Demilitarize Pittsburgh: War-Profiteering Edu-cation & Action Network

412-361-3022, [email protected] www.demilitarizepittsburgh.org

Diversity Footprint (art, justice, community)

[email protected]

East End Community Thrift Shop 412-361-6010, [email protected]

Economic Justice Committee [email protected]

Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up

(prisoner support and advocacy) 412-802-8575, [email protected] www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup

Fight for Lifers West 412-361-3022 to leave a message

[email protected] http://fightforliferswest.mysite.com

Food Not Bombs

[email protected] http://fnb-pgh.2ya.com

In Sisterhood: The Women’s Movement in Pgh 412-621-3252, [email protected]

Literacy for Ziguinchor 724-549-4933, [email protected]

Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance

412-867-9213

Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW!

412-422-5377, [email protected] www.pcdn.org

Pittsburgh Works! (labor history documentaries) [email protected]

Roots of Promise 724-327-2767, 412-596-0066 [email protected]

(Network of Spiritual Progressives) [email protected]

Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition [email protected]; www.pittsburghdarfur.org

Sustainable Living Project [email protected], 412-551-6957

Three Rivers Area Medics (TRAM) 412-641-9191 or [email protected]

Urban Arts Project

[email protected]

Pittsburgh Progressive Notebook

Call 412-301-3022 for more info

The Palestine Film Festival

Call 412-301-3022 for more info

Murrysville Marcellus Community Group

Wanda Guthrie

724-327-2767

[email protected]

The Pittsburgh Totebag Project

Sue Kerr, 412-228-0216

P.O. Box 99204

Pittsburgh, Pa 15233

www.tote4pgh.org

The Africa Project 412-657-8513, [email protected]

www.africaproject.net

Allegheny Defense Project, Pgh Office 412-559-1364 www.alleghenydefense.org

Amnesty International [email protected] www.amnestypgh.org

Association of Pittsburgh Priests Molly 412-343-3027 [email protected]

The Big Idea Bookstore 412-OUR-HEAD, www.thebigideapgh.org

Black Voices for Peace Gail Austin 412-606-1408

Citizens for Global Solutions 412-471-7852 [email protected]

Citizens for Social Responsibility of Greater Johnstown

Larry Blalock, [email protected]

Haiti Solidarity Committee [email protected],

412-271-8414 www.thomasmertoncenter.org/hs

PA United for a Single-Payer Health Care (PUSH) www.healthcare4allPA.org Molly Rush [email protected]

Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319

Pittsburgh Committee to Free Mumia 412-361-3022, [email protected]

Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition

412-563-1519 [email protected]

Pgh Independent Media Center [email protected] www.indypgh.org

Pgh North Anti-Racism Coalition 412-367-0383

Pgh North People for Peace 412-367-1049

Pgh Palestine Solidarity Committee [email protected] www.pittsburgh-psc.org

Raging Grannies 412-963-7163, [email protected]

www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com

Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 [email protected]

School of the Americas Watch of W. PA 412-371-9722, [email protected]

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org

Urban Bikers [email protected]

Veterans for Peace [email protected]

Voices for Animals [email protected]

1-877-321-4VFA

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Karen 412-521-7187 [email protected]

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TMC MEMBERSHIPS These are organizations or coalitions in which TMC has formal membership, including payment of dues to and fulfillment of other agreed-upon responsibilities as an organizational member

Abolition 2000: W. Pa. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 724-339-2242 / [email protected]

Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

412-384-4310, [email protected]

TMC

HOURS of OPERATION

10 am — 3 pm

Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, Friday

In this Issue

Page 4 Nuclear News

Page 5 Convergence for Social Justice Health Care for All Meeting

Page 8 Vandana Shiva Land Grab

Page 11 Rothermel Retires

Page 13 Merton Center History

Page 15 Amnesty International Forum

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Book Review

~ Francis Berna, La Salle University,

Philadelphia, PA 19141

for Catholic Books Review

On the day after the hundredth

anniversary of Dorothy Day‘s birth,

Cardinal O‘Connor of New York

included in his homily a quotation from

the final paragraphs of her book on St.

Therese of Lisieux. ―So many books

have been written about Saint Therese,

books of all kinds, too, so why, I ask

myself again, have I written one

more?‖ (308). Amazon.com lists fifteen

texts along with this newest book on

Dorothy Day. Does anyone really need

one more? Forest‘s revised text Love is

the Measure had its sixth printing in

2000. Why, one more?

Scanning chapter titles the reader

should avoid jumping to the conclusion

that some identical chapter titles shared

by the two books mean identical

content. All Is Grace offers some fresh

material. Beyond the new material on

the cause for canonization, Forest

weaves together material from all of the

classic texts and incorporates rich

insight from the more recently released

writings from Day‘s diaries, The Duty

of Delight. The reader gains fresh

insight into the complexity of character

exhibited by this revolutionary woman.

While noting the more sensational story

of her ongoing love for Forster

Batterham, the author helps the reader

appreciate some of the profound

questions with which Dorothy lived as

well as some of the ―difficult‖ aspects

of her personality. He includes material

from a letter to a friend in which Day

expresses remorse ―for having pushed

him (Forster) away in the course of her

conversion‖ (288). Forest writes of

Peter Maurin‘s disappointment because

of Day‘s dominant voice and control

over The Catholic Worker. Dorothy

struggled during the 1960‘s as many in

the movement set aside Catholic

identity. Forest writes how she had a

―sense of inadequacy both as a mother

and leader of a movement… She found

herself too impatient, too judgmental,

too distant, too severe‖ (171).

Along these same lines the author

accurately portrays a revolutionary

woman with a sometimes very

traditional faith. Daily Mass, the

Rosary, reading the lives of the Saints

and contemplative prayer shaped her

spirituality. The conviction of her

conversion kept her within the Catholic

Church though she was often

misunderstood by that church. The

reader can get a real sense of this as

Forest details Day‘s criticism of

Cardinal Spellman during the grave-

diggers strike in the Archdiocese of

New York. The author observes that

Day ―would put obedience to her

bishop above continuation of her

newspaper‖ (190). However, when

challenged by the Archdiocese, she did

not offer immediate compliance. She

pondered changing the name of the

newspaper, and then sought to persuade

the Archdiocese, by way of a letter, and

appealed for dialogue. The matter

seemed to be quietly dropped by the

Archdiocese, and one finds no change

in the content of the paper. The same

commitment to dialogue and non-

violent resistance causes Day to be

troubled by the destruction of Draft

Board property, a point others found

puzzling given the violence of war and

the movement‘s protest against United

States involvement in Vietnam. Forest

gives us the complexity of the woman.

When one thinks of important

influences of Dorothy Day, one

immediately calls to mind Maurin,

Maritain, Chavez, and Dostoyevsky.

Forest adds to the list the important role

of Pope John XXIII and the Cuban

Missile Crisis. He likewise highlights

Day‘s appreciation of the Jewish author

Chaim Potok whom she notes was

―filled with a sense of the

sacramentality of life‖ (284). While the

author does not make an explicit

connection, the sacramentality

expressed in Potok‘s works was known

to Day in her lifelong appreciation of

beauty. The same sacramentality found

expression in her relationship with

Forster as she later writes, ―It was

because through a whole love, both

physical and spiritual, I came to know

God‖ (73).

Finally, this text provides another rich

addition to the others. The words of the

text come alive with the photographs

and drawings that grace most every

page. To this the author adds in the

columns longer quotations of excerpts

or additional material related to the

topic at hand.

So, is there need for this, one more, text

on Dorothy Day? Yes! At Dorothy

Day‘s funeral reporters asked Dan

Berrigan what had impressed him most

about her. He replied, ―She lived as

thought the truth were actually

true‖ (302). This text presents the truth

of her life with some real fresh air.

Though one might be tempted to think

this is just one more, the text actually

mirrors some of Dorothy‘s words about

her beloved Saint Therese – ―What was

there about her to make such an

appeal?... In her lifetime there are no

miracles recounted, she was just

good…‖ (309). All Is Grace is ―just

good‖ and therefore needed.

All is Grace, A Biography of Dorothy Day

The Anti-War Committee of the

Thomas Merton Center formulated

the Resolution below entitled City

Council Anti-War Resolution. This is

the first step of a campaign led by the

AWC to end the wars in Afghanistan,

Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere in the

Middle East. The Committee is

seeking sponsorships and

endorsements by supporting peace

and justice movements for this

Resolution. The hope is that in the

early Fall, the AWC will get the City

Council to pass this proclamation or

resolution.

To endorse or sponsor the resolution

contact the Ant-War Committee of

the Thomas Merton Center at 412-

361-3022

WHEREAS October 7, 2011 marks

the 10th Anniversary of the U.S.

invasion of Afghanistan, the longest

war in U.S. history; and

WHEREAS the ostensible purposes

of the said invasion – the toppling of

the then ruling Taliban regime, and

the capturing or killing of Osama bin

Laden – have both been since

accomplished; and

WHEREAS more than 5000 U.S.

troops have been killed in

Afghanistan and Iraq, tens of

thousands more wounded – many of

them with permanent disabilities, and

hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,

Afghanis, Pakistanis and others killed

and untold number of others wounded

and permanently disabled; and

WHEREAS on May 30, 2010,

according to the ―Cost of War‖

Project, the combined cost of both

these wars being fought reached

$1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion

dollars); and

WHEREAS local, county, and state

governments are being starved for

cash due in part to a ballooning

Federal Debt caused by a combination

of war spending, the economic crisis

which begun in 2007, and tax cuts

granted to multinational corporations

and super-wealthy individuals; and

WHEREAS shameful proposals are

being advanced which propose paying

down the Federal debt upon the backs

of the most vulnerable members of

our society – the young, the sick, the

physically and emotionally disabled,

the unemployed, the marginally

employed, the working poor, and the

elderly, among others, by reducing or

eliminating social programs upon

which the vulnerable depend for life

and well-being rather than reducing

military spending;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED

that the City Council of Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania petitions President

Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress

to end both combat and occupation

operations in Afghanistan, Iraq,

Pakistan, Yemen, and surrounding

nations, and remove U.S. troops and

private security forces from those

areas immediately. Additionally, they

should vote no funds to be used in

these areas of conflict except as will

be used to safely remove our troops.

We also ask that, prior to such

withdrawal, Pennsylvania Senators

Robert Casey and Patrick Toomey

and Pittsburgh area Congressmen

Michael Doyle and Tom Murphy vote

that no funds be used in these areas of

conflict except as will be used to

safely remove our troops.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that

the City Council of Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania petitions the U.S.

Congress (and especially Senators

Casey and Toomey, and

Congressmen Doyle and Murphy)

that all monies saved by ending these

conflicts will be used first and

foremost to support and expand those

social programs which serve the most

vulnerable members of our society,

and to invest in infrastructure creating

jobs, social services, and the meeting

of human needs.

Anti-War Committee To Press City Council

Correction: In the previous issue of NEWPEOPLE the name of contributing photographer

Philomena O'Dea was misspelled. We apologize for the error.

All is Grace, A Biography of Dorothy Day by Jim Forest

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011. pp. 344. $27.00 pb

ISBN 978-1-57075-921-5

Jim Forest in Pittsburgh OCTOBER 14th & 15th

Jim Forest is the author of a new,

comprehensive biography of

Dorothy Day just published by Orbis

Books: All is Grace. Jim is a writer,

theologian, educator, & peace

activist who worked closely with

Dorothy Day, serving for a time as

managing editor of The Catholic

Worker. He helped start the Catholic

Peace Fellowship in response to the

Vietnam War, and was Sec. General

for the International Fellowship of

Reconciliation, which brought him

to the Netherlands, where he

currently lives in Amsterdam. He

received the Peacemaker Award

from Notre Dame University‘s

Institute for International Peace

Studies. Jim had a long-term

friendship with Thomas Merton,

who dedicated a book to him. A

journalist and writer, Jim‘s books

include Praying with Icons, Ladder

of the Beatitudes, The Road to

Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of

Life, & biographies of Merton and

Day, to name a few. Dorothy Day's

life, her work, her struggles and her

faith, and those who worked with

her in community at the Worker,

offer us graced inspiration and

courage to continue the work for

peace and social justice in our own

time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_University


Nuclear News

Rolling the Stone Back Up the Hill: The Unimaginable is Happening

New Nuclear Weapons Are Being Secretly Made

~ Vincent Scotti Eirene‘, On behalf of

the Pittsburgh Catholic Workers

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus

(play /ˈsɪsəfəs/; Greek: Σίσυφος

Sísyphos) was a king punished by being

compelled to roll an immense boulder

up a hill, only to watch it roll back

down, and to repeat this throughout

eternity. In terms of peaceful protest

against nuclear weapons, I empathize

with Sisyphus. I was asked by a friend

to write an article concerning new

nuclear weapons in the US. Even

though I have heard rumblings about

this subject since the Berlin wall came

down in 1989, nothing had been

confirmed. Ironically, I was asked to

write this article the very day that I was

informed by Pittsburgh‘s own urban

guerrilla, Dylan Rook, that over fifty

Catholic workers and friends undertook

civil disobedience in Kansis City,

Missouri. The Kansas City Plant is

responsible for the production and

assembly of approximately 85 percent

of the non-nuclear components for the

US nuclear arsenal. The plant is due to

be relocated, starting in 2012.

When the Berlin wall came

down, many sensed it was the

beginning of the end of the nuclear

arms race, the conclusion of a cold war

in which no shot was fired but many

died, and immense resources were

wasted. At the time of this story, the

winter of 1995, I had spent over two

and a half years in various jails and

prisons, the longest being ten months

for civil disobedience for creative acts

against a run-away nuclear train. An

article had been written in the New

York Times that the Los Alamos Labs

were beginning to make nuclear

buttons, or triggers.

I climbed a mile and a half

through the clouds to reach Los

Alamos, the birth place of the Nuclear

Era. Here, Oppenheimer and his lab

partners unleashed hell. To me, a boy

from Pittsburgh, I had never witnessed

such untold beauty. Every sunset

stopped the locals and demanded their

attention; the trees and vegetation were

that of the desert, yet the weather was

severe in the winter time. As I

approached area T-55, the nuclear pit

where nuclear triggers were

manufactured, my heart raced. No one

had ever crossed the line here before.

Security marched around with their

loaded M-16s.

I approached the drive through

the security gate. The first gate opened,

the car was checked, and mirrors were

employed to sneak a peek at the

underside of the car. Then, the second

gate opened, allowing access to "the

labs". Walking now, crunching snow

underfoot, I quickened my pace and

made it under the first gate; I knelt

down to pray. It was January 6th, 1995.

A guard screamed through the snow

storm, "What are you doing here!?‖ I

replied, loud enough to be heard

through the wind and snow, "I have

come here to pray for peace....that

Hell‘s kitchen be closed". The guard,

in her professionally trained manner,

said, ―Oh shit!‖

The National Nuclear Security

Administration (NNSA), a division of

the US Department of Energy, has said

the new facility will cost an estimated

price of $673 million for construction.

The city government has subsidized the

facility‘s construction with $815

million in municipal bonds. Once

completed, it is believed that the new

Kansas City Plant will be the first

nuclear weapons complex in the world

to be owned by a city government.

The new Kansas City facility

is one of several where new nuclear

weapons projects are underway. The

new Chemistry and Metallurgy

Research Replacement Project at Los

Alamos, NM, is also under

construction, and a new uranium

processing facility in Oak Ridge, TN, is

in the final stages before approval.

I have been compelled to roll

an immense boulder up a hill, only to

watch it roll back down. It is time to

roll the boulder back up the hill – to

stop the production of new nuclear

weapons. For people of peace, we have

no choice; this issue has picked us. And

I do it with joy.

The lab guards finally made it

to T-55, and the group of thirty-six

surrounded me with M-16 rifles.

Puzzled, they called in the local police

to do their dirty work. The local police

were told that I was a foreign terrorist

and that I might be wired with

explosives. A local police woman

stepped forward and formally asked if I

understood English. She then asked if

my stomach was dynamite. The wind

and snow screamed past my face.

Kneeling down, I could not let this

moment pass. I looked up, and, with a

chuckle, said, ―You better believe it,

sister‖. She let out a nervous laugh and

moved in quickly to arrest me. Four

months later, a circus of a trial was

held, complete with Martin Sheen

flying in on Clint Eastwood‘s Lear jet.

Martin had come for moral support and

to lend his star status to draw in the

media.

When the trial was over, I was

given time served and a year‘s

probation. The feds, Lab security, and

the FBI took me into a room when

everything was over and asked me an

odd question, ―What do you want?‖ Not

skipping a beat, I said, ―Only a train

ride home.‖ The room was quiet, and

we all laughed for a long time, because

for now, it was over.

As the entourage of agents put

me on the train, I threw open the

compartment window, waved, and

yelled at the silent group, ―Until next

time, gentlemen‖.

Just A Little Bit Nuclear

~ Ann Follette

I have been reading and listening to

stories of legislation designed to

facilitate the development of the first

mini nuclear reactors by Westinghouse

Electric. The exact legislation is

HR1808 The Nuclear Power 2021 Act

which is sponsored by Jason Altmire

and Tim Murphy. You might want to

get active on this.

Of course I wondered could a little bit

nuclear be similar to a little bit

pregnant?

Could it be that at last we will no longer

use uranium and discard uranium 238

in thousands of leaking barrels as we

have in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio?

Perhaps we will no longer discard

material on indigenous lands?

Perhaps now it will really be clean?

Somehow I never saw mention of this

in the announcement.

I am reading the book, ―Nuclear Power

is not the Answer‖ 2007 by Dr. Helen

Caldicott. I would recommend it to

everyone. Helen is the founder of

Beyond Nuclear and in addition to

many other books has written, ―If You

Love This Planet: A Plan to Save the

Earth‖ revised in 2009.

Will these mini plants proposed for our

back yards also need to store

radioactive material for 30-60 years

heavily shielded and continually cooled

by air or water in the event of a

shutdown? Shut downs do not have to

come from natural disasters, they also

come from human error.

Perhaps nuclear waste from the mini

plants will not pose a threat to our

welfare?

Will mini nuclear waste need to be

supervised in storage for 240,000 years

as does the current waste?

Please go to NIRS (Nuclear

Information Resource Service), click on

Nuclear Waste, and read the press

release dated June 25, 2010 regarding

Nuclear Waste. This release briefs the

Commission on Radioactive Waste

Policy.

Protest At Site Of New Nuclear Weapons Plant One Of

Dozens Of Acts Of Resistance To N-Power And Weapons

~ Molly Rush

On May 2nd 53 Catholic Workers

and friends were arrested in Kansas

City for a protest at the construction site

of a new nuclear weapons plant. It is

part of President Obama's program to

build a new generation of nuclear

weapons at a cost of $100 billion.

Among upcoming worldwide

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Days nonviolent

protests against nuclear

weapons, actions will be held from

England, Finland and Sweden to the

Nevada Test Site, STRATCOM in

Nebraska, Livermore Lab in California,

The White House and Pentagon,

Bangor submarine base in Washington,

and Lockheed-Martin in King of

Prussia PA.

The latest issue of the NUCLEAR

RESISTERS carries twelve pages of

reports on resistance to nuclear

weapons and power in the U.S. and

around the world. Since 1980 co-

editors Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa

have faithfully published this

essential paper on a shoestring.

SUBSCRIPTIONS are $25/!5 low-

income. Send to The Nuclear Resister,

P.O. Box 43383, Tucson AZ 85733.

Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or

more should be made payable to The

Progressive Foundation.

click on Nuclear Waste, and read the

press release dated June 25, 2010

regarding Nuclear Waste. This release

briefs the Commission on Radioactive

Waste Policy.

From the statement by Bishop W. Finn, Kansas City MO on the

Groundbreaking of the Nuclear Weapons Plant, 2 September 2010

―…the accumulation of weapons of

mass destruction – which this nuclear

plant proposes to construct – constitutes

a grave moral danger. Nuclear weapons

are by their very nature weapons of

mass destruction: their force and impact

cannot be contained, and their use

affects combatants ad non-combatants

alike. The Catechism of the Catholic

Church states, ‗Every act of war

directed to the indiscriminate

destruction of whole cities or vast areas

with their inhabitants is a crime against

God and humanity, which merits firm

and unequivocal condemnation…Since

the use of such weapons is morally

questionable, it follows that the

production of such weapons is also

morally questionable…‖


Building Change: A

Convergence for Social

Justice is a three-day, open-

attendance conference for

social change for

Southwestern Pennsylvania.

It will run October 13-15,

2011, at the Sen. John Heinz

Regional History Center, in

Pittsburgh (1212 Smallman

St., Strip District). It‘s being

planned by a broad spectrum

of people and organizations,

who have come together to

create a conference unlike any

you‘ve ever attended! It will

host a mix of skill-building

workshops, panel discussions,

community dialogues on key

issues, speakers, art,

roundtable talks, networking,

entertainment, a film festival

(running October 12-15), and

more. Admission is low, on a

sliding scale from $5-$10 per

day. It will also be fully

accessible to people with

disabilities.

The Convergence kicks off

Thursday evening, from 6-9

PM. On Friday, October 14,

the event will open at 9 AM

for registration, with sessions

beginning at 10 AM. A panel

of speakers will open the

morning, discussing key issue

areas and then workshops will

run throughout the day until

4:30 PM. There will be a

break until 6:30 PM, leaving

time for dining and more

conversations with new

friends. At 6:30 PM the event

resumes for a performance

and presentation of social

change awards. On Saturday,

the event opens at 9 AM with

sessions at 10 AM, with a

panel of speakers and time for

audience participation.

Workshops will follow and

the Convergence will wrap-up

with a discussion of the 5-year

Regional Social Justice Action

Plan, ending at 4 PM.

During the day of October

13th, from 8 AM-2 PM, Youth

Leading Change will occur,

connecting high school youth

with social change

organizations to build a class

project. Youth will participate

in skill-building workshops,

discuss relevant social change

issues, and wrap-up the day

with a scavenger hunt through

the History Center.

The goals of the Convergence

are:

To provide a forum for

identifying and discussing

urgent social, economic,

and environmental issues in

the rural and urban

communities comprising

the 10-county region of

Southwestern Pennsylvania.

To convene hundreds of

grassroots organizations,

groups, and individuals in

this region to engage in

productive debate and

dialogue on problems of

inequity and injustice and to

seek unified, strategic, and

non-duplicative solutions to

these problems.

To develop a 5-year

Regional Social Justice

Action Plan that will be

shaped by Convergence

participants. A

continuations committee

will be drawn from

participants to guide

implementation of this first-

ever plan, to build the

capacity of the social

change movement in the

region.

To foster greater

collaboration and

partnerships between and

among grantmakers and

progressive organizations

throughout the region.

To draw media attention to

issues of social justice in

the region.

Building Change is looking

for people to help organize the

event. There are nine

planning subcommittees, and

there‘s a place for anyone to

plug in! Please contact the

TRCF office to find out more.

Key to Building Change is

true participation from all

counties in Southwestern PA

(Allegheny, Armstrong,

Beaver, Butler, Fayette,

Greene, Indiana, Lawrence,

Washington, and

Westmoreland). To that end,

the planning team is searching

for County Captains – at least

one person in each county

who is committed to

promoting the event in their

county, getting people to come

to the event, coordinating

transportation to the

Convergence from their

county, and more.

Please join the planning of this

innovative Convergence!

Contact Willa Paterson at the

Three Rivers Community

Foundation office at 412-243-

9250 or

[email protected].

TRCF, a long-time funder of

all things social change in the

region, is spearheading this

event, and welcomes everyone

to the planning table.

Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice October 13-15, 2011

Local News

Health Care for All Sets Indiana Meeting

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

PA will hold a Community

Meeting at the First Unitarian

Universalist Church of

Indiana, PA on Saturday, July

9, 2011 from 10 to 11:30 AM Presidents Dave Steil and

Scott Tyson, MD and

Executive Directors Chuck

Pennacchio and Rev. Mary Pat

Donegan will report on the

current status of the grassroots

campaign to enact The Family

and Business Health Security

Act, SB 400/ HB 1660. Area legislators are also

invited to attend and speak. Health Care for All PA, a

grassroots, all volunteer

statewide nonprofit

organization is dedicated to

the enactment of legislation

that will provide quality,

affordable, comprehensive

health care for all legal

residents of the

Commonwealth through

publicly financed, privately

delivered services.

For information contact Bob

Mason, Vice President of

Health Care for All PA at 412-

646-1472 or

[email protected].

Directions: www.firstuu-

indianapa.org.

Moshe Sherman, 2011

mailto:[email protected]

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=nya4upcab&et=1106070526484&s=1865&e=001zUeeW1qITxrvjJBiFWWsz4rVw4IggCM--0RPJ-dDAHJzq7N24735XUUN9AYEMC8AqLRG-VA7LHOuOo43lLWx9-eItcL8WTmx3rvDGce2fF5bbFT3FhNYNky68qtSxg9k





Economic Justice

Income Equality Action, cont. from Page 1

will face attempting to obtain student loans

to finish his college education; Billy

Hileman of the Pennsylvania Federation of

Teachers (PFT) raged about crippling teacher

furloughs and cuts to kindergarten programs;

San Dalachandran, an employee at a local

restaurant chain, vented about being too old

to be covered by his parents‘ health

insurance, too poor to afford his employer‘s

health coverage, and too late to receive the

benefits provided by the recently-cut Adult

Basic program; and Monica Johnson, a

community member who worked with

developmentally disabled children, talked

about losing her job when the program that

funded her position was cut--while

corporations like Exxon reap the benefits of

tax incentives and their CEOs net lucrative

salaries and bonuses.

―Exxon is the real welfare queen,” said

Marks, referencing former President

Reagan’s infamous epithet in which he

chastised a controversial “class” of

American citizens whom he alleged reaped

excessive benefits without “giving back” to

the community.

As the marchers traversed the

Boulevard of the Allies and the entire length

of the Smithfield Street Bridge, pedestrian

and motorized passersby clapped and honked

in what appeared to be a strong outpouring

of support. After all of the angry citizens

arrived at the Exxon station, the Reverend

David Thornton, who serves as both Vice-

President of PIIN and pastor of Grace

Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Hill

District, addressed the crowd. ―We are

speaking truth and power,‖ Thornton said,

―and God is empowering us.‖ Although

several members of the Pittsburgh police

were on-site visibly securing the perimeter of

the Exxon station, they and the protesters

behaved without any open antagonism or

incident.

Exxon proved to be a prescient topic for

One Pittsburgh‘s inaugural action due to the

public‘s frustration regarding rising gasoline

costs, its CEO Rex Tillerson‘s $29 million

salary, and its recent acquisition of several of

the gas and oil companies performing tax-

free Marcellus Shale drilling across

Pennsylvania.

Yet Exxon is only the tip of the proverbial

iceberg on One Pittsburgh‘s ever-flexible

agenda. ―We‘re challenging ourselves to

work in ways and partnerships that we‘ve not

worked in before,‖ Frank said. ―I want

people to come and invent One Pittsburgh

with us. Our shared problem is the vast

imbalance of wealth and power in this

country and we‘re not going to fix this

problem unless people come together in new

and creative ways.‖

Laneka Blanchard, a local food services

worker and SEIU 32BJ member who

attended the rally, agrees. “It’s affecting

everyone,” she says. “Not one person is

unaffected by these cuts and by big

corporations refusing to pay their taxes.”

Learn more about One Pittsburgh by

calling (877) 793-4238 or visiting

onepittsburgh.org.

Rob Conroy is a Pittsburgh lawyer,

advocate, journalist, musician and activist.

Scenes from a march for a fair economy, June 10 Photo top left & top center by Chris Neverman, all other by Lindy Hazel LaDue

http://onepittsburgh.org/


~ by Alan Hard, Managing Editor, UE News

Members of the Thomas Merton Center‘s

Economic Justice Committee participated in a

massive union rally on June 4 in Erie, hosted by

Local 506 of the United Electrical Workers

(UE), which represents workers at the big

General Electric plant there. An enthusiastic

crowd of 3,500 filled Gannon University‘s

Hammermill Center, including members of 50

local unions. Most were from the 10 unions that

jointly bargain with GE through the Coordinated

Bargaining Committee (CBC). Besides

thousands of Erie GE workers, the rally included

four busloads – 300 union members of Local

761, International Union of Electronic Workers-

Communication Workers of America (IUE-

CWA) – who traveled from Louisville,

Kentucky. Another busload of workers came

from Lynn, Massachusetts, members of IUE-

CWA Local 201 at the GE plant there. Workers

from many other GE plants were present, and

each local was greeted with loud cheers as they

were announced and marched into the

auditorium.

Between May 24 and June 19, CBC unions

negotiated with GE in New York City for

contracts covering more than 15,000 GE workers

in the U.S. Major issues were wages and

healthcare, as well as wages and other benefits.

A tentative agreement was reached on June 19,

and as the New People went to press, ratification

votes by union members were scheduled for the

week of June 27. GE union workers in Allegheny

County include 70 members of IUE-CWA Local

623 at the GE Apparatus Service Center in West

Mifflin, and about 100 workers at a GE lighting

glass plant in Bridgeville, members of IUE-

CWA Local 640. UE‘s national office is also

located in Downtown Pittsburgh.

UE‘s national website has a section devoted to

the GE negotiations, at www.ueunion.org/

unity2011.html. The CBC‘s website

is www.geworkersunited.org/.

Economic Justice Committee Supports National

Contract Struggle of GE Workers

Economic Justice

Mass Mobilization, cont. from Page 1

Commercial Workers, the Iron Workers, the

United Electrical workers, and others. It also

includes a rich array of community groups,

including Pittsburgh United, the Pittsburgh

Interfaith Impact Network, and the Economic

Justice Committee of the Thomas Merton

Center. The coalition is planning to organize a

5:00 p.m. protest rally – focusing on decent jobs

for all and corporate accountability – in the East

Liberty area before bringing its forces into the

Kingsley auditorium town meeting.

The Economic Justice Committee has set

participation in We Are One actions as one of its

central priorities. At the same time, it will be

connecting to this effort other issues on which it

has focused – such as the struggle to save public

transit in Pittsburgh, and support for the Anti-

War Committee‘s campaign to end U.S. wars

and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and

neighboring countries, bringing U.S. troops

safely home and redirecting the massive war

spending into meeting human needs here at

home. This relates to the recently passed

resolution of the U.S. Conference of Mayors

calling for an end to the wars in Afghanistan and

Iraq, saying that the money could be put to better

use at home. The Anti-War Committee

campaign, supported by the Economic Justice

Committee and others, will seek to win

Pittsburgh City Council and an array of labor and

community groups to the same demand.

The spreading dialogue and mobilization for

economic justice will naturally and necessarily

raise a variety of interrelated issues having to do

with the future of the United States and the

world. In this process, July 18 promises to be an

important moment for the Pittsburgh

community.

For more information on the July 18

mobilization for economic justice, check the

websites of Pittsburgh United

(www.pittsburghunited.org) and the Thomas

Merton Center (www.thomasmertoncenter.org).

Workers rally in Erie, PA for a fair contract from GE Photos by Alan Hart (top row) and by Jibran Mushtaq (all others).

http://www.ueunion.org/unity2011.html

http://www.ueunion.org/unity2011.html

http://www.geworkersunited.org/

http://www.pittsburghunited.org/

http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/


The Great Land Grab: India's War on Farmers

Land is a powerful commodity that should be used for the betterment of humanity through farming and ecology.

~ by Vandana Shiva

Land is life. It is the basis of livelihoods for

peasants and indigenous people across the Third

World and is also becoming the most vital asset in

the global economy. As the resource demands of

globalisation increase, land has emerged as a key

site of conflict. In India, 65 per cent of people are

dependent on land. At the same time a global

economy, driven by speculative finance and

limitless consumerism, wants the land for mining

and for industry, for towns, highways, and biofuel

plantations. The speculative economy of global

finance is hundreds of times larger than the value

of real goods and services produced in the world.

Financial capital is hungry for investments and

returns on investments. It must commodify

everything on the planet - land and water, plants

and genes, microbes and mammals. The

commodification of land is fuelling the corporate

land grab in India, both through the creation of

Special Economic Zones and through foreign direct

investment in real estate.

Land, for most people in the world, is Terra

Madre, Mother Earth, Bhoomi,Dharti Ma. The land

is people's identity; it is the ground of culture and

economy. The bond with the land is a bond

with Bhoomi, our Earth; 75 per cent of the people

in the Third World live on the land and are

supported by the land. The Earth is the biggest

employer on the planet: 75 per cent of the wealth of

the people of the global south is in land.

Colonisation was based on the violent takeover of

land. And now, globalisation as recolonisation is

leading to a massive land grab in India, in Africa,

in Latin America. Land is being grabbed for

speculative investment, for speculative urban

sprawl, for mines and factories, for highways and

expressways. Land is being grabbed from farmers

after trapping them in debt and pushing them to

suicide.

India's land issues

In India, the land grab is facilitated by the toxic

mixture of the colonial Land Acquisition Act of

1894, the deregulation of investments and

commerce through neo-liberal policies - and with

it the emergence of the rule of uncontrolled greed

and exploitation. It is facilitated by the creation of a

police state and the use of colonial sedition laws

which define defence of the public interest and

national interest as anti-national.

The World Bank has worked for many years to

commodify land. The 1991 World Bank structural

adjustment programme reversed land reform,

deregulated mining, roads and ports. While the

laws of independent India to keep land in the hands

of the tiller were reversed, the 1894 Land

Acquisition Act was untouched.

Thus the state could forcibly acquire the land from

the peasants and tribal peoples and hand it over to

private speculators, real estate corporations, mining

companies and industry.

Across the length and breadth of India, from Bhatta

in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Jagatsinghpur in Orissa to

Jaitapur in Maharashtra, the government has

declared war on our farmers, ourannadatas, in order

to grab their fertile farmland.

Their instrument is the colonial Land Acquisition

Act - used by foreign rulers against Indian citizens.

The government is behaving as the foreign rulers

did when the Act was first enforced in 1894,

appropriating land through violence for the profit

of corporations - JayPee Infratech in Uttar Pradesh

for the Yamuna expressway, POSCO in Orissa and

AREVA in Jaitapur - grabbing land for private

profit and not, by any stretch of the imagination,

for any public purpose. This is rampant in the

country today.

These land wars have serious consequences for our

nation's democracy, our peace and our ecology, our

food security and rural livelihoods. The land wars

must stop if India is to survive ecologically and

democratically.

While the Orissa government prepares to take the

land of people in Jagatsinghpur, people who have

been involved in a democratic struggle against land

acquisition since 2005, Rahul Gandhi makes it

known that he stands against forceful land

acquisition in a similar case in Bhatta in Uttar

Pradesh. The Minister for the Environment, Mr

Jairam Ramesh, admitted that he gave the green

signal to pass the POSCO project - reportedly

under great pressure. One may ask: "Pressure from

whom?" This visible double standard when it

comes to the question of land in the country must

stop.

Violation of the land

In Bhatta Parsual, Greater Noida (UP), about 6000

acres of land is being acquired by infrastructure

company Jaiprakash Associates to build luxury

townships and sports facilities - including a

Formula 1 racetrack - in the guise of building the

Yamuna Expressway. In total, the land of 1225

villages is to be acquired for the 165km

Expressway. The farmers have been protesting this

unjust land acquisition, and last week, four people

died - while many were injured during a clash

between protesters and the

police on May 7, 2011. If the

government continues its land

wars in the heart of India's

bread basket, there will be no

chance for peace.

In any case, money cannot

compensate for the alienation

of land. As 80-year-old

Parshuram, who lost his land to

the Yamuna Expressway, said:

"You will never understand

how it feels to become

landless."

While land has been taken from

farmers at Rs 300 ($6) per

square metre by the

government - using the Land

Acquistion Act - it is sold by

developers at Rs 600,000

($13,450) per square metre - a

200,000 per cent increase in

price - and hence profits. This

land grab and the profits

contribute to poverty,

dispossession and conflict.

Similarly, on April 18, in

Jaitapur, Maharashtra, police

opened fire on peaceful

protesters demonstrating

against the Nuclear Power Park

proposed for a village adjacent

to the small port town. One

person died and at least eight

were seriously injured. The

Jaitapur nuclear plant will be the biggest in the

world and is being built by French company

AREVA. After the Fukushima disaster, the protest

has intensified - as has the government's

stubbornness.

Today, a similar situation is brewing in

Jagatsinghpur, Orissa, where 20 battalions have

been deployed to assist in the anti-constitutional

land acquisition to protect the stake of India's

largest foreign direct investment - the POSCO Steel

project. The government has set the target of

destroying 40 betel farms a day to facilitate the

land grab. The betel brings the farmers an annual

earning of Rs 400,000 ($9,000) an acre. The Anti-

POSCO movement, in its five years of peaceful

protest, has faced state violence numerous time and

is now gearing up for another - perhaps final - non-

violent and democratic resistance against a state

using violence to facilitate its undemocratic land

grab for corporate profits, overlooking due process

and the constitutional rights of the people.

The largest democracy of the world is destroying

its democratic fabric through its land wars. While

the constitution recognises the rights of the people

and the panchayats [village councils] to

democratically decide the issues of land and

development, the government is disregarding these

democratic decisions - as is evident from the

POSCO project where three panchayats have

refused to give up their land.

The use of violence and destruction of livelihoods

that the current trend is reflecting is not only

dangerous for the future of Indian democracy, but

for the survival of the Indian nation state itself.

Considering that today India may claim to be a

growing or booming economy - but yet is unable

feed more than 40 per cent of its children is a

matter of national shame.

Land is not about building concrete jungles as

proof of growth and development; it is the

progenitor of food and water, a basic for human

survival. It is thus clear: what India needs today is

not a land grab policy through an amended colonial

land acquisition act but a land conservation policy,

which conserves our vital eco-systems, such as the

fertile Gangetic plain and coastal regions, for their

ecological functions and contribution to food

security.

Handing over fertile land to private corporations,

who are becoming the newzamindars [heriditary

aristocrats], cannot be defined as having a public

purpose. Creating multiple privatised super

highways and expressways does not qualify as

necessary infrastructure. The real infrastructure

India needs is the ecological infrastructure for food

security and water security. Burying our fertile

food-producing soils under concrete and factories is

burying the country's future.

Dr Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecofeminist,

philosopher, activist, and author of more than 20

books and 500 papers. She is the founder of the

Research Foundation for Science, Technology and

Ecology, and has campaigned for biodiversity,

conservation and farmers' rights, winning the Right

Livelihood Award [Alternative Nobel Prize] in

1993.

The views expressed in this article are the author's

own.

First Published on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 by Al

Jazeera English. Reprinted with permission.

Photo by Dr. Shiva staff


~ From Dr. Shiva’s Staff--ED

Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a

Physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject

―Hidden Variables and Non-locality in

Quantum Theory‖ from the University of

Western Ontario in Canada. She later

shifted to inter-disciplinary research in

science, technology and environmental

policy, which she carried out at the Indian

Institute of Science and the Indian

Institute of Management in Bangalore,

India.

Dr. Shiva has received honorary

Doctorates from University of Paris,

University of Western Ontario, University

of Oslo and Connecticut College.

Dr. Shiva is one of the world‘s most

renowned environmentalists. Time

Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an

environmental ―hero‖ in 2003 and Asia

Week has called her one of the five most

powerful communicators of Asia.

In 1982, she founded an independent

institute, the Research Foundation for

Science, Technology and Ecology in

Dehra Dun dedicated to high quality and

independent research to address the most

significant ecological and social issues of

our times, in close partnership with local

communities and social movements. In

1991, she founded Navdanya, a national

movement to protect the diversity and

integrity of living resources, especially

native seed, the promotion of organic

farming and fair trade. For last two

decades Navdanya has worked with local

communities and organizations serving

more than 2,00,000 men and women

farmers. Navdanya‘s efforts have resulted

in conservation of more than 2000 rice

varieties from all over the country and

have established 34 seed banks in 13

states across the country. More than

70,000 farmers are primary members of

Navdanya. In 2004 she started Bija

Vidyapeeth, an international college for

sustainable living in Doon Valley in

collaboration with Schumacher College,

U.K.

Dr. Shiva combines the sharp intellectual

enquiry with courageous activism. She is

equally at ease working with peasants in

rural India and teaching in Universities

worldwide.

Dr. Shiva has contributed in fundamental

ways to changing the practice and

paradigms of agriculture and food. Her

books, ―The Violence of Green

Revolution‖ and ―Monocultures of the

Mind‖ have become basic challenges to

the dominant paradigm of non-

sustainable, reductionist Green Revolution

Agriculture. Through her books

Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest, Water Wars,

Dr. Shiva has made visible the social,

economic and ecological costs of

corporate led globalization. Dr. Shiva

chairs the Commission on the Future of

Food set up by the Region of Tuscany in

Italy. She is a Board Member of the

International Forum on Globalization and

a member of the Steering Committee of

the Indian People‘s Campaign against

WTO. She also serves on Government of

India Committees on Organic Farming.

Dr. Shiva‘s contributions to gender issues

are nationally and internationally

recognized. Her book, ―Staying Alive‖

dramatically shifted the perception of

Third World women. In 1990 she wrote a

report for the FAO on Women and

Agriculture entitled, ―Most Farmers in

India are Women‖. She founded the

gender unit at the International Centre for

Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in

Kathmandu and was a founding Board

Member of the Women Environment and

Development Organization (WEDO).

She has initiated an international

movement of women working of food,

agriculture, patents and biotechnology

called, Diverse Women for

Diversity. The movement was launched

formally in Bratislava, Slovakia on 1-2

May 1998. Diverse Women for Diversity

has carried out studies for the National

Commission of Women and the

Department of Science and Technology.

Dr. Shiva has been a visiting professor

and lectured at the Universities of Oslo,

Norway, Schumacher College, U.K. Mt.

Holyoke College, U.S., York University,

Canada, University of Lulea, Sweden,

University of Victoria, Canada, and

Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Among her many awards are the

Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood

Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark,

Global 500 Award of UN and Earth Day

International Award. Lennon ONO grant

for peace award by Yoko Ono and Sydney

Peace Prize in November 2010.

Vandana Shiva—Gifted Scientist, Global Activist

~ by Bette McDevitt

The praise pours down on us every year from

the winners of the first prize in the raffle,

offered in conjunction with the annual Thomas

Merton Award. This past year, Dorothy Gold

won the two nights at the Hotel Edison, located

in Midtown Manhattan. The Hotel Edison was

August Wilson‘s ―home‖ in New York, and if

you go there you‘ll see why. When you step inside, after the doorman

greets you, you find yourself in a hotel built in

1931 in the same grand Art Deco style as

Radio City Music Hall, is situated in one of the

most dynamic sections of New York City. The

lights literally shine on Broadway! Just steps

from Times Square, walking distance to

theatres, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City

Music Hall. there is a restaurant and bar on

site, and you are close to plenty of others. Here‘s what Dorothy Gold said: ―It was one of

the best experiences in my life.The Edison is

very gracious, with beautiful marble and

wonderful old rugs. There is a doorman, and

someone to check people going up in the

elevators. When the tickets come to your house –if you

are a member- or are available at the Center, be

sure to buy them all; support the Merton

Center, and win a getaway to the Big Apple.

And don‘t forget that this year‘s dinner,

honoring Dr. Vandana Shiva, will be held at

the Sheraton Station Square on Thursday

November 3rd, 2011. For more information

visit the center online at

www.thomasmertoncenter.org.

Merton Raffle Can Lead To A Manhattan Getaway

2011 Thomas Merton Award Dinner November 3, 2011

Sheraton Station Square

Register at www.thomasmertoncenter.org


Interview

Interview with Nina Marie Barbuto

~ by Michael Drohan

When the Thomas Merton Center sold its

former home at 5125 Penn Ave on March

15, 2011, its new owner Ben Saks farmed

out, so to speak, the first floor to an

organization called Assemble, its website

is www.assemblepgh.org. The founder

of this exciting organization is Nina Marie

Barbuto. Ben Saks is also on the board of

advisors to Assemble. Its mission states

that Assemble is ―a place where one can

engage one‘s intrigue through hands-on

activities about art and technology while

making physical and nonphysical

community connections‖. It is one of the

most exciting initiatives taking place in

the Penn Ave corridor. On June 16 I sat

down with Nina to talk about Assemble

and her work in general

Michael: Tell us about yourself and how

you came to found Assemble and be

located at 5125 Penn Ave?

Nina: I grew up in Aliquippa, PA but

from teenager years I had discovered

Garfield through attendance at concerts at

the Quiet Storm. I was fascinated with the

new initiatives taking place in the

neighborhood. I did my undergraduate

work at CMU in architecture, art and

creative writing. During that time I

regularly attended the first Friday of

month event called ―Unblurred‖. This

initiative is still in existence and promotes

art, music, performances of various types

and much more. Garfield endeared itself

to me and I found it a very ―cool‖

neighborhood. In 2007 I moved to Los

Angeles to do graduate work and degree

in Mediascapes which embraces

Architecture and Media. While there I did

a research project for the Los Angeles

Unified School District on how to create

sustainable learners. This project‘s aim

was how to restore creativity to the

numbing educational process that be-

devil‘s the education system. I returned to

Pittsburgh in February 2010 and co-

started an organization called ―I Made it

Market‖ with Carrie Nardini in 2007

before going to Los Angeleswhere people

sell the things they make. To put food on

the table I work at Front Studio Architects

in Oakland and loves her work as an

architect. I also teach at the Carnegie

Museum of Art.

Michael : Tell us something about

―Assemble‖

Nina: Assemble is a space where people

can make things, either an art or

technology production and showcase it. It

is geared to developing artists and

technologists. It opened officially on April

1, 2011 during the ―Geek Art and Green

Innovators Festival‖ April 1-2. It is a ―not

for profit‖ organization acting under the

Bloomfield Garfield Corporation‘s

501(c)3 status. In conjunction with

Unblurred it holds workshops for kids and

adults and performing artists on these

occasions. Their latest event was on June

15 when Rachel Mason from New York

visited to perform her music and art.

Coming events are: July 1 an event called

―Colorize the Urban Landscape‖ and on

July 9 ―The Good, Bad and Ugly of your

Neighborhood Illustrated‖

Michael: How do you envision your

relationship with the neighborhood of

Garfield?

Nina: Assemble is a community space for

art and technology. The idea is to jumble

up people from the Universities and from

the neighborhoods and cross-fertilize each

other with ideas and programs. It wants to

give people a chance to learn in social

situations. Insertion in the neighborhood

is critical to Assemble. On First Friday in

December Assemble hopes to have an

event called ―Hyper-Local Show‖ where

people in neighborhood within 5 blocks

are invited to bring one piece of

something they made and display or even

sell it. Kids in the neighborhood just love

to come to Assembly is my observation.

Michael: How is your relationship with

the Thomas Merton Center and how do

you see it going forward?

Nina: We have a great relationship with

the Thomas Merton Center. We hope

down the road to do a project with

Book‘Em. Thrifty and its Managers run a

magnificent organization and it has

become a favorite place to get resources

and clothe and much else to run

Assemble. While peace and justice

activism is not part of Assemble‘s

philosophy, its activities and those of the

TMC converge in many ways coming at

the social issues from different angles.

Photo by Heather McGrath

http://www.assemblepgh.org/


Labor News

East End Community

Thrift Store

5123 Penn Avenue

(a few doors down from TMC) Garfield

Come in today

Tuesday — Friday

10 AM - 4 PM

Saturday Noon - 4 PM

~ ~ ~ ~

what you donate, what you buy

supports Garfield,

supports the Merton Center.

FAITH Housing: An East End Cooperative Ministry Program

“Take the first step in faith, you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just the first step.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

~ by Theresa Chalich

Board President Diane McMahon and I were

talking over lunch about the poor state of the

economy, the earthquake and tsunami that

struck Japan, and about the ongoing wars in

Iraq and Afghanistan. Our moods were

steadily going down. Then our conversation

took us to our jobs and I explained how

satisfying it was to be able to provide a safe

and livable home for a mother and her young

child who had been living in deplorable

housing conditions. Diane responded with

much enthusiasm -- ―Finally something good

is happening. You have to write about this for

the New People.‖ Hence the genesis for this

article about East End Cooperative Ministry‘s

FAITH Housing program.

FAITH Housing is a Housing and Urban

Development (HUD) funded Supportive

Housing Program for single or married

parents who are homeless and have a physical

or mental health disability. In the FAITH

Housing program, participants work to

maintain housing stability with their children

and to achieve greater self-sufficiency. In our

program FAITH is interpreted as Families

Achieving Independence Through Housing.

The need for safe and affordable housing is

ever prevalent in these dire economic times.

Officially, it is estimated that 30% of a

family‘s income is allocated for housing, but

the reality is that many families are spending

50% and more. For some, this is

compounded by physical and mental illnesses

and disabilities that make it difficult to work,

low wages, or bankruptcy due to medical

bills. Families find themselves homeless:

whether staying in an emergency shelter,

living in a car or on the streets, or staying in a

home that is not owned or rented. These are

the issues that are being addressed by the

FAITH Housing program as it works to

provide financial assistance for housing, as

well as case management services. The aim

is to transcend a housing structure into a

home of caring and opportunity for

parents and their children.

FAITH Housing Program provides the steps

for families as they move up the staircase to

maintain housing stability. Beyond the basic

provision of housing, the additional steps are

to:

Develop individualized service

plans with goals and timelines for

the parents and their children.

Connect with and utilize

mainstream health and social

services.

Participate actively in the child‘s/

children‘s education.

Work on educational, vocational,

and work-related activities.

The FAITH Housing program case manager

works mutually along with the parents to

obtain suitable housing. The location

preference is in the eastern neighborhoods in

Allegheny County. The leases are based on

the 2010 Allegheny County Fair Market

Rents and the program fee is based on 30% of

the adjusted family income.

Joyce Rothermel, Food Bank Founder Retires ~ by Bette McDevitt

Joyce Rothermel, retiring as Chief Executive

Officer of the Greater Pittsburgh Community

Food Bank, found her life's work at the

Merton Center. As a member of the Sisters of

the Humility of Mary, she came to Pittsburgh

in the early 1970s to teach at Our Lady of

Grace Catholic School, and found the Merton

Center. By 1977, Joyce had asked permission

of her order to leave teaching and work as a

staff person at the Center.

"When we worked on the newsletter, I

remember sitting around every week with the

staff, mulling over what the current issues in

the world were then." She gravitated toward

issues of funding human needs. "One of our

board members, Norm Connors, was living

with Vince Eirene, with homeless men on the

North Side, at the Duncan Porter House of

Hospitality. They were concerned with where

the homeless men were going to eat lunch.

We pulled in some people from the Pittsburgh

Sisters' Council, and from Norm's vision, we

created Jubilee Kitchen in the Hill District in

1978." From the second floor of the soup

kitchen on the hill, Pittsburgh Community

Food Bank took shape.

"The whole direction of my ministry in

fighting hunger grew out of my work at the

Center," says Rothermel. "I learned all about

media, writing press releases, advocacy, and

organizing. The tools were absolutely

transferable."

And she has used those tools to the advantage

of those in need. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

put it well in an editorial, June 6.

―It's hard to imagine that the Pittsburgh food

bank would have attained this reach had it not

been for its CEO and co-founder, Joyce

Rothermel. For three decades, Ms. Rothermel

has been at the forefront of efforts that try to

meet the nutritional needs of the region's

most vulnerable people. In short, she never

passed up a food fight.

As she prepares for retirement this summer,

Ms. Rothermel is not one to slip out quietly.

Last Thursday, she was present at the

inaugural meeting of the Southwestern

Pennsylvania Food Security Partnership,

which she envisioned and created last year to

develop a comprehensive strategy to combat

hunger in the region. The partnership includes

representatives from food banks, human

services, religious groups, education, health

care, business and government.

The fact that the Pittsburgh food bank has

seen phenomenal growth under her is a

testament both to her success and,

unfortunately, to the community's economic

need. Although the food bank handed out 1

million pounds of food in 1981, last year it

distributed 23.5 million pounds. That's a lot

of mouths fed…

It's hard to imagine this key humanitarian

organization reaching such a plateau without

this key humanitarian. Pittsburgh is a more

livable place because of both.‖

When Joyce completes here current position

at the Food Bank, she hopes to diversity and

balance her daily schedule to include

activities with the Merton Center, Pittsburgh

Haiti Solidarity Committee, exercise, and

time with her husband, Michael Drohan. ―I

also plan to volunteer with the Food Bank‘s

latest initiative, the SW PA Food Security

Partnership that has been formed to

implement a five year comprehensive plan to

cut hunger in half in our 12 county region,‖

Joyce adds. It may take awhile for Joyce to

create what retirement will look like for her.

Photo by Jason Cohen


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SUBMIT!

Your stories, letters, poems, essays, cartoon, photos to the NEWPEOPLE or they may never find an audience! Limit submission to 600 words.

Photos or art should be sent as JPEG or TIFF. Postage may be mailed to The Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh,

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Merton Center Ministry for Peace & Justice - 40 years of Struggle

~ by Molly Rush, co-founder, Thomas Merton

Center

In 1970 a small group led by CIC President

Larry Kessler felt the need to confront the local

Catholic diocese about the Vietnam War.

Some nuns, priests and laypersons, got together

and formed CEASE, Catholics for an End to

Asian Slaughter and Exploitation. Our aim was

to move the Diocese to speak out clearly about

the immorality of the war.

Jesus‘ words ―Blessed are the peacemakers‖

and the recent Papal and Bishops‘ statements

had challenged many Catholics to work for

peace.

Members of CEASE put out a mimeographed

flyer:

“This war in Southeast Asia goes on. It

becomes more evident by the day that this war

is not only a political or military problem. No

longer can we pretend that people aren’t being

burned alive or permanently scarred by

napalm. No longer can we pretend that

defenseless civilians as well as military

personnel aren’t being killed or deformed by

fragmentation shells. Nor can we pretend that

families here and abroad are not being torn

apart. No longer can we close our eyes to the

fact that an already poor nation’s environment

has been crippled by defoliation.

We commemorate this year the 10th

anniversary of our country’s entry into the

Vietnam War. During that time:

40,000 U.S. servicemen have died.

121,000 U.S. servicemen have been wounded.

81,000 South Vietnamese soldiers have died.

501,178 Viet Minh and Viet Cong have died.

1,000,000 civilians have been estimated to have

died.

240,000 acres have been defoliated.

5,000,000 civilians have been driven from their

homes.

We as Catholics can no longer be silent.. “LET

THE AMERICAN CHURCH BE A LEADER IN

THIS PROCESS”.

Larry Kessler, lawyer Paul Bogdon and Molly

Rush signed the statement.

CEASE published a newsletter in June 1971. It

carried news about our activities: a New

Priorities Peace Walk, a Mass of Peace &

Justice, a peace study day, and leafleting at

parish churches. A conscientious objection

lesson plan had been developed and Fr. Neil

McCaulley offered to meet with individual

students seeking CO status. We also met with

representatives of Clergy and Laymen

Concerned about the National Organizing

Conference planned for August.

That summer CEASE members met with

Bishops Vincent Leonard and Anthony Bosco

to urge that they form a Peace & Justice

commission with an adequate budget,

personnel, status and authority. We suggested

there be draft counseling programs for Catholic

high school students. We also asked them to

sign a statement calling for a date for

withdrawal from Vietnam and for procedures

for reconciliation and reparation.

They were polite but said that programs already

in existence were doing an adequate job of

promoting justice. Now that the war was

‗winding down‘ there was no need for a peace

commission.

The situation was too urgent to wait for the

Diocese to act; we‘d have to take the initiative.

We began to plan our own peace and justice

center. Catholic Interracial Council chair Larry

Kessler was a brilliant organizer and plans for a

new center were soon in place.

The Association of Pittsburgh Priest] gave the

project a big boost by endorsing and providing

individual support. Of 68 priests contacted; an

amazing 44 pledged $20, $15, $10 or $5 a

month. ―This overwhelming personal response

makes it clear that a full-time peace and justice

center is both needed and wanted.‖ Another 22

CEASE members pledged $10 a month. 30

more and we‘d reach our goal of $1000 a

month to pay rent and staff stipends.

Twelve women and nine men formed a board of

directors and 29 prominent local civil rights,

justice and religious leaders served on the

advisory committee. We were on our way. Co-

founder Larry Kessler was Executive Director,

Sister Helene Del Signore secretary and soon

three nuns, Stella Smetanka, Betty Sundry and

Janet Brink joined the staff.

The first issue of The New People, Volume 1,

No. 1, was published on February 3, 1972.

From the beginning Center members were

“people from diverse philosophies who find

common ground in the nonviolent struggle to

bring about a more just and peaceful world

community.”

We‘d planned for a grand opening of an office

in downtown Pittsburgh in January, 1972. On

our third attempt to rent space we signed a lease

but soon ―the picture was clouded by all types

of mysterious changes in the conditions.‖

We finally found a very cooperative landlord,

Eugene Gottesman, who remodeled the

building to our specifications. It was located at

1213 East Carson St. in Southside, a working

class neighborhood. Church spires overlooked

modest homes, Ukrainian, Polish and Croatian,

Greek, Serbian and Russian Orthodox. These

had been built with small donations from hard-

working immigrants, many of whom worked at

the nearby J&L steel plant.

This was a real neighborhood. Also nearby was

an Army recruiting station, two high schools,

the Catholic Youth Ministry, the American

Federation of Teachers and some U.S. Steel

offices. Two other peace groups were located

near the colleges in the East End, but we found

this new setting quite appropriate.

Thus the Thomas Merton Center was born. On

Sunday, March 12, 1972 we held an open house

in our new offices. Everyone was given a green

button with a seed just beginning to sprout. It

said, “LET PEACE GROW WITH YOU”.

People Calling For Fair Oil Tax Made Themselves Heard ~ by Liyan Qi

About 250 people marched in downtown

Pittsburgh on June 10, 2011, chanting

slogans such as ―Exxon should pay more‖ to

protest against big oil corporations‘

evasion of tax and to promote a ―Fair

Economy.‖

During the March for Corporate Accountability,

people from all walks of life voiced

their discontents with profitable oil and gas

companies that received millions of tax

rebates, such as Exxon Mobile, when the

federal and state governments are cutting

jobs in education and other public services. One

way to challenge prevalent money

control of politics is building people power.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a list of

top-ten corporate income tax avoiders

in March 2011. The first company on the list

was Exxon Mobil. Its Securities and

Exchange Commission (SEC) filling shows

that, with a profit of $19 billion in 2009,

it not only paid no federal income taxes but

received a $156 million rebate from the

IRS, according to a news release on the

senator‘s website.

―I‘m here to protest against Exxon and other

big corporations that aren‘t paying taxes,

while the rest of us are paying taxes,‖ said Dr.

Paul LeBlanc, professor of history at

La Roche College.

―Because they‘re not paying taxes, our

economy has been hurt. There‘re all kinds of

cutbacks in education and social services and

other things that we need,‖ added Dr.

LeBlanc, who was holding a sign saying ―Pay

Your Fair Share‖ at Market Square.

North Point Breeze resident Jonathan

Leibowitz, 33, agreed.

―Right now, a lot of politicians are looking out

for big corporations and the people

who write them big campaign checks and not

looking out for the people who vote for

them,‖ said Leibowitz while holding his baby

girl who fell asleep after the rally.

More than loopholes, legislators wrote the laws

to allow the biggest to take tax money

and not pay any taxes, said Barney Oursler,

executive director of Pittsburgh United, a

social and economic justice organization.

―That‘s why we are out here today. We‘re

trying to build people powers so we can

challenge them and the legislators and get them

to pay their fair share,‖ said Oursler

when he was marching on the Smithfield

Bridge.

The government could be building

infrastructure to create those jobs for millions

of unemployed people in this country, said

Dave Ninehouser, from the Pennsylvania

Wants to Work, a community organization to

provide services for the employed and

under employed in Pennsylvania.

―What we are doing instead is wasting our

resources by giving these massive tax

breaks and subsidies to big corporations,‖ said

Ninehouser, sitting outside of a Exxon

gas station in station square. ―It‘s insane,

because it‘s prevent us from what we need

to do to get the economy moving again.‖

When asked what she wanted to say to Exxon, a

big producer at Marcellus Shale, and

other big corporations, Lynnie Pryor of New

Kensington said the people have paid them

enormous amount of money and it is their turn

to pay back.

―Americans carried you with our tax money for

years. Now that we need you, it‘s time

for you to step up,‖ said Pryor.


Angry Ghost Towns In Our Midst ~ by Frank Carr, Editor, the NewPeople

I‘ve spent the last five weeks roaming our

forgotten neighborhoods, from ridge to river,

speaking to those who still call them home.

The images are stark, streets where baby

boomers played with abundance are nearly

vacant, houses rotting from abandonment. On

one vines have begun to overgrow the etched

glass of the carved hardwood door. Another,

across the city, housed feral cats who burst

forth on each step over a collapsing

porch. Entire streets in many former mill

towns and city neighborhoods are simply

gone. Those lucky enough to have had their

houses removed even show the healing work

of nature reclaiming and softening the

slopes.. Even many of city‘s famous named

stairways are impassable and hidden by

brush. But there is no one to to walk them

anyway.

And the people still there? Many are stoic old

timers, some clinging to the illusions and

biases that have long challenged our region.

Other are committed to their personal faith so

much that community and fellowship have

taken on meanings without material

connection to those around.

And there are the strong, who while short of

hope are long on work and commitment. In

the most ―blighted‖ streets gardens bloom,

houses shine and children still play. They

have borne the brunt of years of neglect, or

school cuts and abandonment, of transit

reductions, or ever rising property taxes that

turned charming working class houses into

scary silhouettes on the steep shoulders of the

city.

I tell you the strong are growing angry. They

struggle to get off ―welfare‖ only to find jobs

that pay them less. Their daily commutes eat

up almost an hour‘s pay. The summer jobs

that keep so many teenagers out of trouble are

almost gone. In one East Hills community

center only 10 applications for summer jobs

were made available this year, the number of

summer jobs, county-wide, has been cut to

900, leaving almost fifteen hundred kids out.

When you knock on their doors they don‘t

want to speak. at first, then they open up.

―It‘s terrible out here,‖ they say. Or, ―There‘s

nothing for the kids.‖

The old playgrounds are gone. The

schoolyards barren except for a few football

(of course) fields. The abandoned sites of

planned pools are left with cinder-block bath-

houses moldering.

Yet kids laugh. They play. They hope. And

they wonder why they are the enemy.

In Pennsylvania, In Pittsburgh, corporations

avoid state taxes by establishing phantom,

post-office box ―headquarters‖ in Delaware, a

state with no corporate income taxes. PA is

one of 24 states that allow this ―Delaware

loophole,‖ costing at least a half-billion n

dollars in revenue a year. The Pirates and

Nemacolin Woodlands are also not

―headquartered‖ in PA. Imagine.

The statistics are from One Pittsburgh, a labor

-eco-community coalition fighting for an end

to the loophole and other corporate welfare.

They have an argument.

Our proud neighborhoods are moving beyond

blight toward despair. Even after thirty years

of collapse they get worse. Yet good

neighbors live there, a few to a block in stead

of dozens. They live where there are

breathtaking views of downtown or the

valleys, between outposts of prosperity where

too many live with blinders on and very

rarely see what they have driven by. They

only see the shootings on the news, the bad

press and the fear that surrounds sadness.

But the anger is real. And restive. Reports say

we could close the ―Delaware loophole‖ and

restore the state budget to Rendell-level

funding and still cut the taxes on the

businesses that do pay their taxes. Only

greed and the blinders of apathy prevent it.

We must listen to the anger, respect its roots

and grasp its intelligence. We must stand for

fairness, for the real ―American Way,‖ the

one that has driven us to be great neighbors

and citizens. The anger is righteous, the needs

profound and time short or another generation

will be stunted by the waste of ignorance,

poverty and alienation.

Heed the anger. It is not aimed at you. It

seeks you to warn you, to move you, even to

inspire you to act. It is no longer time for

debate. Another election cycle looms and our

urban areas will be further decimated if we do

not act. Go back and visit the old

neighborhood, granny‘s house or that closed

elementary school. I dare you to come away

unfazed.

“…I am sure that God did not intend that there be

so many poor. The class struggle is of our making

and by our consent, not His, and we must do what

we can to change it. This is why we at the

[Catholic] Worker urge such measures as credit

unions and cooperatives, leagues for mutual aid,

voluntary land reforms and farming communes.”

“So many sins against the poor cry out to high

heaven! One of the most deadly sins is to deprive

the laborer of his hire.”

Dorothy Day, “Loaves and Fishes” Founder of the Catholic Worker Hospitality

House, NYC, 1933 to present.

Celebrating 78 Years: 1933--2011 On May 1, 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression,

The Catholic Worker newspaper made its debut with a

first issue of twenty-five hundred copies. Dorothy Day

and a few others hawked the paper in Union Square for a

penny a copy (still the price) to passersby.

The Catholic Worker Movement is grounded in a firm

belief in the God-given dignity of every human person.

Today 213 Catholic Worker communities remain

committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and

hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and

foresaken. Catholic Workers continue to protest injustice,

war, racism, and violence of all forms.


More Events

Amnesty Hosts ―Workers of the World‖ Forum ―Workers of the World,‖ a public panel

discussion of the international labor

movement, will be hosted by the Pittsburgh

chapter of Amnesty International, Group 39,

at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 20 at the Teamster

Temple, 4701 Butler Street. The forum will

call public attention to a current Amnesty

Group 39 case of three Vietnamese

organizers imprisoned for non-violent labor

activity. Speaking will be US Congressman

Mike Doyle; Kenneth Smith, Industrial

Workers of the World anti-sweatshop

organizer; Pittsburgh City Councilman

William Peduto; and Fred Redmond, USW

International Vice-President. They will

discuss how governments inhibit workers‘

rights and how the plight of overseas workers

affect labor conditions in the U.S. and what

the public can do in response.

According to Edwin Everhart, coordinator for

Amnesty Group 39, ―For decades American

jobs have been sent to places like Vietnam

where workers get low pay and no benefits.

This panel is about what happens when these

workers start to stand up for their rights.

―Labor rights overseas is important to us here

at home. In a global labor market If workers

at a Vietnamese shoe factory are cheated out

of their wages it hurts American workers.

―We‘re honored to have our panelists,

important leaders in the fight for workers‘

rights.‖

Several local human rights

organizations will co-sponsor the forum.

For the past year the local Amnesty

group has worked to free three imprisoned

Vietnamese labor organizers Tran Quoc Hien,

Doan Van Dien and Doan Huy Chuong,

arrested for starting an independent union. In

Vietnam all labor unions are coordinated by

the Communist Party which renders them

ineffective. The Amnesty chapter has been

sending letters and petitions to Vietnamese

officials on behalf of the workers.

For more information call Edwin

Everhart at 919 260 9535.

The Pittsburgh chapter of Amnesty

International, Group 39, is active on many

human rights topics and meets at 7 p.m. on

the second Monday each month at the First

Unitarian Church, Ellsworth Ave in

Shadyside.

Social Justice Organizer Training offered by Unite HERE On Saturday July 23rd, Unite HERE, Local 57, will present Social Justice Organizer training focusing on the organizing skills needed to

build power in your community, campus, and workplace. The training will be held from 9 am until 5pm. at the U.S. Steel Tower and will

provide and opportunity for attendees to meet and strengthen solidarity with other progressive activists in our region.

A similar training , held in June, was facilitated by people from Local 57‘s staff, following an agenda and format that Unite Here provided.

The focus of the training was to role play conversations where the goal is to recruit people to get involved in the cause that participants are

advocating.. For example one of the non Union members is a volunteer at Landslide Farm and she is trying to build a bigger volunteer staff

by going door to door in the community and talking to people about the goals of the farm. She focused on practicing these scenarios and

found it very helpful.

A larger group is expected for the July class. Space is limited; to attend RSVP to:

[email protected] or phone: 412-212-1142

River City Resistance Memoir Sought Liane Norman is trying to reconstruct and write an account of the River City Nonviolent Resistance Campaign, which began in 1982 and

ended around 1990. A revolving group of folks targeted Rockwell International, Westinghouse and eventually the Software Engineering

Institute of CMU because each corporation made parts of first-strike nuclear weapons systems, whose internal logic made nuclear war more

likely. For that near-decade we leafleted weekly at these corporations' headquarters and met weekly to learn and think about what

nonviolence required and to plan the next week's leaflet or, from time-to-time, an act of civil disobedience designed to up the ante. (We also

had a lot of fun.) Westinghouse eventually invited us to meet with some mid-level employees to discuss our concerns: at least one of them

came to see things our way. Many individuals and groups from Pittsburgh and beyond joined us to hand out their particular leaflets and to

lend their presence to the effort. IF YOU PARTICIPATED (OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO DID) WOULD YOU PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR

MEMORIES OF IT TO LIANE at <[email protected]>. Be as specific as you can, since Liane's memory isn't what it once was.

Thanks so much.

Photos by Jibran Mushtaq


S O C I A L A C T I O N C A L E N D A R

SUNDAYS __________________________ Anti-War Committee meeting

Every other Sunday 2:00pm - 3:30 Merton Center, 5129 Penn Ave., Garfield

Book 'Em Packing Day

Meets every Sunday 4:00pm - 7pm Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue Join others sending requested books to prison-

ers. Bring a group. For more info call the Thomas Merton Center, 412.361.3022

MONDAYS __________________________ Weekly North Hills Weekly Peace Vigil

4:30pm-5:00pm In front of the Divine Providence Motherhouse,

9000 Babcock Blvd., Allison Park Sponsored by the Pittsburgh North People for

Peace & the Srs. of Divine Providence WEDNESDAYS ______________________ Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition

Monthly Meeting Meets the 1st Wednesday of every month 5:30pm - 7:00pm Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library 5801 Forbes Avenue Meeting Room B

Write On! Letters for Prisoner's rights

Meets weekly on Wednesday 6:30pm – 9:00pm Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Garfield Write On! Letters for Prisoner's rights We need

help answering our 60 letters a month from people in prison dealing with abuse and ne-

glect. Come and meet new people, learn about people in prison while advocating for their rights from the outside! Please bring food to share! Info 412-361-3022

PUSH [Pennsylvanian United for Single-

Payer Healthcare] Meets monthly on the second Wednesday 6:15 pm

Health Care 4 All PA office, 2101 Murray Avenue,

Squirrel Hill

All welcome Info: [email protected]

Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) meeting

Monthly on the first Wednesday 7:00pm - 8pm

First Unitarian Church (Ellsworth/Morewood,

Shadyside)

For more information, call 412-384-4310.

THURSDAYS _________________________

Green Party meeting First Thursday of the month 7:00pm - 9pm Citizen Power's offices, 2121 Murray Avenue

in Squirrel Hill, second floor FRIDAYS ____________________________

Peaceburgh Drumming Circle 7pm-8:00pm, Weekly Grandview Park in Mt. Washington Raise the Vibration for peace every Friday....

Consciously raise the vibration for peace!! FREE-Family friendly event Bring a drum,flutes,rattles, didge( we REALLY need a didge) singing voices -dancing feet- happy hearts!! Bring some food to share at the potluck!!( we need plates, ice, forks, cups,

napkins and drinks too..) BRING A CAMERA — THE VIEW IS AWESOME!!

SATURDAYS ________________________

Project to End Human Trafficking Volunteer signup 2nd Saturday of each month 10:00am - 12:00pm Campus of Carlow University Project to End Human Trafficking (PEHT) of-

fers FREE public volunteer/information. Please pre-register by the Wednesday be-fore via [email protected].

For more information check out our website www.endhumantrafficking.org

PEHT Information and Training Seminars

Second Saturday of every month 12:00pm - 1:00pm Carlow University, Antonian Room #502, RSVP by the Wednesday before to smoh-

[email protected] Open to the public.

Peace Vigils to End the War Every Saturday, following locations & times

Regent Square Peace Vigil Corner of Forbes and Braddock 12:00pm - 1pm

*Black Voices for Peace Anti-War Protest Corner of Penn & Highland in East Liberty 1:00pm - 2:00 pm

Beaver County Peace Links Peace Vigil Beaver County Courthouse, 3rd Street

(Beaver) 1:00pm - 2pm

Recurring Meetings and Meet Ups

~ July ~

Saturday, July 18

We Are One Action & Progressive Congressional Caucus

Town Hall Meeting

5pm

Kingsley Center

On Tuesday, July 18, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. there will be

massive community speak-out at East Liberty‘s Kingsley

Association auditorium (6435 Frankstown Avenue). The occasion

for the mobilization is a town meeting being organized by

representatives of the Progressive Caucus in the U.S. Congress, at

which Representative John Conyers (D-MI) and Representative Raul

Grihalva (D-AZ), and also Representative Michael Doyle (D-PA),

will be on hand to hear the thinking of Pittsburgh area

residents. This is part of a national tour that the 77 Congressional

members of the Progressive Caucus are organizing in cities

throughout the country.

July 22, 23, 24

Pittsburgh Blues Festival – Benefit for Greater Pittsburgh

Community Food Bank Pittsburgh Blues

6:00 to 10:00 PM

Hartwood Acres

Presented by First Commonwealth.

Proceeds benefit Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Featuring the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Johnny Win-ter, Tommy

Castro, Savoy Brown, Janiva Magness, John Németh, Lionel Young

Band, Kelly Richey, Girls With Guitars Tour, plus great local bands.

KidZone (with arts, crafts, healthy snacks), raffles, merchandise

vendors, and plenty of food! FREE FRIDAY (only) admission with

bag of groceries to donate to the Food Bank! Kids 12 and under

always free – free parking too! Personal cooler donation fee.

More info & tickets: www.pghblues.com or 412-460-BLUE

Saturday, July 24

Steel City Presents: The Tree River Circus

10am to 5pm

Allegheny Commons, North Side

Corner of East Ohio Street and Cedar Avenue

The Tree River Circus is a festival bringing together Artists,

Musicians, writers, scientists and activists together to celebrate

Pittsburgh's unique history, culture and environmental struggle.

Please join us for a day of fun and learning, as we create a

community voice for Pittsburgh's environment.

For more information, visit our website:

www.treerivercircus.blogspot.com

or email: [email protected]


http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/



July 2011 - Newpeople

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