Rustbelt Radio for November 20, 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...
- Putting down the guns and picking up the gloves, Wilkinsburg Youth become boxers
- Activists conduct a sweep against racist flyers in South Oakland
- Organizers in the struggle to save affirmative action discuss Michigan's recent election results, voter fraud, and Ward Connerly.
- UCLA students protest taser abuse on campus
- and more local and global headlines
Rustbelt Radio airs live every Monday from 6-7 PM on WRCT 88.3 FM in Pittsburgh, PA, and again on Tuesday mornings 9-10 AM. 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 can be heard 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
[1:30] mercury rules to become law
The Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission has approved the Department of Environmental Protection’s new rules for mercury reduction. The rules are now set to become law. They require all Pennsylvania coal burning power plants to reduce mercury emissions 80% by 2010 and 90% by 2015.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that is released into the air through the burning of coal. It then rains down into water bodies, where living organisms concentrate the substance. Because of this process, fish in over 80% of Pennsylvania’s water bodies are too contaminated to eat. Already, the federal EPA estimates that one in six women of childbearing age have blood levels of mercury that pose a risk to a developing fetus. Mercury interferes with the normal development of fine motor skills and brain function, and new research also links exposure to autism and attention deficit disorder in children, and to heart disease in adults. Five tons of mercury are released in Pennsylvania each year, an amount second only to Texas.
In 2004, a coalition of advocacy organizations led by PennFuture submitted a petition to the Environmental Quality Board asking the DEP to enact a program they had developed for mercury reduction. Since then there has been a contentious fight between the interests of the power and mining industries and the coalition of advocacy groups. The Rendell administration and the Secretary of the DEP, Kathryn McGinty, have supported the mercury reduction regulations. Over 11,000 comments were submitted to the DEP in favor of the new rule, while only 36 negative comments were received. Pennsylvania now joins 22 other states that have passed laws that pre-empt a much weaker federal program for mercury reduction. Advocates are now waiting for the response of the Pennsylvania legislature. Previously, some delegates supportive of industry had threatened to pass legislation requiring Pennsylvania to conform to the federal mercury reduction program.
[2:00] biodiesel update
The use of biodiesel, a diesel fuel substitute made from vegetable sources, is increasing in Pittsburgh. Nathaniel Doyno of Steel City Biofuels spoke with Rustbelt about three new customers his group will provide fuel for.
- biodiesel1.ogg
- biodiesel2.ogg
That was Nathaniel Doyno of Steel City Biofuels.
[4:30] Homelessness Awareness Rally
In 2003, the city of Pittsburgh established the Allegheny County Homeless Alliance. This alliance between the public and private sector works to prevent and address homelessness through an organized, sustained and collaborative effort. To address this issue in the country, the organization works to raise awareness about homelessness, to develop service strategies for the homeless population, and to advocate for affordable housing.
On Thursday Nov 16th, the Alliance held a rally to draw attention to the 2000 homeless people in the county, and also the 3000 children that are homeless as well.
About 100 people gathered in Market Square, where the Alliance passed out bright yellow hats to draw attention to the homeless who are often invisible to the public eye.
Adrianne Wanahoff, of Community Human Services, addressed the crowd:
- addressing the crowd (0:34 )
Pat Ford, who works with Mayor Ravenstahl through the Department of City Planning, also shared his thoughts:
After the rally, we spoke to Adrianne of Community Human Services. We asked her about the response of people in Market Square that day:
Pat Ford of the City Planning Department had earlier stated that the Alliance was opposed to any laws that would hurt homeless people. Rustbelt Radio asked Adrianne her opinion of the panhandling ordinance and the safety ambassadors who are enforcing the ordinance-- that some say is harming street people downtown:
Finally Adrianne described her hopes for the future work of the Allegheny County Homeless Alliance:
- additional thoughts (0:24)
[2:30] Racist Flyers in South Oakland
Last Sunday November 12th, several flyers touting messages of racism against Blacks were posted on mailboxes and poles throughout South Oakland. The hate messages included statements on interracial dating, and the transmission of the AIDS virus by Blacks. According to an article written by Pittsburgh Anti Racist Action, a hate group posted the flyers early Sunday morning in the neighborhood populated by many students of the University of Pittsburgh. However, thanks to South Oakland residents and ARA, most of the racist flyers were torn down or covered up by Sunday night.
Rustbelt Radio spoke to a member of Anti Racist Action. He described the action they decided to take once they heard about the flyers:
In addition to the swastika graffiti, some South Oakland residents say they have noticed an increase in racial tension in the area. Adam Borzelsky, a neighborhood resident, said he heard someone screaming racial slurs one night last week, prior to the posting of the flyers.
We asked an Anti-Racist Action member how the South Oakland residents responded to their counter-propaganda flyers.
According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, at least one South Oakland resident said she appreciates the efforts of Anti-Racist Action, but is not surprised that the racist flyers were posted in the first place.
Zaneta Johnson, a South Oakland resident and University of Pittsburgh student stated: “I’m not surprised, especially in Pittsburgh. I know I’ve undergone many racial situations.” She also added that Pitt should take an active role to combat the racism in South Oakland: “The University needs to put their hand into this and do something. A lot of people in the African-American community have been saying they don’t get the same treatment. Hopefully, this will show the University that racism still exists.”
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.
[2:00] Guatemala/Rios Montt
Demanding the capture of EfraĂn Rios Montt over a thousand survivors of state-led genocide flooded the streets of Guatemala City on Friday, November 10th. RĂos Montt, leader of the political party The Guatemalan Republican Front was president of Guatemala from1982 to 1983, the bloodiest period of the Guatemalan military’s counterinsurgency campaign . To date, no top officials or military brass have been punished for this period of state-led violence which lasted from 1960-1996 and claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people whom were mostly indigenous. Rios Montt has continuously denied responsibility for the numerous massacres carried out throughout his presidency, and cites an amnesty law passed in 1982 that would allegedly protect him from any crimes perpetrated during this period.
Earlier this year, Spanish courts issued international arrest orders for RĂos Montt and seven other people who filled top military and political posts. Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz cited Guatemala’s failure to prosecute the cases in their own court system as a justification for intervening and dispatching the orders for capture, which also charge RĂos Montt and the others with genocide and crimes against humanity.
This protest is part of a growing movement partially led by the youth group H.I.J.O.S. (Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice against Oblivion and Silence) H.I.J.O.S. have plastered the walls of Guatemala with street art denouncing Montt and other genocidal leaders as well as organized against free trade and CAFTA. Paco and Raul two youth organizers with H.I.J.O.S say they are working to “ recuperate the collective memory, to re vindicate the fight of economic classes and to manifest a rejection of perpetual impunity with respect to the crimes of war, and the violations of human rights.”
[2:00] UC students disrupt regents meeting over nukes
Last Thursday ten University of California students concerned about their schools ties to the nuclear weapons complex were arrested after disrupting the UC's Board of Regents meeting in Los Angeles. Ben Sellers, a UC Santa Cruz student who was arrested at the meeting, tells us why they were protesting and what happened.
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uc_regants.ogg: ben uc-regents protest 1:50
[4:00] UCLA students protest taser abuse on campus
Another protest involving the University of California took place on Friday when 500 students turned out for an emergency rally to express their outrage over police tasering a UCLA student in the campus library.
Campus police tasered Mostafa Tabatabainejad [TUH-BATUH-BANE-UH-JAAD], a 23 year-old Iranian-American student, supposedly because he failed to produce his student ID after a routine ID check in the campus' main library. Another student videotaped the police shocking Tabatabainejad four times as 50 of his peers looked on in disbelief.
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ucla_taser.ogg: ucla taser video excerpt short [1:25]
As the six-minute video continues, one can hear police repeatedly demand that Tabatabainejad stand up or be tasered again. However, according to the weapon's manufacturer Taser International, taser shocks can leave a person immobilized for several minutes or longer.
Witnesses to the incident say that police threatened to taser them as well when they appealed to the officers to stop tasering Tabatabainejad as he cried out in pain.
Witnesses also spoke at Friday's rally, which was organized by UCLA chapters of the Muslim Student Association, the Iranian American Council, and Amnesty International, among other groups.
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ucla_rally.ogg: ucla taser rally [1:03]
Students demanded the immediate suspension of the officers involved, an independent investigation into the incident, and that tasers be banned from the campus police arsenal. A few hours after the rally, the UCLA chancellor named an attorney who once investigated LAPD misconduct in connection with the Rodney King beating to lead an independent investigation.
Tabatabainejad's lawyer says he plans to file a lawsuit charging that his client was singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance.
The UCLA incident shines a bright spotlight on tasers, which civil liberties activists say police often abuse. Amnesty International reports that at least 200 people have died after being tasered.
The UCLA campus video is also the third high-profile video of police abuse in Los Angeles to surface in as many weeks.
[2:00] chemical pandemic
A major new study published in the medical journal Lancet [LAN-set] warns that industrial societies may be experiencing a (quote) “silent pandemic” of brain diseases caused by exposure to chemicals. The study says that to date, five chemicals have been proven to impair brain development: lead, methylmercury, PCBs, arsenic and toluene. Author Phillipe Grandjean [fill-LEEP GRANjeen] says that (quote) We don’t think that those compounds are different from the rest of the chemical universe. We think it very likely that most chemicals that are toxic to the adult brain are also toxic to developing brains (end quote). Over 100,000 chemicals are commonly in use today that have never been evaluated for their health impacts. The study argues that enough is known about their chemical properties to predict many are damaging. These chemicals are so ubiquitously present in our homes, workplaces, food, and water that an epidemic of developmental and behavioural disorders is inevitable. Often, chemical impacts on immune function, disease prevalence, and brain development can take decades to document through standard epidemiological studies.
The European Union parliament is currently debating approval of new chemical regulations based on the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle states that safety must be comprehensively proven before the chemical can be put into widespread use. This is a radical departure from the current regulatory paradigm in the United States and Europe, where consumer advocates must prove a chemical is dangerous before any laws restrict its use. As in the case of lead, asbestos, PCBs, dioixin, DDT, and many other substances, such proof is not usually available until millions of people are afflicted with life threatening disease.
The legislation-- Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals-- commonly known as REACH, designates a class of potentially harmful chemicals and requires industry to pay for safety evaluations of all such chemicals they would plan to use. The EU parliament is currently debating a provision which would restrict the use of any chemical for which there is a known safer alternative. The legislation has been under discussion for two years, with its approval delayed by industry lobbyists and those who fear the new standards would impede Europe’s competitiveness in the global market. The potential impact on the U.S. is complex; consumers may benefit as companies develop safer techniques to meet European standards; but companies may also use the U.S. market as a dumping ground for more dangerous products, as occurs in many third world counties today. Approval of a final version of the REACH legislation is predicted to occur by the end of the year.
[3:30] Palestine Update
For an update on recent events in Gaza and the West Bank, we go now to This Week In Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center.
* Palestine (3:12)
That was an update from the International Middle East Media Center.
In other news from Palestine, on Saturday, November 18, Israel halted an air strike against a house in Gaza after hundreds of Palestinians gathered around the house, on its balconies and roof. After the inhabitants received and ignored a telephone call warning them of the strike, neighbors flocked to the house in numbers to prevent the bombing.
For more updates from the International Middle East Media Center, you can visit their website at w-w-w dot I-M-E-M-C dot org.
[1:00] Paramilitary attack on Viejo Velasco Suarez
Monday, November 13, paramilitaries killed two people, and raped and killed another, in Ejido Dr. Manuel Velasco Suarez II, known as Viejo Velasco Suárez, in the Montes Azules jungle region of Chiapas, Mexico. They took two hostages, and two others are still missing. One attacker was killed, and one was injured.
Earlier reports claimed nine deaths; however, seven of those previously reported as dead have been confirmed as survivors. Human rights organizations report that twenty three men, eight women and eight children have been left homeless by the attacks.
Montes Azules is a base of support for the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, or EZLN, located in an isolated section of the Lacandon Rainforest far from urban and media centers. State and federal officials were specifically warned of the possibility of violence in this region by human rights organizations last July and August.
On at least four documented occasions between July and October of this year, members of a government-allied community called Nueva Palestina harassed, intimidated and attacked the inhabitants of Viejo Velasco Suarez. The harassment escalated over the past four months, and finally culminated in last Monday’s attack.
Human rights organizations in Chiapas have responded quickly to the attack by collecting testimony and gathering information from the remote communities involved.
Features
Intro
You're listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
[15:00] Affirmative Action
On Tuesday November 7th, voters across the United States cast ballots on initiatives alongside votes for electoral candidates. In the state of Michigan, one such initiative, known as Proposition 2, passed with 58% of voters voting in favor of its stated plan to constitutionally ban all affirmative action programs in public education, employment, and contracting within Michigan. Proposal 2 models itself on California's Proposition 209, voted into law with a 54% majority in 1996, which constitutionally prohibited all state supported institutions from implementing affirmative action programs. The campaign leader for Proposition 209, a regent at the University of California named Ward Connerly, went on to become the main financier and spokesperson for Proposition 2. Among Michigan based groups who came forward in support of Proposition 2 were white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens. In a 39 second video posted on YouTube by Mark Bernstein of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, Ward Connerly is shown remarking, "If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them. Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate."
From its beginnings as the deceptively named Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, Proposition 2 met opposition from groups across the state, including the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO, and the NAACP; yet, though these groups stood firmly against voting for the proposition, only one group had a vocal opposition to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative's very inclusion in Michigan's 2006 ballot. This group is known by the name BAMN, which is an acronym for By Any Means Necessary, a phrase popularized by Malcolm X. BAMN is a nationwide coalition which defines itself as a "mass, democratic, integrated, national organization dedicated to building a new mass civil rights movement to defend affirmative action, integration, and the other gains of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and to advance the struggle for equality in American society by any means necessary."
Here's Tristan Taylor from BAMN, in a interview on May 22 earlier this year, from Grand Rapids Community Media Center's Catalyst Radio. Tristan speaks on the discovery of voter fraud against people of color within the campaign to advance the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative:
Last Saturday, Rustbelt Radio spoke with Shanta Driver, a lead organizer with BAMN, about the election results, the continuing struggle to defend affirmative action, and the new civil rights movement.
Shanta spoke about the beginnings of BAMN:
Shanta spoke about Ward Connerly:
Here's Shanta on the white voting demographic in the state of Michigan.
On the characterization of Asian Americans as a demographic allegedly against affirmative action, this is what Shanta had to say:
Shanta commented on the impact of affirmative action on women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.
Finally, Shanta gave a working definition of affirmative action.
On December 4th at 9AM in front of the US Supreme Court Building in Washington DC, there will be a rally to defend affirmative action. On this day, oral arguments will be heard on two cases, Meredith v. Jefferson County Public Schools and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, which will determine whether or not measures to desegregate K-12 public schools and affirmative action programs for higher education remain legal.
For more information, visit www.bamn.com.
Music Break: Iron Sheik: Affirmative Action
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affirmativeaction.ogg: Iron Sheik: Affirmative Action
[12:00] Future Champs
The Future Champs program is helping Wilkinsburg Youth become boxers. Etta Cetera has more.
Ending
Calendar of Events
And now we present the Indymedia Calendar of Events:
- Tonight, Monday, November 20, at 8pm, there will be a Potluck and Party to celebrate the return of two Pittsburgh Organizing Group members from Oaxaca, Mexico. The party will be held at Belvedere’s, 4016 Butler Street, in Lawrenceville. At 9pm there will be a presentation and report back from Oaxaca.
- On Friday the 24th, also known as Black Friday, there will be a "Women Don't Buy The War Rally". For the third year in a row Codepink Women for Peace will gather on National Buy Nothing Day to distribute "Bush Bucks" which list the financial cost of war, and pass out flyers highlighting the human cost of the war in Iraq. This event will be held from 12 to 1pm under the Kaufmann's, now Macy's, clock downtown. For more information email codepinkpgh @aol.com
[1:00] Outro
[ Outro Music ]
Thanks for tuning in to Rustbelt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
Our hosts this week are Andalusia Knoll and Diane Amdor with additional contributions from Jessica McPherson, Vani Natarajan, Carlin Christy, David Meieran and Etta Cetera. 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.
radio.indypgh.org
Rustbelt Radio for November 20, 2006 (ogg vorbis)
by Indymedia Rustbelt Radio collective
Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 at 10:33 PM
radio@indypgh.org 412-923-3000 WRCT 88.3FM
audio: 
ogg vorbis at 25.0 mebibytesaudio: ogg vorbis at 25.0 mebibytes
radio.indypgh.org
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