Anonymous Comrade writes "Come join the largest peace convergence in Pittsburgh in over 30 years! This event will have thousands taking part in a variety of ways and we need you to make it amazing. The events are organized around the need for direct action against the war and with respect for a diversity of tactics. The events are endorsed by a ton of groups. for complete info see www.organizepittsburgh.org/war.htm

This should be the largest local peace mobilization in 30 years and we need your help to make it happen. The majority of convergence events are being organized by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, The Thomas Merton Center, and the TMC's Anti-War Committee.

Tactics: Since September the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, the Thomas Merton Center and organizations/affinity groups from throughout the region have been working on different elements of a regional convergence against war to take place January 24-26th, 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This includes pog's organizing of a framework for large scale direct action against war as part of a larger mobilization that weekend. Groups are working together to put on a comprehensive weekend of actions and events. The events include: a large permitted rally, numerous teach-ins, forums, and other educational events, marches of all kinds, direct action, street threatre, 15+ hours of concerts, a vigil, a parade procession, radical cheering and signing, dancing, various bloc's, and many other to be determined activities. If you are opposed to the Government’s militaristic policies at home and abroad there is a place for you at these events. Not everyone will want to attend every event and that's ok. Each of us can take part as we see fit. Effectiveness is in diversity. We support a diversity of non-violent tactics from flyering, vigils, holding signs on the corner, pre-announced (to the police) symbolic arrests, and active blockades. We also welcome coordinated autonomous actions. There are MANY opinions within the peace movement on what an effective direct action entails and it's likely that Jan 24-26th will reflect a multitude of these. We encourage all groups and individuals opposed to the ongoing war to open the lines of communication so that we can come together and figure out ways to have our actions work in tandem.

Housing: If you need, or can offer housing email us. There are a lot of people coming from outside Pittsburgh and we need to find places for them to sleep. We currently have 185 beds available. If you can put people up during the convergence please email us with the following info: where you live (this won't be made public until we match you up), How many, what arrangements (bed, floor), what days, your house policy on smoking, whether you have cats, and any other considerations. We will match requests with offers and email each party with the others contact info.

Convergence Spaces: (www.mapquest.com will show you an okay map)
Saint Regis Parish. 3735 Parkview (at the edge of Schenley Park) It will be open 24hrs from Friday through Sunday. This will serve as a space for people to check in and disseminate information. Oh ya, and to keep warm in the cold for a bit. Hot Chocolate for All!

Community of Reconciliation 100 N. Bellefield Ave. This space will be open off and on from Friday through Sunday for storing stuff, holding workshops, meetings, trainings, and other activities.

Bands: We are aiming for ~30 bands/performers. Playing: Face Death (raw punk from pittsburgh), The Channel, Krooked Grind, Piss Shit Fuck (North Carolina), Farewell Euclid, Control Group, Deadpan Dealings (Pittsburgh metal-punk from prison), Guardia Negra (Boston- internationalist, oi, but very rock n roll influenced), Czolgosz (Boston, classic anarcho-punk), Torn.Between.Words. (alt rock/punk), Emcee Lynx (California, poitical hip-hop), Stilyagi (Avant Punk), Forever Is Over, Samarra's Betrayal, We need more musical acts. We would like a diverse range of genres. Contact Toni at samiam789@hotmail.com with and for band info etc.

Singing: By the Pittsburgh Raging Grannies and the Pittsburgh Radical Cheerleaders!

Food: Pittsburgh Food Not Bombs will be serving free food throughout the convergence with the help of many volunteers (and donations of food).

Spokescouncil: Sunday January 5th, 2:00pm-5:30pm This is a meeting to coordinate the direct action and civil disobedience framework and allow groups outside Pittsburgh to give input into events. If you plan on attending the January direct action events, but are outside Pittsburgh we encourage you to send a representative to the meeting.

Press Conference: January 9th. This press conference will be to talk about the weekends events. We will primarily be addressing the plans for mass direct action.

Media Coverage: Pittsburgh IMC will be reporting on the events (contact them at info@indypgh.org for info on the imc space, etc) and people from Blast Furnace Radio will be doing a live radio broadcast about the convergence events.

Pre-event Trainings:

January 11th High School Students!: PAPPY civil disobedience training with POG 12:00pm-3:00pm This training is to prepare all PAPPY members for participation in the January 24-26th Regional Convergence Against War here in Pittsburgh. Location: Thomas Merton Center, 5125 Penn Ave. (Garfield)

Contact: pappyforpeace@yahoo.com or 412-361-3022

January 17th Mass Non-violent direct action training. By pog. 7pm-10pm. This is a general training on a range of topics. Including what to expect at a mass protest, basic medical, soft and hard blockades, etc

Schedule of Events This is the framework of events happening during the weekend of the convergence. All events should be considered separate and do not imply endorsement of the other things happening.

Friday January 24th-

5:00pm-7:00pm Teach-in

8:00pm-2:00am Shows

Saturday January 25th-

9:00am-2:00pm Trainings: Medical/Legal/Direct Action. All trainings are taking place at one of the convergence spaces

11:00am Working People Against the Wars: A Forum. Presbyterian Church 20th and Sarah St. (South Side)

11:00am-2:00pm Workshops: Patriarchy, Sexism, and War. DIY composting, Also at one of the convergence spaces

12:00-1:00pm Protest Vigils (these have been happening weekly) East Liberty: corner of Penn & Highland Ave . Northside: Allegheny UU Church, Resace Place and North Ave

1:00pm Poems for Peace Reading: Free. Following the vigil. East Liberty Presbyterian Church at the corner of Penn and Highland Ave. Join some of Pittsburgh most celebrated poets as they raise their voices.

3:00pm-5:00pm Parade For Peace procession. A permitted display of our colorful side. Make a costume, sign, or float! bring musical instruments. (endorsers)

6:30pm- 8:30pm Spokescouncil at one of the convergence meeting spaces

8:00pm-2:00am Shows

8:00pm-All Night Interfaith Vigil for Peace

Sunday January 26th- Day of Action

9:00am-12:30pm labor caucus to plan Mayday 2003 mobilization in Pittsburgh, St. Matthew Catholic Church,148 South 19th St. (South Side)

9:30am Sunday Peace Mass St. Hyacinth Catholic Church, 3201 Craft Place (Oakland)

11:00am Sunday Worship service for peace Monumental Baptist Church, 2240 Wylie Ave. (Hill District)

11:00am Sunday Service dedicated to peace Allegheny UU Church 416 West North Ave. (North Side)

11:00am Sunday Peace Mass St. Regis Catholic Church, 3735 Parkview (at edge of Schenley Park)

12:45pm Disobedient bloc meeting to join mass march and rally, 5th and Bellefield

1:00pm-3:00pm Mass March through Oakland and Rally. Starting at the University of Pittsburgh (endorsers)

3:30pm Mass non-violent direct action + autonomous actions. Disrupt and expose the war machine. (Oakland and all over Pittsburgh)
7:00pm on... Nighttime celebration.

Ride Info:

We have contact with a number of people/groups coming so feel free to email us and we'll try to give you contact info for someone close to you who's heading to the Convergence. This is our substitute for not having a ride board. More labor intensive but we've got plenty of people for answering emails. If you're looking for cheap trains- Amtrak has weekly rail sales. Currently Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is $19 roundtrip.

Outreach: This is the one area where we need regular help from everyone. It's not enough to plan a large anti-war event: people need to know about it. We are asking people to distribute flyers wherever they can. Few of us have the time to set aside hours just to outreach, but most of us can pass out information during the course of a regular day. Many of us have found the following places effective for outreach: on the way to school, in coffee shops, on buses, at shows, and basically anywhere else people are or you can leave a flyer or two for people to find. One of the best parts of outreach is that it forces us to reach out beyond our normal social circles and typically starts conversations with people who might not otherwise be exposed to our perspective.

Art and Theatre: One of our goals with these events is to fuse more creativity into the protest nature of rallies, marches, and events. To do this we need to get all of our creative juices flowing and reach out to everyone with more in-depth artistic experience. We would like to especially invite the involvement of those of you who regard art-theatre as your driving passion. There is already a large group of students planning street theatre for the January events.

Logistical Help: We need people to help staff the convergence center, staff phones for legal support, move puppets-banners-supplies around, and a ton of other things that require people to commit to doing.
Contacts in your area: We have contacts in a number of cities who we can pass you along to for flyers or logistical info on the convergence or a particular aspect of it. If you would like to help spread info and/or organize in a particular area please contact us.

Pittsburgh- pog@mutualaid.org, pittsburgh_october@hotmail.com (412)682-4035 (pog), info@ThomasMertonCenter.org (412)361-3022 (TMC), Thomas Merton Center 5125 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224,
Anti-War Committee: Pete Shell, (412)422-7435, pshell@cs.cmu.edu, or
Ali Hebshi at ahebshi@earthlink.net

Erie- RAG: Roots Action Group (similar to pog, but in Erie) rag@mutualaid.org

Indiana (PA)- Indiana Voice For Peace: contact Bill Jones rzjj@iup.net

Ithaca, NY- Quinten Steenhuis quinten@andrew.cmu.edu

Greensburg, PA: haymarket326@yahoo.com

Buffalo: Colin- eagercolin@yahoo.com

We also have convergence contacts in the following cities. Email us and we will pass the message along: Latrobe, Chicago, Columbus, Lansing, Boston.

We are talking to people in the following cities. We're working on contact info: Morgantown- NYC- DC- Buffalo- Cleveland- Columbus- Richmond- Akron.

Affinity Groups: What is an AG? For January's Direct Action-Civil Disobedience component of the convergence people are encouraged (it's by no means necessary) to form affinity groups to take part in the actions (for many reasons but primarily safety and effectiveness) If you do not have a affinity group you can form your own or join others who are putting specific groups together. contacts: Faith-based affinity group: Mimi Darragh mimidarragh@aol.com
Pink bloc: pinkbloc@cease.info (contact Branden) or Marie tmc.development@verizon.net
Queers against the war affinity group: Marie tmc.development@verizon.net
Disobedients Bloc: disobedients@hotmail.com anyone who supports what they called for in the bloc call to action is encouraged to gather at the bloc meeting point. We also recommend people who don't have a group attend the upcoming direct action training so they can meet folks who might share the common interest of stopping this unjust war. Direct Action Training: January 11th for High School Students, January 17th for all!

Money: If you can donate any money, it’s greatly appreciated. We are doing all we can to spend as little money as possible while raising funds through benefit events, however mobilizations of this kind are not cheap. POG’s resources were sorely stretched by all the bail money paid in D.C. for those wrongfully arrested during protests against the IMF and World Bank and none of us are particularly wealthy. You can donate money to either POG or the Thomas Merton Center and earmark it for the January convergence.

Supplies: We could use donations of any of the following- Sheets, large Tarps, Duct tape, large dowel rods (for puppets and banners), swimming goggles, bandannas, poster board, general art supplies, paint, computer supplies, tools-hardware, large plastic rain barrels, garbage cans, and anything similar you can spare."