March 20th Direct action occupation against the occupation(:
Assemble: 3:00pm at the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh (5th and Bigelow in Oakland)

The question comes back, as it always does, to what responsibility do people have to stop immoral and unjust actions. How far do our moral beliefs compel us to directly confront the individuals and institutional power structures that share responsibility for the death, destruction, and exploitation currently occurring around the world? How much of our privilege will we risk to oppose a government that trumpets the claim that it is a democracy acting in our name, for our benefit? In attempting to answer these questions, POG has taken a variety of actions over the last year against what we feel is a country and government increasingly under the control of the rich and powerful, and the institutions and companies they control.

For the last year we have held rallies, marches, picnics, teach-ins, speak outs, carnivals, and on many occasions we have broken the law. We did so out of a sincere belief that we could not allow the war to occur in silence. At the start of “shock and awe,” we had to take actions to make people stop and take note of the certainty that tens of thousands were about to be killed. Throughout it all our organizing was based primarily around appeals to the public and our government. We sought to raise issues that were being ignored in the corporate media; issues about the justifications for war and what the predictable consequences of such a war would be. We tried to remove any illusions that a consensus for the war existed, while bringing together a hopefully long lasting movement aware of the interconnectedness of social struggles. We also engaged in actions designed to raise the social costs of the government carrying out its policies. We believe Pittsburgh’s response to the war was appropriate to the time and was effective at achieving many of its short-term goals.

Now we are approaching the one-year anniversary of the war; the lies and deceit that “led” us to war have been partially unmasked, the justifications have shifted, and we stand again at a turning point. The death toll for U.S. soldiers in Iraq is 528, troops may stay in Iraq through 2006, the army has announced plans to exceed its congressionally authorized size limit by 30,000, more Iraqis and Afghanis die every day, and all this is tempered by the knowledge that Iraq is not the end because it was not an aberration in US foreign policy. Every day another pre-war claim of the peace movement is proven, our arguments with pro-war family and friends become easier to win, but if we do not see this struggle through to the point of concrete structural changes in our society what good does any of it do?

We say the structure is rotten, no more replastering! While Pittsburgh continues to organize and participate in the necessary large-scale rallies and protests, we believe the time has come to begin addressing the war machine in a more direct manner, on the local level. Nationwide, hundreds of groups are calling for a global day of action against war on March 20th. Regional events are scheduled for many cities, including Pittsburgh where local events begin with a Thomas Merton Center organized 1p.m. rally at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park, continue with a march around Oakland ending outside the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh. The TMC events are permitted, will include peace marshals, and aim for the widest possible participation without any fear of government repression.

To complement the permitted events, POG is mobilizing for a non-violent direct action aimed at exposing and confronting pieces of the war machine in Pittsburgh. We believe the time is right to engage in non-violent resistance that directly confronts those involved in the research, development and production of weapons systems that are facilitating the wholesale slaughter of thousands of innocent people around the world. Although absolutely necessary, it is not enough to simply register our opposition in the streets.

We are aiming for a truly inclusive framework for this event that respects the different tactical perspectives people hold and increases the unity of the movement. The direct action contingent will assemble itself around 4 large flags at Flagstaff and stay together through the permitted events until its eventual break off. At 3 p.m. the contingent will leave the William Pitt Student Union for Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) campus. Both the CMU Robotics Institute (RI) and the CMU Software Engineering Institute (SEI) have extensive ties to the military and receive contracts for research and development with military applications. The RI is currently developing a remote controlled scout “tank” dubbed “gladiator” that has “offensive capabilities” to “neutralize threats” and SEI develops the software testing and rating system that every military contractor using software must now pass to be eligible for Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. The DoD said it best “The SEI focuses on software technology areas judged to be of the highest payoff in meeting defense needs.”

Upon arrival at CMU some people will occupy buildings with direct ties to the war effort. There a variety of ways that people can support the non-violent direct actions: All of which are critical to the success of the actions *March with the direct action contingent.
We’ll need a critical mass of people in order to reach our destination and carry out the sit-in. *Occupy the building. We need both people to initially go inside the building and people prepared to stay as long as possible. *Support the occupation from outside the building. We need people to communicate with those inside, raise awareness of the action, and dialogue with people face-to-face about the actions and the reasons behind them.

People should plug in where they feel comfortable (but not TOO comfortable!)

Our tangible goals:
1: Obtain FULL disclosure from CMU on the scope of past and current military ties and their sources of funding.

2: End CMU ties to the Military-Industrial complex. All of it, not just Robotics Institute programs such as spinner and gladiator, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (www.darpa.mil), but Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman, and the rest.

3: Get ROTC off CMU’s campus (CMU’s ROTC is a joint- pitt-cmu program which is based at pitt) www.pitt.edu/~armyrotc/

This is exactly the type of action those inside pog have wished we could work on and one that other progressives have indicated they would fully support if we tried: one with a crystal clear focus, with specific demands, one that is non-disruptive except to those directly complicit in the war, and if successful momentum is built, this action could be huge, with possibly hundreds of people participating in the occupation, national attention, and real changes to Carnegie Mellon University’s conduct. We
hope that YOU will consider supporting and taking part in this action on March 20th.

POG is meeting weekly in the lead-up to M20 and we encourage everyone to contact us to become more involved. Questions and comments are also welcome.

In solidarity and with love,

Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) pog-AT-mutualaid.org -
www.organizepittsburgh.org

Please Note: It is impossible in a short call to action like this to delve into CMU ties to the military- the ways in which CMU’s administration and President (Jared Cohen) have repeatedly lied about how closely tied the school is to the war and the slippery slope they continue to fall down in regards to unethical military research. A more in-depth report is at www.organizepittsburgh.org/war_machine/cmu.html