November 30, 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...

• After the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, we look at Food & Trade Policy Issues in the Developing World
• From Portland to Pittsburgh, culture jammers challenge consumerism on the busiest shopping day of the year

Headlines

Local News

Pennsylvania to execute George Banks, severely mentally ill prisoner

For the first time in more than five years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is set to execute a prisoner, George Banks, a man with severe mental illness who has been on death row for nearly two decades. On December 2, barring intervention by the courts or Governor Rendell, Banks will be the fourth person to be killed by the state since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in 1978. Banks has not waived his appeals and would be the first person executed against his will in Pennsylvania since 1962.

The jury did not consider Banks' mental illness as a mitigating factor, due to jury instructions that the Third Circuit ruled unconstitutional on on October 31, 2001, and on January 14, 2003. The Third-Circuit ruling in Banks' case prompted PA courts to overturn several other death sentences, including that of Mumia Abu Jamal. Yet on June 24, 2004, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that this constitutional standard was set in 1988, eight months after Banks exhausted his state appeals, and therefore could not be applied retroactively to Banks. Prompted by this Supreme Court decision, on June 29, 2004, the Third Circuit lifted its stay of Mumia Abu-Jamal's execution.

A massive letter-writing campaign to Governor Rendell and to the Board of Pardons is under way, demanding that he immediately rescind the death warrant for George Banks. Also, on this Thursday, Dec. 2, activists will demonstrate throughout Pennsylvania against the scheduled 7 p.m. execution.

In Pittsburgh, people will gather outside the State Office Building at 300 Liberty Avenue downtown.

Thanks to Philadelphia Indymedia for contributing to that report.

Pennsylvania Legislature adjourns, tells public transit riders to go to hell

Last week the Pennsylvania General Assembly adjourned without passing any legislation necessary to save the public transit crisis statewide. As a consequence, the Port Authority transit agency in Pittsburgh might cut weekend and nighttime service, shut down 70 routes, layoff 500 employees, and also raise the base fare to $2.50. The Port Authority board will next meet on Thursday, December 16 to decide on whether to implement those proposed cuts.

Following the state legislators in action, 50 public transit riders gathered at the City-County Building downtown for a rally on Wednesday, November 4th. Many members of Save Our Transit said that since their attempts at a (quote) "civics text-book campaign" for public transit fell on deaf ears, they would have to open the "direct action" book. Unions representing workers dependent upon the busses, as well as unions representing bus drivers rallied with Save Our Transit.

Also, many blind and handicapped residents said they would not remain silent while the state kills their only means of transportation. Mongezi Nkomo, a South African immigrant with a prosthetic leg, addressed the crowd with his plans for direct action if the transit crisis is not solved.

[ mongezi clip (0:33) - mongezi_leg.ogg: mongezi threatens prosthetic direct action ]

If the state and the Port Authority are not able to restore public transit services in time for next year, furious transit riders have committed to waging a new campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Thomas Merton Center ramps up health care campaign

On the day after Thanksgiving, ten people braved the cold for an hour-long protest picket at Sky Bank's Lawrenceville branch. Holding signs such as "support workers rights" and "healthcare is a right" they handed out flyers and received a warm reception from local residents, with many a horn honk and thumbs-up from passersby. In recent weeks Sky Bank has found itself increasingly the target of a healthcare and workers rights campaign organized by the Thomas Merton Center over its role in the firing of nine union Janitors at Centre City Tower last year, an action many feel was the result of a recent contract victory by the Janitors that secured affordable healthcare for themselves and their families. The janitors were laid-off when building management brought in PF Enterprises, a non-union firm paying close to minimum wage with no healthcare benefits. Sky Bank holds the mortgage on Centre City Tower, is one of the largest tenants in the building, has a giant Sky Bank sign on the side of the building, and loaned the owner of the PF Enterprises money around the same time they the company was brought in as the new contractor. For these reasons activists feel Sky bears much of the moral responsibility for what happened and has demanded the company speak out and take action to address the injustice.

Wrapup

For more on all of our local news stories, visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G. We're going to take a short break and then return with global news headlines.

[ Musical Break? ]

Global News

Intro

That was .... Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news that the corporate media overlook. We turn now to global stories.

Recount Assured in Ohio

A recount of the November 2nd election results in every county in Ohio will take place, thanks to the presidential campaigns of Green Party canidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik, although it is not certain that it will be completed in time. From thousands of individual contributions they have jointly raised a total of more than 250 thousand dollars for the recount. The presidential campaign of John Kerry has not contributed any money to the event, despite having a reserve of 10 million dollars in campaign funds that was allocated for any necessary post-election legal issues.

113 thousand dollars of the Cobb/Badnarik funds will go directly to Ohio to pay for the recount, while the rest is being used to organize volunteers from all over the country who continue to sign up every day to help the recount effort.

Bush's honorary campaign co-chair in Ohio and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has said that election results will be certified on or about December 6th, only one week before the electoral college meets and finalizes the vote for President. Under Ohio law, a recount can only take place after the election results are finalized. The David Cobb campaign challenged those rules, asking the Ohio courts to make provisions for the recount to begin early in order to finish before the December 13 deadline, but in a decision last week that request was denied.

In a rally on Sunday in Ohio, the Reverend Jesse Jackson called on the Ohio Supreme Court to set aside the results of the November 2nd election, and said that Congress should investigate the evidence of widespread voting problems.

To follow up on a story we covered two weeks ago, new problems have continued to be discovered in Ohio, including turnout exceeding 100 percent in some counties. That figure, widely circulated on the Internet, turned out to be a glitch, according to Jane Platten, administrator for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Platten was quoted in the Akron, Ohio Beacon Journal as saying that the unusual totals were caused by a software bug that caused some absentee ballots to be added to the wrong precinct's total for turnout -- the bug did not affect the counting of the number of votes allocated to each candidate.

In Franklin County where the Ohio State Capitol is located, a document request has revealed that more than 68 voting machines that could have been used to compensate for the high but expected voter turnout were not used. In some heavily Democratic precincts, lines exceeded 10 hours, while Democratic Party partisans allege that there were more polling places and fewer lines in heavily Republican areas of the county.

Meanwhile, the massive freedom of information request by the group "Black Box Voting" that we reported on our last show continues. The group has made a request for the electronic voting machine records in 3,000 counties across the country, saying that electronic voting machines security is inadequate and questions remain about their accuracy. Several Florida counties have yet to comply with the FOIA request in the time required by Florida's extensive Freedom of Information laws.

A protest for electoral reform is set for this weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The protest will take place on Saturday, December 4th, at Ohio Statehouse Broad and High Streets, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, and is organized by the Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections. You can find out more about that event on the Pittsburgh Indymedia calendar.

Alabama Recount on Segregationist Amendment

Alabama officials are engaged in a mandatory recount of the vote for an amendment that seeks to eliminate language from the state constitution mandating schools for “whites and colored children.” On November 2nd the amendment was defeated but the vote was so close that an automatic recount was required. Some analysts say the likely defeat would occur because another provision of the amendment would do away with the guarantee for a right to a public education – leading opponents of the measure to characterize it is as a guarantee to raise taxes.

Ukraine Election Turmoil

The outcome of the Ukrainian elections last week are still up in the air, after widespread report of voter fraud. Yesterday outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have grudgingly decided they will not rule out the idea of a new election, in the face of widespread reports of voter fraud. Free Speech Radio News brings you this report, first aired on November 24th, just after the election ended.

[ ukraine_elections.ogg: Ukraine Elections - 4:30 ]

School of the Americas Protest

More than 16,000 protestors stood vigil outside Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia last week to protest the School of the Americas. The event was part of a three day protest of the school, since re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC, and marks the 14th such protest since 1990.

According to the organization SOA watch, (quote) "hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by graduates of the SOA" (end quote), including the brutal 1989 murder of 6 Jesuit priests in El Salvador which sparked the first mass vigil the following November.

Established in 1946 in Panama, the SOA was kicked out in 1984 under terms of the Panama Canal Treaty, only to be moved to its present location, 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Each year, the SOA trains between 700 to 2000 soldiers from Latin America and the Caribbean, in war tactics such as counterinsurgency operations, psychological operations, sniper fire and military intelligence. The SOA does not screen its applicants, allowing known human rights abusers to attend.

In a statement read aloud to the crowd, Senora Dianna Ortiz recalled that this month is the 15th year anniversary of her own abduction and torture in Guatemala by a SOA graduate. One of the offenders was found guilty of her torture but was honored by the SOA, she said.

At least 20 people were arrested during the protests in acts of non-violent civil disobedience. Since 1990 more than 170 protestors have willingly faced arrest to oppose the policies of the school and its violent graduates, some arrestees facing prison terms of up to 2 years for symbolically crossing the fence that demarcates the borders of the fort.

Protestors drew links between the past and present history of SOA graduates and the torture conducted by the US government around the world today, including the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Pittsburgh's chapter of School of America Watch bussed in 66 people from the region. This year marks the sixth visit for local organizer Edith Wilson, who attended the SOA protest with her two daughters.

Edith said of the annual SOA protests that (quote) "it's unlike any demonstration I've been to because of its spiritual component. The SOA is powerful symbol of our violent foreign policy." (end quote)

Edith also noted that this year's protest featured a colorful puppet pagentry headed by the world's largest puppet designed to represent a mother in mourning. The puppet was left behind for the authorities to ponder.

NYC Critical Mass

This past friday, in addition to being declared Buy Nothing Day in opposition to consumerist gluttony, was also the date of the monthly Critical Mass bike ride held on the last friday of every Month. Last month Rustbelt Radio reported on the struggle for the rights of bicyclists in New York City since the Critical Mass in August of this year was assaulted by police before the Republican Convention. Over 250 out of some 5000 riders were arrested by the NYPD. Since then, the city of New York has tried to suppress the ride each month. In September, the NYPD seized parked bikes by cutting their locks, a move which was later declared illegal in court. In October, the city tried to get an injunction against the critical mass ride but the injunction was denied by a Federal Judge. Police made arrests anyway.

Despite these problems, the Critical Mass ride has continued in New York each month as it has for many years. On the November ride in New York on Friday November 26th, around 500 riders were met with the most overwhelming show of police force yet. The NYPD surrounded Union Square with over 50 police vans, 40 scooters, 600 police on bicycles, dozens of police cars, 20 flatbed trucks, 7 mobile police station and camera vans, and two helicopters. Loudspeakers greeted cyclists at Union Square, warning them that any who choose to ride would be arrested -- despite a Federal court ruling allowing Critical Mass to go ahead. Police also deployed orange nets to surround the square and block the bike ride. Many riders were arrested, while many others left on foot and reconvened in Washington Square Park for another ride.

And now, the City of New York's assault on bicycle riders is going beyond Critical Mass. New York City Councilmember Madeline Provenzano has introduced an anti-cycling bill before the council, which if passed would require every bicycling New Yorker over sixteen years old to obtain bicycle license tags from the NYC Department of Transportation. The bill stipulates that those who do not display such tags on their bicycles would be subject to up to 15 days imprisonment in addition to hefty fines and bicycle confiscation. A massive campiagn is underway to oppose the bill and defend the rights of bicycle riders.

Critical Mass rides take place monthly in cities around the world, including Pittsburgh. It is held on the last Friday of every month, at 5:30pm in Oakland, by the Dinosaur at the Carnegie Library.

Plan Colombia [ 4 minutes ]

President Bush was in Colombia last week to discuss the 3.3 billion dollar, five-year military aid package called Plan Colombia, which is set to expire next year. Plan Colombia was established during the last years of the Clinton administration as part of an effort to escalate the so-called "War on Drugs." He met with Colombian president Alvaro Uribe in the coastal city of Cartagena to go over the plan just days after a stop in Chile for the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in the capital of that country, Santiago.

Colombian President Uribe has long been tied to right-wing paramilitary groups, which together with the regular Colombian military have waged a bloody campaign against the left-wing revolutionary FARC guerillas, largely with US taxpayer funding.

The Plan also funds large-scale chemical spraying campaigns in an attempt to wipe out crops of Coca, the plant that the narcotic cocaine is extracted from. Those spraying campaigns have devastated the crops of rural farmers. The parallel "Patriot Plan," consisting of a massive offensive against FARC guerillas in the southern region of the country, has greatly escalated the 40-year conflict.

Despite the failures of the plan to stop the flow of drugs or to bring peace to war-torn Colombia, the Bush administration has asked to double the cap on US troops and contractors. Today more than 90 percent of cocaine that ends up in the US originates in Colombia.

Kimberly Stanton, deputy director of The Washington Office on Latin America, said:

(QUOTE) "Plan Colombia has not proven effective in combating drugs, strengthening democracy or restoring rule of law. The Patriot Plan offensive against the FARC has not destroyed the guerrillas' command structure, but has increased the humanitarian crisis in the southwest." (END QUOTE)

Despite a climate the supresses dissent, hundreds of Colombians turned out in Cartagena to protest Bush, and in other cities students from all across the country held similar demonstrations. In the Colombian capital of Bogota, the main traffic artery was shut down for half an hour due to protests, and police fired tear gas at anti-Bush university students in the cities of Cali and Medellín.

Bush also protested in Canada

Thousands clashed with heavily-armed riot police today in the streets of Ottawa while protesting Bush's visit to Canada's capitol city. Ottowa Indymedia reports that at least 500 activists broke through police barricades near the convention center where Bush was visiting and at least three arrests were made. Ottowa's protest was one of about 25 planned across Canada to draw attention to Bush's policies during his visit.

Alberto Gonzales, replacement for John Ashcroft [ 3 minutes ]

Long-time Bush counsel Alberto Gonzales has been nominated for the job of Attorney General, to replace John Ashcroft. After four years of attacks on civil rights by Ashcroft his resignation was welcomed by activists and civil libertarians around the US. However, his possible replacement, Gonzales, gained infamy in his previous job as White House Counsel when he authored an internal White House memo from Aug. 1, 2002, making the case for the use of torture against 'terrorist' suspects.

Gonzales' ties to Bush date back to Bush's governorship in Texas. In additon to serving as Bush's general counsel, he was a partner in the Houston law firm Vinson and Elkins, which represented Enron. He also received large campaign contributions from Enron and other energy interests close to the Bush fortune when he ran for re-election to the Texas Supreme Court.

Shortly after the nomination, Houston Indymedia spoke to Michael Avery, President of the National Lawyers Guild about the possibility of Alberto Gonzales as US Attorney General.

[ Houston/Avery clip (1:10) nlg-on-gonzales-1.ogg: NLG President comments on Alberto Gonzales ]

The Republican-controlled US Senate will hold hearings to confirm Bush's nomination of Gonzales within the next few months.

Brasil National Telecom Agency occupied in protest for community radio

On the morning of November 26th, approximately 150 people ocuppied the headquarters of Anatel, Brasil's National Telecommunications Agency and the equivalent to the FCC, as a protest against that agency's recent shutdown of community radio broadcasts across the country.

The protestors hung a banner in the headquarters with the message "Freedom for Community Radio," and asked for a hearing with the the regional manager for the telecommunications agency. The protestors demanded an end to the radio shutdowns and the return of seized equipment.

Happy Birthday Indymedia

Five years ago today, the Indymedia network was born.

The very first Independent Media Center was established by independent and alternative media organizations and activists in November 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. It served as clearinghouse of information and provided up-to-the-minute reports, photos, audio and video footage of that historic mobilization through its website.

Its first post read,

[quote] "The resistance is global... a trans-pacific collaboration has brought this web site into existence. The web dramatically alters the balance between multinational and activist media. With just a bit of coding and some cheap equipment, we can setup a live automated website that rivals the corporates. Prepare to be swamped by the tide of activist media makers on the ground in Seattle and around the world, telling the real story behind the World Trade Agreement."

Since that time, Indymedia has grown from a mere idea in the heads of a few enthusiastic innovators to become the nervous system of global resistance to corporate power, social injustice and environmental destruction. Indymedia websites now exist all over the world, in 150 cities and on 6 continents, involving the contributions of thousands of volunteers. It is impossible to tally how many people are involved, as participation runs the gamut from those who work full-time to keep the infrastructure running, to those who post a single story during a specific event.

Indymedia has also evolved beyond the anchoring website. Local collectives are engaged in numerous print, radio, video projects, some of which are uplinked every week via satellite and distributed throughout the United States to public access stations.

Having managed to open up a vital political space, Indymedia enters its fifth year of existence stronger, larger and better than any could have hoped. The Indymedia network has successfully challenged the corporate media's stranglehold of the news, foiled the FBI's attempt to bring down its websites, and defied all manners of state repression everywhere by offering witness to violent attacks on peaceful protesters.

Pittsburgh Indymedia's website went live in September 2002. If you would like to get involved with Pittsburgh Indymedia, consider coming to our next meeting, which is this Saturday, 2pm, at Kiva Han in Oakland.

Wrapup

You can read more about most of our global news stories by visting I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G. We'll be back after a brief break.

[ Musical Break ]

Features

Intro

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

Buy Nothing Day

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, culture jammers around the world challenged capitalism on the busiest shopping day of the year as part of Ad Busters' "Buy Nothing Day." "Buy Nothing Day" is an annual global day of action directed against rank consumerism and the "doomsday economy."

In Portland, activists placed leaflets about sweatshop labor in the pockets of clothing in such stores as The Gap, Sears, Hot Topic, and Old Navy. In New York's Time Square, culture-jammers chanted "Today is a good day not to buy" and four non-shoppers were arrested after they brought their message inside a Starbucks. In Tokyo, activists dressed as "Zenta Claus" and "the consumer monster" stationed themselves outside busy Shinjuku station. Marches and rallies against consumerism were held in several Canadaian cities and in Tel Aviv, Israel. In Lafayette, Louisiana, activists glued the locks on dozens of Lafayette's biggest retailers, forcing hundreds of shoppers to wait in long lines. Individuals took personal steps to challenge the credit-based global economy by cutting up their credit cards.

Member Pacifica station KPFT has this story from Houston.

[ houston buy_nothing_day 4:30 ]

In Pittsburgh, twenty people gathered outside Kaufmann's department store Downtown to say "no to consumer spending and to the war." Wearing large pink price tags that read, "women don't buy the war," activists handed out flyers and grabbed the attention of shoppers. Rustbelt radio was there to record the protest, which was organized by CodePink? Pittsburgh. When we asked what the action was about we were told by Mary Ruth All that:

[Mary Ruth All clip] ;25

We then spoke with Celeste Taylor about the conditions in which Iraqi citizens are living at this moment and how easy it is for Americans to not consider this harsh reality and instead focus on holiday shopping:

[Celeste Taylor clip]:53

Protesters also spoke of the connections between rampant consumerism and war. We recorded a radical cheer about this issue and also spoke with Edith Wilson about the links between capitalism and war.

[codepinkbuy nothing 3:20

[ andalusia audio clips ]

Food & Trade Policy Issues in the Developing World

Last Thursday was the annual celebration of "Thanksgiving" in the United States.

First declared a holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, today Thanksgiving here is most strongly associated with the consumption of food and the beginning of the heaviest season of consumer consumption: the month before the Christmas holiday.

The United States and Canada are the only countries in the Western Hemisphere that celebrate this holiday. Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, which in the US is either celebrated as Columbus Day or protested as Indegenous Peoples Day.

Access to abundant food and even more abundant consumer goods may be taken for granted by many (but not all) in the United States, but this is not the case in most of the world. Often calling these places the "Developing World", "third world" or "global south", North Americans are usually aware that starvation and poverty are widespread for the majority of the planet.

More than one third of the hungry people in the world live in India. Three days before Thanksgiving day here in Pittsburgh, Dr. Devinder Sharma spoke about food and trade policy before the Association for Indian Development (or AID) at CMU.

Dr. Sharma is a former Agricultural Scientist and journalist from New Delhi, India. Today he is a food and trade policy analyst and has spoken extensively in India and in the US. He has also addressed six European Parliaments in the past nine months, on the issues of food, agriculture, genetic engineering, the WTO and food security.

Of six billion humans living on Earth, 840 million, or 15 percent, go to bed hungry. Dr. Sharma spoke about the misconception that in order to address hunger, agricultural output must increase. He used India as an example, a country with a large hungry population as well as a large grain surplus.

[ 1st Sharma clip -- (7:17) ]

Dr. Sharma also spoke about the World Trade Organization, or WTO, which formed 10 years ago and has pushed for many changes in trade and agriculture policy. The WTO claims that it supports a market system of free trade that would benefit developing countries, but Sharma spoke about the contradiction of the WTO's demands when it comes to agriculture subsidies by rich countries.

[ 2nd Sharma clip -- 2-sharma-subsidies.ogg: part two of sharma lecture -- subsidies and the WTO ]

That was Dr. Devinder Sharma, speaking on food and trade issues in India last week. India is not the only country whose farmers are facing a serious crisis. In the 10 years since NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement took affect, large numbers of corn farmers in Mexico have been forced from their farms due to competition with the heavily subsidized multinational Agribusiness corporations. This year the governments in five other Central American nations and the Dominican Republic have signed a Free Trade Agreement with the United States called CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The US Congress is expected to vote on this agreement in its next session in early 2005. Many farmers in the US and in Central America have opposed the agreement.

And while CAFTA may be signed soon, yet another bilateral trade agreement is being negotiated between the US and the Andean nations of Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador called AFTA, the Andean Free Trade Agreement. Trade ministers will meet with the US Trade Representative this week in Tuscon, Arizona to negotiate the deal. At the same time an international group of protesters will meet outside the meetings in Tuscon to bring attention to the massive crisis in human rights and the environment in the Andean region that will not be addressed by the free trade agreement.

As people in the US move from their Thanksgiving holiday to the winter holiday season, the fate of food soverignty for the rest of the world hangs in the balance. Thanks to Dr. Devinder Sharma and the AID, the Association for Indian Development, for sharing their lecture on food policy last week with Rustbelt Radio.

We'll be back with the calendar of events after this short Indian musical break.

[ Musical Break - Vande Mataram ]

Ending

That was Vande Mataram, originally written in 1876 as a national cry for freedom from the British in India.

Calendar of events

• Tonight, November 30th: The Corporation, a documentary on the corporation and its rise to legal status and societal dominance. at 7 and 10 PM tonight, McConomy? Auditorium on the CMU Campus. Open to the public.
• Wednesday December 1st: screening of "Indepenent Media in a Time of War" a 30-minute documentary featuring Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and produced by the Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center. The film will be shown Wednesday December 1st at 7pm in Cafe Bliss in Point Breeze, 7332 Penn Avenue. (This is near the intersection of Penn and Braddock.)
• Wednesday December 1st: Pitt's Students in Solidarity campaign for the Workers' Rights Consortium will hold a No Sweat Fashion Show, at the University of Pittsburgh Enginnering Auditorium at 8:30pm, on the corner of Thackeray and O'Hara streets.
• Friday, December 3rd at noon at the Sky Bank on Pittsburgh's North Side, at the intersection of East Ohio and Middle Streets. Protest for healthcare and workers rights, and against Sky Bank's treatment of janitors at Centre City Towers.
• Saturday, December 4th at 9:30 AM. The Underground Action Alliance is holding a student rights workshop on the Carnegie Mellon University Campus's Peter/McKenna Room. Admission is free and includes lunch. Spots are still available. Register online at underground action alliance -- all one word -- dot org.
• Later on Saturday, at 2 PM, at the Kiva Han at the intersection of Forbes and Craig in Oakland. Pittsburgh Indymedia is holding its monthly general body meeting. Newcomers are welcome.

Outro

[ Cue Outro music ]

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 RADIO at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot O-R-G. All of our shows are available for download on the internet at RADIO dot INDY-P-G-H dot ORG

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.