A Tale of Two Churches - One in Haiti, the other in New Orleans

Haitianalysis.com-November 1st, 2009

By Wadner Pierre

In 2006 two struggles were going on in two different Catholic churches and in two different countries. At Saint Claire’s Parish, Tiplas Kazo, Delmas 33 (one part of Delmas County), Haitian parishioners, students, and community leaders stood up against the decision of the Archdiocese of Port-Au-Port to remove the late activist priest, Gerard Jean-Juste, who had been serving this parish for ten years. Simultaneously at Saint Augustine Church, in Tremé, New Orleans, a similar struggle was taking place. Students of different beliefs and backgrounds, civil right’s movement leaders and community leaders stood up against the unjustified decision of the New Orleans Archdiocese, to remove the elderly African-American priest, Father Jerome Ledoux, from the oldest African-American Catholic church in the United States. To explain the meaning of the people’s struggle at Saint Augustine Church, it is important to understand the history of this church and why it is so important for the African-American Catholic community to keep this church from closing after Hurricane Katrina.

The History of Saint Augustine Church

In 1842, Saint Augustine church was dedicated under Archbishop Antoine Blanc in Faubourg Tremé, 1210 Gov. Nicholls Street, a poor black neighborhood in New Orleans. It is the oldest African-American Catholic church in the United States. The church’s name is a reference to an African Bishop, Saint Augustine of Hippo. Across the street from the church, on St. Claude Ave, is the Backstreet Cultural Museum, and about one mile away is the historic Congo Square. From Saint Augustine Parish, a person can walk to the French Quarter and Saint Louis Cathedral, whose same architect designed St. Augustine Parish. So within a three-mile radius is profound culture and history.

Tremé is the oldest place in the nation where les gens de couleur libres (free people of color) could buy or own properties before the Civil War. Saint Augustine Parish was also the oldest African-American Catholic church in the United States where slaves and freed slaves could practice their Catholic faith traditions. It was also where Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, and Juliette Gaudin, a Cuban, began assisting slaves, orphan girls, the uneducated, the sick, and the elderly among people of color around 1823. Delille and Gaudin’s concern for the education and care of children aided greatly in the founding and administration of the city’s early private schools for people of color.

Saint Augustine Church means a lot for African-American Catholics and is essentially one of the leading marks in African-American Religious History; it is a heritage that people inherited from their ancestors. Upon my first visit to Saint Augustine, people explained that slaves’ bones were found in the place where the church stands. According to some historical sources, the place where Saint Augustine stands was a former plantation.

On the east side of the church on Gov. Nicholls there is a little place where nooses hang and a few little crosses with a big cross are planted in memory of the former slaves who died and were not given a proper burial ceremony. The former pastor of the church until 2006, Father Jerome Ledoux, was the architect of this memorial place. I have been visiting many Catholic churches across the United States, but I had never seen such a powerful and living parish as Saint Augustine. At Saint Augustine, Sunday is a gospel music feast. Parishoners bring various musical instruments to mass such as tambourine and shekere, a typical African percussion musical instrument that is played by striking it with one or two hands. While singing, people dance and clap their hands. You can see how proud people are of their parish. Although they are economically devastated, parishioners go before the altar to give the little they have to keep Saint Augustine alive. At Saint Augustine, visitors can expect to receive warm welcomes. Whether or not you are member of Saint Augustine, if you celebrate your birthday on that Sunday you are visiting the church, you have a special birthday song where all the people extend their hands to you; this is their way of asking God to abundantly bless you. Saint Augustine Church is a living memorial of the long and hard journey taken by former African slaves to America, and their struggle for freedom after they arrived in America.

Archbishop Hughes’ Decision to Remove Father Ledoux

With the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the parish began to face some economic difficulties, but thanks to the support of its parishioners, Saint Augustine recovered. The church had to meet the Archdiocese’s requirements: its monthly contribution to the Archdiocese and increasing the number of its parishioners, and if not, the Archbishop reserved the right to close its doors. Father Ledoux was always there with his parishioners. He encouraged them to keep faith and to stay unified as God’s children. Unfortunately, in March 15, 2006, Archbishop Alfred S. Hughes sent Father Ledoux a letter in which he announced that his mission at Saint Augustine’s Parish was over, and he sent Father Jacques, a white pastor of the neighboring St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, as Father Ledoux’s successor. People resisted peacefully, yet firmly. Parishioners and students occupied the church for weeks and vowed to go to jail for the return of Father Ledoux. Leaders of the Tréme community and other civil rights movement leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and former Black Panther leaders stood up to say “no,” to Archbishop Hughes’ unjustified decision to remove the elderly African-American priest, who had been serving the parish for fifteen years.

After a Sunday mass I read on the back of a woman’s t-shirt, “God is good. God is good all the time.” I asked my friend Alison McCrary, a five-year Saint Augustine’s parishioner what her thoughts were on this sentence. She said to me, “God is really good all the time because Saint Augustine could have closed if he wasn’t there with us.” Suddenly, I remembered watching a movie that Allison had given me. This movie retraces the struggle of Saint Augustine’s parishioners for the return of their priest, Father Ledoux, to the parish in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina. This t-shirt was made in 2006 during the struggle for the return of Father Ledoux to Saint Augustine.

The struggle was highlighted in the article “Protesters Still Occupying Historic New Orleans Church Rectory” in the March 29, 2006 issue of A Katrina Reader. CC Campbell-Rock interviewed a dozen people. “The protesters want LeDoux back. He should be allowed to stay until his death or until he decides to retire,” said Harris a member of Saint Augustine’s Parish,“Today is just another day in the civil rights struggle.” John Powell, a parishioner at Saint Augustine for the past 59 years, said, "My only statement is that if Hughes spends over $1 billion a year, he could surely give some of that money to St. Augustine Catholic Church.” However, Father Ledoux came back on Easter Sunday and celebrated mass with Archbishop Hughes, and afterward he left Saint Augustine, his home for fifteen years. This return was to fool people, and for Bishop Hughes to pretend that the problem between him and Father Ledoux was solved.

The Struggle Continues

In 2007 the Archdiocese of New Orleans assigned Father Quinton Moody, from Belize, as the priest at Saint Augustine Church. The church is still facing economic problems and is still under the Archdiocese’s threat. People are still frustrated, and are unhappy with the way that Father Quinton is leading their church. Since Father Quinton arrived, some memories and traditions of Saint Augustine are slowly disappearing: the chain in the memorial place has been taken down, a pink tub that Father Ledoux used to use to baptize people has already been removed, and the relationship between the church and the community does not seem the same as it was when Father Ledoux was ministering Saint Augustine’s Parish. For example, Father Ledoux used to open the doors of the church to community musicians and bless the Mardi Gras Indians. Some activities such as concerts that used to bring local musicians and church musicians together have discontinued. All of these traditions are now disappearing because Father Quinton does not seem willing to continue them.

I remember, the first time I went to Saint Augustine, I saw a few posters of Father Ledoux working with the people in Tremé community excavating for archeological remains of Native Americans, African slaves and free people of color. Upon my second return, these posters were no longer there. People continue praying for the return of Father Ledoux, and hoping the new Archbishop of New Orleans, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, will bring Father Ledoux back home. “I wish our new Archbishop Aymond could bring Father Ledoux back to us because we miss him a lot,” said an anonymous parishioner.

Conclusion

The struggle has lasted a year and is still going on. It might be the biggest African-American Catholic struggle in the nation to keep a church from closing its doors. Like the late activist priest, Father Jean-Juste, in Saint Claire’s Parish in Ti Plas Kazo, Father Ledoux remains a legend at Saint Augustine’s Parish in Tremé. The involvement of both priests, Father Jean-Juste and Father Ledoux in their communities did not only make them the pastors of their parishes, Saint Claire and Saint Augustine, but also fathers for people in their communities, Ti Plas Kazo and Treme.

Acknowledgments

I have written this article in memory of the people’s struggle at Saint Augustine Church in Tremé to keep their church alive. I also remember the struggle of my people at Saint Claire’s Parish in Haiti, Ti Plas Kazo on Delmas 33, to bring back the late activist priest and defender of human rights, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, priest of Saint Claire Church from 2004 to 2009. He was arrested twice by the Haitian de facto government for his political opinions from 2004 to 2006. Father Jean-Juste died in May 25, 2009 at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. After Father Jean Juste’s passing, a new priest, Father Hilaire, was assigned to Saint Claire parish.

I also want to thank my friend, Alison McCrary who drove me back and forth to Saint Augustine Church and talked to me about her five-year experience there. She referred me to some sources, which helped me so much with this article.

Works cited

Campbell-Rock, CC. “Protesters Still Occupying Historic New Orleans Church Rectory.” A Katrina Reader: Readings By and For Anti-Racist Educators and Organizers. Changing White Supremacy Workshop, 29 Mar. 2006. Web. 12 Sept. 2009. “Saint Augustine Church.” African American Registry. 2005, 2006. Web. 16 Sept. 2009. Shake the Devil Off. Dir. Peter Entell. Show And Tell Films, 2007. DVD. “Tremé.” Living Culture Project: Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research. 2008. Web. 15 Sept. 2009.

An Urgent Appeal for SOPUDEP School in Haiti

To those who believe that education is not a privilege, but rather a right for all, SOPUDEP Public School in Pétion-Ville Haiti needs your attention.

We are writing on behalf of the hardworking and dedicated Haitian educators of SOPUDEP School who wish to empower the most vulnerable children in their community. The children of SOPUDEP cannot afford to go to school is Haiti's highly privatized education system. Without SOPUDEP School in their community, these children would never learn to read or have access to a well-rounded education.

The Sawatzky Family Foundation is a registered Canadian charity created in 2008 with the sole purpose of providing financial support for SOPUDEP and raising awareness about this wonderful local social program.

The Sawatzky Family has personally paid the teachers’ salaries ($26,000 (US) for 47 staff) and the majority of the food program that feeds over 650 students five days a week for close to two years.

We have run short on our own resources and are urgently calling for immediate support. We are currently faced with the terrible possibility of cutting teacher salaries. This would force many of them to find other work just to get by, thereby reducing SOPUDEP's effectiveness. Turning away students would subsequently become a very real possibility.

We need a minimum of $6000 (US) to get through the next three months. We are currently preparing a longer-term financial appeal which will allow us to avoid such shortfalls in the future.

SOPUDEP School is a critical social program in Haiti, one that is integral to the future of its people. It is a unique program serving as an example of what free public education should look like in Haiti, and it is one that needs our care and support!

For information on how you can help now, see below.
Thank you!

Ryan Sawatzky, President

“PayPal” or “Canada Helps” Internet Payments
can be made through:

http://www.sopudep.org/donate
(at the bottom of the page)

Cheques and Money Orders can be sent to:

The Sawatzky Family Foundation
PO Box 626, Station Main
Orillia, Ontario, Canada
L3V 6K5

If you wish to contact us for more info or comments:

sawatzkyfamilyfoundation@gmail.com
phone: (705) 345-5593

www.sopudep.org

HAITIANS IMPATIENT WITH OBAMA OVER TPS

by Francesca Guerrier & Kim Ives

Some 50 Haitians and their supporters held a spirited demonstration in front of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach on Monday, Oct. 26 to demand that President Obama immediately grant Temporary Protected Status or TPS to some 35,000 undocumented Haitians currently in the US.

Obama was at the hotel for a fundraiser for Democratic Florida congressmen Alcee Hastings and Kendrick Meek, who is running for senator.

The demonstration was organized by the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition, Institute of Justice and Democracy (IJDH), Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) and Free Haiti Now, all groups which had been expecting Obama to reverse the Bush administration's denial of TPS to Haitians last December.

"We are all frustrated that more than nine months after President Obama's inauguration Haitians still don't have TPS despite the incredibly broad editorial and political support for it, including from the three South Florida Republicans in the US House of Representatives," said Steve Forester, an immigration lawyer and long-time TPS advocate who presently represents the IJDH in Florida. "And we are doubly surprised that we have not yet gotten a response to our request to at least give people the dignity of the right to work while the administration continues, month after month, to review the propriety of granting TPS, which to us and every objective observer is a no-brainer, based on the four hurricanes and storms that hit Haiti in a one-month period a year ago."

TPS, which briefly can be granted by executive order to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who are temporarily unable to return to their nation because of a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other extraordinary circumstances. Since it was established in 1990, TPS has been granted to immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Burundi, Somalia, Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Liberia.

Since January, many demonstrations demanding TPS for Haitians have been held in Florida and other states. Over 300 people from Florida and the Northeast traveled by bus to Washington, DC to demonstrate in front of the White House on Jun. 3, and many more turned out for a second demonstration there on Sep. 16.

On Sep. 18, Free Haiti Now, FLIC and Haitian Women in Miami (FANM) held a vigil at Virginia Key Beach on Key Biscayne to call for TPS and to pay respect to the many Haitian refugees who have died at sea. Performing at the protest were Miami artists DJ Khaled, Mecca aka Grimo, and Grindmode. Other celebrities also supported the action and the TPS call including M1 from Dead Prez, Black Dada, Ace Hood, NBA superstar Hudonis Haslem, and three artists from the group Poe Boy: Billy Blue, Brisco and Flo Rida.

"We need the administration to grant TPS or at least, while they are considering it, to grant work permits on a case by case basis to TPS-deserving non-criminal Haitians who desperately need work permits, drivers licenses and the ability to feed their families, pay electricity bills, and send remittances to Haiti which can support up to ten times that number, thereby increasing Haiti's security and our own," Forester said.

On Oct. 26, the demonstrators were restricted to a sidewalk across Collins Avenue from the Fontainebleau. The area was heavily guarded by U.S. Secret Service, Miami Beach police and private security guards. The police harassed demonstrators who sought to take pictures of the protest from the street.

Further down the sidewalk, a group of about 100 racist, anti-immigrant Republicans, Minutemen, and counter-revolutionary Cubans protested Obama's presence in Miami with absurd signs like "Go back to Kenya" and "Go back to Indonesia" and "Obama = Communism."

Among those who came out to the TPS demonstration were a few Central American farmworkers from Homestead, about 25 Haitians from West Palm Beach, and FLIC staff members.

In March, former Haitian-American unionist Patrick Gaspard, now Obama's Director for Political Affairs, traveled to Miami to soothe and reassure Haitian leaders that the administration would soon act on TPS. The reprieve he brokered has now expired.

"As far as we are concerned, regarding Haiti, the Obama administration is maintaining the same status quo as the Bush immigration policy,'' Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition president Jean-Robert Lafortune told the Miami Herald.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Liberte. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Liberte.

Video Reports from the G20 in Pittsburgh

Street Report from the G20

Published on Sunday, September 27, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

by Bill Quigley
The G20 in Pittsburgh showed us how pitifully fearful our leaders have become.

What no terrorist could do to us, our own leaders did.

Out of fear of the possibility of a terrorist attack, authorities militarize our towns, scare our people away, stop daily life and quash our constitutional rights.

For days, downtown Pittsburgh, home to the G20, was a turned into a militarized people-free ghost town. Sirens screamed day and night. Helicopters crisscrossed the skies. Gunboats sat in the rivers. The skies were defended by Air Force jets. Streets were barricaded by huge cement blocks and fencing. Bridges were closed with National Guard across the entrances. Public transportation was stopped downtown. Amtrak train service was suspended for days.

In many areas, there were armed police every 100 feet. Businesses closed. Schools closed. Tens of thousands were unable to work.

Four thousand police were on duty plus 2500 National Guard plus Coast Guard and Air Force and dozens of other security agencies. A thousand volunteers from other police forces were sworn in to help out.

Police were dressed in battle gear, bulky black ninja turtle outfits - helmets with clear visors, strapped on body armor, shin guards, big boots, batons, and long guns.

In addition to helicopters, the police had hundreds of cars and motorcycles , armored vehicles, monster trucks, small electric go-karts.

There were even passenger vans screaming through town so stuffed with heavily armed ninja turtles that the side and rear doors remained open.

No terrorists showed up at the G20.

Since no terrorists showed up, those in charge of the heavily armed security forces chose to deploy their forces around those who were protesting.

Not everyone is delighted that 20 countries control 80% of the world's resources. Several thousand of them chose to express their displeasure by protesting.

Unfortunately, the officials in charge thought that it was more important to create a militarized people-free zone around the G20 people than to allow freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or the freedom to protest.

It took a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU to get any major protest permitted anywhere near downtown Pittsburgh. Even then, the police "forgot" what was permitted and turned people away from areas of town. Hundreds of police also harassed a bus of people who were giving away free food - repeatedly detaining the bus and searching it and its passengers without warrants.

Then a group of young people decided that they did not need a permit to express their human and constitutional rights to freedom. They announced they were going to hold their own gathering at a city park and go down the deserted city streets to protest the G20. Maybe 200 of these young people were self-described anarchists, dressed in black, many with bandanas across their faces. The police warned everyone these people were very scary. My cab driver said the anarchist spokesperson looked like Harry Potter in a black hoodie. The anarchists were joined in the park by hundreds of other activists of all ages, ultimately one thousand strong, all insisting on exercising their right to protest.
This drove the authorities crazy.

Battle dressed ninja turtles showed up at the park and formed a line across one entrance. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Armored vehicles gathered.

The crowd surged out of the park and up a side street yelling, chanting, drumming, and holding signs. As they exited the park, everyone passed an ice cream truck that was playing "It's a small world after all." Indeed.

Any remaining doubts about the militarization of the police were dispelled shortly after the crowd left the park. A few blocks away the police unveiled their latest high tech anti-protestor toy. It was mounted on the back of a huge black truck. The Pittsburgh-Gazette described it as Long Range Acoustic Device designed to break up crowds with piercing noise. Similar devices have been used in Fallujah, Mosul and Basra Iraq. The police backed the truck up, told people not to go any further down the street and then blasted them with piercing noise.

The crowd then moved to other streets. Now they were being tracked by helicopters. The police repeatedly tried to block them from re-grouping ultimately firing tear gas into the crowd injuring hundreds including people in the residential neighborhood where the police decided to confront the marchers. I was treated to some of the tear gas myself and I found the Pittsburgh brand to be spiced with a hint of kelbasa. Fortunately I was handed some paper towels soaked in apple cider vinegar which helped fight the tears and cough a bit. Who would have thought?

After the large group broke and ran from the tear gas, smaller groups went into commercial neighborhoods and broke glass at a bank and a couple of other businesses. The police chased and the glass breakers ran. And the police chased and the people ran. For a few hours.

By day the police were menacing, but at night they lost their cool. Around a park by the University of Pittsburgh the ninja turtles pushed and shoved and beat and arrested not just protestors but people passing by. One young woman reported she and her friend watched Grey's Anatomy and were on their way back to their dorm when they were cornered by police. One was bruised by police baton and her friend was arrested. Police shot tear gas, pepper spray, smoke canisters, and rubber bullets. They pushed with big plastic shields and struck with batons.

The biggest march was Friday. Thousands of people from Pittsburgh and other places protested the G20. Since the court had ruled on this march, the police did not confront the marchers. Ninja turtled police showed up in formation sometimes and the helicopters hovered but no confrontations occurred.

Again Friday night, riot clad police fought with students outside of the University of Pittsburgh. To what end was just as unclear as the night before.

Ultimately about 200 were arrested, mostly in clashes with the police around the University.

The G20 leaders left by helicopter and limousine.

Pittsburgh now belongs again to the people of Pittsburgh. The cement barricades were removed, the fences were taken down, the bridges and roads were opened. The gunboats packed up and left. The police packed away their ninja turtle outfits and tear gas and rubber bullets. They don't look like military commandos anymore. No more gunboats on the river. No more sirens all the time. No more armored vehicles and ear splitting machines used in Iraq. On Monday the businesses will open and kids will have to go back to school. Civil society has returned.

It is now probably even safe to exercise constitutional rights in Pittsburgh once again.

The USA really showed those terrorists didn't we?

Bill is a human rights attorney and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Bill and others at Loyola are helping the Catholic Legal Immigration Network represent dozens of mothers arrested in Laurel, Mississippi. Quigley77@gmail.com

“Build Back Better,” Says Dr. Paul Farmer, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti: Part I

By: Wadner Pierre-Haitianalysis.com

Since 1983, Dr. Paul Farmer has been working in the Cange locality of the Central department of Haiti. His organization Zanmi Lasante (Partners in Health) has won international recognition for its work. In August, former US President Bill Clinton, currently the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, appointed Farmer as his Deputy Special Envoy.

In early September, Farmer toured Haiti for the first time in his official capacity with the UN. The stated goal of the mission, whose motto is “build back better,” is to explore short and long term solutions to Haiti’s ongoing economic crisis. Haiti’s educational system, environmental problems and agricultural productivity were addressed in discussions with numerous sectors.

Farmer explained:

“We are not coming to dictate to people who have already been working in Haiti, but we can coordinate their work to make for better results. During my five days I met and listened to everybody, the President, the Prime Minister and other ministers in the government. And I met with the private sector, MINUSTAH, NGOs and the farmers.” Farmer stressed, “When I talk about the private sector, I don’t mean big business people only, but the ‘Madanm Sara’ [street merchants], the peasants who represent an incredible workforce for this country. We need to sustain them. And we also need to make sure that these people find capital to grow their crops and small businesses. And finally, their children should be able to go to school.”

However, Dr. Farmer noted, “This is not a political mission, but a mission to help people build back better Haiti. Haiti has its own potentialities and we can use them to develop Haiti.”

According to Dr. Farmer, the “build back better” mission is supposed to reinforce, not displace, government initiatives. He cited among other things the Hospital of Las Cahobas that was built as a joint venture between Zanmi Lasante and Ministry of Health under the former Aristide administration as an example of how NGOs can work constructively with the public sector.

“I thought I could serve people alone. But I realized that I was wrong because I can’t reach the population, but the government can,” said Dr. Farmer. Even the Preval administration has been critical of the way the bilateral donors have used NGOs to bypass (harsher critics would say –deliberately weaken) the public sector.

Dr. Farmer cautioned that the mission will not go on indefinitely, he said" It should not last long. But I can’t tell right now, and I am not the Special Envoy, but only the Deputy.”

Father Fritz Lafontant, the Pastor of the Episcopal church of Saint Sauveur established in 1962 in the village of Cange, where Zanmi Lasante has its headquarters, said during a mass: 

"We are happy to see Dr. Polo [Farmer] here today, as we know he always brings good friends for us here in Cange, and also for Haiti. We hope this mission will help him to do more for Haiti." 
Guy Bastien, a farmer in the commune of La Croix-des-Bouquets, said during Farmer's visit: "We need help to grow our plants. If they want to help us, here is our pump, we need a bigger one to pump more water in order to water more farms. The more farms we can water, the more crops we will harvest." 



Natacha, one of Dr. Paul Farmer's team members, said: " I am happy because for the first time I see a mission focusing on the Haitian middle class, and meeting directly with ‘moun en deyo yo’ (the outside people). These are the people who are struggling to educate their children, and they are the motor of this country. This class has been left outside Haiti's decision making for too long. It's time to get these people in. " 



"We are not looking for charity, but for help. We have land and good people here, we can feed our people," said a member of SONAPA (National Society for Agricultural Production). 


Some argue that political reforms are crucial to any success. Many demand the return of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti (from exile in South Africa) and would regard it as a powerful signal that political reform is finally taking place in Haiti. Moreover, the release of all political prisoners and the inclusion of party Fanmi Lavalas in the electoral process would be also a powerful signal that the political and social rights of people is being respected.

Conclusion

Coming up Part II: the realizations, the response to how long this special mission will last, and people’s views about Dr. Farmer and former President Clinton’s involvement in this mission.

Pittsburgh: Activists, Big Business Converge on G20 Summit

Inter Press Service
By Jeb Sprague



PITTSBURGH, Sep 20 (IPS) - As media and government delegates prepare for the G20 Summit to be held Sep. 24-25 in Pittsburgh, local business and activist groups are promoting clashing visions of days to come.

Hit hard over the last quarter of the twentieth century with a collapsing steel industry, recession and falling population, Pittsburgh is still a decent place to live - often highly rated because of low housing costs.

On one side, Pittsburgh government and business leaders say they have reshaped the city to connect with globalisation as a hi-tech, financial and medical industry hub.

On the other side, labour, community, youth and environmental groups are fighting for green jobs and clean energy, while calling into question how government and corporate leaders have dealt with the global financial crisis and urban renewal.

The host of the summit is the Pittsburgh G20 Partnership, run out of the Allegheny County Conference on Community Development, which according to its executive vice president is "a sort of holding company" for the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and other regional business groups.

The group includes many of the largest business interests active in the area. Public affairs coordinator, Philip Cynar, explains, "Our group is made up of corporations involved in advanced manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, information technology, and energy".

Bill Flanagan, executive vice president of corporate relations for the group, says that Pittsburgh's business leaders have learned to operate in a globalised world, and the G20 summit provides a prime opportunity for further insertion into the global market.

"We've learned capital tends to flow freely" so "we are trying to put Pittsburgh on the map and attract global investors," he told IPS.

Large business interests have been at the centre of coordinating the summit. "We communicate on a daily basis with the White House, the State Department and the Secret Service, all in preparation for communication operations and planning receptions at the 14 hotels where journalists and delegates will be staying, the trappings for welcoming the world to the region," Flanagan added.

Not far from the Regional Enterprise Tower, where business groups promoting the summit operate, a peace and justice coalition based out of Pittsburgh's Thomas Merton Centre is organising for a people's march against the G20, sending a very different message.

The umbrella coalition, including organised labour, anti-war activists, and numerous environmentalist, socialist, and grassroots organisations, levels steep criticism at the G20 leaders and global capitalism, most pointedly the effects on low-income and working-class people by state policies meant to benefit transnational corporations.

Melissa Minnich, communications director of the Thomas Merton Centre, says, "The financial bailouts of the G20 governments are meant to benefit the largest corporations. The people that end up paying are the average citizens."

Dozens of other organisations are taking part, such as the G-6 Billion with an inter-faith march, a march for jobs in Pittsburgh's poor Hill district, and a people's summit to call for economic and environmental justice.

Carl Davidson, a labour writer and organiser with the local Beaver County Peace Links, observes that, "Pittsburgh in particular has suffered from policies advocated by the G20, hit hard by the job loss and deindustrialisation in globalisation. People see these world leaders and the global corporations they work with as responsible."

David Hoskins, an organiser with Bail Out the People, told IPS "We will have a march for jobs, calling for a federal job programme like the New Deal era, on Pittsburgh's Hill".

Pittsburgh business and government leaders, with a successful downtown, have recast the city as a modern centre for green-technology innovation.

But problems remain. Pennsylvania is the only state in the U.S. without a budget. Unable to pay some of its pensioners, the city of Pittsburgh has sold off parking lots to raise money.

With ghost towns at the city's outskirts and many communities suffering from environmental degradation, local activists say development has been an undemocratic process geared toward the beautiful downtown.

Melissa Minnich says poor communities have lost out. She lives near "one green space that was slated to be worked on". However, she explains, "We were told by the contractors that city funds were rerouted to downtown so construction could not begin."

With rich coal deposits in the south of Pittsburgh, dirty mining techniques remain. Longwall mining, cutting deep horizontal shafts, has caused sinkholes, draining one lake on the outskirts of the city, as well as forming huge coal piles that sit idle leaking mercury into the Monogahela River.

There are dozens of large coal-fired electric power generators, and one nuclear power plant, all along the Ohio River stretching down to West Virginia, supplying electricity to much of the east coast.

David Meieran, an organiser with the Three Rivers Climate Convergence, a Pittsburgh-based environmental group, says "It is absurd that Pittsburgh's chamber of commerce and corporations like the PNC-bank are saying they are green companies now just because they are constructing these environmentally-friendly buildings."

He adds, "They still maintain sizable holdings in coal companies that do mountaintop removal and longwall mining, profiting off deaths and environmental devastation."

In 2008, according to the American Lung Association, Pittsburgh ranked above all other U.S. cities in short-term levels of particle pollution, "a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols that can spike dangerously for hours to weeks on end".

The defence industry has a presence in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon University has a robotics institute working closely with the U.S. Department of Defence. Local universities are involved in healthcare research and development tied to the private sector.

To defend the summit, Pittsburgh's mayor and city council have amassed a force of four thousand police, including many auxiliaries from the rural countryside. Two thousand National Guard and an untold number of secret service agents with hi-tech surveillance will be present.

Diane Richard, public information officer for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, explains "There are facilities in place to afford us leeway in how many arrests we have to make". She acknowledged other agencies would have horseback units present.

Much of the discussion within Pittsburgh's advertiser-radio and newspapers has focused on financial costs of hosting the summit and the inconvenience to downtown dwellers.

One downtown resident told IPS that a big part of the population in the city "is as old and conservative as Miami, Florida, and they don't want to see any spray paint or flag burning". He expects that the Pittsburgh police will use harsh tactics against protesters.

It is believed tens of thousands of protesters from Pittsburgh and around the country will gather. A mass march will start on Sep. 25, at 12:00 P.M., on the corner of 5th and Craft near Pittsburgh's college.

Reverend Thomas E. Smith, of the local Monumental Church, has offered his lawn and parking lots to protestors.

He explains, "We are hosting a tent city that is symbolic of the need for a fair and living wage, and for a national and international workers' movement similar to the poor peoples' campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King was in the process of organising prior to being assassinated."

The G20 protesters face hurdles in getting their message out to a wider audience. With official politics in the United States channeled through a corporate media and a powerful two-party monopoly, peace and justice organisers say, the biggest challenge is just for their message to be heard.

(END/2009)