Urgent, Call Miami to support FTAA activists

[G_j]

a request from Starhawk:

As you will see from the story below, we do not, after all, have housing yet in Miami.  Your support task du jour (11/18)--call Mayor Diaz and demand that the city of Miami provide a space for FTAA activists to be housed, and stop harrassment and pre-emptive arrests of activists. I'm posting updates daily to www.starhawk.org and to www.utne.com. Thanks!  Starhawk

Contact information:
Mayor Manny Diaz
305-250-5300

email to his chief of staff, Francois Illas:
(that's an "eye" and two "ells" in Illas) [e-mail]
mayor's website: http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/mayor/synopsis.as

Update 11/17  Homeless in Miami
By Starhawk (see www.starhawk.org, Miami journals)

[DUreader]

1. OK, I'm calling. Sadly it seems few DUers support FTAA protesters

Maybe because of primary campaigns and the Bush* London Protests.

[DUreader]

2. OK I called and got right thru. A woman wanted to bump me to a voice mail

I requested that she take a message for the mayor instead.

Something needs to be done about this immediately etc.

[G_j]

3. a thousand thanks

even if only you call, it makes this post worth it!
:yourock:

[DUreader]

5. No Problem.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. kick

Say no to NAFTA, no to GATT, no to the FTAA and CAFTA!

[bigrootcanal]

6. Miami should provide housing for protesters?

I've never heard of such a demand. Has this ever been sucessfully done in any city yet?

[Bombtrack]

8. Yeah, that's pretty rediculous

sorry it is

[Judi Lynn]

9. Wouldn't you imagine it's a bit rustic to claim a city hosting this event

shouldn't provide housing? Simple minded, perhaps, certainly uninformed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next week, thousands of people from around the Americas will be coming to South Florida to engage in peaceful protests at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial in Miami. Many of these students, union members, people of faith, farmers and activists still have no place to stay. Alarmist statements by city officials and the police and misrepresentation of the demonstrators as violent and dangerous by the mainstream media have dissuaded landlords, and owners of private and community spaces from welcoming their visitors. Meanwhile, the Miami police have been harassing activists already in Miami for loitering while at the same time Miami city officials have rejected requests to open viable public spaces, such as city park areas, community centers and such to visitors.

These actions have not deterred people from their plans to come to Miami to exercise their First Amendment rights of protesting FTAA. Thus, with thousands arriving in the coming week, the housing shortage is about to become a crisis. But, it is a crisis that can be avoided if more safe space can be immediately allocated before crowds of people arrive.

There is a simple solution: the Miami Mayor has the authority to make space available for peaceful demonstrators. By merely opening the Orange Bowl facility as a safe space for camping and relaxing between events, the Miami Mayor could immediately resolve the problem. The Orange Bowl would provide adequate space for all and sanitary facilities, ensuring that the rights of the demonstrators are preserved and the city of Miami’s concerns about public health and safety are addressed.

The City of Miami must understand that by inviting the FTAA Ministerial to its city, it has by extension invited tens of thousands of demonstrators that must be accommodated. If Miami can spend millions of dollars to accommodate trade ministers and business representatives meeting to negotiate the FTAA, surely the rest of us can be provided safe and adequate accommodations as well. The attempt to deny housing and meeting space as a means to silence the voice of the Global Justice Movement from speaking out against the FTAA and corporate globalization failed. Now, if adequate space can be allocated, both visitors coming to protest FTAA and Miami residents will be more comfortable and secure – and totally avoidable confrontations between the police and protestors with no place to go can be averted. (snip/...)

http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=242&source=9

[bigrootcanal]

10. Not uninformed

I don't want to see the KKK come to town and get the same treatement as open doors and housing provided. Would you?

[DUreader]

12. Miami had allowed a dirt and grass parking lot for camping

After people had set up tents and camp sites the cops

came and forced everybody out.

Miami had negotiated this with protest organizers and backed out

without explanation.

[Bombtrack]

11. They are hosting the trade officials, not the protesters

I pay property taxes in Miami-Dade, and frankly I shouldn't be paying for people who's arrival I had no say in, in addition to the additional police and maintenance that I'm already paying for.

[bigrootcanal]

13. My guess is the visitors are paying their hotel bills

I could be wrong but it's far from providing housing.

[Bombtrack]

17. I know, I agree with you, I think it's dumb to pay for the protesters

I disagree with the author of this thread

[DUreader]

18. Got a link for who is paying for what?

?

[DUreader]

15. It was a freakin' parking Lot!

Come on

[Judi Lynn]

16. Then America's poorest large city shouldn't take on the responsibility

An ounce of wisdom could go a long way there.

[Bombtrack]

22. Yeah, why doesn't Miami always just provide housing for every tourist?

Because that's what these protesters are, tourists. They decided to come here on there own accord, no city officials asked them or welcomed them to come.

Tourism is one of the top moneymakers for the city, and it shouldn't give the protesters special favors.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Didn't you read the article cited above?

(snip)Alarmist statements by city officials and the police and misrepresentation of the demonstrators as violent and dangerous by the mainstream media have dissuaded landlords, and owners of private and community spaces from welcoming their visitors.(snip)

[Bombtrack]

26. So they can find a motel somewhere outside the city

I'm pretty sure Pembrook pines or hollywood has plenty of rooms to fill.

[Mika]

14. Miami = poorest city in the USA. Not enough housing for residents now.

The whole idea of having this meeting close down so much of the city's commerce and roads and schools and courts is just f-ing ridiculous. Miami can't afford shit. Its broke. Run almost totally by "exile" whores, from the mayor on down. They can't provide housing or shelters for the FTAA protesters, because it would highlight the fact (by hypocricy) that Miami is the only major US city that has no city supported housing or shelters for the homeless or poor.

[Bombtrack]

19. Please inform me how Penelas is an exile whore

He's a successful centrist Cuban I guess that makes him evil in alot of people's books here

[Judi Lynn]

25. He's certainly disliked by Democrats

for his unforgivable, and duplicitous behavior towards Al Gore during the campaign, election, and vote recount in 2000.

This IS the Democratic Underground, remember.

[Bombtrack]

30. He spoke to my class about that, there are 2 sides to those issues

Gore's staff gave Peneles mixed messages themselves when Penelas asked if he should attend rallies with Gore, because Gore was worried about Black and Jewish animosity towards Peneles about his opposition to Elian's deportation. And those groups were the main people attending Gore rallies in Dade county. There is also a columnists at the Herald who has been Peneles's main enemy since before he was elected, for various reasons he went into.

[Judi Lynn]

42. Oh, yeah. Everyone picks on Alex Penelas.

(snip) And yet in recent weeks, Penelas has been trying to rewrite that history. Campaigning to be the state's Democratic nominee next year for the United States Senate, Penelas has portrayed himself as a party stalwart who stood shoulder to shoulder with Gore.

Penelas' words angered his rivals.

U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who is also running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bob Graham, referred to Penelas as ``a pathological liar.''

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, another Senate contender, laughed at the notion Penelas helped Gore, describing Penelas instead as ``a negative inside the Democratic Party machinery.''

All this rancor made me wonder if Al Gore had heard about the mayor's boastful claims that he was a ''strong supporter'' of the former vice president and that he was instrumental in helping Gore gather votes in Miami-Dade County.

''I had heard that, yes,'' Gore told me when I reached him by phone on Saturday.

What did he think of the mayor's revisionist memory?

Gore paused for a moment.

''I don't have any comment on that,'' he said. ``I would just prefer not to comment on it.''

But then he quickly added: ``I don't rule out commenting on it at a later time, but I don't care to comment on it right now.'' (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/jim_defede/6291255.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Who, among the vast majority of Americans who believed Elián Gonzalez needed to be with his father and his real family will forget the obnoxious stand Penelas and Carollo made when they both announced they would NOT support the U.S. Government when it had to retrieve the child from his uncle, who was defying a court order?

They were damned lucky there weren't wildly severe repercussions from their behavior. What do you think George Bush would do to a mayor who defied him like that?

[Judi Lynn]

21. We citizens living elsewhere DO read about your local constabulary

picking off the occassional unarmed homeless person, from time to time. Didn't they also bag an unarmed man in a wheelchair?

It's run exactly like New Batistaville!

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thanks for posting this.

Please keep us informed, if you can. Thanks.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[G_j]

35. a couple links

www.ftaaimc.org
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/miami_journals.html
------------------------------------

[redqueen]

20. They got $8.5 MILLION of OUR tax money

Gift from the feds, remember?

The LEAST they can do is provide housing.

Geezus!

[Bombtrack]

24. you people are insane

since when is it a normal practice for municipalities to pay for the housing of unwelcomed protesters?

[redqueen]

27. Insane, am I?

How 'normal' is it for the federal government to fund a city's security costs while we're charging those costs to our grandkids?

Time to stop playing by their rules, folks.

Actually, the time for that was 40 years ago, but it seems some people got sidetracked.

[Bombtrack]

31. It's quite normal for the federal government to be involved

when the trade agreements are federal issues.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

34. its quite normal for Americans to be involved with the federal government

Our government SHOULD be allowing housing for protestors - they are paying a lot of money for the trade delegates aren't they?

[Judi Lynn]

28. You've caught some of us at a time we have to be running to dinner

You know damned well NO ONE has suggested that America's poorest large city provide rooms FREE for demonstrators. You know that. Don't be foolish.

I'm sure someone who has the time will help you sort through this.

[DUreader]

29. IT WAS A FUCKING DIRT PARKING LOT FOR CAMPING!!!

You are driving people insane with your inanity

[Judi Lynn]

32. Apparently the poorest large city in the country

(according to the last, and other census reports) has rescinded Americans' right of assembly, and the right of free speech.

If I have time later, I'll look up an article describing Miami's Cuban "exile" leaders finding a way to prohibit real Cubans from appearing in Miami, in musical events, etc. This "law" WAS overturned, natch.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Support Miami FTAA activists kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Say_What]

36. Cops in Miami carrying out BUSH POLITICAL AGENDA

not to mention creating a housing crisis. Democracy, Miami style, the Bushista regime's own Banana Republic.

From Democracy Now:

---

FTAA Protesters Say Miami Police Violating 1st Amendment Rights

<clips>

...AMY GOODMAN: We're also joined on the phone by Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizens Global Trade Watch. We are dealing with separate issues here. One is how the police are dealing with the protests. The other is what are the issues. But so often with these anti-globalization protests, the two issues merge. Can you talk about that, Lori Wallach?

LORI WALLACH: The reason why there are people here, some of whom have taken two and three-day bus rides from the midwest and the northern part of the east coast to come to Miami is because they're motivated to try to stop FTAA because it's an expansion of NAFTA. We have had a ten year track record of NAFTA destroying good jobs, lowering wages, ripping up the rural lifestyle and economy in Mexico. In all three of the NAFTA countries, NAFTA has been a disaster for most people. So people are coming from not only from all over the country but from all over the hemisphere to say, we're for partnerships in the hemisphere, but we're not going to allow a NAFTA expansion.

The problem is the process of negotiation of FTAA, the 31-country NAFTA expansion being discussed here is so secretive and so closed that the only time there's any way for the public to voice its concern and opposition to the current plan is in protests. And unfortunately, the - if ask you me - the overreaction, near hysteria caused here in Miami by the police, slideshows, showing dangerous terroristic looking figures as the opposition to the FTAA and by the mainstream media has resulted in what is an incredibly oppressive feel and frankly, the show of police force is more likely to cause a problem than to resolve it.

I mean, last night, large caravans of 20 police cars, all with sirens on were zig-zagging through town, just showing that they were there, columns of horses trotting around, and it's two days before the meeting. No one is even here yet! It's -- so, you know, it's quite an oppressive feel and I guess that goes hand in hand with what the FTAA is substantively about, but it's the substance that brought people here.

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: If I may add with respect to that. I think Lori is absolutely right. One of the concerns that we have is that what is happening here with the passage of an overly broad ordinance that you were talking about earlier that is designed and was tailor-made just for this protest, that in its first draft had a sunset provision on Thanksgiving Day, it would have been... The ordinance would have been off books once the protesters left is that you have you have a sense in the eyes of the protesters, and in the eyes of the people that are coming here that the police have already decided what -- what the police thinks of them, and it decided what it thinks of them not because they throw a rock or bottle or because they assaulted anyone, but simply because of the position that they take, and this is really crucial. I am going to hammer on this again. I think it's very important. Police departments are not supposed to be in the business of carrying out the political whim of politicians. And yet, this police department is doing exactly that.

In the very materials that Lori was talking about, and in a brochure that has the police department's logo and a letter from the police chief, the question is asked, what is NAFTA?

And the answer is a one-sided, very biased answer that shows that the police department has taken a position.

And the answer is: the mission of the FTAA is to preserve and strengthen the democratic institutions of the western hemisphere and on and on and on.

I will tell you that that's a position that some people would completely disagree with.

When you have a police department in the business of carrying out the political wishes of the politicians, you have a recipe for disaster because that police department is already trained to disregard the views of other people, and to punish people and arrest them not because they have done anything wrong, but because of their views.

...AMY GOODMAN: What about the issue of churches and other spaces that were making space available for people coming in to voice their opinion. We're being told that there would be fire inspections, that they would be carefully watched, causing a number of them to pull out?

AMY SALAS JACOBSON: That the zoning would be changed.

LORI WALLACH: That did in fact happen. That did in fact happen. We have reports from churches who are -- we were trying to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the churches because of this, because they were threatened. And the churches are so scared of having to close down their sanctuaries that we have not been able to go forward. But that is happening. Not only that, but the other things that are happening include police officers going to local businesses and forcing them to take down any literature that in any way raises questions about the FTAA. One police officer in fact told several businesspeople and we have interviewed these people. One city of Miami police officer told several businesspeople that they needed to take those materials down because they spoke ill of the FTAA and they spoke ill of the city of Miami Police Department, and that that would not be tolerated. This is the climate that we have created. Amy talks about Seattle, but as Lori was pointing out, they're not teaching the -- the police department is really not learning the lessons of Seattle. What happened in Seattle is very well documented. Somebody in the Clinton administration gave the order to clear the streets because the protesters had been sitting on the streets, blocking intersections, peacefully. The only way to get them up was to arrest them. Logically, arrests would have taken hours. Rather than taking the hours necessary to arrest them, the police took out their sticks and starting beating them.

<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/18/1633211>

[G_j]

37. very informative! thank you

for this.

[Nederland]

38. Question

I understand that during the Seattle protests it was a stated goal of the protestors to try and prevent representatives from attending the the conference events. Do you know if this is a goal of the FTAA protesters as well?

[DUreader]

40. Not a goal in Miami as it is impossible

All delegates are behind the Fence and the conference is taking place

inside the holtel where the delegates are housed.

Seattle will never again be possible

[Judi Lynn]

41. Thanks for the info., DUreader

This hadn't been brought out in anything I have read, yet. Very interesting.

On edit:

Just found an article which bears this out:

(snip) Anticipating larger protests, some 2,500 police from 40 area jurisdictions have surrounded a six-block downtown area with barricade fences and roadblocks.

Trade ministers from every country in the Americas, except Cuba, will meet Thursday and Friday at a hotel within the protected area to work on the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement. (snip/...)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/58014/1/.html

[redqueen]

39. Kick!

:kick: