by Billy Wharton
After an evening of pitched street battles between protesters and police, things are relatively calm in Pittsburgh on day two of the G20. A mass "People's March" touched off without a hitch and thousands are now in the streets in opposition to the G20. A section of the Free Tibet movement, monks clad in their now familiar orange robes, lead the march. A stop downtown allowed speakers to highlight the inequities of a capitalist system designed in large part by the G20 delegates.
Last night's brutality is still on people's minds. Stories were shared and photos have been swapped. All tell the tale of a severely uneven battle between largely student protesters and heavily armed aggressive police. Tear gas, rubber bullets and unmuzzled dogs are all reported to have been employed. A scandalous video which appeared this afternoon tells the story of a group of University of Pittsburgh students trapped in a stairwell by police and forced to inhale tear gas. One 
student was bloodied by a rubber bullet. Another shows men in military outfits grabbing a young protester, stuffing him into an unmarked car and driving off. No discussion, no identification and no idea of the whereabouts of this person.
Little of this violent environment is evident in the march today. Organizers estimate a hardy turnout of more than 10,000 - the high end of their pre-march predictions. Highlights from the speakers podium include Peter Shell of the Thomas Merton Center who exposed the hypcrisy of the discussion going inside the walled-off Convention Center, "The G20 can't solve the global economic crisis and climate crisis - they caused the crisis!" SDS speaker Kate Goff went further. "Now it is time," she argued, "for a new system, a system that is run by us!"
Of course, there are still plenty of police to insure that Goff's proposal isn't enacted, at least not today. At some points police were two and three rows deep. Unlike yesterday, this crowd is simply too large to police aggressively. Police combed the edges - preventing people from entering or exiting and sending the general message that repression could be employed quickly if they saw fit. Anarchist youth have employed their best manners, limiting their hijinks to a male-on-male make-out session in front of some Christian fundamentalists.
So, on day two of the summit there been dissent from a broad section of protesters and limited clashes with the police. Organizers claim this event as the largest 
march in Pittsburgh since the 1970s. The clearest point brought home is that politics - debate, discussion and mobilization - can occur if the police are not intent on repression. Some serious accounting will have to be made for the multiple police riots which occurred yesterday. The First Amendment was suspended and replaced by political violence. Nothing remotely democratic about the actions of the military and police yesterday, but plenty of encouraging signs from today's mass march. 
Though protesters came to Pittsburgh to take a stand against the environmental and economic policies of the G20, they found themselves faced with a more imminent problem--a strong showing of state power. Protesters found themselves face to face with a myriad of high technology and intimidation tactics employed by the Pittsburgh police. The videos above are just a sampling of the sonic and chemical weapons used against the crowds.
by Billy Wharton
Clashes between police and G20 protesters continue into the night in Pittsburgh. A cycle of dispersal and regroupment has been underway since early this afternoon. Police ramped up their aggressiveness after being overwhelmed early at Arsenal Park. 
Schenley Park just outside of the University of Pittsburgh, was the scene of some of the most volatile interactions of the day. At first, student onlookers, seemingly not initially affiliated with the G20 protests, challenged riot police and were violently repulsed. Then, protesters massed in the park and marched on the police line. Tear gas was fired, but the wind was with the protesters and blew the gas back on the police themselves. Massive numbers of police then surrounded the park. The protest dwindled as young people, fatigued by a day of being chased by the police through streets of Pittsburgh, retreated in search of food and much needed rest.
There was property damage today, but it was either defensive or immediately quashed by the protesters themselves. A sound and gas attack by police resulted in the overturning of some dumpsters - a futile symbolic act of self-defense not the justification for repression that the mainstream media has reported. Rocks in BMW and Boston Chicken stores were the frustrated outcome of a crowd whose right to assemble had been forcefully revoked. A small band of protesters went further, by smashing ATMs, but they were quickly persuaded against continuing by march organizers themselves.
The police were everywhere. Pinning down protesters, creating confrontations and randomly stopping and searching. Cops came from Ohio, Florida and Arizona. If their numbers were not enough, they employed anti-protest technology. A Long Range Acoustic Device was employed to beam out high-volume sounds and Twitter-journalist visually identified a microwave heat machine which wasn't used, but stood at the ready to repel demonstrators. Such tools of repression have no place inside a democratic society.
The protesters were brave, standing up against overwhelming repression, policing themselves and sending the message that capitalism has failed them and billions of others around the world. Equally encouraging were the actions of residents of 
Pittsburgh. Many extended solidarity to the protesters - opening their homes for relief, providing overnight housing free of charge and disregarding work rules to provide a tired demonstrator with a free glass of water or a seat to rest for a moment. Such acts of solidarity offer a basis to think about a different kind of society, one which moves beyond acoustic attacks and tear gas and towards democracy and freedom.
by Billy Wharton
A battle raged in Downtown Pittsburgh today as G20 protesters exited their assembly point at Arsenal Park. Between 2,000 to 3,000 people joined a festive and non-violent march headed Downtown toward the G20 summit site. The crowd was intercepted by hundreds if not thousands of riot police. Witnesses claim that the police outnumbered protesters.
Participants report a high level of solidarity from the residents of Pittsburgh. Although at first being pelted with eggs, neighborhood residents opened their homes to demonstrators looking to use the bathroom or get a quick drink. The same courtesy was not displayed by the Pittsburgh police.
A robotic voice read out an order to disperse in English and in Spanish several times. A large section of the march retreated to the sidewalk, but a small group refused to give up the streets. After preliminary clashes with the police which led to the overturning of a few dumpsters, the police fired gas into the crowd in order to disperse it. Participants also report the use of a Long Range Acoustic Device which broadcasted a deafening sound throughout the area.
Many in the march fled, choking and tearing from the gas, partially disoriented from the sound attack. Undeterred, they re-assembled an continue to take the streets of Pittsburgh. Attacks on a few ATM machines by more energetic protesters were stopped by march organizers. Police repression continues and, as I write, arrests are underway. 
The use of gas on the crowd was entirely unnecessary and the sound attack is a shockingly repressive act. Shame on the Pittsburgh police. Mobilizations will continue throughout the day and build toward the mass march scheduled tomorrow. People have received another lesson in the repressive face of democracy under capitalism.
Free Tibet Marchers Headed Toward Pittsburgh City Center
Tweets
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@socialistzine - #g20 listening to Pittsburgh Police trying to learn police code http://bit.ly/14WPGY
