For the third straight year, hundreds of Pittsburghers will gather in Oakland to protest the American war machine because of the oppression it has unleashed around the world and the gigantic domestic budget required to maintain it. The Pittsburgh Anti-War Committee is planning the march in tandem with a group of Pittsburghers representing a diverse cross-section of the city. The diverse group of individuals involved in planning the March include veterans and peaceniks, Catholics and Muslims, and anarchists and socialists. Also active in the effort are people working against defense research at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), PNC’s investment in nuclear weapons, and the militarization of the local Pittsburgh police.

The march has changed names since 2017, when it was called the Pittsburgh March Against War. But the overall mission for the Oct. 5th march, which will start in Schenley Plaza at 11 a.m., remains very similar.

This year, we demand:
• an immediate end to all forms of war in which the United States is currently engaged, including the retreat of all American soldiers involved in combat, the cessation of all foreign military aid, and the withdrawal of all economic sanctions.

• an immediate 60% reduction of the U.S. military budget and a reinvestment of this money into renewable energy projects, physical infrastructure, free education and universal healthcare. Our massive military budget, which accounts for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, presents a significant obstacle to realizing these vital human-centered development efforts.

• an end to the militarization of domestic law enforcement organizations, especially municipal police departments, county sheriff’s offices and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to reporting by The Nation, the U.S. maintains 800 formal military bases in 80 countries. Rather than protect our homeland or support democracy around the globe, we believe this massive military presence serves to enforce an unpopular American consensus on the world, for the benefit of a select few. To spotlight the far-reaching domestic impact of the military industrial complex, we will march to various building belonging to institutions that support the war machine. These locations include the PNC Bank on North Craig Street, the CMU ROTC building and CMU main campus. We will wrap things up on the CMU lawn, near the corner of Forbes and Morewood avenues.

We invite everyone from the community to join us in our effort to oppose the military industrial complex that keeps our country endlessly at war.

Signs will be available for marchers who attend, and we will have music from a local band as well homemade puppets made by the March for Peace organizing team.

To donate to our effort or support us in our final month of organizing, please send a check to the Thomas Merton Center and put March for Peace on the memo line, call the Thomas Merton Center at 412-361-3022, and visit https://bit.ly/33JW6kU