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POG Ends Weekend for Peace with Guerilla Art
by Wheatpaster
Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 4:30 AM
POG has been busy. Check out what we were up to this weekend...
Pittsburgh Organizing Group Utilizes Guerilla Art for Peace
Concluding the successful Pittsburgh Regional Re-Convergence for Peace, which included a rally and concert for peace in Market Square on April 26th, the Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) is utilizing guerilla art to express the inhumane brutality of war on Iraqi citizens.
POG contributed a Carnival of Greed to the Regional Re-Convergence for Peace, organized by the TMC Anti-War Committee. The carnival started in a park in the Strip District. A contingent of marchers wearing festive Mardi-Gras beads and masks boogied to Market Square to the sound of Louisiana blues and zydeco music.
The Carnival of Greed at Market Square included a "Pin-the-Missile on the Middle East" game, which proved anyone can be a military strategist after being disoriented by spinning around and blindfolded. There was a "Smart-Bomb Iraq Bean Bag Toss". This game challenged players to toss a bean bag into a hole labelled "Saddam's Hideout" without hitting the School, Market, Hospital, or Water Purification Plant surrounding Saddam's secret layer. The Wheel of Ill Fortune held many terrible futures for the world, such as: "Bush is your dictator for life" or "Puppet government revolts against U.S... Again!" with a slim possibility for "World Peace". "Pie an Imperialist" was a very popular booth, but kids REALLY liked the Military Budget pinata, shaped like a F16 with a realistic 10 million dollar price tag. POG felt a carnival was the best way to contribute to the Reconvergence for Peace by leaving no risk for arrest in our actions.
On the morning of April 28th, roughly 40 baby dolls painted to look like bombing victims will be displayed in the streets throughout the metropolitan area. Hardly any neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh will miss out on a display: East Ohio Street, McKnight Road, East Carson St., Bloomfield, Oakland, Squirrel Hill and others. Located next to or below these baby dolls will be fact sheets that give reasons to end the occupation of Middle-Eastern countries and resist the Bush administration�s imperialistic foreign policy. The fact sheets include the following information:
� UN studies report more than half of Iraq's population consists of children 15 years of age or younger.
� UNICEF estimated that this war ��will cause two million severely and moderately malnourished children under five and one million pregnant and lactating women will be in dire nutritional status.�
� Medact reports: ��during the eight months following the Gulf War, severe food shortages and disease were responsible for about 47,000 deaths among children less than 5 years of age. At least 350,000 young Iraqi children have died during the past 12 years as a result of U.S.-led sanctions.�
� "We don�t do body counts" --General Tommy Franks, US Central Command
Organizers with POG said: �The creation of this art project included donations of unused and/or broken dolls from families throughout Pittsburgh. The anti-war movement welcomes the hard work of artists who use creativity to make people re-think the militancy of the Bush administration. By stressing the value of diversity of tactics, Pittsburgh Organizing Group hopes that the entire activist community can find their niche in ways of stopping the war, building the local radical community, making connections between war and U.S. imperialism, and stimulating creative resistance against the U.S. government�s policies of violence.�
Check out the website listed for pictures and more details on this art display. Please feel free to find the guerilla art in your neighborhood, take a snapshot, and post the photo here on PGH Indymedia!!
takewrning.iwarp.com/Globalize/Dolls/dolls2.html
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