Pittsburgh: POG G-20 Resistance Update #3

from infoshop, 10 July 2009:

This week, the G20’s smaller, even more elite buddy in global destruction – the G8 – met in Italy as rabid media publicized quote after quote from world leaders fashionably remarking on how the G8 is just so passé.

Pittsburgh: POG G-20 Resistance Update #3

This week, the G20’s smaller, even more elite buddy in global destruction – the G8 – met in Italy as rabid media publicized quote after quote from world leaders fashionably remarking on how the G8 is just so passé.

On the eve of the meetings, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Parliament in Berlin that she was saving national firepower for the bigger forum of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September. She said the G8 forum alone was not up to the challenges faced by the world in 2009. "I think the G20 should be the format that, like an overarching roof, makes decisions about the future," she said.

We, in Pittsburgh, have been saying for years that the Gs are just not what the kids are into these days. And lots of us have been organizing horizontally – that is, in a subversively roofless way – to build resistance to the upcoming September 24 and 25 summit.

In news from the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project (PG20RP), folks have been working hard on making the web site (http://resistg20.org) a more interactive information clearinghouse. Got a snazzy G20-related flyer or zine? Send it their way for the site. And if you’ve just got content, they’ve got skills.

The local-outreach working group has been going door-to-door in the East End of Pittsburgh, talking to our neighbors about the dark side of the G20. Sometimes in Italian.

Other members are getting ready to travel and network with potential G20 resisters at the Students for a Democratic Society conference in Tennessee and the Anarchy Summer Camp in Virginia, as well as hitting up the National Antiwar Conference and the upcoming CrimethInc. convergence, both gracing the Steel City this summer.

The logistics working group of the PG20RP has already secured large spaces for upcoming trainings and spokescouncils, a hip venue for fundraisers, are working with folks in the wider peace and justice community on mass housing, and a possible welcome center is in the works. A housing match-maker system will commence later this summer. But if you have a distant friend or relative in or near the city, you might want to consider reconnecting with them for housing this September.

East Coast Action Medics will be coordinating medical care during the summit. Stay tuned for workshops and bridge trainings (for folks who already have EMT experience).

The legal working group met with local National Lawyers Guild and American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who are psyched about helping out. The group is currently working on “Know Your Rights” and “Security Culture” zines. And an event you won’t want to miss…

The Radical (Play)date Raffle!

Bored with your crew and have nothing to do? Mix things up at the Radical (Play)date Raffle! It’s your chance to meet someone new and take part in a fun, capital-free activity! Have you always wanted to learn how to build your own bike? Been looking for a chess partner so you can practice your skills? Or are you just seeking out a new friend to resist the G20 with?

Well, we’ve got about 20-25 rad raffle-ees just itching to embark on an adventurous activity with you around town. Some have skills to share, others have energy to spare. The sky’s the limit when it comes to your “date,” but there’s no pressure for romance! Come prepared to mingle and make connections on July 25 from 6-8pm at the Greater Pittsburgh Anarchist Collective space (5001 Penn Ave. in Garfield).

We’ll have some snacks and light refreshments, musical entertainment, and hard-hitting interviews with the raffle-ees so you can use your tickets wisely. One ticket = one dollar. For more info or if you'd like to help, contact legal@resistg20.org. All donations will benefit the G20 Legal Defense Fund.

Our Very Own Pittsburgh Principles

Finally, modeled on those adopted by Twin Cities groups in the lead-up to the 2008 Republic National Convention protests, Pittsburgh groups have united – after much discussion and deliberation – around a set of shared organizing principles intended to maximize our impact, promote unity and build respect.

These are the Pittsburgh Principles of 2009, currently adopted by the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee (the body organizing the September 25 permitted mass march and rally) and the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project. We expect the vast majority of organizing groups and initiatives to sign on. Those principles are:

* Our solidarity will be based on respect for a political diversity within the struggle for social justice. As individuals and groups, we may choose to engage in a diversity of tactics and plans of action but are committed to treating each other with respect.

* We realize that debates and honest criticisms are necessary for political clarification and growth in our movements. But we also realize that our detractors will work to divide by inflaming and magnifying our tactical, strategic, personal and political disagreements. For the purposes of political clarity and mutual respect we will speak to our own political motivations and tactical choices and allow other groups and individuals to speak on their own behalf. We reject all forms of red-baiting, violence-baiting and fear-mongering; and efforts to foster unnecessary divisions among our movements.

* As we plan our actions and tactics, we will take care to maintain appropriate separations of time and space between divergent tactics. We will commit to respecting each other’s organizing space and the tone and tactics they wish to utilize in that space.

* We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence. We agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others. We oppose proposals designed to cage protests into highly-restricted “free speech zones.”

* We will work to promote a sense of respect for our shared community, our neighbors, and particularly poor and working class people in our community and their personal property.

For more on the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project in general, check out the fancy new power-point presentation that is intended to give organizers around the country an insight into the on-the-ground organizing happening in Pittsburgh around the G20 summit: http://resistg20.org/files/PGRP.pdf

Meanwhile, POG is continuing to support and participate in many of these efforts as well as bottom-lining some of our own.

A Tactical Training Initiative

One of the ways we’re helping people locally get ready to resist the G20 is by offering a series of workshops on a myriad of political and theoretical topics. These workshops are part of POG’s long-standing Tactical Training Initiative. We’re kicking it off on Monday, July 13, at 7pm at the Thomas Merton Center (5125 Penn Ave. in Garfield) with “Global Political and Economic Frameworks,” an introduction to the G-20, the IMF and Economic Crisis.

This workshop provides a brief but relatively comprehensive introduction to some of the major transnational economic, political, and military super structures that the elites from powerful nation-states use to dominate the globe. We take a look at the history and structure of international financial institutions like the IMF World Bank Group, global political structures like the United Nations, and transnational military alliances like NATO.

The workshop will examine all of these structures against the backdrop of the current financial crisis and the upcoming G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Additionally the workshop will introduce participants to the ideological frameworks that fuel this brand of corporate globalization and some of the debates that are taking place between the political elite.

Then, on Wednesday, July 15, at 7:30pm at the GPAC space (5001 Penn Ave. in Garfield), we’ll be offering “Participating in a Mass Action 101.” This workshop is geared towards activists preparing to participate in a mass action. We’ll talk about several different types of action frameworks you might run into and introduce common organizational structures that you’re likely to see including affinity groups, clusters and blocs. Additionally, we’ll offer suggestions for mental preparation and a rundown of basic legal and health and safety questions.

Stay tuned for future workshop dates and times (or check out http://organizepittsburgh.org for a full schedule).
Who Is Funding the G20? Part 2: Raising the Bar of Jagoff-ery

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Dennis Roddy did something few other reporters seem interested in: actually investigating where the money to make the G20 happen is coming from. Apparently, the committee raising corporate and foundation funds to “welcome the G20” is relying, in part, on money from the Colcom foundation, which Mr. Roddy reports “has been one of the major contributors to a web of groups founded by John Tanton…who has long been at the forefront of efforts to restrict immigration into the United States…the foundation also underwrote the work of Samuel Francis, a self-described ‘white nationalist’ who edited a newsletter for the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that has advocated racial separation. Mr. Francis also was a regular speaker at conferences sponsored by American Renaissance, an annual gathering of academics who theorize on racially-based differences in intelligence, contending that black people have lower intelligence than whites and Asians.” The Southern Poverty Law Center’s head of research, Heidi Beirich, hit the nail on the head in Roddy‘s article calling the list of Colcoms’ recipients “quite a lineup of haters” and stating, "It's beyond ironic that Colcom would be giving money to welcome the world to Pittsburgh, while simultaneously having bankrolled notorious white supremacists like Sam Francis and some of the most racist, anti-immigrant groups in the country."

Bankrupt City Turns to Bankrupt State to Further Bankrupt Ideology

The politicians of Pittsburgh, looking to bolster their own careers, jumped on the opportunity to host the G20. To help sell the summit they claimed it would be a financial boon, with the costs picked up by the federal government. On his recent lobbying trip to Harrisburg, however, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl begged for state help of up to $20 million to pay costs associated with the 4,000 police they’re trotting out for repression. This request for funds comes as the state grapples with closing a $3.2 billion budget deficit through draconian cuts in public services and education spending. The people of Pittsburgh will pay the price in increased fees and reduced services.

One of the Many Reasons This Summit Is Important to Us

As the global capitalist financial meltdown has accelerated a crisis has developed among the elites regarding who should make decisions on restructuring the world system, and which institutions should be tasked with implementation of those decisions. Is the G8 enough? Maybe the G20 is enough? Maybe some new G192?

One of the proposals that is being pushed, and expected to gather steam at the September summit, is to revamp and re-strengthen the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and make a renewed push towards completion of the current World Trade Organization round of negotiations.

One of the reasons POG formed seven years ago was to participate in the global justice movement. Our first large mobilization was against the IMF-World Bank meetings in September in 2002. Over the years resistance movements have been successful at helping to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and de-legitimizing and altering the behavior of the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. Not a total victory by any means, but important progress was made. On the policy front, the unjust debt of some poorer countries was “forgiven,“ some of the worst lending practices were curbed, structural adjustments made a little “kinder,” and critics within and outside the institutions were emboldened to speak out. A worldwide movement was sparked, forged connections, and questioned the rule of global capitalism.

As anarchists, we are not working for crumbs from the system; our primary objective is not to make an inherently oppressive and exploitative system a little less harsh. At the same time we do not wish to have people suffer anymore than they do, we don‘t wish for increasing exploitation. We are working towards an entirely new society, with new structures and ways of relating to one another. Still, we welcome that our work towards that aim helps alleviate the suffering of now.

So we feel it is important that a large show of resistance manifest strongly against efforts to roll back the progress that has been made by the global justice movement.

We leave it to other communities of resistance to determine whether this summit warrants your participation. We comprise only one portion of those resisting the G20, and encourage you to look into the positions of other groups and movements.

In Struggle,

Pittsburgh Organizing Group
http://www.organizepittsburgh.org

[original article]

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