Intro
Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of the news from the grassroots, news overlooked by the corporate media.
On today's show...
- We'll hear excerpts from the May Day speak-out for immigrants rights in Pittsburgh
- We'll have a report on police repression and violence in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico
- Also, an exhibit of Palestinian Childrens artwork at Brandeis University was taken down by the school - Rustbelt Radio speaks to the Israeli Student who curated the exhibit
- plus news on the Robinson Township power plant, the Pittsburgh-born nominee for the job of CIA chief, the anniversary of the Kent State shooting, and more!
Rustbelt Radio airs live every Monday from 6-7pm on WRCT 88.3FM in Pittsburgh, PA, every Thursday from 11am to noon on WARC-Meadville from the campus of Allegheny College, and every Saturday from 5-6pm on WVJW Benwood, 94.1 FM in the Wheeling, West Virginia area. And we're now on WPTS 92.1FM from the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, also Saturdays at 5pm.
We're also available on the internet, both on WRCT's live webstream at W-R-C-T dot ORG and for download, stream or podcast at radio dot I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot org.
We turn now to local headlines.
Headlines
Local News
[0:20] TMC Update
Pittsburgh’s peace and justice center, the Thomas Merton Center, announced last week that there will be a reorganization of staff positions and Executive Director Jim Kleissler’s term will end May 31st. The center will no longer have an executive director and instead function through decentralized leadership. Kleissler replaced Tim Vining as the center's executive director last August. Prior to Vining's term the organization functioned without an executive director.
[1:00] Breastfeeding Awards
The Allegheny County Health Department has started accepting nominations for the 11th annual Breastfeeding Friendly Place Awards.
The awards are presented to workplaces, public places, and any sites away from home that make an extra effort to accommodate the special needs of breastfeeding mothers by offering a positive attitude and supportive environment.
Public places like restaurants, malls, libraries, theaters, parks, places of worship, and sports and entertainment attractions can support breastfeeding by providing an attractive, clean, private area and comfortable seating for mothers to use when nursing a child, and by displaying a sign to welcome breastfeeding mothers and let them know special accommodations are available.
To nominate an employer, public place or any other site outside the home for this year’s awards, you can call the Allegheny County Health Department at 412-687-ACHD or visit www.achd.net.
[2:00] CIA Shake-up, local boy "makes good"
CIA director Porter Goss resigned last week after heading the agency for less then two years. George Bush has nominated Pittsburgh native Michael Hayden to replace Goss as CIA chief.
Goss has not spoken publicly about why he resigned. He was the commencement speaker in Toledo, OH last weekend where he said "If this were a graduating class of CIA case officers, my advice would be short and to the point: Admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter-accusations." Webloggers have made much ado about Goss’s connections to former Republican congressman Randy Duke Cunningham, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption. However, other observers suggest that Goss left due to conflicts with John Negroponte, who, as the director of national intelligence, now oversees the work of the CIA.
The nominee to take over Goss's job is Air Force General Michael Hayden, who is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of Duquesne University. He is currently the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the U.S. armed forces. But his military ties have led many politicians to believe he is not suited for the job. Republican Peter Hoekstra is chairman of the house intelligence committee. He spoke about Hayden's nomination on FOX News Sunday.
Michael Hayden was the director of the NSA when that agency began illegally wiretapping US Citizens.
[2:00] Robinson Township power plant
The local planning commission in Robinson Township, Washington County will soon make a decision about whether to approve plans to build a waste-coal fired power plant on the site of the Beech Hollow coal waste dump.
Robinson Power Co., owned by the Ray Bologna Sr. family, proposes to build a 272-net-megawatt electrical power generator, fueled by waste coal, along with facilities for power transmission, coal mining and fly ash disposal. The facility would occupy 770 acres.
The land, owned by the Bolognas' Champion Processing Inc., holds about 38 million tons of waste coal, left from former coal processing, which would be burned on-site to generate electricity. Mr. Bologna hoped the plant would begin operating in 2010, and he anticipated developing some of the land as Robinson Commerce Park eight or nine years later.
The planning commission held the first of three public meetings about the project last Thursday, with about 150 people in attendance. Supporters see the project as an economic opportunity that will also clean up the coal refuse; opponents say the project will not solve the coal refuse problem, it will only further disperse the pollution into air and groundwater, and fear the health effects on their communities.
Cathy Donne of Oakdale said (quote) This decision is not just about jobs, it's about health first. (endquote).
Lawyer Donald Graham, special council to the township, said that after considering community input, the planning commission has to advise the township supervisors whether to deny or approve, either with or without conditions, Robinson Power's land development proposal and application for a conditional use permit.
The township supervisors plan a series of public hearings in June and July, and the planning commission will likely make their recommendation to the supervisors prior to those hearings.
Luke Darragh, vice chairman of the planning commission, said Robinson Power's applications lacked key documents, including a site plan, and called on the company to submit additional information. He said he was (quote) a little dumbfounded as to the inadequacy (endquote).
The next two public meetings on the Beech Hollow Energy Project will be held this Thursday May 11, and on May 17, both at 7 pm in the Fort Cherry High School auditorium.
[1:30] Kent State University commemorates slaying of anti-war protesters
On May 4th, 1970, On May 4, 2006, Kent State students led a commemoration ceremony and march for the four Kent State Univeristy students were gunned down by National Guardsmen at an anti-war demonstration on campus 36 years earlier.
Thanks to Vince Eirene for that excerpt.
Following the rally, about 200 marched to Kent State's ROTC building and then took over the streets for an unpermitted march that snaked its way off campus to Downtown Kent.
[0:30] August 20th arrestees...
Today the trial started for two activists who were tasered and arrested at a counter-recruitment demonstration on August 20th. Both pled guilty to a summary offense of disorderly conduct and were sentenced to time served and no fines.
The trial for a third August 20th arrestee resumes tomorrow. Later this month a fourth arrestee, a woman who was bitten by a police dog, will face a hearing about her charges. The DA had dropped the charges two months ago but re-instated them shortly after the woman filed a lawsuit agains the Pittsburgh Police.
Two other individuals who were arrested on August 20th accepted a plea bargain and paid fines late last year.
Wrapup
For more on local news, you can visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot org.
[ HMB BREAK ]
Global News
Intro
You are listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news overlooked by the corporate media. We turn now to news from other independent media sources around the world.
[1:30] Is ecosabotage terrorism? Then see the new movie Hoot.
Following the recent green-scare arrests, the Seattle Times has been considering the question, is ecosabotage terrorism?
When classifying violence abroad, the State Department says terrorism is defined by "premeditated politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatants". However, other federal laws define domestic terrorism as acts of violence intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population." But these definitions are not absolute. The Seattle-Times reports that the vast majority of attacks on abortion clinics are not classified by the FBI as terrorism, even though such attacks have killed at least six people since 1993. On the other hand, arson attacks in the name of ELF and ALF are often called ecoterrorism even though they have never injured any humans and have only harmed property.
Public opinion reported by the Seattle Times seems to favor the State Department’s definition, that terrorism must hurt people. This is also the view that a U.S. District Court Judge took in 2002, when he told a federal prosecutor not to use the word "terrorist" in the trial of an Oregon man who accused of setting fire to three logging trucks.
Meanwhile, a new movie, “Hoot”, which favorably depicts the struggle of three teenagers to save endangered owls from land developers, has opened in theaters across the country.
[2:00] SPLC vs KKK
The leader of what was once the nation's most aggressive Ku Klux Klan group has lost a six-year legal battle, and has had to to sell his home and give the proceeds to two journalists he held at gunpoint.
Journalists George Sells IV and Heidi Thiel were reporting on Klan activity in 1999 when they visited Klan Leader Jeff Berry's home in Indiana to interview him about an upcoming rally. Berry became enraged during the interview, and several followers forcibly detained the journalists and brandished a shotgun until they surrendered their videotapes.
The Southern Poverty Legal Center took up the case and their lawyers won a 120 thousand dollar judgment in the lawsuit, which showed that Berry falsely imprisoned and threatened the two journalists. Berry served time in an Indiana prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon. Three other charges were dropped in a plea agreement.
The Southern Poverty Legal Center pursued all avenues for collecting the judgment to ensure Berry would feel its full sting.
Center lawyers ultimately prevailed. In early April, the house was sold, and the Center's clients received 13 thousand dollars from the sale.
Heidi Thiel said [quote] “It definitely wasn't about the money. For me, it looked like he was going to get away with using a weapon to hold us hostage. To let him go unpunished did not make sense.”
[1:30] ACLU finds more evidence of FBI spying on peace groups
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia released additional evidence that the FBI is using counterterrorism resources to spy on peaceful faith-based and conscience-based advocacy groups. This time, it was School of the Americas Watch and its faith-based network that was subjected to FBI surveillance.
School of the Americas Watch was founded in 1990, and gathers yearly at Fort Benning, Georgia, to remember the people killed by graduates of the School of the Americas. Each year this soldier training program, which has been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America, and is funded entirely by U.S. taxpayers. SOA Watch sponsors an annual vigil to call for the closure of the facility. Last year 19,000 people from around the country poured into Georgia to take part in the demonstration.
The documents released today show that FBI surveillance of these peaceful protests and acts of civil disobedience outside Fort Benning were classified as Routine before 2001, but then became classified as Priority protests and were subject to counterterrorism monitoring. One memo dated from October 2003 explicitly states that "The leaders of the SOA Watch have taken strides to impart upon the protest participants that the protest should be a peaceful event."
This follows the revelation in March that Pittsburgh’s Thomas Merton Center has also been the subject of FBI surveillance, even though the FBI identified the the Merton Center as a pacifist organization.
[5:45] Brandeis Censorship
An exhibit of Palestinian Children’s artwork was censored last week at Brandeis University. The exhibit was curated by an Israeli Student Lior Halperin for her final project for a class at Brandeis called ''The Arts of Building Peace”. After students expressed their disdain for the exhibit Brandeis officials took the artwork down. Rustbelt Radio interviewed Lior Halperin about this art show.
That was just Lior Halperin speaking about the censorship of a Palestinian Children’s art exhibit at Brandeis University. The exhibit is now currently on display at MIT.
[1:30] Black Panther case
On Tuesday, May 2, an amended lawsuit was filed on behalf of Ed Poindexter in the Douglas County District Court. Poindexter is a former Black Panther who is currently serving a life sentence for the 1970 murder of a police officer in Omaha, Nebraska.
In May of 1971, a Douglas County jury convicted Poindexter and David Rice who is now known as Mondo,for the death of police officer Larry Minard. Minard died when he responded to a 911 call at a house where a bomb had been set. Some observers believe that a teenager named Duane Peak placed the bomb and made the 911 call and then blamed Poindexter and Rice for the murder.
But just this April, a voice analyst compared the voice of Duane Peak with the voice of the 911 caller from 1971 and concluded that the voice on the 911 tape was not the voice of Duane Peak. Supporters of Mondo and Poindexter have long claimed the voice on the 911 tape was that of an adult man, not a teenager. Supporters also believe that Pointdexter and Rice were set up in a Cointelpro-like climate when there was strong government repression of Black Radicals.
[2:10] Miami Janitors Win
After a two-month long strike and 11 days into a hunger strike, Janitors at the University of Miami have reached an agreement with UNICCO Services Company, their employer, and will return to work Wednesday. When the strike began, the janitors were earning a minimum of $6.40 an hour. A month ago, UNICCO agreed to raise wages to at least $8.55 an hour and provide workers with health insurance, after University President Donna Shalala created a commission that called for those changes. However, workers remained on strike over the issue of the union election process. The Service Employees International Union wanted UNICCO to agree to recognize the union if a majority of workers signed pledge cards supporting the union, while UNICCO had been holding out for a tradition National Labor Relations Board election. In the new agreement, UNICCO will recognize the union if 60% of the workers sign pledge cards by August 1st.
SEIU says pledge cards are a fairer way to unionize workers than an NLRB election because companies often fire or intimidate union supporters during an election. SEIU and workers charge that UNICCO had already engaged in illegal harassment and retaliation against workers who have been active in the union organization campaign.
In addition to the two-month strike, the union campaign included student protests and visits by civil rights leaders, former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, and Teamsters president James Hoffa. The campaign brought national attention to the contrast between the wealth of the University—and the personal wealth of its President Donna Shalala, who lives in a mansion with servants to make her bed—versus the poverty of the janitors, who lived on 50 dollars a day with no health insurance. SEIU campaigned for the university to set fair standards for the treatment of its workers that would apply to all subcontracting companies, not just UNICCO. Harvard University enacted such a policy after a similar labor struggle. However, the University of Miami asserts that it has (quote) “maintained a neutral stance” in the union struggle.
SEIU president Andy Stern said (quote) This would not be possible without the incredible support of the faith-based community, the students, and the faculty at UM. This is a victory for Miami, and an important first step to ensure that work pays in South Florida. (endquote)
[1:00] Growing Ethnic Violence in Russia
According to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, a startling number of Russians have been the victims of nationalist hate crimes since 2005, a trend which is reflective of the growing movement to rid the country of ‘non Russians’. Galina Kozhevnikova [koz-hev-nee-ko-va], the deputy head of the public opinion center Sova, reported that this year alone her group has registered more than 100 attacks motivated by ethnic hatred. In Moscow and St. Petersburg alone, eleven people have been killed in the last four months and another forty-two have been critically injured.
It is estimated that more than 50,000 skinheads patrol the streets of Russia’s major cities. Most experts have linked this troubling increase in hate crimes to Russia’s lost generation, those young men and women who grew up during the turbulent transition of the 1990s and who have since been recruited by nationalist groups and blame the country’s misfortunes on immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
[5:00] Damu Smith passes away
Damu Smith, a life long social justice activist, passed away on May 5, 2006. Damu was a founder of Black Voices for Peace, a group dedicated to mobilizing the Black community with people of goodwill of all races and nationalities to protest US military aggression in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, and to lobby for redirecting the billions of dollars the Bush administration is spending on global U.S. military operations and support of the Israeli government�s occupation of Palestinian land to funding for universal healthcare and access, for education, jobs, housing, environmental protection, equal justice, reparations and other critical human needs.�
Black Voices for Peace was Damu’s culminating project in a life spent dedicated to advancing numerous causes for justice and human rights. According to the Washington Post, Damu �came to Washington from St. Louis [his hometown] in 1974, arriving on a Greyhound bus with $100 in his pocket and a commitment to justice and mercy in his heart.� In the ensuing years, Damu became a pillar of the anti-Apartheid movement, a trailblazer in raising awareness of environmental racism, and a tireless campaigner for nuclear disarmament. We will hear a speech Damu gave at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington, DC, the day after George Bush’s inauragation in January 2005.
That was Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace speaking in DC the day after Bush’s inauguration.
Wrapup
You can read more independent global news stories by visting indymedia: I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot O-R-G.
[1:30] Bad Cop No Donut
This week on Bad Cop No Donut we hear about a Philadelphia officer sentenced for shooting his ex-wife's boyfriend and police officers in Reading Pennsylvania using a taser on a man in diabetic shock.
Features
Intro
That was Bad Cop No Donut.
Welcome back to Rust Belt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
[7:00] ATENCO
(wait for protest intro to end- fade down last second of it)
This past week in a town outside of Mexico City, a confrontation between
local authorities and flower vendors escalated into a full scale riot and
police invasion of the town of San Salvador Atenco. The results of this
confrontation are hundreds of wounded, arrested, and detained citizens and
at least one dead.
San Salvador Atenco has a history of confrontation with police and the
government. Four years ago, Atenco was the proposed site of a new airport.
Forming the group Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra, or FPDT,
the people were able to defend their land from being sold. They evicted
all municipal authorities and police, and declared the town an autonomous
zone until August of 2003.
Recently in Texcoco, a town bordering Atenco, there has been conflict
between flower vendors coming from Atenco and the Texcoco authorities who
will not provide them with vendor permits.
In response to not being allowed to sell their products, people from
Atenco blocked the Texcoco-Lecheria highway last Wednesday morning. Five
hundred police officers were sent in to clear the highway. This errupted
into a riot with the Atencans battling the police.
Violence was extreme on both sides and 12 police officers were taken
hostage by the Atencans. During the fighting, a 14 year old boy, Javier
Cortes Santiago, was killed. News reports on Thursday stated a tear gas
canister used by police hit him in the head causing his death. Later on
Saturday, the truth came out that it was actually a 38 caliber bullet that
caused his death. This type of bullet is used by state police, yet all
police from the municipal to federal level deny responsibility for his
death.
At 5:30 am on Thursday morning, 3000 police officers, including local,
municipal, state and federal officers dressed in riot gear were sent in to
regain control of the town. After surrounding the town, the police moved
in to arrest and detain hundreds of people. Those arrested were brutally
beaten. The police also committed dozens of house raids to free the police
hostages and locate the leaders of the FPDT.
Pictures in Mexican newspapers show that the homes were turned upsidedown,
with personal items thrown everywhere and furniture broken. There are also
reports that the police stole cell phones and money during these raids.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, the police detained 218 individuals. By
Friday, Radio Insurgente, the EZLN’s radio station, reported 275
individuals were either detained, disappeared, wounded, or hospitalized. A
resident of Atenco describes what it was like on Thursday during the
police invasion:
While the first confrontation with police was occuring on Wednesday,
Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas was speaking to thousands in Mexico
City as part of his national tour. Upon receiving word of the events in
Atenco, Marcos informed thousands of the police repression. He called a
suspension to the Other Campaign, and a Red Alert was issued by the EZLN
throughout the Zapatista communities in Chiapas.
By Thursday, all foreign volunteers and observers had to leave Zapatista
communities. The five Zapatista caracols (Kara- coals), or centers of
government are also closed until further notice.
During his speech Marcos urged supporters to march to Atenco in
solidarity. On Friday, a march from Mexico City to Atenco had 4,000
participants. Marcos states he and others will remain in Atenco until the
detainees are released from prison.
Solidarity actions have been planned for this week including street
blockades, information distribution, and economic support of the flower
vendors. Actions have also been held in other parts of Mexico and also in the US,
Canada, and Europe.
Subcomandante Marcos has also provided criticism of the mainstream media,
who only depict the violence of the Atencans and not the police.
Media sources and the government officials are currently trying to
dismiss Atenco as a small violent minority [quote] "who resort to violence under
any pretext." However, there is much outcry throughout Mexico regarding
the excessive use of force by the police and the reports of torture and
rape of detainees.
[11:30] May Day Immigrants' Rights Protests in Pittsburgh
Last Monday, the recently formed group Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants held a march downtown in support of immigrants' rights, amnesty for all undocumented workers, a fairer path to legal immigration, and an end to the rising detentions and deportations of immigrants.
Rustbelt Radio was on hand to catch some of the voices of the speakout, which concluded the march downtown.
[ Break? ]
You're listening to Rust Belt Radio.
[3:32] Promethus Project
(http://media.prometheusradio.org/audio/WKUF-LP_jack_frost_april_2006.mp3)
Ending
[m:ss] Calendar of events
And now we present the Indymedia calendar of events:
On Tuesday May 9: A Latin American Political Film Series screening of “The Blonds/ Los Rubios”, a film about the families of the desaparecidos in Argentina, 7 PM at the Thomas Merton Center
On Wednesday May 10, a book discussion on “Poetry and Protest” by Dennis Brutus, 7 PM at the Thomas Merton Center.
On Thursday May 11, a film screening and discussion of the Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 7 PM at the William Pitt Union Kurtzman Room, the University of Pittsburgh
On Thursday May 11 the second of three public meetings on the Beech Hollow Energy Project will be held at 7 pm in the Fort Cherry High School auditorium, Robinson Township, Washington County.
On Sunday May 14, a screening of “The Battle of Algiers” sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility and Pittsburgh Filmmakers Visions of War film festival, 7:30 PM at Regent Square Theater, 1035 South Braddock Avenue.
On Sunday May 14, Code Pink Declare Peace for Mother’s Day at 8 PM at Regent Square, corner of Forbes and Braddock.
From May 12-20, The Silkscreen Asian American Film Festival is happening in Pittsburgh . For details see www.silkscreenfestival.com
Outro
[ Outro music ]
Thanks for tuning in to Rust Belt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WARC Meadville, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
Our hosts this week are Jessica McPherson and Sara Valenzuela with contributions from Diane Amdor, Carlin Christy, Geoffrey Frost, Vani Natarajan, David Meieran, Andalusia Knoll and Abie Flaxman. This week's show was produced by Donald Deeley and Andalusia Knoll. Special thanks to all of our hosts, producers, and contributors.
You can get involved with Rustbelt Radio! To contact us, or to send us your comments, email RADIO at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot ORG. All of our shows are available for download or podcast on our website at RADIO dot INDY-P-G-H dot ORG and this show can be heard again Tuesday morning on WRCT at 9 AM after Democracy Now!
Tune in next week at this time for another edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
MP3 at 25.5 mebibytes
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