Here’s this week’s rundown of ways to connect with the liberation movement in Pittsburgh!
Please let us know if there there’s an event that is not listed that you would like us to promote through our Facebook, our blog, our Twitter, and through flyers or email.
Tuesday – 2.21
Penn Plaza Support – Rally and Press Conference
Please join us at a rally and press conference on Tuesday, February 21st at noon at the City-County building, 414 Grant Street.
The final countdown toward eviction of the remaining tenants at Penn Plaza Apartments has begun as March 31st draws closer. Many of the remaining residents are elderly, disabled, or do not have the resources available to pay for apartments in their home neighborhoods near friends, family, and critical needs such as grocery stores, public transit, and their health care providers. Their situation is a glaring example of the widespread displacement happening all across this city and its most damaging impacts.
We will be at City Hall on the 21st to commend the Planning Commission’s decision to deny LG Realty’s preliminary development plan and the City’s commitment to back that decision. We are also asking representatives of our local government to step up to the plate to address both the specific conditions that Penn Plaza residents are facing and the long-time systemic inequities which have helped to create this situation.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1371816362891908/ ]
Monthly Volunteer Night – ACJ Health Justice Project
Please join the ACJ Health Justice Project for our monthly work night/public meeting. Come and ask questions/share ideas, there will be music and some snacks. Check out the list below for things we need done:
– Mental Health/Sexual Assault Data Project (gathering data/articles about mental health at the ACJ)
– Info brochures (create informative brochures for inmates and families, information will be provided)
– Make our demands list look pretty (exactly what it says)
– Letter writing
– Sign making ( doesn’t require art skills, supplies provided)
-Inmate Search (more details to come)
If you need childcare, please message us.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1647901735513990/ ]
Reunión de Pittsburgh LCLAA
Please join us for the winter chapter meeting of the Pittsburgh Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. We will be discussing how the chapter can support local, statewide, and national efforts to resist the attacks on immigrant families. ¡No se lo pierdan!
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/226128341183800/ ]
4th River Music Collective Night @ Spirit feat Colin and the Crows
4th River Music Collective is a family of street musicians, artists, and radicals based out of Pittsburgh.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1156020247844311/ ]
GMO Panel Discussion
Join us for an educational event on the use of genetically modified organisms cohosted by Pitt Real Food Challenge and the University Honors College. A panel of professors, farmers, and real food representatives will discuss the many aspects of GMOs. Refreshments will be provided.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1341834615886843/ ]
Wednesday – 2.22
Kick-Off Meeting – Indivisible Pittsburgh
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1416581081709153/ ]
*EDIT // report-back from Indivisible Pittsburgh*
Multiple comrades that attended this event have informed us that Indivisible Pittsburgh is an authoritarian, white liberal, counter-revolutionary trainwreck. Their predominately white male leadership actively silenced women of color, they failed to acknowledge that the scale of our struggle extends far beyond amerika’s new figurehead, and evidently they think writing postcards to liberal politicians counts as “resistance.” PSSC will no longer promote this organization’s events, as we have no intention of providing a platform for liberal co-optation of the liberation movement.
Thursday – 2.23
Redneck Revolt Open Meeting
Join Pittsburgh Redneck Revolt for an open meeting at the Big Idea. We want to offer an opportunity for folks to meet the PGH Redneck Revolt chapter, learn a little about who we are and what we do, and plug in. We want to build real, practical relationship and create solidarity with other poor and working class folks, so whether you’re interested in Redneck Revolt and want to get involved, or have a project of your own and would like our support, we want to meet you and talk about it. We also welcome representatives from other organizations seriously engaged in the liberation of working people.
Food will be provided, and anyone who has a mind to should feel free to bring something to share.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1687475198212247/ ]
University Endowments, Austerity, and Student Debt
The Union of Pitt Faculty and the United Steelworkers Academic Workers Association invite you to a free talk by Marcie Smith of the Responsible Endowments Coalition.
Since the neoliberal turn in the 1980s, tuition at U.S. colleges and universities has climbed astronomically, while public funding for higher education has plummeted, forcing millions of young people to assume huge amounts of debt for the mere right to compete in stagnant job markets. Meanwhile, university endowments hoard wealth: annual alumni and major donor gifts are at all time highs, endowment returns consistently beat the market average, universities hold vast amounts of profit-generating real estate, endowment assets are increasingly invested in opaque hedge funds and private equity firms, and the notoriously aggressive management of endowment assets generates huge fees for Wall Street financial advisors, consultants, and managers. The University of Pittsburgh is sitting on an endowment worth over $3.5 billion while many faculty work with little job security for poverty wages and students amass huge amounts of debt. Join the Union of Pitt Faculty and the Responsible Endowments Coalition for a presentation and discussion on wealth hoarding at the University of Pittsburgh. We will look at historical trends in endowment funding levels, tuition hikes, and student debt and explore how re-thinking our university’s approach to reinvestment of our endowment could allow for a more affordable and equitable university.
This talk is open to the public. Students and faculty are encouraged to attend.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/271291709951112/ ]
My Story Your City
My Story Your City, Thursday, Feb. 23. FREE TO THE PUBLIC. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the program begins at 6 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom. Attendees will spend an evening with Leon Ford, a man who has turned his story of tragedy into a story of triumph. Join Leon as he shares his truth through a dynamic presentation. RSVP is required to satterwhitea@duq.edu.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/214027175728591/ ]
Support Pittsburgh Refugees Fundraiser
You’re invited to an exciting event supporting Pittsburgh’s refugee community. Each year, Pittsburgh resettles more than 600 refugees from countries all around the world including Syria, Somalia, Bhutan, Myanmar/Burma, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Festivities will take place on February 23rd from 5pm to 9pm at the Birmingham Bridge Tavern in the Southside. The entrance fee is $10/person and 100% of the ticket price goes to supporting local refugee families.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1644574402505179/ ]
Friday – 2.24
Stand with Fossil Free Pitt at the Board of Trustees Meeting
As our divestment campaign has been gaining traction with administration, it’s important to show our strength in number!
Join us this Friday at the public Board of Trustees meeting to show the board just how many students support divestment!! Everyone that attends will receive a T-shirt to wear during the meeting. We will be meeting at 9 in SOOS for bagels (yay food!!) and a training session before the board meeting begins at 10 in the assembly room of WPU! Donations for t shirts and bagels appreciated 🙂
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/177301476097734/ ]
RISE UP for Trans Equality!
During his campaign, Donald Trump said that he believed that trans students should be allowed to use whatever bathroom matches the gender they live every day. Tonight, the Trump administration rescinded those guidelines and went against what he promised during the campaign.
This is the first issue affecting our LGBT community from the new administration. Our fear is there is more to come because President Trump can’t be trusted. Please join us and RISE UP against what Trump’s Administration has done. This is NOT the Country we want.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1860158130676871/ ]
Saturday – 2.25
SMASH the FASH ~ Melee Benefit Tourney & Potluck
Melee returns to Roboto!
This time as a benefit tournament to help raise money for the legal fees of all the Pittsburghers arrested during the #J20 protests in DC.
Format will be singles double elimination, any side events (doubles, PM, 64, etc) are also more than welcome!
Prize pools will be smaller this time around, however there will be free pizza provided (Spaks, duh) and people are encouraged to bring their own snacks and food as part of a potluck!
$5 Venue/Donation
$2-3 Singles Entry
$1 to beat up a doll of richard spencer
No Drugs or Alcohol. Respect the space.
Wanna donate some ahead of time? Here’s a link to the fundraiser for the #J20 arrestees: https://fundrazr.com/J20-legal?ref=ab_96C5pf
and here’s another one for some students arrested taking part in an anticapitalist protest, before the inauguration: https://fillerpgh.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/anti-fascist-legal-defense/
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/752326878263413/ ]
GLCC Townhall
The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh presents its second town hall event: Navigating mental health in the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community faces a hightened rate of nearly every mental illness. As a community we need to educate ourselves, and start a dialogue as to how we can best address the mental health epidemic running rampant through the LGBTQ community.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/147597815747570/ ]
PGH Fight Back 101 Workshop and Community Meeting
Join volunteers, organizers, and members from organizations across Pittsburgh, including OnePA, Pittsburgh United, Planned Parenthood and The Women’s Law Project as we learn about what has led to this political moment and what we can do to fight back. This training is geared toward new activists and will offer different opportunities for people to plug in and stay updated!
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1068254019970053/ ]
Sunday – 2.26
Community Meeting in response to Trump
Please join our gathering of friends, family members, and neighbors to open up a conversation on how our community can build sustainable opposition to the Trump administration, and hold fast to our values. Come meet like-minded progressive Jews and allies, share fears and hopes, and get some ideas for taking action.
Snacks will be served!
Our gathering will be one of many happening all over the country, led by Bend the Arc Jewish Action, in the next few weeks. In addition to taking stock of our local opportunities for action, these gatherings will be an opportunity to connect with Bend the Arc’s developing strategy of national resistance. You can learn more about Bend the Arc at www.jewishaction.us.
P.S. You don’t have to be Jewish to come, all are welcome!
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/250183452089273/ ]
Malcolm X Brunch – Founders Day (2017)
A brunch to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the founding of the New Afrikan Independence Party (NAIP) and honor the legacy of Malcolm X.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1712533865723293/ ]
Local News and Calls for Support
Trump protesters march twice over weekend
Marching to the beat of drums, hundreds of protesters rallied around causes ranging from immigrant rights to the environment and vocally opposed Trump Saturday at Schenley Plaza. Others gathered in downtown Pittsburgh Sunday morning to fight racism and imperialism by the president’s administration. The Pitt College Democrats, on Saturday, hosted their first rally since Trump’s win. The event kicked of at 2 p.m. with rousing speeches delivered by city councilmen, and planned parenthood activists, among more. A large crowd of about 250 mostly older Pittsburgh residents — some of whom brought their children — showed up to Schenley Plaza to dissent, while others came to challenge the protest itself.
The march circled the Cathedral of Learning, snaked up Fifth Avenue and culminated back at the plaza. At the beginning and end of the route, anarchists, communists and other groups outside the two-party system held flags condemning both parties and repeated chants directed at the protesters.
The anarchist disruption was planned in advance by Filler PGH, an anarchism-focused zine, and was intended to protest the Democrats. In a flier posted around campus, the group wrote “some really cool folks are getting involved [in dissent], but their intentions are continually sabotaged by the reality of our situation: the Democrats are part of the problem.”
Pittsburgh police to have most officers on streets in 15 years, mayor says
“It’s absolutely imperative that we stay above 900,” Peduto said.
What a jag. Fuck Peduto, fuck the police. ACAB
Police Believe Taggers Targeting East Side As Attack On Gentrification
(What gave it away? Was it the “STOP GENTRIFYING PITTSBURGH” throwie?)
The national movement for the establishment of Sanctuary Universities responds to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s intention to deport up to three million (goo.gl/zCCXcU) undocumented persons from the United States, abolish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and establish a national registry for the surveillance of Muslim persons. Following the November 8 election, university and K-12 campuses around the country report threats directed against people of color, trans* people, disabled people, indigenous people, queer people, and all people without the privilege of U.S. citizenship; the appearance of swastikas and other hateful imagery on school property; and bullying of Muslim, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ youth. And peaceful demonstrators on Pitt’s Oakland campus have experienced violence at the hands of University police.
Given the xenophobia that characterizes our local and national climate, we cannot have confidence in our shared institutional commitments to inclusion, integrity, freedom of expression, and diversity without at minimum concrete policy statements from the University of Pittsburgh in support of “immigrants who study, live, and work in and around our University” (as stated in a November 16 sanctuary campus letter from Pitt student leaders, viewable atgoo.gl/LupvgG).
Demands:
Unless required by a warrant or other valid legal process, University of Pittsburgh officials will not cooperate with any deportation or other immigration enforcement actions directed against Pitt students. Specifically:
1. Pitt will prohibit University police and campus security from “inquiring about or recording as to an individual’s immigration status” (goo.gl/LupvgG).
2. University of Pittsburgh police officers will not cooperate with deportation or other immigration enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CPB), or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
3. The University of Pittsburgh will not allow ICE, CPB, or USCIS officials on Pitt campuses or other property.
4. The University of Pittsburgh will not share information related to immigration status about any Pitt student or employee with ICE, CPB, USCIS, or other law enforcement agencies.
5. The University of Pittsburgh will cease any use of E-Verify in student application or employee hiring procedures.
6. The Deans of Students Offices will coordinate a specific and transparent program to assist DACA students and all other students who are not U.S. citizens with any issue related to immigration or visa status, financial aid, housing, or related concerns.
7. Pitt will revise its Notice of Non Discrimination (goo.gl/IUmjjQ) and related policy statements (e.g. goo.gl/qsNOsa) to include “immigration status” as a protected category alongside “disability, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, familial status, sex, age, sexual orientation, veteran status or gender identity and expression.”
We, the undersigned, also affirm the statement in the November 16 letter to Chancellor Gallagher that “immigrants are not the only group who [have] found themselves targeted” by recent expressions of racism, xenophobia, heterosexism, cissexism, and misogyny on our campuses (goo.gl/LupvgG). We therefore support the Pitt United Students Against Sweatshops, Pitt Student Solidarity Coalition, Pitt Students Against Debt, and the Pitt Students for a Democratic Society’s call for additional actions Pitt can build toward, in the words of poet Muriel Rukeyser, “a world that will hold all the people.” Further, we stand in solidarity with Pitt students who demand an end to University of Pittsburgh police harassment of student activists in campus spaces.
Our University motto is Veritas et Virtus. Fidelity to these values requires that we not simply declare our campuses safe and welcoming spaces for all people. We must realize the truth of these statements through concrete action. By establishing ourselves as a Sanctuary University, we can take a significant step toward the realization of these commitments as facts in the life of the University of Pittsburgh.
Awaiting your action.
SIGN THE CALL FOR A SANCTUARY CAMPUS HERE
Donate to the Pittsburgh Anti-Fascist Legal Defense Fund!
If you can, please DONATE to the legal defense of the 10 Pittsburghers arrested in DC.
We stand in unconditional solidarity with the arrested comrades.
Drop the charges! Only the State is guilty!
On January 20th 2017 Border-guards, modern day slave catchers, paramilitary, military, and armed vigilante groups converged to protect the swearing in of a new leader to the White Supremacist State known as The United States of America.
Tens of Thousands of bravehearts also converged upon our nations capital in collective defense, in resistance to oppressive everyday reality. Arm in arm, in solidarity, hundreds from our beloved Rustbelt city manifested beautiful acts of resistance and aligned themselves with fellow renegades and insurgents to strengthen vocal messages and make bold gestures of revolution.
Pittsburghers gathered in mass to protest our country that was never great and to unmake fascist America.
Efforts were made to end segregation and bring about emancipation in much the same way those who have came before us have – in the streets.
During the demonstrations many were arrested. We, the organizers of this fundraising campaign, pledge to supporter our local comrades. Regardless their perceived guilt or innocence, we have solidarity with them and their trajectory.
The confines of laws are set up against those who dare to dream and act upon another reality.
We ask you to take a moment and pause, to consider we are in this together, and that our sisters and brothers, our neighbors who grew up and live on the same streets as us, who pass over the same bridges as us, are under attack.
Contributing to this bail fund is an act of love and an attack on the proponents of a segregated society that would have us all rotting in jail cells or slaving away as subservient women and barbarish men.
We are not divided and we will not leave anybody behind. For some the thin vale of American Racism has been taken off, for others we have always known it to be true and we are glad you have joined us.
[Pictured below: Over 100 dedicated anti-fascists, including our Pittsburgh friends, kettled by armed agents of the state. “We love you, stay strong, the revolution lives on!”]
PITTSBURGH STUDENT SOLIDARITY COALITION 