2 Points on Pittsburgh City Activism:
Last edited Wed Jun 27, 2018, 05:48 PM - Edit history (1)
1) I've been out of the loop on the multi-day protests around Antwon Rose's getting murdered. Though I've been involved in anti-police brutality protests around here for decades, from Jonny Gammage, Stoney Bey, Deron Grimmitt, Jerry Jackson, Duane Dixon, Jordan Miles. Signed onto group signon sheets and petitions during rally protest actions for most of those murders/assaults.
The current protests are within walking distance of me, but there is a lack of unified long term organizational structure in responding to the decades old problem of police murder and brutality here, no unified list or historic overview of past actions and what worked, and the civilian police review board is toothless. Sure, the anti-police-murderer protestors are doing fine without me, but I'd show up if info got to me on time.
I suppose the rallies are organized via tweet and facebook, so I'm out of the loop there. Unfortunate that the famous 'activist' Mel P. is in the loop, though, to the extent that he was interviewed at the unscheduled march / sit in on channel 2 yesterday. He's a fucking jackanape and has always worked for the far right authorities. I told some honcho in political labor that, a few months ago, when ADA and the Washington County Labor Federation had me come out to back Lamb over Saccone.
2) The DSA around here popped up out of thin air. They're the 5th or 6th socialist group to pop up around here, since I moved back to the city in the early '90's. Those others mostly popped up, then vanished. I did enjoy Ms. Innamorato using targeted ads on Majority Report in her run against Mr. Costa.
Her state house district decided to go with her over Costa, more power to her, and them. But I was disturbed by the puff piece front cover story that Pittsburgh's City Paper ran on the group 9/20/17. It told demonstrable falsehoods about the group, origins and strength / membership #s.
That same CP edition amusingly had a favorable review of 'actor/labor activist' Mel P.'s work in a play about the Homestead 1892 Strike.
It basically said that Mel did a very convincing job acting like he was one of the Mellon family's anti-labor flunkies. I pointed that out to organized labor and the local IWW chapter, at the time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
