PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER
VOL. 43 No. 10, November 2013
by Richard Granger Over the last year, Walmart workers and members of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) have called on the retail giant to stop its practice of retaliating against workers who are simply exercising by Ron Bandes their right to speak out for a better life City of Pittsburgh Police and improved officers have long been required working conditions. to live in the City. A new state Their calls for law allows police officers to live change have been outside the city in which they Striking Walmart Workers protest on Black Friday. met with Walmart’s work, so the Fraternal Order of Courtesy of the Creative Commons. extreme response of Police Lodge 1 challenged the firing and requirement that police officers disciplining workers who speak out for positive changes in the workplace— live within Pittsburgh. In order leading many to seriously question the company’s relationship with workers to maintain the requirement for City of Pittsburgh residency, the throughout its supply chain. Leading up to the holidays, members of OUR Walmart and community Pittsburgh City Council voted on supporters will continue to call on the company to publicly commit to raising July 23rd to put the question to wages and increasing access to full-time hours so that no worker at Walmart voters, and add the residency makes less than $25,000 per year. requirement to the home rule (continued on page 10) charter. Proponents of the residency requirement cite that only 23 of 349 (6.6%) recruits in a nine year period were AfricanAmerican, while 25.8% of the city’s population is AfricanAmerican, and that opening the Health Care 4 All PA jobs to residents of the suburbs Hosts Nov. 19 Program will exacerbate the problem. “If police are allowed to move out, by Bob Mason diversity will be diluted further. Obamacare, despite a We’ll have officers coming in rocky beginning online, is, with possibly no experience even with government with young African-Americans shutdown and threats of or Hispanics,” said Tim worse, a reality that will Stevens of the Black bring coverage to millions Political Empowerment of people. However, Project. unnecessary cost, waste and For more information, see complexity will continue to the July 24th edition of the New photo by Molly Rush be serious drawbacks. Pittsburgh Courier or last Single-payer health care is the next stage in reform, as established by month’s New People. Senate Bill 400 and championed by State Senator Jim Ferlo and passionate advocates around Pennsylvania. Bill 400 is the focus of an Economic Impact Ron is president of Study conducted by Economics Professor Gerald Friedman and released earlier VoteAllegheny, a non-partisan this year. State Representative Pam DeLisio will be introducing the companion election integrity organization. Bill HB 1660 in the House.
Pittsburgh Police Residency Question on November 5 Ballot
Black Friday Strikes and Protests at Walmart
Dr. Gerald Friedman: PA can cover all, save $17 Billion a Year
(more November 5 election coverage on page 3)
(continued on page 4)
IN THIS ISSUE: What’s Up With Congress and the Federal Food Programs? —page 4 Standing with UPMC Workers to Make it Our UPMC —page 10 Indigenous Americans Protest Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Continued Injustice —page 11
Bill McKibben’s Tour of Europe Ends in Pittsburgh by Diane McMahon Just before he comes to Pittsburgh, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, which has inspired many to become climate change activists, will lead the Fossil Free Europe Tour accompanied by other movement leaders, including Greenpeace International’s executive director Kumi Naidoo, hosting events in Berlin, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and London. They will be traveling there from October 27 through November 1, only a few days before McKibben will come to Pittsburgh, to accept the Thomas Merton Award on Monday, November 4, at the Sheraton Station Square. Registration is open at the following link: http:// thomasmertoncenter.org/ mckibben/
The goal of the tour is to launch the first European fossil fuel divestment campaign. As with previous tours in the USA and Australia, McKibben will make the case for how the core business model of the fossil fuel industry is destroying our climate, and poses the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. (continued on page 15)
TMC 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.
November 2013
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Who’s Your Brother? 412-328-2301 www.whosyourbrother.com Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network 412-621-9230 office@piin.org Page 1 Police Residency Ballot Question
Page 5 Inequality for All
Black Friday Walmart Actions Bill McKibben Tours Europe PA Healthcare Study
The New Economy
Page 3 Keep Buses Downtown
NGO in Nicaragua Honduran Civil Rights
November 5 Election \ Page 4 Federal Food Programs
Educational Justice
Page 6 PA Farm Show
Page 7 Book Review— by Michael Drohan Bo Xilai’s Chongqing Page 8
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November 2013
Table of Contents Mass Honors Three Black Women Saint Candidates Human Trafficking
Catholic Church Sexuality Page 9 Solidarity in Solitary Page 10 Make it Our UPMC
Inequality for All
Page 11 Indigenous Americans Protest Injustice Thomas Merton and Thanksgiving Page 12 B-PEP on the Federal Bench
New JFK Play Page 13 Sembene Film Festival
Images of Hiroshima Capital’s End
TMC is a Member of: Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Martha Connelly 412-361-7872,
osterdm@earthlink.net
Page 14 Hope For the Future
What Malala Said to President Obama
Meet Two New Interns Page 15 Bill McKibben
Join the Most Vital People in the Struggle Page 16 November Calendar
Pittsburgh Politics Keep Buses Downtown and Include the Public in Public Transit Planning by Helen Gerhardt Recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette articles raised concerns about potential plans for a "bus free downtown" and, more importantly, the possibility of non-inclusive public transit planning processes that would give more weight to a limited range of developer and business interests rather than to the needs of a broad range of stakeholders that would be most affected by such plans. County Executive Richard Fitzgerald and Mayoral candidate Peduto have responded that no such plan has been laid on the table and that there will definitely be public process for future planning. But riders, drivers, small businesses and minority communities have seen their input ignored so many times in the past, given a token nod, while big money and corporate networks speak loudly behind closed doors, resulting in gentrified urban streetscapes across the globe, as described by economist David Harvey.Allegheny Transit Union President Steve Palonis expressed grave concerns about the practicality of such an “exclusive” plan: "We've seen too many past attempts to validate such proposals with ‘outside consultants’ in the name of ‘efficiency,’ without consulting the highly trained drivers, who know the operation of the system the best and with very bad practical results for riders. This time the planning and decisions should be made hand-inhand with those who have the greatest first-hand knowledge of Pittsburgh's public transit. Taking public transit out of downtown would be like taking the ‘P’ out of Pittsburgh," says Palonis. Pittsburgh is not the most livable city in this country for many black community members. Patricia Bates explains, "I spend hours every day commuting by the buses. I'm a personal care attendant in Dormont for an elderly woman who needs me. I get up at 4:30 am and go out a half hour early to make sure to catch an earlier bus than the schedule says, because if that
first bus is late for me to make my transfer downtown, my client can't take of herself. We've seen a lot of decisions made from above by developers like the Penguins here on the Hill that have had really bad results. Too many times, black communities are left out of the real decisions. We need to have more of a voice in what happens with our routes." Paul O'Hanlon, member of the Pittsburghers for Public Transit Coordinating Committee, member of the Committee for Accessible Transportation ,and Staff Attorney with the Disability Rights Network responded: Public transportation is for everyone. That is our federal policy. As such, any proposed changes must work for everyone, not only a few, not only the ablebodied. A Downtown Circulator is an idea worth considering - in addition to our current Downtown service, not instead. Terminating routes at the edge of Downtown would produce a needless delay for riders to wait for the Circulator bus - a delay that most ablebodied people would probably avoid, meaning that only those with mobility impairments would be inconvenienced by needing to make the connection Downtown. Not only is readily accessible public transit crucial to the health of our urban core and a crucial human right, but the connective hub of downtown Pittsburgh promotes the entire region's economic, environmental and social health. We invite the community to participate in one or more of a series of four community and action planning Saturday sessions to fully consider these issues. These sessions which began on Saturday, October 26th, from 12-2pm continue into November. Each session begins with guest speakers who have expertise in public transit issues. Then participants share their experience and information, and develop an outline of concerns, priorities and action plans to promote more inclusive and informed public engagement in transit planning to present to our elected officials in 2014.
November 5: Special Election for City Council District 7 by Ron Bandes Patrick Dowd resigned his Pittsburgh City Council District 7 seat to head Allies for Children, an advocacy group to inspire practical policy and programmatic changes on behalf of the tens of thousands of children in the Pittsburgh region. District 7 includes Bloomfield, Friendship, Highland Park, Lawrenceville, Morningside, Polish Hill, Stanton Heights, and the Strip District. Seeking to replace Mr. Dowd are Deborah Gross a Democrat of Highland Park, a community activist and former director of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Alliance, Tony Ceoffe Jr. a Democrat running as an independent from Lawrenceville who works for the city Housing Authority, the Democratic chairman of the 6th Ward, which includes Polish Hill, and is the son of Lawrenceville's District Judge, David E. Powell, Libertarian, who works as an assistant administrator for the University of Pittsburgh's Falk Library and chairs the Allegheny County Libertarian Party;
November 2nd, 12-2pm: Economic health: Consideration of employment and shopping access, business health and equitable development. Transit drivers will discuss the role of the union in promoting quality of transit service. Comparison of public transportation vs. privatization outcomes for communities. Funding options that promote democratic control over public investments for our region. Nov. 9th, 12-2pm: Environmental and human health: air quality benefits: access to food and healthcare; integrated multimodal transportation and health benefits of exercise and social connection. Nov. 16th, 12-2pm: Social and political equity: Consideration of access to volunteering, political action and democratic engagement, culture, recreation, parks, education. The role of public transit in bridging community divides based on geography, class and race.
Please contact Community Organizer, Helen Gerhardt at 412-518-7387 or info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org for more information and to RSVP for the series or for any session of particular interest to you. Helen Gerhardt is a Volunteer for Pittsburghers for Public Transit, a volunteer, grassroots organization of riders, drivers and other concerned Pittsburghers that advocate for public mass transit because it’s essential for healthy environments, economies, and communities.
Special B-PEP Voting Rights Moment/Announcement! All Registered Voters, Get Out And “VOTE YES!” Tuesday— November 5, 2013 There will be a REFERENDUM Question:
“Shall the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter Article Seven, Personnel, be supplemented by Article Section 711 – Resident Requirements for ALL employees?” District 7, City of Pittsburgh
Tom Fallon, independent; and Jim Wudarczyk, independent of Lawrenceville who touts a lifetime of work in the private sector and financial management. He is also a local historian who authored or co-authored five books on Pittsburgh and Civil War history. City Council votes in January for council president. Whoever wins the special election could swing the council presidency either toward incumbent Darlene Harris or towards a Peduto ally. Ron Bandes is president of VoteAllegheny, a non-partisan election integrity organization.
THE ANSWER IS “YES”!!! WHY? “If police are allowed to move out, diversity will be diluted further. We’ll have officers coming in with possibly no experience with young African-American or Hispanics,” said Tim Stevens of the Black Political Empowerment Project. HOW did we get here? City of Pittsburgh Police officers have long been required to live in the City. A new state law allows police officers to live outside the city in which they work, so the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1 challenged the requirement that police officers live within Pittsburgh. In order to maintain the requirement for City of Pittsburgh residency, the Pittsburgh City Council voted to put the question to voters, and add the residency requirement to the home rule charter.
For more information see the July 24th edition of the New Pittsburgh Courier. To volunteer with B-PEP to do non-partisan voter registration, education and election protection, Call B-PEP at 412-7587898 or email b-pepinfo@b-pep.net Paid for by a member of the Black Political Empowerment Project.
November 2013
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Government and Wellness Dr. Gerald Friedman: PA can cover all, save $17 Billion a Year
Educational Justice for All by Samantha Wechsler
Health Care 4 All PA Hosts November 19 Program
In recent years, the United States education system has been under scrutiny for the use of test scores to (continued from page 1) Morewood Avenue, Pittsburgh measure the success of students and Folks in southwest Pennsylvania will have 15213, on Tuesday, November 19 teachers. On September 16th, Diane an opportunity to hear Dr. Friedman explain his from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Ravitch, former U.S. Assistant conclusions that the Commonwealth can The program, co-sponsored by Secretary of Education (in George W. provide all residents with truly comprehensive Health Care 4 All PA, the UU Bush administration) and historian, health care, save $17 billion a year (hopefully to Church, and the University of spoke to an impassioned audience be invested in education, infrastructure, mass Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work about her new book “Reign of Error: transit, and clean energy), and create 120,000 (2 CEUs available for a processing The Hoax of the Privatization new jobs. fee of $10), will kick off with videos Movement and the Danger to He also studied the single-payer system from Senator Ferlo and Healthy America’s Public Schools,” which created by HR 676, and found the U.S. could Artists and will include plenty of addresses the problems within our save an estimated $592 billion annually by opportunity for questions and education system, especially for special slashing the administrative waste associated with answers. education and low income students. the private insurance industry ($476 billion) and For additional information, In her presentation, Ravitch reducing pharmaceutical prices to European contact Bob Mason at discussed the dangers of using test levels ($116 billion). In 2014, the savings would bmasona@gmail.com. scores to measure student performance. be enough to cover all 44 million uninsured An active voice against No Child Left residents and upgrade benefits. Behind and Race to the Top, she argues The public is invited to Dr. Friedman’s talk that high stakes testing jeopardizes at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, 605 classroom learning. Rather than teaching for the sake of knowledge and personal growth, teachers are forced to teach to a test that they did not create. Any opportunity for creativity is pushed aside in favor of quantifiable data. This hurts both teachers and students. Teachers are under constant pressure to perform at a level they cannot attain. This type of evaluation is especially discouraging for special education teachers. These teachers can be unfairly penalized if their students do not perform at a satisfactory level. by Joyce Rothermel Conference Committee charged with Realistically, these students face Many people who struggle coming up with the final Farm Bill, but additional challenges that impact their every day to put food on their tables are they can have great influence on their performance. When special education especially grateful that a continuing colleagues’ decisions and each of them teachers receive negative feedback for resolution was finally passed by will have to cast a vote for or against the their student’s test scores, they can be Congress on Wed., Oct. 16, 2013. bill the Conference Committee discouraged from teaching these Ironically, it was on the United Nations’ proposes. students because administrators see World Food Day, 16 days after the start Although there are 435 their performance as substandard. of a government shutdown that stopped members in the U.S. House of However, these scores do not funding for meals on wheels programs Representatives, and our area has “only” accurately reflect their teaching and meals at senior centers. five of them, each U.S. Representative abilities. It is imperative to retain The continuing resolution was can be quite powerful. What it also exceptional teachers in these needed because Congress had failed to means is that you are also quite powerful classrooms for the students who so pass budgets for the new fiscal year. The – you can play an important role in desperately need them. sequester that has indiscriminately cut letting these elected officials know that Across the country, low-income funds from all discretionary programs you care about your hungry neighbors students are hurt the most when test remains, hurting many low income and you want them to do the same. scores are used to judge their success. people in many ways, food programs As the next phase of the Farm Testing often most accurately reflects among them. Bill process gets underway, those who family income and the related This is not the only unfinished care about the many hungry people in opportunity gap rather than a business that is awaiting action from communities throughout southwestern capacity to learn. When school Congress. The Farm Bill that contains Pennsylvania – urban, suburban and funding is based on authorization for the Supplemental rural – are encouraged to reach out to performance on standardized Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP – Senators Casey and Toomey, and also to testing, low-income students formerly the Food Stamp Program) was their member of Congress. Action steps are at a distinct disadvantage. passed by the House and Senate but with are available on many of the websites. Rather than providing them two different versions – both cutting One is the postcard campaign (a virtual with the opportunity to expand SNAP by billions of dollars over the postcard is available at their horizons and explore next ten years. The House cut was ten www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/ ways out of poverty, their times worse than the Senate version at lettercampaign). Another is funding for arts, music, sports, nearly $40 billion in cuts over ten years www.feedingamerica.org And finally, and other “extras” are cut. with unwelcome modifications to it. www.bread.org These schools may even close This would mean a cut of $25 million in Also, please encourage, your because they are seen as SNAP benefits each year right here in families, friends, and co-workers to join underperforming. Ravitch southwestern Pennsylvania negatively you in taking action. Thank you for argues that closing these impacting all too many vulnerable playing an important role in the fight schools hurts students much children and seniors. Now the bills must against hunger. more than it helps them. In go to an appointed conference some communities, education committee. Joyce Rothermel is Co-Chair of the SW deserts have been created Neither of our PA Senators and PA Food Security Partnership. because there are no public none of our Congressmen have been schools remaining. This forces appointed to the joint Senate-House parents to become consumers
What's Up with Congress and the Federal Food Programs?
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November 2013
Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch
rather than citizens as they weigh options of charter schools and vouchers. Education as a market system is not a viable option for students; our society must look out for the common good of all children collectively. This will only happen if public schools continue to belong to the public. Ravitch proposed several solutions to our education woes moving forward. She advocated for accessible healthcare for all people because of the correlation between health and education. By providing prenatal care for all women and having health clinics attached to schools, students will be healthier and more ready to engage in the classroom. Access to early childhood education, a curriculum with all the “extras”, and reduced class sizes will all play a part in providing a quality education for all students. In the end, the most important determinant of school success is the poverty rate. The creation of public policies that reduce poverty and segregation will determine the performance of our students, not test scores. On the subject of privatization of schools, the so-called Charter Schools, Ravitch has written a new book entitled “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools”. In it she focuses on what she sees as hoaxes aimed at winning private control of education and suggests that the solution to poor standards is rather to address the problems of racial segregation and poverty. Samantha Wechsler is an intern at the Thomas Merton Center. She is a senior in the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh.
Economic Justice November 18:
Inequality for All by Michael Drohan Today inequality in the U.S. surpasses by far the inequality in any other industrialized country and is now at a level which it had in
Inequality for All 1928 just prior to the onset of the Great Depression. In 2007 the annual income share of the top 1% of “earners” in the U.S. was 23.5% compared with 23.9% in 1928. From 1992 to 2007 the top 400 “earners” in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. There is little purpose in pointing out the obscene dimensions of inequality just to whine about it and exclaim “isn’t it awful!” Our purpose here is to understand the political and economic forces that have brought about this situation and suggest ways we might mobilize to counteract this trend, resist it and effect change.
Film Screening at CMU
The new Robert Reich film, Inequality for All, will be coming to Pittsburgh on Monday, November 18 at 6:30 p.m. The screening venue will be on the CMU campus, University Center, McConomy Auditorium (near the intersection of Forbes and Morewood). The film is being sponsored by a number of university and community groups, including the Center for Arts in Society at CMU, OnePittsburgh, The Humanities Center Film Festival "Faces of Work," and the newly formed Pittsburgh Collaborative for Working Class Studies. You can learn more about the film at http:// inequalityforall.com/. For more information about the screening contact, Kathy M. Newman, Professor of English at (continued on page 10) CMU, kn4@andrew.cmu.edu, 412-983-7094.
Gar who? Gar Alperovitz! He’s coming to Pittsburgh’s New Economy in March! by Molly Rush Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do?, is currently a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. He has a vision of democratizing our economy that would help form the basis of “a different politicaleconomic system consistent with American ideals and experience.” The movement for a NEW ECONOMY is growing rapidly. Here in Western PA, we’re learning of new components of a local, democratic, cooperative, green economy that has been growing in many communities and rural areas. By the time you read this, we’ll know even more about what people are doing, having learned from attendees at the New Economy Working Group [NEWG] October 26th “Unconference.”
call it. In the coming year, it will become available online.
The October 8 issue of The Nation published Gar’s article “How to Democratize the U.S. Economy.” He outlines a strategy for rebuilding the basic institutional substructure of the local economy in ways that are efficient, effective, stable, redistributive and At the TMC membership meeting Mark ongoing. It includes: Dixon, who has taken the lead in our Mapping “§ Expanded use of city, school, hospital, Project, gave a compelling vision of how it can university and other purchasing power to help provide continually updated information on the stabilize jobs in a manner that democratizes hundreds of local groups, campaigns and projects ownership and benefits for both low-income and how it can facilitate collaboration and communities and small and midsize businesses; linkages, a New Economy Network, you might § Expanded use of public and quasi-public land trusts (both for housing and commercial use) to capture The Pittsburgh IWW’s Literature development profits for the community and to prevent Department has holiday gifts for gentrification; students and workers! § An all-out attack on the absurdly wasteful giveaways corporations Give the gift of labor education that lasts all extract from local governments; year long; the 2014 IWW Labor History § Coordination with labor unions Calendar focuses upon low-wage workers’ and community activists to build organizing, with 13 photos covering workers’ and sustain momentum.” struggles from 1909 to 2013, including a We’re looking forward to having protest march by Bangladeshi garment Gar Alperovitz give the keynote workers days after the largest industrial address at our NEW ECONOMY “accident” in that industry’s sordid history. CELEBRATION on March 21-22, We have added several new notes 2014. commemorating important dates in labor If you can help with the history from around the world, and an essay planning for what we hope to make that reflects on recent struggles by low-wage workers for safer conditions and a living wage. a broadly inclusive, exciting celebration, please contact me at The calendar is union-printed by a worker-owned cooperative, bearing the Allied Printing Trades and IWW molly.rush@verizon.net. union labels. It is a joint project of the Hungarian Workers Literature Fund and the Kansas City IWW. Molly Rush is a Board Member of Support the One Big Union in Pittsburgh. Order calendars from the Pittsburgh IWW. the Thomas Merton Center and Send a check for $12 to Pittsburgh IWW, PO Box 5912, Pittsburgh, PA 15210 Convener of the New Economy Working Group. Join the Industrial Workers of the World Today! Call our HOTLINE: (412) 894-0558 November 2013
NEWPEOPLE - 5
At Home and Abroad Stop Fracking and Sweatshops at the Pennsylvania Farm Show January 4-11 2014 by Kenneth Miller
The Thomas Merton Center is a proud consumer of TriEagle Energy.
Pittsburgher Building New Hope with Schools and Fair Trade in Nicaragua
Show. I am going to host an Alternative Each year when the Media Fair at the Butter Sculpture appears on Pennsylvania Farm the front page of the PostShow. Gazette or the TribuneAlex Lotorto, one Review I am sad because of the very best union another year has passed when organizers in the I did not attend the Marcellus Shale area, Pennsylvania Farm Show in an outstanding student Harrisburg. It is the largest organizer and peace indoor agricultural exhibit in activist will be joining the United States. It is not just us at the Farm Show. about dairy farming; it is farm The organization he policy discussion; it is all the now works for, Energy Butter Sculpture at the 2013 legislators from the middle of Pennsylvania Farm Show Justice Network, made the state; it is tractor salesmen www.farmshow.state.pa.us sure he would have a and frackers and grocery booth. So we can stop store operators coming by Alex Lotorto’s table at the Farm Show. together to boast about agriculture in the It is important for Giant Eagle Workers Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. and Sweatshop activists to attend the My whole life, the East Coast Liberals in Pennsylvania Farm Show together. The Farm Pittsburgh have whined about our Show is the right place for the best Major conservative state. Paraphrasing James League Sweatshop Education in America. Carville, they say, “Pennsylvania is The Farm Show will feel just like PNC Park; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in everyone will be wearing their crisp new between.” Pittsburgh Pirates apparel and celebrating the I am against guns. I never liked Murtha’s 2013 baseball season. This is an important pork-barrel approach to the Federal place to educate about sweatshops and Government. The Steelworkers endorsed demonstrate our state’s commitment to Onorato for the Pennsylvania gubernatorial Human Rights. race, and he lost and now we have Corbett. I The Pennsylvania Farm Show is January get it, but we have to do more than 4-11 2014. Call Kenneth Miller at 412-512complain. We have to engage the middle of 1709 or Alex Lotorto at 570-269-9589 for our this state to save public education and public “PA Farm Show-Fracking-Sweatshop transit here in Pittsburgh. This year, I am Highlights,” and travel and housing support. going to get off my butt and take 500 copies of the Thomas Merton Center newspaper, Kenneth Miller is a Member of the Editorial The New People, and 500 copies of my Collective. union’s newspaper, The Industrial Worker, to the Pennsylvania Farm
The schools of my Excerpts from Rosa DeFerrari’s blog NGO, like Educationplus in Pantanal, are all providing supplementary education to the NICARAGUA—The Nongovernmental students, most of whom attend because they Organization (NGO) I'm working for was want to, NOT because their parent(s) are started in 1992 with a group of individuals forcing them. I visited the homes of most of dedicated to supporting grassroots work and the students and have met some of their development in Central America, specifically parents, and it doesn’t surprise me very much El Salvador and Nicaragua, which had been either—these children who range from ages devastated by years of civil war (thanks, 3 to 15 have an immense desire to learn. Not America). For more on that read Eduardo to say they're angels when they get to the Galleano’s Open Veins of Latin America. classroom—they’re not, they're still kids. But Today my NGO roasts and distributes direct when you look at the home lives of these and fair trade coffee from a coffee children and the responsibilities they already cooperative in rural Nicaragua run by 48 have taken on at the age of 4 or 5, you families. They also fund two schools in understand it takes courage and an innate Granada, Nicaragua as well as sponsor human drive to show up for class everyday. various other programs. And they've hired In a nutshell what I’m attempting to say me to oversee the programs. is that NGOs and non-profits do great work, Nicaragua has the lowest net secondary but by examining our policy towards Latin school enrolment rate in Central America America and pushing for change then (43%) and the highest primary school perhaps there won’t be the need for 100+ dropout rate in Central America (50%). NGOs in cities like Granada. While primary and secondary school So to sum it up: Jobs are going well, I’m education in Nicaragua is technically free, dealing with my white privilege as best I can, the Nicaraguan government spends barely made some friends, and learning how to cook over 3% of its GDP on education, and the Nica food. quality of public education is substandard, to say the least. Rosa DeFerrari is the daughter of long-time Also due to poverty, Nicaragua has the Thomas Merton Center supporters Emily highest child labor rate in Central America DeFerrari and Mel Packer. A recent (11% of all children between ages 10 – 14), graduate of Temple University in Latin and is one of 13 countries in the world where American Studies, now working for a noncoffee is produced by child or forced labor. profit in Grenada, Nicaragua. 6 - NEWPEOPLE
November 2013
Honduran Civil Rights Speaker
Hosted by Pgh Latin America Solidarity Committee by Joyce Rothermel Come out to hear Honduran Human Rights Defender Aracely Medina Castillo on “Honduras on Fire: Human Rights Crisis and Mass Migration.” She will be in the Pittsburgh area Nov. 7 – 11. Events with Ms. Medina include participation in the Carnegie Mellon Lecture Series and two classes at the University of Pittsburgh. Honduras faces a human rights crisis. It is the most dangerous country in the world and, according to Human Rights Watch: "Violence and threats by unidentified perpetrators against journalists, human rights defenders, prosecutors, peasant activists, and transgender people remain serious problems. Perpetrators are rarely brought to justice." Meanwhile, according to the U.S. State Department, roughly 13% of the Honduran population — 1 million Hondurans — have migrated to the United States, 600,000 of whom are believed to be undocumented. Why is there a human rights crisis in Honduras? Who is being killed and why? What is the role of U.S. policy? And why are people migrating to the U.S.? Aracely Medina Castillo is a Honduran activist and educator who has worked for over a decade defending the human rights of Hondurans, focusing on Honduran migrants and their families. She is the deputy director of the Jesuit Center for Reflection, Research, and Communication (ERIC-SJ), a think tank that conducts research and reports on societal trends and public opinion in Honduras. She is also the national supervisor of Jesuit Migrant Services-Honduras (SJM) and the Social Ministries coordinator for all of Central America. Additional events are still being planned. For more information, call 412-361-3022 or visit the calendar on the TMC website: www.thomasmertoncenter.org
Joyce Rothermel is a member of the Pittsburgh Latin America Solidarity Committee.
Perspective on the Economy Book Review A Freedom Budget for All Americans by Paul Le Blanc and Michael D.Yates by Michael Drohan Merton Center’s own Paul Le Blanc and Michael Yates, Associate Editor of the Monthly Review journal, have just published a stimulating and insightful book entitled A Freedom Budget for All Americans. The title refers to a budget by that name produced by A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. The Freedom Budget was envisaged as a program to end poverty in the U.S. in ten years for Americans of all races and backgrounds. The Freedom Budget never got traction in the halls of economic and political power in the U.S. for reasons that the authors explore at great length, in depth and with insight. One of the many outstanding features of the book is the analysis of racial and economic injustice and how these two phenomena are intimately and intricately related in U.S. history. They place the Freedom Budget of 1966 in the historical context of the build-up to it from the abolition of slavery through the Great Depression to the civil rights movement.. After the victory of the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts in 1965, the authors of the Freedom Budget realized that the democratic civil rights victories achieved
would not rout the blight of poverty, slums and misery without economic justice and an economic transformation. Le Blanc and Yates provide an excellent and accurate account of the history of the U.S. economy from the end of the World War II to the present, situating the Freedom Budget within the halcyon years of U.S. prosperity from 1950 to 1973. They give an excellent account of the factors which were unique to this period, otherwise known as the American Century, and they demonstrate why this boom was unsustainable and was destined to end in stagnation as the U.S. empire around the world was challenged. Despite the affluence of the American Century, the Freedom Budget went nowhere for reasons Le Blanc and Yates explore in considerable detail. They point out that of the three architects of the budget, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, only King opposed the Vietnam War with any vigor. King was trenchant in his critique of the war and in his spelling out of the connection between war expenditures and poverty at home and between destroying the country of a poor but proud people and violence at home. Randolph and Rustin believed the objectives of the Freedom Budget were realizable despite the war. The authors point out the weakness of this position.
Randolph and Rustin also believed be overcome. An end to U.S. impethat in order to implement the Free- rial pretensions and plans with their dom Budget, one need not tamper attendant wars is a sine qua non. with the basic structure of the free Hence, the importance of the unity of market economy and the capitalist the anti-war and anti-racist struggles system. Le Blanc and Yates argue with struggles for economic justice. that the Freedom Budget could only Just like any major transformation in be realized in a political economy history, it will not be achieved withwhere there is democratic control out a major social struggle and withand ownership over the means of out changes in the power structure. production, in other words, in a soThe importance of this book is that it cialist society. helps us learn from the mistaken asIn the last chapters of the book, sumptions of the first freedom the authors explore the possibility of budget and points to the key chala Freedom Budget for All today. We lenges in the struggle for a better are living in the age of neoliberalism more just world. As they say in the where capital is waging a war for World Social Forum, another world complete freedom from any regula- is possible but not without toil and tions on its accumulation of profit. struggle. Since Reagan, the U.S. Government Michael Drohan is a co-chair of the has played ball and reversed all the editorial collective and TMC board constraints on capital imposed after member. the Great Depression OBJECTIVES OF A NEW FREEDOM BUDGET: right on into the 1960s. To make freedom a reality, we must have: Added to this is the crip- 1. Full employment pling effect of more than 2. Adequate income for all who are employed a decade of wars in Af3. A guaranteed minimum adequacy level of income ghanistan and Iraq with a for those who cannot or should not work 4. Adequate and safe housing for all price tag of $3 trillion. 5. Health care for all Not an auspicious moment one might say to be 6. Educational opportunity for all advancing a new Freedom 7. Secure and expanded transportation infrastructure 8. Secure and expanded Social Security Budget for all. 9. Food security for all The authors are cog- 10. A sustainable environment nizant of the difficulties 11.Cultural freedom and enrichment for all (arts, that lie in the way of a parks, sports, recreation) new freedom budget and 12. reduction in the inequality of income and wealth point to the challenges to to ensure realization of objectives. Chongqing spent more than half of all government expenditures on improving public welfare, particularly the livelihoods of workers and farmers. In talking about Bo, I have to talk about Crime Crackdown and Sing Red. Singing Red is the shorthand for Chongqing’s officially sponsored communication practices aimed at promoting socialist values and uplifting public morality. Launched in 2008, the campaign centered on the communicative acts of singing red songs, reading classics, telling revolutionary and uplifting stories, and texting exhortative maxims. In order to enhance people's sense of security, the city set up 500 Patrol platforms, invested more than 14,000 police, 24hour patrol prevention and control. The city's street crime dropped by nearly 40% in the Crime Crackdown time. Qing Li is an intern at the Thomas Merton Center.
What Chongqing looks like as a result of the administration of Bo
by Qing Li Chongqing gained its provincial jurisdiction status in 1997. With a huge rural population (70 percent of 32 million in 2010) and a rugged geography in China’s southwest interior, Chongqing is a microcosm of China. I was born and grew up in Chongqing, China. Now when I go to there to meet my friends, I would not recognize it as Chongqing unless someone told me. Today, Chongqing stands in the same spot in a gigantic city with hills draped with apartment complexes, which remind many people of Hong Kong. There are new expressways, new bridges, and tall buildings in the process of construction with towers surrounding them everywhere. Currently, Chongqing is the largest inland city in China. In the next ten years it may be one of the biggest cities in China like Shanghai and Beijing. Chongqing’s economic growth is drawing about 200,000 new residents a year, the equivalent of adding all the residents of Akron, Ohio, or Orlando, Fla. Chongqing also faces some of the country’s most profound
socioeconomic challenges. Illustrative of the pitfalls of neoliberal capitalist reintegration. It is too crowded. It has 32 million people, 61.7% of them are live in the country, and the rest in the city (suburban). The air is polluted and it is unlikely that one will see blue skies and white clouds all year round. On July 20, 2009, Chongqing Municipal named its third Chairman Bo Xilai and he proposed the construction of "Five Chongqing" led by Bo Xilai (He was the former Party secretary, Municipal Committee, Standing Committee member of Chongqing). The development of five new objectives, namely: "Livable Chongqing," "Unblock Chongqing," "Forest Chongqing," "Safe Chongqing" and "Healthy Chongqing." The aim of the Five Chongqing was to make Chongqing become a more comfortable livable city for all the citizens. The Livable Chongqing-- living and working space are comfortable and cozy. In the Chongqing municipal planning, it is trying to complete the transformation of dilapidated 10 million square meters, increase in public activity space, control building height and density, lower volume rate of the main city within three years. The Unblock Chongqing includes information, transportation, government affairs, and other aspects of the flow of goods, but also refers to the traffic. Forest Chongqing--Green is a symbol of life. Green is also the world development theme. The city needs to improve the forest and green cover,
reduce the soil erosion in the upper Yangtze River, strive to make the city’s forest coverage rate reach 38% within 5 years. Besides, it aims to promote the value of Land and Resources and led farmers to get rich. Safe Chongqing--it is the interpretation of the traditional sense, including both personal and property, but it mainly refers to the property aspects. The soaring Chongqing needs to build a safe investment environment to attract more funds and technology settled in it, and boost the development. Healthy Chongqing refers to having a strong physique. Broadly it includes physical and mental health. This requires that we live in a positive and optimistic attitude, and advocate science and fitness. During the administration of Bo, the city was trying to expand the city limits, rapidly incorporate adjacent rural areas under a Note: Bo Xilai was sentenced to life scheme the city calls the “oneimprisonment by the Jinan hour economy circle and two Intermediate Court on September 22, wings (Northeast and 2013 and stripped of political rights Southeast of Chongqing). ”In for life. His apparent crime was the the plan ,it takes aggressive “singing red and striking black”, steps in bridging the urbanwhich refers to the crime crack down. rural gap, enabling as many as With this slogan he proposed 3.22 million rural continuing the dictatorship of Mao migrants to settle in the Zedong together with the opening of city with urban citizenship the economy to markets as proposed entitlements in employment, by Deng Xiaoping. The present retirement pensions, public President, Xi Jiping, continues the rental housing, children’s same policies in practice, so the education, and health care. banishment of Bo Xilai is somewhat Beginning in 2009, under a of a conundrum. program known as 10 Points on People’s Livelihood, - Michael Drohan, TMC Board Member November 2013
NEWPEOPLE - 7
Justice in Faith St. Paul’s Cathedral To Honor Three African-American Women Candidates for Sainthood On Sunday November 17, three outstanding African-American Women are being honored at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Oakland. Bishop David A. Zubik will celebrate a noon Mass (followed by a reception) for the three black women in various stages of canonization in the Catholic Church— Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founder, Oblate Sisters of Providence; Sr. Henriette DeLille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans; and Thea Bowman, Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. While there are black women among the church’s more than 4500 saints—among them St. Monica, mother of North African St. Augustine, and several Latin-American saints, these women may well be the first black women saints from the United States. They are in various stages in the canonization process— Servant of God, then Venerable, then Blessed and finally Saint. Henriette DeLille, Venerable Sister Henriette DeLille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, was named “venerable” by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010. Born in 1813 and descended Creative Commons from a long line of free black women, she set aside the comfortable life expected of her with a courageous decision to live for God. Dedicating her life to the poor and sick of New Orleans’ black community, she early attempted to establish a religious order with her friends in 1836 but was prevented by segregation laws. Sister DeLille and her co-worker Juliette Gaudin were accepted as novices of New Orleans’s Religious of the Sacred Heart order. After years of dedication to nursing the black community, their valiant service to the victims of the 1853 yellow fever epidemic drew public acclaim and
Get Involved Against Human Trafficking by Joyce Rothermel The last topic in this year’s Fall Lecture Series of the Association of Pittsburgh Priests is “Human Trafficking.” Denise Holtz, an FBI Special Agent with five years experience working human trafficking investigations, will speak on Tuesday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Kearns Spirituality Center in Allison Park (located behind LaRoche College and the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Divine Providence). Ms Holtz is Co-Facilitator of the Western Pennsylvania Human Trafficking Coalition. She will be joined by Sr. Jeanette Bussen, Peace and Justice Coordinator for the Sisters of St. Joseph who will provide practical suggestions on how to get involved in addressing this tragic reality of our time. Suggested donation for the evening is $15. For more information, contact Sr. Mary Joan Coultas at 412-366-1124. Joyce Rothermel is Chair of the Church Renewal Committee of the Association of Pittsburgh Priests.
8 - NEWPEOPLE
November 2013
their community of Sisters of the Holy Family was finally recognized. The order’s work continues today with over 200 members serving at schools for children, nursing and retirement homes in New Orleans, Louisiana, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. cities. The order survived Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of their motherhouse which is now in the process of rebuilding. A biography “Henriette DeLille, Servant of Slaves, Witness to the Poor,” by Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, chronicles her inspiring life. Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, Servant of God In the first stage of canonization, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange is the founder of the first order of religious women of color in the Creative Commons world. She founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829 in pre-Civil War Baltimore, in the midst of poverty and racism. Fleeing revolutionary upheavals in Haiti, her family arrived in the U.S. in 1817. Seeing the tremendous need for education of the black children of Baltimore she began a school for girls in her own home—the first school for African-American children in the U.S.—which became St. Francis Academy. She went on to found the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The convent archives attest to the enormity of her achievement with documents of manumission papers from slavery which served as “green cards” for the novices who without them could be picked up and resold into slavery. The order’s work continues today, an outstanding example of the order’s love and devotion to the black children of Baltimore. St. Francis Academy is now a co-ed preparatory school with 90% of its students going on to college. Today hundreds of people make pilgrimages to the places she made
holy asking for favors in prayers for her beautification. Sister Thea Bowman A contemporary, known by many here for her visits to the local area, Sister Thea is a 21th Century candidate for sainthood. From a rural Creative Commons crossroads town in Mississippi, Sister Thea began a journey that made her a nationally known speaker, singer, liturgist and advocate of black spirituality. Before she died of cancer at 52 in 1990, she appeared on 60 Minutes, Harry Belafonte considered a film on her and a well-known novelist began a biography of her life. A Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, Sister Thea held a masters and doctorate in linguistics and literature becoming a national presence promoting inter-cultural understanding and pride in black culture. A creative educator, she was famous for her use of dance, singing and dynamic lecturing. She brought tears at a U.S. Bishops Conference in 1989 leading the bishops in spiritual song. “She touched everybody’s heart,” said Fr. David Taylor, pastor of St. Charles Lwanga parish who knew her. In a 2003 Post-Gazette interview he said, “She did much to affirm blacks in the church. Her sainthood would be a victory for us all.” The church has begun the process of examining her for canonization. It would have powerful effect for U.S.’ three million black Catholics to see someone like Sister Thea—who walked among them—elevated to sainthood. Every March, local friends of Thea Bowman attend a dinner in her honor raising scholarships for black students.
—Race and Reconciliation Dialogue Group, St. Paul Cathedral (412) 688-0544
Readers Discuss: Catholic Church and Sexuality Jim Scofield says:
intimacy does bring people closer together and bind them. But that's not the only good thing about sex, Eileen Reutzel Colianni's rebuttal (published in the October NewPeople) of her friend for heaven's—or earth's—sake! I also fear that this unacknowledged premise of Bishop Daniel Zubik's Post-Gazette article rejecting its pro-reproduction, "pro-life" stance underlies the same-sex marriage is very sensitive and considerate. Church's anti-abortion position, a position that has But I think she overlooks the underlying and thrown it and its leaders onto the side of politicians unacknowledged premise of the Bishop and the traditional church (one that includes fundamentalist who are both pro-war and anti-social programs for the poor. Sexual repression, whether open or hidden, Protestantism, too): that sex is sin, in and of itself, is a pretty limited factor on which to build morality. and only to be countenanced as a vehicle for reproduction. Jim Scofield is a retired Pitt-Johnstown English Certainly I was taught this, growing up in professor and local peace and justice advocate. Catholic schools, even to reject pleasurable sexual thoughts, much less acts, as sin. Look at present-day Eileen Colianni says: hard-line Christian groups and we find this I heartily agree with Jim Scofield's repressive educational mission. Recently, our assertion that the church's rejection of secular sexual revolution has forced them to same-sex marraige "harbors lots of sexual grudgingly admit the idea of pleasure as important to repression," as does its rejection of women's sex. But they wish to constrain it only to marriage, ordination and its insistence on priestly but not to gay marriage, since sex has been so celibacy. Given that my article is just that — an openly a part of gay life-styles, and gays can't article — one written in response to specific reproduce. The church’s rejection of same-sex points made by Bishop Zubik, it necessarily marriage harbors lots of sexual repression. presents a "limited view of human sexuality." My Even Colianni's thoughtful response, defending thanks to Scofield for expanding that view with childless and gay marriages and pointing out the his letter. problems ordinary marriages often encounter, Eileen Colianni is a psychologist, author, and overlooks the contemporary secular view that sex outside of marriage, whether straight, gay, or solitary counselor. is an exhilarating human pleasure. Often, physical
Life In Prison tries to totally isolate them. Conditions in solitary across the country are inhumane-and there are about 80,000 people in solitary lockup—but California goes to the worst extreme.
Solidarity in Solitary: Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay Prison A conversation with Ginny Hildebrand and Jules Lobel Prisoners at Pelican Bay prison in California have made headlines by placing demands on the state’s correctional system to reform inhuman conditions. Inmates have backed this up with a lawsuit and hunger strike. Jules Lobel, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is a lead attorney for the inmates and champions their nonviolent, courageous struggle. He is a past member of the TMC Board. Ginny Hildebrand: Tell us about the main demands of the inmates.
Ginny: Why did CCR decide to take on this law suit? Jules: For two reasons - first we have a strong conviction that solitary confinement in the kind of conditions California imposes is torture - and we thought that challenging California's practices was important. But secondly, we saw prisoners uniting across ethnic groups, and that there was remarkable solidarity among Black, Latino and White prisoners, and we thought that CCR should provide legal support for this movement amongst the Pelican Bay Prisoners, prisoners to end this torture.
California Department of Corrections
Jules Lobel is the lead Jules Lobel: Their main demand is to end attorney for the Pelican Bay Prisoners. Ginny indefinite solitary confinement, which has Hildebrand is the coordinator of the local resulted in almost a hundred of them being Center for Constitutional Rights. there over two decades. They are put there not because they’ve committed any violent misconduct in prison, but simply because they’re labeled as either a gang member or an "associate". You’re labeled an "associate if —by James B. Murphy you have artwork or a tattoo the authorities consider gang related Kenosis, emptying the vessel, or even if you speak to people in Nothing but a beginner's mind will do a gang or you recreate with a One day under the Bodhi tree, or, forty in the desert gang member. For that you could Enlightenment, but far from the recent kind be put into solitary indefinitely. Metanoia for those who follow and can let go That’s what they want ended. The peaceful journey, still suffering, but
THE CONTEMPLATIVE
Ginny Hildebrand: What are solitary confinement conditions like in California? Jules Lobel: The isolation is truly draconian. Prisoners are confined in small cells for approximately 23 hours a day with no windows, no natural light. They’re not allowed any phone calls or any contact visits with friends or family. California
FedUp! Letters to Prisoners
understanding Accepting and surrendering, a new way of loving No sacrifice required, only mercy "the substance of that hoped for the evidence for that not seen" Charity even to "giving away the farm" Henosis or Theosis, the beginning not the end James B. Murphy is an oral/maxilofacial surgeon with a master’s degree in bioethics and health policy. He is a lecturer in Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry.
To report abuse or request resources, write to: HRC/ FedUp! Thomas Merton Center 5129 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224
FedUp! is the Pittsburgh chapter of the Human Rights Coalition dedicated to upholding the rights of prisoners through providing resources and support, exposing injustices, and building relationships with people in prison and their advocates. We are an organization of concerned citizens, people in To volunteer, come to prison and their loved the Thomas Merton ones. Our focus is on Center on high level security Wednesdays at 7:00 facilities in p.m. Pennsylvania.
SOLIDARITY IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Lecture by Jules Lobel Jules Lobel, a Thomas Merton Cornerstone Sustainer, Pitt Law Professor, and Center for Constitutional Rights lawyer for Pelican Bay prisoners in California will relate the inspiring story of inmates overcoming gang violence and racism to fight for their human rights. Their struggle has included a hunger strike against California's arbitrary system of solitary confinement, which frequently locks down prisoners in isolation for decades. Monday, November 11, 2013 7:00 p.m. University of Pittsburgh Law School Room 113 3900 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15260 For more information call: (412) 361-3022 Sponsors: Thomas Merton Center, American Friends Service Committee PA, HRC Fed’Up, Center for Constitutional Right Pittsburgh, Lawyers Guild (University of Pittsburgh).
Prisoner Pen Pals Needed! Please write to these individuals: Kevin Rex #KR-9686 P.O. Box 945 Marienville, PA 16239
Jimmy A. Dennis #BY-7796 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370
Richard Phipps #KA-8464 301 Morea Road Frackville, PA 17932
Jeremy Anthony #DQ-1846 1111 Altamont Boulevard Frackville, PA 17931
Joe Dyson #CA-8143 1000 Follies Road Dallas, PA 18612
Marty Dunbar #CM-9649 P.O. Box 999—1120 Pike Huntington, PA 16652
Josh Brady #KB-5912 P.O. Box 244 Graterford, PA 19426
Adam McNeil #GT-3428 1600 Walters Mill Road Somerset, PA 15510
Joseph Ray #JZ-8219 10745 Route 18 Allison, PA 16475
Aaron Smith #EF-8775 1100 Pike Street Huntington, PA 16654
Gregory Middleton #JX-0365 P.O. Box A Bellefonte, PA 16823
Marshall Thomas #JP-7612 1600 Walters Mill Road Somerset, PA 15510
Fight For Lifers We st Returns t o TMC Fight For Life
rs West w ill once a the Thom gain be m as Merton eeting at Center be 2013. We g in ning Nov have boo ember 16, ked their from 10:0 Board Ro 0 a.m. un o m til 12:30 n through a oon from ll of next Novembe year. We home" an r are glad to d hope to be "comin see every g one here. -Donna H “dedicated il l, F F L W presid to giving ent lifers
and their loved one s hope” November 2013
NEWPEOPLE - 9
Labor and Trade Standing with UPMC Workers - To Make It Our UPMC by Chaney Lewis
just to keep a roof over their head. UPMC is holding back thousands of us For the past two years I, along with from being able to join the middle class many of my co-workers at UPMC, - and paying us wages so low that have been working hard to hold our experts are agreeing aren’t enough to area's largest employer accountable. make ends meet. Over the last decade all of us in We have been sharing our stories Pittsburgh have watched the executives and experiences of working for the of UPMC build a global corporate healthcare giant all over Pittsburgh. empire - and fattening their own Letting people know what it is really paychecks at the same time. UPMC like to work at UPMC - you may have brought in $1.3 billion in profits over even seen some of us on billboards as the past three years and paid 27 of its you drive into work asking for the executives at least $1 million last year community to stand with us as we stand for a total of $47 million in executive up to UPMC. compensation. While those at the top of Making our voices heard is finally UPMC are making millions, those of us starting to have an impact. Over the who keep the hospital running are past couple of months we have seen making poverty wages. Pittsburgh uniting around us, and This summer, Pittsburgh UNITED beginning to hold UPMC accountable issued a report on the poverty wages to our shared community values. Just in that UPMC the last month we pays many of its have had elected service officials, gubernatorial workers.. Many candidates, faith and of whom make labor leaders, just $10 an hour community leaders, and are forced to and residents from all rely on public parts of the city assistance or joining us in our work 2 or 3 jobs efforts to stand up to Photo by Maria Montano
UPMC. The Pittsburgh Labor Day parade was led by a "Stand with UPMC workers" banner, held by Allegheny County Labor Council President Jack Shea and two of my co-workers Ron Oakes and Jim Staus. Dozens of other unions carried placards and standards to stand in solidarity with those of us seeking to form a union at UPMC. Then, likely mayor elect Bill Peduto shared his support with us, and called on UPMC to end its anti-worker campaign. Just one week later, on Saturday September 7th, something extraordinary happened in Oakland. Hundreds of people came together to stand with us and demand that the healthcare giant do right by the people of Pittsburgh. Faith and labor leaders, elected officials, bus riders, teachers, patients, taxpayers and students demonstrated their unity and resolve when they sat down together on Fifth Avenue to sing “Amazing Grace,” a hymn about ending injustice. Now, after months of investigation, the National Labor Relations Board -the federal agency charged with
Photo by Matt Richards
protecting workers’ rights -- issued a second historic complaint in a year against UPMC. The complaint alleges 47 instances of harassment, intimidation, discrimination and illegal firings, including firing four of my co workers for their union activity. As a response to the new NLRB complaint the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed a Will of Council in support of those of us who are standing up and called on UPMC to put an end to its anti-union campaign. Together we can hold UPMC accountable to our shared values as a community. It is time for UPMC to stop bullying our community - and time to stop its aggressive anti-worker campaign. Chaney Lewis has worked as a transporter at UPMC Presby for the last 8 years.
Inequality for All
Black Friday Actions Against Walmart
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Structural Causes of the Great Divergence There are myriad causes for these developments. At its core, however, the present maldistribution has resulted from the massive strengthening of capital vis-à-vis labor. During the post-World War II period almost 33% of workers in the U.S. were organized into unions which gave them tremendous bargaining strength. Today scarcely 8% of industrial workers and 12% of government workers are unionized. This change represents a tremendous weakening in demands for decent wages and good working conditions. The free trade agreements such as NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO have enabled corporations to move their operations from the U.S. to the lowest wage destinations of the world with few safety and environmental regulations. The consequences of this change are that millions of jobs have been lost and those workers who remain with a job in industry are under the gun to concede to lower wages and benefits or their jobs will go overseas as well. This export of jobs has extended down to much of the service industry, and most of the call centers of the world are now located in India, Pakistan and other Englishspeaking areas of the world. The U.S. economy has been hollowed out with more and more workers made obsolescent. When one adds to the mix the automation and robotization of the workplace we have a truly dire labor market where workers are being routed at every turn. None of these developments would have taken place without the wholehearted collusion and instigation from government, whichever political party is in power. One cannot forget that it was Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party that pushed NAFTA and all its disastrous consequences into law in 1993 and that presently it is another Democratic President, Barack Obama, who is pushing for the passage of the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) into law. Just like its predecessors, this agreement is being pushed through with so-called “fast track” stealth which will ensure no democratic process in its passage. The onslaught on workers by government forces has its recent origins in the sacking of the air controllers by Ronald Reagan in 1981. His mentor, Margaret Thatcher, in the UK led a similar war on the workers in that country when she attacked and destroyed the coal miners and their union. If we go back further, we can see that the attack on workers goes back to the Taft-Hartley Bill of 1947 which greatly constrained solidarity 10 - NEWPEOPLE
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strikes between workers’ unions. Just to add one more dimension of the role of the government in weakening workers, one needs to mention the red scares and the war on radical and Communist unionists in the 1950s as a result of which the most committed and staunchest unionists were fired from their unions. The government in the U.S. has been and is the handmaid of the corporations and capital in weakening workers organizations and in advancing the new Gilded Age.
What Is to Be Done Simply bemoaning the present situation and saying how terrible it all is will achieve little. We must organize, mobilize and strengthen the opposition to the forces that have brought us to this place. It cannot be over-exaggerated what a contribution the Occupy Movement had in bringing this issue to the fore. We have now to move it to the next phase beyond the taking over of Mellon Park. The organizing of UPMC workers, the unionization of Adjunct Faculty in the Universities and the further unionization of service workers are all part of a fight back strategy. But it has to go beyond that to the organizing of the unemployed, basically those who have been dumped on the trash heap of industrial society. The movement in the city at present to organize people on a geographic basis rather than according to their trade or profession is yet another initiative to give teeth to the fight back. It is an urgent work in progress in which we must all get involved. Michael Drohan is a member of the editorial collective and the board of the Thomas Merton Center.
Members of OUR Walmart are also calling for the repeal of all illegal firings and/or disciplinary actions against more than 70 workers who participated in a legally protected unfair labor practice strike in Bentonville, Arkansas, earlier this summer. Friday, November 29—also known as Black Friday—is the most important day of the year for retailers like Walmart, and OUR Walmart members have announced widespread protests leading up to and on Black Friday this year. As Black Friday approaches, please commit to supporting OUR Walmart members as they take action this holiday shopping season by signing the petition pledging to join Walmart workers this year in their calls for change at http:// action.changewalmart.org/ page/s/black-friday-pledge.
Pittsburgh and Western PA actions will be posted at: https://actionnetwork.org/ event_campaigns/black-fridaynear-you
Richard Granger is the Strategic Programs Director for United Food & Commercial Workers Local 23.
Thanks”Taking” Indigenous Americans Protest Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Continued Injustice by K. Briar Somerville This October, indigenous peoples across North and South America protested Columbus Day (because Columbus didn’t “discover” anything) and ongoing post-colonial injustices: SANTIAGO, CHILE—Mapuches marching to defend their land from the government threw rocks at riot police. BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA—Residents celebrated what the city has called “Indigenous People's Day” instead of “Columbus Day” since 1992. BRAZIL—Rallies at government buildings in several major cities opposed legislation that would sacrifice indigenous land to big business. GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN—The International Tribunal on the Abuse of Indigenous Human Rights gathered representatives from various tribes to call for the release of Leonard Peltier, a political prisoner for three decades. Peltier’s release will also be the central demand of the 44th National Day of Mourning to be held on Thursday, November 28 near Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in protest of Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving in 1637 celebrated the massacre of 700 Pequots in Connecticut, for which the governor of Massachusetts “gave thanks.” Laura Elliff of the Native American Student Association writes, “Most Americans believe Thanksgiving was this wonderful dinner and harvest celebration. The truth is the ‘Thanksgiving dinner’ was invented both to instill a false pride in Americans and to cover up the massacre.” The National Day of Mourning is organized by the United American Indians of New England (the UAINE) to “fight back on such issues as the racism of the Pilgrim mythology perpetuated in Plymouth and the U.S. government's assault on poor people.” Meanwhile, the consequences of the government shutdown in October have hit the poorest of America’s natives hard with job furloughs and cuts
to reservations’ food supplies, rekindling controversy globalized economy encroaching on their lands force within American Indian communities about many native Mexicans (some who do not even speak dependence on government welfare. Spanish) to emigrate. According to the Indigenous Canada’s First Nations experience a similarly Farmworker Study, "The relative status of the complex economic relationship with their federal indigenous does not improve when they come to the government. Dru Oja Jay, writing in solidarity with the United States.” Idle No More Movement, explains: In 2007 the United Nations General “Canada's federal government controls large Assembly voted in favor of adopting the Declaration portions of the cash flow First Nations depend on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The International on. Much of the money used by First Nations Indian Treaty Council says, “Indigenous Peoples to provide services does come from the around the world will be able to use the Declaration to federal budget. But . . . the money that First redefine their relationships with states, address their Nations receive is a small fraction of the value grassroots human rights issues and struggles, and call of the resources, and the government revenue upon states to put the rights it recognizes into practice.” that comes out of their territories.” Today the United American Indians, Idle No More, Canada’s Idle No More Movement “has and will the Zapatistas, and others of the indigenous movement continue to help build sovereignty & resurgence of continue this international fight for sovereignty at both nationhood. Idle No More will continue to pressure the local and national levels of government. government and industry to protect the environment,” protesting the likes of destructive oil pipelines as well K. Briar Somerville is a member of the editorial as Canada’s repudiation of its treaties with First collective and attended Seneca Valley High School, Nations. where the racist school team mascot unfortunately Looking southward, every fifteenth or so remains “The Raiders.” Mexican speaks an indigenous language. Chiapas, one of Mexico’s southern states with a high indigenous population, won its sovereignty in the 1994 Zapatista revolt. Sharing a border with Chiapas is the state of Oaxaca, a strengthening base of grassroots mobilization with the second highest indigenous population in Mexico, where teachers have been protesting for education reform. Earlier this year, a thousand riot police were unsuccessful at stopping a demonstration by Oaxacan natives against the construction of a wind farm slated to destroy their fishing and farming grounds. MEXICO CITY, MEXICO— Oaxacan teachers represent at a national Despite allowances for local self education protest in August. Photo by K. Briar Somerville governance, the increasing effects of a
Thomas Merton and Thanksgiving by Jim Ruck I’m afraid that Thomas Merton would be very much out of place at most Thanksgiving tables in this country. Oh yes, as long as conversation stayed superficial, he could be the life of the party, with his friendly, jovial, quick wit. But when it turned a bit deeper . . . For Merton, celebrating all we have, all we have accomplished, this kind of thanksgiving threatens to make God a servant of us. Merton warned about the addictive, ego-driven life, that blinds us to the real wonder and transformation of life that God is working in us, whether we realize it or not. Only in poverty, simplicity, suffering, can we occasionally catch a glimpse of this deeper reality. I am grateful to Kathleen Deignan for grouping some of his reflections so compellingly in Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours. Two of them suggest an attitude different from the focus of our national celebration, much deeper and far more real. From “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:”
You have made us together, You have made us one and many, You have placed me here in the midst as witness, as awareness, and as joy. Here I am. In me the world is present, and you are present. I am a link in the chain of light and of presence. You have made me a kind center, but a center that is nowhere. And yet also I am “here.” To be here with the silence of Sonship in my heart is to be a center in which all things converge upon you. That is surely enough for the time being.
Merton ends his “New Seeds of Contemplation” with the second selection chosen by Deignan: The Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation. And if we could let go of our own with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.
Today, Father, this blue sky lauds you. The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip poplar tree praise you. The distant blue hills praise you, together with the sweet-smelling air that is full of brilliant light. The bickering flycatchers praise you with the lowing cattle and quails that whistle over there.
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own ,the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair.
I too, Father, praise you, with all these my brothers, and they give voice to my own heart and to my own silence.
But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the realty of things or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed we are in the midst of it, and
We are all one silence, and a diversity of voices.
it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not. Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.
Thomas Merton. Photo by John Howard Griffin
Is there room in our Thanksgiving for a spirit of faith, faith that God is active in our lives and in the world bringing us all to fulfillment beyond our dreams? Is there trust that, when we feel life slipping out of control, perhaps by illness, setbacks, adversity, we can find peace in the assurance that we are all in good hands? Is there a willingness to listen for God’s “voice” in the unexpected turns of life and in the strangers and to respond as best we can? Thomas Merton had the courage to be open to the full spectrum of life and to his own inner poverty with the assurance of God’s provident care– without escaping into the addictive behaviors that can easily distract us. In this center of utter dependency, he found hope and a spirit of gratitude. His life testifies that we too can join in the dance! Jim Ruck is a long time member of the Thomas Merton Center and current member of St. James Parish in Wilkinsburg. November 2013
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Political Theatre Viva August Wilson Center! by Kenneth Miller The August Wilson Center is designed in the shape of a Middle Passage slave ship. When it was built in 2009, construction costs went over $9 million. The August Wilson Center has been unable to recover from that debt and is being foreclosed upon by Dollar Bank. The August Wilson Center was designed to be the flagship of August Wilson play productions. It was designed to be a permanent home for August Wilson's theater company, Pittsburgh Playwrights. It was designed to bring the memory of August Wilson to the world with its proximity to downtown Pittsburgh and the David L Lawrence Convention Center. How many of us have seen or even heard of the 10-Play Century Cycle? These artistic masterpieces by Pittsburgh native August Wilson trace a century of organizing the Black Diaspora in the Hill District, Little Haiti. One idea, to help build attendance, may be to have August Wilson festivals, like the Shakespeare Festivals which the Pittsburgh Public Schools used to have. This summer The August Wilson Center hosted jazz performances featuring musicians who have been part of annual B-PEP Jazz events. This was a popular activity and brought people to the Center. ———————————————
B-PEP Seeks Diversity on the Federal Bench Tim Stevens is B-PEP’s chairman and CEO. He chairs the organization’s monthly meetings at Hill House, across from the new Shop’n Save on Centre Avenue. The meetings are on the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. in Conference Room B. There is a long fascinating important agenda every month and I suggest you attend one. A past Thursday meeting featured a discussion about the Federal Courts and about advocating for Blacks to be nominated to the Federal Bench. Since Gary L. Lancaster, the first Black Chief U.S. Judge for Western Pennsylvania, died in April, there has not been an African American presence on the court, which currently has three vacancies. Jim Roddey, former Allegheny County Executive and current Chair of the Allegheny County Republican Party, was at the meeting. Stevens has asked him to partner with the Democrats in advocating for more diversity on the Federal Bench. In a letter to U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Stevens wrote, "Judicial diversity is a goal we should all embrace. The Black Political Empowerment Project, therefore, requests that at least one of the current vacancies for the U.S District Court of Western Pennsylvania be filled by an African American." B-PEP would like to hear your ideas to help build the fiscal longevity of the August Wilson Center. Please consider attending an upcoming meeting. Kenneth Miller is a member of the Black Political Empowerment Project and the Industrial Workers of the World.
Kevin Howard (keyboard) and Winston Carter (guitar) at B-PEP Jazz, June 2013. Photo by Kenneth Miller
russellfedorka@gmail.com
August Wilson portrait by Anire Mosley, Doors of Oakland, near Forbes and Atwood Streets. August Wilson Plays
•1900s - Gem of the Ocean (2003) •1910s - Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988) •1920s - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) - set in Chicago •1930s - The Piano Lesson (1990) - Pulitzer Prize[6] •1940s - Seven Guitars (1995) •1950s - Fences (1987) - Pulitzer Prize[6] •1960s - Two Trains Running (1991) •1970s - Jitney (1982) •1980s - King Hedley II (1999) •1990s - Radio Golf (2005)
New JFK Play to Be Read in Pittsburgh and Seven Other U. S. Cities in November by Ginny Cunningham The president is dead and Colonel Benson, the consummate military White House insider, is tortured by the thought that he may have been unwittingly complicit in the assassination. Determined to redeem himself, Benson journeys into his past, where he must confirm or deny his loyalties, patriotism, and faithfulness. Has he betrayed his values? Can he live in peace with his choices? Inspired by activist, theologian, writer James Douglass’ book JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters, Noah’s Ark, by Pittsburgh native Ginny Cunningham, sails the 12 - NEWPEOPLE
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rough waters of the Kennedy presidency-its Bay of Pigs, the summit with Khrushchev in Vienna, a line in the sand in Berlin, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the prelude to Vietnam. Global drama and unremitting tension force Benson to assess his own depths and shallows and seek his own redemption. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Noah’s Ark, which has been three years in
development, will have public readings in eight U.S. cities, including Bricolage Theater in Pittsburgh on Monday, November 18; Birmingham Festival Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama; Oakland Community College in Royal Oak, Michigan; Lee Center for the Arts at Seattle University; Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania; Glens Falls, New York; and Mary House in New York City. In Dallas, Texas, at the instigation of actor Martin Sheen, Noah’s Ark will be read at Unity Church of Dallas at 7 p.m., on November 21, the eve of the anniversary. Sheen will read the character of Brother Thomas. Ginny Cunningham is a journalist, a playwright, and a Member of the Editorial Collective.
Arts and Culture CAPITAL’S END or OUR END?
After Hiroshima: Images of Loss and Survival
Alternatives and Strategies Capitalism Deniers & the Way Forward Celebrate the First-Year Anniversary! Harvey Holtz (host)
by Jo Schlesinger On October 4, 2013, Remembering Hiroshima, Imaging Peace, in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University’s Weeks of Peace Program, sponsored a lecture by Elin O’Hara Slavick about her newest book After Hiroshima. Approximately 40 people attended the presentation, reception, and book signing. In After Hiroshima, Ms. Slavick’s photographic images of Hiroshima, Japan, are attempts to visually, poetically and historically address the magnitude of what disappeared as a result of and what remained after the dropping of the A-bomb in 1945. According to Kyo Maclear, “they are images of loss and survival, fragments and lives, architecture and skin, surfaces and invisible things, like radiation. Exposure is at the core of this photographic project: exposure to radiation, to the sun, to light, to history, and exposures made from radiation, the sun, light and historical artifacts from the Peace Memorial Museum’s collection.” To see a sample of her work, go to http://www.elinoharaslavick.com/cyanotypes.html. These cyanotypes, rubbings and autoradiographs are haunting, evocative, and ethically challenge the viewer. Ms. Slavick is a distinguished professor of Visual Art, Theory, and Practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has exhibited her work throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia, Australia, Cuba, and the United States. She is also the author of Bomb After Bomb: A Violent Cartography (Charta, 2007), with a foreword by Howard Zinn and an essay by Carol Mavor. Remembering Hiroshima, Imaging Peace has, as one aspect of its mission, to explore where art and activism meet. We were fortunate to hear Ms. Slavick, whose work exemplifies this. Look for upcoming activities and films this fall on rememberinghiroshima.org. Jo Schlesinger is the Western PA Coordinator for the Coalition for Peace Action. Tree Fire: Making Visible the Barbaric Photographic Images of Exposures to Radiation by Elin o’Hara Slavick
Live local music, poetry, theater, film, discussion, “collective political karaoke,” open mike, display/sale of art, a “call to arms” and an opportunity to build friendships, community & solidarity.
Sunday, November 3, 2013 from 6:30-9:30 PM The new AVA Lounge: 304 N. Craig St. Pgh 15213
ENGAGE IN THE CLASS STRUGGLE Further information: iamholtz@iup.edu 724-388-6258 Website: network23.org/capitalsend
All films are screened at 6:15 p.m. at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Homewoood, 7101 Hamilton Ave. Admission free, doors open at 5:30 p.m. Friday, November 8th (6:15 pm) MUMIA: Long Distance Revolutionary – A Journey with Mumia Abu Jamal This riveting film explores Mumia’s life before, during, and after Death Row- revealing, in the words of Angela Davis, “the most eloquent and powerful opponent of the death penalty in the world- the 21st Century Frederick Douglass.” 2011, English, 120 minutes. Saturday, November 9th (6:15 pm) Mandabi (The Money Order) By Ousmane Sembène Ousmane Sembène’s dark comedy, Mandabi, was his second full length feature film. The film was also the first feature film made in color on the continent of Africa and the first film ever made in an African Language. An unexpected money order appears to be a boon to Ibrahima Dieng and his large family—but Dieng’s attempts to cash it make for a ruefully comic tour of the bureaucracy in a newly independent Senegal. Friday, November 15th (6:15 pm) Ornette Coleman - Made In America Ornette Coleman: Made in America explores the rhythms, images and myths of America seen through they eyes of an artist’s ever-expanding imagination and experience. It is a portrayal of the inner life of an artist-innovator. Friday, November 22nd (6:15 pm)
Every Monday at 9:00 PM
Progressive Pgh Notebook TV Series airs within city limits:
Comcast Channel 21 + Verizon FiOS Channel 47
Watch live at
www.pctv21.org
See more at www.youtube.com/ richfishpgh Rich Fishkin: Camera and Editor C.S. Rhoten: Community Producer for PCTV21
November: Drones vs. Just Wars
December: November 4 TMC Bill McKibben Banquet
Pittsburgh Community Television Corporation
But Then, She's Betty Carter Michele Parkerson’s documentary on the life and music of Betty Carter, But Then, She's Betty Carter has everything going for it in the talent of the black jazz vocalist herself. This documentary highlights her 30-year career with the music she sings, still photographs of herself and other jazz musicians, and reminiscences shared with friends like Lionel Hampton. Friday, November 29Th (6:15 pm) Urban Encounters: What to Do If You Get Stopped By the Police? Film maker Carl Clay first produced Urban Encounters as a play through the Queens, New York based Black Spectrum Theater Company before putting it to film. While there are no easy answers, this film uses a unique blend of street reenactments, candid interviews from around the country, advice from a panel of experts and a lot of common sense to shed light on what has become one of the burning issues of our community today.
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Youth Activism Hope for the Future by Scilla Wahrhaftig Recently I have found myself with a feeling of great hope as I celebrate the youth of the future. October saw nearly 10,000 young folk in Pittsburgh from all over the country for Powershift; youth passionate about the environment came together to address concerns about climate change. I also saw interviews with Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani student who was shot because she was advocating for education for everyone in her country. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013. While she didn’t receive the prize, her nomination gained huge support from around the world and gave her the opportunity to speak out strongly not only for education but also against the drones that are devastating the people of her country. This month 250 young change leaders will be in Warsaw, Poland to take part in the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. Among them will be Angelina Winbush who has been part of the Pittsburgh American Friends
Service Committee youth group. Angelina is now in college studying global health, but she was my intern for the program last year and was part of my high school youth program from the beginning. She took a year out to go to Malaysia because she wanted to experience a Muslim country and while there worked in a refugee camp. She has been sharing her thoughts on going to the event: "Often, when reading about the great accomplishments of the Nobel Peace Laureates in
newspapers and on the news, I have a difficult time imagining I could ever achieve such feats. However, as I picture myself amidst these laureates at the Nobel Peace Summit in Poland this year, I can only imagine the inspiration I will gain knowing that these individuals started out like myself; someone who saw injustice in the world and then made it their goal to conquer it with peace." The American Friends Service Committee, together with British Friends, received the Nobel Peace prize in 1947 in recognition for their work feeding starving children in Europe after the two world wars. This gives AFSC the
Angelina Winbush, photo by Scilla Wahrhaftig
opportunity to not only submit our own nomination for the Nobel Peace prize but also send youth to the Nobel Peace Summit. There they get to hear from other Peace Laureates and meet amazing youth from around the world. In the AFSC delegation there will be youth from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Cambodia, Israel and two from Indonesia as well as from all over the United States. Each of these young folk will be using social media to reach out to their communities and as a way of taking back the wisdom and skills they get from their experiences. So a new generation is emerging, equipped with new methods of communication and new approaches for peacemaking. Phillip Agnew, Executive Director of the Dream Defenders, one of these exciting new change-leaders and a speaker at Powershift, speaks about the generation of dreamers and defenders who are ready to take on the injustices through nonviolence. Maybe it is time for us older generation to step back and open up opportunities for these creative new voices. Scilla Wahrhaftig is the Program Director of the American Friends Service Committee PA.
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What Malala said to President Obama by Michael Drohan Malala Yousafzai, a 16 year old girl from the Swat Valley, was received in audience by President Obama on October 10. Malala has been an advocate for girls' education in Pakistan and was shot when she was 14 years old by a member of the Taliban for speaking out on this
issue. She and her family have had to leave Pakistan because of threats on their lives for this work, and they now reside in England. Here is what she said about her audience with President Obama: "I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to
resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education, it will make a big impact." Michael Drohan is Co-Chair of the Editorial Collective and the Board of the Thomas Merton Center.
Meet Two New Thomas Merton Center Interns: Xiaoyuan Ze and Chao Pan
she has become interested in playing the bamboo flute, which is a traditional Chinese musical instrument.
Chao Pan is a second-year student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Her by Xiaoyuan Ze concentration is Public and Nonprofit Management. She is Xiaoyuan is a secondpassionate about environmental year graduate student in the justice. That is why she chose TMC: School of Social Work at the one of its priorities is environmental University of Pittsburgh. She justice, and it works to promote focuses on Social environmental rights, pushing for Administration and is sustainable practices and linking interested in child welfare and environmental rights to economic social justice. Because TMC justice. She is an all-around works to build a supporter of different projects and is consciousness of values and to excited not only about being raise the moral questions involved in activities about involved in the issues of environmental justice, but also poverty, economic justice, and about having a chance to see how human rights, in her opinion it other projects are managed. is a good opportunity to learn Xiaoyuan Ze visits Yellowstone National Currently she is working on the how to work with various powerful Park with friends, August 2013. Thomas Merton Award Dinner groups to make changes in the society. After graduation, she wants to go back to China and find a job in Chao Pan makes protest signs at the TMC honoring Bill McKibben. Chao has a office with photographer Junwei Shen. wide range of interests, including relation to child education and economic justice. She tries to learn more reading, cooking, and doing yoga. skills and knowledge to prepare herself so that she can perform better in the She is also very good at computer technology and it makes her quite future. She will spend two semesters in TMC and now is responsible for the popular and helpful. She is also a fluent Japanese speaker and very calendar, weekly eblast, and online NewPeople. What she does gives her a interested in Japanese culture. whole view of what and how changes are going on. In her spare time she likes to read novels, listen to classic and popular music, and cook. Recently 14 - NEWPEOPLE
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Thomas Merton Center Community Connect with Pittsburgh’s peace and justice
Bill McKibben’s Tour of Europe Ends in Pittsburgh
community. (NP Circulation 3500)
(continued from page 1)
The campaign is modeled on the antiapartheid movement of the 1980s, which, through the policy of divestment, brought about the end the unjust social class system in South Africa. McKibben will bring together, on stage and via video, an impressive group of social movement leaders, organizers, climate scientists, and opinion leaders to make the case that divesting from fossil fuel companies is not just morally just, but ecologically and economically smart. 350.org launched the divestment campaign last autumn and the movement has already spread to over 300 colleges and universities and 100 cities and states in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Over 15 cities, six colleges, and numerous religious institutions, have already committed to dump their fossil fuel holdings. Even the most conservative governments in the world have agreed that global warming should be limited to no more than 2°C. Scientists say to meet that target we can only emit roughly 565
Join the Most Vital People in the Struggle for a Better World by Molly Rush How has the Merton Center persisted in the ongoing struggle for justice for over 41 years? One word: MEMBERS. Speaking personally, I’ve been so very fortunate over the years to meet, learn from and become friends with some of the most wonderful people you can imagine. It is their creativity, imagination and hard work that constantly sustain and energize me. They are the life blood of the Center. They allow us to remain independent and to constantly reinvent the Center while remaining consistent with our mission statement. [See the box on page one] How else could a peace and justice center survive and even thrive without the commitment, active involvement, community-building and, yes, the financial support of our members? It’s not easy. We’re always on the edge financially. As an organization that does not rely on foundation or corporate support, it is our members and our sustainers that keep us going. Right now, we’re trying to raise funds to support hiring a part-time
community organizer. My own hope is that, as our membership continues to grow, we’ll be able to add full-time organizers to our hard-working staff.
gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But the fossil fuel industry has 2795 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in their reserves, nearly five times too much — and everyday they spend millions of Euros looking for more. “Not only is fossil fuel a rogue industry, it’s also a bad bet,” said McKibben. “Those carbon numbers make clear that the industry sits on a ‘Carbon Bubble’, with 20 trillion dollars worth of fuel it can’t sell if the planet ever takes even minimal action against climate change.” “The Fossil Free Europe Tour is a bold initiative, catalyzing a movement around divestment from fossil fuels, and we are already starting to see results – the movement is getting bigger and stronger,” said Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo. “We need carbon liability for those who are destroying our future on this planet and those who profit from it.” Diane McMahon is Managing Director of the Merton Center and a facilitator for The New People Editorial Collective.
The first step in becoming a member is to fill out the form on the back page or go to the website and pay annual dues. Students and low income members pay just $15. Individual, family and organizational dues range from $50 to $125 a —by Thomas Merton year. Someone will say: Member dues “You worry about birds. allow us to pay for Why not worry about people?” rent, utilities, office expenses, I worry about both birds and people. publication and We are in the world and part of it, mailing costs, etc. and we are destroying everything as well as modest because we are destroying part-time staff ourselves spiritually, morally, salaries. and in every way. Perhaps you read The New People, It is all part of the same sickness.
THE SAME SICKNESS
Thomas Merton is said to have written this journal entry about the same time he wrote a letter to “Silent Spring” author Rachel Carson. Merton's interest in the environment grew while caring for monastic woods. Source: The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4
Convergence on Fort Benning! November 22-24 Mark your calendars! War No More! The Pittsburgh Chapter of the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) is organizing to go to Fort Benning, GA to keep up the pressure to close the School. (aka WHINSEC). We carry with us the strength of social movements in Latin America who are turning their back on the SOA. Thousands will gather at the gates, with speakers, music, street theater, workshops and networking with people from across the Americas. We come together at the gates of Fort Benning - where the killers are trained - to demand an end to US militarization and to impunity. Email Pittsburgh chapter president Russ Noble—russellwn@gmail.com to get more information and to register for the trip. Or make a donation at: http://thomasmertoncenter.org/additional-projects/
We won't stop!
have attended an event or a protest, are active with a Center campaign or one of our 25 projects, or just want to see a better world. Please know that you are not only welcome to become a member, but are vital to our continued growth as the center of support for peace, justice, human rights and environmental activities in Western Pennsylvania. Join today! Molly Rush is co -founder and a current board member of the Thomas Merton Center.
Help Build TMC’s Thrive-ability Index! Make a holiday or end-of-the-year donation to TMC! To donate through your Amazon.com account. HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT:
Go to thomasmertoncenter.org/donate. Look for the Donate via Amazon link located near the top of the page. Simply follow the directions on the website to complete the Amazon donation. Another way you can help TMC... Donate gently used clothes, furniture and other household items to Thrifty! Funds raised at the store support core operating costs at the center. Or...consider giving a gift Thomas Merton Center membership to a friend so that they can receive the New People and help build a more peaceful and just world by joining with the many organizing opportunities that we publicize within our membership. November 2013
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November Activist Events Weekly Meetings
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Thu
Fri
Tuesday International Socialist Organization Meets weekly at the Thomas Merton Center 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Sat
Wednesday Bill McKibben, an environmental author and professor at Middlebury College, will speak at the Thomas Merton Award Dinner on November 4, We hope to see you there!
Fed-Up! Write letters for prisoner’s rights at the Thomas Merton Center, 7 p.m.
Thursday
(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
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First Friday Action 1:30pm3:00pm Post Office Grant St. and 7th Ave. Downtown
Haiti Solidarity meets at TMC, 11am-12:30pm
TMC Potlucks! Are on Thursday evenings. Interested in having one on an issue that’s important to you or your organization? Contact: mcmahond@thomasmertoncenter.org
Transit and Economic Health 12-2 pm at USW, 60 Blvd of the Allies
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7 PIIN Public 8Speaker:
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Capital’s End: Engage in Class Struggle 6:30-9:30pm Ava Lounge, 304 N.Craig St
Bill McKibben receives Thomas Merton Award, 6pm at Sheraton Station Square Southside
Election Day
Israel & the US 10:00am-11:50am University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning 4th floor
Meeting 7pm at Rodef Shalom
MANDABI (The Money Order) 6:15-9pm Carnegie Library Homewood 7101 Hamilton Ave.
TMC joint Retreat Planning Mtg 7 pm at Epiphany Rectory, Uptown
Race&Social Problems 12:00pm-1:30pm Global Pgh School of Social 5:30-8:00pm Work Conference Luke Wholey’s Center 2017 CL Alaskan Grille 5th Annual Sem2106 Penn Ave bène African Film & Arts Festival NewEconomy WG 5:30pm-9:00pm 6pm at TMC, Carnegie Library RSVP to of Pittsburgh
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Ornette - Made In America Discussion Leader: K. Mensah Wali 6:15pm-9:00pm Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Homewood, 7101 Hamilton Avenue
Celebrating Women 6pm9pm August Wilson Center 980 Liberty Ave
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Anti-War Committee 1:30 pm TMC
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Solidarity in Solitary 7pm-9pm Pitt Law School Rm 113
South Hills TMC Member meeting 7pm at Christ UM Church in Bethel Park
SW PA Bread for the World Meeting 10am at Christian Associates, Lawrenceville
Assn. of Pgh Priests, 7pm at Epiphany Rectory, Uptown
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Anti-drone Warfare Coalition Meeting 1:30 pm TMC
A Press Conference 4-5pm Inequality for All 6:30-8:30pm
APP 2013 Fall Speakers Series on Human Trafficking 7-9pm Kearns Spirituality Center
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7 pm: Free play! Reading Noah's Ark at Bricolage Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue
Health Care 4 All PA Free Lecture First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh 7-9pm
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Transit and Social Equity 12-2 pm at USW, 60 Blvd of the Allies
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Subscribe to The New People by becoming a member of the Thomas Merton Center today!
THANKS GIVING DAY
Second Mondays Association of Pittsburgh Priests Meeting 7 to 9 p.m., Epiphany Administration Center Second Tuesdays W.O.M.I.N., 7:30-8:30pm, St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, 18 Schubert St. on the North Side First and Third Wednesdays Darfur Coalition Meeting 7 to 9 p.m., 2121 Murray Avenue, Second Floor, Squirrel Hill, Contact: 412-784-0256
Second Thursdays Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP) Planning Council Meeting 6 p.m., Hill House, Conference Room B
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30 Anti-
Urban Encounters 6:15pm9pm Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Homewood's Auditorium 7101 Hamilton Avenue
Drone Warfare Coalition demonstration 23:30 pm at Forbes and Murray in Squirrel Hill. (Wear Black.)
Join online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ join-donate or fill out this box and mail it in.
email account. You will also receive weekly Select your membership level: __$15 Low Income Membership e-blasts focusing on peace and justice __$15 Student Membership events in Pittsburgh, and special invitations __$50 Individual Membership to membership activities. Now is the time __$50 Gift Membership for Family/Friend to stand for peace and justice! __$100 Family Membership November 2013
Monthly Meetings Second Sundays Industrial Workers of the World Membership Meeting 5:30 - 7 p.m. Ritter's Diner, 5221 Baum Boulevard, Pittsburgh
First Thursdays Green Party Meeting 7 to 9 p.m., 2121 Murray, 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill
Mail this form and membership donation to: The Thomas Merton Center 5129 Penn Avenue As a member, The New People newspaper Pittsburgh, PA 15224 will be mailed to your home or sent to your
16 - NEWPEOPLE
Anti-War Committee First Sunday at 1:30 pm at TMC Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition Third Sunday at 1:30 pm at TMC Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project Meets the first three Sundays of the month Contact: kurbaga@comcast.net
Second Sundays Women In Black Monthly Peace Vigil, 10 to 11 a.m., Ginger Hill Unitarian Universalist Church, Slippery Rock
But Then, She's Betty Carter 6:15pm-9pm Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Homewood's Auditorium
Progressive Americans for a United America Open Discussions. Evjay51 @gmail.com 12-4 @ TMC
Convergence On Fort Benning— look for an update in next month’s New People.
Transit & Environment 12-2pm at USW, 60 Blvd of the Allies
Converge on Fort Benning! November 22-24
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Black Voices for Peace Vigil to End War, 1 to 2 p.m., Penn Ave. and Highland Ave., East Liberty Citizens for Peace Vigil noon to 1 p.m., Forbes Ave. and Braddock Ave.
Sunday
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PLEASE VOTE
Saturday
Second Saturdays Project to End Human Trafficking (PEHT) Carlow University, Antonian Rm #502 Third Saturdays Fight for Lifers West 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Thomas Merton Center
Organization Memberships are available:
__$75 Organization (below 25 members) __$125 Organization (above 25 members)
Name(s):________________________________ Organization (if any):______________________________ Address:________________________________ City: ___________________ State: _________ Zip Code:_______________________________ Home Phone:____________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________ Email:__________________________________