PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Indymedia Rustbelt Radio show for Tuesday, October 19, 2004
by Pittsburgh IMC Radio Collective Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 at 3:40 AM
radio@indypgh.org

On today's show... * Renee Wilson of People Against Police Violence updates us on the Bernard Rogers case and plans for a major demonstration on Friday * Elections, third parties, and deliberative Democracy * A comprehensive report on the seizure of Indymedia's servers in the U.K. that brought down 20 of the network's websites * Rick Rowley Big Noise Films on The Fourth World War, showing tonight at Carnegie Mellon * and, headlines from aroud the indymedia network

audio link: MP3 at 37.4 mebibytes

October 19, 2004 ImcPittsburgh Radio Show (Rustbelt Radio)

Aired 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 semester 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...

* Renee Wilson of People Against Police Violence updates us on the Bernard Rogers case and plans for a major demonstration on Friday
* Elections, third parties, and deliberative Democracy
* A comprehensive report on the seizure of Indymedia's servers in the U.K. that brought down 20 of the network's websites
* Rick Rowley Big Noise Films on The Fourth World War, showing tonight at Carnegie Mellon

Headlines

But first, these local news stories from Pittsburgh Indymedia.

Local News

Health Care Rally at Centre City Tower [2:00]

On Friday, October 8, the Thomas Merton Center and SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, held a demonstration to support healthcare for all at Centre City Tower at Smithfield & 7th Street. Centre City Tower has been the site of an ongoing labor dispute with SEIU Union Local 3 since the building laid off its nine janitors when it contracted with PF Enterprises, a non-union part-time company that pays little more than minimum wage and does not provide health insurance to janitors. Centre City Tower had been covered under the SEIU Master Contract that includes over 90% downtown Pittsburgh buildings over 100,000 square feet. After three months of picketing and street demonstrations, four days of hunger strikes, and 52 people getting arrested for civil disobedience, County Executive Dan Onorato intervened urging both parties to resolve the dispute through third party mediation.

The goal, for this demostration, however, was to focus on Centre City Tower as a symbol of the health care crisis in this country.

"Thousands of people in Allegheny County and millions across the country are facing the same struggle as the nine janitors who were tossed out of Centre City Tower,” said Tim Vining, Executive Director of the Thomas Merton Center.

We have a brief audio clip from the demonstration.

[ oct8.aif: oct8.aif Audio Clip: 0:36 ]

At a statewide conference, activists grapple with health care crisis [0:30]

Yesterday 100 health care activists from across the state gathered in Harrisburg for a major conference on the health care crisis. The conference was organized by PUSH, Pennsylvanians United for Single-payer Health Care, a Pittsburgh-based organization which formed earlier this year. One of the main goals for the conference was to take steps to develop a statewide national coalition that could get behind a Bill to cover all Pennsylvanians.

Save Our Transit rally in Harrisburg [2:30]

56 Pittsburgh public transit users and activists with the organization Save Our Transit travelled to the state capital two weeks ago to urge legislators to pass Senate Bill 1162 and its companion House Bill 2697 to increase state funding for public transit. Rustbelt Radio has been following those efforts, and today we bring you two brief clips from the Harrisburg trip.

Belinda Davis of the Philadelphia Transit Campaign addressed Governor Rendell and the Pennsylvania legislature.

[ belinda_davis_transit.ogg: Belinda David - Philly Transit Campaign - (0:42) ]

That was Belinda David of the Philadelphia Transit Campaign. Later, Steve Donahue of Save Our Transit summed up the day's activities.

[ steve_in_harrisburg.ogg: Steve Donahue - (1:11) ]

Audio was provided courtesy of Blast Furnace Radio.

In a conversation with Rust Belt radio earlier today, Steve Donahue said that the crisis has become even more dire. The state General Assembly now appears to be unlikely to pass the desired bills. They may allocate a few million dollars for public transit as a stop gap measure, but service cuts may likely result with that compromise. We won't know until November 30th what they decide to do.

Patriot Act Town Meeting Brings Together Residents of Edgewood and Neigboring Communities [:30]

Residents of Edgewood as well as other East Pittsburgh suburban communities and Regent Square gathered on last Wednesday night for a Town Meeting on the PATRIOT Act. About 40 people attended to listen and ask questions before the three member panel. On the Panel was Omar Slater of the ACLU, Saleh Waziruddin of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and Denise Edwards of Wilkinsburg Borough Council. A member of the Edgewood Borough council attended and residents hope that they can convince the council there to pass a resolution that opposes the PATRIOT Act and affirms rights and protection for all. Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg have already passed similar resolutions.

Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance, Bangladeshi workers [4:30]

The Bangladesh Workers' Tour stopped in Pittsburgh this past weekend on the national tour organized by the National Labor Committee (a US group) and the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh. They're touring the US to bring attention to the nearly 1.8 million women who work in the sweatshops of Bangladesh to produce apparel for export.

Workers from Bangladesh spoke to a group at Duquesne University, which recently joined the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent sweatshop monitoring group. In addition, Carnegie Mellon and 127 other universities are affilitated with the WRC; activists at the University of Pittsburgh are campaigning for Pitt to join as well.

Later Saturday afternoon the workers held a rally on Freedom Corner in the Hill District. Representatives from labor, student, immigrant and civil rights groups offered their solidatiry to the workers.

Rafiq Alam served as interpreter for the Bangledeshi workers tour. With Bangledeshi workers, he helped win a maternity leave campaign and worked on relief efforts to help flood victims. Mr. Alam spoke to us on Freedom Corner Saturday about garment factories in Bangladesh.

[ audio clip: quote_from_bangladeshi_union_guy.ogg: Rafiq Alam, (1:18) ]

Mongezi Sefika wa Nkomo of Azania Heritage International, who fought against Apartheid in South Africa for many years, also spoke to the Bangledeshi workers and to the crowd of Pittsburghers.

[ audio clip: mongezi.ogg: Mongezi Sefika wa Nkomo, Azania Heritage International (1:52) ]

Numerous local organizations and unions lended their support, including State County and Municipal Employees Local 2459, Graphic Communications International Union Local 23, the IWW, Mon Valley Unemployed committee, student groups from Pitt, CMU and Duquesne, Black and White reunion, and the AFL-CIO Western PA Labor and Religious Coalition.

Kenneth Miller, original organizer of the No Sweatshops Bucco! Campaign, said (quote) "we view workers in Pittsburgh in solidarity, not competition, with workers in other parts of the world." (end quote)

Protesters oppose Iams' cruel tests on dogs and cats [1:00]

Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and local activists served as a voice for the voiceless on Friday, October 15, in a lunch-hour demonstration against Iams, a leading supplier of pet food.

Iams uses dogs and cats in unnecessary animal experimentats for its pet food products, often violating its own welfare policy with utter disregard for the test victims. Iams researchers have snipped dogs’ vocal chords, shoved tubes down their throats to force them to ingest vegetable oil, and removed dogs’ thigh muscles only to leave them on cold concrete floors in buildings without temperature control.

Investigations have found that Iams contractors kill dogs, despite Iams’ own policies against killing test animals.

Many pedestrians in Market Square were horrified to learn about Iams’ abuse of dogs and cats. They vowed to stop purchasing the company’s pet food.

“I bought it for a while and I was clueless,” said Sarah Snoke, who drove from Youngstown, Ohio, to participate in the protest. “Just the fact that they cut dogs’ vocal chords is disgusting. It’s not necessary.”

Global News

Intro
We turn now to headlines from Independent Media Centers around the world.

European Social Forum

70,000 people gathered in London's Trafalgar Square on Sunday to participate in the largest event of the European Social Forum, which began last Thursday. The ESF describes itself as a "giant gathering for everyone opposed to war, racism and corporate power, everyone who wants to see global justice, workers' rights and a sustainable society." It grew out of the World Social Forum, held every year since 2001, and seeks to be an alternative to globalization of corporate capital and meetings of powerful governments like the Group of 8.

Columbus Day [4:00]

On October 12, various popular movements in Venezuela gathered in the center of Caracas to celebrate a "Day of Indigenous Resistence" (previously called Columbus Day) beneath a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus. Protesters first covered the statue with banners and graffiti, and then climbed to the top to attach a heavy fishing rope around Columbus's neck. Hundreds of protesters easily toppled the statue, even bringing the marble boat that served as his base along with him. The statue was dragged through the streets of Caracas, hung from a tree, and finally broken into pieces.

Earlier that weekend in Colorado, the first state to declare October 11 a holiday, the celebration of Columbus was also greeted with derision. Carrying signs that read: "Columbus: America's first terrorist" and "We were here first," 233 Native Americans and their supporters were arrested for standing in the path of a Columbus Day parade in downtown Denver.

Here is a report from Colorado's community radio station KRFC.

[ audio clip: Transformcolumbusday2004.mp3 1:50 ]

In Lancaster, PA, near Harrisburg, Native Americans and supporters held The Columbus Day Awareness Gathering at the town square on October 11.

Lancaster Resident and Lenape Indian "Grandmother" Doris River Bird Woman said to the Lancaster-Intelligencer Journal (quote) "We honor a liar and a cheat on this day. We should get rid of Columbus Day and have a Native American Day instead. Why are we afraid of honoring the peacemakers, but so eager to honor the warriors?" (end quote)

The group circulated a petition for the removal of the Columbus statue by the city's courthouse.

High Tech Squat evicted in Amsterdam [:30]

The ASCII squat, a free public internet space run by hackers and activists in Amsterdam, was evicted last week by police in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

ASCII was set up recycling old computers and using only free software (GNU GPL) to bring broader access to technology for the populace.

ASCII is a collective of free and autonomous thinkers, technically and politically aware hackers and free software developers. It has been active for five years, hosting free events including courses on linux and wireless networking.

ASCII stands for Amsterdam Subversive Center for Information Interchange

Jaques Derrida succumbs to Cancer [:30]

Jaques Derrida, one of the most influential thinkers in recent history, died of pancreatic cancer at age 74 in a Paris hospital last week.

The charismatic French-Algerian philosopher developed a philosophical approach popularly known as "deconstruction" based on the notion that the language of modern western thinking undermines the principles on which it purports to rest. Derrida's methods would look at the internal contradictions of such notions as gender, race and sexuality to show that these concepts were never natural, but in fact constructions to be questioned as readily as any other work of fiction.

More than an academic, Derrida was a lifelong activist who questioned authority and the authoritarian form of Western democracies. He was a loud voice of opposition to the Vietnam War in the 60s and the current war on Iraq. He protested the death penalty was active in the campaign to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. He wrote a preface for Mumia's book, Live from Death Row.

Wrapup

You can read more about our global news stories at indymedia dot org. We're going to take a short break and then return with our feature stories.

[ Musical Break: bread_and_roses.ogg: bread & roses song - oct 16 (2:43) ]

Features

Intro

That was "Bread and Roses" by the Raging Grannies, recorded in the Hill District this past Saturday. Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news that the corporate media overlook.

Bernard Rogers Update [10:00]

[ Quinten & Andalusia will do this interview ]

On Friday, October 8, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala announced that he will not prosecute the police responsible for the shooting death of Bernard Rogers. Bernard Rogers was 26-year old Black man who was shot and killed by police two years ago.

We have here in the studio today Renee Wilson from People Against Police Violence to talk about the case.

Renee, welcome.

Take us back to 2002: who was Bernard Rogers and what happened to him?

Tell us about your efforts to demand justice for Rogers' family. Start with the Coronor's inquest from last year.

[Have her tell the story, making sure that she touches upon Wecht's reversal, the reasons he gave for that reversal, and Zapalla's decision.]

Renee, are their other cases of police violence that Zappala is ignoring?

Tell us what is planned for Friday, October 22nd.

Elections [10:00]

Two weeks from today is election day. Today, we talk about the issues that all of the election coverage by the mainstream media has missed: from the real story behind the debates, to the third-party candidates you haven't heard of, to electoral reform.

For the first time this year, the Green Party's nominee for the President was not Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader is running as an independent but has had trouble getting on the ballot in several states, including Pennsylvania where a court recently ruled that he had too many invalid signatures on his petition.

Pat LaMarche? is the Green Party's Vice Presidential candidate. Her running mate is David Cobb, who was recently arrrested outside of the Presidential Debates in St Louis with Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. Both were denied access to the debates, a decision that they had protested. Ms. LaMarche? talked with us earlier this week about the Presidential Debates, about electoral reform and clean elections in her home state of Maine, where she was recently the Green Party's candidate for Governor.

* Pat LaMarche? Interview - 6:10 [Renee leaves the studio at this point]

San Francisco this year will be the first major American government to use Instant Runoff voting for its municipal elections. A new trend in reforming politics has been gradually gaining prominence over the last 10 years. That trend: the deliberative poll.

Since the invention of the modern opinion poll by George Gallup in the 1930s, their influence on political decision making has only grown. Yet many citizens who are polled don't have fully formed opinions or time to seriously consider the subject that they are polled on.

James Fishkin in 1991 proposed a new kind of poll: a deliberative poll. Joining the philosophical movement of deliberative democracy with the making of decisions, in a deliberative poll, a representative sample is gathered to debate and consider an issue in small groups. They are given access to written materials in advance of the poll, and the chance to formulate and ask questions of a panel of experts.

This past Saturday, a deliberative poll sponsored by PBS and McNeil?-Lehrer Productions under the name By The People was held at Carnegie Mellon. We have a brief excerpt from one of the small group discussions.

* Deliberative Poll segment [ 1:50 ] -- NOTE: LOW VOLUME, AMPLIFY

For more from Saturday's deliberative poll, you can visit By the People on the PBS website. Pittsburgh Indymedia will also include more audio recordings from the discussion on our website. Finally, excerpts from the discussion will air on WQED's On Q this week.

While the Kerry campaign works overtime to get out the vote and keep Nader off the Ballet, Pittsburgh activists are preparing to respond to the elections in many different ways.

This Saturday, October 23, members of the Garfield community are planning to to hold a "celebration of political dissent", featuring joyous recognition of the Art, music, puppetry and more. Some of the entertainment will include the circus against western imperialism, the working poor, kevin finn, gina, local slam poets, radical cheerleaders, internationally recognized puppeteer David Solnit, among others. A procession will start at the Quiet storm at 7pm before winding its way down Penn Ave to the Eye.

The following Saturday, October 30, Black Voices for Peace and Black Radical Congress will hold a teach in called, "The War, the Election, and the Black Community." The teach-in will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Kingsley Association, which is located at 6435 Frankstown Avenue in East Liberty.

On Monday, November 1st, Pittsburgh Organizing Group will hold a "corporate victory party" featuring music from The Flash Darlings, 2 Sexy Beasts, Styles for Modern Living, Aydin, and performances by the radical cheer leaders. The event will take place at the Eye in Garfield, 4814 Penn Ave.

November 2nd is declared a "day of direct education and outreach". Activists plan to educate voters on the need for systemic change and leaflet "don't just vote" materials at polls around town.

The day after the elections, on Wednesday, November 3rd Pittsburgh organizing will hold a rally and march to demand an end to war abroad, justice at home and real change. The event begins at the Software Engineering Institute in Oakland at 2500 fifth avenue.

Then on Saturday, November 6, the Thomas Merton Center and Students will hold a public forum entitled, "Building a Progressive Movement." The topics include "Post-Election Analysis" and "Strategies and Tactics." It will take place from 10am to 3pm at William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh.

Following the forum, the Thomas Merton Center will hold an anti-war rally on the William Pitt Union Patio.

[ oct8_ryan.ogg: from oct8 stl rally interlude [1:47] ]

Unknown Federal Agency shuts downs 22 Indymedia websites from 17 different countries

On October 7th, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company called Rackspace, perhaps at the request of the United States in collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities.

It may be useful to our listeners to say a little bit about the global Indymedia network. Pittsburgh's, for example, is one of about 140 Independent Media Centers located around the world, each of which are autonomous portions of the Indymedia Network. Each has their own website. Some of these share web servers, which are computers connected to the internet that deliver the web sites and radio streams.

In the case we are talking about today, the seizure of the hard drives from a computer in London shut down an Indymedia radio station and 22 different Indymedia websites from Antwerp to Brazil to Western Massachusetts. Thousands of individuals who posted one million articles on these web sites suddenly found their voices silenced by an unknown hand.

If measured in terms of the number of countries and journalists affected by the seizure, it was an attack on independent media unlike the world has ever seen before.

One of the sites that was unplugged belonged to Uruguay Indymedia. Like many collective's in the Indymedia network, the Uruguayans didn't have the money to pay for web hosting, and so they relied on the support of other countries.

A volunteer from Uruguay Indymedia pointed out to Rust Belt radio that it was an especially bad time for the attack to happen. Uruguay's national elections will take place on October 31st and their website was a critical source of alternative news and information. "Actions like the seizure of the servers make the whole world insecure for free media," he said.

Rackspace would not say who took the hardware, or why. Instead, they issued the following statement:

[ rackspace-media-quote.ogg: rackspace bogus quote [:50] ]

An FBI spokesperson, Joe Parris, originally confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the FBI issued a subpoena to Rackspace, but that it was "on behalf of a third country." Later he denied that the FBI had any involvement whatsoever.

Initial speculation as to who ordered the seizure focused on Switzerland, who had expressed concern to the FBI over photos of swiss cops disguised as global justice protesters posted to a French indymedia site. A few days after the seizure, a senior federal prosecutor for Geneva, Switzerland, also confirmed that he had opened a criminal investigation -- but that he had not asked for the servers to be seized.

Later, Italy Indymedia learned that Marina Plazzi, a public prosecutor for Bologna confirmed that she issued a request to U.S. authorities for the server's connection information concerning posts published on Italy Indymedia, another one of the Network's sites hosted on the U.K. server. But Plazzi says that she did not request the seizure of the server hardware, either.

Then on Wednesday, October 13th, Indymedia's seized hardware was mysteriously returned in the same way it disappeared. An employee at Rackspace emailed an Indymedia volunteer but would not give any more information as to who took the hard drives and why.

David Dadge, editor for the International Press Institute, summed up Indymedia's plight best: "The fact that the authorities' actions are shrouded in mystery leaves Indymedia in the Kafkaesque position of not knowing the identity of its accusers or the nature of their claim."

Earlier today we spoke to Indymedia's legal council, EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, who brought us up to date on the quest to find out who shut down Indymedia's websites.

[ Kurt_edited.aif: audio clip: Kurt_edited.aif [5:03] ]

Other consequences of the seizure could include the following. Some Web-hosting providers may now be reluctant to offer their services to media organizations outside of the mainstream for fear that the latter's sites might be taken down and all their other clients with them. Similarly, individuals may think twice before posting stories critical of their respective governments for fear of reprisal. In addition, it is feared that using international cooperation frameworks to obscure due process will further erode communication rights.

Indymedia volunteers are now calling for supporters sign a solidarity declaration at solidarity.indymedia.org.uk denouncing the hard drive seizure as an unacceptable attack on press freedom, freedom of expression, and privacy. Indymedia is demanding a full disclosure of the names of organizations and individuals involved in the seizure, a copy of the court order, and an independent investigation into any violations of due process.

Numerous organizations have already expressed their solidarity with Indymedia, including Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Free Press, the International Federation of Journalists, among many others. "I would say that this is an indication of the successfulness of the Indymedia network," says Peter Phillips, Ph.D., director of Project Censored. "Freedom of information is a radical idea when applied in a fair manner, and radical ideas will always be suppressed by the transnational corporate elites whenever possible."

Another sign of the network's resiliency can seen from how it responded in the days following the seizures. Indymedia members from around the world worked quickly and through the night to restore the downed websites. Pittsburgh Indymedia, for example, contributed to that effort by hosting Brazil's IMC on its server.

As of this afternoon, thirteen of the downed websites are up and running and are visited frequently.

[ Musical interlude ]

Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films [5:00]

The Fourth World War will be in Pittsburgh tonight only, at 8pm in the Adamson Wing of Baker Hall at Carnegie Mellon.

Rick Rowley and (Tish Stringer?) are with Big Noise Films, who also made This is What Democracy Looks Like, Black and Gold and Zapatista.

Rick spent two years filming social movements all around the world.

* Please tell us about the different places you filmed, and what makes these images so powerful.

* What is your relationship with the movements in these countries, as a filmmaker from the US?

Again the film The Fourth World War is showing tonight only in Pittsburgh, Tuesday the 19th, at 8pm on the CMU Campus. The room is the Adamson Wing, Baker Hall 136A, near Schenley Park. Directors Rick Rowley will there and will be taking questions from the audience after the show.

Ending

Calendar of events

[ Cue music ]

Outro

[ Cue Outro music halfway through ]

Thanks for tuning in to Rust Belt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh. To get involved with Rust Belt Radio, or to send us your comments, email R-A-D-I-O at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot O-R-G. We'll be back in two weeks; next week tune in at this time, 6-7pm to hear "Left Out," a talk show that presents news and opinions from a perspective "left out" of the mainstream media.

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by Pittsburgh IMC Radio Collective Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 at 3:40 AM
radio@indypgh.org

audio: ogg vorbis at 22.1 mebibytesaudio: ogg vorbis at 22.1 mebibytes

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