Apparently the evictions in St. Louis touched a nerve in Pittsburgh as several actions were reported to pghanarchy.tumblr.com:
NEW SQUAT OPENED
Hearing of the eviction notices in St. Louis, some anarchists decided to act in solidarity by opening a new squat in Pittsburgh. Somewhere in the hills we entered the house we have been casing out, tidied up a bit, and put new locks on the door. At least a few comrades plan on moving in soon.
SOLIDARITY STROLL
Several anarchists took a stroll through the local gallery crawl the evening of March1st to spread information about the St. Louis squats and connect the news to anti-gentrification struggles in Pittsburgh. The text from the leaflet that was distributed is reproduced below.
A banner drop was also reported.
TEXT DISTRIBUTED AT THE STROLL
Today in St. Louis. our comrades are being threatened with eviction, their houses part of a six-and-a-half year old squatter community. The evictions and eventual re-development are being pursued by a hated capitalist developer. We are very mad about this.
In Pittsburgh this process is well known. A neighborhood is chosen for its desirability to the flows of capital. Police presence increases. Squatters, homeless, and those that cannot afford the rising cost of housing are evicted, the recalcitrant killed or warehoused in prison. Sometimes they call it a historic district, other times they are willing to burn a neighborhood to the ground and fill it with the most depressing and profitable buildings possible.
An important aspect of this process is the funneling of populations and their movements. The unmarketable are ejected, and the obedient and efficient are moved in. Events such as First Fridays are key elements in this plan in that they create a social environment friendly to those who will continue to uphold the reproduction of capital – the creative class. The fact that this class is mostly white cannot go unobserved and that this is a strategic deployment of white supremacy in this racist city is obvious.
Anarchists act against the continued function of the market and its destruction of everything wonderful, and in solidarity with those whose struggles are being repressed: St. Louis, Oakland, Athens, and everywhere the initiative is taken to liberate a material place from capital. Consider the fact that what appears as a choice to come to a pleasant evening of art, is instead simply the supremacy of the market over your life. Therefore we urge you to leave and never come to this event again. Instead pick up the flame of rage buried in your heart and attack this shit world.
Source : http://anarchistnews.org
