Pittsburgh Organizing Group
Encyclopedia
Pittsburgh Organizing Group, often referred to as POG, was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
-based anarchist
organization concerned with anti-militarism
, social and economic justice
, labor solidarity
and police brutality
issues locally, nationally, and internationally. POG was formed in 2002, and since then it has been responsible for the most persistent local protests against the Iraq War and claims to be one of the largest radical groups in Pittsburgh. The group has organized protest
s, pickets, vigil
s, direct action
s, street theatre
, concert
s, teach-in
s, conferences
, and rallies
. Some of its events have been overtly confrontational and disruptive. More than 122 people have been arrested at POG organized direct actions, and some events have involved direct confrontation with the police. POG is an affiliate group of the Northeast Anarchist Network.
The group opposes the way the American justice system works, and it chooses to settle what would normally be criminal cases without involving law enforcement. However, the group does accept the use of the court system against the state in some circumstances.
for the 2002 annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank
. On September 1, POG held its first public event, a teach-in
in preparation for the fall meetings of IMF and World Bank in Washington DC. In October, POG cosponsored a workshop to teach demonstrators nonviolent protest and civil disobedience
tactics as well as methods for protecting themselves and others at protests. The group's first major action was a trip to Washington, D.C. for the 2002 annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank. The group participated in a planned "People's Strike", an attempt by the Washington, D.C. Anti-Capitalist Convergence
to shut down the city. The arrest of over 400 protesters in Pershing Park
resulted in a class action lawsuit.
In the lead-up to the war with Iraq, POG joined with the Thomas Merton Center
of Pittsburgh to organize a “regional convergence against war” on January 24 to 26, 2003. The convergence included three days of protests, forums, teach-ins, and civil disobedience. 2,500 people marched in a POG protest on January 25, making the event the largest anti-war protest in Pittsburgh in at least 30 years.
In 2004, the group organized a black bloc
in Pittsburgh to protest a visit by President George W. Bush
.
In April 2005, POG began a campaign to counter military recruitment in Pittsburgh when they blocked off an Army Reserve
recruiting table in Carnegie Mellon University
's student union for 45 minutes during the lunchtime rush.
On August 20, 2005, between 30 and 50 POG demonstrators marched to protest a military recruitment center in Oakland
and attempt to close it for the day. Six people were arrested, a taser
was used on one woman, and another was bitten by a police dog. The events led to a controversy over the actions of demonstrators and the Pittsburgh police. This controversy led to hearings before Pittsburgh City Council, calls for a moratorium on the use of taser
s at protests, criticism of police conduct by local politicians, and a police review board staffed by citizens. The next week, POG organized another march at the same recruiting station to protest both the military recruitment and the alleged mistreatment of protesters by police.
On January 13, 2007, POG announced that it planned to barricade the entrances to the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). On March 2, 2007, POG members blockaded the Center, a venture of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that receives tens of millions of dollars from the Pentagon
and has become a world leader in development of robotics
used in warfare. Protesters blocked access to the center by locking their arms together in PVC pipe, hanging suspended from poles rigged into a tripod, or locking themselves to the gate. The protest resulted in 14 arrests. The group claimed victory.
Another confrontation occurred between POG deomonstrators and police in an April 3, 2007 POG protest outside a Marines recruiting center. Protesters and unaffiliated witnesses claimed that a police officer grabbed a demonstrator by the throat. The event was investigated by the city's Citizen Police Review Board. The Marine recruiting center was later vandalized that night, to include smashing of windows and anti-war slogans spray painted in large letters on the building http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07095/775380-85.stm, though POG denied any involvement http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/27623.php#7_00_Finger_pointing_over_East_E.
The military recruitment center protests are part of a "counter-recruitment" strategy by the group aimed at lowering the numbers of people who enlist. By January 2007, the group had organized 45 protests at military recruiting stations.
On August 8, 2007, POG announced plans to hold a camp-out and fast
for 26 days outside the main military recruiting station in Oakland in protest of the war in Iraq. POG asked the city for a permit, and received one but only for a 24 hours. The event kicked off as scheduled on September 4, 2007, and on September 4, POG announced that they would continue without a permit.
In September 2007, the ACLU
filed a First Amendment
lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh on behalf of POG, arguing that members' rights to protest outside an Army recruiting office had been violated when they were cited for blocking a sidewalk during the protests. The city and the group came to an agreement that protesters would occupy only certain parts of the sidewalk for the rest of September. The city agreed to allow protesters to lie down on the section of the Forbes Avenue sidewalk they had occupied, as and to set up chairs and sleeping bags as long as the sidewalk was not obstructed. The agreement also dropped the restraining order that the POG had filed against the Pittsburgh City Police on September 18, 2007.
In the spring of 2008, POG officially became an anarchist group and brought several anarchist speakers to Pittsburgh http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A46873 including Cindy Milstein
, George Sossenko
, Ashanti Alston
and Wayne Price.
On July 19, 2011 POG officially disbanded citing that "[they] have not been a means through which to effectively respond to the priorities individual members have often articulated is indicative of the fact we lack the common ground required to collectively organize."
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
-based anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
organization concerned with anti-militarism
Antimilitarism
Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and, more globally, in the socialist movement, which may both be characterized as internationalist movements. It relies heavily on a critical theory of nationalism and imperialism, and was an explicit goal of the First and Second...
, social and economic justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
, labor solidarity
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
and police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
issues locally, nationally, and internationally. POG was formed in 2002, and since then it has been responsible for the most persistent local protests against the Iraq War and claims to be one of the largest radical groups in Pittsburgh. The group has organized protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s, pickets, vigil
Vigil
A vigil is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance...
s, direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
s, street theatre
Street theatre
Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves and street corners. They are especially seen in outdoor spaces where there are...
, concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s, teach-in
Teach-in
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific frame of time or an academic scope of the topic. Teach-ins...
s, conferences
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
, and rallies
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
. Some of its events have been overtly confrontational and disruptive. More than 122 people have been arrested at POG organized direct actions, and some events have involved direct confrontation with the police. POG is an affiliate group of the Northeast Anarchist Network.
The group opposes the way the American justice system works, and it chooses to settle what would normally be criminal cases without involving law enforcement. However, the group does accept the use of the court system against the state in some circumstances.
Major protest actions
According to the group, its first project was organizing a trip to Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
for the 2002 annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank
Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group
The IMF and World Bank meet each autumn in what is officially known as the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group and each spring in the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group...
. On September 1, POG held its first public event, a teach-in
Teach-in
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific frame of time or an academic scope of the topic. Teach-ins...
in preparation for the fall meetings of IMF and World Bank in Washington DC. In October, POG cosponsored a workshop to teach demonstrators nonviolent protest and civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
tactics as well as methods for protecting themselves and others at protests. The group's first major action was a trip to Washington, D.C. for the 2002 annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank. The group participated in a planned "People's Strike", an attempt by the Washington, D.C. Anti-Capitalist Convergence
Anti-Capitalist Convergence
Anti-Capitalist Convergences are organizations which sprang up in North America in the late 1990s and early 2000s as forms of coordinating activities by the growing social justice, anarchist, and environmentalist anti-capitalists...
to shut down the city. The arrest of over 400 protesters in Pershing Park
Pershing Park
Pershing Park is a memorial park dedicated to General John J. Pershing located at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States....
resulted in a class action lawsuit.
In the lead-up to the war with Iraq, POG joined with the Thomas Merton Center
Thomas Merton Center (Pittsburgh)
Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh peace and social justice center, is an organization concerned with issues such as social justice, poverty, workers' rights, racial discrimination, ecology and peace. It serves as an organizing center for most of the city's left-leaning and liberal social movement...
of Pittsburgh to organize a “regional convergence against war” on January 24 to 26, 2003. The convergence included three days of protests, forums, teach-ins, and civil disobedience. 2,500 people marched in a POG protest on January 25, making the event the largest anti-war protest in Pittsburgh in at least 30 years.
In 2004, the group organized a black bloc
Black bloc
A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarves, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing items...
in Pittsburgh to protest a visit by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
In April 2005, POG began a campaign to counter military recruitment in Pittsburgh when they blocked off an Army Reserve
Army Reserve
Army Reserve may refer to:*Military Reserve Force*Army Reserve *United States Army Reserve...
recruiting table in Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
's student union for 45 minutes during the lunchtime rush.
On August 20, 2005, between 30 and 50 POG demonstrators marched to protest a military recruitment center in Oakland
Oakland, Pennsylvania
Oakland is the name of some locations in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania:* Oakland , a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania* Oakland, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania* Oakland, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania...
and attempt to close it for the day. Six people were arrested, a taser
Taser
A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...
was used on one woman, and another was bitten by a police dog. The events led to a controversy over the actions of demonstrators and the Pittsburgh police. This controversy led to hearings before Pittsburgh City Council, calls for a moratorium on the use of taser
Taser
A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...
s at protests, criticism of police conduct by local politicians, and a police review board staffed by citizens. The next week, POG organized another march at the same recruiting station to protest both the military recruitment and the alleged mistreatment of protesters by police.
On January 13, 2007, POG announced that it planned to barricade the entrances to the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). On March 2, 2007, POG members blockaded the Center, a venture of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that receives tens of millions of dollars from the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
and has become a world leader in development of robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
used in warfare. Protesters blocked access to the center by locking their arms together in PVC pipe, hanging suspended from poles rigged into a tripod, or locking themselves to the gate. The protest resulted in 14 arrests. The group claimed victory.
Another confrontation occurred between POG deomonstrators and police in an April 3, 2007 POG protest outside a Marines recruiting center. Protesters and unaffiliated witnesses claimed that a police officer grabbed a demonstrator by the throat. The event was investigated by the city's Citizen Police Review Board. The Marine recruiting center was later vandalized that night, to include smashing of windows and anti-war slogans spray painted in large letters on the building http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07095/775380-85.stm, though POG denied any involvement http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2007/06/27623.php#7_00_Finger_pointing_over_East_E.
The military recruitment center protests are part of a "counter-recruitment" strategy by the group aimed at lowering the numbers of people who enlist. By January 2007, the group had organized 45 protests at military recruiting stations.
On August 8, 2007, POG announced plans to hold a camp-out and fast
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
for 26 days outside the main military recruiting station in Oakland in protest of the war in Iraq. POG asked the city for a permit, and received one but only for a 24 hours. The event kicked off as scheduled on September 4, 2007, and on September 4, POG announced that they would continue without a permit.
In September 2007, the ACLU
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
filed a First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh on behalf of POG, arguing that members' rights to protest outside an Army recruiting office had been violated when they were cited for blocking a sidewalk during the protests. The city and the group came to an agreement that protesters would occupy only certain parts of the sidewalk for the rest of September. The city agreed to allow protesters to lie down on the section of the Forbes Avenue sidewalk they had occupied, as and to set up chairs and sleeping bags as long as the sidewalk was not obstructed. The agreement also dropped the restraining order that the POG had filed against the Pittsburgh City Police on September 18, 2007.
In the spring of 2008, POG officially became an anarchist group and brought several anarchist speakers to Pittsburgh http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A46873 including Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein is an anarchist activist and educator who talks at various anarchist and socialist gatherings. One such talk was the very informal but in-depth class, "Anarchism 101" at the National Conference on Organized Resistance, at the American University in Washington DC, in 2003 and 2004...
, George Sossenko
George Sossenko
George Sossenko is a Russian-born American lecturer and activist. At age 17, he left his parent's home in Paris, France, to join those fighting against Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War...
, Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party. Even though the party no longer exists, Alston sometimes refers to himself as a Black Panther, and sometimes as "the @narchist Panther", a term he coined in his @narchist Panther Zine...
and Wayne Price.
On July 19, 2011 POG officially disbanded citing that "[they] have not been a means through which to effectively respond to the priorities individual members have often articulated is indicative of the fact we lack the common ground required to collectively organize."
External links
- Steel City Revolt The official website of the now defunct Pittsburgh Organizing Group
- Infoshop News. August 9, 2007. Pittsburgh: Hunger-strike planned to oppose military recruitment
- Indypgh.org. Pittsburgh Indymedia Coverage of People's Strike.
- Northeast Anarchist Network