PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Indymedia Rustbelt Radio show for Tuesday, October 5, 2004
by Pittsburgh IMC Radio Collective Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004 at 1:23 AM
radio@indypgh.org (email address validated) WRCT 88.3FM

"Indymedia Rustbelt Radio" -- PGH IMC Radio Show on WRCT 88.3FM Recording of the Tuesday, October 5th show. Features: * local and global newswires * attacks on community radio broadcasters around the US, in the Pittsburgh area, and around the world * retrospective on the Johnny Gammage case, and police violence in Pittsburgh today. audio in ogg vorbis and mp3 formats (55 minutes). The transcript is below.

audio link: MP3 at 22.0 mebibytes

October 5, 2004 ImcPittsburgh Radio Show (Rustbelt Radio)

Airs at 6pm on WRCT Pittsburgh, 88.3FM, and webcast.

Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news from the grassroots that the corporate media overlook. We will be alternating this fall every other week with Left Out, a talk show that presents news and opinions from a perspective "left out" of the mainstream media.

On today's show...

* The attacks against community radio activists around the US, here in Pittsburgh, and around the world.
* We look back at the Jonny Gammage case, a case that tore apart Pittsburgh and resonates to this day as an example of police brutality directed at Black men
* But first, these local and global news stories.

Headlines

Local News

Save Our Transit Visits Harrisburg

Two weeks ago Rust Belt Radio reported on the efforts of Save Our Transit, a local community group concerned about cuts to local bus service and the need to pass Senate Bill 1162 and its companion House Bill 2697 to increase state funding for public transit.

Earlier today 56 Pittsburgh public transit users and activists packed into a bus and took their case to the state capital. They met with a number of representatives and forced legistlators to look public transit users in the eye.

Save Our Transit member and Thomas Merton Center Executive Director Tim Vining expressed concern about legislators' efforts to connect the issue of public transit's funding to PA highways' funding. Not only does the highway lobby have vastly more resources than the public transit lobby, but rebuilding highways will do little good for people dependent on public transit.

After those meetings, Save Our Transit held a rally in Harrisburg that they organized jointly with a statewide group called Penn Trans. About 100 people were in attendance. Save Our Transit co-founder Linda Warman spoke passionately at the rally about how service cuts would affect her personally as a transit dependent worker whose salary is barely above minimum wage.

Public Transit activists also paid a visit to Governor Rendell's office. He was not in, but the group made arrangements to meet with him next month.

While Pittsburgh's Save Our Transit was the only group present today consisting of public transit dependent people, a newly formed group from Philadelphia called Save Transit plans to to emulate Save Our Transit's model. Save Our Transit activists may pay a visit to Philadelphia to help them do so.

Kissinger in Pittsburgh today

In less than an hour, local activists will meet at Heinz Hall to distribute literature in opposition to accused War Criminal Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State will be speaking there at 8pm tonight. Henry Kissinger has been directly tied to genocide and murders in Vietnam, East Timor, Chile, & Cyprus. More recently, documents have been revealed documenting his ties to the military regime in Argentina that murdered or "disappeared" at least 30,000 Argentines in the 70s and 80s. Though Kissinger is sought by courts in Argentina, Chile, Spain, France and several other countries for questioning on war crimes, President Bush appointed him to lead the 9/11 commission. Kissinger resigned as chair of the anti-terrorism commission weeks later over concerns about "conflicts of interest."

Christopher Hitchens, author of The Trial of Henry Kissinger, is in also Pittsburgh tonight for a “Counter-Kissinger” event sponsored by the Pittsburgh City Paper. He will appear at the Harris Theater downtown along with a film inspired by his book.

Mumia

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been described as the "voice of the voiceless" for so many of America's communities and social movements. All the more remarkable for a man who has been locked up on Pennsylvania's Death row in nearby SCI Greene for 23 years. His case has been a focal point for international anti-death penalty advocates during that time.

Abu-Jamal was accused of the shooting of a police officer under evidence that is heavily disputed, and most recently the possibility of a new sentencing trial was given by a Federal Circuit Judge in Pennsylvania.

Last Tuesday, Professor Emeritus David Demarest, People Against Police Violence, and the Activities Board Political Speakers Committee of Carnegie Mellon University organized an event at Carnegie Mellon to bring the community up to date on efforts to free Mumia Abu Jamal. We have a brief excerpt from the talk.

The speaker is Sam Jordan, longtime friend and advocate for Mumia and former Amnesty International Director for their Death Penalty Program.

[ Audio Clip: aiguy2.ogg ]

More excerpts can be found on the Pittsburgh Indymedia website.

KFC Protest

As part of World Farm Animals Day demonstrations around the world, a protest was held against fast-food restaraunt KFC in Oakland on Saturday, October 2nd. Local activists from the group Voices for Animals held signs reading "KFC Tortures Chickens" and "Boycott KFC" and were joined by a gigantic "crippled chicken."

The "crippled chicken" represented the plight of so many of the 750 million birds KFC uses each year: genetically engineered to be so top-heavy that they collapse under their own weight. Mother chickens routinely have their beaks seared off, and all are drugged with massive doses of antibiotics to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them. Their death isn't much better: chickens from KFC suppliers often have their throats slit open while still conscious and others are scalded alive in the feather removal process.

Michael Croland of Voices for Animals criticized KFC's record. He said, quote "Chickens aren't just drumsticks. They are individuals who have feelings, just like the cardinal in the backyard or the parakeet in the family room. Birds deserve better than to be battered by KFC." end quote

PETA recently launched an undercover investigation of one of KFC's slaughterhouses, prompting the organization to demand that KFC improve its animal welfare standards to match or better those already implemented by fast-food competitors McDonalds?, Burger King, Wendys and Safeway.

Global News

Intro

This is Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news that the corporate media overlook. We turn now to headlines from other Independent Media Centers around the world.

Federal Court Strikes Down Patriot Act Surveillance Power

Civil liberties activists won a victory last week on Wednesday when a key part of the USA PATRIOT Act that allows the FBI to secretly demand information from Internet providers was ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. District Judge. Section 505 of the Act requires Internet service providers and any other type of communication provider--including telephone companies--to comply with secret "national security letters" from the FBI. Those letters can ask for information about subscribers--including home addresses, what telephone calls were made, e-mail subject lines and logs of what Web sites were visited. The law was struck down the grounds that it violates free speech rights under the First Amendment as well as the right to be free from unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment.

The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit six months ago on behalf of an unnamed Internet company, says that the Court's decision was an "important victory and significant step in the efforts to dismantle the harmful aspects of the Patriot Act."

The ruling could have a broad impact on government surveillance.

Forest Defense in Oregon: Emergency Response to Biscuit Logging Planned

Activists from Southern Oregon have called for an immediate mobilization in defense of the Siskiyou (SIS-K-you) National Forest after logging operations commenced there early last week.

The eponymously named Biscuit Fire in the forest last Summer almost threatened nearby residential neighbourhoods. Now that the fire has cleared, the US Forest Service has proposed logging operations to "salvage" damaged trees. Removal of some of the so-called "hazard trees" had alreadly begun, but this marks the beginning of more extensive logging operations that will culminate in the sale of the lumber by private logging firms.

Environmentalists point out that the Oregon forests depend on regular forest fires to remain healthy ecosystems. They also actively oppose any logging operations both because of the threat to the endangered Port Orford Cedar, which is being exterminated by a disease that logging operations often help spread, and the possible damage to the SIS-K-you Wild Rivers and surrounding watershed.

Activists have called for a civil disobedience action on Monday morning and will be putting their bodies between the trees and the chainsaws. The timing is critical: if forest defenders show resistance to logging operations it is likely to dissuade companies from buying additional portions of the Biscuit sale.

[ Source: Portland Indymedia ]

Feminist Resistance Days in Germany

Berlin, Germany became the center of Feminist Resistance for four days last month in events organized in opposition to violence against women, racism, and cuts to social programs. Between 250 and 300 womyn, lesbians and transgendered from Germany, Italy, France and Sweden gathered in Berlin's Schlossplatz for discussions and actions on those issues and the impact of the neoliberal agenda on womyn today.

Decentralized actions were held in protest at the entrance to the German parliament, McDonalds?, and the Swedish clothing store H&M, where working conditions for the mostly female garment workers were denounced as appaling.

250.000 march in Amsterdam against government cutbacks

Last Saturday in Amsterdam marked the largest public demonstration yet against the current Dutch government, and the largest demonstration of trade union members in Dutch history. More than two hundred and fifty thousand demonstrators gathered in Amsterdam to protest the government's participation in the Iraq War and recent, drastic cutbacks on social services.

The immense crowds echoed crowds in Amsterdam 20 years ago in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Public opinion polls show that Christian Democratic Prime Minister Balkenende's support is slipping, and new elections would bring leftist opposition parties back into power. Balkenende's party was able to form a new coalition after the assasination on the eve of the election of Pim Fortuyn, leader of the facist coalition-member party LIST, brought that party thousands of sympathy votes to give them the second-highest return of votes and join the Christian Democrats in a coalition.

Greece: Three and a half years jail for refusing to go to Iraq,

A Greek concientious objector has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for refusing to go to Iraq.

In May 2003, during the initial attack on Iraq, seaman apprentice Giorgos Monastiriotis refused to board the battleship "Navarino" that was leaving for a mission in the Persian Gulf. He was court martialed, and his sentence was handed down last month.

In a statement written from Corinth Civil Prison, Monastiriotis said, "In the same morning I received my sentence, I read in the newspaper that an American soldier was given an eight-month sentence, although he had confessed to torturing Iraqi prisoners. ... My position was clear from the outset. I refused and still refuse, in all conscience and responsibility, to participate in or contribute by any means to the ruthless massacre of the Iraqi people and the bombardments of clinics and street markets...My action was a minimal sign of solidarity to all those who suffer every day under such circumstances."

War Resisters' International has called for letters of protest to the Greek authorities and Greek embassies abroad.

Columbus Day

This coming Monday, the 11th, is "Columbus Day". Every year the United States celebrates a national holiday in honor of Christopher Columbus, and every year the American Indian Movement protests the event in Denver. In 1992, the Denver columbus day parade was halted due to thousands of angry protestors. Last year, an estimated 2,000 protesters including a paralysed victim of the Columbine High School shooting met about 1,000 Columbus Day parade participants. Nationally, another group called The Transform Columbus Day Alliance [TCDA] actively rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression and colonialism.

One of the larger Columbus monuments in the US is in Pittsburgh Schenley Park, and has been attacked year after year around Columbus Day with red paint, symbolizing blood, and messages like "muderer" and "stolen land." This year's annual Columbus Day parade was held in Bloomfield on September 25th, more than two weeks before the actual holiday.

In Lancaster Pennsylvania, called "the heart of Pennsylvania dutch country" near Harrisburg, a rally will be held in the town square Monday against Columbus say titled "Stop The Madman Being Sold As A Hero."

Organizers say "No town, no city, no civilization worthy of the title has any business commemorating a figure who, perhaps more than any other in history, symbolizes the wholesale destruction of a people."

Wrapup

You can read more about our local and global news stories by visting I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G

We're going to take a short musical break with a message about Columbus Day from Public Enemy. We will return with global news headlines in a few minutes.

[ Musical Break - Public Enemy (4:27) ]

* PublicEnemy-HitlerDay_edited.ogg: Public Enemy - Hitler Day (clean edit) 4:27

Features

Intro

That was "Hitler Day" by Public Enemy, commenting on the celebration of Columbus in the US every October.

Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news that the corporate media overlook.

FCC busts: around the US, and in pittsburgh

US busts

The US Federal Communications Commission (or FCC) was created by Congress in 1934 to regulate broadcasts "in the public interest." Last year the FCC made headlines in a so-called "deregulation" effort designed to allow large corporations to further consolidate their ownership of radio and television stations. Protests were held around the country as well as in Pittsburgh. Here, demonstrations took place outside of the Federal building downtown as well as the offices of ClearChannel?. ClearChannel?, one of the largest and most notorious radio conglomerates, owns 1,250 radio stations in the US including 6 in Pittsburgh.

After the popular uproar, the new ownership rules were blocked by a Federal Court in Philadelphia. But while the FCC, currently chaired by Michael Powell (a Bush appointee and son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), claims to be "deregulating", regulations that benefit large media conglomerates at the expense of small local broadcasters are still being pursued vigorously. Is the FCC serving the public interest, or the corporate interest?

Over the past few weeks, the FCC has raided and shut down several community radio stations around the country as well as two in Allegheny County in the past week.

One of the most notable recent cases was last week in Santa Cruz, California.

Free Radio Santa Cruz

At 9:20 AM on last Wednesday, September 29, armed US Marshals and FCC Agents raided the house from which Free Radio Santa Cruz broadcasts. Agents entered with guns drawn, showing a warrant to a couple of residents.

[ Clip of interview from FRSC DJ Danielsan - 10 seconds danielsan_beginning.ogg ]

As FCC agents removed over $5,000 of radio equipment from the house, over 100 community members lined the street in front of the house in support of the station and were videotaped by federal agents. The station, also affectionately known as "Freak Radio", has been broadcasting for almost 10 years to the Santa Cruz community and listeners around the world via online streaming. Santa Cruz Mayor Scott Kennedy joined in support of FRSC and spoke to the crowd via a bullhorn:

[ clip from Santa Cruz Mayor Kennedy - 1 minute sc_mayor_kennedy_1min.ogg ]

In addition to operating with strong community support for nearly ten years, the station had no reports of interference problems caused by their transmitter. Previously, FRSC had voluntarily switched their broadcasting frequency to accomodate a so-called "translator" station licenced by the FCC to a non-local religious group. Yet the FCC still uses "interference" as an excuse to shut down unlicensed low-power community radio broadcasters and seize their equipment.

FRSC was also very involved in the local community, covering local government initiatives, local environmental issues, and even interviewing the local homeless population. Chad, a Pittsburgh resident and listener of the Freak Radio web radio stream said, "It's sad to say, but although I'm a resident of pittsburgh, I often felt a stronger sense of community with the citizens of santa cruz because of this programming."

[ danielsan clip about the station -- 21 seconds danielsan_desc.ogg ]

Yet, in spite of the support of the Santa Cruz Community, local leaders and politicians, and lack of interference with other broadcasters, the FCC felt the need to shut down FRSC. FRSC prepared this audio collage from the confrontation between the angry crowd and federal agents:

[ raid mix1 edited -- 48 seconds raid_mix1_edited.ogg ]

After the FCC and Marshalls removed the FRSC equipment, they returned to find that at least four of their vehicles no longer had air in their tires. The agents and the seized equipment were transported away by tow trucks.

Within 48 hours of the raid, Freak Radio re-assembled a makeshift studio and resumed broadcasting over the internet. In a statement issued Friday, FRSC said "we hope to restore the FM broadcast at 101.1 FM in the near future." FRSC is rebuilding with donations from around the US. The web radio stream and more information on the station is available at F-R-E-A-K-R-A-D-I-O dot ORG. Extensive coverage of the FRSC raid is available from santacruz.indymedia.org.

KFAR in Knoxville TN

Only two weeks earlier, on Wednesday, September 15, Knoxville First Amendment Radio (or KFAR) in Knoxville Tenessee was also raided by FCC agents and US Marshalls. The station broadcast at 100 Watts and carried alternative news, music and commentary for the past three years. While the station has still not been granted an official license, it has exceeded all FCC regulations and does not interfere with the signal of any other radio station. KFAR originally hoped to broadcast with a license, but planned FCC licencing for small stations up to 100 Watts was blocked by efforts of the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio. So KFAR went ahead anyway, labelled "pirate" by the corporate media sources.

KFAR supporter Abigail Singer said: "The real criminals are the FCC officials who have given the public airwaves away to huge media conglomerates like Clearchannel. The airwaves belong to the people, and the public has a right to broadcast on public airwaves."

A KFAR DJ spoke to Freak Radio Santa Cruz shortly after the raid. Ironically, this interview took place on the air in Santa Cruz less than two weeks before the FCC raid there.

[ KFAR clip - 10 seconds kfar_clip.ogg ]

The FCC enforces broadcasting laws on the basis of complaints. According to the affidavit of FCC agent Eric Rice and the warrant left at the KFAR studio, the FCC was acting on complaints from FBI Special Agent Joe Clark and from David Icove, an employee of the Tennessee Valley Authority police, also on special assignment with the FBI. KFAR has been highly critical of the TVA over the course of the station’s 3-year history, challenging TVA’s nuclear power program and its burning of coal mined in Mountain Top Removal operations. KFAR has consistently spoken out on important issues like the war in Iraq and nuclear weapons production in Oak Ridge.

Univ. of Tennessee law student Chris Irwin said, "No person not affiliated with a federal agency was listed as having registered a complaint. Citizens exercising their First Amendment rights should not have to face the wrath of so many federal agencies."

Singer added, "KFAR was shut down on a complaint made by one federal agency to another federal agency. The only explanation for this level of federal involvement, given the station's low wattage, is that KFAR was shut down on the basis of its political content."

KFAR is also maintaining an internet broadcast until they return to the FM airwaves. More information on KFAR is available at K-F-A-R dot ORG.

San Francisco Liberation Radio Raid, October 2003

In San Francisco last October, 10 federal agents, 10 San Francisco police, and 5 FCC agents raided San Francisco Liberation Radio (SFLR) studios. SFLR is a micro-radio station that has broadcast at 93.7 FM in the San Francisco bay area for the past 10 years. It was started in part to be an outlet and resource for communities that are underserved by the media mainstream. SFLR has garnered much public support for the work that it has done, including the August 19, 2003 passage of a resolution by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors supporting the station, media diversity in general, and directing the SF police leave the station alone.

On October 16 of last year the 25-man police force arrived equipped with battering ram and firearms, although neither was necessary. The FCC confiscated all equipment in the station at the time, including a 16 channel Mackie sound board, microphones, a computer, CD, record, and tape players, and much more. SFLR has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration policies regarding the war on terror in Iraq and elsewhere, as well as the California state and local policies including San Francisco's targeting of homeless people. SFLR says the Bush administration has made every effort to silence criticism of the government.

Radio free brattleboro, Vermont

In March earlier this year a local ballot initiative passed with nearly two-thirds of voters in the town of Brattleboro, Vermont granting "authority to broadcast" to Radio Free Brattleboro. The open-access Radio Free Brattleboro (RFB) began broadcasting in July 1998 as an independent, all-volunteer, non-commercial community radio station.

Radio Free Brattleboro broadcasts at 10 watts of power at 107.9 FM to cover an area with a radius about 2 miles from its broadcast location, all within the confines of the town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Spokesperson Larry Bloch stated "I hope that communities across the country will be inspired by the endorsement that rfb has received from voters here," in response to the vote. Later in March a Judge refeused to grant the FCC's request for an injunction to force RFB off the air. Further court appeals are expected.

Radio free brattleboro has been threatened with shutdown by the FCC since June, 2003, when the FCC demanded that the station show either a license or "authority to broadcast." Since the FCC has abandoned the 10-watt, Class "D" broadcast licensing classification and has thereby neglected its responsibility to facilitate access to the airwaves by purely local broadcasters, communities throughout the United States like Brattleboro Vermont have been acting on their own for locally-orignated broadcasting in spite of the FCC. Radio Free Brattleboro is still broadcasting today, after more than six years.

Wrapup commentary

The Vermont case is one of few recent legal victories for community broadcasters. But despite the Federal Government's assault on these radio activists, community groups are starting low-power radio stations in defiance of flawed FCC regulations everywhere. In addition to mass defiance, there is some hope that people can use pressure to support Senate Bill 2505. Senators John McCain?, Republican of Arizona, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, introduced the bill designed to 'implement the recommendations of the Federal Communications Commission regarding Low Power FM' (LPFM).

Free Radio Berkeley pointed out that the cost of getting on-air with a legal, FCC-approved license can cost up to $100,000 once legal, consulting and technical fees are totaled, assuming a frequency to broadcast on is even available. So these low-power radio rebels force the question, what is more important, FCC regulations or free speech?

Following the FRSC raid, DJ Danielsan of FRSC addressed the recent offensive against community radio stations:

[ Danielsan_edited 42 second clip danielsan_desc.ogg ]

The NAB Daniel refers to is the National Association of Broadcasters, a powerful lobby group which has pushed hard to prevent the licensing of low-power community radio and lobbied for relaxing media ownership rules. These two agendas combined form a deadly combination: using the FCC's regulatory power to squash average people's ability to broadcast, and simultaneously removing the regulations preventing the super-rich corporations from buying up all of the rest. Deregulation, indeed. This week the NAB will meet in San Diego. In opposition to their corporate agenda, independent media activists will be holding a four day convergence of workshops, speakers, and actions in San Diego to tell the NAB "We Want Our Airwaves Back!".

Pittsburgh-area busts

The FCC has also been active shutting down small radio broadcasters here in the Pittsburgh Area.

South Side Radio & Bob Bingham

South Side Radio was started by Bob Bingham, a CMU Art professor, in 2001. With a 1 Watt transmitter on top of the South Side’s Carnegie Library, the station broadcasted interviews with local residents and could barely be heard as far away as Oakland at 102.9 FM. But now South Side Radio is silent altogether: On Sept. 17 the FCC instructed Bingham to shut the station off.

Bingham's transmitter operated at 1 Watt. For comparison, legally-unlicenced FRS two-way radios (toys often called "walkie-talkies") operate at one-half watt.

Plum, PA station

The McKeesport? Daily News reported that a 500 Watt unlicenced station was shut down last week in Plum, Pennsylvania neat Oakmont in Allegheny County.

So-called "WCSA Radio" said in a statement: "Since we can no longer bring you the best Sports Talk, Rock n' Roll, Giveaways and Comedy Segments on local FM radio, we are going to broadcast 'The General Edge' Show to the world via internet."

The station has a website at W-C-S-A-radio DOT com which currently says, "Due to updates brought forth to us in the low power FM regulations, we are no longer broadcasting."

around the globe:

The United States isn't the only place where community radio activists are under attack from government authorities. In Brasil, a long-running community radio station was radied and shut down in Porto Alegre. And radio stations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Port-au-Prince, Haiti have suffered violent attacks in just the past few weeks.

Oaxaca, Mexico

In Oaxaca, southeast Mexico, at 6:13 in the morning of the 14th of September, several local and federal Mexican police units, including forces of the (Special Operations Police), policia preventiva, tourism police, police of the state of Oaxaca, the Federa Agency of Investigations (AFI), and plain clothed officers numbering a sum of 200 violently evicted members of Guetza Radio and the Popular Indigenous Counsel of Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon (CIPO - RFM) with tear gas, cuncusion grenades and water hoses. To this date seven people remain in jail.

The repression marks the most recent attack by the government of Oaxaca, under Governor Jose Murat, against the Indigenous people of Oaxaca and the (Popular Indigenous Counsel of Oaxaca) in particular. The counsel, with the Indigenous National Congress, recently organized the first National Meeting of Autonomies, the participants of which included student activists, labor unions and indigenous communities, in order to facilitate a discorse between the problems of each community and formulate proposals in the spirit of mutual aid. Guetza Radio transmitted and archived the meeting.

Guetza Radio, along with the counsel, is a voice in the city of Oaxaca which continually demands justice for indigenous people and political prisoners of the region. The raid on the radio station marks one more step in the history of repression against free radio in Mexico. It is also part of the current political trend toward fascist repression throughout Mexico, as displayed by the examples of recent violence against demonstrators in Guadalajara and the growth of power throughout the country of the PAN, the party of the ultra-right.

Guetza Radio demand the following rights:

* 1. immediate and unconditional liberty of all political prisoners.
* 2. an end to the harrassment and repression of community radios throughout Mexico
* 3. constitutional recognition of community radios and the peoples proposal for radio and television
* 4. the return of all confiscated equipment

Guetza Radio continues transmiting from a new location and on a new frequency. The station moved from 94.1 MHz to 88.5 MHz FM, and broadcasts at a lower power since their 300 Watt transmitter was taken.

Haiti

Units of the Haitian National Police (PNH) surrounded a local radio station in the capital of Port-Au-Prince this past Sunday. Earlier that morning three Lavalas representatives were interviewed on a radio program on Radio Caraibes FM about the recent political violence that has led to 14 deaths. Tensions have exploded as the impoverished country struggles to recover from floods unleashed two weeks ago by Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed more than 1,550 and left some 900 missing, most presumed dead.

Former Deputy Rudy Hérivaux, former Lavalas Senator Yvon Feuillé, and former Lavalas Senator Gerald Gilles were heard on Radio Caraibes denouncing the violence and condemning the police for firing on unarmed demonstrators during an interview on the program Ramase. Before the end of the program heavily armed units of the PNH sealed off the neighborhood and announced their intention to arrest the three Lavalas leaders.

The police action was condemned by the management of Radio Caraibes stating that it “harms the reputation of the station and is an infringement of freedom of expression.” After a six-hour stand-off during which police shut down streets and surrounded the station, the three Lavalas leaders were taken away in handcuffs. "They are kidnapping me. They have no reason to arrest me. It is an illegal arrest," Senate president Yvon Feuille said as he was led away. The Lavalas leaders have been demanding an end to "the occupation and invasion" by US troops after a Bush administration supported military coup forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office.

Rádio Restinga shut down and equipment seized in Porto Alegre, Brasil

On August 4 of this year equipment belonging to Rádio Comunitária Restinga de Porto Alegre/RS was apprehended by ANATEL (Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency). Nearly a dozen policemen led the operation, in which all radio equipment was seized. Rádio Restinga is no stranger to censorship: also in August 2002, all of it's equipment was seized. The station had been broadcasting since 1999 from the low-income Restinga neighbourhood of Porto Alegre, birthplace of the World Social Forum, the global summit of alternative social and economic ideas.

”The radio was a public space open to everybody. Marginalized people from the area used it for their needs,” said station coordinator Marisa Godinho. Restinga is home to 150,000 people, most of them living in precarious conditions. ”The Brazilian government has no political will to create good conditions for community media. Since long ago, the government has not given permission to operate community channels,” added Godinho. According to the Intern-Press Service News Agency, about 12,900 community radio stations have been shut down in Brazil and equipment from 117,755 operations confiscated since 1998, when the government passed a new broadcasting law setting a maximum strength of community radio transmitters at 25 watts. Since then, prosecutors have launched 10,142 trials against so-called illegal radio stations, and courts have convicted 3,600 people under the new restrictive legislation on community broadcasting.

There are between 5,500 and 10,000 community radios in Brazil, but Anatel recognises only 2,620 active radio channels, community radios included. Ironically, the Brazilian Federal Constitution signed in 1988 considers communication a fundamental human right. Article 5 says, ”the expression of intellectual, artistic, scientific and communication activity is free and independent from censorship or licence.”

The search and arrest warrant was issued by the Federal Court of Criminal Justice of Porto Alegre on July 7 2004. The repression against Rádio Restinga comes at a time when Restinga residents have engaged in several protests to denounce the precarious health conditions in the neighbourhood. Rádio Comunitária was at the forefront of these protests, gathering people’s opinions and receiving support from those residents involved in the protests.

The repression suffered by Rádio Restinga comes as a result of the campaign entitled “Broadcasting against Illegality and Bootlegging”, which was devised by the Gaúcha Radio and Television Broadcasting Association (Associação Gaúcha de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão, AGERT in Portuguese). This defamatory campaign, supported by ANATEL, the Judiciary and the Ministry of Public Service, was first launched by AGERT on July 2 2004. Among the measures taken as a result of this campaign is the improveing of search techniques and the creation of an elite police force to fight against “illegal” radio stations.

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) is planning an international campaign to pressure the government to change the legislation and recognise the right to communicate in Brazil. AMARC is an international non-governmental organization with 3,000 members and associates in 106 countries. Its goal is to support and contribute to the development of community and participatory radio along the principals of solidarity and international cooperation.

Gustavo Gómez from AMARC said in a statement issued after the shutdown, ”Restinga is just another example of a very grave national Brazilian problem. The pressure of the international human rights organisations has proved to be an efficient ally of the communitarian social movement."

The citizens of Restinga, who last month protested in the neighborhood's main street to demand medical care, are organising a massive demonstration against the radio's closure. But the struggle for legalisation of the area's community radios looks to be long and difficult. AMARC will continue to advocate for the basic rights of community participatory radio worldwide. More information on AMARC is available from a-m-a-r-c DOR org.

[ Adapted from IMC Brasil and Inter Press Service reports ]

FCC Wrapup and Musical Break (2:10)

This report on the FCC crackdown was prepared and presented by Matt Toups of Pittsburgh Indymedia, with special thanks to the independent media activists in Santa Cruz, Tennessee, Mexico, Haiti and Brasil for their contributions. And now, to wrap up our feature story on the repression of radio activists around the world, we bring you this musical break from Eric Idle of Monty Python, dedicated to the US Federal Communications Commission.

* [ Musical Break - 2:10 ] FCCSong-cleanedit.ogg: replaced NFAP with 440hz tones

That was Eric Idle of Monty Python with The FCC Song. You're listening to Indymedia Rust Belt Radio on WRCT Pittsburgh.

Nine Years Later: Jonny Gammage Case

* gammage_sr.wav:

His last words were "Keith, Keith -- I'm only 31."

Beaten to death by 5 police officers in the Overbrook section of Pittsburgh, the case of Jonny Gammage divided Allegheny County and shocked people across the world. From the beginning race was a central issue. The five police officers implicated in Gammage's death were all white. Gammage was black. Although a racially-mixed coroner's jury unanimously voted to indict all five officers, the first time that a police officer was ever indicted in Allegheny County, the eventual criminal trials were by jurors imported from the whitest corners of the State. Outrage at the outcome of the case -- two mistrials and one not-guilty verdict -- caused the City of Pittsburgh to create the Citizen's Police Review Board. Years later, the echoes of the case still shape city race-relations and the lack of trust that many residents of Pittsburgh have for the police. Today, a look back at the case through the lense of one of the jurors on the coroner's jury, and an interview with Pete Shell of an anti-police brutality group that formed in reaction to the Gammage case.

Nine years ago next week, Jonny Gammage, a native of Syracuse and the cousin of Ray Seals, a football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was driving through the Overbrook section of Pittsburgh on Route 51 in his cousin's Jaguar. It was a little after midnight, and he was tired because he was getting a cold. Lt. Milton Mulholland testified that he began to follow Gammage at a distance of about 15 feet for more than a mile and a half, without his lights on. He then testifies that he noticed the brake lights flashing on as though Gammage were slowing down and picking up speed. Natural because of the steep grade of Route 51 and with a police officer tailgating him, but Lt. Mulholland decided to turn his lights on, and Gammage pulled over, perhaps thinking that the officer was finally going to pass him because he had received a call.

Instead, police officers from 2 other boroughs joined Mulholland, including John Vojtas, later to be implicated as the primary agressor in Gammage's death. While Mulholland was checking Gammage's license and registration, a confrontation occured that brought Gammage out of the car at Vojtas' gunpoint. Gammage, holding out his cell phone to Vojtas -- perhaps to confirm his story that he was the cousin and business partner of Ray Seals -- had it knocked out of his hand with the officer's flashlight and was forced to the ground with the help of two other officers who had by now responded, Albert and Henderson. Three officers - Henderson, Vojtas, and Mulholland -- testified Albert came in and started hitting Gammage in the neck, left and right side of the face, in the throat, and on his back with a collapsible baton. He hit him so many times the baton flew out of his hand and he had to stop to rest.

The officers continued to beat Gammage with their fists, the collapsible baton, and their flashlights, this while Gammage was handcuffed, immobilized with five men on top of him, one with his knee squarely on his back and another sitting on his legs. At one point, one of the officers left a bite mark in Gammage's rear. The eventual cause of Gammage's death was asphyxiation.

By the time that Gammage died, tens of police cars from all over Pittsburgh had already arrived at the scene. Not one officer intervened in the one-sided beating. A racially mixed six-member jury unanimously indicted all five of the police officers for the murder of Jonny Gammage.

The jury trials that would follow would end unhappily for many members of the Pittsburgh community and would outrage people all over the world. Only three officers were charged; two others made agreements that they would testify against the others. Two trials ended in mistrials. John Vojtas was acquitted by an all-white jury from the 99% white Lackawanna County, brought in by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court because of fears of jury prejudicing from the large amount of media coverage that surrounded the case.

Here are the reactions of some of the people outside the courtroom when John Vojtas was acquitted, beginning with John Vojtas himself.

* John Vojtas

And the response by protestors outside

* Protestors

The reaction of Gammage's fiancee perhaps more than any other response sums up the feelings of Pittsburghers that continue to this day.

* Gammage's Fiancee

After being acquitted, John Vojtas was promoted in the Brentwood Police Department. The Syracuse Post-Standard had this response:

The white residents of Brentwood, Pa., who repeatedly cheered the promotion of Brentwood Officer John Vojtas, despite his role in Syracusan Jonny Gammage's traffic-stop death on Oct. 12, 1995, have clearly drawn their battle lines.

They sent a message that it does not matter if a life has been ripped away from a family, a community and a nation of African-Americans and others who've watched the same distressing scenario play out time after time.

It does not matter if those paid to protect and serve have played a culpable role in a citizen's death over an alleged bad car light.

It only matters that a good ol' boy got off and, to boot, received a promotion after his acquittal on involuntary manslaughter charges.

And life is good in Brentwood again.

With us today is Pete Shell, of the former Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice that formed in response to the Jonny Gammage case and who currently sits on the board of the Thomas Merton Center. Pete, welcome.

Every year, when October 12th rolls around, what are you feeling?

Tell our listeners how you got involved in this case.

What was the reaction of members of the campus community?

I've spoken with jurors on the original coroner's jury that described the death threats and racist hatred that they had directed at them. Did you encounter that?

To what extent were groups like the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, and the Greater Pittsburgh NAACP able to mobilize Pittsburghers around the Gammage case?

Let's talk about some of the other events that CCPJ participated in. In 1997, the Klu Klux Klan rallied in Market Square, and CCPJ was among the groups that organized a counter demonstration. Tell us about that event.

What are your thoughts on the state of policing in Pittsburgh today? Are there other Jonny Gammages?

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by Pittsburgh IMC Radio Collective Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004 at 1:23 AM
radio@indypgh.org WRCT 88.3FM

audio: ogg vorbis at 24.8 mebibytesaudio: ogg vorbis at 24.8 mebibytes

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