Tuesday, November 18th
Arrive in Miami. I took a shuttle downtown from the airport to meet up with some of my comrades from the DC Mobilization for Global Justice who are waiting with other activists in front of the Methodist Church on Biscayne Blvd to meet up and rally with Root Cause's 34 mile (one for every member of the FTAA) march. Root Cause is a coalition of local South Florida organizations of low-income workers of color, including POWER U, Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Miami Workers Center.
Driving through downtown Miami, it looked like footage from Palestine. Dozens of fully armored police armed with tear gas guns, tazers, and pellet guns stood on almost every corner. One rider who was in town for unrelated business did not want to get off at her stop out of fear. Large sectors of the city were cordoned off. Local businesses were shuttering up their storefronts at 4 in the afternoon. The growing darkness in the sky made it seem like a hurricane was approaching.
Biscayne Blvd was blocked off, so the driver dropped me as close as he could. As soon as I stepped out of the van, a half-dozen "robo-cops" surrounded me. They demanded to search my bag and told me to get out of here immediately or face arrest. Welcome to Miami.
I managed to find a way down to the church. You could see the Inter- continental Hotel where the FTAA ministers were meeting tower over the skyline. Closer to the ground, a reinforced "superfence" stood almost a half-dozen blocks from the actual hotel with hundred of riot police standing behind.
Despite the early attempts at intimidation, over a thousand tired but still energized yellow shirted Root Cause supporters marched downtown with little interference from the police. Miami is not used to rallies, and it got the attention of those still left downtown. We rallied at Biscayne Park, with Root Cause mixing poetry, speeches by local activists and hip-hop performances. The crowd felt good and energized but we were still unsure of what the next few days would bring. A line of riot police decided to show off their training for the press and presumably us, marching in formation close to our rally, yelling like Marines, and stomping their boots.
Wednesday, November 19
Today was a day of teach ins and preparation for the big actions on Thursday. This was also day thousands of union members from the Steelworkers, Teamsters, SEIU and other were to arrive on charted busses. The Steelworkers arrived in the early afternoon and they were hard to miss. Hundreds of blue-shirted unionists from Indiana, Pennsylvania and beyond poured off the busses. My group headed over to the Gusman Theatre a few blocks over from Biscayne to check out the Global Workers Forum sponsored by the AFL-CIO. As we approached we heard loud chants of "Let them go!" and cops were maneuvering into place. It turns out the police had grabbed a small group of direct action activists off the street in front of the Steelworkers bus. Maybe the police thought that a group of middle aged trade unionists would not care about a handful of "anarchists"; they were wrong. After about a ten-minute stand off, the activists were released. It was solidarity in action and gave us hope about our alliance with the AFL- CIO.
The forum inside, chaired by AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez- Thompson featured a panel of unionists from both the US and throughout the Americas who have been in main line of fire of capitalist globalization. A member of the International Association of Machinists talked about how the Maytag Corporation shut down their facility in his small Illinois town in order to move to the maquiladoras of Mexico. Next to him a woman worker from the same maquiladoras now employed by his former company talked about how the company is now threatening to shut down their operation in Mexico in order to move to the cheaper labor markets of China.
Standing to chant "No more Bush" periodically, the mostly steelworker audience thundered when an unemployed Indiana steelworker Allen Long talked about his recent visit to the steel mills of Brazil. "I went down there and guess what? It's the same fight we have here. We should be the United Steelworkers of the Americas, not the just the United Steelworkers of America."
We waited for reports from the evening spokescouncil meeting as to the final location of tomorrows action as we gather in Biscayne Park to hear Billy Bragg, Boots Riley from the Coup and Dead Prez perform at the People's Gala. The most interesting highlight was when the president of the Florida state AFL-CIO stood next to three young direct action activists promising mutual solidarity and respect tomorrow and a five PM meeting of steelworkers and global justice activists to take down the fence. The months of careful negotiation between the AFL-CIO and the more radical wing of the movement has seemingly paid off. We left as a gentle rain fell on the crowd, a welcome relief from the tropical heat.
Thursday, November 20th
We awake at 5:30 AM to make it to meeting place at 7AM. I got little sleep last night due to the incessant buzz of police helicopters. Since I arrived in Miami, there has been a minimum of 4 low flying helicopters over head at any time and it has grown torturous. The hotel we were crashing at had been targeted with dozens of riot cops standing out front the night before, searching our bags and checking our IDs.
We make to the Government Center Metro Mover Station, only a few blocks from the fence. Hundreds are already milling about, running drum circles. Starhawk's Pagan cluster has already begun chanting and singing. Puppets are being assembled. After a few quick speeches, we head off to the fence. We are now a thousand holding on to about four blocks, surrounded by even more cops and a few armored personal carriers.
Cranes holding rubber bullet wielding police hang above us as we gather in front of the fence. No incidents occur until 10 AM. A grappling hook is thrown on to the top of the fence and the police respond immediately by firing off tear gas canisters and smoke bombs which are promptly thrown back over the fence. Then the police set off a concussion grenade that makes an enormous and frightening noise. Police come charging from behind the fence and we pull back.
At Noon, the AFL-CIO kicks off their pre-march rally in the park as we wait outside the on street, waiting to see what the police will do next. The helicopters are so loud I have trouble talking on the cell phone and even with members of my group. Inside, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka informed the crowd that Miami police had turned away over 170 union buses from the rally, a charge the Saturday Miami Herald would confirm. At a little past 2:30 PM, the permitted march takes off. What was originally an AFL-CIO march has become a genuine multi-racial Rainbow Coalition of global justice groups, from the Green Party and Anarchists to animal liberationists and health care workers. The march of 10,000 makes its way without incident through downtown.
As we return to Biscayne Blvd, unionists return back into Biscayne Park which is tightly controlled by union security that is demanding a bag search for all those entering. A thousand or so remain out on the boulevard.
Finally at around four, a small group of drummers begin to march towards the police line in front of the fence. More and more of us join in, tired of waiting around. Soon hundreds have gathered by the police, chanting "this is what a police state looks like". It seems that finally we get a little too close because cops begin spraying the front line with pepper gas and then unloaded at us with rubber bullets. The group retreats, but incredibly keeps from panicking knowing the disaster that could occur if we all began stampeding. Yells for medic ring out, with some activists unable to walk after being hit in the legs with rubber bullets. Police lines begin to march in from both sides and we know that they are trying to box us in. Some of us in anger began to throw small rocks that lie under the palm trees along the road or empty water bottles but it was an impotent gesture against fully armored and shielded police. The city had removed all the coconuts from the trees a week earlier to prevent anyone from using them "as a weapon".
2nd Ave is the only way of escape, so we carefully make our way down it, keeping an eye out for the now roving line of riot police. I was wondering where all those hundreds of steelworkers were now? Could they hear what was going on only a hundred feet away? Was there an announcement from the stage? Here was when we needed some solidarity the most and we were isolated. My group knew a escape route and a safe space to hide at a local bar, but others were not as lucky and were chased by police as far north as Overtown, over 15 blocks away. Around 130-160 were arrested over the next three hours.
As we sat in the recesses of the bar, which turned out to be a popular hide out for others on the run, we watched the local 5 o'clock news and we got to see the official media "spin" on what we just witnessed. Violent protestors looking to disrupt the AFL-CIO rally and destroy property were illegally gathering and had to be disbursed. One embedded reporter said the police were to be commended for their patience in waiting all day to disperse us. Despite repeated references to us as violent anarchists, the live footage instead showed police pepper spraying wounded demonstrators unable to move and beating the medics trying to help them. Its one thing read your Chomsky and Indy Media and know intellectually that the media lies. Its another to see it first hand.
Miami Police Chief John Timoney, of Philadelphia Republican National Convention fame, reiterated that he was only protecting the legal march from "knucklehead troublemakers", an offer of help that Trumka was not looking for. He told reporters that he put full blame for violence on the police, who he called "aggressive and spoiling for a fight." Another union member told the reporter that she had been to Bogota, Colombia and had not seen this many cops.
We head back to our hotel. It fully surrounded by police in all their armored glory. An attempt to buy groceries from the gas station next door is thwarted by police who tell me to get back into the hotel quick if I know what's good for me. A quick log onto the hotel computer and we find out that there will be a meeting tomorrow at ten AM at the convergence center to build solidarity for those jailed. We hear reports that the FTAA finished up their negotiations a day earlier and that an agreement has been reached.
Friday, November 21st
My group heads out to the convergence center in the morning. It is in a run down, largely desolate neighborhood full of empty lots and warehouses to the north of downtown. The media is also out in full force, though they are forced to wait outside as we go in to join the meeting in progress. There are many questions about the fates of comrades and friends who were arrested and what our next steps are. Extremely high bails have been set for some, including as high as 20,000 for a misdemeanor. It is confirmed that the FTAA ended early after reaching a compromise "agree to not disagree for now" agreement. After nearly two hours sitting on the floor in the cramped and sweaty warehouse, consensus is reached that we should plan to rally at the Miami-Dade County holding jail at 2 PM
At two, we gather across the street from the jail and the police are waiting for us. The media has been informed however, and an impromptu press conference denouncing state repression is held in the parking lot. Representatives from the state AFL-CIO and South Floridians for Fair Trade and Global Justice show up and denounce police violence. A collection of various projectiles shot as us is put on display for photographers.
We want to let our imprisoned brothers and sisters know that we are there, so we moved to the side of the street facing the holding cells and chant loudly. A representative from the South Floridians for Fair Trade and Global Justice lets us know that the police have placed the jailed demonstrators under lock down until we leave. We do not know if it's a police trick or not, though I latter find out from the mother of one of the arrested who went to bail out her son that in fact they were placed under lock down.
Our group of a few hundred is soon dwarfed by the nearly thousand police that has poured in from every direction. Empty green and white busses with bars on the windows also show up. We are totally cordoned off and it is clear that the police are planning to have us join those we came to show solidarity with. Most of my group has already left to drive to Georgia for the School of Americas Protest, so I decided it was a good time for me to get out. As I am walking a group of cops detain me and empty my backpack. They hold me for about 20 minutes and pepper me with a series of questions about where I am going and what "crimes" I have committed. After originally telling me that I will have to go back and join the remnants of the protest, they decide to let me go. Over a hundred were arrested and many are still in jail as I am writing this.
As I rode the bus to my hostel on Miami Beach, I struck up a conversation with Kathleen, a young women who is a student at Miami-Dade community college, an organizer with Food Not Bombs and one of the handful of local activists who helped organize the protests. "Its going to be weird when all this organizing and resources that have been here for the last two months will be gone in only a couple days" she told me. She admitted that the activist scene in Miami, one of capital's increasingly strategic locals is small but that she was hopeful that the protests would help it grow past N20. "We are small but I learned a lot from this and now a lot more people here are aware of the issues and I think that will help the movement grow in Miami despite what the cops do."
Saturday, November 22
As I ride the plane home, I try to reflect on what happened through my haze of exhaustion. Was Miami a victory or a loss for the global justice movement? What did it signify? No, we didn't stop the FTAA. However, while it didn't end in a walk out, the resolution coming out of the meeting seems very shaky and the US agreed to it largely to avoid another Cancun fiasco and to advance Miami as a frontrunner for FTAA headquarters. So, I think we should take the US's trumpeting of success with an enormous grain of salt.
In terms of the movement, I think trying to decipher the success or failure of Miami through comparisons with Seattle and Cancun is not very helpful. In Seattle, the global justice movement caught the WTO and the Seattle Police department by total surprise. Miami police were training for six months prior to the FTAA under one of the most repressive and experienced police chiefs in the US.
In Cancun, the global justice movement was able to operate in a country that itself was not very happy about the way the WTO was going and therefore unlikely to shell out the over 15 million that Miami and the Federal government spent on repressive forces.
What Miami does signal loud and clear is that the state from this point on will through any means necessary try to preempt, disrupt and repress any mass dissent with the powers that be. No doubt workshops and memos on how to do it like Miami will be circulating in every major urban police department across the country very shortly. A chilling precedent has been set.
Saying that, the movement did make some positive gains. Despite still swimming in two different streams, the AFL-CIO and the direct action movement worked in relatively close solidarity, the closest so far at any of the major demonstrations. There has been so far no finger pointing like that occurred after Seattle. Everyone from the labor movement, to Public Citizen to Indy Media have focused their fire on the main target, the Miami Police and their masters, global capital. Most everyone realizes that the Miami PD considered the sheer audacity to demonstrate to be enough of a provocation to justify a police violence that was directed at everyone, not just the Black bloc. The state has learned a lot, but so has the global justice movement and we need to think creatively as we face 2004, an extremely ripe year for resistance.