On Anarchism, Black Liberation, the Black Panthers, and the Revolutionary Struggle for Freedom

Saturday, May 17 at 7:00pm
Thomas Merton Center, 5125 Penn Avenue

The third presentation in Pittsburgh Organizing Group's Anarchist Speaker Series will feature "Anarchist Panther" Ashanti Alston Omowali, a New York-based anarchist activist, speaker, and writer.

He will be speaking on his history as a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, what led him to anarchism, and how we might continue to collectively struggle for a new society.

Having spent more than a decade in prison for his participation in revolutionary movements, Ashanti will also touch on how prison abolition work fits into the fight for freedom and a better world.

Ashanti is a former northeast coordinator for Critical Resistance, currently co-chair of the National Jericho Movement (to free U.S. political prisoners), a member of pro-Zapatista people-of-color U.S.-based Estación Libre, and a board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

Anarchism, in advocating a free society of free individuals, is perhaps the only political tradition that has consistently rooted out domination in its many forms, while also attempting to theorize and practice utopian alternatives. With its emphasis on an ethical prefigurative politics, anarchism holds out a directly democratic, egalitarian replacement for the hegemony of representative democracy and capitalism. It has thus contributed to diverse experiments in horizontal organization and nonhierarchical social relations, alongside or in solidarity with a variety of anti-authoritarian movements worldwide.

And for the first time in its own history, anarchism is all that much more relevant and even workable in this era, variously labeled the network society, the information age, or simply globalization. Yet in its very openness, this political philosophy and its praxis often defy any semblance of a definition, thereby linking widely disparate views and projects that conflict with and/or even contradict each other. Pittsburgh Organizing Group's anarchist speaker series exists to explore the question, what is anarchism? And how does it fit into the fight for freedom, dignity, and a better world?

For more information:
www.organizepittsburgh.org
pog@mutualaid.org

POG brings dinner for Mayday-eve potluck in support of Calgon workers

At midnight on February 29 Calgon Chemical locked out 63 members of United Steelworkers Local 5032 based at the company's Neville Island facility. Rather than let work continue under an extension of the previous contract management locked out the workers, barring them from the plant. Workers are struggling to maintain affordable family healthcare coverage and pensions in the face of continual management efforts to cut benefits and crush the union.

On April 30, a dozen members of Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) decided to show their solidarity and support of labor by bringing the workers dinner and standing with them on another cold night of the camp-out. POG brought them home cooked meatball sandwiches, pasta, chips, and cake. We talked with workers, thanked them for their dedication, and discussed some of our ongoing work.

Since the lockout began workers have maintained a 24-hour camp outside the plant gates (there are two main facility entrances.) Private security goons are also on hand, video-taping, and otherwise seeking to maintain an intimidating presence. Local police have also made their presence felt, protecting management and the scab labor being used to operate the plant, most recently issuing a citation to a steelworker for "swearing." During the dinner security harassed a member of POG who took a picture of a car from the sidewalk, demanding to know who he was, refusing to say where the Calgon property line was, and then stating the local police had been called.

We live in a world where capital continues its endless march to globalize, to externalize all costs, and to crush all mechanisms of community accountability and control. Laws and borders criminalize the movement of people, while the powerful operate as they please, hidden actors within mega-corporations.

With a National Labor Relations Board stacked in favor of corporations, and a legal system that severely limits unions' abilities to confront employers, these struggles often come down to the question of local community action and utilization of the main weapon at our disposal, solidarity.

Solidarity is more than a principle, more than an ethic; it is an imperative for social change advocates. It is simply recognition that ours is a collective struggle, and our fates are tied to the fates of others, and that no one can afford to go it alone. In this interconnected web of struggle, a defeat for labor at Calgon is a defeat for workers everywhere. Members of POG may not see eye-to-eye with the United Steelworkers on all issues, and many of our members likely have differences of political vision with many Calgon workers, yet we are united in the joint belief that workers are entitled to be the beneficiaries of their labor and that they have an unalienable right to organize for the betterment of themselves and others. We are workers and allies in the struggle.

Stated directly, it is an affront to our group's values and aspirations to allow the continuation of a situation where locked out workers and their families suffer while scab labor and management operate with impunity. We are considering calling attention to those individuals (such as Calgon CEO John S. Stanik of Venetia) and companies responsible for the current suffering of workers and their families through the diversity of legal means at our disposal- protests at Calgon or it's customers and suppliers, home demonstrations, flyering, petitions, etc. We will be watching this situation closely.

Pittsburgh was, is, and will always be, a labor town.

In solidarity with the workers at Calgon, and all those experiencing the class-war that is being waged on workers,
Pittsburgh Organizing Group
www.organizepittsburgh.org

A discussion with Author Wayne Price

Saturday May 24 at 2:00pm
Thomas Merton Center, 5125 Penn Ave

Anarchists and anti-statist Marxists are against the state, but they rarely discuss what the state is and what might replace it. Come hear Wayne talk about his new book The Abolition of the State (Click here for a review), and join in a lively discussion about revolution and the anarchist vision for a post-revolutionary society.

Wayne Price is a long-time union, anti-war and human rights activist. He has been a member of the Revolutionary Socialist League, the Love & Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation and, currently, the Northeastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC). He writes for The Utopian and for The Northeastern Anarchist, as well as contributing a monthly column for www.Anarkismo.net.

An evening with George Sossenko, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War

When: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Where: 4701 Butler Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201 (in the neighborhood of Lawrenceville)

4:00pm: Potluck reception with food and drinks
5:00pm: Movie depicting the Spanish Civil War
7:00pm: George Sossenko will talk about his life, the fight for Spain, and the enduring appeal of the anarchist ideal, followed by socializing

In July 1936, the Spanish army attempted to overthrow the country's popularly elected left wing government. In response, the Spanish people rose up to fight fascism. A long-awaited anarchist social revolution was unleashed with the creation of non-hierarchical militias fighting at the front, the collectivization of land by rural peasants, and the establishment of worker self-management of industrial Spain.

That same month, 16-year-old George Sossenko headed for Spain; he left his parents a note stating that he was leaving his loved ones in Paris behind to join the struggle...that history was decided in the fight for Spain and he could not forgive himself if he failed to take part. Like thousands of other internationals from 54 countries, George gave up the comforts of home, determined to halt the spread of fascism creeping through Europe, to fight for his anarchist ideals. George fought in the Aragon front, with the Sebastian Faure unit of the International Brigades in the anarchist Durruti Column. Following the fall of Spain he continued to resist fighting the Nazis in north Africa, Italy, and his native France alongside units of the "Free French" resistance until Germany's defeat.

In the decades since, George has continued the struggle, no longer with arms, but with the desire to aid the anarchist cause. Please join us at this special event, as we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and one who fought and lived that he might share his journey with new generations.

A former senior field engineer with Michelin, he is currently a member of the Capital Terminus anarchist collective in Atlanta, and author of the recent Spanish Language book "Aventurero Idealist," soon to be published in English.

This event is part of the Anarchist Speaker Series, an initiative of Pittsburgh Organizing Group: www.organizepittsburgh.org

Protest the Racist Bar in Oakland
Wednesday April 2, 9:00pm - 11:00pm
Garage Door Saloon, corner of Atwood and Sennott Streets

Recently, the Garage Door Saloon in Oakland began running a drink special for Coronas and tacos called "Wetback Wednesdays." When it started making headlines in early March, it spawned a lot of controversy. Most either insisted that it was offensive and should be taken down or that it was a harmless joke. While we strongly disagree that using a racial slur in a joke is harmless, we also don't think that it's enough to claim that the drink special itself is the whole of the problem. The problem is deeper than a sign; the problem is that a white supremacist who owns and operates two bars in our city is trying to spread his hateful ideas through his business. The owner's name is Michael Papariella. As reported on Indymedia recently, rumors have been flying for some time that Papariella, former drummer for local hardcore band Built Upon Frustration, had been kicked out of Built Upon for his white power views.

So far, the only opposition to this bar and its racist owner has been a pro-boycott group on the college-based social networking site Facebook.com and someone cutting down the sign for the special. While both of these measures are laudable, they are not enough. Papariella and the Garage Door Saloon should be confronted and told that racist businesses and organizing will not be tolerated in our city.

POG will protest outside the Garage Door Saloon on Wednesday April 2 during the special to bring further attention to the presence of this racist bar in our midst. Come to Garage Door Saloon, at the corner of Atwood and Sennott Streets, at 9:00pm and picket outside it until 11:00pm. We invite everyone to join us. We will not be looking for a fight, but we will be prepared to defend ourselves, our communities and our city if necessary.

In Solidarity and Resistance,
Pittsburgh Organizing Group
www.organizepittsburgh.org
pog@mutualaid.org

A talk with noted author, activist, and organizer Cindy Milstein

Saturday March 29 at 7:00pm
Thomas Merton Center, 5125 Penn Ave

Anarchism, in advocating a free society of free individuals, is perhaps the only political tradition that has consistently rooted out domination in its many forms, while also attempting to theorize and practice utopian alternatives. With its emphasis on an ethical prefigurative politics, anarchism holds out a directly democratic, egalitarian replacement for the hegemony of representative democracy and capitalism. It has thus contributed to diverse experiments in horizontal organization and nonhierarchical social relations, alongside or in solidarity with a variety of anti-authoritarian movements worldwide. And for the first time in its own history, anarchism is all that much more relevant and even workable in this era, variously labeled the network society, the information age, or simply globalization. Yet in its very openness, this political philosophy and its praxis often defy any semblance of a definition, thereby linking widely disparate views and projects that conflict with and/or even contradict each other. So, broadly speaking, what is anarchism?

This talk will survey anarchism's aspirations from its European beginnings during the Industrial Revolution to its reemergence as a postwar and especially contemporary phenomenon. It will touch on the shared set of ethics that bind (most) anarchists, various schools of anarchist thought, how anarchism moves beyond the confines of its nineteenth-century origins, and what it might offer now in the struggle for a better world.

Cindy is co-organizer of the annual Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference and the Radical Theory Track at NCOR, a board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and a collective member of both the Free Society Collective and all-volunteer Black Sheep Books in Montpelier. She does grassroots political work in central Vermont, where she taught for many years at the "anarchist summer school" known as the Institute for Social Ecology. Her essays appear in several anthologies, including "Realizing the Impossible: Art against Authority" (AK Press, 2007), "Globalize Liberation" (City Lights, 2004), and "Confronting Capitalism" (Soft Skull, 2004).

Part of POG's Anarchist Speaker Series

When: Monday, March 31, 2008 @ 7pm
Where: 120 David Lawrence, University of Pittsburgh

On March 31st at 7pm, former political prisoner & animal rights activist Peter Young will be speaking at 120 David Lawrence Hall, University of Pittsburgh, 3942 Forbes Avenue. Young spent two years in federal prison on charges of 'animal enterprise terrorism' for releasing and conspiring to release over 8,000 minks from six fur farms across the mid-west in 1997. He will be speaking on political repression, the 'green scare', direct action and animal rights and liberation. The talk is sponsored by the Pitt Law National Layers Guild & Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania and endorsed by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group and Students for Radical Change & Liberation. For more information, contact pitt.nlg@gmail.com.

Peter Young is an animal rights activist indicted by a federal grand jury in 1998 on charges related to fur farm raids in Iowa, South Dakota & Wisconsin in 1997. Young remained underground for seven years until being arrested in 2005 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment on two charges of 'animal enterprise terrorism.' Before his sentencing he had the opportunity to show remorse for his actions and refused to do so, instead telling the fur farmers that he would "forever mark those nights on your property as the most rewarding experience of my life." For more information about Young click here.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a federal law targeting animal rights and environmental activists introduced in 2005 to stiffen penalties and expand the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992. The Act creates new crime and sentencing guidelines for anyone who travels in interstate or foreign commerce to intentionally damage or cause the loss of any property (including animals or records) used by or in connection with animal enterprise, or conspires to do so. The AETA was passed by the House under a suspension of the rules voice vote with only six house members present, unanimously passed by the Senate and signed into law by George Bush two months later. For more information about the AETA click here.

Behind the Mask: The Story Of The People Who Risk Everything To Save Animals is a 2006 documentary film about the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) created by animal-rights lawyer Shannon Keith, owner of Uncaged Films and ARME (Animal Rescue, Media & Education).The film has won several awards including best documentary feature at the Venice Film Festival, the Independent Features Film Festival and the Santa Clarita Valley Film Festival and was an official selection at Santa Cruz Film Festival and ReelHeART International Film Festival. For more information about the film: http://www.uncagedfilms.com