Here’s this week’s rundown of ways to connect with the liberation movement in Pittsburgh!

Please let us know if there there’s an event that is not listed that you would like us to promote through our Facebook, our blog, our Twitter, and through flyers or email.

All Week

Rainbow Alliance presents… Pride Week! Join us for an event every night from Monday 3/27 to Friday 3/31, closing out the week with our 17th Annual Drag Show!*

Monday /// Create Pride (http://ow.ly/g46130a2Em0)

Tuesday /// Pajama Jam (http://ow.ly/5PiH30a2ElP)

Wednesday /// Rainbow Voices (http://ow.ly/p3GN30a2Ema)

Thursday /// History of Pride (http://ow.ly/XOlY30a2EmG)

Friday /// Drag Show (http://ow.ly/R4JZ30a2EmR)

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1435210393218614/ ]

Monday (Today) – 3.27

This panel discussion featuring speakers from the Pittsburgh Muslim and refugee communities will give local residents a chance to learn about the life experiences of Muslims and refugees, ask questions, and gain greater understanding about how changing current events and policies are affecting our community.

From Ignorance to Action is a project of Jewish Voice for Peace Pittsburgh and supported in part by a 100 Days of US award from The Sprout Fund. This speaking panel was created in collaboration with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and the Council on American Islamic Relations.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1868609296750362/ ]

Tuesday – 3.28

On January 21, I had the tremendous privilege of speaking at the “Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional” rally in Pittsburgh. Organized by and for women of color, I was overjoyed when they invited me to speak on why disability is another unmentioned intersection that’s needed in feminist dialogue.

Since then, someone I respect quite a lot said to me (and I’m paraphrasing): “Alisa, you need to reach out to people of color.” He said a few other things that can simply be summarized by saying that our disability must be intersectional, and I realized that he was really, really right, and that I had completely failed to try to bring in people of color to my events or meetings or anything else I do.

So I am reaching out to members of the black community, the hispanic community, and any other group who feels that my privilege needs to shut up and listen for a change.

We will be meeting on Tuesday, March 28, from 6-8 at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. I would especially like to invite activists from the black and hispanic communities who would be interested in collaborating on projects. More than anything else, though, going forward I’d like to make sure that I do not leave anyone out.

Nothing about us without us!

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1282021135220986/ ]

Wednesday – 3.29

P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.C. Hangout @ Pitt

Conspire with friends, play boardgames, do homework, eat dinner, announce projects, ask for support – come hang for a bit! Or don’t, it’s whatever really.

9pm(ish) to 11 or so in the Room of Requirement, short documentary screening starts at 10:30. This week, folks are encouraged to use the space to debrief from last week’s shenanigans and brainstorm some next steps. Ask around // contact PSSC for an invite. All are welcome – not just students!

Support the 4th River Music Collective – music for the rev!

Wed. March 29th – 7pm @ OWL Hollow

Please join the Pitt Progressives for an open mic night for anyone who has anything to express about the current political climate. Are you scared? Feeling alone? Hopeful? Empowered? Come share your feelings at Nordy’s Place. All poets, musicians, and other performances are welcome. We will have a sign up Google Doc posted in this event page, and sign ups the day of the event. First come, first serve!

Sign up here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Wnz4Ia71oM9u_m7-f6aeI0kglHfQTPtZW_O8f2en6R0/edit?usp=sharing

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1807270759595084/ ]

Thursday – 3.30

benefit tournament to help raise money for the legal fees for the 11 pittsburghers arrested at a noise demo in solidarity with striking inmates at allegheny county jail this past monday.

-modern constructed (double-elimination)

-edh/commander casual side event

-$5 entry fee/donation

-prizes will go to the top three places. prize to 1st (tbd), 2 boosters to 2nd, 1 booster to 3rd

-invite your friends and anyone that i might have missed!!!

Donation Link

https://fundrazr.com/e1Drac

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/2041455972748292/ ]

Racist, fascist, and reactionary elements are mobilizing with increased energy and effectiveness.Violent attacks against Muslims, systematic murders of brown, native, and black people, armed mobilizations of racist paramilitary formations, and the mainstreaming of racist and fascist ideologies are on the rise. Donald Trump’s election has empowered this growing movement, living and breathing intense xenophobia, racism, classism, and U.S. nationalism. These are dark days.

Donald Trump stands as a figurehead for this growing movement, living and breathing intense xenophobia, racism, classism, and U.S. Imperialism.

But where is the opposition to this right wing, reactionary surge?

We propose some organizing strategies to build a social movement capable of confronting the contradictions within these growing nationalist movements. We will organize collectively against fascism while also fighting for real liberty for all people. Community defense is absolutely essential to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, now more than ever.

Come join members of Pittsburgh Redneck Revolt, a branch of the nationwide Redneck Revolt Network, as they discuss one proposal for organizing not only against racism and fascism, but also for fighting for real liberty for all people. The presentation will be followed by a brief open meeting and discussion for folks interested in working with Redneck Revolt or getting more info on the project.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/591990867656954/ ]

A History of Surveillance, and how to Fight It

Restore the Fourth – Pittsburgh

WE ARE IN LANGLEY HALL IN ROOM A221!

Imperialism is at the center of capitalist expansion. Imperialism has brought our world to the brink of economic and environmental devastation using racism, sexism and xenophobia to justify its need of exploitation. In the U.S., Donald Trump is unleashing unmasked repression against immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, women, Native Americans and the LGBTQ community. Abroad, drone strikes, ground troops and strong man posturing will continue where the Barack Obama administration left off. It is clear to a new generation of people that the current system isn’t working and we need an alternative.

Come to this forum to hear ASHLEY SMITH (member of the ISO and editor/writer for the quarterly journal International Socialist Review and the newspaper Socialist Worker) speak about what the fight against imperialism abroad and at home might look like and how you can get involved.

Organized by the International Socialist Organization – Pittsburgh.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1299269310163020/ ]

Friday – 3.31

We know that corporations will always put profits before the needs of Pittsburgh residents. Stand with us as we demand a public solution!

Join the Our Water Campaign as we attend the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel public meeting. The panel will decide which consultant to bring in to determine the future of our city’s water.

At the meeting we will stand up to let city officials know that the we need more public control not less.

Clean Water Action – Pennsylvania, One Pennsylvania, Thomas Merton Center, Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, New Voices Pittsburgh,Nine Mile Run Watershed Association. Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/739052522938713/ ]

Please join us for our first fundraising show for Livy’s Library!

Livy’s Library provides Pittsburgh area children with a free book every month.

Featuring poetry by:

Indigo Baloch (skyping in from Indiannapolis)

Cicil Marlique

Emma Vescio

Raghav Sharma

Tony Ciotoli

Music by:

Yrs (solo set)

Dorothy 6

Thomas Bricker

Elizabeth Hertzog

Please bring $5 or a donated book for entry. All monetary proceeds will go towards shipping costs to send the books.

If you’d like to receive free books for your child, sign up here!:

https://goo.gl/forms/sJ2bNRAsdKm3pKKV2

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1349771468407069/ ]

come raise money for free the planet and fossil free pitt!!! theme is beach party because sea levels are rising and everywhere is gonna be a beach!!! it’s scary but makes a great party theme

wear hawaiian shirts, swimsuits, visors, sunglasses, sunscreen, floaties, etc

and bring $5 and your own cup (gotta save that planet you know!!!) your party attitude, your friends, and a fun fact about the ocean!!!!

optional: your snorkel, a baby pool, a waterslide, a regular size pool, an olympic size pool, live sharks, the ocean, a cruise ship, anything you want!!!!

also!!!!! at 1 AM we will be going to volunteer at feel good’s 17 hour deli!!!! 🙂

**please be respectful of the space and the people**

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/738822492963600/ ]

Saturday – 4.1

We will gather and march to grieve for all of the losses in our community. Hundreds of people have lost their homes. Dozens of local businesses have shut down. Long-time residents are being displaced to make way for luxury apartments in East Liberty and many neighborhoods throughout the city of Pittsburgh.

Join us if you have been affected by displacement and gentrification. If you wish, bring your photos and other mementos for the memorial.

Join us to show your support for those who have been affected, to affirm that we value all our neighbors and refuse to accept displacement. We will continue to fight for our rights to fair housing and inclusive communities across the city.

We march to acknowledge the violence and trauma of gentrification and displacement. We will visit various locations in East Liberty and hear from speakers who will share their experiences of this neighborhood and its complex history. We will call out all of those responsible for this injustice, ending at Penn Plaza apartments, where residents will come together to say that we are still alive and we will keep fighting.

Lunch will be served at the end of the march.

#pennplazamatters

#housingisahumanright

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1865763340313656/ ]

Visibility must be demanded of the senseless murders happening around the country towards Trans women and cisgender women of color, the majority of the killings going silenced, reason we #sayhername

Intersectionality is the utmost importance in forming visibility for the displaced and silenced. As we come together to #sayhername we must keep in mind her name will never be silenced but instead affirmed everyday we fight for #blacklivesmatter #blacktranslivematter

Our Lgbtqia+ Advisory Council of Pittsburgh welcomes you community and visitors to be apart of our 2nd #sayhername Rally of Pittsburgh Pa affirming that we stand against the sensless murders of women across the United States. Bringing not only visibillity but also Justice for those lost to early.

We Welcome SisTers PGH Founder Ciora Thomas our host and 1 of our keynote speakers alongside Kimberly Jivers Celeste Marie Pittsburgh Progressive Women’s Network Dena Stanley Trans YouNiting La’Tasha D. Mayes New Voices Pittsburgh Shanea Leonard Judah Fellowship andNaheen Cavalleri True “T” Entertainment as well as a few Special Guest.

Following the Vigil SisTers PGH is honored to attend the 4th Annual Galaxy Ball – Rumors at Ace Hotel Pittsburgh at 8pm tickets are still on sale so please get yours ASAP so you can be apart of the Ball room tridition of the LGBTQ community.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/431092090561585/ ]

Jewish Voices for Peace’s National Network Against Islamophobia creates beautiful posters, which we have been distributing across the city, neighborhood by neighborhood! Help us reach out to local businesses, churches and residents in Carnegie with a morning of canvassing the business district.

This is a friendly way to engage your neighbors in conversation and help to create a more welcoming and just Pittsburgh region!

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1027120254056873/ ]

We are hosting a stuff swap/free market on Saturday, April 1st in our new space in the Bloomcraft building. The Little Idea, a project of The Big Idea, is located just off the lobby when you come in the front door of the building.

Please join us! Everyone is invited, bring things you don’t want and/or look for items you may fancy, or just stop by and say hi, see wander aimlessly in the building, or whatever.

It is no problem to come with nothing or with no intention of taking things, it will be good to see you in any case! 🙂

We plan on making this a reoccurring event so if you can’t make it this time don’t sweat it.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/236673276740632/ ]

Join TechShop, Alpha Lab Gear, University of Pittsburgh, Chatham University, and Prototype for this panel discussion about women in technology and entrepreneurism led by women who work in these fields.

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/189490861553547/ ]

Whether you are interested in learning the basics of bike mechanics and methods to access athletic bike events, talking about biking with friends or coworkers, getting around town comfortably and confidently, or becoming a stronger advocate for safe cycling, there will be a workshop for you!

In its fourth year, this forum will continue to inspire women on this transformative day. Register today to participate in a great day of meeting other women and trans identified people who bike (or are bike-curious).

What to bring: We suggest eating breakfast before you come, but lunch is included with your registration. A water bottle is good thing to bring so you stay hydrated throughout the day. You will not need your bicycle unless you plan on doing the optional ride at the end of the forum (one hour, casual ride). And wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing!

[ https://www.facebook.com/events/120865835092545/ ]

Sunday – 4.2

Let us know, we’ll spread the word!

Local News and Ongoing Calls for Support

In cooperation with itsgoingdown.org, Submedia.tv, and others, we are calling for a week of solidarity to support everyone targeted for standing up to the Trump regime and rising fascism. The past four months have seen unprecedented waves of action—from the post-election rebellions and thedefense of Standing Rock to the J20 demonstrations, theairport blockades, and the shutting down of advocates of nationalist violence like Milo Yiannopoulos. These efforts have emboldened dissidents from Slovenia to the White House itself, catalyzing global resistance and destabilizing the Trump administration from within. In response, the authorities are bringing felony charges against hundreds of people and seeking to criminalize protest altogether. How effectively we support arrestees will determine how effectively we can continue resisting.

Donate to arrestees at ACJ demonstration on 3/20!

On March 20th, 11 comrades were arrested during a demonstration outside of Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, PA. They were joining in solidarity with the 80 inmates that had launched a 24-hour strike with demands for decent living conditions, including but not limited to having access to medical services, having their grievances heard and responded to, and requiring the DOC and Prison board to ensure that all administrative rules and DOC policies are made accessible to inmates. Police instigated violence and our friends were arrested. They are now facing exorbitant legal fees. Please donate to this fund to help out with the high costs that follow arrest; Solidarity is everything and with help from everyone, we can continue to keep fighting!

Pittsburgh: Rebellion Inside and Outside Allegheny County Jail

Originally published on It’s Going Down On March 18th, prisoners at Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania began a sit-in. Eighty prisoners took part in the action to demand more case workers, better medical services, and a legitimate grievance procedure. Last night, masked demonstrators converged on the jail in solidarity with those protesting inside and smashed windows of the jail, a security camera, and several police vehicles. The action was broken up after police arrested eleven protesters. Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) imprisons more than 2,500 people, and its population has increased by 70% in the last two decades. ACJ has a long history of abuse and was the subject of a 2010 FBI investigation that found officials there were covering up abuse of prisoners. Health conditions at the jail are also notoriously bad; eleven people died while incarcerated at ACJ in just 2014 and 2015. Eighty-one percent of the people being incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail haven’t been convicted of a crime and are in being incarcerated pretrial. Many of these people are being held on bail they cannot pay, meaning they are only incarcerated because they lack access to a certain amount of money. In a monetary bail system, access to money determines whether someone will be released or detained pretrial. Someone who can’t afford bail will likely be incarcerated for the duration of their trial, which could be years. Even a few days of pretrial incarceration often means the difference between working and being fired or paying rent and being evicted. Right now, more than 450,000 people are incarcerated in US jails—most of them in pretrial detention and most of those people because they cannot pay bail. In effect, our legal system is punishing people for being poor. In the past year, there has been a dramatic increase in action being taken by incarcerated people across the US, most recently at Vaughn Correctional Facility where prisoners demanding better conditions took over a wing of the prison. In August and September of 2016, 22 mothers held at an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania went on hunger strike to protest the ongoing incarceration of themselves and their children. Last September’s national prisoner strike involved at least 29 prisons in 12 states. The strike was organized by the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) with support from the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), and a wide variety of anti-prison organizations. Tens of thousands of prisoners participated in the strike, affecting facilities across the country. Especially as Trump and Sessions push for even more criminalization of targeted communities, it essential that we pay close attention to and amplify resistance inside US jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers. Solidarity with those rising up and resisting at Allegheny County Jail. CLICK HERE to donate specifically to the arrestees that are affiliated with the Red Guard

Call for Queer Artists, Musicians, Poets, and other creative types!

Some queer comrades are starting to organize a free art crawl modeled after First Fridays on Penn Ave, get in touch with Casey at casey.madden@glccpgh.org if you’re interested!

Report-Back from ¡No Pasaran! – All Out Against the Pro-Trump March in Pittsburgh

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We had the trumpers outnumbered 5 to 1! We disrupted their march, and when they attempted to end with a rally and speeches, we kept them cornered in an alleyway where no one could hear their bullshit over our own speeches and chants. Much love to everyone that was able to turn out despite the recent repression facing the movement in Pittsburgh!

Time to get the ball rolling….

We live in a civil war, fought on numerous social terrains. The opposing forces are well supplied with weapons from the establishment and their grounding hegemony. While we are skeptical of naming a core actor, in our own location this hegemony is built around West Virginia University and the spectacle it maintains.

While WVU promotes its #RespectfulMountaineer campaign as a patronizing reaction to the police-instigated Baylor Riots of 2014, it turns a blind eye to the systemic rape of women on campus . The Greek system, as on many other campuses, is allowed to run a campaign of social terror on women, queers, and anyone else not interested in their creepy bourgeois rituals and violent masculinity. Our current living situation is abysmal. Rents are skyrocketing and absentee landlords let houses fall into complete disrepair. The university flows public money into private hands and raises tuition for poor appalachian students every year. So what are we to do? Ask them for better policies, run for student government, or maybe even write up a petition?

We reject this completely.

We do not expect anything of the institution that we combat. This is not some idealized “conversation” occurring in a neutral space, a debate in an old french salon between two good citizens. We understand the immense powers of WVU and refuse to engage in a rigged conversation because of our own poor experiences and the well-documented experiences of others in this struggle.

No conversation on rape will end rape on campus. No conversation on gentrification will end the trend of rising rents. No conversation on police brutality will end police brutality. The only way forward is pointing out the perpetrators and destroying the apparatuses that allow for this to occur.

Who are these perpetrators? Landlords, frat bros, college administrators, cops, gentrifying entrepreneurs and the whole rotten lot. We know the buildings and spaces these people occupy. We know the property they own and the institutions they maintain. So we propose, what if it is time to go on attack?

Yet, to go on the offensive, to establish a forward stance, we have to make contact with others who also recognize their enemies. Abolition is on the table across our milieu; it applies as much to prisons as it does to the grand university. So many of us have been scarred by the institution of the university, it is paramount for us to organize this attack while proposing new forms, experiments, and alternatives. To this end, we are calling for a convergence of interested parties in April 2017 so we can discuss the next steps for people invested in ending the institution itself.

So we have to ask “which side are you on?”

ALERTA ANTIFASCISTA Call for the University of Pittsburgh to Become a Sanctuary University

The national movement for the establishment of Sanctuary Universities responds to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s intention to deport up to three million (goo.gl/zCCXcU) undocumented persons from the United States, abolish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and establish a national registry for the surveillance of Muslim persons. Following the November 8 election, university and K-12 campuses around the country report threats directed against people of color, trans* people, disabled people, indigenous people, queer people, and all people without the privilege of U.S. citizenship; the appearance of swastikas and other hateful imagery on school property; and bullying of Muslim, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ youth. And peaceful demonstrators on Pitt’s Oakland campus have experienced violence at the hands of University police.

Given the xenophobia that characterizes our local and national climate, we cannot have confidence in our shared institutional commitments to inclusion, integrity, freedom of expression, and diversity without at minimum concrete policy statements from the University of Pittsburgh in support of “immigrants who study, live, and work in and around our University” (as stated in a November 16 sanctuary campus letter from Pitt student leaders, viewable atgoo.gl/LupvgG).

Demands:

Unless required by a warrant or other valid legal process, University of Pittsburgh officials will not cooperate with any deportation or other immigration enforcement actions directed against Pitt students. Specifically:

1. Pitt will prohibit University police and campus security from “inquiring about or recording as to an individual’s immigration status” (goo.gl/LupvgG).

2. University of Pittsburgh police officers will not cooperate with deportation or other immigration enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CPB), or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

3. The University of Pittsburgh will not allow ICE, CPB, or USCIS officials on Pitt campuses or other property.

4. The University of Pittsburgh will not share information related to immigration status about any Pitt student or employee with ICE, CPB, USCIS, or other law enforcement agencies.

5. The University of Pittsburgh will cease any use of E-Verify in student application or employee hiring procedures.

6. The Deans of Students Offices will coordinate a specific and transparent program to assist DACA students and all other students who are not U.S. citizens with any issue related to immigration or visa status, financial aid, housing, or related concerns.

7. Pitt will revise its Notice of Non Discrimination (goo.gl/IUmjjQ) and related policy statements (e.g. goo.gl/qsNOsa) to include “immigration status” as a protected category alongside “disability, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, familial status, sex, age, sexual orientation, veteran status or gender identity and expression.”

We, the undersigned, also affirm the statement in the November 16 letter to Chancellor Gallagher that “immigrants are not the only group who [have] found themselves targeted” by recent expressions of racism, xenophobia, heterosexism, cissexism, and misogyny on our campuses (goo.gl/LupvgG). We therefore support the Pitt United Students Against Sweatshops, Pitt Student Solidarity Coalition, Pitt Students Against Debt, and the Pitt Students for a Democratic Society’s call for additional actions Pitt can build toward, in the words of poet Muriel Rukeyser, “a world that will hold all the people.” Further, we stand in solidarity with Pitt students who demand an end to University of Pittsburgh police harassment of student activists in campus spaces.

Our University motto is Veritas et Virtus. Fidelity to these values requires that we not simply declare our campuses safe and welcoming spaces for all people. We must realize the truth of these statements through concrete action. By establishing ourselves as a Sanctuary University, we can take a significant step toward the realization of these commitments as facts in the life of the University of Pittsburgh.

Awaiting your action.

SIGN THE CALL FOR A SANCTUARY CAMPUS HERE

Donate to the Pittsburgh Anti-Fascist Legal Defense Fund!

If you can, please DONATE to the legal defense of the 10 Pittsburghers arrested in DC.

We stand in unconditional solidarity with the arrested comrades.

Drop the charges! Only the State is guilty!

On January 20th 2017 Border-guards, modern day slave catchers, paramilitary, military, and armed vigilante groups converged to protect the swearing in of a new leader to the White Supremacist State known as The United States of America.

Tens of Thousands of bravehearts also converged upon our nations capital in collective defense, in resistance to oppressive everyday reality. Arm in arm, in solidarity, hundreds from our beloved Rustbelt city manifested beautiful acts of resistance and aligned themselves with fellow renegades and insurgents to strengthen vocal messages and make bold gestures of revolution.

Pittsburghers gathered in mass to protest our country that was never great and to unmake fascist America.

Efforts were made to end segregation and bring about emancipation in much the same way those who have came before us have – in the streets.

During the demonstrations many were arrested. We, the organizers of this fundraising campaign, pledge to supporter our local comrades. Regardless their perceived guilt or innocence, we have solidarity with them and their trajectory.

The confines of laws are set up against those who dare to dream and act upon another reality.

We ask you to take a moment and pause, to consider we are in this together, and that our sisters and brothers, our neighbors who grew up and live on the same streets as us, who pass over the same bridges as us, are under attack.

Contributing to this bail fund is an act of love and an attack on the proponents of a segregated society that would have us all rotting in jail cells or slaving away as subservient women and barbarish men.

We are not divided and we will not leave anybody behind. For some the thin vale of American Racism has been taken off, for others we have always known it to be true and we are glad you have joined us.

[Pictured below: Over 100 dedicated anti-fascists, including our Pittsburgh friends, kettled by armed agents of the state. “We love you, stay strong, the revolution lives on!”]