G20 Resistance Dispatch #1: "Nobody Wants it Here"

Here in the Steel City, "nobody wants it here," said one of our hosts of the G20, and we've yet to refute his conclusion.  While out-of-town activists pour into the city to supplement the opposition at home, many residents with the desire privilege to be able to escape the police siege are going the opposite direction.  Many of those who are staying here aren't quite sure what to expect.

After stepping out of the car on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood - one of the centers of radical organizing in which several houses including one housing medics were targeted for police harassment the night beore we arrived - we were met by two white-haired ladies stepping out of their storefront with hundreds of Jesus figurines and a pro-life yard sign in the window.

They asked if we were there to protest and engaged in friendly conversation.  Although less outraged than the dreadlocked, grungy employees of the sandwich shop down the street with "G20 Demonstrators Welcome" on the door, they too had no clear answers as to why the G20 behemoth is taking over their city for a week.

G-Ininity Radio, Live Reports and Video Streaming Up at http://IndyPGH.org/G20

Empty schools have been converted to police and military staging grounds, topped with razor wire. (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09262/999246-482.stm) One high school's football field has turned into a helipad.  And the city is swarming with local, state and federal agents; for everyone travelling pack of protesters unloading at a gas station outside the city, it seems a vanload of police is doing the same - at least, that's what my car saw on our final fill-up.

"I've never seen the state police just strolling up and down the avenue with their dogs before," said an employee of the sandwich shop.

Until the action starts to heat up, it seems both the police and media needed something to warm-up with with - and they've chosen the Seeds of Peace mobile kitchen.  The Seeds of Peace collective strives to serve two to three free meals per day at locations across the city.  Their converted school bus has been seized or forced to move several times, and last night police told them that they could not move it unless they found someone with a CDL passengers license.

Video from Flux Rostrum: Systemic Harassment of the Infrastructure of Dissent (interviews with Seeds of Peace) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwSjDxcyg-I

Such police tactics enforcing the letter of the law are common; another example is that police are seizing bicycles from nighttime riders who don't have both front and rear lights as required by law.

The totality of police harassment has already led to a lawsuit seeking an emergency restraining order from the ACLU on behalf of Seeds of Peace and others: http://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/g20protestorsharassedbypol.htm

Two permitted marches last Sunday - an economic justice march and a religious/spiritual procession - both went forward despite being blocked by their police or their granted route changed at the last minute.

Meanwhile, the Three Rivers Climate Convergence at Schenley Park has gone on without major troubles, although it has been somewhat small in attendance.

Those of us who experienced the 2008 Republican National Convention can't help but compare the logistical infrastructure.  Given that the G20 location was announced only in late May, while the RNC was planned for two years, it's hardly a fair comparison, and the result is what you might predict, as least from what we've seen so far.

On the schedule for today: a speak out against police harassment at the fortress-like Federal Building, anti-coal actions in downtown, a mock funeral procession decrying large nations' lack of attention to the AIDS crisis, a community gathering and speakout in the Bloomfield neighborhood, and of course much more.

Still to be answered is whether Pittsburgh will see the same sort of dramatic pre-emptive raids the Twin Cities did; whether the vastly decentralized actions will lead to more success or simply confusion; and, frankly, what success even means at summits like this.  More thoughts on that (and photos!) later.

haloka
Twin Cities IMC volunteer