Bringing the Heat in Miami

BRINGING THE HEAT IN MIAMI:

An Analysis of Direct Action at the November 2003 F.T.A.A. Ministerial

VICTORY BEFORE WE EVEN HIT THE STREETS

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.

WE ARE EVERYWHERE

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<sum>‰ he began, echoing the familiar words of many
a legal observer before him, „<sum>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.

SUPPORT FROM UNEXPECTED PLACES

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.

DIRECT ACTION PLANNING

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.
IF YOU ATTACK ONE OF US, YOU ATTACK ALL OF US

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<sum> 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.

WHAT DID WORK: Building Alliances, Putting Down Roots, and Taking 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:

-Free housing, free food, free legal and free medical support was
provided by and for thousands of people throughout the mobilization.
Talk about workable alternatives to capitalis

-The Green and Eco-Bloc set up a community garden in Overtown, and
distributed cherry trees throughout the neighborhood as well as sharing
gardening skills and other resources that will be of lasting value.

-Hundreds of people participated in the Root Cause march, which crossed 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.

-Six weeks before the F.T.A.A. ministerial, the anarchists in the Lake
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.

-Both prior to the main days of action and after, anarchists in South
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.

-A couple affinity groups working together compiled and distributed
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.

-Autonomous direct actions<sum> One can guess that many affinity groups
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.

-"The Really Really Free Market" took place on the day after the main
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.

MIAMI SCORECARD: What we did, what we didn‚t do, what we learned<sum>

Before we conclude, let‚s review some of the goals we have to choose
from whenever we engage in mass direct action:

a. costing our enemies money and otherwise interfering with their misdeeds

b. enjoying the liberating experience of taking on the powers that be
and winning

c. revealing the capitalist state for what it is by provoking police
repression

d. learning how to act and apply power in anti-authoritarian masses

e. communicating with "the world" through mass media

f. communicating with locals about the issues

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<sum> 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.