Folks,
Payday Report is excited to announce that we have hired Saleh Waziruddin.
For 6 months now, Saleh has already been helping out at Payday Report and played an essential role in helping expand our coverage.
However, now as a result of an influx of cash received during the election, we are able to offer Saleh a more permanent, well funded position.
In the early 2000s, during the protests over the Iraq War, I first met Saleh through our work together in the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center. Back then, blogs didn’t exist and independent media truly was a community effort, particularly when covering the mass movement against the war in Iraq.
As a 17 year old, I volunteered to cover protests for the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center. On March 20, 2003, I was beaten up by police, along with other journalists and protesters, and arrested along with 121 others as the US invaded Iraq. I wrote the story up of the beatings people endured in person and it went viral.
Unfortunately, Saleh was so effective in his work in Pittsburgh that in 2006 when he visited back to Canada, the Department of Homeland Security would not allow him to re-enter the US and deported him right at the border, barring him from returning to Pittsburgh.
Since then, Saleh has been involved in community media and organizing in Canada. He is active in the local Palestine coalition and anti-racism groups and also chairs the certification committee of Editors Canada. He is on the Community Advisory Council for Metroland Media, the main newspaper chain on the Canadian side of the border.
He is in Niagara, Ontario, just across the river from Buffalo in the rust belt and just 4 hours from Pittsburgh.
Saleh brings a wealth of cultural experience to Payday. He was the Anti-Discrimination Chair of the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh (an umbrella group of local mosques) and President of the Thomas Merton Center (the local peace and social justice center in Pittsburgh). He has written and distributed for the People’s Weekly World (now People’s World) and People’s Voice newspapers. In addition to the US and Canada he has lived in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan..
The Canadian government has begun giving out grants to publications that cover stories in news deserts. The money comes from a settlement with Meta and Google for not sharing ad revenue from news content, and Payday plans to expand into Canadian labor coverage
In addition to being an editor, Saleh will be in charge of helping Payday transition into a worker and reader co-op. He will help lead a project to engage in dynamic organizing to involve readers.
“Labor is a news desert in the US and Canada. I am excited to help Payday Report plant it with working people’s stories,” says Saleh Waziruddin.
Saleh and I have worked together for more than 20 years and I hope the values of the independent media center movement help expand and grow Payday’s reach
We are all very excited as a result of our fundraising success to add Saleh. With him on board, I am sure we can take our publication to the next level.
Donate today to help us expand our base of operations.
Love & Solidarity,
Melk
