Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh’s Peace and Social Justice Center
PITTSBURGH’S PEACE & JUSTICE NEWSPAPER VOL. 46 No. 11 December 2016/January 2017
U.S Attorney, ICE Continue to Persecute the Esquivel Family By Mike Telian
Martin Esquivel-Hernandez is a 35-year-old husband, father, worker, and immigrant to Pittsburgh by way of Mexico. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided his house on May 2nd of this year, following an unwarranted traffic stop, and he has been incarcerated and facing deportation since. As of this writing on December 8th, Martin is still in federal custody, and was recently denied bail. Community supporters continue to call on U.S. Attorney Soo Song to use her power of prosecutorial discretion to dismiss the immigrations related charge, or agree to a misdemeanor plea that could prevent deportation. What began as a hopeful day for the over 100 people who marched from the courthouse to city hall ended in sadness, as the U.S. attorney’s office failed to negotiate an acceptable plea deal for Martin Esquivel-Hernandez. Not only will he be unable to see his family during the holidays, he could still face deportation by ICE on top of a federal felony charge for illegal reentry after deportation. This does not need to happen. Both U.S. Attorney Soo Song and the ICE Field Office Director have the individual
power to withdraw charges or agree to a deal that would avoid deportation. ICE ‘s own policies state that they should focus on people who present a threat to public safety or national security; since leaving Mexico as an undocumented immigrant in 2012, Martin has become an active member Marchers set off from the Federal Building at Liberty and Grant during the Take Back Our of two churches, his local school, Economy Rally on November 29th. Photo by Neil Cosgrove. Read more on page 9... and several organizations for the latinx community, hardly fitting In This Issue.. the profile. His wife Alma has called on ICE to right this wrongful arrest and potential Breaking Down Empathy Walls… Page 5 deportation, saying: Martin is a man that has always found ways to help CEDAW: Now in Pittsburgh!... Page 6 others without thinking of himself. US Attorney Soo Song and ICE director Nuclear Nightmares… Page 11 Thomas Decker, you use your power for injustice, depriving us from having Unions Helping Students… Page 13 the possibilities to support our families. We are all the same; you all have families, so do we. You all fight for your children, so do we. You all work to support your families, so do we. Martin’s only crime was to do the right thing. By Linda Nordquist Martin is in a for-profit jail Continued on Page 7… The Army Corps of Engineers orders pipeline is rerouted to run perilously close to 5,000 protesters “leave by Dec. 5.” Native the Standing Rock Reservation, putting at response: “We are staying….Forced removal risk their only water supply. Also at risk are and state oppression? This is nothing new to 10 million people living along its banks us…” downriver. Last April, as the Dakota Access PipeThe Natives are dual citizens: citizens line encroached further into Lakota Indian of their tribes and the United States. Their territory, an elder established a camp near ancestors waged war against U.S. colonial Cannon Ball, N.D. with a two-fold purpose: expansion to preserve their land and culture preserve Native culture and show spiritual against hordes of prospectors seeking gold in resistance to the pipeline. This is what hap- the Black Hills. Today the Federal governpened next: ment turns away as war is waged against Elderly men and women, joined by Na- these American citizens on behalf of a corpotive adults and youth, leave their homes on ration that mines black gold. the Standing Rock Reservation to sleep in Bulldozers rip through large tracts of teepees and tents. The camp grows. Thouopen plains, uprooting ancestors and sacred sands come to protest against “the black artifacts, destroying spiritual ceremonial sites snake,” a 1200 mile oil pipeline slated to run allegedly protected by federal law. Arrayed under the Missouri River, where humans against unarmed peaceful water protectors is depend on its flowing waters for life. a horrific display of military might: sniper Original plans call for it to traverse rifles aim, militarized Humvee engines roar, north of Bismarck, North Dakota. Citizens water cannons blast water, endangering hunExecutive Director, Antonio Lodico, presents Frida Berrigan with the 2016 Thomas Merton Award on November 14th at the Sheraton in object: “Too close to us; might leak.” The dreds of people in 22⁰ temperatures, attack
Water Protectors Defy Siege of Standing Rock
Station Square. Read more on page 3. Photos by Jenna Baron.
Continued on Page 14... The Thomas Merton Center 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. 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.
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Table of Contents
Page7 Update on Martin Esquivel Hernandez Cont’d Child Violence, And Love, Too (Poem) Page8 Boycott Wendy’s Now! My America (Poem) How to Get Your Voice Heard Incarcerated Activists In PA Need Our Support Page9 March To Take Back Our Economy Page10 Farewell to Revolutionary Fidel Castro Fidel Castro Presente! Page11 The Future of Us-Iran Relations in Trumpland Radioactive Waste Coming Our Way Page12 Wealth and Independence: The Power to do Right Page 13 PA’s Faculty Strike & Labor’s Future A Construction Union Bank Could Lower Student
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Page 1 Update on Martin Esquivel Hernandez Water Protectors Defy Siege of Standing Rock Page 3 “Where Do You Find Your Hope Right Now?” TMC Inter-faith Gathering Give the Gift of Peacemaking Page 4 The Geography of Trump The Anti-Trump Protests Are A LongOverdue Renewal of Civic Engagement Political Cartoon Page5 Breaking Down the Empathy Walls Election Night from the Perspective of a Queer Millennial Learning Empathy With the Enneagram Page6 City Council Condemns Discrimination Against Women I Am Morgan
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Loan Debt and Benefit American Workers Page 14 Water Protectors Defy Siege of Standing Rock Cont’d In Search of a Village Page 15 APP Celebrates 50 years of Preaching the Social Gospel Welcome to the New TMC Board Members! Thomas Merton Winter Reading List Thrifty’s Wishlist In Memory
Merton Center News “Where Do You Find Your Hope Right Now?”
By Jim McCarville
This is the question that Frida Berrigan posed to a packed house of over 300 persons at the Thomas Merton Center’s Annual Dinner at the Sheraton Station Square on November 14. Many TMC members entering that dining room were despondent at the results of November’s elections. They needed to find hope. Berrigan talked proudly of growing up in a radical home in the 70s. She recounted some great growing-up stories about her father, Phillip, her mother, Elizabeth McAlister, and her famous uncle Daniel and how those people impacted her life. She shared with us some of the lessons she learned and some of the advice she got from her father and uncle and how important it is for us to share hope, especially now. She also spoke about her work over the last 44 years and coming into her own dealing with the Guantanamo Bay prison during the Bush and Obama administrations. She put the cost of that Guantanamo operation at $5.6 billion over the past 14 years. “What’s next,” she asked, “now that we have a President who thinks the only things wrong with Guantanamo are the empty beds.” “We have to become more strategic,” she said, but “I am hopeful because we know how to do this”.
“Where do you find hope right now,” she asked. She provided the same answers she learned while growing up. “You find your people. You go to the well that is feeding you. Hope, you’ll find, is where your bottom is” (a phrase spoken by her Uncle Dan, she said she cleaned up for the Merton dinner). “We need each other; we need to share each other’s hopes. Take children,” she said, “they are instinctually kind until they are taught to be otherwise. They (the children) are our anti-Trump.” She closed with a series of quotes from her uncle Daniel. “We won’t have peace until we wage peace as well as the others wage war…. We need to look less to Washington and more to our neighbor.” And finally, “We really need each other so much right now.” Did we find hope? A lot of people leaving the dinner agreed with Ros Maholland, TMC staff member, "We did," she said, "and we needed to." Jim McCarville is a TMC board member and a member of the NewPeople editorial collective
Top: Guests mingle at the 44th Annual Thomas Merton Award Dinner on November 14th. Middle: Edith Bell talks to Sr. Gerry about women’s rights and Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom. Bottom: Members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, on strike at the time of the award dinner, performing "Shepards of Provence." Members include Harold Smoliar on the English Horn and Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida on the Oboe. Right: Frida Berrigan, 2016 Merton Awardee, addresses the audience. Photos by Jenna Baron
TMC Hosts Inter-faith Gathering The Thomas Merton Center hosted an interfaith gathering November 4th-5th at the Epiphany Academy. Art McDonald, a former TMC Executive Director and currently a Unitarian Minister, was the gathering leader. In the days following what for many would be a shockingly disappointing election, the gathering might have been the just-right dose of hope and optimism, and a reminder that our struggle is in the long,
not short-run. The theme was to be an “everyday mystic” who does not “seek God to avoid people.” An interesting discussion was sparked when a participant asked how we can continue our commitment to action when our bodies cannot sustain the same level of action, and when the culture might be turning against us? As a group, the attendees pondered some basics
Give the Gift of Peacemaking While you are in the giving spirit and as 2016 draws to a close, consider making a gift to the Thomas Merton Center. There are lots of ways to consider: Required Minimum Distribution If you are 70.5 years of age or older, and have an Individual Retirement Account (not a Roth IRA) that requires a minimum distribution, you may direct all or part of it to charitable organizations before the end of the calendar year. By doing so, you will not have to pay taxes on that portion of your RMD. Congress made this provision permanent last year. Whatever funds you direct to the charitable organizations, however, cannot be later claimed as a charitable tax deduction when submitting your an-
By Jim McCarville
and many said that we should still seek wisdom in experience, not because it might lead to optimism or success but to give people hope. “Hope is a choice,” said Molly Rush, with the difference between optimism and hope being that hope is non-negotiable. The spiritual pep talk might have been just what was necessary to get us through the election results.
By Joyce Rothermel
nual federal tax return. For more information, please call TMC member Bonnie DiCarlo at 412-480-5247. In Honor of or In Memory of Gifts When you are deciding on the “right” gift to give someone who values the work of the Merton Center, or want to remember someone who has passed who was committed to making the world a better place, consider making a gift to the Merton Center in their honor or memory. We will acknowledge your gift in their honor when you provide us with their contact information. A great way to honor Molly Rush, TMC co-founder, is a gift to the Molly Rush Legacy Fund. It is easy to do: you can write out a check and drop it off or send it to 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 or donate
on line at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/donate End of the Year Giving Before you face paying additional taxes for 2016 next spring, you may want to consider an endof-the-year tax deductible gift to the Thomas Merton Center. As stated above, this is also easy to do: you can write out a check and drop it off or send it to 5129 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 or donate on line at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/donate With your help, the Merton Center will end 2016 fiscally sound and prepared to continue its important organizing work and moral presence throughout 2017.
Joyce Rothermel serves on the Finance Committee of the Thomas Merton Center. December 2016/ January 2017 NEWPEOPLE - 3
Seeds of Hope The Geography of Trump One local, hard-to-miss feature of the weeks leading up to the November 8th election was the proliferation of Hillary Clinton lawn signs within the city of Pittsburgh, and the equally striking plethora of Donald Trump signs the further from Pittsburgh one traveled. The rueful surprise is that lawn signs appear to have more accurately predicted the election results than did the majority of polls, or the musings of a self-appointed punditry. The stark, geographically determined contrasts in support for the two major-party candidates may be the most striking symptom of the country’s condition in the fall of 2016. But that contrast represents a trend closely followed by researchers for years. As Dr. Mindy Fullilove observed at the recent Pittsburgh Housing Summit, the growth of so-called “landslide counties,” in which there is a 20% or more difference in voting in favor of either the Democratic or the Republican presidential candidate, has been steady since 1992, when such counties made up 38% of the total. In 2012, that figure had grown to 50%, and in 2016, it will no doubt be higher still. In Philadelphia County, the figures were 82.4% for Clinton, 15.5% for Trump; in Butler County, two-thirds of voters preferred Trump, and only 29% voted for Clinton. Such massive pluralities suggest that within those counties it may be difficult to discover, through daily contact and casual conversation, why anyone would choose to vote for either Trump or Clinton. Stereotypes fill the void. Trump’s support leaves Pittsburghers mystified, and inclined to attribute his pluralities to atavistic views on race and gender, while people in Butler marvel at clueless big city-dwellers who seem ignorant of how recent public policy has negatively impacted their
By Neil Cosgrove
lives within hollowed-out small cities and towns. Considering the exceptions that disprove the facile generalizations is a good way to begin chipping away at such distrust. Did every “white working class” citizen vote for Trump? No, even in the most rural of counties. Are the minorities in that same working class who voted for Clinton animated by completely different concerns than their white brethren? Probably not. On the other hand, are the overwhelming number of Pennsylvania counties who gave landslides to Trump all alike? Comparing just two—Butler and Lawrence—suggests differently. When I first came to western Pennsylvania in 1987, Butler County was as solidly Republican as it is today, predominantly populated by smallgovernment as well as cultural conservatives. During the ensuing 30 years, Butler has steadily grown in population and prosperity. Its median household income of $59,365 is nearly $20,000 higher than Pittsburgh’s, and less than 9% of its citizens live below the poverty line. Kansas journalist Sarah Smarsh cited both extensive polling by Gallup and primary exit polls while arguing that “Trump voters were … more affluent than most Americans,” with a distinguishing “penchant for authoritarianism.” Still, Smarsh’s analysis doesn’t explain Lawrence County, which went for Trump over Clinton by a margin of 62% to 34%, or the significant number of infrequent voters who appeared to give Trump victory in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida. In that year of 1987 we purchased a home in New Castle, Lawrence’s county seat, and a decidedly Democratic small city. Since that time, New Castle has lost more than 20% of its population, while the county itself is down more
than 10%. Median household income is more than $15,000 less than in Butler and the poverty level is 5 and a half points higher. In 1991, Shenango China ceased manufacturing and New Castle lost 275 jobs. Later that same year, Rockwell International decided to close its 530 -employee axle plant, with much of the operation landing in Mexico. And starting around the turn of this century, Lawrence County voters began to noticeably abandon Democratic candidates, although to this day there are still 10,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 2008, McCain beat Obama by slightly more than 2,000 votes; in 2012 the Republican margin had grown to over 3,500, and in 2016 Trump won by more than 11,000. Despite the large registration gap, only 800 more Democrats than Republicans voted in last April’s primary, indicating that many who didn’t participate voted for Trump in November. Lawrence County becoming a 2016 “landslide county” indicates both alienation from the Democrats and an embrace of someone quite different from the usual Republican presidential candidate. To acknowledge deep economic frustration as a motive does not deny the strong presence of racial animus, sexism, xenophobia and status anxiety. It does suggest Republicans in a place like Lawrence County may be as vulnerable as 1990s Democrats were, especially given the more than likely outcome that neither Trump’s nor the congressional majority’s policies will make life easier for its shrinking number of residents over the next two to four years. Neil Cosgrove is a member of The NewPeople Editorial Collective and the Merton Center Board.
The Anti-Trump Protests Are a LongOverdue Renewal of Civic Engagement By Blaine Martin
Every day we read the news of someone – often facing a sense of normlessness, social isolation, and despair - who decides to end their life in a fit of death and destruction: they kill their families, coworkers, or some innocents, and then themselves. This trend of mass shooting, a social ill in its own right, is the most extreme symptom of a much larger social pattern of atomization and nihilism in the virtual void of meaningful social interaction outside of the economically rationalized, and often highly authoritarian, realm of paid work. In our daily efforts to keep our heads above water as we earn a living, maintain a household, raise children, exercise, and keep in touch with fam-
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ily and friends, civic engagement is often nonexistent. One could call this trend microneoliberalism: our lives have become rationalized, and those activities that do not provide some economic return have been cut like the redundant staff in a corporate downsizing. Our churches, civic clubs, and neighborhood councils are struggling to maintain membership. We have seen the professionalization of civics – since we have little time for such activities, we leave them to public officials, politicians, or local non-profit leaders who we support through occasional tax payments, membership dues or check-writing. What has been lost to civic specialization and careerism? The crisis of civic apathy is a dualfront. On the social level, the loss of popular civic engagement has left a vacuum of popular influence, since the social movements of the 60's and 70's and the rise of elite management of society. However, besides the loss of the societal benefits of civic and political engagement, we have also lost the personal benefits of participating in social acts of creativity – singing, social action, and mutual aid – that fulfill us as social beings. The potential consequences of this personal loss are profound and reinforcing: nihilism, narcissism, depression, and at worst what Freud called the “death drive.” This social vacuum on the right provided an entry for Donald Trump to motivate a mass movement of supporters energized by his mass rallies that offer violence, racism, anti-elitism, and revenge as the neo-fascist means of civic renewal. The appalling slogans, the violence of Trump supporters attacking protesters, and the intense energy of the participants would stir nostalgia for any participant in the fascist rallies of Weimar Germany. However, Trump's taking of the presidency appears to be creating new energy and forms of progressive mass civic engagement on the left – progressive rallies, marches, and citizen lobbying clubs are springing up across the country. We have
December 2016/ January 2017
realized the tremendous cost of social and political complacency. We have recognized again that it is our duty to register our dissent and work for a progressive party that will work for all Americans. Interestingly, we may find that our renewed social and civic engagement also provides tremendous personal benefit. As we awaken from our civic malaise, we find ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors. As we stand shoulderto-shoulder, we feel a tremendous public love – that public love that occurs during mass movements that maybe moved Cornell West to write, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Our malaise slips away as we dip into “sublime madness” - a term coined by Reinhold Niebuhr and often cited by Chris Hedges to describe the irrational resolve rising from deep within to stand at risk against the forces of repression. I have felt this sort of sublime euphoria at antiwar rallies in the past. At first one feels almost guilty at feeling a strange euphoria in the context of the impending state violence being protested, but upon closer examination, that euphoria is rooted in the camaraderie and solidarity of standing with your neighbors, not just for some superficial idea of justice, but for the sense of justice that you feel deep in your bones, the kind that makes you tear up. Of course, the truth is that power is often indifferent to rallies and marches. However, maybe the anti-Trump rallies and marches are not for Trump, but for us. Maybe these acts of civil disobedience are the collective act that we so desperately need – in the short-term to remind us of the thousands of good people surrounding us who did not vote for Trump, and in the long-term as the collective acts that remind us and our political representatives that we are citizens and not subjects
Blaine Martin, new to Pittsburgh, is a consultant and a progressive.
In Search of Empathy Breaking Down the Empathy Walls Between Us By Scilla Wahrhaftig
I, like many others, have been asking myself what went wrong? What could we have done to have prevented the catastrophe that Trump’s presidency is likely to bring about. I have been asking myself, did we create this situation by building “empathy walls” between us and the “other side”? "An empathy wall is an obstacle to deep understanding of another person; one that can make us feel indifferent or even hostile to those who hold different beliefs or those whose childhood is rooted in different circumstances. In a period of political tumult we grasp for quick certainties. We shoehorn new information into ways we already think. We settle for knowing our opposite numbers from the outside. But is it possible, without changing our beliefs, to know others from the inside, to see reality through their eyes, to understand the links between life, feeling, and politics: that is, to cross the empathy walls?” (Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hoschschild) This quote fits so much with what happened and has been happening in this country, especially as we led up to the election. We saw the Republicans, and the right, fit Trump’s messages and rhetoric into their own fears and concerns about where the country is going. We know there were those who didn’t like much of what he was saying. However, they voted on the belief that they could mold him into what they wanted and promote the change they wish to see. They had to ignore some of the things he had
said that shocked and upset them, and his views on women. But, did we not do the same with Hillary Clinton? We saw all her flaws and so much that concerned us about her rhetoric, her militaristic attitudes, her lack of focus on the environment, her ties to big business and corporations; and how she bent the truth to fit her needs. Yet we still voted for her because we saw her as the lesser of two evils and felt we could mold her to our own way of thinking. I recognize there were some who stood out and refused to compromise their position, and that they are now being vilified as having influenced the final decision. I imagine that would have been the same on the other side if Trump had lost. The empathy wall is very high and dense, but unless we begin to tear it down, the country we all know and love will be in even more trouble than it already is. Yes, we must build a movement and see the connections between the different concerns: the Black Lives Matter movement, the environmental movement, the Bernie Sanders revolution and the destruction of the rights of the native peoples. But at the same time we must find a way to break down the empathy wall and reach out to those who see things differently from us and ask, “ What are your concerns about the way this country is going? What do you see as the solutions? How can we find common ground so we can work together to rebuild this broken country?”
I don’t know how to do this yet, but I believe it is essential. After 9/11 the American Friends Service Committee initiated a listening project in a number of states, Pennsylvania being one of them. We trained people to be listeners and to try to find at least five people to listen to who held varying views from their own. We provided them with a list of questions about what true security meant to them. Some people went into what we would view as hostile country with American flags flying and Protect Our Troops signs everywhere. What they discovered was that people were so grateful to be listened to and that the message was almost universal. Security meant a home to live in, food on the table, health care and a good job. This is what Arlie Russell Hoschschild did. She went to Louisiana to conservative country to listen to people’s stories and to try to understand their dissatisfaction and concerns. In her book she points out: "Our polarization, and the increasing reality that we simply don’t know each other, makes it too easy to settle for dislike and contempt…We on both sides wrongly imagine that empathy with the ‘other’ side brings an end to clearheaded analysis when in truth, it’s on the other side of the bridge that the most important analysis can begin." Scilla Wahrhaftig is a long time peace and justice activist.
Election Night from the Perspective of a Queer Millennial By Tallon Kennedy
Wisconsin turns red. Wisconsin wasn’t even supposed to be in play tonight. Wisconsin was supposed to be a given for Hillary. Just drink more wine. Pennsylvania turns red, and stays red. Apocalypse. Disaster. Call my parents. Call my friends, all of them, old and new, dearest and estranged. “What is happening!? Do you see this?” “The country just elected a reality TV star conman, with no governing experience, who started his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists, who did everything wrong, who broke all of the rules, who called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, who lost all three debates, and who was caught on tape bragging about sexual assault, as the new President of America,” my friend on the other line bluntly says. “F*ck Donald Trump! F*ck Donald Trump!” Loud chants are heard outside my apartment. I grab my jacket, leave the apartment, run down the fire escape, and follow the sounds of fear and pain and heartbreak. “I hope I die tonight” I tell my friend on the phone before hanging up. It may seem melodramatic, but as a queer person who grew up in a homophobic culture and who has constantly been made fun of and threatened for being effeminate, it seemed like the country just told me that my life and the lives of marginalized people like me, do not matter. As a person who has struggled with depression for years, and more recently, a growing societal nihilism, it felt like the last straw. Tonight, for the first time, I didn’t care what happened to my body and my safety. “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” I find the angry crowd. They gather outside of the Cathedral of Learning. Police cars. Red and blue lights flashing. The crowd as a whole is inconsolable, and
disorganized. Some try to keep the peace, others are too emotionally distraught and angry to care about peacefulness. Some are screaming. Some are silent bystanders, intrigued by the outburst of emotion as if it were a spectacle. “Go to the Hillman library!” The crowd follows. We march up the library stairs, only to be met by officers in full riot gear blocking the library’s entrance. I am surprised by how fearless I am. Any other night, I instinctively would have felt an eminent threat to my life and safety. But tonight, my body isn’t just a body— it is a queer body. A queer body that rejects displays of masculinity and prefers to present more feminine. A queer body that loves other queer bodies. A queer body whose safety and life doesn’t matter anymore. We stage a sit-in on the patio of the library, in front of the police guarding the entrance. I take the closest spot possible to the police. The group encourages people to stand up and say what they want to say. People of color, queer people, and survivors of sexual assault stand up, speaking out on their fears and the pain of living in a society that rejects your personhood. A white guy stands up and tries to preach about tolerance and free speech, the crowd rightfully shuts him down— it’s not the right time, nor the right place, for that type of conversation, when so many people are experiencing emotional trauma. Someone stands up and tries to rally the crowd against the police. He succeeds, momentarily. The crowd turns to the police and yells expletives at them. Police stiffen up. Some in the crowd start to worry. Someone successfully calms down the crowd. This cycle repeats two or three times. “People of color only, follow me, let’s form a healing circle!” one woman yells. All of the people
of color separate from the crowd, and join hands in a circle. Debate breaks out in the remaining white group about whether this is segregation and exclusive or not. Those who believe the act to be exclusionary and divisive are criticized. A debate about free speech ensues. This cycle repeats as well. Not the right place. Not the right time. “LGBTQ! LGBTQ may join!” the same woman yells. LGBTQ people, including myself, join the healing circle as well. We stand hand in hand. A small group of about five Trump supporters decide to occupy the middle of the circle as a counterprotest. None of us have the emotional energy to deal with that. The future is bleak for us. People like those in the middle are the cause of it. A few angry individuals yell back and forth with the Trump supporters. Even in a healing circle for people of color and queer people, the oppressors found a way to make themselves the center of attention. Some time passes, the circle breaks down. Everyone is exhausted. A journalist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asks me some questions, “it’s almost 3AM, why were you all out here so late?” I answer half-consciously, “Because there was no other choice.” People disperse. The cops smile and laugh as they leave. I lay down on the ledge of a library window. Let my queer body fall asleep on the cold stone. Tallon Kennedy is an intern journalist at The NewPeople Newspaper. He is a poet and an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh studying writing, literature, and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.
Learning Empathy with the Enneagram Empathy may be a critical peacemaking skill, but where can one go to develop it. Kerry O’Donnell will be teaching a class on the Enneagram at East Liberty Presbyterian, starting February 1, and may have some answers. Pronounced any-a-gram this ancient art not only helps you understand your personality, but more importantly, how to deal with your blind spots, what you don’t see about other
By Jim McCarville
people. The Enneagram takes its name from nine Role of the Nervous System in Spiritual Growth.” personality types it uses. It is something like the My- For more information see http://cathedralofhope.org/ ers-Briggs personality analysis, but in more depth. programs/overview/ “It is really about understanding your nervous system and how, from an early age, we adapt surviv- Jim McCarville is a member of the TMC board and al strategies that may be useful in early life, but be- a member of the NewPeople editorial collective. come limitations as we age,” O’Donnell said. The title of the class is “Misguided Angel: The December 2016/ January 2017 NEWPEOPLE - 5
CEDAW In Pittsburgh City Council Condemns Discrimination Against Women By Edith Bell
Pittsburgh City Council passed an ordinance on December 6th endorsing the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and creating a Gender Equity Commission. Success of the ordinance can be directly related to a post-agenda hearing on November 15. CEDAW was adopted by the UN in 1980, but never ratified by the US Congress, the only developed country not to sign. Iran, Somalia and two Pacific Island nations are the only other nonsignatories. Since 2014 fifty cities have made it a local issue. Last year the Pittsburgh branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) initiated the move to have our city join the “Cities for CEDAW.” Working in coalition with New Voices Pittsburgh, Women and Girls Foundation, Zonta Club , members of the Social Work Department. of the University of Pittsburgh, and the Women’s Law Project, we approached councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, who sponsored the ordinance . We now have the support and endorsement of 30 local organizations. On November 15 a brief press conference preceded the post agenda presentation for City Council members . Unfortunately only councilwoman Debra Gross was present throughout the whole procedure.
I Am Morgan
Councilwoman Darlene Harris attended part of the presentations. None of the other members of Council were present at any time. The first presenter, Marcia Bandes of WILPF, Chair of the Coalition for CEDAW, spoke about the history of CEDAW. She argued that women’s rights are human rights and that Pittsburgh, as a Human Rights City, needed to adopt CEDAW, and budget the money to finance it. She mentioned that the Mayor's Conference supports it. The CEDAW ordinance provides a framework for a gender analysis, and the Gender Equity Commission will provide the mechanism to connect and coordinate efforts to address gender equity issues, said Sara Goodkind, who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. One of the most striking benefits of the City of San Francisco’s implementation of CEDAW was four years without a single domestic violence homicide Blayre Holmes, the Program Manager of the Women and Girls Foundation, and Kathi Elliot , Executive Director of Gwen’s Girls, spoke of poverty : 77% of households headed by females live in poverty; 55% of black girls live in poverty, 15% of white girls Shril Regan , President/CEO of the Women’s
Center and Shelter, and Jessie Ramey, Director of the Women’s Institute at Chatham University, were the other presenters. Araceli Campos,of the City of Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women joined by speaker phone and told of her commission’s experiences working towards gender equity through the implementation of CEDAW. During the public comments period that followed, 30 people expressed their support , stressing the effects of this ordinance on public transit (more women depend on public transportation) , housing, (all landlords of affordable housing in Pittsburgh are women), public works, street lighting, recreation and, of course, equal pay for equal work. There were over 50 people in the audience. The proceedings were videotaped, so that the absent Council Members would be able to inform themselves. Darlene Harris, Deb Gross, and Theresa KailSmith joined Natalia Rudiak in sponsoring our CEDAW Ordinance, which has now become part of city law. Edith Bell is a member of Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF)
By Kate Koenig
The mission of the “I am ____” Project is to open a window into the lives of trans individuals in order to promote awareness, education, and compassion through the medium of photography. Photography has often been used as a tool for education and awareness. While debates in politics and social matters don’t always change hearts or encourage the “other side” to reconsider their position, art can sometimes transcend those beliefs and bring about a new understanding. This project is my attempt to bridge the gap and open more hearts to transgender individuals. The project is ongoing and I would love to continue expanding upon it. If you would like information about participating in the project or sponsoring the project to travel to more cities please contact me at katekoenigphotography@gmail.com. Website: http://www.katekoenigphotography.com What was your most emotionally charged moment during your transition?
about finding a letter or something printed out and addressed to “he” or “mister” and I just broke down crying. So how has your family reacted to you in your transition in the beginning and now? In the beginning, it was very hard for my mother. It seemed that at first she was very much so of the belief that I was just a very butch girl and she kept saying to me when I cut my hair short or put on certain clothes that girls can do that, too. Like I didn’t know. But times have changed and she’s definitely become a lot more receptive. She and my sister are my largest allies in this. My dad struggles with it still a lot. He’ll say “she” and then go “he” and then go “they, them, all of them” as though I’m a commune, but I think he’s, he…I know he battles with the fact that he never got to raise a son and that’s something that he’s said more than once. And it’s hard for me to say that I would have liked to be raised as a son, too. So it’s an opportunity that we both missed out on by a decade or so.
What are your dreams? The most emotion- I’ve held on to the dream from my childhood to become an animator and I know probably right now I ally charged inam not at the skill level I need to pursue it even into stance relating to my transition was college. So, I guess whether it’s through animation when I had to break or through some other means, I just want to create a kind of space or at least a space in time where kids the news to my aunt, because that can feel happy and can feel safe. That’s what not enough children get or have an opportunity to get, didn’t go well at whether it’s through a show they tune into at eight the start, and she still to this day will pm on Friday on Cartoon Network or it’s through sitting in an office in a school keeping my door call me “her.” I open. I just want to make sure that somehow I make would say it was the most emotion- at least one kid happy. ally charged when it came to that instance because she was like you can’t expect me, who has known So you’re you all these years, to remember, and then my Grandma just pipes up from across the room, “I re- not on testosterone at member.” And my aunt just kind of stared dumbthis point? founded and I could tell my dad was trying not to I am on a laugh. And that was just horribly awkward for me hormone because I was this tiny teenager just asking to be blocker accepted and unintentionally played into his aunt called Vanbeing shown up. tas. It canI mean that’s probably not the most emotionally cels out any charged but it’s what immediately comes to mind. estrogen signals from The other thing that immediately comes to my brain. mind is how I came out to my parents. I mean, I had The only come out twice before that, in a very like prime thing that is proper—I had a letter prepared—manner and it just very unfortudidn’t take. It didn’t take. And the time after that I nate is a lot was like, “Now she’ll take me seriously!” That did- of people are n’t take. I had been home sick and I was just sitting not ready to on the chair in my house and my dad said something 6 - NEWPEOPLE December 2016/ January 2017
supply it to transgender teenagers, which in my situation, I had a medical situation, which meant I had more than the amount of estrogen I was supposed to have, so if I just started straight on testosterone, it wouldn’t have been effective. The issue is they do not readily give it to transgender teens. It is used to prevent early puberty. Getting T would be the next step in where you want to go in your transition or is there something else that you wanted? Yeah, that is the next step I wanted to go. The woman managing my hormones seems very hesitant to put me on testosterone, although I’ve stated, over and over, that it is my goal. She seems to be very insistent that she wants to conduct a surgical procedure to go in and freeze my eggs. That is entirely unnecessary and I don’t want that. She seems to always circle back to that…. It’s not a concern of mine. I have repeatedly stated to her that it’s not a concern of mine. For some reason, I can’t shake that from her scope of focus. What do you wish to change about how the world outside of the community sees transgender individuals? I really want them to know that being trans is not a problem. It is not a sickness. It’s not anything that shouldn’t be embraced and encouraged because there comes a time in every kid’s life when they want to change themselves, but there’s a difference between wanting to cut your hair and dye it purple and wanting to wear a binder and wanting to wear a dress or a skirt. People talk about now that “everyone is becoming transgender because it’s trendy.” No. They’ve been there throughout all of time, but now it’s becoming…its even just slightly more safe to be trans. So I want people to realize this isn’t some fad, this isn’t some sickness, it’s been there throughout all of time and the more we can embrace it, and the more we can learn to not fear it, the more we can move forward as a species. Read the full interview online at https:// newpeoplenewspaper.com/2016/12/08/i-am-morgan/
Violence & Love U.S Attorney, ICE Continue to Persecute the Esquivel Family By Mike Telian
for driving home from work so that he could take care of his family and for driving while brown. If the attorney’s office and ICE continue to ignore the community’s voice, the campaign plans to respond with bold, creative actions. Communities around the country have launched similar deportation defense campaigns, as flawed immigration laws often do not allow for real justice. While Martin’s case is clearly especially poignant for the people of Pittsburgh- due to his reputation as an upstanding worker, family man, and community figure– the same injustice affects millions of people across the country. While president-elect Trump brings an increased threat to undocumented people, the Obama administration already oversaw more deportations than any previous administration. On November 21st, activists involved in the campaign traveled to Philadelphia for a rally outside the ICE offices, and were joined by activists in that
city in a show of solidarity. The campaign has also had some contact with the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, which has provided insight into running similar campaigns. Labor groups like Pittsburgh United, the Fight for $15, SEIU, and Unite Here People begin to gather outside of the Federal Courthouse to call upon U.S. Attny have also lent supSoo Song to drop immigration charges and return Martin home to his family in port. Pittsburgh. Photo by Marni Fritz. The campaign has developed a much needed network of concerned and active citizens in immigrant justice issues. Pittsburgh, one that hopefully remains connected Pittsburgh may have a budding immigrant and organized in some way after the conclusion of defense network and capable activists willing to Martin’s specific case; to be sure, there will be more work on the issue, knowledge of the process, help attempted deportations in and around Pittsburgh. from around the country, and plans for the future of Connections between the main groups this specific case, but for Martin Esquivel everyinvolved in the campaign such as thing will come to a head on January 4th, the date of LCLAA (Labor Council of Latin his trial with the U.S Attorney. American Advancement), The A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War Mike Telian is a recent graduate of the University & End Racism) Coalition, The Thom- of Pittsburgh and currently volunteers at the Thomas Merton Center. as Merton Center, and Casa san Jose have been formed and could potentially lead to further cooperation around
Child Violence, And Love, Too By Tallon Kennedy
His fingers glide through grass like a cold wind searching for somewhere to go. He reminds me of childhood: how light the air was, how the sun was less scalding. The lawn was a couch. Dirt was water. I spent hours tearing grass out of the ground, splitting blades down the middle, and no one told me this was violence. Now, his fingers glide through grass, and I want to meet them in that natural veil— make up for all that childhood violence. Little boys are taught to wrestle for play, and adults see this as violence, but the children know this is love. Boys laughing and rolling around in the grass together. It is only when they are older that they learn violence— fists instead of fingers. Sex instead of sexuality. Women are afraid to walk home alone. Men are afraid to love each other. War is a result of adult violence. Children do not know hate. He tells me his step-mother used to grab his arms and push him against the wall, scream in his face, this is how he learned violence. His hands glide through grass. His eyes glaze with sunset. My fingers meet his in nature’s veil. Boys hiding their childhood. Eyes flick away, hands pull away, he tells me he can’t be gay in this world. Not with all of this violence. I tear grass out of the ground, split the blades down the middle, put them on my chest, cover myself in Earth, bury the body, from tomb to womb, returning back to the child—
Tallon Kennedy is an intern journalist at The NewPeople Newspaper. He is a poet and an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh studying writing, literature, and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.
Top: Protestors hold signs and chant outside of the Federal Courthouse demanding “Dignity not Deportation” and “No borders no nations. Stop the racist deportations.” Bottom: Alma, wife of Martin, addresses the crowd on the steps of the City County Building calling on U.S. Attny. Soo Song to do the right thing and reunite her family. Photos by Marni Fritz
December 2016/ January 2017
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Supporting Activism Boycott Wendy’s Now! The students, community, and religious leaders of Pittsburgh took to the streets on November 30th to make it clear they would not support Wendy’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program (FFP). Representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Student Farmworker Alliance organized a protest at Wendy’s 4001 Butler Street location to raise awareness for a consumer boycott of Wendy’s launched by farmworkers earlier in the year. The FFP that Wendy’s has refused to join has been called “the best workplace monitoring program… in the U.S.” by the New Y ork Times and was awarded a presidential medal in 2015 for combating human trafficking. While McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and Chipotle all participate in the FFP, Wendy’s has opted to shift their purchasing from Florida to Mexico, where there is less oversight into labor practices. Bioparques de Occidente, an agribusiness company Wendy’s now sources from, was found to have been the subject of a major slavery prosecution in 2013, as reported by Harper’s Magazine. Nely Rodriguez of the CIW stated, “Wendy’s is quick to offer their Supplier Code of Conduct as their substitute for the Fair Food Program – and as their reason for
By Mike Telian
not joining. But without any effective measures for enforcement or worker participation, Wendy’s code does not measure up to the standard of the Fair Food Program. In the Program, retailers are bound to purchase tomatoes exclusively from growers that abide by a worker-designed code of conduct that includes zero tolerance for forced labor and sexual assault.” Under the FFP, corporate purchasers agree to pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes, which goes directly to the farmworkers in Florida’s Immokalee region. The FFP was created through a workerled organizing strategy pressuring the large corporations who purchase large amounts of produce grown in the Immokalee region. The widely acclaimed FFP was created by the exploited workers, not as a voluntary act of corporate social responsibility. The CIW also achieved success by organizing campaigns to change the purchasing choices of the largest purchasers in the market, instead of inviting individual consumers to purchase ethical products or lifestyle brands.
My America By Christina Castillo
my America loves me they love my tan and my curls as long as it is not on me they love my mother’s hips and her language as long as she is not the one speaking it because “sweetie, we speak English in America” do you understand? America loves the foreign fantasy of me, but not the foreigner my America loves to see my sisters in tight, revealing clothes on the red carpet as their arm candy never the main invitee always just an accessory
Mike Telian is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and currently volunteers at the Thomas Merton Center.
Incarcerated Activists in PA How To Get Your Voice Need Our Support! Heard By Jeff Cummings
Carrington Keys is a Pittsburgh human rights activist and a member of the Human Rights Coalition/FedUp. Every single day After the November elections, one the news, let us not be passive. he puts his neck on the line to speak up of our Merton Center members Make a commitment to use “the against injustice. In retaliation, he has been and NewPeople readers recompower of the pen” to protect and mended that we publish the condefend what is best about the Unit- beaten, harassed and humiliated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but he ed States and to promote what is tact information for Representabest for our planet and the peoples never backs down. He refuses to be silent. tives and Senators on both the You may say, I live in Pennsylvania. state and national levels. It is not of the world. Even better, get to I'm an activist and I have never seen the enough to think about important know your elected officials by state retaliate like that. Carrington is one of policy matters at election time on- going to town meetings or by a fast growing number of men and women ly. Now more than ever, we must making an appointment to meet who reside in prisons but who refuse to raise our voices with the values them in their local offices. remain silent. They are incarcerated eyeand principles consistent with our You may want to clip this and put witnesses to the flagrant violations of hucommitment to building a more peaceful and just world. With that it on your refrigerator for regular man rights perpetrated daily by the staff use. and administrators of the PA Department of in mind, as we listen to and read Corrections. The corporate media consider these activists’ efforts to be unworthy of The President the news. The White House Rep. Mike Doyle In Carrington's case, he was sentenced 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 2637 East Carson St as a young adult to a minimum of five Washington, DC 20500 Pittsburgh, PA 15203 years. Seventeen years later, he is still inSwitchboard: (202)456-1414 (412)390-1499 carcerated. Those 12 extra years were taken Comments: (202)456-1111 239 Cannon House Office off his life not because of any misconduct, www.whitehouse.gov/contact Bldg. or because he posed any danger to the pubUS Capitol Switchboard: (202) Washington, DC 20515 lic, but simply in retaliation for his un224-3121 (202)225-2135 daunted courage in reporting abuses. These (Will connect you with any https://doyle.house.gov/ abuses are: beatings, mental abuse, foreign matter in food--glass, metal, spit, feces, Congressional Office) contact-me urine, semen--mail tampering, deprivation Senator Robert P. Casey of human contact, withholding medicaRep. Tim Murphy 310 Grant St #2415 tions, starvation, and even coerced suicide. 504 Washington Rd Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Carrington hasn't been the only witPittsburgh, PA 15228 ness. Many prisoners report human rights (412) 803-7370 (412)344-5583 violations. From 2008 to 2009, dozens of 393 Russell Senate Office 2332 Rayburn House Office prisoners cooperated with the HRC/FedUp, Bldg. Building a grassroots organization of prisoners, exWashington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20515 prisoners, families and activists, in compil(202)224-6324 (202)225-1844 ing and publishing a report on human rights Toll Free: (866)802-2833 https://murphy.house.gov violations at State Correctional Institution www.casey.senate.gov/ (SCI) Dallas, PA. The guards retaliated contact Rep. Keith Rothfus immediately and viciously. Six of those 6000 Babcock Boulevard, prisoners stood firm and demanded to see Senator Patrick Toomey Suite 104 public officials who could put a stop to the 100 W. Station Square Dr Pittsburgh, PA 15237 backlash. They became the Dallas 6: Andre #225 Phone: (412) 837-1361 Jacobs, Anthony Kelley, Anthony Locke, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 1205 Longworth HOB Duane Peters, Derrick Stanley and Carring412-803-3501 Washington, DC 20515 ton Keys. 248 Russell Senate Office (202) 225-2065 These six protested nonviolently by Bldg. https://rothfus.house.gov/ placing covers over the windows of their Washington, DC 20510 email-keith solitary confinement cells. Instead of call(202)224-4254 ing in the requested officials, the prison www.toomey.sen.gov responded with cell extractions. In an extraction, five or six correction officers enter 8 - NEWPEOPLE December 2016/ January 2017 By Joyce Rothermel
a solitary confinement cell wearing full body armor to remove the prisoner by force. One officer has a shield, one a taser, one pepper spray, one handcuffs, one leg irons and one a baton. All six prisoners were extracted one by one. You can see video footage of Carrington's extraction at https:// vimeo.com/88784471, compiled by James Tedrow of HRC (Human Rights Coalition). All the guards involved in the extraction reported afterward that they were uninjured, but members of the Dallas 6 were left that day bloody, naked, burnt and in pain. Following this assault on the 6 peaceful activists, hundreds of reports were made. Not once was the word "riot" mentioned. Only after civil actions and complaints were filed by the Dallas Six did the prison, the state police and the District Attorney form an alliance to bring riot charges against the activists. This alliance sought to make an example of them to other incarcerated activists and to distract the public from the real issue: the brutality and inhumanity of Pennsylvania's prisons. In April, 2016, a jury trial was conducted to try the Dallas Six for rioting. It resulted in a mistrial. On September 2nd, the riot charges were dropped for the remaining Dallas 6, but Carrington Keys will be tried again for assault. His trial had been scheduled for December 5th but will most likely be delayed. Go to scidallas6.blogspot.com to find out more information about how you can support these brave activists.On September 9th, 2016, prisoners across the country called for a Nation-wide Prisoner Work Stoppage to End Prison Slavery. That strike is gaining momentum in all 50 states every day. The Dallas 6 are some of the most dedicated incarcerated activists in the America, among the few in Pennsylvania so far. Please support them by telling others about their fight. Make a contribution if possible. Write to them. Show up at Carrington's trial if you can. Contract Shandre Delaney, Carrington's mother and director of HRC/FedUp, at 570-763-9504 or at freedom46@gmail.com to find out what you can do. Jeff Cummings is a fundraiser at Donor Services Group.
Taking Back the Economy
Take Back Our Economy Rally and Protest Several hundred protestors, including many from the Merton Center, took part in a rally and march for a $15 an hour minimum wage and union rights on November 29, 2016. Following speeches by Giant Eagle and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) employees that described union-busting tactics by their employers, participants marched down Grant Street from the federal building, then right onto Sixth Avenue, left onto Liberty Avenue and ended up at the McDonald's restaurant at Stanwix Street. Nineteen protestors sat in the intersection between Liberty and Forbes on Stanwix, blocking rush hour traffic as part of the nationwide "Day of Disruption," and were eventually arrested by Pittsburgh police and released. Left Column Pictures: Top: The march begins at Liberty and Grant. Photo by Nina Young Bottom: Posters displaying historically important activists were prominent at the rally. Photo by Nina Young. Right Column Pictures: Top: UPMC Workers made their presence felt. Photo by Nina Young A UPMC Shuttle driver addresses the marchers. Photo by Nina Young Wearing your convictions. Photo by Nina Young An effigy of Ronald McDonald, holding "fistfuls of dollars." (You might spot our own Bette McDevitt to the left of Ronald.) By Neil Cosgrove A caterer at Giant Eagle speaks out against her company's illegal union-busting tactics. By Neil Cosgrove
Merton Center Organizer Gabe McMorland is led away by a Pittsburgh police officer, the first protestor to be arrested. By Neil Cosgrove
December 2016/ January 2017
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Farewell to Fidel Farewell to Revolutionary Fidel Castro By the Board of the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership
The Officers and Members of the PittsburghMatanzas Sister Cities Partnership have had a proud history of solidarity with the people and government of Cuba. We send our condolences and heartfelt thanks to the people of Cuba during this time of national mourning. Our sister city relationship dates back more than 20 years, with preceding activism dating back to the late 60’s and early ‘70’s. We are all saddened yet reflective when we heard the news late on the evening of November 18th in an announcement from President Raul Castro that his brother and former President of the Republic of Cuba COMMANDANTE FIDEL CASTRO (19262016) had passed away. He was 90 years young in his philosophy and outlook on the progress and humanitarian aspirations of the Cuban people. Fidel’s unique historical perspective, his revolutionary fervor and contribution, his solidarity with people around the globe, inspired millions of people to organize and fight for a more just and peaceful society. For a nation a little over twice as long as Pennsylvania but having a population base of 12 million equal to our own Commonwealth, no other nation of similar stature has had such a profound
positive effect on the world stage. Despite the protests of several hundred CubanAmericans outside a downtown restaurant in Miami millions of people are in solidarity and respect the sovereignty and contributions of Cuba. A majority of U.S. citizens support efforts to normalize relations with Cuba and have voted with their feet by visiting Cuba in the hundreds of thousands! A few weeks earlier 191 nations of the world passed a U. N. Resolution calling for an end to the illegal, immoral and counterproductive blockade against the people of Cuba. We are determined not to allow a new Trump Administration to turn back the clock on social progress in international relations without a fight. South Africa liberator and first black President of that country, Nelson Mandela, once commented, “There’s one place where Fidel Castro’s Cuba stands out head and shoulders above the rest – that is in its love for human rights and liberty.” The Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership will continue its efforts and ask all peace loving citizens to join us and demand: (1) an end to the blockade, (2) restoration of unfettered free travel to
Fidel Castro Presente! Fidel Castro was one of the most extraordinary and charismatic leaders and politicians of the 20th century. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that he shook the world of colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism to its very depths, which gave rise to fierce loathing and hostility in his regard by the dominant powers of the world. When Fidel was born on August 13, 1926 in the small town of Biran in Eastern Cuba, that country lived in the shadow and under the control of the US. Havana at the time was host to many casinos owned by Meyer Lansky and the mob. It has been described as the whorehouse of the wealthy and famous of the US at the time. The United Fruit Company dominated the sugar economy, owning 330,000 acres of arable land, especially in the eastern part of the country. When Castro was in law school in Havana in the late 1940s he became politicized and aware of the tentacles of United Fruit all over Latin America. One of the remarkable things about Castro and many of his fellow militants in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s is that, although they belonged to the Cuban bourgeoisie, they took the side of the exploited, the poor, the peasant and the racially discriminated-against in Cuba. They betrayed their own class and opposed the corrupt ruling elite in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America. Castro’s first foray into politics was his participation in an attempt to overthrow the corrupt ruler of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, in 1947.Castro burned with a fury at the poverty and oppression of millions of people all over Latin America and its quasi-total domination by the US. This is the passion that ruled Castro’s life and it explains much of his life and exploits. On July 26, 1953 Castro organized an attack on the army barracks, known as the Moncada, in Santiago in Eastern Cuba. A band of 150 insurgents attacked the barracks but it was a fiasco, with most of the insurgents jailed, including Castro. His next major enterprise was the organizing from Mexico of a group of 81 insurgents who sailed to Cuba in late 1956. Only a handful escaped into the Sierra Maestre Mountains of Eastern Cuba, from which base they organized a general insurrection against Fulgencio Battista, the reigning President. In an ironic twist of relations between the US and Cuba, an adulatory report by the New Y ork Times in 1958 on the guerrillas gave them an extraordinary boost. To make a long story short, the insurgents defeated the regime, Battista fled to the Dominican Republic and on January 1, 1959 Castro and his fellow-insurgents took power in Cuba. The first months of 1959 represented a kind of honeymoon between the US and Cuba under the new regime. In April 1959 Castro met with then VicePresident, Richard Nixon, and tried to work out an 10 - NEWPEOPLE
For More Information: Jim Ferlo, President, 412-952-3364 Lisa Valanti-V-Pres, 412-303-1247 Dr. Jose Moreno, Pgh-Matanzas Board Member
By Michael Drohan
entente cordial. Castro wanted land reform, giving the land back to the peasants and nationalizing their resources, such as the land owned by United Fruit. The US was having none of it. Thereafter came the embargo by the US on Cuba, which then sought a market outlet for its products and an ally in the Soviet Union. In April 1961, the CIA organized an invasion with 1,400 anti-Castro fighters in the famous Bay of Pigs disaster. Once more there is an ironic twist to the event: the invaders thought that if in trouble the US would invade Cuba. But President Kennedy was having none of that either. The invasion had been organized secretly by Nixon before leaving office without even informing Kennedy. It is estimated that there were 630 assassination plots on the life of Castro by the US and Cuban exiles. This number graphically tells how much of a threat he represented or was perceived to represent to US foreign policy. The US embargo was designed to cripple Cuba, reduce it to penury and instigate domestic uprising. The economic misery imposed on Cuba by the embargo is estimated in trillions of dollars. The repression imposed on the Cuban people by the Castro regime has to be seen through this lens. In an ironic way it was made in the USA. As in the Middle East today, the United States created what they pretend to be fighting and to detest. But despite the embargo, the suffering and isolation imposed, the Cuban revolution survived. Not only that but despite the embargo and economic strangulation, Cuba produced one of the most extraordinary health care systems in the world for all its people. It eliminated illiteracy and many diseases. Further, Cuba exports medical help and expertise to other poor countries. In addition, Cuba played no small part in ending colonial rule in Portuguese Africa and helped in no small way to end apartheid in South Africa, as they drove the Portuguese out of Angola in the late 1970s. We can only imagine
December 2016/ January 2017
Cuba, (3) respect for Cuba’s sovereignty as a nation, and (4) restoration of the land in Guantanamo that is rightfully and legally Cuban soil!
what Cuba might have been without the multitude of attempts to cripple it from the most powerful country in the world. Viva Cuba, Viva Fidel! Michael Drohan is a TMC board member and a member of The NewPeople editorial collective.
Nuclear Nightmares The Future of US-Iran Relations in Trumpland By Michael Drohan
In Vienna on July 14, 2015, the five permanent members of the Security Council of the UN (P 5), the European Union and Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was the culmination of months of work on behalf of the negotiating partners and marked one of the most significant progressive victories for détente of the Obama Administration. According to its terms, Iran agreed to eliminate its stock of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stock of low-enriched uranium by 98% and reduce by two thirds its number of centrifuges for 13 years. In return, Iran was to receive relief from nuclear related sanctions imposed by the US, the EU and the UN Security Council. Also, Iran received $150 billion of their own money which had been blocked by the US. Donald Trump characterized this money as a bribe given to Iran to sign the deal. This is a complete lie and a contradiction of plain facts. President Obama persisted in pursuing this agreement despite some opposition within his own party and virulent opposition from the Republican Party. In the Middle East, he had also to contend with Israel, which threatened on several occasions to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities if the US refused to do so. Saudi Arabia was yet another major obstacle to the agreement, as it sees Iran as its geopolitical rival for dominance in the Middle East. As for Israel, it views Iran as its principal nemesis in the area due to its alliances with the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon and Bashar al Assad in Syria. It is hard to overestimate the defusing of the tensions in the Middle East which JCPOA achieved. With the election of Donald Trump as President of the US, a major cloud is cast over this agreement. During the election campaign, Trump designated the
Iran deal as “the stupidest deal of all time” and one that will “give Iran, absolutely, nuclear weapons.” He called for alternately scrapping the deal or renegotiating its terms. What hangs over the world now is this possibility that Trump will try to step back from the landmark agreement. It has to be pointed out, however, that the nuclear deal is not simply between the US and Iran but between the P5 +1 and Iran as stated above. Consequently, even if Trump was determined to cancel the agreement, he will likely receive enormous pushback from the other signatories to the agreement. The members of the European Union seem to be singularly determined to preserve the agreement and build closer economic ties to Iran. Closer economic ties with Iran already seem to be very promising for the economies of the EU. If Trump were to persist in trying to overturn the agreement, the isolation of the US from its traditional allies is highly likely. As of writing this article (December 1), the Secretary of State in the new administration has not been named but we do know a number of the cast members in the new administration. Lt. General Michael Flynn has been named as National Security Advisor to Trump. Flynn sees Islam as the greatest threat to Western civilization and wants to rip up the agreement with Iran, but he seems to want accommodation with Russia. Mike Pompeo, a Congress member from Arkansas, has been appointed the Director of the CIA. He has let it be known that he wishes to unravel the agreement with Iran. Mike Huckabee has been nominated as the new Ambassador to Israel. He is an ardent Christian Zionist who has denied that Palestinians even exist and seems to share Netanyahu’s determination to obliterate Iran
Radioactive Waste Coming Our Way An unprecedented shipment of 6000 gallons of high risk, highly radioactive liquid waste was scheduled to pass through Allegheny County this past September. The waste includes highly enriched uranium, radioactive isotopes of cesium, strontium and plutonium, to be shipped from the Chalk River Labs in Canada to the Savannah River Site in North Carolina for reprocessing and recycling. The U.S. route would go from Buffalo on Route 90 to Erie, then down Route 79 for 200 miles, past Pittsburgh, to Charleston WV, then Route 77 to Aiken SC. “These liquid shipments have never been done before in the U.S., and we’re very concerned about crashes, fires and terrorist attacks,” said Kevin Kamps with Beyond Nuclear [Don Hopey, PostGazette, 8/19; www.beyondnuclear.org]] The Sierra Club and five other concerned groups filed a federal lawsuit August 12 to seek an injunction to stop the shipments. The suit claims that the U.S. Dept. of Energy [DOE] did not conduct a required environmental impact study, public notice or comments and failed to consider safer alternatives. The planned shipments have been suspended until February 17, 2017, pending a decision. Stay tuned.
middle of town. Former Mayor Jim Hutchison and his wife Helen were among the first residents to complain to regulators about odors and ash on their front porch back in 1958. Nearly 50 years later, B&W and Atlantic Richfield settled lawsuits with residents for $52.5 and $27.5 million for injury, wrongful deaths and property damage. Helen said of the nuclear contamination, “We’ll live with it forever...Money doesn’t cure the problem.” Another former mayor, William Kerr, commented, “Every aspect of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, environmental health, political science and economics…you could use every core subject to illustrate what happened here.” Virostek, a former borough councilwoman, said, “I’m glad the lawsuit came to an end…that’s a good thing. But the lawsuit doesn’t fully compensate people for their losses…it does not bring closure as far as I’m concerned.”
and remove Assad in Syria. And then we have Mike Pence as the Vice-President elect. He has claimed that his model as he takes office is Dick Cheney, which tells us everything we need to know about his stance on the Middle East. The nominated Secretary of Defense is retired Admiral James N. Mattis, who sees “political Islam” as the US’s main challenge in the world. Trump himself referred to him as “mad dog” as he has led every offensive against Iraq since 1991. His solution to all problems is military and war. What this cast of characters has in common is the common view that Islam presents the greatest threat to Western civilization and that Iran’s government should be overthrown. On Syria, Trump himself, at least in his rhetoric, wants accommodation with Russia and consequently giving Russia a free hand and backing off the removal of Assad. The other members of his Cabinet who have been named are for a no-fly zone over Syria, which implies conflict, if not war, with Russia. This suggests a kind of ‘Sopranos in the White House’ scenario as the new administration takes shape. All in all, one has a cast which has a very crude idea of Islam and the complexities of Middle Eastern politics. It would not be an exaggeration to say that their collective knowledge of the different cultures and ethnic groups in the region is next to nil which does not bode well. With names such as Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton and David Petraeus floating as the probable Secretary of State, the situation enters the nightmare realm. Michael Drohan is a TMC board member and a member of the NewPeople editorial collective.
By Molly Rush Finally the plant and waste site were covered by a huge clay mound. Word is that people used the material for concrete for sidewalks and walls. The Federal Department of Energy found ''higher-than-acceptable'' radioactive emissions from radon gas and radium at the site in 1977. Up to a third of a mile from the site, the emissions range from two to three times normal levels. Within that area, the risk of lung cancer is 25 percent higher than normal, according to consultants of the Department of Energy. The Canonsburg site is the only one east of the Mississippi River and the only one surrounded by residents; about 8,000 of Canonsburg's 11,000 residents live within one mile of the industrial park. Molly Rush is a TMC board member and member of The NewPeople editorial collective.
Canonsburg-Strabane From 1911-22 Standard Chemical Co. ran a radium refining mill. It produced more radium in a year than Western PA Nuclear Waste Sites. the rest of the word On November 10th the Wall St. Journal pubcombined. It provided A Peace & Social Justice Active Spiritual Comlished an article, “Waste Lands: America’s Forgot- scientist Marie Curie munity invites you to join us Sundays 10:30AM ten Nuclear Legacy”. It listed waste sites in Pennsyl- radium for her experivania. Among these: Aliquippa, Apollo, Beaver ments. In 1930 it began for waiting worship Falls, Blairsville, Bridgeville, Canonsburg, Carneto refine uranium. In gie, Chambersburg, Cheswick, East Pittsburgh, 1942 Vitro Mfg. Co. McKeesport, New Kensington, Parks Township, took over and produced Springdale, Verona and West Mifflin. uranium for the Manhat- 4836 Ellsworth Ave tan Project’s atom bomb Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Apollo used on Hiroshima and Phone: (412) 683-2669 One of the most notorious of the sites is proNagasaki, Japan in ducing nuclear fuel in a government plant in Apollo, 1945. The plant closed the former NUMEC and after that, Atlantic Richin 1960. field and Babcock Wilcox site. I was invited to a 200,000 tons of protest at Apollo by resident Cindee Virostek, who radioactive waste was www.quaker.orgpghpamm/ had done extensive research for 14 years on the ef- left uncovered, making fects of emissions and waste produced by the plant. I Strabane the most radiowas shocked to see that it was located right in the active town in the U.S. December 2016/ January 2017 NEWPEOPLE
The Religious Society of Friends (better known as QUAKERS)
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Co-ops and Capital Wealth and Independence: The Power to Do Right By Ron Gaydos and Jeff Jaeger
This is the third in our series about the seven principles of cooperatives. In this article we discuss principles number 3 and 4 together. Remember the first two: voluntary and open participation, and democratic governance. The third and fourth give cooperatives their economic power for individual members and for the community. Cooperative Principle #3: Members economic participation: members contribute equally to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. Economic participation requires members’ commitments of time, talent, and treasure. It also creates wealth for them. Wealth. What is it? Some dictionary definitions aren’t very flattering. Here’s one: “an abundance of valuable possessions or money.” Example: "He used his wealth to bribe officials." Another is “the state of being rich; material prosperity.” Its example is, "some people buy boats and cars to display their wealth." No wonder “wealth” brings such mixed emotions! What does wealth mean to you? A request for personal definitions from friends on Facebook yielded several ideas, including “the absence of personal anxiety,” “a blessing to some and with it comes an obligation,” “true wealth is wanting what you have,” “the ability to make good things happen with ‘stored value’,” “taming ‘the wolf at the door,’” and “options.” Now look at the Old English root of the word: “weal;” a sound, healthy, or prosperous state: well-being. Our friends’ conceptions of wealth certainly get close to that. Wealth. Weal-th. Wellth. Members’ economic participation ties them together beyond just workaday concerns. More practically: Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. Part or all of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on their member capital shares. Members usually allocate surpluses for the following purposes: developing the cooperative productive assets or capital reserves; benefiting members in proportion to their hours worked or other contributions to the cooperative; and supporting related activities approved by the membership. In a few words: using capital for common good, and keeping it for the common good. Cooperatives are autonomous organizations controlled by their members, even if the cooperative is very large. The cooperative may enter into agreements with other organizations, including businesses, civic groups, or governments. Or it may raise capital from external sources. The cooperative does so, however, on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and which maintain its autonomy. So here is Cooperative Principle #4: Autonomy and Independence. Cooperatives are autonomous businesses and organizations democratically con12 - NEWPEOPLE
trolled by their members. These two principles work together to help to build buy-in and commitment among members, as well as a shared responsibility for the business. Economic participation benefits members in proportion to the business they conduct rather than the capital invested. Decisions about both the business and the capital lie within the membership. That means that whatever partnerships, collaborations, licensing agreements or outside financing takes place, the terms always ensure democratic control by the members. Imagine going to work knowing that you bought a stake in the product or service that backs your paycheck. Then consider that other members made the same financial commitment to the business, and you all have a powerful role to play to ensure success, and a financial return. Cooperatives are about members having a say about the work they do, how they do it and how they are compensated for it. There is no outside entity or investor making those decisions for them. How many of us can now say that our livelihood and the wealth produced – personal, community, and environmental – are integral to our enterprise and its community? Why is this important now more than ever? Especially as we’re expecting political and economic instability and even more inequality in coming years? As outrage and anger are misdirected from candidates and officials who have created the economic and social turmoil to vulnerable and undeserving targets? Too much of our money from our efforts is already diverted away from our communities and doesn’t benefit people enough before it heads off to corporate headquarters to enrich unsympathetic stockholders. Cooperatives keep more money local, as demonstrated in an influential study by the University of Wisconsin Cooperatives Center. No official – no matter how averse – can stop anyone from joining a cooperative, community garden, timebank, credit union, or tool library. We have the power to help grow a healthy, productive, and prosperous life in our communities where everyone is included, respected, and supported. Let’s use this power. Now is the time to use it – now more than ever. Jeff Jaeger is a member of the Steel City Soils Cooperative and a graduate of Slippery Rock University’s Master of Sustainability program. Ron Gaydos is a consultant in inclusive economic development, entrepreneurship, and organizational strategy, and a member of the Thomas Merton Center’s New Economy Campaign. They are Co-Founders of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Cooperatives.
December 2016/ January 2017
Unions Helping Students Pennsylvania's Faculty Strike and Labor's Future By Neil Cosgrove
When the faculty of 14 Pennsylvania stateowned universities ended their strike on its third day, their union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), had “agreed to a salary package that was significantly lower than that of the other unions” that had recently bargained with the State System of Higher Education (SSHE). Traditionally viewed, this labor battle would be considered a defeat for APSCUF. But the faculty union thought it won a clear-cut victory, preserving what many regard as one of the best university faculty contracts in the country. For 16 months following expiration of the previous faculty contract (June 30, 2015), SSHE sought to destroy that contract; the strike forced the Chancellor and Board of Governors to withdraw most of their proposed 249 changes. The most significant of those changes, the ones that ultimately triggered APSCUF’s first-ever strike, were obvious attempts to break the union by driving a wedge between tenured and tenure-track faculty and the growing number of adjunct faculty. What distinguishes APSCUF’s contract is that adjuncts work under the same conditions, including teaching loads, benefit packages, and salary scale, as socalled “regular” faculty. Adjuncts at universities such as IUP, California and Slippery Rock commonly regard themselves as integral parts of the universities where they work, not as an exploited proletariat paid ridiculously low per-course stipends, without access to offices or benefits, and forced to teach each term at multiple institutions in order to make a low-income living. Moreover, APSCUF’s 2011-15 contract limited the number of temporary faculty at a university to 25% or less “of the full-time equivalent of all faculty members employed at that university.” In contrast, adjuncts constitute close to half of the faculty at American colleges and universities. In 2015, median
per-course pay for adjuncts was $2700. At Pennsylvania State System universities, full-time temporary faculty at the bottom of the salary scale received a 2014-15 salary of $46,610. If an adjunct taught only a quarter, half, or three-quarters of the normal load of four class sections per term, they received the appropriate fraction of the stated salary. The contract also required that adjuncts who had “worked at a university for five full, consecutive academic years in the same department” would, with approval of that department, receive tenure-track status. For months, State System leaders pushed a proposal to make adjuncts full-time only if they taught five sections a term, rather than four. Knowing such a load would significantly limit adjuncts’ ability to perform scholarship in their disciplines, or conference with and mentor students, the union refused to accept the change. Finally, fed up with the System’s refusal to abandon such proposals, the union set a strike date. Intensive but ultimately fruitless bargaining ensued. On the eve of the strike, the State System said they would no longer negotiate, but instead made a “last best offer” that indicated a change in tactics. The increased teaching load for adjuncts was withdrawn and instead, the System proposed a different salary scale for such faculty, one in which they would receive one-fifth of the raises awarded to tenured and tenure-track faculty over the course of the new contract. In other words, the System’s leaders were still trying to break the union by creating a two-tier mode of compensation. When APSCUF struck the system’s faculty and students did not respond as System leaders had hoped. Less than 10% of System faculty, and on some campuses far less, crossed picket lines to teach classes. The preponderance of students enthusiastically supported APSCUF, especially during tense meetings with campus administrators. The governor
and state legislative leaders pressured the State System to resume negotiating with APSCUF, and the tentative contract agreement was quickly reached that abandoned provisions creating two different kinds of faculty members. “Our primary goals were to preserve quality education for our students,” said APSCUF president Dr. Kenneth Mash, “protect our adjuncts, and make sure the varieties of faculty work are respected. We achieved every single one of those goals.” The Pennsylvania faculty strike suggests a path forward that could halt unions’ decline in membership and generate future growth. APSCUF avoided business as usual—that is, only bargaining for the benefit of that portion of its membership with tenured and tenure-track positions. Instead, it chose to bargain, first of all, for the benefit of all the faculty members it represented, including those who would, if the union failed, join the burgeoning ranks of the academic equivalent of migrant, casual labor. More importantly, APSCUF chose to bargain for academic quality, and for the System’s students, who commonly hail from the state’s less favored school districts and from families with modest yearly incomes; students, therefore, who attend the fouryear and graduate-level institutions with Pennsylvania’s lowest tuition charges out of necessity as well as choice. In short, APSCUF put itself on the picket lines for the upward mobility of their students, not to win somewhat higher salaries for its most privileged members. Why should those students, and nonunionized workers generally, think favorably of unions in future if they have not already witnessed unions standing up for them, and for broad social justice? Neil Cosgrove is a member of the NewPeople editorial collective and the Merton Center Board. He is also a Slipper Rock faculty member.
A Construction Union Bank Could Lower Student Loan Debt and Benefit American Workers By John Leonard
We think banks are the same as credit unions but they are not. They operate under different rules. We are given the impression (or are under the illusion) that banks lend out its members’ savings, allowing them to generate interest for our savings and checking accounts. Nothing is further from the truth. It is the credit unions that lend money this way. Banks lend money by establishing a “bank reserve” that allows them to lend out ten times the reserve amount. By now, you are probably scratching your head, asking, “ Where does the money come from?” Banks operate under a fiat money system that allows them to create money out of thin air. They are governed by international laws (the Basel Accord) to establish “safe banking practice.” To create a bank you need to establish a purpose. Why do you want a bank and what are you going to do with it? Next comes the most important document, “The Charter,” the rules and regulations of operation. This will be a tome about four-foot wide. All state and federal guidelines are incorporated in the charter. This is why you need a professional banker to run the bank, since the guidelines go way beyond what credit unions do. When the state banking board does audits, if corruption is apparent, then the state makes an example of the bank president. When a charter is reviewed by the state and/or federal banking regulators and approved, you are on your way to owning a bank. The construction union bank I am proposing will need few people on the governance board because it will be, at first, a single purpose bank. The governance board should represent the rank and file of the membership and change every few years with no permanent positions.
Let's do some quick math, now that you have the basic concept of how a bank works by lending out ten times its reserve. If the construction unions were creating the bank, they would need to raise $100,000,000 for the reserve. This will create a bank valued at 10 times that, $1 billion dollars. Now you have the hair on the back of your heads bristling, worried about the safety of that much of an investment. Here is the good news; your money is to establish a “bank reserve.” It is not established to gamble on Wall Street; it just sits there making money. The money, which is now lent out by this union owned bank, could refinance student loans at 4%, the lowest rate in the nation. It would give a return of ten times the interest rate, because you are able to lend out at ten times the reserve. Banking amortization tables show about a 39.5% return. Many student loans are now being charged 11%. With a $100,000 loan @ 11% for 25 years, the student now pays $960 per month. Refinancing the student loans at 4% brings the payment down to under $550 per month, a $400 per month savings. For the parents who are required to assume one half of the loan because the student has no credit rating, paying 8% on their half of the loan, their rate will drop proportionately. Wow, a 39.5 % return; now what can we do. The bank needs to be autonomous but owned and run by the construction trades. In about 3 years the $100 million will be returned to the lenders with interest. At this point the union bank costs the trades absolutely nothing. Its purpose is not only to provide low student refinancing but also to provide funding in the future for massive projects that the trades will
own. By letting the bank grow and reinvesting the profits back into the reserve, in six to seven years the trade unions will reap close to $295 million every year in profits. These profits can be used to create not only jobs, but the ownership of all they create; Factories will never be outsourced again. Factory jobs will be union. The factories will be very competitive, because when you own it you have no investors to pay. So your goal is full employment, not high profits. To operate this kind of bank you only need a professional banker, computer equipment, a check scanner and union office staff. The bank can be in a large office space. There is no money kept in the office because everything is done by internet banking or personal checks made out to the bank. John Leonard is a retired electrician, and a member of IBEW Local 172, trying to bring jobs back to western PA by reducing student loan rates.
December 2016/ January 2017
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Recovering The Village Water Protectors Defy Siege of Standing Rock Cont’d By Linda Nordquist
dogs snarl and tear flesh, tear gas-pepper-spraymace shoots into the faces of elders and others, concussion grenades are thrown at people, bean-bag rounds cause crippling muscle spasms, and rubber bullets shoot into faces and groins. An occasional agent provocateur infiltrates to stir-up trouble, is caught and evicted. Apache helicopters circle overhead. Screeching sounds emit over loud-speakers. Nearly 1,300 sheriff deputies from 24 counties, 16 cities, and nine states rotate deployments and assist the Morton County Sheriff Department. Add to the mix a paramilitary private security firm, “TigerSwan,” employed by the pipeline. The National Guard, armed and ready, stands by. The public highway in and out of the camp is blocked, prohibiting ambulances from passing. To date, over 500 American citizens are arrested. Many are stripsearched and placed in kennel cages. The Army Corps of Engineers grants approval under a "fast track" option allowing construction; then halts construction to “study more.” The Dakota Access Pipeline ignores the Corps and keeps digging, right up to the river’s banks. The corporation faces a deadline: complete work by year’s end or their bond will be forfeited; investors will panic and demand payment; and tens of millions of dollars will have to be paid monthly. Despite all this, indigenous people stand their ground. Hundreds of tribes throughout the country
join hands with the Standing Rock tribe. Native American numbers exceed all protests in Native American history in a unique display of unity. They form large circles to pray, chant, drum and dance. Some smoke the sacred pipe. More non-Indian supporters arrive. Word travels around the globe. Responding to 120,000 signatures, Norway’s largest bank sells its assets in the pipeline, and faces pressure to pull its loans, too. Standing Rock Chairman David Archambault addresses the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. In referencing the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which recognize Sioux national sovereignty, Archambault charges “the oil companies and the government …[with failure] to respect our sovereign rights.” The UN investigates human rights violations. Amnesty International sends observers. The National Lawyers Guild does legal work. Protest demonstrations occur throughout U.S. cities. Media drones are shot down, celebrities arrive, and the word continues to spread. Sophia Wilansky’s forearm is blown to bits by a concussion grenade. Her father, a NYC lawyer, demands that Obama step in and stop the carnage. “People are going to die up there,” he cries, adding, “This is my fight now.” Obama abdicates his responsibility to protect Americans. His silence is
In Search of A Village For this interview, Nijah was introduced to Earl Baldwin Jr., owner of Hallelujah Anyhow! Gospel Talk Barbershop on the North Side, by Bette McDevitt, who delivers the New People to the barbershop. Mr. Baldwin was kind enough to speak with us about the prison system, his experiences in it, and providing reform and support. Do you think today's prison structure is any different from the one in which you served time? If so, in what ways? Way different. When I went to jail, there were a whole lot of resources education-wise that we (inmates) could get involved in. For instance, before I went and got my barber license, I was in the baking course, learning how to bake and cook and all that type of stuff. There were a bunch of educational opportunities that we could take advantage of in the institution, all the way up to a bachelor's degree if that's what you so wanted. Today? That's a different story. Now, based on your offense, they designate whether or not you're worthy of education and exclude you, which is contradictory to the rehabilitation process. How am I supposed to get better if I can't educate myself? By the grace of God, I had already had my education: my barber's license, my manager's license. But today? No college courses, and you can hardly get into the barber's program.
deafening. It gives a green-light to further atrocities. The company, which will enjoy a 30-day grace period from date of default, says Trump will decide in their favor. Why not? He is a shareholder. Congress, under recent energy and national security laws, will make good the defaulted bond — with our tax dollars. Meanwhile, the Sioux tribes and their supporters continue to fight a historic battle not only to protect their water – but to protect the water. This is what it means to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Please help. It is urgent. https://medichealercouncil.com/donate/ https://waterprotectorlegal.org/ways-supportus/ UPDATE: The Army Corps of Engineers has denied a permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline and are looking to reroute the pipeline. This is a win for water protectors and protesters alike, but the fight is not over. We must stay informed and continue to defend the Standing Rock Sioux land. Linda Nordquist is a clinical social worker, writer, and social activist.
By Nijah Glenn
How much of the prison industrial complex's treatment of prisoners do you think is a result of public apathy? If someone uses drugs and you know nothing about drug use, how can you have compassion for someone on drugs? It's impossible. Whatever he has the passion for is what he's going to put the energy into and do whatever it takes. I'm speaking from experience. I was desolate; I had no thoughts of tomorrow. We were going to deal with it that day, regardless of if I had to go to jail. You get to that point where you give up on yourself. When you give up on yourself, none of y'all stand a chance. Period.
Do you think there's a change in not only the way inmates are treated, but in the way they are offered support? If 10, 20 years ago an inmate was mentally ill, do you think the support for them has gotten better or worse? I went to the hole (solitary confinement) in 2006. They asked me if I wanted to work in the hole. I said, "sure". They sent me to the special needs unit. They needed me to clean the unit. I was feeding them, and doing everything I had to do to make sure they had everything they needed. I came upon an older man, about 78 years old. He had not had a shower in about a month and a half. Had not had a new jumpsuit in about a month, and was just sitting in his cell. They asked me what I would do, and I said, "open up the cell." I took this man who What do you think are the biggest issues in not could've been my grandfather to the shower. He was focusing on rehabilitation? If you don't help a young man grow and rehabili- soiled, but he could've been my grandfather. I have tate him, if you only put your foot on his neck, when hope that someone would have done the same if that the time comes for him to get out, we're dealing with had been my grandfather. They closed Mayview a different type of person. Now we have to deal with State Hospital; those that are mentally ill are put in a the frustration of a man coming out that is different special needs unit, and medicated. They send somefrom the one that went in the front door. If we don't one once a month to talk to them for about two minutes. I'm talking about what I saw myself. I'm rehabilitate, we are dealing with an angry, hungry, talking about a time when I struggled with the need inconsiderate, uncompassionate person who wants to talk to somebody and those resources weren't to do a simple thing: eat a meal. Now we [society] have to deal with collateral damage. We warehouse available for me.When your mental state just deteriorates every single day, and you have nothing to them, they become angry. help you, it does so much damage that a man cannot 14 - NEWPEOPLE December 2016/ January 2017
come out and focus. By the grace of God-and that's it-I'm in my right mind. They tried to condition me to the point that I would have been okay still locked up. Lastly, you mentor kids in this com- Earl Baldwin Jr. at his shop, Hallelumunity. Ben- jah Anyhow! Gospel Talk Barberjamin Disrae- shop. Photo taken by Nijah Glenn. li stated, "adversity is the best education". Do you think that makes a difference in your approach to these kids, as you see yourself? Having gone through it, I'm them! I watch them go through the life I led, where you're in the projects, you may not have cereal to eat. It's different today. My mama was there, she woke up in the morning, and fed us, got us dressed, made sure we did our homework. Today, it's different. That's why I'm here, that's why I have games in the shop. I have about 30 people who take turns sweeping hair in here and I pay them. That's the best I got. I started a program called The Neighborhood that Employs. I solicit my clients for jobs, and send people their way to earn an honest buck. I know what folks need. It takes a village to raise a child, and the village has taken off for a while. Nijah Glenn is a member of The NewPeople editorial collective and was recently voted onto the TMC board.
More Center News Association of Pittsburgh Priests Celebrates 50 Years of Preaching the Social Gospel By James McCarville
The Association of Pittsburgh Priests (APP) recently celebrated its “50 years of fighting for peace and social justice” with a luncheon at Mount Alvernia. Marcia Snowden, event organizer, announced the kick-off of the “APP History Project,” which, among other things, shows the deep ties APP has with the origin of the Thomas Merton Center (TMC). Fr. Regis Ryan and Fr. Don Fisher traced the APP back to the march in Selma, the protests against the Vietnam War, and, of course, the Second Vatican Council. The theme of the day was how they have stuck together and remained true to the original Vatican Council call. Art McDonald, a Ph.D. and Unitarian Minister, was the keynote speaker. He likened the APP’s struggle for social justice in Pittsburgh to the liberation struggle of the Church in Latin America. “Ours is a story that also needs to be told. The APP has been doing since the 1970s, what Pope Francis is saying today.” Specifically, he reminded
the audience, how in 1972, 40 priests pledged $10 a month to open the TMC. McDonald talked about how the APP has evolved. In the 90s it opened its membership to women, men, ordained and non-ordained, who were all responding to their baptismal call to be priests. Sr. Pat McCann, Fr. Don McIlvane,, Fr. Neil McCauley, Fr. Jack O’Malley, Molly Rush and Fr. Garry Dorsey were all honored as key to the APP history. While it honored its founders, it also honored the women and men that carry this banner today, including Fr. John Oesterle, given a special award, who has run the APP’s highly successful, trademark Speaker Series for more than a dozen years. To find out more about the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, visit www.associationofpittsburghprie sts.org James McCarville is a TMC board member and a member of The NewPeople editorial collective.
Thrifty's Wish List for 2017 12 Strong Volunteers 11 With Good Backs 10 New Customers A Day 9 Voucher Sponsors($200) 8 Boxes of Floor Tiles 7 Boxes of Floor Tiles 6 Boxes of Floor Tiles 5 DAYS TO PUT THEM IN!!!!!!!! 4 New Clothes Racks 3 Industrial Clothes Hampers 2 More Customers A Day AND A BRAND NEW REGISTER COUNTER A special congratulations to Shirley Gleditsch, founder of Thrifty, for receiving this year’s Pioneer Award from the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation!
In Memory We remember with gratitude the life and witness to the values of peace and social justice of Richard Rosenberger, long time member and generous supporter of the Thomas Merton Center who passed away on Thanksgiving Day. We extend our sympathies to Carol, his wife, and the entire Rosenberger family.
Welcome to the New TMC Board Members! Ballots have been tallied and the Thomas Merton Center members have selected the Board for 2017. Returning to the Board for three year terms are current president, Rob Conroy, current treasurer Pat Fenton, Anne Kuhn, and Jonah McAllisterErickson. Newly elected members who will fill expiring terms of departing board members for the next three years are Bill Chrisner, Antonia Domingo, and Nijah Glenn. Continuing on the board into 2017 are incumbents Ed Brett, Neil Cosgrove, Mark Dixon, Michael Drohan, Wanda Guthrie, anupama jain, Ken Joseph, Jim McCarville, Jordan Malloy, Joyce Rothermel, Molly Rush, Tyrone Scales, and M. Shernell Smith. We are grateful for the past services of retiring board members Thom Baggerman, Michelle Burton-Brown, and Mary Jo Guercio. Here are some brief bios of our new board members: W.D. (Bill) Chrisner III, M.Ed./M.P.A. has over 40 years of experience in social service and social justice work. He is currently serving as the Chair of the Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Council (PaRC) and was appointed to the Council by the Governor in 2011. He holds two masters and a bachelor degree from the University of Pittsburgh – Masters in Public Administration, Masters in Education (Rehabilitation Counseling), and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. Mr. Chrisner has been recognized at the local, state, and national levels for his ongoing contributions to the Independent Living/Disability Rights Movement and was a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor. A 1991 graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh, he is a member of various consumer and professional organizations at national, state,
and local levels. Antonia Domingo moved to Pittsburgh last year to work for the United Steelworkers. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh, Antonia was active in labor-student alliances, the immigrant rights movement, and housing justice struggles in Boston. Since moving to Pittsburgh, Antonia has become an active member of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, particularly in the campaign to reunite the Esquivel family. She also serves on the steering committee for the Pittsburgh Housing Summit and volunteers as a pro-bono attorney for the Protection from Abuse Project. Nijah Glenn is a senior at Duquesne University, pursuing a biology major and biochemistry minor. She has served as a Merton Center intern, a Hillman Cancer Center intern, youth board president for Educating Teens About HIV/AIDS, and social change committee chair for Three Rivers Community Foundation, has experience as a certified HIV tester and a trained doula, and has interned at both Complejo Hospitalario and a private clinic in Albacete, Spain. She is a member of the Editorial Collective and is involved with Stop Sexual Assault in the Military (SSAM) at the Merton Center. She believes social justice helps the world at large learn from its negative history as per Maya Angelou, "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again". The TMC board typically meets on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 PM at the Merton Center, with various committee meetings in between. We are grateful to all those who serve on our Board providing the direction, governance and oversight needed for Pittsburgh’s Peace and Justice Center.
Thomas Merton Winter Reading List By Joyce Rothermel
A few good books have come to our at- of Merton’s advice to social activists half a tention over this past year and we highly century ago illuminates how relevant the recommend them. The authors are known to monk’s ideas are to our time. Forest’s own us as people who have great knowledge of long engagement in the struggle for justice and have been inspired by Thomas Merton. and peace, as well as his close friendship Their writings promise to inspire you as with Merton, make him the ideal chronicler well! of this important aspect of Merton’s Thomas Merton PEACEMAKER: Meditathought.” We find in this book Merton as tions on Merton, Peacemaking and the Spir- one of American Catholicism’s dynamic itual Life advocates of non-violence in the nuclear This book by John Dear tells of age. It is available for $25. Thomas Merton’s profound contributions to In the Beginning Was Love: Contemplative the practice and spirituality of peacemaking. Words of Robert Lax John Dear is a priest, activist, lecturer, staff Robert Lax (1915 – 2000) was a member at Pace E Bene, and author of sev- contemporary of Thomas Merton, who eral books. He has been nominated for the wrote of him, “He had a natural, instinctive Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond spirituality, an inborn direction to the living Tutu. Coleman McCarthy notes, “As alGod.” This book, edited by S.T. Georgiou, ways, whether with his own books or ones is a unique introduction to Robert Lax as a he edits, John Dear delivers. His words contemplative, poet, sage and about Thomas Merton are scented with the peacemaker. The selections are mostly gathkind of clarity and conviction sure to reered from Lax’s poems and journals and ward every reader.” The book is in paperportray Lax as a mystic filled with a deep back and published by Orbis Books in love for God and all of creation. Jim Forest Maryknoll, New York, with a retail cost of in his review of the book says, “Georgiou $20. has created a beautifully assembled patchThe Root of War Is Fear: Thomas Merton’s work quilt of Lax’s writing plus an outstanding introduction to Lax’s life and Advice to Peacemakers Also, published by Orbis Books, work.” For those new to Lax, this is an exthis book has been written by Thomas Mer- cellent starting point. Those who already ton biographer Jim Forest and was released treasure Lax will appreciate the selections earlier this year. Jim Forest, Merton Center and their ordering. Published by TempleAward winner in April 2015, is co-founder gate Press this paperback is available for of the Catholic Peace Fellowship and author $15.95. of many books including, Living with WisJoyce Rothermel is a core TMC volunteer dom: A Life of Thomas Merton. Merton scholar and Merton Center member Bonnie and member of the TMC board. Thurston writes, “Jim Forest’s lucid account December 2016/ January 2017 NEWPEOPLE - 15
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Sundays: Book’Em: Books to Prisoners Project First three Sundays of the month at TMC, 46pm Contact: bookempgh@gmail.com
Mondays:
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2002– US Military transports first prisoners to new prison at Guantanamo, Cuba
1920– 395,000 Steelworkers strike with aid from The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee
January 2017 Regular Meetings
Martin EsquivelHernandez’s court hearing 9:30 AM Federal Court House, Downtown
New Years Day
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SW Healthcare 4 All PA /PUSH Meeting 3rd Monday, 6:30 —8 pm Squirrel Hill Library Contact: bmason@gmail.com Association of Pittsburgh Priests 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm, Prince of Peace Rectory 162 South 15th, Southside, Pgh. PA 15203 Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILP) 2nd Monday, 7:00 PM Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Ave Amnesty International #39 2nd Monday, 7—9 pm First Unitarian Church, Morewood Ave. 15219
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Queer Lecture Night 1-4PM The Glitter Box Theater 460 Melwood Ave
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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Allentown Paid Sick Day Business Celebration 7-9 pm Black Forge Coffee Shop 1206 Arlington Ave.
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21 Million Women March Washington, D.C.
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Panel on Border Patrol Brutality and Police Brutality 5-7PM Point Park University, Lawrence Hall
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Buses leave for D.C. to Inauguration protest Day inauguration. For more info got to fightbackpitts burgh.org
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Summit Against Racism Pgh Theological Seminary 8am– 5pm
The Good People BOSS: A Workshop 10am—4:30 pm Bloomcraft– 460 Melwood Ave
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Darfur Coalition Meeting 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 5:30 – 7:00 pm, Meeting Room C Carnegie Library, Squirrel Hill 412-784-0256 Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (PADP) 1st Wednesdays, 7-8pm, First Unitarian Church, Ellsworth & Morewood Avenues, Shadyside Pittsburghers for Public Transit 2nd Wednesday, 7pm, 1 Smithfield St., lower level
Thursdays: International Socialist Organization Every Thursday, 7:30-9:30 pm at the Thomas Merton Center Global Pittsburgh Happy Hour 1st Thursday, 5:30 to 8 pm, Roland's Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave, Strip District Green Party Meeting 1st Thursday, 7 to 9 pm, 2121 Murray, 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill Black Political Empowerment Project 2nd Thursday, 6 pm: Planning Council Meeting, Hill House, Conference Room B
Fridays: Unblurred Gallery Crawl 1st Friday after 6 pm, Penn Avenue Arts District, 4800-5500 Penn Ave., Friendship and Garfield 15224 Hill District Consensus Group 2nd Friday, 10 am — 12 pm, Elsie Hillman Auditorium, Kaufmann Center 1825 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 People of Prisoners in Need of Support 3rd Friday, 7:00pm New Hope Methodist Church, 114 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh 15212
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Saturdays: Project to End Human Trafficking 2nd Sat., Carlow University, Antonian Room #502 Fight for Lifers West 1st & 3rd Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm, Thomas Merton Center Anti-War and Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition 4th Saturday at 11:00 am at TMC, 5129 Penn Ave., Garfield, PA 15224
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In addition to supporting our projects, the Thomas Merton Center is currently:
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Advocating for affordable housing in Pittsburgh with Pittsburgh UNITED Advocating for Martin Esquivel-Hernandez’s release from a for-profit-prison after being detained
by I.C.E. on May 2nd 2016.
Working toward city-wide divestment of fossil fuels. Partnering with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to combat Islamophobia in Pittsburgh
Subscribe to The NewPeople by becoming a member of the Thomas Merton Center today! As a member, The NewPeople newspaper will be mailed to your home or sent to your email account. You will also receive weekly e-blasts focusing on peace and justice events in Pittsburgh, and special invitations to membership activities. Now is the time to stand for peace and justice!
Join online at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/ join-donate or fill out this form, cut out, and mail in. Select your membership level: ____$15 Low Income Membership ____$15 Youth / Student Membership 16 - NEWPEOPLE
____$25 Introductory / Lapsed Membership ____$50 Individual Membership ____$100 Family Membership ____$500+ Cornerstone Sustainer Membership ____Donation $____________________________ ____ Monthly Donation– Become a TMC Peacemaker $____________________________ Or Become an Organizational Member:
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December 2016/ January 2017
Please note: If you were a financial contributor to the Thomas Merton Center in 2016, and you would like to claim your donation for tax purposes, please call (412) 361-3022 and let us know so that we can process an acknowledgement letter for you.
Please complete and return to TMC. Thank you! Name(s):__________________________________ Organization (if any): ________________________________ Address:___________________________________
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City:_________________ State:______ Zip Code:________ Home Phone:____________________________ Cell Phone: ______________________________ Email:__________________________________
Mail to TMC, 5129 Penn Ave. Pgh. PA 15224 Call (412) 361-3022 for more information.