Call for an action bloc on March 20th in Pittsburgh
On March 20th a regional convergence against wars and occupation will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Spearheaded by the Thomas Merton Center [TMC, www.thomasmertoncenter.org] and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group [POG, www.organizepittsburgh.org] this convergence aims to bring thousands into the streets for a weekend of events primarily against the occupation of Iraq. This is a call to action to all sympathizers in our region to come to Pittsburgh and participate in direct action (DA) on March 20th.

The permitted, TMC-sponsored march will begin at 1:00pm on Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park. There, direct action oriented folks will assemble around 4 giant flags, which will hold the DA contingent together through the march and it’s eventual 3pm events. The 1:00pm march will proceed from Flagstaff into Oakland, make a right turn on Forbes Avenue, make a left turn onto Craig Street, make a left hand turn onto Fifth Avenue, and conclude on Bigelow Boulevard at the William Pitt Student Union on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. The Merton Center events will wrap up by 3pm to allow people to leave with the direct action contingent.

At 3pm, the POG is calling for an inclusive direct action to confront Carnegie Mellon University, which receives millions of dollars yearly for military contracts, many of which are carried out at CMU’s Robotics Institute (RI) and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) they oversee. As stated in their call to action, the POG believes that it is now necessary to move away from symbolic actions like marches towards actions that directly address the war machine. This makes sense. Local marches have been more of a reaction to what has already happened than a strategy to change what will happen, and have insufficiently raised the social costs of current government policy to change that policy. Imagine what could be accomplished if even a portion of the national energy directed at generic anti-war protests was directed at exposing and targeting local pieces of the war machine. Defense contractors shut down, ROTC programs closed, University research re-directed, and military recruitment made more difficult. We urge individuals and collectives to locate local parts of the war machine and address them directly, to save lives now.

In the last eight anti-war marches, the Pittsburgh police department has steadily increased its use of violence and intimidation. They have not hesitated to resort to illegal arrests and brutality when it suited them. Often, they have targeted those least prepared, or able, to resist. Based on this past pattern of behavior, it’s safe to assume that there will be some type of confrontation with them this March 20th. Although we do not intend to initiate this confrontation, it is advisable and critical that we prepare for it. We would like to put forward the following goals for radicals in the direct action contingent: creating “space” for others and ourselves to take effective action, raising the social and economic costs of pursuing current government policies, protecting others and ourselves from police violence, and actively discouraging police violence by preparing for the possibility of it through the use of protective gear. In short, we support actions on M20 that will be effective blows against the military-corporate state. Therefore, if the POG is able to assemble and carry out an effective action plan, then we intend to support this to the maximum extent possible and we urge other radicals to do the same. If the POG initiated DA doesn’t materialize because of police repression or lack of participation we propose radicals in the DA contingent move to disrupt any and all local institutions involved in, supporting of, or benefiting from the corporate-military hegemony. Information on these places will be available before March 20th.

The POG seems to be searching for a middle ground between ineffectual permitted rallies and the more exclusionary militant black-bloc actions of past local events in an attempt to build a more widespread resistance. While we support the fact they are continually experimenting with tactics, the critical question is whether this attempt at more traditional disobedience will result in the increased participation necessary to be effective. Will liberals participate in the proposed direct action? If these tactics do prove successful at achieving their admirable goals, perhaps Pittsburgh’s resistance has found a new foundation on which to build and grow. If not, there is no reason not to intensify our black bloc tactics, which have proved effective, cohesive, and have avoided direct confrontation between the bloc and police, the result of which was always very much uncertain.

For the last 2 years there has been a genuine diversity of tactics and approaches in Pittsburgh. There has been almost universal respect and coordination between groups and collectives. That this level of collaboration happens at all is relatively unique in this country and we hope to see it continue to grow. We feel March 20th, like last January’s convergence, will be a critical event, determining the direction of our resistance.

If you’re participating in a local M20 event we wish you luck and extend our solidarity! If you’re looking for something new, exciting, and potentially effective we invite you to come to Pittsburgh. Housing and food will be available throughout the events.

Fight to win,

From Pittsburgh and Greensburg with love, The Balaclava Group (a small group of those who’ve participated in previous un-permitted Pittsburgh events)

We will issue a more comprehensive call out the first week of March.

Feel free to contact us with any questions at: balaclavaM20-AT-hushmail.com