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Title: Bringing the Heat in Miami Author: CrimethInc. Date: December 27, 2003 Language: en Topics: Florida, analysis, direct action, reportback Source: Retrieved on 7th November 2020 from https://crimethinc.com/2003/12/27/bringing-the-heat-in-miami
It was almost a miracle, not to mention a victory for our movement, that
the mobilization in Miami happened at all. Miami was one of the most
repressive police states North America has ever witnessed; the $8.5
million security plan, funded by federal anti-terrorism dollars,
fortified an already incredibly brutal police force. In the days leading
up to the event, paramilitary police stood guard on every downtown
corner, arresting anyone who looked like they might be a protester. The
media engaged in a smear campaign of lies and slander about anarchists,
lionizing the police force that was to protect the city from these
invading beasts. Plans for the protest seemed to grow murkier rather
than clearer as the event approached. Many expected the worst.
Not to be deterred, anarchists entered a city with no infrastructure for
direct action and set one up in a mere few weeks. The convergence and
welcome centers, the legal, medical, and food support, the independent
media and art spaces — these expressions of mutual aid, solidarity, and
gift economics were living examples of the world we are fighting for.
This infrastructure, pulled together in such a short period of time, was
comparable to analogous structures that have taken months and even years
to set up in cities that regularly host mobilizations. Our ability to
put down such roots in the face of such repression is a moving example
of the strength of our movement.
On Thursday afternoon, as a mass of activists were beating a spirited
retreat from the police line to the sound of marching drums and
whistles, a legal observer turned to face his comrades. “As your legal
observer, I advise you to…” he began, echoing the familiar words of many
a legal observer before him, “…pull shit into the middle of the street
and set it on fire!!” Cheering ensued all around.
This anecdote foregrounds a marked difference in our movement today from
the atmosphere of even three years ago, when direct action tactics such
as property destruction were extremely controversial. Many of the
liberals who claimed we were going to wreck “their” movement with our
confrontational approaches are gone — they’ve joined us or disappeared.
And the new people who have gotten involved have, in large part, done so
because they are attracted to the opportunity to confront power, rather
than merely beseech it.
The mainstream media kept referring to an elusive minority of “bad” or
“violent” protestors, the so-called “self-described anarchists” — as if
there was any other kind! But make no mistake about it — besides the
Root Cause and union marches, Miami was largely an anarchist
mobilization. The entire infrastructure described above, including the
convergence center, planning framework, and Indymedia coverage, was
organized on decentralized anarchist principles. Nearly everyone
involved was indeed a “self-described anarchist.” Even many of the
N.G.O. employees in Miami were closeted anarchists! And not only that:
people and press mobbed a forum in Lake Worth called “A New World in Our
Hearts,” to hear about anarchy from anarchists themselves — and some of
the attendees were inspired to offer assistance, or even join the
protests themselves.
This is not to say that we anarchists are not still struggling with
internal problems — with sensitivities to race, class, and gender, for
example, which groups like Anarchist People of Color brought to the
forefront. One manifestation of this was discrimination against older
people or people perceived, especially by the security crew, to be
“normal,” i.e. from outside the anarchist community proper. In one
episode which almost beggars belief, a group of long-time anarchist
organizers who had dressed in civilian clothes to avoid police attention
were set upon by some other activists who attempted to force them to
give them their food! If we dismiss, alienate, or immediately suspect
people who look and dress differently than the stereotypical
black-hooded anarchist, we will piss off our most valuable allies — and
many anarchists as well!
On the other hand, there were some remarkable bridges built across
demographic lines. One of the best examples of this took place on
Tuesday, November 18, when some anarchists typically associated with the
Black Bloc got together for a ritual with the Pagan Cluster. Words
cannot describe the feelings of solidarity and love experienced by these
two groups, groups many would have written off as incompatible: singing,
dancing, drumming, raging, and continuing an alliance built in the
front-lines of earlier street battles, we wove a web that knit our
communities together to be stronger and more inclusive. The black and
gold bracelets that were shared that night could be seen on many a wrist
over the following days, an uplifting affirmation of common cause and
courage in the face of adversity.
Presumably, one of the reasons the powers that be picked Miami to host
the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas was the
ostensible absence of an anarchist community. All sorts of rumors went
around in advance about how the locals were all going to be hostile to
us, would perhaps even attack us. The discovery we made upon arriving in
Miami — that not everyone there is a pro-capitalist Cuban refugee, that
there are people everywhere who are suffering under the heel of the
corporate class and know it — should be a reminder not to get carried
away by our own alarmism in the future. In countless experiences with
locals, we received heartfelt support and encouragement. Most people
don’t believe everything they see on television, nor do they appreciate
their neighborhoods being overrun by belligerent police officers — nor
do they believe corporate capitalism offers us the best of all possible
worlds.
The police and media spent months and millions spreading the lie that
small family-run businesses in downtown Miami would be destroyed in an
orgy of anarchist violence. In an effort organized from the convergence
center the week before the days of action, many activists visited
businesses with letters of solidarity explaining anarchist ideas, the
content of the proposed F.T.A.A., and what to expect from the upcoming
demonstrations — not to recruit, but to give people an idea of why the
protests were taking place. Most welcomed these activists with open
arms, glad to hear what they had suspected all along to be police hype
dispelled by the protesters themselves. One person working at a local
business said she had enough papers and letters from the police on the
upcoming protests to start a fire — and she just might! In support, some
shops even gave protestors free food or offered their stores as havens
to those wishing to escape the police. Outreach efforts like these are
powerful direct actions themselves, not to mention examples of
successful acts of resistance in a city suffering such vicious police
occupation that just walking downtown put individuals at risk of arrest.
Despite all the pressure and police intimidation tactics, or perhaps
even partly owing to the ambience they created, there was an incredible
energy among activists in Miami in the days leading up to the F.T.A.A.
ministerial. The convergence space was buzzing with activity;
spokescouncil meetings were held every night to plan for the actions.
The spokescouncil meetings focused on a direct action framework for what
was to be the main day of action, Thursday, November 20, as well as a
jail solidarity plan, preparations for smaller actions throughout the
duration of the convergence, and general logistics for the convergence
space itself.
Arriving in Miami, everyone wanted to know what the direct action plan
was. As a large percentage of those participating in the actions came
from far away, much of the organizing was done in a decentralized
fashion. Consultas were held regionally throughout the U.S.; affinity
groups and clusters made plans to implement when they arrived. In the
months leading up to the event, it really seemed like people were coming
with tight, organized plans to contribute to a larger collective action.
Early the preceding summer, the plan for a Padded Bloc emerged, and
organizers in Pittsburgh announced that a large number of people
equipped with armor and shields would be ready to defend areas from
police. This plan didn’t actually materialize. Word of this plan helped
to build momentum as people prepared for the protests, but it also
spread the illusion that more people planned to attend than actually
did, and that people were more prepared then they ended up being.
What happened in the end was far less organized than many expected. In
conference calls and a consulta in Gainesville, a small working group
was formed to plan a structure for direct action. This group planned a
very basic framework that relied heavily on the independent planning of
those who were to participate in it; but it seemed that the plan was not
clear enough for many to know how to plug into it, even if they were
prepared to do so in the first place. A 7 a.m. gathering was planned at
Government Center a few blocks from the fence surrounding the hotel
where the summit was taking place. The idea was that people would rally
and then march towards the fence to carry out actions to “bring down the
fence and shut down the F.T.A.A. meetings.”
In an attempt to placate the A.F.L.-C.I.O., there was an agreement made
at the spokescouncil meetings that the direct action would stay clear of
the intersection of Flagler and Biscayne between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., the
hours when the union march was to take place. Some felt that this
decision was forced through without regard for the perspectives of many
activists. Flagler and Biscayne is the main intersection in downtown
Miami; it was the area outside the fence closest to the F.T.A.A. meeting
site, and it ended up being the only place close to the fence that was
accessible. This plan disregarded the rules of thumb that have helped to
make direct action successful in the past: it meant that direct action
activists would be alone out on the streets, with no permitted areas or
safe zones to retreat to. Essentially, agreeing to a separate time of
day for direct action offered the police a perfect excuse to brutalize
and arrest everyone on the streets of downtown Miami outside the hours
of the permitted march.
Naturally, this situation scared off many people who were uncertain
about participating in direct action; it also gave the police a
justification for picking people off before they got to the action, or
at least blocking them out. These considerations may explain why the
turnout for direct action in Miami was so much lower than expected — in
the end, it was not so much the intimidation of the police as a lack of
concrete and convincing preparation on our part that discouraged more
people from joining in.
This submissiveness to the wishes of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. hierarchy
compromised the times and places of the direct action while gaining
little except empty words of “solidarity” from the union officials.
After months of frustrating negotiations with them, representatives of
the A.F.L.-C.I.O. hierarchy were still being introduced as “allies” by
facilitators and certain others at spokescouncil meetings. We anarchists
can choose our own allies, thank you very much; we should not
unquestionably accept such loaded terms as descriptions of organizations
that have done little in the past to warrant being called allies. And,
not surprisingly, while affinity groups of rank and file union members
did join the protesters in the streets, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. hierarchy
urged union members to flee the protests into their buses as soon as
their permitted march ended.
Ultimately, this “direct action free” period during the main hours of
the protest reinforced separation between members of unions and direct
action activists, a separation that must be destroyed for both our
sakes. Yes, it is important not to provoke unnecessary conflicts, but
when representatives of a hierarchical organization that has a history
of selling out workers’ struggles inform us that the best way we direct
action activists can show solidarity with them is by not engaging in
direct action… well, even if a spokescouncil of anarchists decides to
honor their request, that shouldn’t prevent the rest of us from making
up our own minds about the issue responsibly, and being prepared to do
the organizing to make another approach possible if we deem it
worthwhile.
Despite all these factors, the protesters made the best of their
situation. At the last minute, a section of the Black Bloc decided to
meet at the Convergence Center, many blocks away from the fence, where
it was felt they could at least marshal a whole bloc to defend
themselves, and travel into downtown side by side with puppeteers and
foreign media for safety; but the puppeteers with automobiles, and most
of the media, ended up driving to downtown, leaving them isolated on
foot. For a time, this bloc march had the advantage of surprise, and it
took a few minutes for the police to mobilize to block their route; but
after a scuffle the bloc was contained, and attempted negotiations with
the police only resulted in the bloc being contained again and brutally
attacked with tasers and clubs. Ultimately, the group was forced to
disperse, and some were arrested.
The larger group of protesters met as planned in Government Center at a
peaceful rally, and then marched to the fence. Once there, a single
grappling hook was successfully thrown and hooked on the
“anarchist-proof” fence — and it did wobble! But as the Padded Bloc
didn’t end up coming together, the police were able to attack an
essentially undefended crowd. They attacked mercilessly with concussion
grenades and rubber bullets, and charged peaceful and dancing protesters
with their clubs and batons, brutally beating many. Heroic defenses were
staged, bottles thrown, but little could be done in the face of such
overwhelming attack.
A couple hours later, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. march took off. Many protesters
tried to join, but were stopped at first by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. marshals,
who only much later let the protesters in. Even inside the march, some
protesters were attacked by police, and though steelworkers — not
marshals! — came to their rescue, a few were arrested. At the conclusion
of the march, new conflicts began with the police, that proved to be
some of the most dramatic and exciting of the day… yet even then, the
overwhelming force of the police ultimately forced us to split apart and
flee to safety. Protesters were attacked by police wielding batons, tear
gas and pepper spray and other chemical agents, and rubber, wooden, and
plastic bullets. Over one hundred protestors were treated for injuries;
quite a few were hospitalized — one with a bits of a police bullet in
his head! Small groups leaving the protests were also targeted by
police.
As people regrouped themselves, it was clear that the protest was
neither a failure nor a success. It was far from a victory — many of us
were wounded and bleeding, others in jail. The fence was not taken down
and we had not had the numbers or militancy that we had hoped for. But
it was a show of strength and courage that we assembled that day in the
heart of the world’s most well-defended police-state, and survived.
Aim
Outside the haze of tear gas and robo-cops wielding guns and batons,
there were many successful aspects of the Miami mobilization against the
F.T.A.A., and it’s important that these efforts aren’t obscured by all
the discussion of police brutality. Here are a few:
provided by and for thousands of people throughout the mobilization.
Talk about workable alternatives to capitalism!
distributed cherry trees throughout the neighborhood as well as sharing
gardening skills and other resources that will be of lasting value.
the thirty four miles from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, one mile for every
country involved in the F.T.A.A. discussions. The march connected
important struggles in South Florida to the F.T.A.A. and brought out the
ways that poor communities and people of color in the region are already
being affected by “free” trade. Many alliances were built and
strengthened between those who took part in this march.
Worth Global Justice Group organized the Free Carnival Area of the
Americas (F.C.A.A.) in Lake Worth, Florida, about one hour north of
Miami. The F.C.A.A. opened a warehouse to provide space for puppet and
art making, planning meetings and workshops, and other preparations for
protests against the F.T.A.A. They put out a call for activists to join
them in this effort in the weeks before the F.T.A.A. ministerial. The
art and puppets were used in the Root Cause march and the direct actions
in Miami, and the activist infrastructure in Lake Worth contributed in
other crucial ways to the mobilization. Many other inspiring and
successful events occurred under the umbrella of the Free Carnival Area
of the Americas, too.
Florida organized three press conferences and public forums. One of
these events, entitled “A New World in Our Hearts,” was held in Lake
Worth a week before the main days of action. It attracted large numbers
of people from the Lake Worth community and helped to get many involved
in organizing and playing other supportive roles, such as providing
much-needed housing for activists arriving from out of town.
packets including posters, wheatpaste, stickers, annotated maps, and
similar redecorating tools to dozens of other groups and individuals.
Several crews covered various Miami neighborhoods with messages of
resistance to the F.T.A.A. in the nights before the main day of action.
These groups went entirely unnoticed by the police, and put up a massive
amount of posters and graffiti in neighborhoods whose only source of
information on the F.T.A.A. might otherwise have been the corporate news
media.
organized covert actions in Miami that have not been widely publicized.
A communiqué on Indymedia announced that multiple military recruiting
centers had suffered property destruction. Rumors have circulated about
other similar actions. The powers that be have made a point of keeping
silent about all such activities, of course, and from this we can deduce
that they regard them as a genuine threat which must not be encouraged
by any free publicity.
actions. Hundreds participated in setting up this working example of a
gift economy in action. Groups set up blankets and booths providing free
stuff from food, art, literature, and music to massages, new banner
dropping methods, funny hats, and healing circles. This action
highlighted our alternatives to “free” trade and capitalism, and showed
examples of how human beings can provide for one another through mutual
aid.
What we did, what we didn’t do, what we learned…
Before we conclude, let’s review some of the goals we have to choose
from whenever we engage in mass direct action:
misdeeds
winning
repression
All these goals were achieved in Seattle, when we had the element of
surprise on our side, and some of them were in Miami — though more of
them could have been, had we been better prepared for the approaches we
attempted, and augmented them with other tactics. Attacking the fence,
in the presence of such a police mobilization, was perfect for provoking
police repression, obviously; it was also moderately good for learning
how to act in anti-authoritarian masses, though the police presence
discouraged many from attending and interfered with our ability to work
together freely. We were able to attract some mass media coverage, for
those who value that, though it was mostly along the spectrum that runs
between “Murderous Anarchists Hope to Destroy City” and “Harmless
Protesters Brutalized by Police,” which at best only portrays us as
victims and frightens people away from future protests; the massive
police presence prevented us from doing anything that could have really
grabbed worldwide attention on the news, let alone invested others with
a sense of their own limitless power. The goal of interacting with
locals was achieved in part before and after the main demonstration by
those who took the time to go around and do so — though we can always
stand to do better there. Among other things, a more concerted,
extensive effort to get graffiti and posters up around the area would
have avoided the risks posed by police in the occupied zone, while
demonstrating our power and omnipresence and thus raising morale.
As for the goal of actually striking effectively against the powers that
be… considering the massive police presence around the fence, this would
have been better achieved by small groups operating outside the centers
of police occupation, targeting corporate property and infrastructures
efficiently and stealthily. Had such plans been widely deployed and
successful, they would have achieved many goals: they would have sent a
stern message to both Miami and the world that hosting such contemptible
events will result in great costs; they would have provided a new model
for others in the anti-capitalist movement to try out themselves, as the
older models become obsolete in the face of new police tactics; our
enemies would have to consider widening the areas and methods of police
surveillance next time, which would cost them more money, frustrate more
citizens, and generally add to their already acute overextension. The
drawback to such covert activity is that, unlike mass activity, it must
be invitation-only, and thus doesn’t lend itself to movement-building or
skill-sharing; the main reason to go to a mass action rather than
staying home blowing up banks is to have the opportunity to work with
many others in collective projects that anyone can join in. On the other
hand, many among us prefer the covert model as a matter of personal
taste, plenty of us know each other well enough to arrange such
activities together, and it’s no secret that some of our more
experienced folks didn’t participate in actions in Miami because the
overtly planned activities seemed suicidal and no covertly planned
activities seemed to be in the works.
So what did we need in Miami that we didn’t have? We should have had
more clandestine planning sessions, for one thing. Direct action should
not be planned like civil disobedience; in order for it to be safe, to
elicit the confidence it needs to succeed, and to be unpredictable
enough to stand a chance of working, it has to be arranged among
friends. No organizing any massive spokescouncil can do could compensate
for the lack of private initiative and planning, if affinity groups
don’t prepare effectively amongst themselves. More of us should have
been forthcoming with our own ideas: even those of us already known for
our resourcefulness often hesitate to come forward and actually organize
something, feeling that someone else must already be doing it or that it
must already be too late — but all too often it turns out that no one
else is working on the things we’d like to see happen, and we find out
after it really is too late that the ideas we’d had would have worked
out perfectly if only they had been tried. Frequently we end up doing at
the last minute what we should have had the confidence to do ahead of
time. If we’re going to have to organize groups and lay plans anyway, we
might as well get over our fear of doing these wrong and just go ahead
and try.
Ultimately, if an effective resistance is to be mounted, all the forces
in a protest have to work together. This means everybody — from rank and
file workers, puppeteers, and black-clad anarchists, to dancing Pagans
and locals from Overton — everybody has to find a way to contribute to
what others are doing, to complement others’ projects without
obstructing or endangering them. The long, steady process of building
this cooperation can’t be bypassed by communicating with hierarchies. A
single representative from the management of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is a poor
substitute for actual communication with union workers. No amount of
anti-racist workshops could possibly substitute for the experience of
interacting with people of different economic and racial backgrounds.
Many of the problems with the protest resulted from people’s
over-reliance on the spokescouncil to provide some master plan that
would magically coordinate the whole movement. Of course we need to
coordinate in order to work together, but that isn’t going to happen if
we sit around waiting for orders at a spokescouncil meeting. We can do
this inside and outside the spokescouncil meeting, months before
protest, in private as well as in more public meetings. Every affinity
group should come to town with a hundred secret plans to stop the
F.T.A.A. single handedly, as well as ideas they can share with other
groups.
But, to repeat this once more, with the full brunt of the forces of the
terror war being brought to bear against us in Timoney’s Miami it was a
wonder, albeit a symbolic one, that a single grappling hook reached the
fence at all. If the more confrontational among us could have wrought
more havoc there, it would have done much to discredit the idea that a
militarized force of any size can succeed in dominating a decentralized,
flexible gathering of freedom-hungry people; all the same, what we did
just by being there at all was impressive and important — and maybe
enough.
The difficult time we had in Miami is going to occasion much discussion
of tactics at future demonstrations, but perhaps that focus is
misplaced. Shutting down such meetings was always a symbolic goal,
remember, even when it was possible by such straightforward means. Now
that the government has to spend eight and a half million dollars every
time a ministerial takes place, and not only paralyze the city but also
terrorize its inhabitants, it might be that they’re doing our work for
us: the once-secret meetings are impossible to keep out of the public
eye, the “free” trade they concern is associated with massive police
repression and suspension of human rights, and there are more
opportunities than ever for us to bring up our alternative. All we have
to do is show up, cause them enough consternation that they’ll have to
make the same preparations for the next one, and get away without
unsustainable losses.
Let’s be realistic, anyway: although there are improvements we could
have made in our strategizing for mass activity in downtown Miami — we
could have gotten more militant people to the fence at once Thursday
morning, or turned the retreat from it that afternoon into a forward
march that was routed to pass by corporate targets, to name two examples
— there’s only so much we can accomplish under such intensive
surveillance and repression. But the fact that they had to spend over
eight million dollars to achieve this is a sign of their weakness, not
of their strength — they sure can’t do that everywhere, all the time.
It’s taken them four years since we won in Seattle to fully develop
their anti-Seattle security system, and by now we should be ready to
move on to the next unexpected line of attack. We’ve learned so much
about mass activity in the training ground these summits have provided
us — now we should take those lessons back to the unguarded environments
in which such tactics first thrived. Next time we succeed in coming
together in great numbers without the police state getting wind of it in
advance, it’s going to be spectacular. Let’s start focusing our energy
on how to get people together for mass action outside the context of
international trade meetings — let’s call our own days of action
proactively, organize surprise group activities in our own communities,
even hijack crowded events and turn them into mass actions. That’s the
future: more unanticipated covert activity at mass action
demonstrations, more unanticipated mass actions in other settings!
So what’s next? For starters, let’s not forget to support all the people
who were arrested in Miami, especially the ones with felony charges.
They need both emotional support and assistance with legal costs, and we
need to provide these in abundance so others will not be afraid to take
similar risks in the future. And above all, let’s not neglect the work
in our own communities that generates the social foundation from which
these efforts grow. Now is the time to start new infoshops, new outreach
programs, even new anarcho-punk bands. Let’s plan for the next massive
demonstration such as the G8 in Georgia this June, or the Republican
National Convention in New York City — just to be there to keep the heat
on them without killing ourselves or getting all of us in jail, to keep
them focused on protecting themselves from that angle so they won’t see
what’s coming at them from the other side… and perhaps, also, to try out
some new ideas, to show off how much more creative and powerful and
dangerous than them we are.
As the Black Bloc sang with the Pagans:
No Army can hold back a thought
No fence can chain the sea
The Earth won’t be sold or bought
All Life shall be free.
of the Miami Protests
The neighborhood closest to the main action was an African-American
ghetto, blasted and impoverished. Not everyone there was thrilled to
have us around at first; walking and riding around Overtown before the
demonstrations, we sometimes heard locals shout out taunts to the effect
of “let’s hear it for free trade!” This didn’t seem to be an expression
of political or economic principles, but rather of resentment against
the predominantly white outsiders who were invading their space — it
probably hasn’t boded well in the past when a bunch of white folks
showed up in Overtown.
All the same, considering what we learned later about the misinformation
the police had spread there, the locals were really patient with us in
the days leading up to the action. After all the chaos was all over and
we had made some friends in the area, an older man wearing a black power
t-shirt confided in us that the police had put the word around Overtown
in advance that people there were encouraged to rob and beat up
activists — not only would the police turn a blind eye, but it might
even improve their relations with the community. Our friend explained
that no one there trusted the police, or followed their instructions.
All the same, given the bad impression of white folks in general that
it’s safe to suppose many in Overtown have, they were generous not to
take advantage of the opportunity to try to redistribute a little
wealth.
Encouraging locals to assault activists was not the only way our enemies
rolled out the red carpet for us. The first time I walked through
Overtown, I was approached by a small crowd of children who asked me how
much I was getting paid. This was perplexing to me. I answered that as I
had been unemployed since 1994, I wasn’t getting paid anything. They
persisted in asking the question, until I finally answered that the last
time I was getting paid, I’d been getting five dollars an hour, under
the table. Satisfied, they went away; but I heard this question over and
over, and I soon figured out what it meant: the rumor had been spread
thoroughly that we protesters were being paid to protest. For folks who
live in dire poverty and have to deal with police harassment constantly,
it would make sense to conclude that white folks who presumably have an
easier time getting work and wouldn’t otherwise be on the receiving end
of so much police attention must be doing it for some financial
incentive; but the rumor was so widely disseminated that it couldn’t
have just been a hypothesis somebody came up with. In my opinion, it
must have been spread in advance as disinformation. It certainly made us
look less like crusaders for global justice and potential allies in the
struggle, that at first everyone who saw us thought we were there
gentrifying their neighborhood on salary.
All these strikes against us notwithstanding, the attitudes of Overtown
residents towards us changed dramatically as soon as we were in open
conflict with the police. As we retreated into Overtown ahead of the
police onslaught Thursday afternoon, everyone we passed cheered us on —
most people had come out onto the street to see what was going on, and
now that they saw we shared a common enemy with them, one who was
attacking us as if we were a real threat, they embraced us as friends.
Several people I briefly spoke with encouraged us to step up our level
of confrontation with the police — the implications were that if we
could escalate the conflict, they would join in. That makes sense —
though they have every reason to revolt, people who suffer poverty and
constant police repression already are not going to engage in an
uprising unless it looks like it is going to work. For a moment that
afternoon, I could imagine what would happen if we somehow were able to
hold our ground against the police and create a space for the residents
of Overtown to join in. That happened in Quebec — I remember a local
throwing a snowball at the riot police there a couple hours before all
the locals joined in showering the cops with projectiles, just as a man
in Overtown was seen throwing a football at the pigs in his neighborhood
that afternoon — it can happen anywhere people are angry, if resistance
can reach critical mass.
Unfortunately, we were fleeing in disarray and desperation from the most
militarized police force North America has ever seen, in no condition
for touching off the sequel to the L.A. riots of 1992. The most we could
hope for was to get out of the situation without concussions or
handcuffing scars. Before we’d arrived at the inhabited areas of
Overtown, we’d been pulling dumpsters and other obstacles into the
street to slow the police advance; encouraged by the support we were
receiving, we decided to ask around how people on the street felt about
us doing that there. Everyone said they felt fine about it; two of us
began pushing another dumpster into the middle of the road.
At that point, out of nowhere, a large black man wearing a jacket with
an American flag on the back came charging up at us, screaming and
waving a two by four. I managed to get between him and my friends and
defuse things enough for all of us to get away with only superficial
injuries, but the important thing was that we had miscalculated our
place in the situation. Looking around at the people who had just given
us the go-ahead, I saw them shaking their heads at the guy who was
attacking us, but also withdrawing some of their unconditional
permission for us to be there fighting the police now that it was
causing internal strife in their community.
That experience was a reminder that although folks who are really
suffering under capitalism don’t have reason to trust us as allies until
we are actively challenging its power, we also have to be careful in the
process not to make things any more difficult for them than they are.
They didn’t mind the police chasing us into their neighborhood, by and
large — the police were going to be there anyway, and it was a relief
that they were there pursuing white folks for once, rather than locals;
but when our interactions with them resulted in drama among the
residents, that was a problem. It also drove home the point that you
can’t consider the opinions of any demographic in one bloc; everyone
we’d talked to was in favor of us making barricades, but that didn’t
mean “the people of Overtown” were in favor of it, it just meant certain
ones were. Whenever people of one background try to consider the
perspectives of people from another — especially when white activists do
so, I’m afraid — it is all too easy to summarize and oversimplify.
That episode passed quickly, but by then we were surrounded — police on
all the streets around us. We ran down an alley, only to see with dismay
that they had closed off the street ahead of us too. In a matter of
seconds, a full line of police cars blocked every street around us from
corner to corner, and police on foot were arresting every activist in
range. We hunkered down in the alley, trying quixotically to hide
between the scattered weeds at the foot of a chain-link fence, a
veritable light show of blue and red reflecting off the brick wall
facing us. A helicopter swooped low overhead. It seemed it was all over.
At this moment, just as we were trying most desperately to will
ourselves invisible, a couple local kids came into the alley and walked
up to us, hands in their sweatshirt pockets as if they were pretending
to hold guns with which to rob us. They quickly abandoned this
half-hearted charade, however, and started asking us questions about
what we were doing. At first, of course, we had to explain that we
weren’t being paid to protest — something that I’m sure was becoming
clearer by the second anyway. Then we explained — succinctly, and not
without a little impatience lest our new friends’ presence attract the
attention of our riot-armored foes — what we were doing there, and asked
their advice as to how we could extricate ourselves from the situation.
There wasn’t much they could tell us — being completely surrounded in
foreign territory by thousands of armored police whose specific goal is
to beat and incarcerate you is a toughie however you look at it.
Eventually they wished us luck and moved on.
We spent a tense hour and a half in that alley, waiting for the sun to
go down and the police lines to break up so we could make a dash for
safety. Long after darkness had fallen, the lights were still flashing
all around us, and police still marching past both mouths of the alley,
and the helicopter was still overhead, now scanning the alley with its
spotlight. Those were some tense minutes for all of us — except the
member of our party who had spent an entire sleepless week volunteering
at the convergence center, who actually took advantage of the situation
to nod off for a while! The only explanation I can come up with for why
they never came into the alley to arrest us is that, for the whole
duration of the protests, the police never moved in groups of fewer than
thirty, and in that “dangerous” neighborhood they feared to break up
their numbers to pick off stragglers. I recount this story here in case
it may be useful to others trying to escape under similar circumstances
one day — heaven help us, such circumstances are getting more and more
common.
Finally the police forces moved on, and we made our way out onto the
street two at a time, without any incriminating material, in the cutest
boy-girl couples we were able to throw together (these work for getting
through police lines, I swear — hold hands, look deep into each other’s
eyes a lot, focus on seeming harmless — earlier that day a companion and
I had penetrated the police defenses as far as the front door of the
hotel hosting the ministerial, thanks to our lovebirds masquerade).
There we found locals waiting to guide us to safety, freely telling us
where the police lines were now and offering to lead us down the safest
routes. Trapped inside police lines, fearing almost for our lives,
nothing could have been sweeter mercy than this. Thanks in no small part
to their help; we arrived back safe at the convergence center an hour
later, grateful to be free and alive.
Our guides, of course, inquired if we had any money, and we penniless
anti-capitalists scrounged in our pockets to see if there was any
leftover subway change to share. I emphasized to one of them that there
was no price that could be placed on such assistance, and she let me
know she would have done it for free, needless to say, as she wanted the
same things we wanted. All the same, the situation — basically paying a
native guide to lead us out of a dangerous situation, as if we were in
wartime Morocco or something — was a reminder of how much economic
inequality there still is even between people on the outside of the
capitalist system. What I’d give to live to see a day when the means she
has access to and the means I have access to are no different, to never
have to wonder again to what extent I’m being regarded as a potential
source of income rather than a fellow human being!
That’s what we’re fighting for, when we contest our enemies’ free trade
conventions and economic power in general. Next time we need to make it
clearer to locals in advance what we’re trying to do, so we won’t have
quite as much misinformation and misunderstandings to cut through to
find common ground. If we can get a full-scale anarchist insurrection
going in any city in this empire, there are millions who will join in,
who need it even worse than we do — but we have to work towards this
conscientiously, with an acute awareness of the challenges other
communities face, and in constant dialogue as to what our role in the
larger struggle should be.
I’ll conclude with the letter some friends distributed in Overtown after
the demonstrations were over. Good for them — let’s see more of that!
protestors:
Thank You Very Much!
Over the last week there were times when anti-F.T.A.A. protestors were
pushed into Overtown by the police. We want people to know:
many of us talked about the need to not do that.
from hundreds of residents.
slice of what poor people of color deal with everyday. We recognize this
system is racist. We are dedicated to smashing racism and the system
behind it.
even more control over all of our lives. It is also the continuation of
the colonial relationships that have been enslaving, killing and
stealing land for over 500 years.
the entire greedy corporate-military-police-war machine that oppresses
life. We are for community empowerment, self-determination, justice and
total liberation. ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!