Rustbelt Radio October 9, 2006
Intro
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 learn about the growing movement of resistance to Columbus Day
- We'll hear from Wheels of Justice Tour speakers in Pittsburgh
- We'll hear eyewitness accounts of Jeb Bush being chased through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh by Steelworkers and anti-war picketers
- We'll hear excerpts from a community meeting to discuss the redevelopment of the Nabisco factory corridor in East Liberty. * And, the civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize is back on the air, having battled through years of copyright law restrictions
Rustbelt Radio airs live every Monday from 6-7 PM and again Tuesday morning from 9-10 AM on WRCT 88.3FM from the Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh, PA. We're also on Pacifica affiliate WVJW Benwood, 94.1 FM in the Wheeling, West Virginia area, on Thursdays from 6-7 PM. And we're on WPTS, 92.1 FM from the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, Saturday mornings from 9-10 AM.
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 headlines.
Headlines
Local News
[4:40] Jeb Bush chase
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in Pittsburgh to speak at a fund-raiser for Republican Senator Rick Santorum, was chased by a jeering crowd of United Steelworker Pickets and anti-war protesters in streets of Downtown Pittsburgh on Friday. The crowd of 30 to 50 protesters was marching to join a larger picket line already in front of the fund-raiser at the Duquesne Club when it encountered Governor Bush across the street.
Governor Bush reportedly blew kisses at the crowd. The group then began moving toward the Governor, chanting [quote] "Jeb Go Home" and [quote] "We Don't want you here." The Governor then began to retreat, first into the lobby of an office building, then into the Wood Street T Station, where police ushered him into a utility closet while they dispersed the crowd with Tazer Guns and Police Dogs.
Rustbelt Radio spoke with two eyewitnesses, who agreed to share their stories on the condition that we not use their names:
Another eyewitness describes what happened in the Station:
The Governor remained hidden from the public for the remainder of his time in Pittsburgh. The Police made no arrests, either in the T station or at the larger Picket in front of the Duquesne Club.
[2:30] March for Sustainability
This past Saturday, October 7th, a March for Sustainability wound through the East End of Pittsburgh. The 200 people in attendance advocated for more people to take personal responsibility for living more sustainably. Marchers carried signs with statements such as "Drive Less," "Go Vegan," "Wear a sweater- turn down the heat," and a quote from Mahatma Gandhi- "Earth provides enough for every man's need, but not every man's greed." The march was organized by the Association for India's Development and the Unitarian Universalist Church. Organizers say they wanted to raise awareness of the problems created by our current over-consumptive and unsustainable way of life- including wars over natural resources, climate change, destruction of ecological systems, weakening of human communities due to competition and individuality displacing spirituality, and skyrocketing rates of illnesses from environmental contamination, poor diet, and sedentary "convenience" lifestyles. The main emphasis, however, was on sustainable alternatives to over-consumption.
Rustbelt Radio's Matt Toups spoke with march organizer Ravikant Pathak [rav E kant pat huck]:
[2:30] Green Party Candidate Struck from PA Ballot
On Wednesday the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court upheld a ruling banning Green Party candidate for Senate Carl Romanelli [ro man el e] from the ballot. The ruling was the result of a conflict between Romanelli and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party over how many signatures are required for a candidate to run for office. Under state law, Republicans and Democrats need only two thousand signatures on a petition to become candidates for statewide office. Independent and third-party candidates need enough signatures from registered voters to match two percent of the votes cast for the top vote-getter in the most recent statewide election. This means Green party candidate Romanelli needed just over sixty-seven thousand signatures. This number was based on Democratic candidate for Senate Bob Casey's results from his 2004 race for treasurer.
Romanelli's lawyers argued that the standard shouldn't have been set by the 2004 results but rather by the 2005 election for Justice Sandra Newman-a decision that would have set the number of required signatures at around fifteen thousand. The judges disagreed.
This wouldn't have been an issue- Romanelli collected nearly one hundred thousand signatures-but Democrats aggressively challenged the validity of the signatures claiming many of them did not precisely and exactly match data recorded on state voter rolls. This strategy used against Romanelli was unquestionably successful for the Democrats. After the challenges the justices ruled he was at least nine thousand signatures short. A similar strategy was used by Republicans during the 2004 presidential election when “caging lists” were used to deny Americans their right to vote.
Democrats have claimed throughout the process that Romanelli was a stooge of the Republicans, only running and finding support so that he could siphon votes away from the Democratic candidate Bob Casey. Yet the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Mr. Romanelli [quote] “has not proved to be decisive in any public polling on the race so far. In the few surveys that posed the three-way test, Mr. Casey had still posted leads in the neighborhood of low double digits.”
Until being struck from the ballot, Mr. Romanelli was the only pro-choice candidate, the only anti-war candidate and the only candidate that supported single-payer health care. The Democrats are not satisfied with just having him struck from the ballot though. They are also asking the Commonwealth Court to order him to pay almost ninety thousand dollars to cover the cost the Democrats incurred while trying to block his access to the ballot.
Wrapup
For more on local news, you can visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot org.
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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.
[2:00] Norway forgives illegitimate debt
The government of Norway announced on October 3rd that it will unconditionally cancel $80 million in debt owed by five developing countries. It is the first creditor nation to take such an action.
The government had agreed to cancel debts owed by Ecuador, Egypt, Jamaica, Peru and Sierra Leone.
Norway also will forgive debt owed by Burma and Sudan as soon as these countries qualify for international operations for debt relief.
The debts were incurred during a campaign from 1976 to 1980, in which Norwegian ships were exported to developing countries. Subsequent investigations found that little consideration was given in this process to the benefit or sustainability of the campaign, and, as such, the needs of a faltering domestic shipbuilding industry superseded the development concerns of recipient countries. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian government minister in charge of foreign aid, called the program a mistake, and said the debt relief was aimed at erasing a (quote) little honourable (endquote) portion of Norwegian development history.
Marie Clarke Brill, Acting Co-Executive Director of Africa Action, said today, (quote) Activist pressure has succeeded in shifting the terms of the conversation on debt cancellation. While the previous standard had been a refusal by creditor countries to look critically at past loans or to accept responsibility for irresponsible practices, Norway has now parted ways with this convention. The door is open for activists in this country and abroad to continue to shine a spotlight on the unjust history and actions of the international financial institutions, and to build on this victory to achieve full debt cancellation now. (endquote)
[3:00] Ireland shell pipeline update
Last week, Rustbelt Radio reported on the successful blockade of a proposed natural gas refinery site in County Mayo, Ireland. The following day, Tuesday, October 3, Shell succeeded in pushing past protesters to resume work on the construction site.
Construction crews were escorted onto the site by 170 gardaí – (gar-dye) Irish police officers - past a group of 100 protesters and members of Shell to Sea, a network of people who have been working to raise awareness of the proposed Corrib gas project. Members of Shell to Sea sat on the ground in front of the gate and began to pray, as they did the week before. Police came in and carried the seated protesters one by one to a designated protest area out of the way of the gate. After the police had cleared the way, the convoy of construction equipment and personnel drove into the site.
Shell to Sea continued to maintain a presence of around 100 people at the construction site every day last week. They maintained their peaceful protest from behind designated barricades, and did not blockade the gate last week.
Construction crews and equipment passed in and out of the site every day last week. Today, Monday October 9, Shell to Sea resumed their blockade of the road with nearly 200 people and prevented the construction convoy from entering the site until late this morning. Here with an update on today’s action is John Monaghan (MON a han) :
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Work on the refinery was halted by supporters of the Shell to Sea campaign from June 2005 until October 3, 2006.
For up-to-date information on the Shell to Sea campaign and for more background information, you can visit Ireland Indymedia and Shell to Sea online at www.indymedia.ie and www.corribsos.com.
[2:30] Kentucky River Decisions slash union rights
Despite the protests of thousands of workers across the county, the National Labor Relations Board voted 3-2 on Oct. 3 to strip up to 8 million workers of their right to belong to a union. The ruling, known as the Kentucky River Decision, re-defines the term "supervisor" to include many more workers.
Although thousands of union members petitioned their congressional representatives to ask the labor board for an opportunity to provide oral arguments on the issue, the NLRB, which has not heard oral arguments since the Bush administration took office, denied these requests before issuing its ruling.
The five-member board ruled that workers who direct others on the job, such as shift captains or charge nurses, are classified as supervisors and therefore ineligible for union representation. Traditionally the classification of supervisor has been limited to those with substantial power to hire, fire, or set wages for other workers.
In their dissenting opinion, NLRB board members Wilma B. Liebman and Dennis P. Walsh, both Clinton appointees, wrote, (quote) Today's decision threatens to create a new class of workers under federal labor law: workers who have neither the genuine prerogatives of management, nor the statutory rights of ordinary employees. In that category may fall most professionals (among many other workers) who by 2012 could number almost 34 million, accounting for 23 percent of the workforce. (endquote)
The three members of the board who voted for the decision are all Republicans.
The ruling may affect workers in a wide array of industries, including nursing, retail, manufacturing, construction, mining and other skilled occupations.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sharply criticized the decision, saying that (quote) Today's decision is the latest in the Bush-appointed NLRB's legal maneuvering to deny as many workers as possible their basic right to have a voice on the job and improve their living standards through their union. (endquote)
Sweeney said that over the last several years, the NLRB has chipped away at the right to unionize by limiting the eligibility of disabled workers, teaching assistants, temporary workers and others to join unions-- and now, at the very time middle-class workers need more help, the NLRB is taking a broad swing.
The Service Employees International Union warned in a statement that the ruling could undermine the quality of health care. The union said that a nursing shortage already exists and is projected to increase, and studies have shown that nurses leave the field because of inadequate pay and difficult working conditions, both of which will be exacerbated by stripping nurses of the ability to participate in unions.
Dorothy Ahmad, a registered nurse and member of the California Nurses Association, a leader of opposition to the decision, said (quote) A lot of charge nurses will step down rather than lose their union protection. It's really a very difficult job. (endquote)
Leo Gerard, president of the Steelworkers union, said, (quote) What is left to our union members is a political challenge to immediately fight back by encouraging voters in this November's midterm election to hold accountable those legislators who helped give us this pro-corporate Supreme Court and NLRB board (endquote)
[3:00] Eyes on the Prize returns
The 14-part documentary film
Eyes on the Prize first aired on public television nearly 20 years ago, and became one of the most important histories of the American Civil Rights movement. But since 1993 it has been illegal under copyright law to broadcast, sell, or distribute the documentary - until now.
Eyes on the Prize interviews hundreds of ordinary people who struggled to organize the largest social justice movement of the 20th century. But it also uses extensive primary film footage from archival sources, for which the filmmaker had to obtain licenses to use under federal copyright law. Blackside productions, struggling to raise funds for the work, was only able to purchase licenses for the footage for a limited time period. When those licenses expired in 1993, the film disappeared from television and could no longer be distributed or shown publicly. The only copies left of this unique memory of unprecedented grassroots activism were sets of deteriorating VHS tapes and obsolete laserdiscs.
On the January 31st, 2005 edition of Rustbelt Radio, we interviewed the organization Downhill Battle which is critical of copyright law which they say is giving a few corporations a monopoly on our culture, especially music. At that time, Downhill Battle had organized the
Eyes on the Screen project, which called for decentralized public screenings of the film during 2005's Black History Month in every US state and even abroad. Initially they also encouraged the use of peer-to-peer internet filesharing methods such as BitTorrent to distribute the film, but retracted that call after the original production company, Blackside, complained. Still, the campaign was successful in bringing the movie back into the public view, and also brought attention the absurdity of the legal situation: the movie, in which Black Americans and their allies courageously defied the law to fight for their rights, had been silenced by another law, only to be defied and challenged by a new generation of activists.
The copyright disputes in the film raised many questions about who can own pieces of culture and history. In one scene of_ Eyes on the Prize_, Martin Luther King Jr. celebrates his 39th birthday -- the last birthday he would ever celebrate, in 1968 -- while his staff sang Happy Birthday to him. The Time Warner corporation holds the copyright to that song, and filmmakers have been known to pay fifteen to twenty thousand dollar for just one verse, according to a report by the Center for Social Media at American University.
The film's creator, Henry Hampton, died in 1998, and his sisters began a lengthy process of raising funds and securing new licenses for the work. Now, after 13 years and nearly a million dollars of new funds, the film will be shown on TV again, as a part of the PBS series American Experience.
In Pittsburgh, Eyes on the Prize will air on WQED, channel 13, this month on Monday nights at 9pm. This week's show will be "Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961" and "No Easy Walk, 1961-1963." Next week is "Mississippi: Is This America? 1963-1964" and "Bridge to Freedom, 1965."
Wrapup
You can read more independent global news stories by visting indymedia at: I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G.
Features
Intro
You're listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
[8:00] Bakery Row Redevelopment Meeting
On Wednesday October 4th, a meeting co-convened by the Shadyside Action Coalition, a neighborhood group that sponsors house tours, and East Liberty Development, Inc., a community development corporation, took place at the Calvary Church in Shadyside. The meeting brought together a group of local residents and planning consultants to discuss proposals for redevelopment on a stretch of Penn Avenue between Fifth Avenue and East Liberty, also known as Bakery Row.
The meeting began with an address by councilman Bill Peduto. A presentation by consulting architect Rob Pfaffman [faf man], showing slides with historic images of East Liberty and considering ways to use pre-urban renewal era images to re-envision East Liberty's new development, was followed by breakout sessions facilitated by consultants and focusing on five discrete corridors. Issues discussed included making public transit accessible, reshaping traffic, the arrival of new shops, a proposed "Bakery Square," with hotels and condominiums, and proposals to build big box stores like Target in the neighborhood.
These plans-in-progress unfurl in the shadow of previous disastrous development schemes. Urban renewal projects imposed by the city of Pittsburgh on East Liberty in the 1960's following a period of white flight from the neighborhood included a pedestrian shopping mall encircled by a ring of traffic, and high rise apartments. Over 1000 houses and apartments were leveled to make way for modern glass and metal buildings. Drastic changes like these, made without residential consent, caused the once-thriving African American neighborhood of East Liberty to suffer. Small business owners were displaced from their shops to make way for larger retailers. As decades passed, many major shopping centers in the traffic ring closed. The East Busway wall that separates East Liberty from Shadyside became a symbol of stratification and segregation, drawing comparisons to the Berlin Wall.
East Liberty's development project became one of the largest urban renewal plans, in terms of geographical area affected, in the United States. It encompassed 254 acres.
City planners at Wednesday's meeting briefly alluded to the bitter memory of failed development in East Liberty, and the need to bridge the East Liberty-Shadyside gap. However, the demographic of the audience did not reflect those affected by new plans, as an overwhelming majority of people in the room were white and residents of Shadyside. Rustbelt Radio captured some highlights of Wednesday night's meeting.
Rob Pfaffman commented on a series of archival photographs of Baker's Row as inspiration for revitalization strategies focused on East Liberty.
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A local resident shared some thoughts on the planning meeting and concerns about a lack of community accountability.
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A facilitator added his perspective on attempts to make the planning process more participatory than previous city planning schemes.
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The facilitator spoke about possible reasons for Bill Peduto's 60-day turnaround period for implementation of new neighborhood planning.
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Following the discussion, a blog was set up to collect more public input on plans to redevelop sections of East Liberty and Shadyside. You can post to this blog at www.eastlibertypost.com.
[9:00] Columbus Day
Today, Monday October 9th, is Columbus Day, an official holiday in the United States. However many people across North and South America do not consider this a day of celebration, pointing out Columbus's history as a slave trader, colonizer, and brutal imperalist. Today we bring you a report from Democracy Now about resistance to Columbus Day, and efforts to rename the holiday "Indigenous Peoples Day".
That was Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaking to Roberto Mucaro-Borrero, the President of the United Confederation of Taino (tie- ee-no) People. That segment originally aired on October 10th, 2005. For more information on people's resistance to the celebration of Columbus Day, log on to www.transform columbus day. org
[5:30] Little House on the Prarie
Just like Columbus Day, the popular children's book series "Little House on the Prarie", celebrates genocide. While Speaking at CMU on Friday October 6th Inga Muscio the author of C-U-N-T discussed this book series as she read a chapter from her new book "Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society."
That was just Inga Muscio speaking at Carnegie Mellon University. Stay tuned for upcoming Rustbelt Radio shows when we will feature an interview with her.
[9:00] Wheels of Justice
The Wheels of Justice Tour rolled through Pittsburgh over the weekend telling tales of Nonviolent education and action against war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine for justice and universal human rights. For the past three years Wheels of Justice has been touring the country in a biodiesel powered bus bringing the stories of people living under military occupation in the Middle East to classrooms, community centers, and churches here in the United States. Participants in the tour include veterans of the Iraq War, community organizers, artists, professors, Holocaust survivors, and peace activists. In Pittsburgh Joe Lewis spoke about his time working with the Christian Peacemaker team in Iraq.
He spoke about the supposed divisions that this war has created amongst the Iraqi People.
He also spoke the resilience of the Iraqi People
The tour includes witnesses from Iraq and Palestine in order to demonstrate that both military occupations are linked; both are unjust, both are viewed by people in the Middle East as oppressive actions from an allied front of Western nations and Israel, and both are supported by the United States Government.
Twyla Meyer spoke about the collective punishment that Palestinians are subjected to on a daily basis. She participated in checkpoint watches, hoping to ameliorate the hardships that Palestinians endure when crossing between cities. She also stressed that much of the weaponry being used in Palestine is U.S. made and that streets are literally lined with spent tear gas canisters, emblazoned with the phrase “made in the U.S.A.” She went on to describe the Apartheid Wall that is being Constructed all throughout the West Bank in the name of “security”
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Organizer Kate --- also emphasized that the anti-war movement needs to support an end to occupation not only in Iraq, but also in Palestine.
[1:00] Calendar of Events
And now we present the Indymedia calendar of events:
- On Friday the 13th, at 3pm, a new documentary “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” will be shown. The film will be followed by a discussion and a meal provided at no charge to all attenders. The film will be shown at the Forester Student Service Center on CCAC's North Side Campus, located at 808 Ridge Ave. For more information contact: ccacgif@ gmail.com
- As part of Democracy Now's "Breaking the Sound Barrier" tour, Amy Goodman will be in Pittsburgh for a free public lecture and book signing on Saturday October 14th at 3pm. The event will take place in Porter Hall room 100, on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. For more information, visit the web site of the Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy Now, www.pcdn.org
- Next Monday the 16th, the Pittsburgh Public School Board will consider a resolution restricting military access to the schools. The organization Conscience will testify at this meeting. If you would like to speak, call 412 622 3600 to be added to the agenda. The school board meeting will take place at 7pm and is located at Bellefield Avenue in Oakland.
Outro
[Outro Music]
Thanks for tuning in to Rustbelt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
Our hosts this week are Jessica McPherson and Morgan Ress with additional contributions from Carlin Christy, Matt Toups, Vani Natarajan, Diane Amdor, and Andalusia Knoll. This week's show was produced by Donald Deeley. 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.
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