Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER VOL. 45 No. 1, January 2015
The U.S. is Still Using Torture Photo by: Andrew Burton
When the Bush administration legalized the use of torture after 9/11 it opened a Pandora’s Box that will haunt us for years to come. The recently released Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture filled us all with horror and shame that our country could allow unspeakable acts such as these to happen. Torture has become pervasive in our culture and we see it not only in our abuse of prisoners overseas but also domestically in our prisons and detention centers. Torture is being used hourly in our country’s prisons. The very use of prolonged isolation is a form of torture, when someone is kept for 23
prisons, in particular the practice of prolonged isolation. The U.S. government insists that “there is no systematic use of solitary confinement in the United States.” This is in spite of the fact that we are holding over 80,000 in some form of isolation in this country, often in harsh circumstances. The UN Committee in its report concluded that: “While noting that the State party has indicated that there is ‘no systematic use of solitary confinement in the
by Scilla Wahrhaftig
hours in a tiny cell with no contact with another human except guards. With the isolation often comes other forms of harsh treatment which constitute torture. In November the U.S. Government went before the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva as part of a periodic review to assess the country’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture, the first U.S. review under Barack Obama’s administration. The UN committee asked the government to describe steps taken to improve the extremely harsh regime imposed on detainees in our
Thomas Merton Center Statement in Response to Ferguson, Missouri and New York City Police Killing Cases (Inspired by statements from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Pax Christi, with contributions from Thomas Merton Center Board members Ed Brett, Michael Drohan, Chris Mason, and Jonah McAllister-Erickson.) “There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been (too easily) convinced that evil is entirely different when it is done ‘for the common good.’...one might point to the way in which racial hatreds and even persecution are admitted by people who consider themselves, and perhaps in some sense are, kind, tolerant, civilized and even humane.” - Thomas Merton The Thomas Merton Center is dedicated to ensuring equal rights and justice for all individuals, and we are shocked by the increased number of escalated, violent police interactions with civilians, which has caused the tragic and unnecessary deaths of too many people, particularly men and youth of color. Continued on page 14
United States,’ the Committee remains concerned about reports of extensive use of solitary confinement and other forms of isolation in US prisons, jails and other detention centres for purposes of punishment, discipline and protection, as well as for healthrelated reasons. It also notes the lack of relevant statistical information available. Furthermore, it is concerned about the use of solitary confinement for indefinite periods of time, and its use against juveniles and individuals with mental disabilities. The full isolation for 22-23 hours a day in super-maximum security prisons is unacceptable.” Continued on Page 5
In this issue... -
Merton Festival Highlights - pg. 3
-
U.S. Cuba Policy Shifts! - pg. 4
-
Juveniles Die in Prison -
-
Unequal Justice -
pg. 8
pg. 12
Remember Thomas Merton on His Birthday with a Gift to the Thomas Merton Center Celebrate Thomas Merton’s 100th birthday (Jan. 31, 2015) by donating to the Thomas Merton Center. Thomas Merton devoted much of his writing to issues about the dignity of every person and the struggle for social justice and peace. Won’t you consider ensuring his legacy for the future? All donations to the Merton Center, no matter how modest, are greatly appreciated. Fill out this form, cut out, and mail in. Clip and mail this form and your memorial donation to: Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 Thomas Merton Birthday Memorial Donation $_________________________ Name(s): ______________________________________________________ Organization (if any):_______________________________ ______________ Address: _______________________________________________________ City:_____________ State:_________ Zip Code:________________________ Home Phone:____________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________________________________ Email:__________________________________________________________ The Thomas Merton Center works to build a consciousness of values and to raise the moral questions involved in the issues of war, poverty, racism, classism, economic justice, oppression and environmental justice.
PERMIT NO. 458
TMC engages people of diverse philosophies and faiths who find common ground in the nonviolent struggle to bring about a more peaceful and just world.
PITTSBURGH, PA
PAID
THOMAS MERTON CENTER, 5129 PENN AVE. PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 1
U.S. POSTAGE NON-PROFIT ORG.
TMC Projects
TMC Affiliates
(TMC projects follow guidelines and receive financial and ongoing resources and support from the Thomas Merton Center.)
(Affiliates are partner organizations that we work with who support the nonviolent peace and justice mission of TMC.)
Anti-War Committee info@pittsburghendthewar.org www.pittsburghendthewar.org
Abolitionist Law Center 412-654-9070 abolitionistlawcenter.org
IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE THOMAS MERTON CENTER 5129 PENN AVENUE, PITTSBURGH, PA 15224
Thomas Merton Center
Book‘Em: Books to Prisoners Project bookempgh@gmail.com www.bookempgh.org
East End Community Thrift Store
Monday—Friday: 10 am to 4 pm Saturday: Noon to 4 pm
Tuesday—Friday: 10 am to 4 pm Saturday: Noon to 4 pm
Capital’s End 724-388-6258, iamholtz@iup.edu
Office Phone: 412-361-3022 — Fax: 412-361-0540
CodePink: Women for Peace francineporter@aol.com, 412-389-3216 www.codepink4peace.org
Website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
The New People Editorial Collective Neil Cosgrove, Michael Drohan, Russ Fedorka, Andrew Karl, Bette McDevitt, Diane McMahon, Joyce Rothermel, Molly Rush, Doug Salyers, Jo Tavener, Scilla Wahrhaftig.
TMC Staff, Volunteers & Interns Managing Director: Diane McMahon, PhD, CFRE Operations Manager: Marcia Snowden Finance Director / Project Liaison: Roslyn Maholland Support Staff: Sr. Mary Clare Donnelly, Meagan McGill Office Volunteers: Pat Bibro, Kathy Cunningham, Judy Starr, Monique Dietz, Jon Mulig, Lois Goldstein, Joyce Rothermel New People Coordinators: Doug Saylers, Hannah Tomio, Diane McMahon East End Community Thrift Store Managers: Shirley Gleditsch, Shawna Hammond, & Sr. Mary Clare Donnelly Thomas Merton Center Interns: Johanna Baublitz-Smith, Brother Christoper Johnson, Michael Kostalis, Meagan McGill, Yolaine Michaud, Doug Salyers, Quinn Thomas, Hannah Tomio, Azmal Thahireen
The Big Idea Bookstore 412-OUR-HEAD www.thebigideapgh.org
Economic Justice Committee drohanmichael@yahoo.com
The Black Political Empowerment Project Tim Stevens 412-758-7898 CeaseFire PA
fightforliferswest@yahoo.com
Fight for Lifers West
Global Solutions Pittsburgh 412-471-7852 dan@globalsolutionspgh.org www.globalsolutionspgh.org
Greater Pittsburgh Interfaith Coalition Anne Wirth 412-716-9750
Citizens for Social Responsibility of Greater Johnstown Larry Blalock, evolve@atlanticbb.net
www.fightforliferswestinc.com
Harambee Ujima/Diversity Footprint Twitter @HomewoodNation Human Rights Coalition / Fed Up (prisoner support and advocacy) 412-802-8575, hrcfedup@gmail.com www.prisonerstories.blogspot.com
PA United for Single-Payer Health Care www.healthcare4allPA.org www.PUSH-HC4allPa.blogspot.com 2102 Murray Avenue Pgh, Pa 15217 412-421-4242
Marcellus Shale Protest Group melpacker@aol.com 412-243-4545
Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi 412-761-4319
marcellusprotest.org
Pittsburgh Cuba Coalition 412-303-1247 lisacubasi@aol.com
New Economy Campaign gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.com Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance
North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition 412-369-3961 www.northhillscoalition.com
Pittsburgh Campaign for Democracy NOW! 412-422-5377, sleator@cs.cmu.edu www.pcdn.org
Pittsburgh North People for Peace 412-367-0383 pnpp@verizon.net
412-512-1709
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition jumphook@gmail.com; www.pittsburghdarfur.org
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee info@pittsburgh-psc.org www.pittsburgh-psc.org Raging Grannies 412-963-7163 eva.havlicsek@gmail.com
Pittsburgh Haiti Solidarity Committee rothermeljoyce@gmail.com 412-780-5118
www.pittsburghraginggrannies.homestead.com
Pittsburghers for Public Transit 412-216-9659 info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org
SWPA Bread for the World Donna Hansen 412-812-1553
The New People is distributed to 3,000 people who belong to diverse organizations, businesses and groups each month. The deadline for all submissions is the 13th of the month for the following month’s issue.
Progressive Pittsburgh Notebook 412-363-7472 tvnotebook@gmail.com
To Submit Articles, Photos, or Poems: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ newpeople/submit.
School of the Americas Watch W. PA 412-271-8414 drohanmichael@yahoo.com
To Submit an Event to the TMC Calendar: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/calendar/submit-event
Shalefield Stories (Friends of the Harmed) 412-422-0272 brigetshields@gmail.com
To Advertise: Visit www.thomasmertoncenter.org/newpeople/ad Advertising prices range from $15 for a business card size to $250 for a full page. There is a 10% discount when purchasing 6 months of ad space at a time, and a 20% discount when purchasing a year of ad space at a time. An additional 10% discount is available for non-profit organizations and faith-based groups.
Page 1 U.S. Still Using Torture TMC Statement -Response to Ferguson / NYC Remember TMC on Merton Birthday
412-848-3079
www.ceasefirepa.org—info@ceasefirepa.org
Publish in The New People
Stop Sexual Abuse in the Military 412-361-3022 hildebrew@aol.com Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens Group 724-837-0540 lfpochet@verizon.net Who’s Your Brother? 412-328-2301 support@whosyourbrother.com
Table of Contents
Battle of Homestead Foundation
East End Community Thrift Shop 412-361-6010, shawnapgh@aol.com
Environmental Justice Committee
2014 TMC Board of Directors
For more information: Call 412-361-3022 or email newpeople@thomasmertoncenter.org.
Amnesty International info@amnestypgh.org - www.amnestypgh.org
environmentaljustice@thomasmertoncenter.org
Thom Baggerman, Ed Brett, Theresa Chalich, Rob Conroy, Kathy Cunningham, Art Donsky, Michael Drohan, Mark Dixon, Patrick Fenton, Mary Jo Guercio (President), Wanda Guthrie, Ken Joseph, Anne Kuhn, Chris Mason, Jonah McAllister-Erickson, The East End Community Thrift (Thrifty) is an all volunteer-run thrift shop which provides quality, low-cost, used clothing and household goods to the surrounding community. Thrifty needs volunteers and shoppers! Please don’t contact us at (412) 361-6010 and ask for Shirley or Shawna, or stop in at 5123 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224. Email shawnapgh@aol.com. Thrifty needs volunteers and shoppers to serve the community! We are mission driven volunteers that look to build love and community by serving others in times of need.
Association of Pittsburgh Priests Sr. Barbara Finch 412-716-9750 B.a.finch@att.net
Religion and Labor Coalition 412-361-4793 ojomal@aol.com
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) 412-471-8919 www.ueunion.org Veterans for Peace kevinbharless@yahoo.com 252-646-4810 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Eva 412-963-7163 edith.bell4@verizon.net
TMC is a Member of: TMC supports these organizations missions. Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network 412-621-9230 office@piin.org Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Martha Connelly 412-361-7872, osterdm@earthlink.net
Page 7 Galway Kennell Martin Luther King Remembered
Page 12 American Justice Unequal B-PEP Ad
Page 3 2015 Festival of Merton
Page 8 Human Rights City Tear Gas at Noon—Poetry
Page 13 TMC Statement Continued Creating Common Good Steel Made in the USA
Page 4 Building Prosperity for Economy U.S. and Cuba Policy Changing
Page 9 SOA Watch Report Jeremy Scahill Reflection
Page 5 Move your Money Save the Mountains Shalefield Justice Summer
Page 10 Book Reviews Losing Out Way Lethal Allies
Page 6 GreenFaith Fellows U.S. Still Using Torture Continued Fedorka Cartoon
2 - NEWPEOPLE
January 2015
Page 11 Juveniles Die in Prison Bangladesh Rights
Page 14 Put Your Next Event on TV Green World Rising Student-led Die-Ins Occur Locally Page 15 New Board Members Molly Rush Legacy Fund Page 16 January 2015 Activist Calendar
Thomas Merton Thomas Merton’s 100th Begins
2015 Festival of Merton - April 16 - 26
Thomas Merton Anniversary Year Marks his time since birth: 1915-2015 by Joyce Rothermel January 31, 2015 will mark the 100th birthday of monk, author, poet, artist, photographer, contemplative, and Thomas Merton Center namesake, Thomas Merton. Events, conferences, and commemorations are being planned throughout the year around the world to mark this historic anniversary. During his life and after his death, more than 50 books, 2,000 poems, numerous essays, reviews and lectures have been recorded and published, forming the canon of Merton’s writings. Focused on a wide variety of topics, much of Merton’s work remains relevant and influences the lives of those who learn about and from him. We at the Merton Center have invited many of our friends throughout the area to plan and participate in a 10-day-long Thomas Merton Festival, April 16 – 26 and we are delighted with the response. The following provides some of the highlights of the Festival. We hope you will participate and spread the word to others who may not yet be aware of the life and writings of Thomas Merton. Watch upcoming issues of The New People for more details and final arrangements regarding these very special events as well as announcements of activities planned in other places.We are excited about how the Festival is shaping up and encourage you to mark your calendars now. At the Merton Center we have speakers, DVD’s and books on Merton that are available to address groups who are interested in learning more about Thomas Merton throughout all of 2015. It is our hope that at the end of 2015 more people will be able to answer the question: “Who Is Thomas Merton?” and will also become new members of the Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh’s social justice and peace center. To schedule a speaker or DVD, or for questions, please call the Merton Center at 412-361-3022 or email us at info@thomasmertoncenter.org Joyce Rothermel is on the planning committee for the Merton Festival and a member of the board and editorial collective.
“A Dream Deferred” will be the theme of the 2015 Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Commemoration Sunday, January 18 at St. Paul Cathedral. The annual event, sponsored by Cathedral’s Race & Reconciliation Dialogue Group, will begin with a 12 noon commemorative Mass with music by St. Charles Lwanga Gospel Choir followed b by a 1:30 program and reception in the Social Hall beneath the Church. Speaking on the Dream Deferred”, including the current dismantling of civil rights legislation, will be Sala Udin, local civic leader, actor and activist. A former Pittsburgh City Council member, Udin has performed in August Wilson plays with the local Bare Bones Theatre and is currently president and CEO of The CORE Center for Civic Leadership. Honored at the reception will be Fr. David Taylor, pastor of St. Charles Lwanga Parish in the East End, who is currently celebrating 40 years in the priesthood. Fr. Taylor will be honored for his support ad inspiration of the Race & Reconciliation’s wide-ranging B lack Saints program. Another highlight of the program will be the awarding of winners in Race & Reconciliation’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Eessay/Poster contest in secondary Catholic Schools. Students will read the winning essays. Since its inception in 1998, inspired by Bishop Wueel’s statement on racism as a sin, the Dialogue Group has sponsored leadership training in diversity and scores of film showings and forums on racial issues. The program is free and open to the public.
The Hungarian Worker's International World Worker’s Labor History Calendar is the gift of Labor Education that lasts all year long. There should not be a classroom or a law school, or a time clock in the whole state of Pennsylvania with out a Joe Hill Centenary Calendar on the bulletin board or taped to the wall. Students in high school and at the community colleges are being sent into the workforce without any labor law education what-so-ever."
www.JoeHill100.com See the Joe Hill Centenary Calendar and this website for more information.
January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 3
Economic Transformations How Can Pittsburgh Build Prosperity by Embracing our Social Economy? by Daniel Little
Volunteers are a crucial means for organizations to compensate for scarce The Growth of the Social Sector funding. They are able to accomplish important tasks free of charge, adding In the past decade, there has been value to the social economy. However, an emergence of nonprofit and many organizations require not just socially-driven organizations that fills one-time volunteers, but recurring the void left behind by government participation of individuals with austerity, providing valuable services project-specific skills. Often, whose expenses would otherwise fall volunteers are unable to commit to on taxpayers. This social innovation time-intensive projects due to the lack sector addresses diverse societal issues of immediate practical benefit - a including environmental degradation, salary- that an otherwise paid position water/air quality, transportation access would provide. Other potential and homelessness. In 2012, the ten volunteers are unclear on how to county Pittsburgh region had an contribute, and need an initial estimated 3,200 nonprofit incentive to discover ways to serve. organizations addressing these issues, With this bottleneck of time and and that number is growing. funding, volunteers slip past organizations, thereby increasing the workload of passionate members and The Problem further decreasing the ability of Socially driven organizations are organizations to meet their objectives. now competing for an ever-shrinking The problem set forth is clear: slice of the private philanthropy pie. socially driven organizations need to During the recession from 2008 to find a way to build and retain 2009, the drop in charitable giving to connections to individuals with the nonprofits was the largest in more skills necessary to carry out their than 40 years, leaving many smaller missions. organizations to operate on annual revenues of less than $25,000 (http:// A Win-Win Solution! www.post-gazette.com/business/ businessnews/2012/06/29/NonprofitsA solution to this problem is found especially-small-ones-can-benefit-by- in the United Kingdom where a nurturing-diverse-revenue-sources/ community currency called Sp!ce stories/201206290179). After the Time Credits was developed to enable recession, various private foundations volunteer hours to be earned like put stringent requirements on grants money. Through Sp!ce, volunteers can and funding, forcing organizations to either trade their hours with other adapt in ways that often distract from volunteers for services, or cash-in their original mission. hours at local anchor institutions for
museum visits, university classes, sporting events, and other related leisure activities. For instance, if there are unpurchased tickets for a cultural theater performance, volunteers are able to purchase tickets with their earned time credits as a reward for volunteering. There is no loss to the theater since those tickets would not have otherwise been purchased and the theater may even benefit by increased side purchases. Additionally, all time is valued equally - the amount of hours volunteered through any given opportunity is the amount of hours that can be spent. Communities can use the currency to achieve certain benchmarks relating to issues such as renewable energy, air quality, green infrastructure, and vacant land reuse by allowing sponsors of related projects to issue the currency. With this currency, organizations can successfully recruit and retain volunteers with applicable skills, increasing the likelihood that a project will achieve its goal. Furthermore, by attracting and retaining skilled volunteers, projects can reduce dependence on endowment funding and grants. In the UK, Sp!ce Time Credits are responsible for a 300% increase in volunteer engagement in the communities where the currency is used (Becky Booth, CEO, Spice Innovations Limited). Such an increase would be catalytic if a similar currency was implemented amid Pittsburgh’s great wealth of
New Opportunities for Change in U.S. -Cuba Policy! The Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition and the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership commends U.S. President, Barrack Obama and Cuban President, Raul Castro equally for their mutual willingness and joint efforts to begin to open and communication. Our membership restore diplomatic channels which and supporters look forward to we all hope will create the assisting in every way they can to be opportunity for dialogue and a part of a mutually constructive negotiations towards the full restoration of ties between our normalization of relations between peoples. our two estranged nations. Our organizations have worked The value of respectful for over 25 years to enable the engagement that occurred when broadest 'people-to-people' these leaders spoke directly by phone exchanges possible, so that people in allowing them to quickly resolve a Pittsburgh could meet with their longstanding impasse proves the Cuban counterparts through shared strategic wisdom of direct interests, and in the exchange of communication. ideas and life experiences more We join the majority of people of clearly come to better understand the the world (UN vote 192-2 to end the complexity of ideological and embargo for over 25 years) and cultural divides and impediments to every major religious institution, and peace, and become proactive believe we represent the majority of advocates for normalization of people in the U.S., including relations. according to recent polls, CubanSince their formation both of our Americans, in celebrating this long organizations have morally objected overdue first steps toward opening to stated U.S. policy of ‘regime the doors of bilateral 4 - NEWPEOPLE January 2015
institutions and large social-innovation base. More volunteers would find themselves building camaraderie with neighbors, gaining career skills through their volunteer work, enriching their minds through university classes, or nourishing their health at gyms or community centers. Once overburdened organization directors would suddenly garner an influx of participation, increasing their access to the skills and knowledge possessed by one of the smartest cities in America As a member of the New Economy Campaign, I am currently engaged in an initiative to bring this currency in to fruition. Interested stakeholders, institutions, and businesses from across the social innovation sector must be convened to design and implement the currency to work for everyone in the community. Engaging this project will complete the circle of volunteerism by honoring compassion and commitment with the wealth of cultural, educational, and entertainment experiences Pittsburgh has to offer. If you are enthused about this proposal and are interested in becoming part of this time currency initiative, please contact me, Daniel Little, at timetender2@gmail.com. Daniel Little is a civil engineer and civic entrepreneur with a devout interest in building democratic wealth-building institutions that invite consumers to become citizens. Other interests include economics, environmental sustainability, and public transit. where U.S.-Cuba policy is codified and beyond any executive reach. Lisa Valanti 412-303-1247 LisaCubaSi@aol.com
ey dates
change’ with its objective of determining the future for the Cuban people in favor of U.S. interests over the interests and democratic rights of the Cuban people to control their own political process and implementation of civil society, as is their sovereign right. We fully support the U.S. and Cuba in the steps announced today to improve bilateral relations, while we continue to unconditionally support Cuba’s sovereignty and its people’s fundamental human right to shape their own destiny without U.S intervention. We also hope the people of the U.S. will continue to demand their own fundamental human right of freedom to travel without U.S. government control, and advocate the end of the U.S. embargo for true change of U.S. policy by Congress,
1959: Fidel Castro and his guerrilla army defeat the US-backed Cuban regime of Fulgencio Batista 1960-1961: Cuba nationalises US businesses without compensation; US breaks off diplomatic relations and imposes a trade embargo in response 1961: Failed Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-backed Cuban exiles 1962: Soviet Union deploys ballistic missiles to Cuba, prompting Cuban Missile Crisis
2001: Five Cubans, dubbed the Cuban Five, are jailed in Miami for spying 2008: Raul Castro becomes Cuban president 2009: US citizen Alan Gross detained in Cuba accused of spying Dec 2013: US President Barack Obama and Raul Castro shake hands at Nelson Mandela's funeral the first such public gesture since 1959 17 December 2014: Alan Gross is released by Cuba Source: BBC News
Your Environmental Action Plan 4th in the Post-Gazette and written by Nick Coles, the action-team leader. In that piece, Mr. Coles noted that this extreme form of coal extraction had already destroyed 500 mountains across Appalachia and polluted 2000 miles of streams. The effects on local communities, water supplies, and public health have been devastating.
Move Your Money! Save the Mountains! by Joe Marchesani On Saturday, December 6, 2014, twenty members of Pittsburgh's Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) chanted "Move your Money! Save the Mountains!" as they picketed at the Squirrel Hill branch of PNC bank with posters showing the damage caused by mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining in Appalachia. [See attached picture.] Their non-violent protest at the bank was one of almost thirty actions that day spread across 19 states and the District of Columbia, as EQAT expanded the scope of its campaign to get PNC to stop investing in MTR coal mining. The central action of the Pittsburgh EQAT protest was closing accounts at PNC by the Quaker's Pittsburgh Monthly Meeting and several individual members of the Meeting. Closing these accounts demonstrated the refusal the Meeting and its members to allow their money to be used for these investments. The action also aimed to encourage other religious denominations, organizations that work to protect the environment and limit global warming, and other individuals with accounts at PNC to close those
He also disputes PNC's defense of its investments in MTR coal mining, claiming that the process is wellregulated and contributes significantly to the energy supply. In fact, the regulation is entrusted to agencies that lack staff and clout. West Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection, for example, has been so averse to enforcing the Clean Water regulations on coal operators that the federal Office of Surface Mining has had to step in. Moreover, recent The damage to public health regulations from the EPA indicate that has been recorded previously in coal is the worst possible fuel for the Post-Gazette, which cited generating power if we consider the higher rates of cancer, impact of its carbon emissions on especially lung cancer, in and climate change. around MTR sites, as well as elevated rates of birth defects, Finally, "PNC isn't green enough" heart disease, and respiratory notes that the alleged benefits of ailments. Consequently, life MTR coal mining for generating expectancy in these areas has jobs have also been exaggerated. also been shortened. Further This method of extraction requires illustration of the damage is relatively few operators of high-tech available in a documentary accounts also. For such closures curtail from 2011, "The Last Mountain," and a equipment -- fewer than 7,000 in West Virginia--and counties that the money available to the bank to summary of peer-reviewed research continue its investments in companies summarized in "The Human Cost" that host MTR coal mining have that are inflicting irreversible damage significantly higher rates of poverty is available at http:// on the earth and its waters. -- higher, if fact, than in other ilovemountains.org/the-human-cost.
counties across Appalachia
In a follow-up action, Pittsburgh Monthly Meeting hosted a benefit concert in the evening. Half of the proceeds from the concert went to the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. On the morning of the protest, PNC requested that the Pittsburgh police exclude access into the bank building to anyone who was not actually closing an account. The bank also asked the police to limit to three at a time those of us who were closing our accounts. Furthermore, those of us who could enter the building were not allowed to make any statements or to bring in any signs indicating why we were closing our accounts. Those not allowed into the bank, however, chanted loudly enough on the street to tell anyone else entering or leaving the building why Pittsburgh EQAT was there. And the posters they carried showed the extensive damage that MTR coal mining has been inflicting on the ecosystem of Appalachia, as well as the contribution that coal consumption adds global warming.
Pittsburgh EQAT protestors display the posters they carried outside the Squirrel Hill Branch of PNC bank to illustrate the damage done by mountain top removal coal mining. Photos by Lucy Debarbaro.
Mr. Coles' op-ed piece also notes the hypocrisy in PNC's efforts to brand itself as an eco-friendly bank through its "green" buildings in Pittsburgh, while it resists following the investment practices of other banks -The public received a more detailed JP Morgan-Chase, UBS, and the Royal presentation of Pittsburgh EQAT’s Bank of Scotland -- that have begun to position in an op-ed piece, "PNC isn't green enough," published on December pull back from MTR coal mining.
producing coal by less damaging methods of mining. This author is a member of the Quaker Monthly Meeting and its Committee for Peace and Social Concerns. A retired college prof, he teaches fitness classes for seniors and yoga with a specialization in therapy for PTSD.
Shalefield Justice Event and Economic Justice Movement extreme energy extraction, and other environmental justice issues. This year's SJSB will be held from March 6th to the 13th at a retreat near Centre County, PA. Last year we hosted over 100 people in the mountains of Central PA for 7 days of workshops, skill shares, community service, speakers, hiking, by Casey Pegg music, films, direct action and more –all within an intentional framework which seeks to divest from all Inspired by the Mountain Justice Spring Break and systems of oppression. summer camps hosted in the coalfields of SJSB gives participants the opportunity to learn Appalachia, Shalefield Justice Spring Break (SJSB) about the history of resistance, and connect with brings together members of extraction communities, current campaigns and projects. college students, environmentalists and concerned Folks will learn from and stand with shalefield residents who are interested in learning more about communities in the struggle to maintain community
determination and healthy ecosystems for all species. The SJSB planning collective is a collection of organizers and community members from around the region. We want SJSB 2015 to be as useful as possible to students and people in the Environmental Justice movement. To help out with the planning process or simply brainstorm, please contact us at shalefieldjusticespringbreak@gmail.com and please visit shalefieldorganizing.org for more information. Casey Pegg is an environment and human rights activist, is a member of the Environmental Justice Committee of the Thomas Merton Center. January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 5
Faith & Activism A Statement by GreenFaith Fellows to All Faith Leaders: #BlackLivesMatter of the environmental movement. 86% of African Americans and 76% of Latinos are willing to take strong action against Climate Change -
Issued December 13, 2014 Submitted by Wanda Guthrie
overtly launched a campaign to destroy Green Jobs. The subsequent smear campaign destroyed the multiracial progressive coalition. Since
Dear Friends in Faith: We write to encourage you to seize this moment in our nation’s history to support the current uprising against racism and police brutality currently epitomized by the hashtag #blacklivesmatter in a way that clearly links the disproportional violence against dark skinned human bodies with the violence against the Earth. Increasingly, major environmental organizations and ‘green’ religious leadership talk about ‘ecological justice’. But precious few of these organizations and leaders are making the critical links between earth-care and care for black and brown life as expressed by the movement represented by #blacklivesmatter. Now is the time for that to change. If life on earth matters, black life on earth matters. Violence to the human body is violence to the earth’s body. Violence to the earth’s body is violence to the human body. Now is the time to creatively demonstrate that to take a strong stand against violence is core to being an environmental person of faith. Such displays of faith could include amplifying the young black and brown leadership. It could include putting strong pressure on environmental lobby groups to pressure Obama to endite the police officers who have gotten away with murder – and to make the systemic changes necessary so further damage does not occur. It can include praying with your feet and letting your pulpits and your pens sing with the song of a God who says that life matters through linking #blacklivesmatter and the environmental movement. Now is the time to serve the core
GreenFaith Fellows 2015. Photo Submitted by Wanda Guthrie
while barely 50% of white people are willing to do so. Black and brown communities are thus the natural core constituency of any environmental movement in America. This constituency cannot be moved so long as those same communities are being locked up in prisons, detained at borders, shot at by the police and constrained from voting. Now is also the time to honestly assess and learn from some of the recent failings of multiracial coalitions for environmental justice in America. In 2009, when the nation was brimming with hope over Obama’s election, the Green Jobs Movement, which put poor people at the forefront of the green economy labor market, was at its political height. Then the Heritage Foundation and other conservative bodies
The U.S. is Still Using Torture Continued from Page 1 Unfortunately this report was largely ignored in this country. However, partly due to public pressure and the courage of prisoners themselves, steps have been taken to address the use of solitary confinement in our country. Some states, such as New York, are putting in place restrictions on the use of solitary confinement, especially for juveniles and those with mental disabilities. Pennsylvania has a history of abuse in our prisons, especially for people in prolonged isolation. Secretary Wetzel and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections are in the process of reducing the number of people in solitary; especially those with mental health conditions and juveniles. The impetus for this policy was an investigation into the use of isolation for prisoners with mental health conditions initiated by 6 - NEWPEOPLE
the Department of Justice, as well as a suit by the ACLU and the Disability Rights Network. An interfaith group, Pennsylvania Network Against Torture, is working to address our concerns on the continued use of solitary confinement and hash treatment of prisoners, working with not only Secretary Wetzel but also with our new Governor Tom Wolf. Clearly we have a lot to do to correct the damage done by our country’s opening of Pandora’s Box and to change an environment that considers the use of torture to be acceptable. It is important to recognize that torture is not a thing of the past but is very much a reality in the United States. Scilla Wahrhfatig is a member of the editorial collective.
January 2015
then, black and brown communities have seriously questioned the ability of white progressives – especially environmentalists - to sustain their efforts through difficult moments. So let us be clear: if we are remotely successful in linking the issues brought up by #blacklivesmatter with our efforts to affect climate change, we will be a threat to the conservative minority that increasingly dominates this country. Push back is highly possible. This time, let us see that as an indication that we are on the right track. This time, let us stay in this struggle together to increase our capacity for sustainability. And this time, let us remember that this growing uprising is a protest against forces of destruction – in
order to make way for the forces of love. This uprising already is and can increasingly grow into a celebration of life. It is filled with hopeful energy. For example, Seminary students at Union Theological Seminary, have turned the classroom ‘AD 30’ into the ‘love hub’: a safe place for those needing to protest, organize and share songs, stories and ideas. For many, it is a powerful experience of multi-racial, intergenerational, multi-faith fellowship. For this celebration of life to become both even more clear and inclusive, it will need your generosity of spirit and your convicted courage. And thus we, an interfaith, intergenerational, multiracial, national network of faith leaders, reach out to you to encourage you to find ways, in your music and your preaching, your writing and your pastoral care, your adult education and your policy efforts, to explicitly and continuously forge the links between the issues of security and injustice so powerfully articulated in the ‘hands-up’ gesture and creating political-economic systems that demonstrate respect for our planet Earth. In the Light of Life, Greenfaith Fellows Wanda Guthrie is a GreenFaith Fellow. She is chair of the environmental Justice Committee, TMC, her fellowship is sponsored by the Board of the Thomas Merton Center.
Activist Lives in 1965, led a group of students moments where physical details rendered in precise from Juniata College in language resonate in remarkable confluence of art Pennsylvania to join a protest in with social strife. Selma, Alabama. This group Pittsburgh poet Sam Hazo, a friend of Kinnell’s started a march to Montgomery to present Governor who brought him to Pittsburgh to read several times George at the International Poetry Forum, will lead Wallace with off the January 31 event. Other Pittsburgh civil rights poets taking part include Terrance Hayes, a petitions. 2014 MacArthur Fellow — as Kinnell was Ultimately, 30 years earlier. "He was a big bright spirit," when said Hayes. "My hope is that people will Montgomery now reacquaint themselves with his poetry." policeman, Also reading are Jan Beatty, Jimmy Cvetic, many on Angele Ellis, Lynn Emanuel, Joy Katz, Ed horseback, Ochester, Mike Schneider, Marianne Trale charged the and Michael Wurster. “The response from crowd, Kinnell Pittsburgh poets to this event shows how was beaten deeply Kinnell’s work has affected people and bloodied who care about and pay attention to poetry —a and the possibilities of giving artistic photograph of expression in words to the widest possible which range of human feeling and experience,” Creative Commons appeared in said Schneider, who is coordinating the LIFE magazine. Kinnell was also one of the most Kinnell memorial event. active poets in readings against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s. His powerful book-length poem, Mike Schneider is an award-winning Pittsburgh The Book of Nightmares (1971), a milestone in 20- writer & poet, widely published, who was Arts century American poetry, draws visceral imagery Editor of The New People when it first began from some of these experiences. Kinnell’s poetic publishing in broadsheet format. He is a member recollection in Nightmares of a southern sheriff who of TMC. booked and fingerprinted him is one of many
Galway Kinnell (1927-2014) Pittsburgh poets read from the acclaimed poet/activist's work on January 31 by Mike Schneider To honor the life and work of acclaimed poet Galway Kinnell, who died at the end of October, Pittsburgh poets will read from Kinnell’s poetry on January 31. The event, not to be missed for poetry lovers, is at East End Book Exchange, 4754 Liberty Avenue (Bloomfield) at 7:00 pm. A MacArthur "genius" fellow as well as a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner, Kinnell served several years as civil-rights activist in the South before more fully pursuing his career as a poet and university professor. After WW II duty in the Navy and a degree in English at Princeton, Kinnell spent many years abroad, including a Fulbright Fellowship in Paris and stays in Europe and the Middle East. Returning to the United States in the 1960s, he joined the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), registering African-American voters in Louisiana. As part of that experience he was jailed and later,
Martin Luther King Jr. and his Critique of Overcoming Evil by Bro. Christopher Johnson, OFM Cap.
of his home, certainly the second, to retreat into the overcrowded camp of complicity. How easy it I recently received a gift in the will be for us, as a nation, to form of a book, Strength to Love, allow our cries for racial equality a collection of sermons by Dr. to be muffled by our Martin Luther King Jr. Devouring disappointment. However, good King’s scintillating writing style will always triumph over evil and and his keen mind I immediately dove into the mire of speculation. What would Dr. King preach standing in the streets of Ferguson or New York, littered with divisive anger and roiled by a morass of juridical proceedings? How would he encourage intrepid protesters whose peaceable presence shouts louder than any chant or mantra? Perhaps, “let your oppressor infinite hope will always know that you have neither a eviscerate finite disappointments. desire to defeat him nor a desire Our ultimate fulfillment is union to get even with him for injustices with God but we must first travel that he has heaped upon you… patiently the curvatures of life. Our most fruitful course is to MLK recognized that to stand firm with courageous “cooperate passively with an determination, move forward unjust system makes the nonviolently amid obstacles and oppressed as evil as the setbacks, accept disappointments, oppressor.” We must not fold up and cling to hope.” shop, throw in the towel or No doubt this is a tall order to become torpid in moving “… fill, especially when the wound is forward nonviolently amid still so raw. Our hope for justice obstacles and setbacks.” The in both Ferguson and New York existence of evil in the world is an remains unfulfilled. King issue Dr. King gave due possessed a limpid understanding deliberation to. He said there are that life is full of un-fulfillment! two flaccid mentalities that How easy it would have been for prevent overcoming an evil. Dr. King, after the first bombing One, people think they can
overcome evil by their own power, as if to say we were sufficient in ourselves to correct all the problems in the world. We can enact enforceable laws to regulate behavior but King said, “Morality cannot be legislated.” Laws do not change hearts! Still, the tragedies of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and so many more do demand legislation that will protect and provide for every person equally, holding accountable those entrusted with the power to correct stewardship. King lead the Montgomery bus protest, the march on Washington, and protests in Selma to demand enforceable laws promoting desegregation and integration. There are certainly codes and statutes protecting equality, freedom, and dignity but with King we are coming to understand that creating laws is the battle, transforming hearts is the war. The second inept mentality is that we should wait for God to take care of everything while we sit around with our feet up. King understood a synergy, a working together between God and humanity. It is only through grace that hearts are changed. The enforceables regulate behavior
and the un-enforceables regulate consciousness. Jesus said on the cross, “forgive them, father, for they know not what they do.” We must turn from our blindness in which we justify our injustices. King recognized that blindness can only be healed by the one who has the power to “restore sight to the blind.” It is love in action that softens hearts to the plight of the suffering. The nonviolent method practiced by MLK, not allowing himself to be ruled by another despot, namely hate, helped him destroy his enemies through friendship. God present in the outpouring of love, even towards our enemies, along with our commitment to justice, will bring about the community of brother-sisterhood King envisaged. We must not allow recent events to discourage us but instead see them as an opportunity to continue working towards the vision on the great prophet of the civil rights movement. One of my fellow friars said recently “I long for another Martin Luther King Jr. of our age.” Only after we admit we are insufficient in ourselves to overcome evil, dispelling the folly that God will take care of it while we “wait around,” can we fully appreciate King’s legacy. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only Light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Brother Christopher is a Capuchin Franciscan and a volunteer at the Thomas Merton Center. January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 7
Human Rights International Human Rights Day in Pittsburgh Stresses Racial and Economic Justice of our work. Courtney Clemm, a high school student activist in the Pittsburgh Student Activist On Wednesday December 10th Pittsburgh Coalition reported on the activities of young people residents joined millions of people around the world and noted the importance of inter-generational in celebrating the anniversary of the Universal efforts. Finally, workers told stories of their Declaration of Human Rights. This anniversary is a struggles to enjoy their rights to organize and to special time to both honor those human rights obtain a safe and humane working environment. defenders who have devoted their lives to defining Workers from the “Fight for Fifteen”-- Chris and protecting human rights and to inspire us to carry on their work. It is also a time to consider where we continue to fall short, and where we are losing ground, in this struggle. This year, people around the country are lifting their voices to show that “Black lives matter!” The Human Rights City Alliance organized a press conference at the Hill House Association’s Kaufmann Auditorium to draw attention to the many areas of glaring racial injustices that are the roots of the police violence in the news today. The “Raging Grannies” helped set the stage for the event and warmed up the crowd for the calls to action that were to come. Some of the leading human rights defenders working to advance racial justice in our city spoke. Such justice has been a major focus of the Human Rights City Alliance work, since a key lesson from history is that any work to lift up a community requires conscious attention to the particular needs of historically oppressed and marginalized groups. Carmen Alexander from New Voices Pittsburgh Ellis, Ashawna Osborn, and Lolene Germany-pointed to the intersections of diverse human rights spoke of the working conditions that are motivating as they impact Black women and girls in particular. growing numbers of fast food workers to strike for New Voices’ work on reproductive justice illustrate better pay and working conditions. And Brittany Swiger, a banquet server at Rivers Casino who is the many different aspects of economic and social policy that affect women’s and families’ lives. Carl organizing with UNITE HERE discussed the Redwood, from the Hill District Consensus Group abusive policies in that shop that have encouraged growing numbers of workers to demand the right to stressed the importance of our work to ensure access to affordable housing and more community form a union. She reported that workers planned an action that very day to demand an end to harsh involvement in development decisions. Black residents are increasingly being squeezed out of the attendance policies. Their action proved successful, city’s housing market and this needs to be a priority as management agreed to more lenient terms. by Jackie Smith
Tear Gas at Noon, Aida Refugee Camp November 2013 by Melinda Ward
This poem was written for a Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic poetry class. The purpose of the poem is for the reader to seize the atrocity that occurs for Palestinians living in the West Bank, the events that become normalized in refugee camps, and the resilience of Palestinian families, particularly children who remain optimistic and don't let their oppression stop them from living. Three political prisoners are released from an Israeli jail. Maqlooba and shawarma are served in celebration Palestinian flags sway resiliently in arid wind alongside black tanks of controlled water supply. It’s Olive Harvest Season in The West Bank. Two Israeli soldiers stand at the top of a dusty hill, 8 - NEWPEOPLE
January 2015
armed merely to intimidate, until they lift their weapons … Yalla, Yalla! civilians shout to each other, as bullying clouds of smoke and soot root from tear gas which is fired into the village. Mothers cover the tiny eyes of their petrified children; men calm family members as they hold back their own wrath. American visitors flee to the top floor of a recreation center, exhale degradation from their lungs, and rid their eyes of tears. Palestinian boys regroup outside minutes later to enjoy the rest of their lunch break. They kick a soccer ball around in debris and rubble, but before they begin, they kick a tear gas canister out of their way.
Closing the press conference were activists mobilizing for police accountability and racial justice. Activist and artist Phat Man Dee spoke briefly about the actions being organized and helped lead a round of feisty human rights caroling with songs written by local human rights leaders. The Human Rights City Alliance also released its Human Rights City Action Plan, which identifies specific changes needed to make Pittsburgh a true Human Rights City. Members of the group delivered the Action Plan to the Mayor and City Council members later that day, and organizers will be using the document to help mobilize and coordinate human rights activism in the city. The Human Rights City Alliance is working to unite groups around our city and region to strengthen our demands for dignity and justice for everyone. We know that we cannot wait for changes in national policy, but we need to become a living example of how a society based on human rights is possible. The Human Rights Day event was part of more than two weeks of Human Rights Days of Action promoted by the Alliance. In addition to a number of direct actions, educational events, and an Amnesty International write-a-thon, Pittsburgh activists convinced our City Council to pass a Will of Council recognizing October 12th as Indigenous Peoples Day. Stay tuned for more work confronting the human rights atrocities of our past and reforming school curricula to end the celebratory treatment of Columbus’s encounter with Turtle Island. For details about the Human Rights City Alliance and the Action Plan, see www.pghrights.org Jackie Smith is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and organizer with the Human Rights City Alliance.
Photo by Melinda Ward
Revealing International Conflict “Comunidades en Resistencia: Reflections on the Struggle to Close the SOA” Outraged by the U.S.’s role in these pallbearers and the mourners collapsed atrocities, the SOA Watch and its onto the ground in front of the gates as On the weekend of November 21-23, founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois gathered part of a “Die In” protest. peace and human rights activists from outside of the school’s gates this past The mood, solemn and mournful, across the nation and around the world November for the 25th annual protest shifted suddenly when the mourners descended upon the small town of demanding that the school be closed. rose to their feet and long-time SOA Columbus, Georgia to protest the Watch activist Nashua Chantal School of the Americas (SOA) and its climbed the fence to enter onto School of the America’s (SOA) graduates legacy of political assassination, the military base. Spurred by have been implicated in the 2009 military torture, rape, and democratic his act of civil disobedience, coup in Honduras and more recently in subversion. the silent crowd came to life, Colombia’s “False Positive” scandal, in Founded in 1946, the SOA began which more than 3,000 people are suspected chanting, “Close down the training Latin American military SOA!” A performance by the to have been murdered. Join the Pittsburgh personnel in counter-insurgency puppetistas followed, in which SOA Watch Project of the Thomas Merton techniques, military intelligence, a community stands together Center as we travel to the Spring Days of psychological warfare, and against the oppressive forces Action in Washington, D.C. March 30 to interrogation tactics under the of the military and their April 5. Those If you are interested in auspices of bringing stability to the political conspirators, driving financially supporting the trip or would like region. However, with the Cold War them away with solidarity and heating up much of Latin America fell to help plan it or attend, please contact the butterflies. Political theatre Thomas Merton Center at (412) 361-3022. under repressive authoritarian rule, as gave way to celebratory music SOA graduates returned home to lead and dancing, as the crowd Despite the cold and rain, a crowd of military coups, often against seemingly drew energy from the more than 1,000 activists came out for democratically elected leaders. Such increasingly heavy downpour. the annual vigil commemorating the was the case in Argentina, Bolivia, Thousands of miles away, activists lives of those murdered at the hands of Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, and rallied in Bogota, Colombia and Honduras; SOA graduates from Brazil, SOA graduates. A solemn funeral Santiago, Chile at demonstrations procession marched as, one by one, the El Salvador, Panama, and Venezuela organized in concert with that in failed in their attempted coups. In total, names of the dead were recited as part Columbus, GA. A live radio-feed from 11 of Latin America’s worst dictators of the ¡Presente! litany. It was a the Ft. Benning protest was also received their training at the School of powerful, emotionally stirring display, broadcast throughout much of Latin making palpable the sheer weight of the Americas. Beyond subverting America, where the SOA’s name is democracy, SOA graduates have been human suffering brought about by the synonymous with torture and School of the Americas. While implicated in some of the region’s impunity. protesters marched past the school’s most egregious human rights While Sunday’s vigil was the violations, including the assassination entrance, they built a monument to the central demonstration, the weekend of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, dead, placing crosses bearing the was filled with learning opportunities names of the victims into the chain the El Mozote massacre of 900 for activists. On Saturday, SOA Watch link fence of the military base. When civilians, and the scorched earth participants traveled to nearby campaigns in Guatemala classified as the last of the names were read in the Lumpkin, GA for a march and rally hour-long ¡Presente! litany, the "genocide" by a UN commission. by Andy Karl
Photo by Andy Karl
outside of the Stewart Detention Center, a for-profit prison holding undocumented immigrants. Drawing the connection between immigration and the instability and violence in much of Latin America, activists protested at the facility, which has reportedly denied detainees access to counsel while holding immigrants for prolonged and indefinite periods, often in excess of a year. At the demonstration, five activists crossed onto the facility and were arrested in a planned act of civil disobedience. Following the action workshops and seminars were held to educate activists on an array of peace and social justice topics. Andy Karl is a member of the TMC Anti-war Committee and the TMC editorial collective.
“Jeremy Scahill Receives Merton Award and Visits Pittsburgh by Pete Shell Award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill traveled to Pittsburgh on November 12 to receive the Merton Award. We kept him busy with several events during his two-day visit, allowing him to get a good taste of Pittsburgh activism. A two-time winner of the George Polk Award for journalism, Scahill has been an outspoken critic of U.S. drone attacks in the Middle East and Africa. When Obama’s “kill list” became public knowledge Scahill was the goto expert consulted on the controversial topic of extrajudicial killings. Jeremy's journalism career was launched when Amy Goodman allowed him to join her on Democracy Now. He's also appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, Real Time with Bill Maher and The Jay Leno Show, and writes regularly for The Nation, The Guardian, and several other U.S. and British news outlets. He's the author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” and “Dirty Wars" which won a 2013 Sundance Cinematography award and was nominated for an Academy Award. While driving him and his father from the airport to the city, I told him about the ADWC (Anti Drone-Warfare Coalition) and the city council
people there to see him, and with the level of activism in Peaceburgh. The resolution against drone warfare that is on YouTube), we learned about his next day he spoke at CMU with the we've drafted. He particularly liked the roots in the Catholic Worker student activist group Pugwash. They fact that, if passed, this would be the movement. His father lived at the were just starting to learn about drone first such warfare but he felt that they were quite resolution that interested in it. He also visited Conflict would require Kitchen in a show of solidarity. They institutions in the had just re-opened that day after being city to disclose forced to close thanks to a death threat any drone warfare for serving Palestinian food. research and The ADWC arranged a showing of development that his film Dirty Wars at the Filmmakers they're engaged in. on Melwood. Before it started we met It would bring local investigative journalists from much-needed publicsource.org. Given how the accountability and mainstream media is being controlled public more and more by a few mega transparency to corporations, investigative journalism this secretive is more important than ever. Despite federal program. the short notice, the theatre was almost We are asking full. The audience asked him several Photo by Rob Thomas people to call their good questions before we left for the council members airport. and ask them to sponsor it. Catholic Worker house with Dorothy On the ride back we ran into rush He updated me on The Intercept Day in New York. Jeremy met peace hour traffic and they were in danger of (theintercept.org), an online journal activist Daniel Berrigan at the missing their plane. But he had to which he recently co-founded with Pentagon during an anti-nuclear march make it to L.A. to appear on the Bill Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, in 1995. Maher show the next day, so I asked the journalists who broke the Edward He spoke convincingly against the him if it was ok that I floor it. He said Snowden story on NSA spying. U.S. military's most recent that was no problem compared to his They've been ramping it up and hiring misadventures in Iraq and Syria, and experience riding a motorcycle in additional staff. advocated for what he feels is the most Mogadishu. He made it onto the show. Before the dinner in the Sheraton he crucial issue today: getting corporate did interviews with City Paper, the money out of politics. My favorite Pete Shell is chair of the Thomas Post-Gazette, and PCTV. quote from his talk is "The fact that Merton Center’s anti-war / anti-drone At the age of 40 Jeremy is one of you fight the good fight means that committee. the youngest recipients of the Merton you are alive." Award. In his compelling talk (which He was impressed with the 500 January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 9
Book Reviews "LOSING OUR WAY: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America by Bob Herbert Reviewed by Theresa Chalich I
bought Bob Herbert’s Book “Losing Our Way’ eager for solutions to ending, or at least ameliorating, the greed and apathy in our nation. After all, I know about the widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of us. There are plenty of stats to back this up. We know that the rich have bought the political clout. And there have to be sane reasons why only 36% of the electorate showed up at the polls this past November. I wanted Bob Herbert to present a cogent formula for success in the social and economic justice work that I do. I want to know that my efforts will make a difference. I am looking for THE movement; how to get there; and the conviction it will bring about the systemic change that truly makes a difference in people’s lives. What I found in Mr. Herbert’s book
were compelling narratives depicting our nation’s problems in education, economics, the military, and infrastructure. With much compassion and concern he tells of people who were seriously injured when a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, of a soldier physically disabled from wounds in the Afghan war, of working parents trying to provide for their families on not liveable wages, and of children attending schools with fewer teachers and resources. Working as an advocate, I think I am familiar with the problems. But in Mr. Herbert’s stories, people’s lives become so personal that you are drawn into learning more about them. We can be so preoccupied with our work that we forget about the real persons behind our petitioning, marching, and voting. We know the causes. Who are the people being affected? Herbert writes that his aim was to show the “clueless politicians and nonstop talking heads” what has happened as our nation lost its way, and our idea of the American Dream. Even though Mr. Herbert addresses many issues, I was disappointed he did not mention the lack of health care coverage. This problem has caused the majority of financial bankruptcies. And there are plenty of low wage jobs with no health benefits. The Affordable Care Act is not universal coverage. Here in our state Governor Corbett refused to accept the federal government’s Medicaid expansion. As a Single Payer advocate, the thought of
people not having to worry about health care coverage is indeed be an American Dream. The stories fill the majority of the book with a shorter chapter (the Epilogue) on what can be done with Direct Action and Civic Duty. Mr. Herbert contends that a movement can start with a small group of people and grow through good organizing and passionate commitment into an agent of change. He describes how in 1960 four students from the all-Black North Carolina A&T College walked into a F.W. Woolworth store and sat at the segregated lunch counter. This act triggered “the first wave of titanic change in American life.” A movement was spawned and set an example for today’s movements of the need for effective organization and, most importantly, sustainability. Mr. Herbert reports on citizens’ groups rising up across the country and we have seen these in action both locally and nationally. For example, we are witnessing growing movements of fast food workers demanding a $15 an hour wage. With the Ferguson and New York grand jury decisions, it is heartening to see waves of young people of all races rallying and protesting injustice inflicted on Black men’s lives. Mr. Herbert cautions that leadership is needed to weave the fabrics of citizen action into a movement. And this movement needs to be strong enough to bring about structural change. He suggests that addressing the issue of some wiseacre put it. Since World War 2 the British have had a long history of trying to quell insurgency in its former colonial lands through various kinds of counter-insurgency techniques. Typically the techniques included terrorizing the underlying population by randomly murdering civilians, cultivating collaborationist elements who would infiltrate the insurgents as double agents, and even perpetrating atrocities covertly that could then be attributed to the insurgents. Cadwallader investigates the similarities between the counterinsurgency campaigns in Kenya in the 1950s, Malaya(now Malaysia) around the same time, Oman and Muskat with the Dhofar Rebellion from 1962 to 1976, Southern Yemen in the 1960s and Cyprus again in the 1950s. Many of the architects of the counter -insurgency operation of the British Government were recycled from one hot spot to another. Northern Ireland in the 1970s was the destination of more than a few of the most infamous managers and instigators of counterinsurgency in other parts of the world. Perhaps the most infamous whose career Cadwallader traces is Frank Kitson. As a military intelligence officer in Kenya from 1952 to 1955, he organized what he called ‘countergangs’ to infiltrate and destroy the Mau Mau movement. From there he moved on to Malaya, Cyprus, Oman and finally to Northern Ireland in 1970. He was promoted to the level of Brigadier before his move there and was made the commander of the 39th Brigade.
State-Orchestrated Murders in Northern Ireland Review of Book “Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland” by Anne Cadwallader, 2013 by Michael Drohan The deaths, murders and assassinations in Northern Ireland from the 1970s to the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1997 are sad, disturbing and unnerving in themselves, but to learn that British state organs such as the British military and police institutions were involved in the mayhem is devastating. Anne Cadwallader in her new book unearths this latter part of Northern Ireland’s tragedy as she traces the murders of 120 civilians there between 1972 and 1978. The people whose murders she traces were not members of paramilitary groups attached to or linked with the IRA or any other political group. They were farmers, shopkeepers, publicans, small businessmen, young couples renovating derelict homes, a librarian, a trade unionist and ordinary civilians who had good relations with both communities in Northern Ireland. Their only characteristic in common was that they tended to be upwardly mobile middleclass Catholics. As Cadwallader reveals from her thorough investigative work the murderers were paramilitaries with either membership or linkage to the 10 - NEWPEOPLE January 2015
Northern Ireland police force known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) or the British Army unit known as the Ulster Defense Regiment(UDR). The weapons used have been traced back in most cases to the arsenals of the UDR. The most devastating revelation of her book, however, is that the authorities in London and Belfast knew that the perpetrators were members of the security forces who were moonlighting as paramilitaries and terrorists. So, why would the State and its security forces pursue such a policy of terrorizing the civilian minority population of Northern Ireland? From her investigations, Cadwallader comes to the conclusion that this was deemed the best or only way to defeat the uprising in Northern Ireland against both the recent decades and the long centuries of colonial subjugation and discrimination against the indigenous Catholic minority in that outpost of the United Kingdom. By murdering ordinary middle-class Catholics, both the British State and its functionaries in Northern Ireland hoped that the Catholic population would repudiate the IRA and any other nationalist groups and so end the popular insurrection. Of the 120 murders that Cadwallader traces only one was a member of the IRA and the British understood clearly that they could not defeat the IRA militarily. So if they could not shoot the fish, then the policy was to poison the fishbowl, as
employment may be the path to a strong and viable movement. This part of the book should make us Pittsburghers feel proud. In addressing the cuts to education, Mr. Herbert writes about the work of Jessie Ramey and Kathy Newman. Both parents of Pittsburgh school children, they reacted to Governor Corbett’s $900 million in cuts to public education with organizing efforts highlighting the consequent loss of teachers, as well as science and art classes. They were instrumental in building a state-wide movement that featured lobbying and rallying activities in Harrisburg, local rallies and protests and the not-to-beforgotten creative protest at a Pittsburgh Opera Gala honoring the Governor and his wife. Ms. Ramey utilized the social media with her blog at yinzercation.wordpress.com, a web address that speaks for itself. Ramey’s and Newman’s movement made education the main issue of concern during the recent governor’s race, resulting in Mr. Corbett’s defeat. Mr. Herbert highlights the need for systemic change through our civic action and his parting words are that change will happen. With faith and lots of work, he believes that we can make that change. Theresa Chalich is a member of the board, and chair of the Community Organizing Committee of the Thomas Merton Center.
His case, as with many others, reveals that it was not a few rank and file rabid sectarian elements who led the campaign of mayhem in Northern Ireland; the leadership came right from London. Cadwallader traces this sordid history in her attempt to have the perpetrators of these crimes right at the top brought to justice. Throughout 1973 a number of steps were taken by the British and Irish Governments to bring about some semblance of democracy in Northern Ireland. In 1974 they produced, jointly with the Republic of Ireland, the Sunningdale Agreement on power sharing and a Council of Ireland and in 1985 the Anglo-Irish Agreement. All these measures were opposed with ferocity by the Protestant majority base in Northern Ireland, which favored continuing union with the United Kingdom. The measures taken by Britain to bring peace would seem to give the lie to any collusion with paramilitaries and murderers. However, just as in the case of Kenya, Malaya and other colonies, there was a less noble accompanying impulse - to destroy nationalist insurgencies and put in place neo-colonial structures whereby Britain’s economic control could continue through a collaborative native political regime. This was the grand scheme that Cadwallader outlines in detail. Michael Drohan is a member of the Editorial Collective and of the board of the Merton Center.
Dehumanization were merely on the scene or served as look outs. Given the fact that juveniles have little control over their movements at the age of 13 or 14, these sentences are particularly Pennsylvania has no minimum age Pennsylvania is included in a Miller v. Alabama should be cruel. for sentencing Juveniles to life minority of states which have In Pennsylvania Trina G., at 14 applied retroactively in PA without parole. The U.S. Supreme refused to apply the decision years old, started a fire in which Court decided in the case of Miller retroactively. Thus by Martha Conley someone died and she was thus v. Alabama that LWOP (Life juveniles sentenced to LWOP in subject to the felony murder rule. Human Her mother had died when Trina Rights watch Creative Commons was 9 and she was left to fend for has reported herself. She was homeless, that some disabled and subject to abuse on 2,380 people the streets. She was convicted and in the United sent to an adult prison at the age of States were 14 where she was raped by a guard sentenced to shortly after arriving there. She Life without gave birth to a child which was Parole as taken away from her at birth. She juveniles. has served 30 years in prison to Only Somalia date and will remain there until she and the United dies under current Pennsylvania States have law. The Equal Justice Initiative refused to which has spearheaded litigation ratify the U.N. on this issue states “Sadly, many Convention states have ignored the crisis and on the Rights dysfunction that creates child of the Child delinquency and instead have that prohibits subjected kids to further sentencing victimization in the adult criminal children to justice system…. EJI believes death in confinement of children with prison (life adults in jails and prisons is without indefensible, cruel and unusual and parole). Pennsylvania has the worst WithOut Parole) for juvenile non- Pennsylvania will die in prison should be banned”. record in the United States with homicide offenses as well as and unless this decision is put aside by In my opinion there is no reason over 400 people who were mandatory LWOP sentences for the new governor. Many of the to subject juveniles under the age of sentenced to die in prison as juveniles are unconstitutional. All juveniles sentenced to die in prison 18 to the felony murder rule at all. juveniles, the majority of whom are of the children sentenced to LWOP were sentenced under the felony We protect children in other children of color. in the United States for nonmurder rule where adults were the contexts; they cannot drive until Unlike some other states homicides are African American. actual perpetrators and the children age 16 or smoke until age 18 and yet we fail to recognize the developmental differences between Secretary Ms. Safia Parvin, the workers children and adults in the criminal were addressed by garment sector trade justice system and sentence them to leaders and workers’ leaders of Love adult prisons among sexual Craft Garments. The program highlighted predators where they are subject to a 10-point charter of demands: violence and sexual abuse. The by Amirul Haque Amin U.S. Supreme Court has decided in 1.Arrest and punishment for the factory two recent cases, that the Miller owner and his associates for attacking Hundreds of garment workers staged a Case is retroactive and on workers. ‘symbolic black-flag sit-in demonstration’ in December 12 granted review of a 2. Reopen the factory immediately and Dhaka city, Bangladesh on “World’s Human Louisiana Court’s decision to deny pay salaries and overtime to the workers. Rights Day”, December 10 to protest the retroactive application of Miller. 3. Reinstate Illegally terminated workers. violation their human rights by their factory Hopefully, Pennsylvania is destined 4. Return attendance cards & ID Cards owner. Older workers had been forced to for a similar outcome which will and resignation letters that were signed sign blank resignation letters under give hope to the over 400 people in under duress. duress. The workers demanded immediate the Commonwealth subject to 5. Pay maternity leave and benefits to the payment of their salaries and the reopening mandatory life without parole. women workers. of their factory, Love Craft Garments, Ltd. 6. Pay proper compensation to workers, The sit-in program of the workers who Martha Conley is a lawyer and Co were mostly women, was followed by a ‘black who received injuries, including -chair Pennsylvanians for amputation of fingers, during work. -flag procession’, that paraded unto the Alternatives to the Death Penalty 7. Provide Letters of Appointment or headquarters of Bangladesh and Official Visitor for the Contract Letters to all workers. Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Pennsylvania Prison Society. 8. Arrange for periodic safety inspection Association (BGMEA), and make their of the factory. demands. Before withdrawing, the protesting 9. Stop union bashing by factory workers forced the BGMEA leadership to management. commit to a conciliation meeting between the 10. Decide the fate of the factory in factory management and workers’ representative would take the following day at consultation with representatives of the union, NGWF, BGMEA and the the BGMEA building. The conciliation government. meeting was going on up to the writing of this report in December. During the sit-in demonstration, which was Amirul Haque Amin is the President of the National Garment Workers presided over by National Garment Federation in Bangladesh. Workers Federation (NGWF) General
In Defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court Pennsylvania Condemns Juveniles to Die in Prison
Garment Workers in Bangladesh Make Demands
January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 11
Justice Now American Justice--Separate, Unequal, Unjust “seizure” of a citizen must cite the 4th and not the 14th amendment. The right of the people to be secure Proceeding from that premise, Chief in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizure shall not be violated.
by Neil Cosgrove
“reasonable” going into such situations, or may be the actual sources of the stress. The court’s
Liberties Union found people of color are the targets of 71 percent of SWAT operations, despite the
Creative Commons
4th Amendment, U.S. Constitution No state shall … deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. 14th Amendment, U.S. Constitution The language found in our constitution is clear and direct. Let us remember that the protests and demonstrations sparked by the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner last summer are occurring because there is strong evidence American police departments are habitually violating constitutionally granted rights, particularly when it comes to citizens of color. Research by Philip Stinson of Bowling Green University reports there were 2,718 instances of “justified homicides” by law enforcement between 2005 and 2011, and only 41 officers were “charged with either murder or manslaughter in connection with an on-duty shooting.” Convictions were even rarer. Why? Begin with the 1989 Supreme Court decision in Graham v. Connor that claims police used excessive force in an arrest, investigatory stop, or other
12 - NEWPEOPLE
January 2015
Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the majority opinion that the “reasonableness” of the force “must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene.” In short, whether shooting and killing a citizen was “justified” is often determined by the officer who did the shooting. The court reasoned that officers needed that exception because they commonly must make split-second decisions in stressful situations. What the court ignored is that a minority of cops may not be
decision provides obvious cover for officers who may be racist or rogue, poorly trained or prone to panic. As American citizens of color know, and as the protestors seek to remind us, the brunt of aggressive police behavior, including deprivation of the most fundamental right, the right to life, during “routine” interactions with officers, falls on minorities. As Cornell Brooks, current president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), recently asserted, police are 21 times more likely to shoot a black suspect than a white one. The evidence can be anecdotal: A Brooklyn man speaking to a public radio station in New York City dismisses the possibility that police would accost him while he carries marijuana, simply because he is white. The twitter hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite documents numerous stories of white citizens engaged in egregiously criminal behavior without being troubled by cops, behavior much worse than selling loose cigarettes, or handling a toy gun, or reaching to retrieve a registration or license. If you are a large male, like Michael Brown or Eric Garner, then some officers may already be making the “split-second decision” to take you down because of their (reasonable?) fear of your size. The evidence can be databased: Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams were first formed in the late 1960s to handle hostage safety or active shooter situations. By 2012 79 percent of SWAT activity involved serving warrants. Currently, “choicedriven raids on people’s private residences” make up 85 percent of SWAT activity, according to Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University. Not surprisingly, a study by the American Civil
greater likelihood of whites being involved in hostage or active shooter incidents. Nor is it surprising to the demonstrators that the separate and unequal treatment of people of color by law enforcement takes place in courthouses as well as streets. Rather than ask a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri to find “probable cause” for an indictment in the case of Office Darren Wilson, local prosecutor Robert McCulloch overwhelmed that jury with “every scrap of evidence [he] could find,” reports New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin. Faced with 70 hours of testimony, 60 witnesses, and three medical examiners, and without the benefit of opening and closing arguments or cross-examinations, the jury predictably couldn’t discover “probable cause” to indict. Indeed, Dahlia Lithwick and Sonja West of Slate argue that McCulloch’s departure from how grand juries are normally used constituted a “closed trial,” which the Supreme Court ruled to be unconstitutional in other 1980s cases. An opinion by Justice William Brennan said closed trials “breed suspicion of prejudice and arbitrariness, which in turn spawns disrespect for the law.” No kidding. The U.S. Constitution is regarded as the ultimate “law of the land” and right now citizens all across the country have decided that law enforcement officials have shown disrespect for that law far too often. The maxim that without justice there can be no peace has never been so transparently true. Neil Cosgrove is a member of the New People editorial collective.
Local Activism Thomas Merton Center Statement in Response to Ferguson, Missouri and New York City Police Killing Continued from Page 1 The Thomas Merton Center stands in solidarity with all those who have lost loved ones due to police violence. What happened to Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO is happening all over the country to African-American young men: 12-year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland with his toy gun, who was gunned down two seconds after a police officer arrived; Eric Garner in Staten Island, whose suspected crime of selling untaxed cigarettes resulted in his being strangled to death by a police officer; Akai Gurley, killed by police while innocently walking down his apartment steps; Jonny Gammage, killed by police after a routine traffic stop here in Pittsburgh. Sadly, we could go on and on. Police brutality towards young men of color is standard fare in America. Racial
profiling by police has been an ongoing serious problem that must finally be addressed. People of color are stopped, arrested, tried, convicted and given long sentences – disproportionately to their crime rate. Deaths of civilians killed by police are estimated to be one for every day of the year. In some communities, people are in more danger from the police than any other group. Our police forces have been militarized in the way they are equipped and trained, with such force being deployed mainly in minority and poorer communities, and they too often use military style tactics when it is not warranted. And when a member of the police force breaks the law, it is the duty of our justice system to hold them accountable. By not holding individuals on the police force accountable, a culture of tolerance for
Steel made in the USA By Donna Curtis I was driving down my childhood street with my son in the back seat. I see the look upon his face trying to figure out why I brought him to this place. So I tell him. I want you to picture this town the way it used to be. When generations before us lest the old country bringing just with them our family name the steel mills were calling so this is where they came. Their American dreams were born from the blue collars that were worn on the front porch the flag would fly and not just on the Fourth of July. Your grandpa raised me up on a steel workers pay when products were still made in the USA yeah there's more to this town than what you see this is a branch to our family tree and I know your hat may never hang here but this is your history so don't let it disappear. There's a piece of us here and it will always remain. See son this town, well this town, it runs through our veins.
Bethlehem Steel Plant in Bethlehem, PA 2000 Photo by Carolyn Kaster
violence amongst police, and distrust of them by those they are “to protect and serve,” thrives. We call for increased communication between local police forces and community members to ensure proper procedures are being followed, to prevent the targeting of civilians by members of the police force for arbitrary reasons, while influenced by racism or classism, and to guarantee that no one's Constitutional rights are stripped away because they are a person of color, “look suspicious” and/or live in a poor community. The people of Ferguson and New York, as well as communities all across our country, are rightfully angry, and they have a right to peacefully demonstrate and speak out against the systemic racism that is pervasive in most institutions, not just the justice system. Protesters have a right to engage in nonviolent
expression without intimidation from law enforcement. Police have a duty to nonviolently help to defuse tension where necessary, without recourse to overtly militant and provocative actions, including the use of tear gas and pepper spray. With the present confluence of events bringing national awareness to significant problems, we need to define the true nature of the issues in order to address them. The criminalization of people of color, police use of unwarranted excessive force, a broken justice system, and structural racism and classism are serious problems that we urgently need to address openly and constructively. We cannot behave as though certain lives do not matter enough. We must actively commit to creating and sustaining a culture of peace and cooperation, not violence and division.
“Creating Common Good” Coming to Pittsburgh by Rev. Michelle Boomgaard For over forty years, Trinity Episcopal Church in New York brings together scholars and theologians to help people understand where God is calling them today. This January, St. Paul's Episcopal Church will be a partner site for this conference, known as Trinity Institute. This year's theme - Creating Common Good: A Practical Conference for Economic Equality - seems to come at a perfect time. Trinity Institute at St. Paul's is a great opportunity for those whose faith leads them to wonder about the future of those who find themselves negatively impacted by today's economy. This two-and-a-half day conference provides access to some of the pre-eminent scholars and theologians on this topic, including the Very Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury; Dr. Cornel West, professor at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton; journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich and blogger Rachel Held Evans. It also includes many changemakers, like Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; and Nicole Baker Fulgham, founder of The Expectations Project. Trinity Institute at St. Paul's offers participants the opportunity of hearing these speakers live via webcast. This will be a time to meet and reflect on these talks with people who are making a difference here in Southwest Pennsylvania. This conference promises to equip attendees with practical tools and inspiration to make an impact. More information about Trinity Institute at St. Paul's and to register, visit: www.stpaulspgh.org/creating-common-good. The registration deadline is January 15.St. January 2015
NEWPEOPLE - 13
Paths to Justice How Joyce's Ulysses Transformed the Private into the Subversive by Neil Cosgrove
When, as a young man, I told one of my Irish-American aunts I was reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, she quickly and vehemently dismissed the author as “that dirty-minded little man.” And, from one angle of perception, she was absolutely correct. Joyce first got into trouble for using foul language while a schoolboy of seven at a Jesuit boarding school. Kevin Birmingham, author of the recently published The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses (Penguin Press), makes a convincing argument that the iritis that plagued Joyce most of his adult life, rendering him nearly blind, was likely the result of contracting syphilis during one of his many trips to Dublin’s Nighttown as a young man. And many a self-appointed arbiter of sexual morality, upon getting wind of Joyce’s love letters to partner Nora, would no doubt judge him depraved. My aunt and those other arbiters aside, readers the world over have discovered a universality in the shape and contents of Joyce’s gutter, and Birmingham does an admirable job of helping us understand why. What was provoking and artistically transcendent about Joyce, Birmingham argues, is that the writer didn’t see much difference between sexually charged words and all the rest. The letters of the alphabet “careened between innocence and guilt, the sublime and the obscene.” In Ulysses, a work that was systematically confiscated, burned, and censored in the years both before and after its publication in book form, Joyce broke down the barriers between the “empirical” or “exterior” and the “interior” or “obscene,” between the secret and the apparent. “It showed us,” observes Birmingham, “that secrecy is the tool of doomed regimes and that secrets
themselves are, as Joyce wrote, ‘tyrants, willing to be dethroned.’” Joyce decided that he could telescope three thousand years of Western culture, from Homeric myth to the early 20th-century British empire, into the melded thoughts and actions of three decidedly mundane protagonists in 1904 Dublin. In short, and this is the crux of our own heightened interest in Birmingham’s chronicle, Joyce blurred the distinction between the pornographic and the subversive. Remarkably, that’s what his official enemies—the London Society for the Suppression of Vice, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, the U.S. Postal Service, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation—feared in his work as well. “There was little difference,” writes Birmingham, “between the dangerous words that the government found treasonable and the salacious words that the NYSSV found morally corrupt.” When a Dublin publisher destroyed the first edition of Dubliners years before the emergence of Ulysses, it wasn’t just because of Joyce’s use of the word “bloody;” it was also because of the disparaging words spoken by one of his characters about Queen Victoria and her profligate son, Edward. Long before the “personal became political” for feminists of the 1970s Joyce was championed by a slew of remarkable women, most of whom were as ready for a political fight as they were for aesthetically challenging literature. Dora Marsden, the publisher of Joyce’s first novel, began her public life as a confrontational British suffragette. Margaret Anderson, who ran excerpts from Ulysses in her American magazine Little Review, began hers advocating the ideas of the most famous anarchist of her day, Emma Goldman. Sylvia Beach, publisher of the first edition of Ulysses, was propelled into the book business by her experiences
of sexism while working for the Red Cross in post-war Belgrade. Harriet Shaw Weaver, publisher of the British edition of Ulysses, used her private fortune to support both Marsden’s magazine and Joyce himself until his death in 1941. None of these women, it appears, enjoyed having their “female virtue” protected by vice societies or governmental institutions. Joyce’s rebellion against the suppression of the private was also their own. The Great War of 1914-18 heightened institutional anxiety about the politically and the culturally dissident. Obscenity induced a social chaos manifested in political violence, the Vice Societies believed, and censorship was a preemptive strike against such chaos. One British review of Ulysses compared the book “to a Fenian bomb blowing up the castle of English literature.” When Attorney General Mitchell Palmer launched his massive raid on subversives early in 1920, he included the two female publishers of Little Review as targets. By 1921 the “subversives” on whom his General Intelligence Division kept files numbered nearly a half million. Files were created for Joyce supporter Ezra Pound, for Ernest Hemingway, who recruited a politically dissident friend to smuggle copies of Ulysses into the U.S. from Canada, and for James Joyce himself. Eventually Ulysses was allowed to confuse, trouble and enthrall readers without government interference, through a gradually evolving legal definition of what constituted obscenity and, perhaps, through revulsion at the wholesale burning of books by the Nazis. But Birmingham’s book reminds us that the freedom to think, and to explore even the most provocative of thoughts, is necessary to the functioning of any society that purports to be open to change. We must continually ask ourselves what private thoughts deserve exposition, to sustain the health of our culture and commonweal.
PUT YOUR NEXT EVENT ON TV or THE INTERNET!!! by Carlana Rhoten Progressive organizations, churches, agencies, and individuals are scheduling events, conferences, speakers, panels of experts, working group task forces, book authors, documentaries and other program content that could be video-recorded for future use. Future use may include uploading to websites on the Internet or airing on public access television such as COMCAST Channel 21 and VERIZON FIOS Channel 47 on Mondays @ 9 PM. Another possibility is to burn a DVD to be available to members of the public. Documentaries can be produced in varying lengths from an hour, to half hour, to 10 minutes to a minute Public Service Announcement. An organization might like to have a documentary of their history, their mission and their activities and accomplishments. Another goal might be to 14 - NEWPEOPLE January 2015
produce an educational piece to explain some issue or topic of concern. There are a number of videographers in our community who may help to produce programs and documentaries. I would like to urge those engaged in planning events, or conducting campaigns on various issues, to consider planning for video recordings to be made as part of their planning the event. If a production meets the technical requirements for airing on television, I would consider it being aired on Progressive Pgh Notebook TV Series. For more information contact Carlana Rhoten, tvnotebook@gmail.com or phone 412-363-7472 Carlana Rhoten is the leader of Pittsburgh Progressive Notebook, which is a project of the Thomas Merton Center.
“Green World Rising” by Carlana Rhoten Leonardo DiCaprio and his father, George, have made a full commitment to tackle the issue of Climate Change/ Global Warming. They have embarked on the production of four episodes of short documentaries under the title of “ GREEN WORLD RISING.ORG” Episode One= “CARBON”; Episode Two=” LAST HOURS”; Episode Three=”GREEN WORLD RISING”; and Episode Four= “RESTORATION.” The first three episodes have been released and can be viewed on the Internet. Also,leonardodicapriofoundation.com During the month of January, every Monday at 9 PM, “GREEN WORLD RISING” can be viewed in Pittsburgh on COMCAST Channel 21 and VERIZON FIOS Channel 47, the public access channels provided by the Pittsburgh Community Television Corp (www.pctv21.org.) Sometimes you can catch this program on live stream during airing. In their news release they state, “Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is changing our climate and transforming our world. From more destructive and more frequent extreme weather events, to rising sea levels, to climate refugees, crop failure and water scarcity, the consequences are profound. “Last Hours” expertly explains how we got here and what will happen if we don’t work together to stop it. It is a needed and urgent call to action.” Al Gore. Carlana Rhoten is the Community Producer of Progressive Pgh. Notebook TV series 412-363-7472, tvnotebook@gmail.com.
Thomas Merton Center Community Updates TMC Welcomes Two New Board Members
Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, The Global Switchboard, Union Project, University of Pittsburgh, and by WHAT’S UP?! (Working and Healing to Abolish Total Supremacy, Undermining Privilege). Local cross-sector programs she co-designed and runs are Scholars-at-Large (focusing on professional development for academics) and iNCLUDE (focusing on community diversity education through interactive projects such as “Color Me Pittsburgh,” which debuted at Three Rivers Arts Festival in 2014).
WILLIAM SCOTT: Bill is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh. He graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo, majoring in English and Philosophy. His Masters degree in German is from Johns Hopkins University and was followed by a Doctorate from there in Comparative Literature in 2003. Bill’s activist experience goes back to 1998 as a member and organizer of the Student Labor Action Committee, where he Joyce Rothermel campaigned for a living wage at Johns Hopkins University. In At the January 19th Thomas Merton Center board meeting, there will be two 2003, Bill worked as an new members around the table. Please join us in welcoming them! organizer for ACORN (Association of Community ANUPAMA JAIN: anu is the Founder of Inclusive Diversity & Inclusion Organizations for Reform Consulting and is currently working with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Now) on neighborhood where she is responsible for supporting the organization’s efforts to increase its improvement projects. More capacity for promoting social justice and racial equity. Previously, anu was the recently, Bill was a member and organizer of “The People’s Library” in Liberty Community Programs Coordinator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Square (Zuccotti Park), Lower Manhattan in the Occupy Wall Street in the Education Division. After earning a PhD movement. Among his publications is an article that appeared in The Nation in literary and cultural studies from the University of Wisconson-Madison, anu magazine entitled, “The People’s Library Lives”. wrote the book How to Be South Asian in America: Narratives of Ambivalence and Belonging (Temple University Press, 2011). She has more than a decade of We are grateful to anu and Bill for their willingness to share their time, talent experience in higher education, conducting original research, teaching and treasure to further the mission of the Thomas Merton Center over the next undergraduates, and filling varied service roles. More recently, anu has focused three years. on collaborative community organizing and public humanities initiatives in Pittsburgh, partnering with organizations Joyce Rothermel serves on the Board Development Committee and is a including the Black & White Reunion (for the 2014 Summit Against Racism),
The Molly Rush Legacy Fund (MRLF)
Molly Rush Legacy Fund Testimonial by Michael Drohan and Joyce We have been asked to share with you, the readers of Rothermel The New People, our decision What would Pittsburgh be and our thoughts about it. We like without the Thomas gladly agreed because we Merton Center? The thought hope you will consider is one that we cannot fathom including the Merton Center and one that we want to do all in your wills, too. that we can to ensure does not Source: World CouncilWhile neither of us were happen. We know that we born and raised in Pittsburgh, of Churches share this perspective with upon arriving here, news of many others who believe in the Center came to us. Here the mission of the Merton we have found a community Center especially Molly of people who share and Rush. richly nourish our lives. The In 2013, when we TMC gives us hope, provides celebrated the 40th opportunities for reflection anniversary of the Merton and action and continually Center, we announced the challenges us to broaden our beginning of the Molly Rush minds, widen our hearts, and Legacy Fund. Obviously, it envision a better world. was established to honor In the open, fertile, and Molly Rush, co-founder and supportive environment of the long time director of the Center and with Molly as a Merton Center. Secondarily, mentor, my (Joyce) but no less importantly, the involvement with the opening Fund was started to identify of the Jubilee Kitchen and the future resources to support the Pittsburgh Food Bank were on-going mission of the TMC. made possible during my staff When information of the tenure at the Center (1977Molly Rush Legacy Fund was 87). shared with the Center’s My connection (Michael) members and supporters, we with the Center dates from formalized our commitment to 1984 on my arrival in the future of the Center by Pittsburgh in search of including it in our wills and institutions working against completing the Legacy Fund the wars being waged at that form alerting the Center to our time on the people of intentions. A handful of other Nicaragua, El Salvador, signed forms have arrived at Guatemala and Honduras. The the Merton Center this past Thomas Merton Center was year.
the place that was carrying the banner against these awful interventions by the Reagan Administration. We are both encouraged by the resurgence of energy at the Merton Center shown by the Board, Staff, Committees, Projects, Volunteers, Interns and Members. We enjoy especially our time with the interns and young volunteers. They inspire us with hope that efforts for peace and social justice will go on beyond our years. It is our intention that the Merton Center goes beyond Molly’s legacy and all of ours as well. Please join us in including the Thomas Merton Center in your will, no matter what the amount or percentage. If the Center and Molly’s Legacy is important to you now, help ensure its mission into the future. You can learn more about the Molly Rush Legacy Fund by visiting www.thomasmertoncenter.org or by calling the Merton Center at 412-361-3022. Joyce Rothermel and Michael Drohan our members of the board and
editorial collective.
Happy 2015! I'm certain your New Year resolutions were made, or were not made, have been broken, etc. There is one resolution that has not been realized - a peaceful world. Do you remember the sayings we heard as children:
A stitch in time saves nine. A penny saved is a penny earned. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Step on the crack - break your Mother's back. What you give comes back to you many times.
I'd like to add a new saying: A donation to the MRLF keeps the work for justice and peace alive! We know that Molly Rush has worked for economic justice all her life - knowing this is the step to a peaceful world. Let's do our part to recognize and continue this important work. 1. Make a contribution to the Molly Rush Legacy Fund. 2. Name the Thomas Merton Center in your will. 3. Name the Thomas Merton Center as the beneficiary of an annuity, or a portion of your life insurance. 4. Talk to your financial advisor and/or your attorney to discover the current tax benefits of willing real estate to the Thomas Merton Center. We have all worked long and hard to make our community, our nation and the world a more peaceful place. Find a way that fits you to continue this work. You can do it! We all can do it! Add the 2015 saying to your list: "A gift to the MRLF continues the work toward justice and peace." Toward a Happy and Peaceful New Year! Submitted by Bonnie DiCarlo2015 January NEWPEOPLE - 15
January 2015 Sunday
Monday
1
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
2
3
4
5
6
Support Public Transit - attend the Allegheny County Council meeting on the fourth floor in the Gold Room from 5-6 pm
Moshe Marvit Book Discussion The Big Idea Bookstore 7pm
Fight for $15 Nationwide Rally 6am 1pm various locations
Doing History from the Bottom Up: A book launch with Staughton Lynd - Letter Carriers Union Hall 7pm
Worker Justice Action Academy Human Services Bldg 9 -5pm
12
13
Women of Color for Reproductive Justice- The Warhol 6pm
7
8
9
10
Shop for your Holiday Gifts at East End Community Thrift Store 5123 Penn Avenue. Support TMC and the community.
Amnesty International Pittsburgh Human Rights Festival & Write-a-thon Calvary Episcopal Church 6-9pm
The TMC New Economy Campaign Potluck Dinner - Thomas Merton Center 6-8pm
TMC SOAWatch reportback Potluck - TMC 6-8pm
Shop for your Holiday Gifts at East End Community Thrift Store 5123 Penn HRCA’s Avenue. Human Rights Support TMC Day and the Rally&March - community 1835 Centre Ave. 12pm
Human Rights Happy Hour Ryan’s Pub & Grill 5:30pm
How Can We Build Collective Economic Power? - New Economy Coalition & Guests from Detroit - 5129 Penn Ave. 12pm
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Anti-War Strategizing Meeting Friends Meeting House 2-4pm
Shop for your Holiday Gifts at Chanukah East End begins (sunset) Community Thrift Store 5123 Penn Avenue. Support TMC and the community
Deliberative Democracy Forum Friends Meeting House 6-9pm
Shop for your Holiday Gifts at East End Community Thrift Store 5123 Penn Avenue. Support TMC and the community
21
22
Winter Solstice
28
23 Yuri Kochiyama, a giant in the struggle for racial justice for all communities of color.
29
30
11
Earth Quaker Action Team Protest - PNC Sq. Hill 11am
TMC Holiday Open House 5129 Penn Ave 1-4pm ARTlab Scribble Machines Mattress Factory 1-4pm
24
25
26
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Kwanzaa begins
Chanukah Ends
27 Mini Factory for children The Mattress Factory Museum 10am
Regular Meetings
Sundays:
Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project First three Sundays of the month at TMC Contact: bookempgh@gmail.com Anti-War and Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition 3rd Sunday at 1:30 pm at TMC, 5129 Penn Ave., Garfield, PA 15224
Mondays: SW Healthcare 4 All PA /PUSH Meeting 1st Monday, 7:30 —9 pm 2101 Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill Association of Pittsburgh Priests 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm, Prince of Peace Rectory 162 South 15th, Southside, Pgh. PA 15203 Amnesty International #39 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm First Unitarian Church, Morewood Ave. 15219
Wednesdays: Human Rights Coalition: Fed-Up! Every Wednesday at 7p, Write letters for prisoner’s rights at the Thomas Merton Center Darfur Coalition Meeting 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, 2121 Murray Ave., 2nd Floor, Squirrel Hill. 412-784-0256 Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) 1st Wednesdays, 7-8pm, First Unitarian Church, Ellsworth & Morewood Avenues, Shadyside
Thursdays: International Socialist Organization Every Thursday, 7:30-9:30 pm at the Thomas Merton Center Global Pittsburgh Happy Hour 1st Thursday, 5:30 to 8 pm, Roland's Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave, Strip District Green Party Meeting 1st Thursday, 7 to 9 pm, 2121 Murray, 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill Black Political Empowerment Project 2nd Thursday, 6 pm: Planning Council Meeting, Hill House, Conference Room B
Fridays: Unblurred Gallery Crawl 1st Friday after 6 pm, Penn Avenue Arts District, 4800-5500 Penn Ave., Friendship and Garfield 15224 Hill District Consensus Group 2nd Friday, 10 am — 12 pm, Elsie Hillman Auditorium, Kaufmann Center 1825 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 People of Prisoners in Need of Support 3rd Friday, 7:00pm New Hope Methodist Church, 114 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh 15212
Saturdays: Project to End Human Trafficking 2nd Sat., Carlow University, Antonian Room #502 Fight for Lifers West 3rd Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm, Thomas Merton Center
31 New Year’s Eve
To be updated by Doug
This year, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded to the families of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were killed on June 21, 1964, near Philadelphia, Mississippi. We honor their courage!
Subscribe to The New People by becoming a member of the Thomas Merton Center today!
As a member, The New People newspaper will be mailed to your home or sent to your email account. You will also receive weekly e-blasts focusing on peace and justice events in Pittsburgh, and special invitations to membership activities. Now is the time to stand for peace and justice!
Join online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/join -donate or fill out this form, cut out, and mail in. Mail this form and membership donation to: Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 16 - NEWPEOPLE
January 2015
Select your membership level:
____$15 ____$15 ____$50 ____$100
Low Income Membership Youth / Student Membership Individual Membership Family Membership
Please complete and return to TMC. Thank you! Name(s):__________________________________ Organization (if any): ________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________
___Check here if this is a gift membership
_______________________________________________________
____$500+ Cornerstone Sustainer Membership ____Donation $____________________________
Home Phone:______________________________
Or Become an Organizational Member:
__$75 Organization (below 25 members) __$125 Organization (above 25 members)
City:_________________ State:______ Zip Code:__________ Cell Phone: _______________________________ Email:____________________________________
Mail to TMC, 5129 Penn Ave. Pgh. PA 15224