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Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 1st report

This article was published in The Stand November 2016.

October 30, 2016

I first came to Pittsburgh in 1983 as a representative of the Seattle King County Unemployed Organizing Committee which eventually morphed into the Seattle Worker Center which is part of the King County Labor Council. I was attending the National Unemployed Network national meeting in Erie Pennsylvania. I had lost my job in a vicious union bust and had been out of work for almost a year. We are trying to organize a national fight back against the avalanche of plant closures, mass layoffs that devastated many communities and union busting that resulted in millions losing their jobs. Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania was ground zero of this unjust economic catastrophe. Diane and I have returned to the scene of these corporate crimes. Continue reading “Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 1st report”

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Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 2nd report

November 2, 2016

Thanks much for all of your comments on my first report.  Diane and I would love to hear from you again.

JOHNSTOWN.  We have driven through the beautiful mountains and hardwood forests with the stunning changing leaves on the way to Johnstown, the county seat of Cambria County 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.  The city has lost 70% of its population in the past 90 years as the steel and coal industries have largely collapsed.  From the 1870s to the early 1980s, the state was the center of our nation’s steel and coal production.  During World War 2, the state’s unionized steelworkers produced almost as much steel as Germany and Japan combined.  It was the epicenter of the arsenal of democracy that helped crush Nazism and fascism in Japan and Italy. Continue reading “Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 2nd report”

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Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 3rd report

“No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tide.” Syracuse Cultural Workers

November 6, 2016.

Three numbers are driving me: 537, 153 and 900. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stole the election from the American people claiming a fair election in Florida being won by George Bush with a 537 vote margin. In 2008, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire was re-elected by 153 votes after 3 recounts. In 2016, Diane and I have knocked on 900 doors in Westmoreland County and Pittsburgh.  We have talked to over 250 people and are helping to win this election for the American people, democracy, decency, a repudiation of bigotry and hatred, a better future, Hillary Clinton, Katie McGinty (U.S. Senate) and Mary Popovich, (Pennsylvania State House). Continue reading “Reflections on Campaigning in Western Pennsylvania – 3rd report”