|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Anti-FTAA Actions in South Florida |
Current rating: 0 |
by Pegi Stentz
(No verified email address) |
27 Apr 2001
|
|
On Friday April 20th in South Miami several hundred local workers, students, activists and interested supporters reclaimed the public spaces in front of and surrounding the Shops at Sunset Place. The targets: corporations such as Nike, Taco Bell, FAO Schwartz and the largely uninformed public. No, there wasn't any coverage on the 7 o'clock news! You just had to be there . |
Solidarity : Against the FTAA
On Friday April 20th in South Miami several hundred local workers, students, activists and interested supporters reclaimed the public spaces in front of and surrounding the Shops at Sunset Place. The targets: corporations such as Nike, Taco Bell, FAO Schwartz and the largely uninformed public. No , there wasn't any coverage on the 7 o'clock news! You just had to be there.
The Street Party began with blocked traffic, street performances, giant hula hoops, colorful flags and banners, fire breathing, drumming, loud chanting, and 3 large anti-FTAA banners dropped on the mall property. One said "LET FREEDOM RING" with a huge Taco Bell logo on the Liberty Bell. Another read "FUCK NIKE". Several people chalked messages onto the sidewalks and in the streets . Approximately 20 groups were represented including the Miami Worker's Center , U of Miami students, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers , 2 of the local Green Parties, Catholic Workers, Global Justice, the new local independant newspaper the "Free Ink Press", Jobs with Justice, Friends of the Earth, the Buffalo
Activist Network, and others. Flyers and pamphlets were distributed to raise awareness of what globalization means : gentrification, sweatshop products, natural habitat destruction & degradation, white supremacy, poverty...... The message : Behind closed doors in Quebec you are being sold out again . Your best interests are being subjagated once again, as corporate greed attempts to control every aspect of life in this hemisphere . Clean air & water, fair living wages, human rights ... why worry about these when we can have PROFITS PROFITS PROFITS ?
The gathering was ENTIRELY PEACEFUL , yet local and county police were called .They contributed little, but the large ominous paddy wagon they brought had a logo painted on the side " City of Pleasant Living " which gave us all a laugh ! . There was one unfortunate arrest ( chalk writing in
the street ) .
On Monday morning , April 23rd a banner which read " STOP CORPORATE GREED : NO FTAA " was beautifully displayed over
I-95 just south of West Palm Beach . Hope everyone realizes that the broken promises in Washington serve to galvanize the opposition in a way that hasn't happened before . Be inspired, and find out all you can , and talk it up to everyone you meet.
To learn more about movements against corporate globalization check out: www.indymedia.org. To get involved in preparations for the World Economic Forum meetings in Miami, Oct. 2001 contact:rodentuprising (at) hotmail.com
" To start the real process of social transformation, you might wanna start with turning off your computer and seeing if you can grow some of your own food... " |
