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About two dozen members of Fight Back Pittsburgh huddled in a tiny back room of a workshop in Polish Hill on Saturday to plan how best to protest the nomination of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Cleveland next month.The three-hour session amounted to basic training for demonstrators who intend to rally outside the Quicken Loans Arena between July 15 and 21. The convention begins July 18.“We covered what to expect in the streets, health and safety issues to be aware of at a big demonstration, and your legal rights while engaging in a protest,” said Fineview resident Patrick Young, 32, a Fight Back Pittsburgh organizer. “The logistics. The nuts and bolts of participating in a major mobilization.”But this meeting of T-shirt-clad students and community activists was just one beat in a drumroll that is building across the region and beyond. While organizers of the Republican National Convention and representatives of Cleveland’s civic, business and law enforcement communities are doing their best to organize and coordinate, the social protest groups are more loosely affiliated, Mr. Young said.“We’re not really actively coordinating with other groups,” he said. “There’s more energy for this convention than I’ve ever seen for any mobilization, but the organization is very atomized and dispersed. Hopefully, when everybody shows up in Cleveland we’ll be able to communicate and coordinate.”Some activist groups in Cleveland have put out calls for participation in various events, but there’s no one umbrella organization. For example, Mr. Young said, pulling out a photocopied schedule, on the first day of the convention there’s a rally and march at 2 p.m. in one part of Cleveland and another from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in another, organized by two different groups.“A lot of events are happening at the same time,” Mr. Young said. “We have to figure out which ones are going to really materialize and which ones are going to be the most interesting for us to participate in.”Fight Back Pittsburgh, an associate member program of United Steel Workers Local 3657, was organized three years ago and has seized the momentum of civil discontent and outrage on a number of issues.Just this year, its members, which range in age from 17 to 70, have stood, marched and chanted with Black Lives Matter, the Pride Parade, and Women of Steel. They’ve sat in the streets of Oakland to demand an increased minimum wage and last month they crashed the American Legislative Exchange Council’s spring summit in Heinz Hall.“Social movements throughout history have gone up and down in waves,” Mr. Young said. “Right now, we’re in a really exciting place to be involved. There’s tons of energy around these issues of minimum wage, minority rights, climate justice.”And then there’s Mr. Trump.“We have to go to Cleveland,” said Mr. Young, who predicted the protesters from Pittsburgh alone could number from the hundreds to the thousands. “Trump is the most dangerous candidate from a major party that we have seen in my lifetime.” ...
Pittsburghers preparing to demonstrate at GOP conventionJune 26, 2016 12:00 AMBy Dan Majors / Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRest of story at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelworkers think Trump is the most dangerous candidate? I have plenty of concerns about Trump but... wasn't he the guy who wants to bring jobs BACK to America?
Funny I thought the Union was going to support Trump..
Maybe they should talk to union coal miners, considering Hillary has expressly promised to continue Obama's effort to completely shut down the industry - and all of its jobs.
Yes, but if the left actually engaged in rational thought ... well, they wouldn't be leftists in the first place.
Has a mind ever been changed by protesting?
Protesting is not effective. Why won't people realize that?Has a mind ever been changed by protesting?
