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A monthly publication
of the
Thomas Merton Center
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We organize, educate and take action around issues of peace and social
justice.
All organizing work is based on community members' interpretation of
our mission statement.
Presently, some projects include:
- The New People - a justice and peace
newspaper published monthly by the TMC. Currently, the paper has a circulation
of 6,000. A strategic plan is being developed to double the circulation during
2002 and developing an even broader "Alternative Media Project" to
include a video and web-based component to our media efforts. A coalition of organizations needs to be invested in the
project in order for it to have long-term sustainability.
- The East End Community Thrift Store-
provides clothing and household items for low-income individuals in the area
surrounding the TMC, providing free goods through a voucher system. Profits
help fund the Center.
- Citizens Budget Campaign of Western Pennsylvania - an economic grassroots justice project that will lead a coalition in
educational and lobbying effort in 2002 to draft a "Citizens Budget" by and
for constituencies affected by impending budget cuts. The "Citizens Budget"
will be a progressive influence in the November 2002 state and federal
elections and a tool to hold elected officials accountable to budget
priorities that emphasize human need over corporate greed.
- Stand for Children
- the local Pittsburgh
chapter of a national child advocacy organization. Currently, they are
organizing low-income women to speak with their own voice about the need to
fully fund Family Support Services. These local community-based centers
combine direct services to people in need with social action.
- Rock
Against Racism: Fusing Art and Action - concert and arts festival to promote racial reconciliation in the
Pittsburgh area.
- Western PA Coalition to
Close the S.O.A - organizes an annual bus trip from
Pittsburgh to Fort Benning, Georgia in November for a non-violent protest and
educates throughout the year about the role of the U.S. Army School of the
Americas in training Latin American troops in techniques of torture, blackmail
and counterinsurgency.
- Haiti Solidarity Committee - continues to
educate and agitate for Justice in Haiti, shipping medical supplies and other
necessities.
- The Lending Library - loans books and videos
on justice and peace issues to local activists and the general public. TMC is
an effective resource center on various issues ranging from peacemaking and
racial and economic justice to the current issues of opposition to global
capitalism, queer liberation and developing a feminist consciousness.
- Azania Heritage
International - a
multi-ethnic; non-racialist, nonsexist multi-perspective non-profit making
organization founded in Pittsburgh in 1991. AHI is a non-profit community
based local empowerment organization as well as a community resource on
African culture, ethnicity, and languages, business and the economics of
radical social change.
- Free Getu Coalition - seeks
justice for Getu Berhanu Tewolde, a legal
Ethiopian immigrant arrested at the Greyhound Station in Pittsburgh as part of
the racist hysteria sweeping the nation following the events of September 11,
2001. The Free Getu Coalition was formed at its first meeting on March
11, 2002. The charter members responded to an action call that came from
Zi's investigation with the help of
the Pittsburgh ACLU.
- Pittsburgh Association of
Peacemakers and Proactive Youth (PAPPY) - is Pittsburgh's first action
network linking high school activists across the city. PAPPY is a
resource for students who want to get involved and need a place to start and
for those who want to meet with other involved high school students.
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Pittsburgh Peace
Mobilization - organizes interfaith vigils, rallies, teach-ins, a
speakers bureau, legislative action, media outreach, and other activities to
promote peaceful solutions to world conflicts.
- Pittsburgh Social Forum -
identifies with the World Social Forum. It reaches
out to a broad array of people to address growing concerns about globalization
and the increasing corporate domination of our lives, governments, and
international relations which threatens our individual liberties, quality of
life, and the sustainability of our environment and society. The PSF
seeks to join with others here and abroad to educate about and abolish these
adverse influences. In turn, it seeks to expand democratic participation
in determining the social and economic policies that shape our lives.
- Save Our
Transit
- a grassroots organization whose mission is to lobby for
adequate funding for public transportation.
- RESYST - to work
toward acceptance of the multitude of queer identities and unite through the
shared struggles that our difference creates so that we can broaden our
foundation to affect change. RESYST all forms of oppression: make way
for expression!
Some TMC activities
in response to the tragedies of September 11th and the U.S. bombing of
Afghanistan
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