PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Pittsburgh Organizing Group Shuts Down Recruitment Center
by Pittsburgh Organizing Group Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 at 2:20 AM

Pittsburgh Organizing Group successfully disrupted the military recruitment machine in Pittsburgh yet again. The recruitment center shut down for the entire day. Shortly before 11am, having already accomplished their major goal, 40 protesters gathered outside for a two hour picket designed to keep anti-war resistance front and center in the public eye. Signs such as, “There’s Dead, and Then There’s ARMY DEAD,” “Honk for Peace,” “Recruiters Are Child Predators,” “Those Who Call the Shots Aren’t Among the Shot,” “Let the Rich Fight Their Own Wars,” and “Resist, Don’t Enlist” resulted in a plethora of horn honks and supportive gestures from passing drivers.

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Pittsburgh Organizing Group successfully disrupted the military recruitment machine in Pittsburgh yet again. The recruitment center shut down for the entire day. Shortly before 11am, having already accomplished their major goal, 40 protesters gathered outside for a two hour picket designed to keep anti-war resistance front and center in the public eye. Signs such as, “There’s Dead, and Then There’s ARMY DEAD,” “Honk for Peace,” “Recruiters Are Child Predators,” “Those Who Call the Shots Aren’t Among the Shot,” “Let the Rich Fight Their Own Wars,” and “Resist, Don’t Enlist” resulted in a plethora of horn honks and supportive gestures from passing drivers.



One difference about this picket, as compared to past ones, was the call for people to bring whipped cream pies (because recruiters should be afraid to show their faces). A number of individuals, young and old, responded to the call and showed up, pie in hand.



During this 50th action of POG’s campaign, the recruitment center door was pied and spray-painted with the all-too-true slogan “we lie.” One protester was arrested away from the event, supposedly for the painting of the door. We are following the case and will do whatever possible to help with fines or legal support. The truth is, this is a broad-based, long-term campaign to oppose recruitment in the city and arrests are inevitable. Besides donating for legal support, committing to take personal action against militarism is the best way to honor and support those putting themselves on the line.



Yet again, the police choose to use homophobic comments; a car of four cops repeatedly drove by protesters calling them “faggots.” The Lieutenant on the scene also tried to steal and throw out a number of signs and attendees’ personal items because, although they were not blocking the sidewalk, she said anything touching the ground is “abandoned property.” The event wrapped up around 1:30pm. In a separate incident, three cop cars followed a group of five protesters for blocks.



The event was covered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, KDKA Channel 2, Rustbelt TV, and independent media.

We will be back! As long as the structures of militarism and injustice in this country remain intact, people of conscience will be there to oppose them.

At this picket, POG members announced a major action coming up on March 2 in which protesters plan to blockade the National Robotics Engineering Center, a branch of Carnegie Mellon University that develops robotic vehicles and weapons delivery systems for the U.S. Army and Marines. POG members feel that there is a need for actions that are direct and compelling: actions that speak to public refusal of the war – that are demands, not requests – that directly confront militarism itself. If you’re interested in participating or offering support, visit http://www.organizepittsburgh.org/m2 for more information. We’ll also be hosting a weekend-long gathering February 2-4, for out of town activists, to further discuss the action and get to know one another.

In solidarity,

Pittsburgh Organizing Group

http://www.organizepittsburgh.org

pog@mutualaid.org

www.organizepittsburgh.org

Army Dead
by Pittsburgh Organizing Group Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 at 2:20 AM

j13_army_dead.jpg, image/jpeg, 476x682

www.organizepittsburgh.org

Hungry?
by Pittsburgh Organizing Group Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 at 2:20 AM

j13_b.jpg, image/jpeg, 525x700

www.organizepittsburgh.org

We Lie
by Pittsburgh Organizing Group Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 at 2:20 AM

j13_c.jpg, image/jpeg, 549x700

www.organizepittsburgh.org

repost from infoshop.
by === Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 at 8:51 PM

this story is reposted from infoshop. if people are going to repost things they should make clear where the stories are from.

No, Repost from the POG website
by === Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 at 11:20 AM

No, this is a re-post from the POG website. http://www.organizepittsburgh.org.

no it didn't.
by ===== Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 at 11:40 AM

then where did those pictures come from? The only place I see them is infoshop. Since the photographer choose not to publish them on indymedia you should say where they're reposted from if you're going to use them.

It was posted on all three sites, probably by the same person.
by POG member Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 at 5:52 PM

This story isn't from infoshop, but was posted both here and on infoshop. it didn't "come from" there.

===
by different pog member Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 at 6:25 PM

But the photos did. The person who took the photos conciously choose not to post them on indypgh. If you're going to use someones photos from another site at least link to that story and indicate that's where they're from.

intellectual property is neither
by Is the"G" in P-O-G for Getty? Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 at 7:15 PM

Why don't you find out who posted the photos and sue them? That's the professional activist spirit that discourages me (and maybe others) from continuing to work with POG.

no, it's about respect
by === Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 at 11:11 AM

it's about respect. it's not about someone owning photos, it's a respecting people who write articles or take pictures enough to aknowledge where those things come from. All that's required is putting a link to where you copy stuff from.

If not having basic respect for fellow activists or journalists is your thing than by all means go about your business.

Suddenly an issue?
by confused Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 at 2:33 PM

I'm not sure why pog members are publicly bickering over what seemed to be a fairly common practice. I don't know how to resolve this in my own mind and I wasn't sure about emailing pog, since there appears to be some internal controversy.The reposting of media between various anti-authoritarian resources seemed to occur with great frequency, and as far as I'm aware, nobody has raised any objections until now. How is this instance any different?
Is this really pog people, or is trolls, because this doesn't seem like pog stuff?

===
by === Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 at 2:56 PM

I think as a general practice people should always indicate where stories or photos originate. If a report is from a group you should say so, and if photos are from a site that is also useful to state.

There are definetly activists in Pittsburgh who prefer not to use indymedia. I think they would prefer that items posted elsewhere are referenced as such. Perhaps confusion in this instance arose because the person who posted the photos on infoshop combined them with the pog report. In the future it could probably be easily avoided by indicating that.

Nothing Witty in This Title
by C. Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 at 6:01 PM

Dear ====

Didn't anyone tell you that violence againt 1's, 0's and photos isn't violence?

There is no public bickering between POG members
by POG member Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 at 6:49 PM

Because the second "POG member" is probably not one, or they would know that the person who took the pictures and who posted them are one and the same. They aren't infoshop's pictures, they are the photographer's.

Huh?
by Dr. Anarchist Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 at 12:09 AM

what the hell are the above two posters talking about?

Okay
by Dr. Anarchist Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 at 1:42 PM

The two comments I was referring to are gone now.

Doctor, We need to operate!
by C. Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 at 5:15 PM

Hey Doc,
Same thing happened to me on an earlier post. I saw that the comments were a flowin' and when I went to read them, they didn't appear.

What gives?

Hidden
by Dr. Anarchist Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 at 5:48 PM

The comments I was referring to were prolly "hidden" (ie, deleted, but still count towards the comment count) because one was accusing POG of being pro-genocide of the Palestinians and the other seemed to be claiming to be a POG member while being pro-Israel and saying some other stupid shit. I don't know any pro-Israel POG folks, so I'm guessing that might ahve played into it.