On this week's show...
* we have an in-depth report on developers' plans to build a casino in the Hill District, and reactions from residents
* we'll hear from locals who recently marched for immigrant's rights, and youth who organized a march against police brutality in Edgewood and Swissvale
* independent journalist Josh Wolf is released from prison, after refusing to hand over video tapes to a Federal Grand Jury
* a follow-up report on the execution of prison activist Hassan Shakur
* plus more in our local and global news stories
Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of the news from the grassroots, news overlooked by the corporate media.
On today's show...
we have an in-depth report on developers' plans to build a casino in the Hill District, and reactions from residents
we'll hear from locals who marched for immigrant's rights, and also against police brutality
independent journalist Josh Wolf is released from prison, after refusing to hand over video tapes to a Federal Grand Jury
and a report on the execution of prison activist Hassan Shakur
Rustbelt Radio is produced weekly by an all volunteer collective. The show airs live every Monday from 6-7pm on WRCT 88.3FM in Pittsburgh, PA. We're also on WVJW Benwood, 94.1FM in the Wheeling West Virginia area, now at a new time: Thursdays at 6pm. And we're also on Saturdays at 5pm on WPTS Pittsburgh, 92.1FM from the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
We're also available on the internet, both on WRCT's live webstream at W-R-C-T dot ORG and for download, stream or podcast at radio dot I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot org.
We turn now to local news.
Headlines
Local News
[4:45] PFOI march
immigration [intro/ chanting] fade out after 6 seconds.
Those were sounds from a march organized by Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants on Sunday, September 3. Demonstrators marched down East Carson Street and across the 10th Street Bridge to hold a rally in front of the Allegheny County Jail.
Rustbelt Radio asked organizer Ceci Wheeler to explain some of the issues that inspired the march:
[2:11] ceci
We also spoke to demonstrator Celeste Taylor:
[1:25] celeste
The future of the Hazleton ordinance remains uncertain. A lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other organizations and law firms argues that the ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause because it seeks to override federal law and the exclusive federal power over immigration. The ordinance also violates business and property owners' due process rights under the constitution because it is nearly impossible for them ensure compliance. In addition, the ordinance's "English only"provision violates city residents' First Amendment rights to free speech. Although the lawsuit has successfully blocked the ordinance, at least temporarily, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, the author of the ordinance, has vowed not to back down and to fight the lawsuit all the way.
[3:00] Braddock Asthma
Asthma illnesses are increasing at alarming rates and according to the World Health Organization as many as 100 to 150 million people are inflicted worldwide. Many of those with asthma are low income people or people of color who live in urban environments that have disproportionate levels of air pollution. Here in Pittsburgh, a Children's Hospital study found that one in four children in Braddock have asthma. The survey looked at families with young children and teens in Braddock as well as other neighborhoods throughout the city.
In the first week of July, Rachel Fillipini and Bridget Yupgcavage from Gasp: Group against Smog and Pollution, conducted a demonstration project in Braddock to determine the prevalence of fine particulate matter. We asked Ms. Fillipini to describe the project.
Braddock 1 (0:30)
She divulged the findings and described what she believes could be causing the high rate of asthma. She did also state that this was merely a demonstration project and not a scientific study.
Braddock 2 (1:30)
When asked what improvements could be made in the area, Fillipini recommended that companies that use diesel trucks be proactive and take the measures to reduce their emissions.
[4:45] Anti- Police Brutality March
Angered by their treatment by the Swissvale and Edgewood Police Departments, several teenagers in those boroughs of Pittsburgh have organized a loose group, called “Let's Stand Up,” to respond to police misconduct in their communities. On August 26th, around 50 people participated in the group's first public protest.
Marching behind a homemade banner – a bedsheet spray-painted with the words “Stop Police Racism” – the protest marched from Edgewood Town Center to Regent Square and then back to the center of Swissvale. Protesters yelling “Racism means we've got to fight back” and “No Justice, No Peace; No Racist Police” attracted a large amount of support from bystanders – drivers honked and held raised fists out of windows, pedestrians ran to catch up.
Ben Johnson, 15, is one of the founders of Let's Stand Up. He said that growing up, he had always noticed differences in the way police treat of people of color. It was an incident at a movie night in a neighborhood park, however, that inspired him to start Let's Stand Up:
Swissvale1 - 0:56
In another incident, Johnson describes an encounter with the Swissvale Police while flyering for Let’s Stand Up:
Swissvale2 - 0:37
This harassment escalated: shortly before the August 26th protest, Edgewood Police called Johnson and told him to come into the Police Station. There, Johnson states that several officers told him (quote) “... all the reasons it would be bad for having [the protest] in Edgewood . . . and when I told him we were going to have it anyway, he kept up. Other officers from Edgewood were threatening me and telling me that I would be arrested.”
Because of this harassment, the Let's Stand Up organizers sought out support from other local groups, including the Pittsburgh Organizing Group and Anti-racist Action. A member of POG speaks:
Swissvale3 - 0:36
Despite the threats to the young organizers, the protest was free of arrests; at least three Swissvale Police cars lurked around the march, but all kept their distance.
At the end of the march, throats sore from yelling, but obviously excited by the success of their first action, several of the Let's Stand Up organizers walked back to Edgewood Town Center, vowing to keep pressure on both the Swissvale and Edgewood Police Departments. A future march is planned in Edgewood. For more information, email Let's Stand Up at letsstandup @yahoo.com, or visit the Pittsburgh Organizing Group's website, at www.organizepittsburgh.org.
Wrapup
For more on local news, you can visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot org.
[ HMB BREAK RUSTBELT - 0:20 (fades down 0:10 in to start global intro) ]
Global News
Intro
You are listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news overlooked by the corporate media. We turn now to news from other independent media sources around the world.
[2:30] US-Korea FTA
From Wednesday through Saturday, representatives from Korea and the US continued trade talks for a proposed Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. Discussions were held in Seattle and focused on proposed plans to reduce trade barriers between the US and Korea. Before talks began in February, the US established four mandatory steps for Korea to fulfill in order to commence negotiations. These steps were to deregulate drug prices (thereby increasing drug costs), deregulate gas emissions from US imported cars, resume the importation of US beef despite questionable safety, and abolish a screen quota system that had required Korean theaters to show a minimum number of hours of Korean films, and which had been strengthening the Korean film sector in the face of Hollywood domination.
Critics of the proposed agreement cite many reasons to resist the Korea-US free trade agreement, including the secrecy of talks and the harm done to Korean automotive workers, farmers, filmmakers, and all those requiring medication for illness. Protests have witnessed a strong showing of filmmakers, who argue that the proposed Kor-US free trade agreement could reduce Korean film output to the world by at least one half, from 80 films a year to 40.
Saturday afternoon concluded the talks at the Convention and Trade Center, and protestors demonstrating nonviolently outside the talks were arrested. Those arrested included 9 representatives from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, alongside US labor organizers, demonstrating a strong transnational solidarity against the agenda of free trade.
Representatives at the talks on Saturday concluded that they had reached a standstill; however, if agreements were reached by the end of the year, the KorUS free trade agreement would become the world's largest trade pact since 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement.
In a press release from July, ANSWER, an alliance of Korean labor and environmental organizers, stated;
"We witnessed tremendous job losses under the NAFTA. Meanwhile, farmers in Mexico were wiped out by corn and other U.S. agricultural products. Faced with literal starvation 8 to 10 million Mexicans emigrated to the United States where they are super-exploited and treated as criminals subjected to mass arrests and deportations if they dare organize unions. U.S. corporations moved into Mexico, sold products at very low prices, forced Mexican farmers and industries into bankruptcy when they could not sell their products, and then turned around and raised prices after the Mexican "competition" was destroyed. The Korean people cannot truly desire this outcome since it benefits only U.S. transnational corporations and banks."
[2:00] Journalist Josh Wolf Released from Prison
On August 7th, Rustbelt Radio reported on the independent journalist Josh Wolf, who was jailed for his refusal to testify at a Federal Grand Jury and to turn over unpublished video footage of a July 2005 anti-G8 demonstration, which is being investigated by the Grand Jury. Josh was charged with civil contempt and jailed on August 1st. After spending 30 days in jail, The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted bail to Josh on the 31st of last month.
During a press conference held on August 31st, Josh's lawyer addresses the irregularities of the federal government's involvement in the investigation, whereas this case would normally fall under the jurisdiction of the state of California.
lawyer (0:30)
Josh speaks as to why he refused to turn over the video tapes to the federal government:
josh wolf (0:20)
Since Wolf’s jailing, a number of organizations including the National Lawyers Guild have voiced support for Wolf and condemnation of the Federal Government. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors also adopted a resolution this month urging the passage of a Federal Shield Law to protect journalists and condemning the federal government’s actions in the Wolf case. The resolution charges that the grand jury is an “attempt to circumvent the local judicial system,” since the crime being investigated involves an alleged attack on a San Francisco police car.
[2:30] Calderon President of Mexico
Mexico's contested presidential election results have finally come to a close. The July 2nd election tentatively favored National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderon with a 0.58 percent lead over his opponent Lopez Obrador. Since that time, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, has been challenging the electoral process. He has led an encampment in Mexico City's central square, or Zocalo, where hundreds of thousands of his supporters have maintained their presence for over 40 days.
Mexico’s federal electoral tribunal ruled unanimously 7 to 0 on August 28 that there was no basis for the claim by López Obrador that he had lost the presidential election because of fraud.
On September 5th, again in a unanimous decision, it declared Felipe Calderon to be the elected president of Mexico. While the court acknowledged that there had been inappropriate intervention by President Fox and some irregularities during the voting, it found that these were not significant enough to have changed the elections.
The tribunal had ordered a recount of a portion of the ballots: from 9 percent of polling places where it acknowledged that problems might have occurred. As a result, 4,183 votes were subtracted from Calderón’s total, still leaving him winner by about 240,000 votes.
Supporters of AMLO argue that a full recount, vote-by-vote and polling-place by polling-place, would have resulted in throwing out many more votes—perhaps as many as one million—but certainly enough to have made their candidate the winner.
López Obrador has also argued that the President and business groups violated the law by supporting Calderón in ways that resulted in an unfair and illegal election. The President, he says, took part inappropriately and illegally in the campaign while business groups financed last-minute advertisements attacking López Obrador. The Electoral Tribunal, he argues, could have thrown out Calderón’s victory on those ground, either awarding the election to López Obrador or annulling it and calling a new election. López Obrador has also accused the election authorities of corruption.
AMLO is also refusing to recognize the results of the election. He stated, "I do not recognize someone who tries to act as the chief federal executive without having a legitimate and democratic representation."
In protest to the election results, AMLO claims he will now run a parallel government from the streets. He is calling for a National Democratic Convention to be held on September 16th, Mexico's Independence Day, in the streets of Mexico City. The purpose of this convention will be to elect him as Mexico's alternate president. He added, "We are going to exercise our sovereignty to construct a new government ... cast aside the simulated republic and create a true, authentic republic".
[2:00] Hasan Shakur Executed
In the tradition of Shaka Sankofa, Tookie Williams and many others, death row prisoner Hasan Shakur was executed by the state of Texas on August 31st, and pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. The execution came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected three appeals and requests for reprieves. These appeals were based on affidavits stating evidence that Shakur's co-defendant Jermain Herron was the one to commit the actual murder, and an affidavit detailing jury misconduct during his original trial.
Shakur, also known as Derrick Frazier, was sentenced to death in October of 1998, at the age of 20. He was convicted of killing Betsey and Cody Nutt. Shakur maintained his innocence in the murders until the very end, even when they had him strapped down to the death chamber gurney: "I've professed my innocence for nine years and I will continue to profess my innocence for another nine years."
During his time on death row, Shakur transformed himself into a political organizer, prison activist and revolutionary. He founded Operation LIFE, an organization and newsletter to improve conditions in and out of prison, and he founded the HRC Texas branch of the Human Rights Coalition, a prisoner family organizing group. He organized anti-violence concerts, meetings; and provided guidance, support, networking, and vision for a number of different organizations.
Shakur's last words were: "Tell my people we must continue on. Do not give up the fight. Do not give up hope. We can make it happen."
Information for this story was excerpted from an article by Walidah Imarisha posted at houston.indymedia.org
You can also listen to an interview with Debbie Frazier about Hasan Shakur's case on the March 27th 2006 episode of Rustbelt Radio.
Wrapup
You can read more independent global news stories by visting indymedia: I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G.
We now turn to a musical break with the Welfare Poets singing "Call for Hasan"
[3:00] Welfare Poets
Features
Intro
That was just the Welfare Poets with the song "Call for Hasan"
Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
[27:15] Casino Plans for the Hill
Today on Rustbelt Radio, we will take a look at casinos and development in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Andalusia Knoll brings us this report:
audio (27:10 min)
[1:15] Calendar of events
And now we present the Indymedia calendar of events:
On Thursday the 14th at 7:00 PM, outdoorsman and environmentalist Eustace Conway will give a free lecture at CMU. Eustace will discuss his decision to live deliberately in the woods for the past 20 years. This event will be at Porter Hall 100, near Flagstaff Hill in Oakland.
Also on Thursday the 14th, at 6:00 pm, Charlayne Hunter-Gault will speak in Pittsburgh to discuss her new book, "New News Out of South Africa" and offer an optimistic view of Africa's future in the context of the continent's seemingly crushing problems. Ms. Hunter-Gault, an award-winning journalist, will discuss the democratic process in Africa and the strategies employed that offer promise since the end of colonial and apartheid rule. This discussion will take place at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, located at 5951 Penn Ave, East Liberty.
Tim Vining and Stephen Donahue of the Thomas Merton Center will be facilitating four small group sessions on “Reading the Signs of the Times: Inspiration from the Catholic Worker Movement.” The sessions will run on Sundays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. This Sunday's session to be held on the 17th will be entitled 'Anarchism – Taking Personal Responsibility to Build a Better World'. Registration is required for this event which will be held at the Thomas Merton Center,at 5125 Penn Avenue in Garfield. For more information contact timvining@ verizon.net or call 412-802-6542
Outro
[ Outro music ]
Thanks for tuning in to Rust Belt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WARC Meadville, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
Our hosts this week are Andalusia Knoll, Ellen Pierson, and Sara Valenzuela with additional contributions from Carlin Christy, Morgan Ress, and Vani Natarajan. This week's show was produced by Donald Deeley and Matt Toups. Special thanks to all of our hosts, producers, and contributors.
You can get involved with Rustbelt Radio! To contact us, or to send us your comments, email RADIO at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot ORG. All of our shows are available for download or podcast on our website at RADIO dot INDY-P-G-H dot ORG and this show can be heard again Tuesday morning on WRCT at 9 AM after Democracy Now!
Tune in next week at this time for another edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
MP3 at 25.4 mebibytes
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)