Late-night demonstration marches through Pitt, CMU

A group of about 30 protesters marched down Oakland’s stretch of Forbes Avenue at about 11 p.m. Wednesday for an education march the night before the G-20 Summit.

A woman who calls herself “Cagebird” said that the protesters share everything and that no one person organized the event. One of the march’s purposes, she said, was to convey the belief that education is a right and should be available to everyone.

“What we are trying to do is protest our consumerist lifestyle that makes people abroad live this way,” she said gesturing to the the makeshift shelters and tents the group built on Carnegie Mellon’s campus. The shacks had signs that said, “Students not soldiers,” and “Education for all.”

Cagebird said the group made the settlement two weeks ago. She traveled to Pittsburgh from her home outside Philadelphia two weeks ago in time for the International Pittsburgh Coal Conference.

She said the community and the traveling soup kitchen, Seeds of Peace, have been supportive of the demonstrators.

A helicopter flew above the scene, and several CMU police officers stood by and watched the protesters. Their supervisor declined to comment.

While marching down Forbes Avenue, beating on several drums and pumping up picket signs that read, “Better world beyond the G-20,” the protesters shouted, “Tell me what democracy looks like,” and answered, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Ned Schmidgal, from Swissvale, said that he joined the rally Downtown at about 8:30 p.m., because he wants the voice of the rest of the country to be heard.

“I hope that our president remembers that the people out here on the street are the people who got him in office,” Schmidgal said.

Though he wasn’t sure whether he was going to protest tomorrow, he said that he was not looking to get arrested tonight. Schmidgal, who has been in protests against the war in Iraq, said that the group of protesters were peaceful. He noted that when the band passed through residential areas, they hushed their voices and whispered chants like, “Bail out people, not banks.”

With an electric blue snare drum strapped to his torso, a man who identified himself as John Locke from Harmarville, explained that many of the attendees heard about the protest from an events calendar online. He said that he joined the group on Sunday and that someone loaned him the drum.

After the march, the demonstrators rested on the CMU lawn, listened to guitar and keyboard music and munched on cucumbers.