Armed with visions ... Anarchists descend on Miami FTAA Summit

Capitalist globalization will have a name and a face in Miami this month when Trade Ministers from 34 nations in the Western hemisphere and hundreds of their corporate conquistador allies gather for the FTAA Ministerial Meetings.

Despite shallow and slanderous efforts to discredit protesters, resistance in Miami is growing. Anarchists will be among tens of thousands in the streets to expose the neo-colonial agenda of “free trade”. Through bold and creative direct action, coupled with outreach and education efforts, anarchists and other radicals will add another chapter to the living history of the global justice movement.

Though they may not label themselves anarchists, many of those challenging capitalist globalization in the streets across our hemisphere do so in the anarchist traditions of cooperation, resistance, solidarity, creativity and mutual aid. It is this spirit that compels us to mobilize against the FTAA.

As an expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is promoted by its creators and beneficiaries as a cure-all for the socio-economic ills of the western hemisphere. From the well-documented social and ecological fallout after 10 years of NAFTA, it is clear that an expansion of such an accord, from the perspective of the powerless and marginalized, can only mean an increase in unemployment domestically, proliferation of sweat-shop style jobs regionally, cuts and privatization of social services across the hemisphere, reinvigorated displacement of indigenous and working class communities, the exacerbation of economic and social disparities among classes and races between and within participating countries, and an increase in the ecological destruction of many of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. For the vast majority of people in our hemisphere, the FTAA and globalization symbolize both an old story and the tip of a tragic iceberg. “Free trade” and the global economic system itself are justified by an underlying ill-logic of shortsighted profiteering that sees water, air and human labor as objects to be manipulated and controlled. Crafted and pioneered in the interests of capital and financial gain, anarchists see the FTAA as a continuation of the transatlantic slave trade, European plundering of the Americas, the colonization of Africa and Asia and the concept of Manifest Destiny that saw indigenous peoples and wild areas decimated in the taming of North America’s lands.

Capitalist expansion has been a slave whip and a death sentence slaughtering its way through history. Social and economic justice movements across the Americas and the globe are rallying around a common struggle in opposition to this would-be death sentence.
Many at the forefront of this ‘movement of movements’ have approached the globalization debate with a total rejection of the dominant social system, using decision-making structures that empower individuals and respect community self-determination. By articulating connections between the accumulation of capital, ecological devastation, cultural genocide, and military excursions, we continuously broaden our understanding of the webs of power we face. The concept of anarchy, literally meaning “without rulers”, is considered by many to have been the prevalent form of social relations throughout most of the history of the human species. Modern anarchist movements are similarly characterized by a faith in the cooperative nature of humanity, rooted in principles that firmly reject representations of authority and power in favor of embracing cooperation over competition, self-determination over government, equality over race/class status or privilege and consensus decision-making as opposed to hierarchical structures.

From Gerard Winstanley’s Diggers to the communards of Paris to the Haymarket martyrs’ fight for an 8-hour day to Joe Hill and the radical IWW trade unionists in the U.S. to the free speech fights and groundbreaking birth control campaigns of Emma Goldman to the various international anarchist brigades that took up arms against fascism in the Spanish Revolution, anarchists have traditionally confronted authoritarian governments and economies tailored by and for elites. In recent times, this analysis has also extended to critiques of Euro-centrism, gender oppression, commodification of the natural world, and other forms of exploitation. Anarchist principles of voluntary cooperation inform the development of sustainable models for meeting basic needs within our communities. History has proven these efforts as viable options, a notable example being Spain in 1936.

Today, while excessive attention is lavished on the City of Miami’s preparation for The FTAA meetings - a city ordinance restricting free expression, courthouse closures, relocating ships to other ports, suspending daily activities in downtown and cordoning off the area south of Flagler Street - the facts suggest that this climate of fear is intended to incite hysteria and divide the people of Miami. “This comes as no surprise to those who see the Nation-state as an occupying force that thrives on turning its subjects against one another,” says Terra Selvaggia, an anarchist from Ontario,Canada. Anarchists will certainly be present at the mass mobilization in a wide variety of roles, including confrontational resistance. But we are unified by a shared commitment to support local struggles and show solidarity with the dispossessed of Latin America and the Caribbean. As people determined to make a statement against the plunder of our common future courageously square off once again with a deadly serious, multi-million dollar security apparatus, the visions of a new world overwhelm our fears of repression.

Already this world is giving way to the values of diversity, sharing and ecological concern, but the ruling class will not step down without a fight. Wherever they gather to plot out their path of domination we will be there too, with passion & solidarity, to storm the barricades of the elite and continue changing the course of the future.

The Taking Aim media collective consists of anarchists hailing from various locales, including South Florida. We feel the need to communicate with the mass media and the public at large because so much of the coverage around past mobilizations has neglected to represent our political perspectives accurately, or to show the variety of activities and organizations in which we participate - from direct, disruptive confrontation such as toppling barricades and trashing corporate property to the mutual aid of child caretakers, cooks & medics for protests as well as creative outreach through various forms of art, street theater & independent media. We are releasing this information so that our perspectives may be expressed BY us, instead of FOR us. “THEY MAY BLAST AND LAY BARE TO THIS WORLD BEFORE THEY GO, BUT WE CARRY A NEW WORLD HERE IN OUR HEARTS, AND THIS WORLD IS GROWING AS WE SPEAK...” --BUENAVENTURA DURRUTI, KILLED NOV. 20TH 1936 FIGHTING FASCISM IN SPAIN

For up-to-date non-commercial news on FTAA and its discontents:  http://www.FTAAIMC.org/