A-Infos (en) US, Miami, Florida Anarchist Organizing report-back

ORGANIZING workshop at the 2007 South Florida Radical Activist Conference
The workshop was originally billed as "Southeast Anarchist Organizing", 
but since virtually all of the 30+ people that attended were from 
Florida, talk mostly focused on organizing activities within this state. 
There were people attending from many different towns and cities in 
Florida (Orlando, Gainesville, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Miami, Lake 
Worth, Ft. Lauderdale) who participated in a lively discussion of 
anarchist organization in Florida and in the Southeast, either conceived 
by folks as an informal network of collectives, friendships and personal 
relationships that for the most part already exists but can be expanded, 
and one that largely helped to coordinate the conference, or through 
reviving attempts at more formal organization, in the style of anarchist 
networks like the Southeast Anarchist Network (SEANET) and Florida 
Radical Activist Network (FRAN) that existed years ago.

Both SEANET and FRAN, the latter consisting of a slightly older 
generation of anarchists, organized several gatherings in different 
cities throughout the Southeast and Florida respectively during their 
time, and shared and coordinated projects and groups such as Food Not 
Bombs collectives, independent media, Anarchist Black Cross chapters, 
infoshops and radical cultural centers such as Civic Media Center 
(Gainesville), Stone Soup Collective (Orlando, defunct) and Center Of 
Radical Empowerment (St. Petersburg, defunct), anarchist contingents at 
demonstrations and events, collective writing projects, etc. but ended 
up petering out over the years.

We shared ideas on why attempts at organization (beyond the local 
collective or affinity group) such as these have so often fallen apart 
in the past, and brainstormed ways to remain fresh and relevant, and how 
best to coordinate all our efforts so as to be more effective, without 
replicating some of the problems that contributed to the demise of these 
other organizations.

Report-backs

[Some of the following information, such as EF! actions, the anti-Nazi 
march in Orlando, and the Take Back the Land! project, were not 
mentioned explicitly at the workshop, but I am including them here to 
give folks a brief introduction to some of the more inspiring and 
creative projects Florida anarchists have been engaged in over the past 
year.]

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Orlando

Phil Jasen of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of 
Central Florida spoke first and gave a brief overview of the history of 
SDS as a male-dominated, predominantly Marxist-Leninist organization. He 
explained that the "new SDS" that was revived in the last two years is 
solidly based on anti-authoritarian principles, and local SDS 
collectives in the U.S. are organized on a horizontal, participatory, 
and non-hierarchical basis.

The Orlando chapter of SDS is one of the most organized and active in 
the southern United States. Counter-military recruitment has been a main 
priority, and students have organized several creative actions at the 
school against U.S. imperialism and the war in Iraq, including a 
high-profile disruption of Governor Jeb Bush’s speech by UCF 
students last year. SDS has also organized a Free Store at the school, 
distributing free food, books, clothing, and other supplies to anyone 
who might need them. There was some discussion of the patriachal legacy 
of SDS, and how the Orlando chapter is making a conscious effort to 
address issues of gender equality and inclusiveness through 
organizational caucuses of women, queer folks and people of color.

Orlando Food Not Bombs

East Orlando Food Not Bombs gave a report-back on some of the latest 
issues surrounding gentrification and the criminalization of 
homelessness in their city. Orlando Police have been harassing and 
arresting homeless people in the downtown area for sleeping outside or 
under bridges, and in many cases stealing their belongings. The homeless 
in Orlando are forced to sleep (and share Food Not Bombs meals) in a 
closed-off industrial zone called Sylvia Lane that smells like 
industrial waste and has no hot water, which means there's no way to 
wash one's hands after using the bathroom, raising sanitary concerns 
when food is being handled and consumed.

He also talked about the City of Orlando's Anti-Food Sharing Ordinance 
against Food Not Bombs, which forbids large group feedings in public 
parks without a permit, limiting permits to two per user per park in a 
12 month period. A grassroots coalition has formed in the past few 
months to fight the ordinance called Stop The Ordinance Partnership 
(S.T.O.P.), with groups participating in the coalition such as Orlando 
Food Not Bombs, ACORN, First Vagabond Church of God (a homeless church 
in downtown Orlando), Code Pink, National Organization for Women, Young 
Communist League, SDS, and several religious organizations. S.T.O.P. 
have organized rallies at City Hall along with local homeless folks, and 
have also organized large food sharings, with many of the above 
mentioned groups joining Food Not Bombs in cooking and sharing meals.

Orlando Anti-Nazi March, February 25, 2006

Not mentioned at the workshop, but by far one of the most intense 
moments for Florida anarchists in the past year was the planned National 
Socialist Movement, or NSM, march through the predominantly 
African-American Paramorre neighborhood in downtown Orlando. The planned 
march route would pass through an NAACP regional office, an 
African-American bookstore, and a mosque. The Nazis' stated aim was to 
call attention to the problems of "gang violence", "crime", and "illegal 
immigration". NSM are the largest neo-Nazi party in the United States 
and have roots back to the American Nazi Party under George Lincoln 
Rockwell. Since the time of the Orlando rally last February, NSM have 
split up due to factional disputes and the group has since fallen into 
disarray.

While city officials and religious leaders were urging people to 
"ignore" the Nazis, because "all they want is attention", anarchists 
from around Florida mobilized to directly confront them and show them up 
for the cowards they are. About a dozen Nazis were there, seig-heiling 
and donning World War II German uniforms, complete with red arm patches 
bearing swastikas, while they were protected every step of the way by 
300 of Orlando's "Boys in Blue" from various agencies, including a SWAT 
team that had their guns aimed at the anti-fascists the entire time.

Before the planned march through Paramore was to begin, the black bloc 
came onto the scene with over 30 comrades wearing black clothing and 
covering their faces with black masks. This tactic was used in order to 
protect the identities of the anti-fascists from being known to the NSM, 
who often post photos and video of known anti-fascists on their websites 
and encourage their followers to target the anti-fascists for harassment 
and violence. Plus, it seemed to have scared the Nazis a bit too! We 
held a beautiful and very visible banner that read "We're Anti-Fascist 
and We Shoot Back!" Some folks sang Woody Guthrie's classic anti-fascist 
anthem from the 1930's, "All You Fascists Bound to Lose". The entire 
time, the bloc did not initiate any violence against the police or the 
Nazis and were engaged only in what are supposed to be legal, 
constitutionally-permitted First Amendment activities: holding banners, 
drumming and chanting.

The riot police, some of whom were on horseback, must have not liked 
this sight as much as we did. They began immediately pushing the crowd 
back and provoking extreme force and brutality against the bloc, 
including trampling a young woman with a horse (they broke her 
collar-bone, and she had to wait hours for any sort of medical treatment 
while she was screaming in agony in the back of the police van). Another 
comrade was thrown head-first into the pavement while cops literally 
beat him on the ground with batons. Others faced less brutal but still 
painful treatment at the hands of the Orlando police.

In all, 16 anti-fascists from Central and South Florida were arrested 
that day, the vast majority of them for wearing masks in violation of 
Florida's "anti-masking ordinance". One neo-Nazi bonehead (wearing all 
black, and not visibly part of the official NSM contingent) was arrested 
as well. He was severely injured when he was found to have infiltrated 
the ranks of the counter-demonstrators. Only one comrade was charged 
with a felony, the rest with misdemeanors. Two of my friends were picked 
off the street while we were walking together and arrested for "masking 
up", even though they clearly were wearing bandanas on their necks at 
the time, not on their faces. None of the arrested were read their 
Miranda rights. Sadly, there were no media present at the time to 
witness the unprovoked police brutality, and no evidentiary footage we 
could have potentially used against the city.

One of the best outcomes of the anti-Nazi march was that it cemented new 
friendships and personal relationships between individuals and 
collectives in Florida. Since that time, anarchists in Orlando and South 
Florida have been networking with each other more, sharing ideas and 
literature, and coming together for state-wide actions and events such 
as the 30+ anarchist bloc at the enormous 2006 May Day/immigrant rights' 
march in Orlando and the Oaxaca solidarity action at the Mexican 
consulate in Orlando last November, as well as at the 2007 South Florida 
Radical Activist Conference in Miami.

We learned what genuine, spontaneous solidarity meant when immediately 
after we got the word that 16 of our friends were being held in Orlando 
jail, dozens of us got together and dispersed in small groups through 
the streets of downtown Orlando, collecting money for our comrades, and 
ending up with quite a sum!

South Florida Earth First!

Panagioti Tsolkas of Jeaga Earth First! (named after the indigenous 
inhabitants of what is now known as Palm Beach County) and the Palm 
Beach County Environmental Coalition (a grassroots community-based 
coalition of local environmental activists) gave an overview of some of 
the unique environmental and social problems affecting our local 
bioregion: the incessant greed and corruption of local developers and 
politicians, massive unsustainable growth, gentrification & displacement 
of low-income communities, and the proposed destruction of large parts 
of the Everglades, in particular the Northeast Everglades Natural Area 
(NENA).

Florida Power & Light has plans in South Florida for the “West 
County Energy Center�, a 3,500+ megawatt natural gas power plant 
located on a 200+ acre site in the Everglades Agricultural Area. The 
proposed power plant property spans over 200 acres, neighboring both 
Lion Country Safari and the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area. It 
will create 3,000 tons of toxic emissions and particulates released into 
the atmosphere, nearby neighborhoods and our environment every year; 
this will have a direct impact covering a 12-mile radius, creating more 
fossil fuel dependency, unsustainable growth and global warming. Plans 
are underway for resistance to this monstrous project.

Jeaga Earth First! has been involved in grassroots direct action-based 
environmental activism for the past several years in South Florida, from 
organizing a campaign of local community residents and activists against 
the Scripps Biotech Research Institute’s biotechnology and animal 
torture facility in Palm Beach County, a project that engages in 
fraudulent science with huge funding from the Florida Republican Party 
and Governor Bush, to hosting an International Earth First! Winter 
Rendezvous in the wilds of Palm Beach a year ago, bringing together 
radical environmentalists from across the Americas and culminating in a 
beach party outside the $4-million home of Scripps President Michael 
Lerner, where several of the 40-or-so picnickers got together and wrote 
a 200-foot-long message in seaweed: "Fuck Scripps, Go Manipulate 
Yourself�.

Earth First! also made a scene at the BioFlorida Conference, taking 
place at the Marriot Hotel in downtown West Palm Beach, with Jeb Bush as 
a keynote speaker. A banner was dropped from the hotel that read 
“No Biotech, No Compromise, Scrap Scripps!� Before the 
conference, several groups of journalist elves got creative by wrapping 
hundreds of spoof newspaper covers (titled “The Palm Beach 
Pest�) throughout Palm Beach County, insulting and mocking local 
politicians, biotech scientists, investors, developers, reporters, the 
Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and of course themselves. (See the 
report-back titled “Earth First! Evolution and the 2006 
Organizers' Conference: Out of the Primordial Swamps� in Vol. 26 
issue 5 of the Earth First! Journal).

Take Back the Land!: Umoja Village in Miami

One of the most inspiring examples of anti-authoritarian organizing in 
south Florida has been the Take Back the Land project in Liberty City, 
one of the poorest areas in the state. Miami has been suffering from a 
severe housing crisis due to city officials’ efforts at 
gentrification through the destruction of Black and Latino/a 
neighborhoods and giving away public land to erect condos for the new 
influx of richer, whiter residents. In one of the most blatant 
instances, Miami’s Hope VI Plan, which was meant to address the 
issue of low-income housing in Miami, actually ended up shutting down 
the Scott-Carver Project’s 851 units of public housing, replacing 
them with only 80 units.

The City of Miami also has committed outright theft of public money, 
including millions of dollars slated for low-income housing by the 
Miami-Dade Housing Agency, in a series of housing scandals that rocked 
the city last year and resulted in dozens of pissed off residents along 
with community groups such as Miami Workers Center and LIFFT (Low Income 
Families Fighting Together) storming County Hall and confronting the 
city officials directly.

In response to this crisis, on October 30, 2006, a group of 
organizations and individuals took control of city and county owned land 
for the benefit of the people. The group, convened by the Center for 
Pan-African Development but also with the participation of local Black 
community organizations, homeless groups, and anarchists, took control 
of vacant land on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave., with no 
permits, permissions or agreements to use the land.

Under the historic settlement known as Pottinger v. City of Miami, 
decided in 1992, the city’s policy of arresting homeless people 
for “life-sustaining conduct� on the street (thus making it 
a crime simply to be without a home on public land) was made illegal. 
After a brief standoff with Miami police, the Pottinger settlement was 
discussed and officials recognized the right of neighborhood residents 
to the use of public land.

The only demand the Take Back the Land! Project is making is for 
autonomy and self-determination; that the government just leave the 
village alone entirely, so that they can house, feed, and sustain their 
own land and community. The project has been growing at an impressive 
pace thanks to the voluntary efforts, mutual aid and solidarity of so 
many people.

Since the first day of the Liberty City shantytown, now known as Umoja 
(“Hope� in Swahili) Village, the project has expanded to 
include a fully-stocked kitchen, trees and organic gardens planted by 
volunteers, a children’s area, showers, compost toilets, and over 
a dozen beautifully created and designed make-shift houses made out of 
pallets and other scavenged material (earning the village the nickname 
“Pallet Palace�) filled to capacity, housing more than 40 
male and female residents. There have been meals prepared by volunteers 
every day of the week, children’s activities, and community 
films, with videos shown on a projector, every Friday night.

Local anti-authoritarians have been involved in the day-to-day life of 
these activities, and will also be planning coordinated and autonomous 
actions as part of the “Week-of-Action Against Gentrification and 
for Low-Income Housing�, planned for January 29-February 3, 2007 
in preparation for the Miami SuperBowl, where the city will be spending 
ridiculous amounts of money to give Miami the appearance of 
“Open for Business� to prospective real-estate investors and 
developers.

CoalTrans America conference, Miami

Anarchists from throughout the southeast, including comrades from the 
Appalachian mountains in West Virginia who are currently resisting 
“mountaintop removal� coal mining, will also be coming down 
to Miami in late January and early February in time for the CoalTrans 
America conference (www.coaltrans.com), which will bring together coal 
barons from throughout North and South America (Venezuela, Ecuador, 
Colombia, US, Canada, etc.) to discuss with one another how to best use 
legal loopholes and lobbying power (as well as paying off politicians) 
to further exploit indigenous communities, poor/working class families, 
and the Earth. Grassroots organizations and autonomous affinity groups 
from across the southeast are already making plans to head down to Miami 
for the action.

Some critiques of the workshop and of SFRAC

The South Florida Radical Activist Conference was definitely an 
anti-authoritarian gathering, with a sprinkling of a few progressives 
here and there. I must admit that I was quite surprised (and glad) to 
see the staples of South Florida's radical leftist milieu noticeably 
absent from the conference. There were no references made to Castro and 
Chavez (except in a disparaging manner during personal conversations) 
throughout the conference, and not a single Che t-shirt worn or sold! 
Yet despite successfully keeping away the blood-sucking parasites of the 
authoritarian left, we also managed to keep away most people outside of 
our insulated communities. This, unfortunately, has too often been the 
case for most anti-authoritarian/anarchist gatherings that I have been 
to, and the SFRAC was no different.

While there are many things about the conference to applaud and 
celebrate, the issue of racial and ethnic diversity was sadly not one of 
them. The conference had a wide array of presenters with some very 
pressing topics. This aspect of the event was relatively well executed. 
The skill based workshops, though interesting and useful as they were, 
tended to largely reflect individual and personal interest. Perhaps 
other skill shares on organizing, group dynamics, and anti-oppression 
might have been more challenging and necessary. The importance of such 
skills becomes painfully obvious when we look at the composition of the 
event.

The attendees where mostly young, white, and overwhelmingly appeared to 
be from the anarchist/punk subculture. The event was hosted in Miami, a 
city well-known, amongst other things, for its racial and ethnic 
diversity, but most of the people at the conference were white, and not 
from Miami. How do we step away from our comfort zones? I hope we are 
not expecting people to simply adapt to ours! These are just some 
important questions for us to think about as we further engage in 
anti-authoritarian organizing.

Another issue that remains unclear about the entire event was its 
purpose, besides informing people on the different struggles being waged 
in South Florida. I think the conversation of the formation of a South 
Eastern Anarchist Federation hinted to what might have been one of the 
greater purposes of this conference, but unfortunately, that 
conversation failed to produce any concrete goals besides starting 
another blog or listserve. There was little participation in the 
dialogue, mostly the same 4 or 5 guys (I was one of them) bringing up 
points. When the conversation turned towards anarchist or 
anti-authoritarian organizing, a subject which most people in the room 
should have had an opinion or experience with, the participation still 
remained low.

Why were so few people turned onto the conversation, or willing to 
discuss these matters of anarchist organizing more conceptually? Is this 
a skill that many anarchists lack? Putting together a Food Not Bombs 
with 5 of your friends, or kids from the local punk scene, is not the 
same as organizing with people you may not have such close and personal 
relationships to. I feel that people should be mentally challenged at 
these events, pushed to think critically about their ideas and positions.

There should be more participatory workshops that require people to 
think deeply about why and how we can construct a different world along 
anti-authoritarian values. More skill-based workshops that expand our 
conceptual knowledge of the world so that we can be equipped to produce 
our own analyses and visions, or expand on ones we support. More 
discussion on organizing for different purposes such as forming a 
collective or joining a coalition. These are the challenges I foresee 
for the next South Florida Radical Activist Conference, all of which I 
believe, with us stepping outside of our comfort zone, can be achieved.

Some helpful websites:

Miami Independent Media Center: http://miami.indymedia.org

South Florida Anarchist Neighborhood: 
http://www.infoshop.org/wiki/index.php/Anarchist_Neighborhood:Miami

Anarchists of Florida MySpace group:
http://groups.myspace.com/FLAanarchists
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