Anarchist Writers

The crowd at the FIU Labour studies support rally

We had the Miami meeting last night at the Black Mangrove collective and it was the first outdoor meeting. For some reason all the NE meetings were in doors.

We'd a packed house (or rather packed space behind the house) with around 35 people and from talking to people afterwards people found it useful. For quite a few people at the meeting this was their first detailed exposure to anarchism and a couple told me they were going to go away and look up stuff in a lot more detail. In terms of feeling the tour this worthwhile this is the best sort of feedback I can get.

I've had a very interesting few days in Miami and spent hours and hours looking around the city, visiting radical non-profits and other organizations and attending various radical events. A lot of people in the NE said stuff to me when I told them I was heading along here along of the lines of Miami being a bit of a political desert, what I've actually found is a movement that although small is very healthy and with a lot of great work being done. There is a very strong sense of potential here and the next few years could be interesting.

Briefly here are some of the stuff I visited, thanks to everyone who took time out to talk to a visitor from a distant land.

PowerU and the Miami Workers Centre, two radical non-profits involved in housing and other struggles in the African American areas of the city

Jobs with Justice, another radical non profit this time focused more on the work side of the work, community organizing spectrum. Recently however they have been organising trailor parks which are threatened by property speculation. The land the park is on is worth far more than the income and residents are being evicted resulting in them losing their mobile homes.

Take Back the Land, a direct action orientated housing initiative which a bit over a year back organised a six month occupation of a vacant lot and the construction of a shanty town there which housed around 150 people at one point or another of its existence.

Firefly - a 'punk house' / infoshop which provides a radical library, art and music space in the downtown area.

Black Mangrove Collective who brought me down here, run a book service and are working towards opening a anti-authoritarian bookshop/coffee shop / social space.

While there I also attended a lunchtime gathering at the Labour Studies department at Florida International University. The existence of the department is threatened by budget cuts and an impressive range of community organisations and unions, including all those listed, had gathered to show support for them.

I've done an audio interview with Patrick of Black Mangrove which touches on many of these struggle and can be found at http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/apr2008/miami.mp3

Incidentally I've realised that indymedia.ie sound files are being podcast the the iTunes store which means if you subscribe to the other free shows there you can subscribe to that stream and automatically get new content downloaded. In the last couple of months 80% of that content has been these interviews.