Storm Watch for Miami Nov. 19-21

Storm Watch for Miami Nov. 19-21
Lars Din
November/December 2003

Have ya heard? They say there's a storm brewing in South Florida. 'Course if you read the Palm Beach Post, or the Miami Herald, you'll hear the loud rushing sound of panic, with quotes from "security experts" about "Anarchists with alarming names" and puppets being used as projectiles, and how they gotta remove all the trash cans because a howling mob of pyromaniacs is descending on the city.

Boca Raton just banned dancing in the street. They make it sound downright medieval.

Then again, maybe it is. What makes squelching this protest--against the secretive negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas--so important to the elites of Florida is that Miami wants to be home base for the FTAA.

Given the city's history, of merciless brutality and neglect toward its working communities of African Americans and Haitians, and of providing a haven for Latin American rulers who grew weary of brutalizing their own people, or were forcibly exiled by popular uprising, some might say it's the perfect headquarters for the implementation of an agreement that puts at risk anyone who breathes. Jeb thinks so, although I've heard he doesn't breathe so much as hiss.

If there's a storm, it's police harassment. Like the rest of the homeland, Miami is blowing democratic freedoms out the window, while some CEO whose name you don't know does unspeakable things to our water supply. See Scripps for details.

But the year is 2003, not 1191, and the struggle against the crusade for a tighter corporate stranglehold is global. In Miami, besides 6000 cops, you will also find a series of teach-ins on what neo-liberal globalization means to the Latino world and the African world, to health care, to working women. The streets of Miami will be graced with a stunning diversity of thousands of activists, both visiting and from the city. It is an exciting time to be willing to demonstrate your solidarity with people not profits. Where will you be?

To find out what's happening in Gainesville check
http://www.vala.cc/alachua

To see a listing of teach-in and other events in Miami, see
http://www.citizenstrade.org/miamicalendar

Root Cause March for Justice Nov 16-18
http://www.therootcause.org

To come to Miami, get on the listserv for Gainesville by writing
Alachua@ziplip.com.

For more info, check out
http://www.stopftaa.org

To find out more about the puppets
http://www.mediamouse.org/fcaa

More on FTAA organizing:
http://www.ftaaimc.org