PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

As a resource for our movement, we offer a series of trainings for activists and organizers on a handful of tactical and theoretical issues. Some of our workshops focus in on building specific skill sets for actions and campaigns; other workshops focus on strengthening our analysis and critique of the current political framework.  Our approach is one that is suggestive, not dogmatic.  We’re hoping to share some of our experiences and learn from the experience of workshop participants, not provide cookie cutter right-and-wrong formulas for organizing. 

TTI Trainers are members of the Pittsburgh Organizing Group with years of experience community and labor organizing, the global justice movement, the anti-war movement, and the movement for environmental justice. If you or your organization are interested in bringing a team of TTI Trainers to facilitate one or more of the above workshops for your organization, activist community, or for a conference, convergence, or action, contact POG@mutualaid.org. 

Participating in a Mass Action: 101

This workshop geared towards activists preparing to participate in a mass action. 

We’ll talk about several different types of action frameworks you might run into and introduce common organizational structures that you’re likely to see including affinity groups, clusters, and blocs.  Additionally we’ll offer suggestions for mental preparation and a rundown of basic legal and health and safety questions. 

Training Agenda

This workshop is two hours long.

Lockboxes and Lockdown Devices

This training, by POG's tactical training initiative, is an introduction to the use of 'lockboxes' and other lockdown devices in protest situations. For decades, activists have been using handcuffs, chains, pvc piping, steel tubing, and all sorts of other devices to help secure space in a protest situation. First made popular to North American activists during the anti-nuclear movement, these tactics were further developed and defined during forest defense campaigns in the Pacific Northwest through the 80's and 90's. By the late 1990's sophisticated lockdown devices made it out of the woods and back into the streets as global justice activists confronted trade summits and corporate targets. Today, lockdowns remain an important and effective tactic, employed by a myriad of social justice organizations around the world.

This training will concentrate on the logistical and safety issues involved in planning actions and supporting our friends who are locking down, but will also provide participants with an opportunity to 'try out' a few popular lockdown.  Many of the skills we will explore are applicable in all sorts of lockdown and other protest situations.

Workshop Agenda

Powerpoint Presentation

Tools of the Trade (an overview of popular devices written for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by one of our trainers)

This workshop is two hours long

Beyond the Boardroom: A Workshop on Strategic Corporate Research

Today 51 of world's largest 100 economies are multinational corporations. These corporations are playing an increasing role in our everyday lives. They sell us the water we drink and the food we eat; they operate many of the hospitals we go to when we're sick and and the schools our children attend; prisons, police and the military are not even insulated from this increasing trend toward privatization and corporatization.

Despite their rapid rise in influence and power, information on these mammoth institutions is kept strikingly out of the popular dialogue. Who runs them? How are they connected? And perhaps most importantly: how can all of us have a say in how these corporations operate?

We'll take a look at several publicly available (but well hidden) sources for information on companies including annual reports, SEC filings (primarily 10K and Proxy statements), IRS 990, and other FEC and IRS documents. Additionally we'll talk about how to analyze all of this information to zero in on the company's decision-making processes, profit centers, growth plans, and key relationships. And finally we'll look at how NGO's, labor unions, and community organizations have turned this research into strategy to confront corporate power and demand accountability.

POG Research Manual.pdf

PowerPoint Presentation

This workshop is one hour long

Working the Media (for Anarchists)

Want to learn how to use media effectively to complement a social justice campaign? This workshop will cover the basics of doing media work/outreach to complement strategic campaigns for social justice. Some of the things we will cover include writing press releases, media wrangling, relationship-building, creating media packets, the difference between press conferences and action media work, the importance of role rotation and other collective and radical philosophies that have worked for POG over the years. We will use role-playing and discussion, and provide helpful materials for participants to take back to their campaigns.

An Introduction to the Global Political and Economic Frameworks

This workshop provides a brief but relatively comprehensive introduction to some of the major transnational economic, political, and military super structures that the elites from powerful nation-states use to dominate the globe.  We take a look at the history and structure of international financial institutions like the IMF World Bank Group, global political structures like the United Nations, and transnational military alliances like NATO.  The workshop also introduces participants to the ideological frameworks that fuel this brand of corporate globalization and some of the debates that are taking place between the political elite. 

PowerPoint Presentation

This workshop is one hour long