Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee

a project of

Affiliated with

Pittsburgh, 2003

Join the AWC on a bus to the

National Antiwar March
on Washington

Saturday, March 20

View/print a flyer here

More info at www.NatAssembly.org and www.March20.org

The Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee is joining with several local and national coalitions and networks in urging an all-out March 20 bi-coastal mobilization of all opponents of the U.S. wars and occupations. We urge support for these critical demands:

Increase Spending by Hundreds of Billions for Jobs, Health Care, Education, Housing and the Environment!
End U.S. Wars, Occupations and Corporate Bailouts Now!
Use the Money to Meet Human Needs Instead!

Bus tickets are $35. Scholarships and low income seats will be granted depending on how many donations are made. Buses will leave the Morewood parking lot, at the corner of Forbes and Morewood, at 6am on Saturday, March 20 and will return that night.

Reserve your seat by sending in a payment. There are two choices for making payments.

Send a check for $35 per seat to:

Thomas Merton Center AWC
5125 Penn. Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA
15224

Or by making a secure online payment:

Go to www.ThomasMertonCenter.org
Click the “Donate” link on the left
Choose “Anti-War Committee” in the “For Project” dropdown on the payment page

Donations are also needed to pay for scholarship seats.

Local sponsors include: Green Party of Allegheny County; Pittsburgh Code Pink; Pittsburgh Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee; Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine; Pittsburgh ANSWER; Thomas Merton Center AWC

Past Actions organized by the AWC

View Indymedia video of the emergency protest

against war escalation in Afghanistan

6pm, Wednesday December 2, 2009

At Schenley Plaza, Forbes & Bigelow, Oakland, Pittsburgh
A peaceful, legal protest – permitted by the constitution

President Obama has announced a plan to expand the deadly war and occupation of Afghanistan. The immediate response — across this country — must be STREET PROTESTS that boldly oppose this outrage. More protest and resistance must follow, yet that immediate protest is crucial, since that is when the media — and the rest of the world — will be looking for a response from the people.

Co-sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center AWC, Pitt SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), Code Pink, WILPF, IVAW, and others – please let us know if your group will help build and publicize these actions and if your group should be listed as a co-sponsor.

Young girl at Peoples March with hankerchief over her mouth and nose
USW photo taken at the Sept. 25 Peoples' March to the G-20

Important upcoming dates for justice..........................................................

USA Out of Pgh

Announcement: Campaign for justice and accountability after the G-20

Past Actions organized by the AWC

Rally Against U.S. Wars and Occupations
Saturday Oct. 17, 12pm - 1pm
Penn and Highland Aves.

The AWC will not be silenced by G-20 riot police. We will hold a nonviolent protest against wars and occupations, as part of a national day of action, together with Black Voices for Peace and Code Pink. It will be followed by the Black Voices for Peace vigil starting at 1pm.

For more info about the rally click here.

About 7,000 People Participated in the Peoples' March to the G-20

Friday, Sept. 25 - Pittsburgh, PA
Nonviolent and permitted

Press Release: 6 feeder marches to join the Peoples' March
Press Release: National and Local Speakers for Friday March
* Mass Meditation for Peace on Flagstaff
* Click here for nonviolence guidelines for the march
* Click here for the permit that the city was finally forced to give us
* Click here for the complete march route and map

Money for Human Needs, Not for Wars and Occupations – Environmental Justice for the Earth and its Inhabitant –
Jobs and Health Care for All

12:00 pm – 5th & Craft Avenues in Oakland: Opening Rally, then a march down Fifth Avenue to the City-County Building downtown.
2:30pm – Rally at the City-County Building, then a march down 5th Ave, across the 7th St. bridge, to East Park on the North Side.
4:00pm – Closing rally at East Park.

Join the Facebook page for the Peoples' March

Press Release about the Sept. 25 Peoples' March

View/download/print the Poster, Flyer, or Handbill

Interview: Paul LeBlanc on why we're protesting

70 Endorsers: Iraq Veterans Against the War Chapter 61, Pittsburgh; PA State Senator Jim Ferlo; Veterans for Peace Chapter 047 – Pittsburgh, Chapter 140 – Meadville, PA; National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations; Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh; Codepink Pgh Women for Peace; Bail Out The People; Green Party of Allegheny County; World Can’t Wait; ISO (International Socialist Organization); WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) Pgh; Socialist Action; Ohio Valley Peace; Bay Area United Against War; Coloradans For Peace; Radio Free Maine; Code Pink National; Voters For Peace; Community Organizing Center (Columbus, Ohio); Columbus Campaign for Arms Control; Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee; After Downing Street; Charlotte Action Center For Justice; Connecticut Students Against the War; Students For Peace, Duluth, Minnesota; Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio; Columbus Progressive Peace Coalition; Pgh Palestine Solidarity Committee; Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine; Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section; Rhode Island Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation (RIMC); Socialist Party USA; National Radical Women; New England United; North Star Republic – ML; Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) – Ohio; AFSC PA Program; Peace and Freedom Party of California; Socialist Party of Connecticut; Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice of Salt Lake City; Global Justice Ecology Project; Socialist Organizer; Green Party of Ohio; Interfaith Council for Peace in the Middle East; ANSWER Coalition; G 6 Billion; Philly Against War; Youngstown Coalition for Peace in the Middle East; Pgh GMB of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World); Workers International League; Youth for International Socialism; Poets on the Loose; Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) – NYC; Syracuse Peace Council; Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC); Grassroots Global Justice Alliance/Alianza Popular por la Justicia Global; Avaaz.org Climate Action Factory; Connecticut United for Peace; Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Vancouver, BC Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO); Solidarity; Coalition for Peace Action; Black Voices for Peace; United Steelworkers; Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition; African-American Workers Union; Beaver County Peace Links; United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE); Art Institute chapter of Habitat for Humanity

Activists from Pittsburgh, the U.S., and across the globe will converge to protest the destructive, undemocratic policies of the G-20 – meeting in Pittsburgh this September 24-25.

We believe a better world is possible. We anticipate involvement and support from people and organizations across the country for:

A peaceful, legal march is being sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, an umbrella organization that supports a wide variety of peace and justice member causes in Pittsburgh. Permits have been applied for and the city has stated that the marches at least as far as the City-County building have been approved, and have said that we can cross the 7th St. bridge to march to the Nort Side. In any case we will not confront the police.

WE SEEK THE BROADEST RANGE OF SUPPORT, PARTICIPATION, AND ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE MASS MARCH AND PEOPLE’S SUMMIT

To endorse, E-mail: info@pittsburghendthewar.org
Or contact: Thomas Merton Center AWC, 5125 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224

A number of other events are being planned by a wide variety of community and social justice groups in Pittsburgh.
For more information and updates please visit http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/g20action.htm

The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors represents the world’s economic leaders, intimately connected to the most powerful multi-national corporations that dominate the global economy. Their neo-liberal policies have squandered billions on war, plunged economies into deep recessions, worsened social, economic and political inequality, and polluted the earth.

Previous events....

July 10-12: Pittsburgh Is Hosting a
National Anti-War Conference !
@La Roche College

With

    * Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace
    ٭ Michael McPhearson, Veterans for Peace
    ٭ Zaineb Alani, Iraqi poet-activist

And local anti-war leaders ---
    * Molly Rush, Thomas Merton Center co-founder
    * Gail Austin, Black Voices for Peace
    * Jules Lobel, Center for Constitutional Rights
    * Fayyad Sbaihat, Palestine Solidarity Movement

To register and for more info, go to www.NatAssembly.org.

Click here for the list of workshops.

This will be a great opportunity to meet anti-war and peace activists from all across North America and engage in discussions about how to keep moving the anti-war movement forward. We're expecting several hundred attendees and can use help with logistics and publicizing the conference. To get involved please email us at info at pittsburghendthewar.org

View flyer here

AWC activists at the March 21 March on the Pentagon
Photo by Sandy Hazley

Click here for stories and photos about the March 21 anti-war protests.

Campaign to Keep the PA National Guard Home

The Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee is working with several Pittsburgh peace groups and groups around the state to build public pressure to pass legislation in the State House and Senate to give the Governor the ability to Keep the Guard Home.

Related Material

Oct. 11 conference on the war in Iraq

On October 11, 2008, the anti-war committee held a conference and action on the war in Iraq. From 9:00am to 4:30pm at the Shadow Lounge, Baum Blvd. & Highland Ave. in East Liberty. It featured an Iraqi poet and a session on the state-wide campaign to bring the PA National Guard home.Click here for the flyer. The national Oct. 11 site.

The National Anti-war Conference on June 28-29

At least 16 Pittsburghers, mostly associated with the Antiwar Committee (AWC) of the Thomas Merton Center and the University of Pittsburgh, recently attended and helped to organize a potentially historic national antiwar conference in Cleveland on June 28 and 29. We felt that the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan War and Occupation was a genuine success. The result is a new, vibrant entity that has the potential for accomplishing its goal of a democratic, unified antiwar movement that is politically independent and can mobilize millions of people demanding that U.S. troops be immediately brought home.

Click here for more info about the conference. A report-back session by many of the activists who attended will be held on Sunday, July 13 at 1:30pm at the Thomas Merton Center. Join us as we discuss the conference and plan our next steps and how to plug into the national antiwar movement. See Zaineb's poetry about the war . Zaineb, an Iraqi who we met at the conference, lived under two wars before coming to the U.S.

Nearly 1,000 March to Protest 5 Years to Many

As Clinton and Obama attempt to curry favor in a pre-dominantly antiwar city, the Thomas Merton Center Antiwar Committee, with the support of more than 30 groups, held a rally, march and memorial service to "5 years too many." Following a 1pm rally at CMU's Software Engineering Institute, the energetic and eye-catching march proceeded through Oakland to Flagstaff Hill, where Christians, Muslims and Bhuddists held an interfaith memorial service to mourn all the victims of the war.

The Software Engineering Institute was chosen to be the starting point for the rally because it is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center sponsored by the Department of Defense.

Preceding the rally was be a "dusk-to-dawn" candlelight vigil; a silent "Zen Sitting/Meditation for Peace." a "peace circle" 12 noon; a student contingent gathering and march at 12 noon; a women's contingent feeder march at 12:15pm; and a pre-rally concert featuring Phat Mandee and Mike Stout at 12:30pm. Following the Flagstaff memorial the student contingent gathered at Rea Coffeehouse on the Chatham College for a "speak out" and party.

[ Photos 1 2 3 4 5 (includes other antiwar events) | Post-Gazette | Pitt News | Tribune-Review | Pittsburgh City Paper (has photos) | WPXI (video) | WTAE | Rustbelt Radio (audio-mp3) ]

5 YEARS TOO MANY!

DOWNLOAD PRESS KIT | FLYERS

As the five year anniversary of the war draws near, the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee is planning a creative march and commemoration of everybody who has been killed in this senseless war - Iraqis, Americans, and others. We are inviting religious leaders from several faiths to speak at a public memorial service for those victims, and we are encouraging people to make fake coffins and other props. READ DETAILS ABOUT MARCH 29

Rally & March
Saturday, March 29, 1pm
Software Engineering Institute
5th Ave. & S. Craig (Oakland)

Memorial Service
For all the victims of the Iraq war
Saturday, March 29, 2:30pm
Flagstaff Hill, Schenley Park

A dusk-to-dawn vigil at the Community of Reconciliation Church (Bellefield & 5th) will precede the march, as well as two "feeder" marches: a women's feeder will gather at the Carnegie library at 12:15pm; a student contingent will gather at 12:00 at the William Pitt Union. The student contingent will also have an anti-war rally and party afterwards.

Please ENDORSE this event or GET INVOLVED. On Facebook? Tell your friends! In 2007, several carloads of Pittsburghers travelled to Washington, DC for nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience coordinated by United for Peace and Justice.

Earlier this month the Thomas Merton Center screened live testimonies of Iraq and Afghanistan vets in an unprecedented weekend organized by Iraq Vets Against the War. Watch the "Winter Testimonies" online at Iraq Vets Against the War.

Click here for a complete schedule of local 5th anniversary events.

Download Flyers: 1/2 page leaflet | Color flyer | 8.5x11 poster | 11x17 poster | March 19 DC 8.5x11

Vigil - 4000 U.S. Soldier Death

Tragically the 4,000th US soldier's death happened in 2008. We are calling on people to join us in remembering not only the US soldiers killed and wounded but all the innocent Iraqis as well.

Candlelight Vigil for the Human Cost of the Iraq War
Tuesday, March 25th, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 Highland Ave, East Liberty