The Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee (AWC) emerged in opposition to the imminent invasion of Iraq in January of 2003. Highlighting the erroneous reasons that the Bush administration offered to justify invading Iraq, the AWC, together with Pittsburgh Organizing Group, planned what became the largest antiwar mobilization in Pittsburgh since the anti-Vietnam War protests. On 25 and 26 January 2003, about 5,000 people of diverse ages, cultural backgrounds, and political beliefs flooded Pittsburgh streets on the South Side and Oakland, railing against the ravages of war in a massive antiwar convergence. Every local television network, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pulp and City Paper, covered the story, and CNN, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, and news outlets in other U.S. cities and London, United Kingdom, picked up the feature.

Unfortunately, it has taken war to unite so many people in civic action. The AWC's momentum has buoyed the efforts of other groups. For instance, the AWC lent its support to the Confluence Against Gun Violence (CAGV), a coalition of different groups that oppose gun violence. CAGV organized a lively and inventive protest in front of the David Lawrence Convention Center at the National Rifle Association's national meeting in Pittsburgh in April 2004. The AWC's presence was evident in the anti-militarism and antiwar feeder march that it organized from the North Side and that merged with another feeder march outside the Convention Center. In the interest of sustaining momentum across the progressive spectrum, members from the AWC helped to organize a morning conference that featured discussion about "Building a Progressive Movement" on the morning of 6 November 2004. In the afternoon, the AWC followed the discussion with concrete action by taking to the streets in an antiwar march and rally in Oakland.

The AWC has drawn seasoned and newly politicized activists, Thomas Merton Center members and personnel, and students who contributed more than 4,000 hours to organizing and planning successful antiwar actions. The AWC has a facilitator who runs every meetings in a non-hierarchical, democratic manner, and members belong to one of several working groups (Publicity, Fundraising, Outreach, and Program). The Thomas Merton Center provides meeting space, functions as fiduciary agent for the AWC, and advertises AWC events and meetings on its online community calendar and in its monthly print publication, The NewPeople. The AWC has kept up the pressure to end the war year after year and month after month.

In 2005 we held another mass march and rally against the war on 19 March , as part of a Global Day of Protest on the second anniversary of the war in Iraq; both the World Social Forum and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), a 1,400-member antiwar coalition that encourages activists to organize antiwar actions in cities nationwide, called for this action. The event's theme fittingly is simple: "End the War. Rebuild Our Communities."

In 2006 we organized the following:

March: Organized the three-year anniversary mass march against the war in Iraq. Close to 2,000 people marched from East Liberty to the army recruitment office in Oakland where we held a protest attended by riot police.

 March and April: Together with the ACLU and other anti-war groups, held a press conference to expose and denounce the Department of Defense (DoD) for spying on activists from the AWC and other groups  Participated in a lawsuit with the ACLU charging the DOD with violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to turn over documents pertaining to its unconstitutional domestic spying program

 June: Worked with other groups to help organize events for “Torture Awareness Month”: a slide show presentation at CMU by Frida Berrigan from Witness Against Torture and a protest in Market Square to shut down Guantanamo and end indefinite detentions.

August: Organized a rally and march against nuclear weapons manufacturer Bechtel at their plant in West Mifflin.

October: Organized the anti-war workshop at the Global Solutions conference at the University of Pittsburgh.

Throughout the year: defended activists from the AWC and sister groups that were unjustly targeted by the police and judicial system for non-violent anti-war organizing. One of the group’s members (David Meieran) represented the AWC in the national steering committee of the UFPJ (United for Peace and Justice, the largest national anti-war coalition).

In 2007 we kept the momentum going:

January 20: Held an activist organizer training workshop at Pitt. for the student group Pitt. Against the War.

January 27: Brought buses to the national march against the war in Washington, D.C., consisting of about 500,000 people surrounding the capital.

March 24: Organized the four-year anniversary mass march against the war in Iraq. About 1,200 people marched in Oakland, with veterans against the war and students speaking and in prominent attendance.

May 11: Helped to organize a protest against George Bush at St. Vincent’s College. The protest was successful, attended about 120 people, and well covered by the press, despite the fact that the Secret Service forced us to hold the rally in a ditch a mile away from campus.

May – Sept: Organized Pittsburgh Veterans Tour together with the IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War). Sponsored several speaking events consisting of veterans speaking to community, religious groups, and schools about why they’re opposed to the war.

September 15: Took two buses to Washington, D.C. for a national march against the war.

October: Convened a meeting of 12 activists and community representatives with Senator Casey to make sure that he understood the depth and breadth of opposition against the war and occupation in Iraq.

October: Organized a workshop on the Iraq war at the Laroche Global Solutions conference.

November 11: Participated in the Vets for Peace march in Meadville, PA.

We are working with local artists and other peace and justice groups in generating an organic response to the war through compelling visuals and sounds that communicate the human cost of war to the public and offer concrete ways that people can oppose the war.

We work with local and national groups that believe in our vision of uniting the movement to end the war now.