Center for Pan-African Development

Support Take Back the Land TODAY!

2010-12-31T12:38:00.001-05:00

Greetings

In 2010, the housing crisis deepened and politicians continued to serve the interests of the financial industry over the needs of people. Through it all, Take Back the Land has stood tall and fought for what we believe: elevating housing to the level of a human right and community control over land.

As 2010 comes to a close and we walk into 2011, we are asking you to financially support our work with a year end tax-deductible contribution.

DONATE NOW TO TAKE BACK THE LAND

In 2010, Take Back the Land made headlines across the country with our May 2010 Month of Action, featuring housing liberations and eviction defenses in numerous cities across the US, including Portland, OR; Madison, WI; Toledo, OH; New Orleans, LA; Washington, DC; and Miami, FL.

We provide movement support- such as training, messaging and strategic campaign planning- to local organizations fighting for the human right to housing and for community control over land. We can intensify our efforts in 2011, but only with your help, so we are asking you to make a contribution today. If you make a contribution today, your gift is tax deductible for 2010. This could be your only chance to get the government to help in this fight.

DONATE NOW TO TAKE BACK THE LAND

So, please give generously and stay in touch at takebacktheland.org.

forward,

Max Rameau

In case you missed them, here are some of the newsworthy highlights from just the second half of 2010:

Monica Adams of Take Back the Land- Madison talks about the connections between Take Back the Land and the Landless Peoples' Movement (MST) in Brazil

http://www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=181

Take Back the Land- Rochester liberates a home in New York

http://www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=182

Take Back the Land on Pop & Politics with Farai Chideya

http://www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=170

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Foreclosure crisis puts Wall Stree reform legislation to the test

2010-10-22T07:18:00.001-05:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102106479.html?hpid=sec-business

Foreclosure crisis puts Wall Street reform legislation to the test
Ryan Sees U.S. Foreclosure Moratorium as `Catastrophic'

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tim Ryan, president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, talks about a possible mortgage foreclosure moratorium in the U.S. and its effect on banks. He speaks with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse."

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 21, 2010; 8:40 PM

The foreclosure problems that have unfolded in recent weeks present a test of whether financial regulators can respond more cohesively and aggressively to an emerging problem than they did to the subprime crisis three years ago.
This Story

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Foreclosure crisis puts Wall Street reform legislation to the test
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Florida activists read between the lines on foreclosure paperwork
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Major title insurer insists lenders vouch for foreclosure paperwork
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Foreclosure Nation
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Ryan Sees U.S. Foreclosure Moratorium as `Catastrophic'
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Timeline: Foreclosure debacle
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Full coverage: Foreclosure system in chaos

The Wall Street reform legislation that was passed over the summer created new procedures for financial policymakers to coordinate their response to big, overarching risks like this one. So far, officials at the Treasury Department, federal bank regulators and housing-related agencies say they are in frequent contact, swapping information about the crisis that has stemmed from faulty documentation behind many home foreclosures.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, which brings together the Treasury secretary and heads of major financial regulators to consider such broad potential threats to the financial system, has met only once, just before the current crisis broke out.

But now, several of its members and their deputies are trying to coordinate their efforts to understand the scope of the current problem.

The consensus view among the officials involved is that although the latest problems will probably tie up the big banks in expensive litigation for years and slow down the foreclosure process, the banks should be able to weather the losses and the problems are unlikely to cause a broader crisis for the overall housing market or economy.

But the government failed to foresee the ways the subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007 would ripple through the economy, and now a Treasury official said there is a concerted push to understand the full potential of the new problem.

The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and other bank regulators have examiners on the ground inside major banks - and the power to force them to improve their procedures. Fed economists are constantly monitoring risks to the economy as a whole. The Federal Housing Finance Agency oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which in turn can lean on mortgage-servicing companies that may not be complying with their obligations in how they deal with borrowers. The Securities and Exchange Commission has responsibilities over disclosure matters in mortgage-backed securities.

"We'll learn something from this mess about how the new coordination structure works," said Douglas Elliott, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
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One major challenge for financial regulators is that even if they accurately identify the risks that the new crisis poses for the broader economy, they may not be able to do much about them. Mistakes by mortgage-servicing companies generally involve state property laws, leaving enforcement in the hands of state attorneys general and judges around the country.

If their decisions end up making it so much harder to foreclose on properties that mortgage-backed securities become more expensive, it could make it harder to get a mortgage loan and thus cause damage to the housing market as a whole. Yet in that scenario, federal economic policymakers would be challenged to find ways to fix the problem.

Bank regulators, including the OCC and the Fed, could have more of a role to play in trying to prevent the foreclosure mistakes from recurring, and have clear tools with which to put pressure on banks to clean up their act.

"The regulators will probably want to send in examiners to assess the situation in very focused examinations, to try to ascertain how much of a problem there is," said Ernest Patrikis, a partner who practices banking law at White & Case and a former general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "Then where they find problems, they will say, 'what are your remedial plans, how will you fix it?'"

If the foreclosure process is slowed down too much, it could lead people to hold off on home purchases as they wait for a new, cheaper supply of homes to hit the market. In that sense, it could further delay a recovery in the long-ailing housing market.

"There are very serious issues to be worked through, and there are a wide range of possibilities of how severe the impact will be," said Elliott. "At the same time, it's not a perfect test of the new approach to financial regulation because so many of the issues here are legal ones and lay outside the direct influence of financial regulators."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102106479.html?hpid=sec-business

Conservative Movement Meeting to take power

2010-10-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20koch.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Secretive Republican Donors Are Planning Ahead
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: October 19, 2010

A secretive network of Republican donors is heading to the Palm Springs area for a long weekend in January, but it will not be to relax after a hard-fought election — it will be to plan for the next one.
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An invitation to an event in January that is being held by Koch Industries’ network of donors.

Koch Industries, an energy and manufacturing conglomerate run by the billionaire brothers Charles, left, and David Koch operates a foundation that finances political advocacy groups, but is protected from having to disclose much about what they do.

Koch Industries, the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes from the Cato Institute in Washington to the ballot initiative that would suspend California’s landmark law capping greenhouse gases, is planning a confidential meeting at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa to, as an invitation says, “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.”

The invitation, sent to potential new participants, offers a rare peek at the Koch network of the ultrawealthy and the politically well-connected, its far-reaching agenda to enlist ordinary Americans to its cause, and its desire for the utmost secrecy.

Koch Industries, a Wichita-based energy and manufacturing conglomerate run by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, operates a foundation that finances political advocacy groups, but tax law protects those groups from having to disclose much about what they do and who contributes.

With a personalized letter signed by Charles Koch, the invitation to the four-day Rancho Mirage meeting opens with a grand call to action: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

The Koch network meets twice a year to plan and expand its efforts — as the letter says, “to review strategies for combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it.”

Those efforts, the letter makes clear, include countering “climate change alarmism and the move to socialized health care,” as well as “the regulatory assault on energy,” and making donations to higher education and philanthropic organizations to advance the Koch agenda.

The Kochs also seek to cultivate Americans’ growing concern about the growth of government: at the most recent meeting, in Aspen, Colo., in June, some of the wealthiest people in America listened to a presentation on “a vision of how we can retain the moral high ground and make the new case for liberty and smaller government that appeals to all Americans, rich and poor.”

The goals for the twice-yearly meetings, the brochure says, include attracting more investors to the cause, but also building institutions “to identify, educate and mobilize citizens” and “fashioning the message and building the education channels to re-establish widespread belief in the benefits of a free and prosperous society.”

Charles Koch, whose wealth Forbes magazine calculates at about $21.5 billion, argues in his letter that “prosperity is under attack by the current administration and many of our elected officials.” He repeatedly warns about the “internal assault” and “unrelenting attacks” on freedom and prosperity. A brochure with the invitation underscores that to the Koch network, “freedom” means freedom from taxes and government regulation. Mr. Koch warns of policies that “threaten to erode our economic freedom and transfer vast sums of money to the state.”

The Kochs insist on strict confidentiality surrounding the California meetings, which are entitled “Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity.” The letter advises participants that it is closed to the public, including the news media, and admonishes them not to post updates or information about the meeting on the Web, blogs, social media or traditional media, and to “be mindful of the security and confidentiality of your meeting notes and materials.”

Invited participants are told they must wear nametags for all meeting functions. And, ensuring that no one tries to gain access by posing as a participant, the invitation says that reservations will be handled through Koch Industries’ office in Washington: “Please do not contact the Rancho Las Palmas directly to place a reservation.”

To give prospective participants a sense of what to expect, Mr. Koch’s letter enclosed a brochure from the group’s meeting at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, including a list of the roughly 200 participants — a confab of hedge fund executives, Republican donors, free-market evangelists and prominent members of the New York social circuit.

They listened to a presentations on “microtargeting” to identify like-minded voters, as well as a discussion about voter mobilization featuring Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, the political action group founded by the Kochs in 2004, which campaigned against the health care legislation passed in March and is helping Tea Party groups set up get-out-the-vote operations.

Other sessions discussed the opportunities in the presidential election of 2012 to address threats to free enterprise and “how supporters of economic freedom might start planning today.”

Impressed by the Koch efforts for the midterms, the invitation cover letter says, Aspen participants “committed to an unprecedented level of support.”

“However,” it adds, “even if these efforts succeed, other serious threats demand action.”

The participants in Aspen dined under the stars at the top of the gondola run on Aspen Mountain, and listened to Glenn Beck of Fox News in a session titled, “Is America on the Road to Serfdom?” (The title refers to a classic of Austrian economic thought that informs libertarian ideology, popularized by Mr. Beck on his show.)The participants included some of the nation’s wealthiest families and biggest names in finance: private equity and hedge fund executives like John Childs, Cliff Asness, Steve Schwarzman and Ken Griffin; Phil Anschutz, the entertainment and media mogul ranked by Forbes as the 34th-richest person in the country; Rich DeVos, the co-founder of Amway; Steve Bechtel of the giant construction firm; and Kenneth Langone of Home Depot.

The group also included longtime Republican donors and officials, including Foster Friess, Fred Malek and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

Participants listened to presentations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as people who played leading roles in John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, like Nancy Pfotenhauer and Annie Dickerson, who also runs a foundation for Paul Singer, a hedge fund executive who like the Kochs is active in promoting libertarian causes.

To encourage new participants, Mr. Koch offers to waive the $1,500 registration fee. And he notes that previous guests have included Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, Gov. Haley Barbour and Gov. Bobby Jindal, Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, and Representatives Mike Pence, Tom Price and Paul D. Ryan.

Mr. Koch also notes the beautiful setting. But he advises against thinking of this as a vacation.

“Our ultimate goal is not ‘fun in the sun,’ ” he concludes. “This is a gathering of doers who are willing to engage in the hard work necessary to advance our shared principles. Success in this endeavor will require all the help we can muster.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20koch.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Housing crisis hits Blacks the hardest

2010-10-20T09:19:00.001-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/19/inam.housing.foreclosure.money/index.html?hpt=T2

CNN's Soledad O'Brien looks at how some are fighting debt from the pulpit in "Almighty Debt: A Black in America Special," premiering at 9 p.m. ET on October 21.

(CNNMoney.com) -- The foreclosure crisis has hit blacks harder than any other group in America and it will be tough for them to regain their footing in the housing market.

Blacks' homeownership rate has plummeted nearly 6 percent to 46.2 percent since its peak in 2004. That's more than twice that of any other racial or ethnic group, as well as the nation's rate as a whole, which fell only 2.3 percent, according to U.S. Census data.

Also, among recent borrowers, nearly 8 percent of blacks have lost their homes to foreclosure, compared to 4.5 percent of whites, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Latinos, who have also been pummeled by the mortgage meltdown, came in a close second behind blacks in foreclosure losses.

The consequences are devastating. Fewer blacks own their home now than any other racial or ethnic group and that makes it even more difficult for them to achieve financial security and attain wealth.

"We built the middle class on homeownership," said Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League, which works to empower the black community. "How many people have built their business with the equity in their home? How many people have sent their kids to college with the equity in their home?"

The loss of homeownership is more than the difference between a mortgage payment and a rent check, experts say. Purchasing property is the key to building wealth, which not only allows people to improve their quality of life and provide more for their children, but also gives them a cushion during tough economic times.

CNNMoney: Foreclosures: Next to hit banks?

"Billions and billions of dollars were stripped away from a community that already had lower levels of wealth than white communities," said Debbie Bocian, senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending, which estimates blacks will lose $194 billion in wealth through 2012 due to the mortgage meltdown. "It exacerbates all the socio-economic divides. The consequences are intergenerational."

Subprime lending and unemployment

During the housing boom, nearly seven in 10 Americans owned their home, a gain of 7.8 percent from a decade earlier. Black Americans saw their home ownership rates rise twice as fast to 49.1 percent, thanks in large part to easy credit.

But many of those new mortgages -- which often came with low teaser rates that would adjust upward after two or three years -- would prove unaffordable.

Overall, blacks were 150 percent more likely to get high-cost loans, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Even when they had similar income and credit scores as white borrowers, blacks were about 30 percent more likely to be steered to expensive mortgages.

When home prices started to fall, borrowers found themselves trapped in subprime loans. And since so many people in the black community had these mortgages, they suffered disproportionately in the early stages of the mortgage meltdown.

Now, the foreclosure crisis has now expanded beyond the subprime market. More and more people with stronger credit backgrounds and more stable mortgages are defaulting on their loans because they've lost their jobs.

CNNMoney: Embattled homeowner to bank: You don't own my loan

But here too, blacks are at a disadvantage. Black unemployment stood at 16.1 percent in September, the highest of any group and 6.5 percentage points above the national average.

"The unemployment rate in the African-American community is sky high," said Chris Herbert, research director at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. "That's certainly behind their high foreclosure rate."

Tight credit going forward

It's tough for anyone to get a mortgage these days. But it's even more difficult if you are black.

Nearly one-third of blacks were denied loans in 2009, compared to 13.1 percent of whites and 25.6 percent of Latinos, according to federal data released last month. The disparity can't be explained solely by differences in applicants' incomes and loan amount requested. Even when these factors are the same, blacks are still twice as likely to be turned down, a Home Mortgage Disclosure Act report found.

Nearly 49.8 percent of blacks had their refinance applications rejected, compared to 21 percent of whites and 41 percent of Latinos.

These stats mean that many blacks can't shift into lower-cost mortgages in order to save their homes, nor can they purchase their first property and boost homeownership rates.

CNNMoney: After foreclosure: How long until you can buy again?

"Credit constraints are a real concern," Herbert said. "While there is a need for tighter underwriting standards, we have to be careful not to go too far and unnecessarily limit access to credit that helps families manage their finances and build wealth."

One solution that the National Urban League is pushing is more homebuyer education programs. First-time purchasers who go through a course that teaches them about budgets, debt, home maintenance costs and risky, expensive loans are less likely to default, experts say.

"We need a fundamental commitment to housing counseling to prepare people to become homeowners," Morial said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/19/inam.housing.foreclosure.money/index.html?hpt=T2

Russell Means on Capitalism

2010-10-19T12:48:00.001-05:00

“For America to Live, Europe Must Die”

Russell Means

Russell Means

Reproduced from Black Hawk Productions.

The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is Russell Means’s most famous speech.

“The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of “legitimate” thinking; what is written has an importance that is denied the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world’s ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples, the imposing of an abstraction over the spoken relationship of a people.

So what you read here is not what I’ve written. It’s what I’ve said and someone else has written down. I will allow this because it seems that the only way to communicate with the white world is through the dead, dry leaves of a book. I don’t really care whether my words reach whites or not. They have already demonstrated through their history that they cannot hear, cannot see; they can only read (of course, there are exceptions, but the exceptions only prove the rule). I’m more concerned with American Indian people, students and others, who have begun to be absorbed into the white world through universities and other institutions. But even then it’s a marginal sort of concern. It’s very possible to grow into a red face with a white mind; and if that’s a person’s individual choice, so be it, but I have no use for them. This is part of the process of cultural genocide being waged by Europeans against American Indian peoples’ today. My concern is with those American Indians who choose to resist this genocide, but who may be confused as to how to proceed.

(You notice I use the term American Indian rather than Native American or Native indigenous people or Amerindian when referring to my people. There has been some controversy about such terms, and frankly, at this point, I find it absurd. Primarily it seems that American Indian is being rejected as European in origin–which is true. But all the above terms are European in origin; the only non-European way is to speak of Lakota–or, more precisely, of Oglala, Brule, etc.–and of the Dineh, the Miccousukee, and all the rest of the several hundred correct tribal names.

(There is also some confusion about the word Indian, a mistaken belief that it refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492. Look it up on the old maps. Columbus called the tribal people he met “Indio,” from the Italian in dio, meaning “in God.”)

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. It must come from the hoop, the four directions, the relations: it cannot come from the pages of a book or a thousand books. No European can ever teach a Lakota to be Lakota, a Hopi to be Hopi. A master’s degree in “Indian Studies” or in “education” or in anything else cannot make a person into a human being or provide knowledge into traditional ways. It can only make you into a mental European, an outsider.

I should be clear about something here, because there seems to be some confusion about it. When I speak of Europeans or mental Europeans, I’m not allowing for false distinctions. I’m not saying that on the one hand there are the by-products of a few thousand years of genocidal, reactionary, European intellectual development which is bad; and on the other hand there is some new revolutionary intellectual development which is good. I’m referring here to the so-called theories of Marxism and anarchism and “leftism” in general. I don’t believe these theories can be separated from the rest of the of the European intellectual tradition. It’s really just the same old song.

The process began much earlier. Newton, for example, “revolutionized” physics and the so-called natural sciences by reducing the physical universe to a linear mathematical equation. Descartes did the same thing with culture. John Locke did it with politics, and Adam Smith did it with economics. Each one of these “thinkers” took a piece of the spirituality of human existence and converted it into code, an abstraction. They picked up where Christianity ended: they “secularized” Christian religion, as the “scholars” like to say–and in doing so they made Europe more able and ready to act as an expansionist culture. Each of these intellectual revolutions served to abstract the European mentality even further, to remove the wonderful complexity and spirituality from the universe and replace it with a logical sequence: one, two, three. Answer!

This is what has come to be termed “efficiency” in the European mind. Whatever is mechanical is perfect; whatever seems to work at the moment–that is, proves the mechanical model to be the right one–is considered correct, even when it is clearly untrue. This is why “truth” changes so fast in the European mind; the answers which result from such a process are only stopgaps, only temporary, and must be continuously discarded in favor of new stopgaps which support the mechanical models and keep them (the models) alive.

Hegel and Marx were heirs to the thinking of Newton, Descartes, Locke and Smith. Hegel finished the process of secularizing theology–and that is put in his own terms–he secularized the religious thinking through which Europe understood the universe. Then Marx put Hegel’s philosophy in terms of “materialism,” which is to say that Marx despiritualized Hegel’s work altogether. Again, this is in Marx’ own terms. And this is now seen as the future revolutionary potential of Europe. Europeans may see this as revolutionary, but American Indians see it simply as still more of that same old European conflict between being and gaining. The intellectual roots of a new Marxist form of European imperialism lie in Marx’–and his followers’–links to the tradition of Newton, Hegel and the others.

Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain. Material gain is an indicator of false status among traditional people, while it is “proof that the system works” to Europeans. Clearly, there are two completely opposing views at issue here, and Marxism is very far over to the other side from the American Indian view. But let’s look at a major implication of this; it is not merely an intellectual debate.

The European materialist tradition of despiritualizing the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. And who seems most expert at dehumanizing other people? And why? Soldiers who have seen a lot of combat learn to do this to the enemy before going back into combat. Murderers do it before going out to commit murder. Nazi SS guards did it to concentration camp inmates. Cops do it. Corporation leaders do it to the workers they send into uranium mines and steel mills. Politicians do it to everyone in sight. And what the process has in common for each group doing the dehumanizing is that it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people. One of the Christian commandments says, “Thou shalt not kill,” at least not humans, so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into nonhumans. Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment as a virtue.

In terms of the despiritualization of the universe, the mental process works so that it becomes virtuous to destroy the planet. Terms like progress and development are used as cover words here, the way victory and freedom are used to justify butchery in the dehumanization process. For example, a real-estate speculator may refer to “developing” a parcel of ground by opening a gravel quarry; development here means total, permanent destruction, with the earth itself removed. But European logic has gained a few tons of gravel with which more land can be “developed” through the construction of road beds. Ultimately, the whole universe is open–in the European view–to this sort of insanity.

Most important here, perhaps, is the fact that Europeans feel no sense of loss in all this. After all, their philosophers have despiritualized reality, so there is no satisfaction (for them) to be gained in simply observing the wonder of a mountain or a lake or a people in being. No, satisfaction is measured in terms of gaining material. So the mountain becomes gravel, and the lake becomes coolant for a factory, and the people are rounded up for processing through the indoctrination mills Europeans like to call schools.

But each new piece of that “progress” ups the ante out in the real world. Take fuel for the industrial machine as an example. Little more than two centuries ago, nearly everyone used wood–a replenishable, natural item–as fuel for the very human needs of cooking and staying warm. Along came the Industrial Revolution and coal became the dominant fuel, as production became the social imperative for Europe. Pollution began to become a problem in the cities, and the earth was ripped open to provide coal whereas wood had always simply been gathered or harvested at no great expense to the environment. Later, oil became the major fuel, as the technology of production was perfected through a series of scientific “revolutions.” Pollution increased dramatically, and nobody yet knows what the environmental costs of pumping all that oil out of the ground will really be in the long run. Now there’s an “energy crisis,” and uranium is becoming the dominant fuel.

Capitalists, at least, can be relied upon to develop uranium as fuel only at the rate which they can show a good profit. That’s their ethic, and maybe they will buy some time. Marxists, on the other hand, can be relied upon to develop uranium fuel as rapidly as possible simply because it’s the most “efficient” production fuel available. That’s their ethic, and I fail to see where it’s preferable. Like I said, Marxism is right smack in the middle of European tradition. It’s the same old song.

There’s a rule of thumb which can be applied here. You cannot judge the real nature of a European revolutionary doctrine on the basis of the changes it proposes to make within the European power structure and society. You can only judge it by the effects it will have on non-European peoples. This is because every revolution in European history has served to reinforce Europe’s tendencies and abilities to export destruction to other peoples, other cultures and the environment itself. I defy anyone to point out an example where this is not true.

So now we, as American Indian people, are asked to believe that a “new” European revolutionary doctrine such as Marxism will reverse the negative effects of European history on us. European power relations are to be adjusted once again, and that’s supposed to make things better for all of us. But what does this really mean?

Right now, today, we who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation are living in what white society has designated a “National Sacrifice Area.” What this means is that we have a lot of uranium deposits here, and white culture (not us) needs this uranium as energy production material. The cheapest, most efficient way for industry to extract and deal with the processing of this uranium is to dump the waste by-products right here at the digging sites. Right here where we live. This waste is radioactive and will make the entire region uninhabitable forever. This is considered by the industry, and by the white society that created this industry, to be an “acceptable” price to pay for energy resource development. Along the way they also plan to drain the water table under this part of South Dakota as part of the industrial process, so the region becomes doubly uninhabitable. The same sort of thing is happening down in the land of the Navajo and Hopi, up in the land of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow, and elsewhere. Thirty percent of the coal in the West and half of the uranium deposits in the United States have been found to lie under reservation land, so there is no way this can be called a minor issue.

We are resisting being turned into a National Sacrifice Area. We are resisting being turned into a national sacrifice people. The costs of this industrial process are not acceptable to us. It is genocide to dig uranium here and drain the water table–no more, no less.

Now let’s suppose that in our resistance to extermination we begin to seek allies (we have). Let’s suppose further that we were to take revolutionary Marxism at its word: that it intends nothing less than the complete overthrow of the European capitalists order which has presented this threat to our very existence. This would seem to be a natural alliance for American Indian people to enter into. After all, as the Marxists say, it is the capitalists who set us up to be a national sacrifice. This is true as far as it goes.

But, as I’ve tried to point out, this “truth” is very deceptive. Revolutionary Marxism is committed to even further perpetuation and perfection of the very industrial process which is destroying us all. It offers only to “redistribute” the results–the money, maybe–of this industrialization to a wider section of the population. It offers to take wealth from the capitalists and pass it around; but in order to do so, Marxism must maintain the industrial system. Once again, the power relations within European society will have to be altered, but once again the effects upon American Indian peoples here and non-Europeans elsewhere will remain the same. This is much the same as when power was redistributed from the church to private business during the so-called bourgeois revolution. European society changed a bit, at least superficially, but its conduct toward non-Europeans continued as before. You can see what the American Revolution of 1776 did for American Indians. It’s the same old song.

Revolutionary Marxism, like industrial society in other forms, seeks to “rationalize” all people in relation to industry–maximum industry, maximum production. It is a doctrine that despises the American Indian spiritual tradition, our cultures, our lifeways. Marx himself called us “precapitalists” and “primitive.” Precapitalist simply means that, in his view, we would eventually discover capitalism and become capitalists; we have always been economically retarded in Marxist terms. The only manner in which American Indian people could participate in a Marxist revolution would be to join the industrial system, to become factory workers, or “proletarians,” as Marx called them. The man was very clear about the fact that his revolution could only occur through the struggle of the proletariat, that the existence of a massive industrial system is a precondition of a successful Marxist society.

I think there’s a problem with language here. Christians, capitalists, Marxists. All of them have been revolutionary in their own minds, but none of them really means revolution. What they really mean is continuation. They do what they do in order that European culture can continue to exist and develop according to its needs. Like germs, European culture goes through occasional convulsions, even divisions within itself, in order to go on living and growing. This isn’t a revolution we’re talking about, but a means to continue what already exists. An amoeba is still an amoeba after it reproduces. But maybe comparing European culture to an amoeba isn’t really fair to the amoeba. Maybe cancer cells are a more accurate comparison because European culture has historically destroyed everything around it; and it will eventually destroy itself.

So, in order for us to really join forces with Marxism, we American Indians would have to accept the national sacrifice of our homeland; we would have to commit cultural suicide and become industrialized and Europeanized.

At this point, I’ve got to stop and ask myself whether I’m being too harsh. Marxism has something of a history. Does this history bear out my observations? I look to the process of industrialization in the Soviet Union since 1920 and I see that these Marxists have done what it took the English Industrial Revolution 300 years to do; and the Marxists did it in 60 years. I see that the territory of the USSR used to contain a number of tribal peoples and that they have been crushed to make way for the factories. The Soviets refer to this as “the National Question,” the question of whether the tribal peoples had the right to exist as peoples; and they decided the tribal peoples were an acceptable sacrifice to the industrial needs. I look to China and I see the same thing. I look to Vietnam and I see Marxists imposing an industrial order and rooting out the indigenous tribal mountain people.

I hear the leading Soviet scientist saying that when uranium is exhausted, then alternatives will be found. I see the Vietnamese taking over a nuclear power plant abandoned by the U.S. military. Have they dismantled and destroyed it? No, they are using it. I see China exploding nuclear bombs, developing uranium reactors, and preparing a space program in order to colonize and exploit the planets the same as the Europeans colonized and exploited this hemisphere. It’s the same old song, but maybe with a faster tempo this time.

The statement of the Soviet scientist is very interesting. Does he know what this alternative energy source will be? No, he simply has faith. Science will find a way. I hear revolutionary Marxists saying that the destruction of the environment, pollution, and radiation will all be controlled. And I see them act upon their words. Do they know how these things will be controlled? No, they simply have faith. Science will find a way. Industrialization is fine and necessary. How do they know this? Faith. Science will find a way. Faith of this sort has always been known in Europe as religion. Science has become the new European religion for both capitalists and Marxists; they are truly inseparable; they are part and parcel of the same culture. So, in both theory and practice, Marxism demands that non-European peoples give up their values, their traditions, their cultural existence altogether. We will all be industrialized science addicts in a Marxist society.

I do not believe that capitalism itself is really responsible for the situation in which American Indians have been declared a national sacrifice. No, it is the European tradition; European culture itself is responsible. Marxism is just the latest continuation of this tradition, not a solution to it. To ally with Marxism is to ally with the very same forces that declare us an acceptable cost.

There is another way. There is the traditional Lakota way and the ways of the American Indian peoples. It is the way that knows that humans do not have the right to degrade Mother Earth, that there are forces beyond anything the European mind has conceived, that humans must be in harmony with all relations or the relations will eventually eliminate the disharmony. A lopsided emphasis on humans by humans–the Europeans’ arrogance of acting as though they were beyond the nature of all related things–can only result in a total disharmony and a readjustment which cuts arrogant humans down to size, gives them a taste of that reality beyond their grasp or control and restores the harmony. There is no need for a revolutionary theory to bring this about; it’s beyond human control. The nature peoples of this planet know this and so they do not theorize about it. Theory is an abstract; our knowledge is real.

Distilled to its basic terms, European faith–including the new faith in science–equals a belief that man is God. Europe has always sought a Messiah, whether that be the man Jesus Christ or the man Karl Marx or the man Albert Einstein. American Indians know this to be totally absurd. Humans are the weakest of all creatures, so weak that other creatures are willing to give up their flesh that we may live. Humans are able to survive only through the exercise of rationality since they lack the abilities of other creatures to gain food through the use of fang and claw.

But rationality is a curse since it can cause humans to forget the natural order of things in ways other creatures do not. A wolf never forgets his or her place in the natural order. American Indians can. Europeans almost always do. We pray our thanks to the deer, our relations, for allowing us their flesh to eat; Europeans simply take the flesh for granted and consider the deer inferior. After all, Europeans consider themselves godlike in their rationalism and science. God is the Supreme Being; all else must be inferior.

All European tradition, Marxism included, has conspired to defy the natural order of all things. Mother Earth has been abused, the powers have been abused, and this cannot go on forever. No theory can alter that simple fact. Mother Earth will retaliate, the whole environment will retaliate, and the abusers will be eliminated. Things come full circle, back to where they started. That’s revolution. And that’s a prophecy of my people, of the Hopi people and of other correct peoples.

American Indians have been trying to explain this to Europeans for centuries. But, as I said earlier, Europeans have proven themselves unable to hear. The natural order will win out, and the offenders will die out, the way deer die when they offend the harmony by over-populating a given region. It’s only a matter of time until what Europeans call “a major catastrophe of global proportions” will occur. It is the role of American Indian peoples, the role of all natural beings, to survive. A part of our survival is to resist. We resist not to overthrow a government or to take political power, but because it is natural to resist extermination, to survive. We don’t want power over white institutions; we want white institutions to disappear. That’s revolution.

American Indians are still in touch with these realities–the prophecies, the traditions of our ancestors. We learn from the elders, from nature, from the powers. And when the catastrophe is over, we American Indian peoples will still be here to inhabit the hemisphere. I don’t care if it’s only a handful living high in the Andes. American Indian people will survive; harmony will be reestablished. That’s revolution.

At this point, perhaps I should be very clear about another matter, one which should already be clear as a result of what I’ve said. But confusion breeds easily these days, so I want to hammer home this point. When I use the term European, I’m not referring to a skin color or a particular genetic structure. What I’m referring to is a mind-set, a worldview that is a product of the development of European culture. People are not genetically encoded to hold this outlook; they are acculturated to hold it. The same is true for American Indians or for the members of any culture.

It is possible for an American Indian to share European values, a European worldview. We have a term for these people; we call them “apples”–red on the outside (genetics) and white on the inside (their values). Other groups have similar terms: Blacks have their “oreos”; Hispanos have “Coconuts” and so on. And, as I said before, there are exceptions to the white norm: people who are white on the outside, but not white inside. I’m not sure what term should be applied to them other than “human beings.”

What I’m putting out here is not a racial proposition but a cultural proposition. Those who ultimately advocate and defend the realities of European culture and its industrialism are my enemies. Those who resist it, who struggle against it, are my allies, the allies of American Indian people. And I don’t give a damn what their skin color happens to be. Caucasian is the white term for the white race: European is an outlook I oppose.

The Vietnamese Communists are not exactly what you might consider genetic Caucasians, but they are now functioning as mental Europeans. The same holds true for Chinese Communists, for Japanese capitalists or Bantu Catholics or Peter “MacDollar” down at the Navajo Reservation or Dickie Wilson up here at Pine Ridge. There is no racism involved in this, just an acknowledgment of the mind and spirit that make up culture.

In Marxist terms I suppose I’m a “cultural nationalist.” I work first with my people, the traditional Lakota people, because we hold a common worldview and share an immediate struggle. Beyond this, I work with other traditional American Indian peoples, again because of a certain commonality in worldview and form of struggle. Beyond that, I work with anyone who has experienced the colonial oppression of Europe and who resists its cultural and industrial totality. Obviously, this includes genetic Caucasians who struggle to resist the dominant norms of European culture. The Irish and the Basques come immediately to mind, but there are many others.

I work primarily with my own people, with my own community. Other people who hold non-European perspectives should do the same. I believe in the slogan, “Trust your brother’s vision,” although I’d like to add sisters into the bargain. I trust the community and the culturally based vision of all the races that naturally resist industrialization and human extinction. Clearly, individual whites can share in this, given only that they have reached the awareness that continuation of the industrial imperatives of Europe is not a vision, but species suicide. White is one of the sacred colors of the Lakota people–red, yellow, white and black. The four directions. The four seasons. The four periods of life and aging. The four races of humanity. Mix red, yellow, white and black together and you get brown, the color of the fifth race. This is a natural ordering of things. It therefore seems natural to me to work with all races, each with its own special meaning, identity and message.

But there is a peculiar behavior among most Caucasians. As soon as I become critical of Europe and its impact on other cultures, they become defensive. They begin to defend themselves. But I’m not attacking them personally; I’m attacking Europe. In personalizing my observations on Europe they are personalizing European culture, identifying themselves with it. By defending themselves in this context, they are ultimately defending the death culture. This is a confusion which must be overcome, and it must be overcome in a hurry. None of us has energy to waste in such false struggles.

Caucasians have a more positive vision to offer humanity than European culture. I believe this. But in order to attain this vision it is necessary for Caucasians to step outside European culture–alongside the rest of humanity–to see Europe for what it is and what it does.

To cling to capitalism and Marxism and all other “isms” is simply to remain within European culture. There is no avoiding this basic fact. As a fact, this constitutes a choice. Understand that the choice is based on culture, not race. Understand that to choose European culture and industrialism is to choose to be my enemy. And understand that the choice is yours, not mine.

This leads me back to address those American Indians who are drifting through the universities, the city slums, and other European institutions. If you are there to resist the oppressor in accordance with your traditional ways, so be it. I don’t know how you manage to combine the two, but perhaps you will succeed. But retain your sense of reality. Beware of coming to believe the white world now offers solutions to the problems it confronts us with. Beware, too, of allowing the words of native people to be twisted to the advantages of our enemies. Europe invented the practice of turning words around on themselves. You need only look to the treaties between American Indian peoples and various European governments to know that this is true. Draw your strength from who you are.

A culture which regularly confuses revolt with resistance, has nothing helpful to teach you and nothing to offer you as a way of life. Europeans have long since lost all touch with reality, if ever they were in touch with who you are as American Indians.

So, I suppose to conclude this, I should state clearly that leading anyone toward Marxism is the last thing on my mind. Marxism is as alien to my culture as capitalism and Christianity are. In fact, I can say I don’t think I’m trying to lead anyone toward anything. To some extent I tried to be a “leader,” in the sense that the white media like to use that term, when the American Indian Movement was a young organization. This was a result of a confusion I no longer have. You cannot be everything to everyone. I do not propose to be used in such a fashion by my enemies. I am not a leader. I am an Oglala Lakota patriot. That is all I want and all I need to be. And I am very comfortable with who I am.”

Liberty City Mortgage Meltdown

2010-10-19T12:44:00.002-05:00

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/18/v-fullstory/1879950/house-homeowner-caught-in-a-mortgage.html#ixzz12pOH09nh

THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS
House, homeowner caught in a mortgage meltdown

A Liberty City woman is fighting foreclosure, claiming forgery, fraud and bank negligence in a drama that has her family home at stake.
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* Photos

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

Ten people spanning three generations share a single bathroom in what's left of Annie Edwards' crumbling home in Liberty City. There are holes in the wood floors and trash bags plastered to the leaking ceiling -- and Deutsche Bank is adamant that it wants this 82-year-old structure.

It has been fighting to repossess the home since 2006 in an ongoing legal battle that involves allegations of forged signatures, a disbarred property appraiser and a family on the brink of homelessness.

The house is indeed a wreck, but because it has a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage, the bank could simply carry out foreclosure proceedings, and then put in a claim to recoup the $102,000 owed on it. Because Fannie Mae was taken over by the federal government in 2008, taxpayers would ultimately pick up the tab.

``It's really a sad case,'' said Jonathan Heller, a lawyer who volunteered to defend Edwards from foreclosure. ``She worked for 30 years, had no mortgage on the property, is in a wheelchair and every night she goes to sleep thinking, `Am I going to have this house when I wake up?' ''

Edwards' predicament represents a confluence of the fraud, document forgery, and suspicious foreclosure practices that have plagued South Florida's housing market from the housing boom after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, through the current ``robo-signing'' scandal. In the midst of a new national foreclosure crisis, Edwards' story stands out as a case study of the housing and banking systems' laundry list of problems.

The 63-year-old retiree says her housing troubles began five years ago when her ex-husband, legally blind and illiterate, was duped into taking out a $102,000 mortgage on the house by his adult son and daughter-in-law. The couple forged Edwards' signature on a document that stripped her possession of the home, and then made off with the money in January 2006, she said.

SERVING PAPERS

Four months later, a bank representative came to the shotgun-style house to serve foreclosure papers, surprising Edwards so much that she filed a police report. The retired Jackson Health System nurse's aide had owned the home free and clear for years, and knew nothing about a new mortgage.

``To my knowledge, the house is only worth maybe $30,000 to $40,000,'' she said. ``Why would someone, a bank, loan out $100,000 on a place that's only worth $30,000 or $40,000?''

Valued by Miami-Dade County's property appraiser at $34,883 in 2005, the home's assessment shot up to $234,581 after the loan was made in 2006. By 2010, the property's assessed value had fallen to $112,459, with $97,808 for the building and the rest for the land it sits on.

Another question Edwards is asking is why the bank is fighting so hard to foreclose on her dilapidated home, which nonprofit homebuilder Habitat for Humanity has declared unlivable.

Heller believes the bank doesn't actually want the physical building, which would be a tough sell even in a good market, but is after the government guarantee tied to it.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Edwards' case, but said the bank acts as a trustee, and is simply carrying out the intentions of the loan servicer, Argent Mortgage Co. According to court records, the mortgage was transferred to Deutsche Bank in 2006.

Heller said Argent, the original lender, is partially at fault because it did not properly review the paperwork and lent $102,000 on a broken property that was never worth that much.

Another wrinkle in the story: If Edwards can beat this foreclosure, her home will be completely rebuilt by Habitat for Humanity, at no cost to her.

The Greater Miami chapter of Habitat has approved the property for an extreme makeover through a program for homes affected by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

``We've done an assessment of the home -- it definitely is a rebuild,'' said Anne Manning, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami . ``We'd knock it down and build it back up.''

In the years since hurricanes lashed her home, Edwards said she has been hesitant to use the little money that she has for repairs, because the bank is looming to take the home away.

``I wanted to fix up the place but I can't do that,'' said Edwards, who lives on Social Security and a retirement check. ``I'm afraid that someone might come in and try to take the place. Then after I put all the money in it, it'll go to waste.''

And Habitat can't remake the home unless Edwards can clear up the foreclosure problem.

``This is a family we really want to make sure we can help,'' said Manning, pointing out that two special needs children live at the house. ``Our hope is that she can straighten everything out with the title, and Ms. Edwards would get a brand new home.''

Meanwhile, Edwards is bearing the consequences of the $102,000 loan through higher property taxes. Her property tax bill, which stood at $638 before the loan, soared to more than $4,300 last year.

Argent Bank's property appraiser, who valued the home at $120,000 shortly after mid-decade hurricanes had their way with the roof and frame, had his license revoked 10 months after filing his appraisal report. That report -- which failed to mention the structural deterioration or storm damage -- stated: ``No physical deficiencies or adverse conditions were noted that would adversely effect [sic] the livability, soundness or structural integrity of the subject property.'' The appraiser's license revocation report from the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board lists ``knowingly making a false statement,'' and ``engaging in fraud'' among its charges.

Tamika Terry, who grew up in the home and lives there with her two children, said the idea that a bank would loan $102,000 on such a derelict property was ``crazy -- real crazy.''

On a tour through the home, Terry, Edwards' daughter, pointed out deteriorating fixtures while dodging weak sections of the wood floor. Her own daughter's wheelchair leaned against a cracked wall, and flies buzzed in and out of the many holes in the structure.

``This house was built in 1928,'' Terry said. ``It's never been remodeled.''

SUSPICIOUS?

Using a dishonest property appraiser was only one of many suspicious actions by Argent Mortgage, Heller alleges. The loan approval process was also questionable, he said.

The loan application claims Edwards' ex-husband, Kenneth Edwards, was an ``owner-occupier,'' of the home, though he hadn't lived there for 10 years and public records shows he bought a separate homesteaded property in 1996. The bank never checked and, according to Kenneth Edwards, never asked.

In a sworn affidavit, he states that he never spoke to any bank representatives before the loan was made.

Argent, at one point the nation's largest lender to people with low credit scores, crumbled under the weight of the subprime lending crisis and was sold to Citibank in 2007. A previous Miami Herald review of Argent mortgages found widespread evidence of mortgage fraud, with one-third of Argent loans in Miami-Dade County eventually falling into foreclosure.

According to Annie Edwards' counterclaim, the lender also relied on a forged quit-claim deed that stripped her of her ownership. A police report found her signature on that document was a forgery, the counterclaim states.

If the forgery defense is accepted in court, that would make the loan, and the foreclosure, legally invalid.

For her part, Annie Edwards puts most of the blame on her stepson and his wife, since they obtained a loan without her knowledge and never paid the mortgage. She hasn't heard from either one of them since.

The stepson, David Edwards, lives out of state, and his wife, Dana, lives in Broward County, Heller said. Neither could be reached for comment.

FAMILIAR PROBLEMS

As Deutsche Bank motions for a summary judgment in the case, it suffers from many of the same problems that have led to stalled foreclosures across the country.

After acquiring the loan from the original lender, the bank's representatives profess little knowledge about the details of the home loan, and its lawyers have not been able to close the case for four years.

A Miami-Dade County judge briefly threw out the case in July after a Deutsche Bank attorney failed to show up in court. Another judge reinstated the case a month later.

Heller hopes to take the matter to trial, and eventually have the foreclosure ruled unlawful. He also filed a counterclaim for wrongful foreclosure.

In the meantime, the Edwards family has been looking into other housing options should the bank succeed in foreclosing. The 63-year-old matriarch said she hopes it doesn't come to that.

``The only thing I can do if they continue to try to take this house is to move,'' Annie Edwards said. ``And I have no place to go.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/18/v-fullstory/1879950/house-homeowner-caught-in-a-mortgage.html#ixzz12pOH09nh

May 2010 Month of Action to Take Back the Land

2010-04-05T10:05:00.003-05:00

See this article at www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=90

The housing bust and faulty government policies have immersed the United States in a full blown economic and housing crisis. The cruel irony of this crisis, and what makes it so profoundly immoral, is that the commodity at its root- housing- is not at all in scarcity. To the contrary, sufficient vacant housing stocks exist to accommodate virtually everyone in need, including families forced into overcrowded and substandard conditions as well as the homeless.

In the face of this severe economic crisis, people are rising up. They rail against the bailouts and bonuses, protest the lack of lending, rebel against unfair credit card rate hikes and, most dramatically, fight back against losing their homes.

The Take Back the Land Movement is calling for a May 2010 National Month of Action to assert the fundamental human right to housing and community control over land. Participating organizations, communities and families are asserting this right in two ways: by "liberating" government, foreclosed and warehoused homes, making them available for families with nowhere else to live, and by protecting families, our neighbors, from foreclosure related evictions from houses, apartments and condos as well as income related evictions from public housing.

Every family, indeed every human being, needs and deserves decent and adequate housing that they can afford, regardless of their income. However, instead of facilitating this need, federal, state and municipal governments are instituting policies and enacting legislation protecting the profits of corporations at the expense and exclusion of families. These policies serve only to compound, rather than end, the crisis. For example, the same financial institutions which caused the crisis, are both bailed out for their "toxic assets," and allowed to evict families and keep those assets vacant. In addition, federal and local governments are actively vacating, boarding up and demolishing public housing and underfunding rent subsidy programs in order to free up monies for bank bailouts and sports facilities.

This series of policies and laws not only allow human beings to live on the street while hundreds of thousands of houses sit vacant, but the bailouts effectively compel struggling families to finance their own evictions and then subsidize hefty bonuses to the executives evicting them.

In the context of a severe housing crisis, policies and laws which impede the human right to housing are morally indefensible and, as such, must be directly challenged until they are changed. The May Month of Action will challenge those laws which prioritize corporate profits over human needs. This is an historic crisis, one which merits an historic response.

On February 1, 1960, four North Carolina A&T students sat-in at a Greensboro Woolworths lunch counter and stepped into history, sparking a movement and changing this society forever. The "sit-in" campaigns were predicated on the notion that legal equality was a human right and, as such, laws violating those rights were morally wrong, and, therefore, must be directly challenged- and broken- in order to be changed.

Inspired by the 50^th anniversary of the first sit-ins, the Take Back the Land Movement asserts that housing is a human right and, as such, the policies which violate that right are morally wrong and, therefore, must be directly challenged. As such, this May, organizations across the US are engaging in "live-in" campaigns designed to house human beings and directly challenge those policies and laws that promote vacant housing during this housing crisis.

Civil disobedience campaigns directly challenge unjust laws by breaking them until they change. The Take Back the Land Movement and the live-in campaigns, however, encompass more than merely disobeying immoral laws: it is fundamentally about empowering communities to take control of their land and implementing the moral imperative of housing human beings. More than simple civil disobedience, the live-in campaign is, in fact, a movement of moral obedience.

Organizations in no less than ten (10) US cities will help their family, friends and neighbors "live-in" vacant government owned or foreclosed homes, buildings or land by either moving them in or preventing their eviction. Organizations in cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, will be joined by others in Chicago, Miami, Sacramento and New Orleans. Smaller cities include Toledo, Ohio, Madison, Wisconsin, St. Petersburg, Florida and Portland, Oregon.

Of course, no social justice movement has ever been won in a single month or by utilizing a single tactic or strategy. As such, May 2010 is not the totality, but rather the dawn of a movement whose aims are to elevate housing to the level of a human right and to win community control over land.

The solution to the housing crisis lies in your community, even on your block, and in your hands. The time has come to Take Back the Land.

forward,

Max Rameau

See this article at www.takebacktheland.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=90

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Google Groups: You've been added to Take Back the Land

2010-04-05T10:05:00.001-05:00

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Welcome to the Take Back the Land listserv.

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Take Back the Land in South Africa

2010-03-01T11:49:00.001-05:00

Take Back the Land is going to South Africa.

As a part of building our national Take Back the Land Movement, we asked the famed Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR- ccrjustice.org) to act as our legal Strategic Partner. As part of that responsibility, CCR invited me to join them on a trip to South Africa to research learn from organizations engaged in anti-eviction and land reform work.

This trip is particularly exciting for me both because of my Pan-African ideological perspective and because the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign is one of the two organizations Take Back the Land Miami is modeled after (the other one is the MST in Brazil).

Our party of five will spend three days in Cape Town with the Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) and three days in Durban with ABM. CCR will examine legal issues and responses there as well as look at how legal organizations provide support to social justice movements. For Take Back the Land, this trip has four (4) objectives:

Build an International Movement. We seek to realize housing as a human right for every person on this planet. As such, we seek to establish formal relationships with organizations fighting for those rights, thereby building an international movement for community control over land and housing as a human right.

Campaign Modeling. The WCAEC and ABM have executed mass campaigns to stop bulldozers and evictions. We in the US have much to learn from our sisters and brothers across the globe.

Network Modeling. South Africans have built a national anti-eviction and land reform movement. Take Back the Land strives to learn from their model and replicate their successes.

For the next week, I will post, email, blog, facebook, buzz and tweet from South Africa to share the experiences of Take Back the Land and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

This email is being sent from the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Forward,

Max Rameau

www.takebacktheland.org

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Picture the Homeless Liberates Land in Manhattan, NYC!

2009-07-23T10:54:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Picture the Homeless, a New York City based homeless rights organization, has liberated a vacant lot in the Manhattan Borough of New York City and is currently building a Tent City there. I just spoke to Picture the Homeless leader and organizer Rob Robinson (rob@picturethehomeless.org) and he informed me they are erecting tents and moving homeless people into them. The land, located on the 115th St., between Madison and 5th Ave., is owned by JP Morgan/Chase, but it is not controlled by Picture the Homeless for the benefit of human beings, not corporations.

The movement to liberate land and elevate housing to the level of a human right is growing. Take Back the Land supports Picture the Homeless (www.picturethehomeless.org) and other organization working for the right to housing. Updates, including pictures of the liberation, are coming this afternoon.

What can you do to support?

If you are in NYC, go to 115th St., between Madison and 5th Ave. in Manhattan and show your support. A press conference is scheduled for 1:00pm.
Email your support to Picture the Homeless from their website (www.picturethehomeless.org).
Call Mayor Bloomberg's office and tell him to allow Picture the Homeless to house people on that lot. Hands Off Picture the Homeless! You must leave a message with 311-NYC by calling 212-639-9675.
Talk to people and organizations in your community about liberating land.

Housing is a human right!
Liberate land!
Land for people not for profit!

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tej Nagaraja <tej@picturethehomeless.org>
Date: Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Subject: [PTH friends] *breaking news* Homeless 'tent city' occupation in NYC [press release, July 23]
To: Tej Nagaraja <tej@picturethehomeless.org>

** Breaking News: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ** Thursday, July 23, 2009

Contact: Tej Nagaraja (646) 302-5769
Updates: http://picturethehomeless.org/blog & http://twitter.com/pthny #tentcitynyc

Location—come!: 115th Street between Madison and 5th Avenues, Manhattan
First on-site press conference scheduled for 1pm—on-site PTH members and neighborhood residents available for interview at all times.

Homeless New Yorkers Occupy Vacant Lot, Create Tent City, Demand Change
Call for city government to meet need of low-income residents, not greed of big banks

MANHATTAN—On Thursday at 11:00 AM, members of Picture the Homeless orchestrated a spirited occupation of a warehoused (vacant) lot, currently owned by the firm JPMorgan Chase, a recent beneficiary of billions in taxpayer bailout money.

Homeless New Yorkers and their allies turned a fenced-off grassy lot in El Barrio/East Harlem into a vibrant Tent City, creatively adorned with makeshift dwellings, colorful art and banners. Under the slogan "NYC: A Place to Call Home," they demanded that warehoused lots and buildings be accounted for by the city, and transformed into housing for poor and homeless people.

Jean Rice, a homeless New Yorker: "Today, Picture the Homeless sends a message that land use must take into account the common good—as housing for the needy, not warehoused assets for the greedy."

Hundreds rallied in support of the bold action. The organizers have invited local musicians to perform, faith leaders and community activists to engage the crowd—and community members to feast on barbecue, and discuss and debate the challenges and struggles all low-income New Yorkers face.

Picture the Homeless members note that more families are homeless now than when Mayor Bloomberg took office. When confronted with his policy failures earlier this month, the Mayor could only say that so many remain homeless because he's made shelters "more attractive." For Chase's part, New York Times quoted an executive during the October bailout: "Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase."

Picture the Homeless member Sophia Bryant: "The government and banks have failed miserably. Homeless people know what the problems are, and we have ideas for the solutions. Since they won't listen, the time is now for people to take action. We don't want shelters—we want decent housing. We will build what we need!"

###

_______________________________________________
PTH list
Picture the Homeless
Post: PTH@lists.mayfirst.org
List info: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/pth

Take Back the Land on PBS' NOW

2009-07-15T16:17:00.001-05:00

Greetings All:

As the foreclosure crisis festers, Take Back the Land continues to liberate vacant foreclosed homes. The movement to elevate housing to the status of a human right is picking up steam as other organizations- at least 14, according to Michael Stoop of the Washington DC based National Coalition for the Homeless (http://www.nationalhomeless.org)- execute liberation or defend the right of people to stay in their homes. Two organizations worth paying attention to include Picture the Homeless in New York City (www.picturethehomeless.org) and City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston (http://www.clvu.org).

To find out more about the movement, please watch the recently aired NOW program about Take Back the Land and the housing liberation movement:
www.takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81

Please watch out for more actions by Take Back the Land and our allied organizations coming this fall.

In order to continue our important work, Take Back the Land needs your support. Please visit our website at Takebacktheland.org and make a generous contribution. All contributions are made to Serve the People, a 501(c)3 organization, providing support services to Take Back the Land and other community organizations. Your contribution is fully tax deductible.

If you are not already a member, you can keep up with Take Back the Land by joining our list-serve at groups.google.com/group/take-back-the-land

www.takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81

forward,

Max Rameau

--
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland@gmail.com

Take Back the Land on ABC World News Tonight 04-12-09

2009-04-13T13:36:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

The current housing crisis is unlike any we have seen in generations. Sometimes a crisis occurs because there are too many houses and not enough families to move in them, deflating values and creating ghost towns. Most often, though, there are not enough homes to meet the needs of people and we demand more houses be built. In this crisis, however, there is a surplus of both vacant homes and families looking for vacant homes. Take Back the Land has been matching homeless people with people-less homes.

Find out more here:

ABC World News Tonight reported on Take Back the Land and our efforts to liberate housing on the April 12, 2009 broadcast. Follow the link below to see the story:

http://takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:abcworldnews041209&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=60

Also check out the New York Times story on the growing trend of squatting and other utilization of vacant foreclosed homes, including Take Back the Land:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?_r=2&hp

In addition, check out this video of Take Back the Land moving the Conley-Trody family back into the home from which they were evicted:

http://www.justnews.com/news/18779255/detail.html#video

Take Back the Land asserts that housing is a human right and that it is immoral to keep homes vacant while there are human beings living on the street. This moral outrage is only compounded when one considers the banks who own these houses have already been paid billions of dollars for those homes already in the form of tax money from the same people who need homes in the first place.

A growing movement of organizations and individuals across the US are making good use of vacant houses by placing or defending the right of families to remain in foreclosed homes. Housing must fundamentally be about homes for human beings, not profits for corporations. Take Back the Land is inspired by the courageous families fighting for their right to housing and making a new more humane world possible.

A movement is building and we urge you to support and advance the struggle to elevate housing to the status of a human right.

Keep up to date at our website: takebacktheland.org. For regular (but not too frequent) email announcements, join our list-serv at
http://groups.google.com/group/take-back-the-land/

For those so inclined, you can support the work of Take Back the Land with a financial contribution. We ask that you make contributions to Serve the People, the not-for-profit which allows Take Back the Land and other organizations use of office space and other resources. Serve the People is a 501(c)3 organization and all contributions are fully tax-deductible. Support our work by contributing at www.takebacktheland.org and click on the "Donate" button.

forward,

Max Rameau
takebacktheland@gmail.com
takebacktheland.org

Take Back the Land on Good Morning America 04-11-09

2009-04-11T16:56:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Below is a link to the video of Take Back the Land featured on Good Morning America.

http://www.takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73:gma011109&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=60

If you have not already seen and read the NY Times piece on Take Back the Land, you can read it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?_r=1

Keep up to date and support Take Back the Land at our website, Takebacktheland.org and join our list-serv at http://groups.google.com/group/take-back-the-land/

forward,

Max Rameau

--
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland@gmail.com

Take Back the Land in the New York Times 04-10-09

2009-04-10T12:26:00.001-05:00

Greetings All:

Please check out the Friday, April 10, 2009 edition of the New York Times, reporting on the growing necessity and trend of liberation housing in the US. This is the beginning of a real US land struggle and the social justice movement must come to grips with our relationship to that struggle.

As part of that story, the Times covers two families placed by Take Back the Land in Miami.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?_r=1&hp

Please follow our progress at Takebacktheland.org and join our list-serv at http://groups.google.com/group/take-back-the-land.

forward,

Max Rameau

--
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland@gmail.com

Fwd: Take Back the Land Liberates Another Home- Feb. 23 at 12noon

2009-02-23T12:02:00.001-05:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Max Rameau <afrimax@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Subject: Take Back the Land Liberates Another Home- Feb. 23 at 12noon
To: afrimax@gmail.com

Greetings:

At 12:00 noon today, February 23, Take Back the Land liberated a vacant house in order to move an extended family of 12, including six minors, back into the home they lost to foreclosure on Friday, February 20^th. The foreclosure was a result of a fraudulent refinance scheme by a predatory lender.

The home is located at 849 NW 137^th St. in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. As this message is sent, Take Back the Land is assisting the family in their move back into the home.

Take Back the Land identifies vacant government owned and foreclosed homes and moves homeless people into the people-less homes. The organization has been "liberating" foreclosed homes since October 2007, a year after liberating a vacant government owned piece of land and building the Umoja Village Shantytown, housing homeless individuals until a fire destroyed the community. Take Back the Land has liberated eight (8) homes to date.

After Mary's husband lost his job, the couple and their two teenage children were forced to move back in with her mother. Soon after, the contracting job market forced Mary's adult daughter and fiancee back to the house with their four children, all under 10. The crashing economy ultimately forced 12 relatives, spanning four generations, to cram into Grandma Carolyn's two bedroom one bath house.

Unbeknownst to the families, almost two years prior, Carolyn fell victim to a scam predatory lender. The salesman convinced her that with a new reverse mortgage she would only be compelled to pay the taxes on the house, significantly reducing her expenses as she entered retirement age. When they started receiving the foreclosure notices, it was too late, even with almost every adult in the house regaining employment.

The family was evicted from their home on February 20, upon which they called Take Back the Land requesting assistance. Since then, they have been sleeping together in a van and bread truck in the parking lot of a local supermarket. Local homeless shelters are full and not fitted for families and, therefore, can only split the family between Homestead and Miami and then divide the men and women.

The house itself is in need of repairs and there are at least three other vacant homes on that street and numerous others on adjacent streets. As such, the home is unlikely to be sold or occupied in the next year or even two years and will only contribute to blight and unsafe conditions in the neighborhood. Furthermore, homes vacant for even short periods of time are often vandalized and stripped for valuable parts and fixtures. The vacant house, therefore, does not help the family, the neighborhood or even the bank who owns a structure rapidly decreasing value.

It is inhumane and immoral to evict a family of 12 human beings, who are left to sleep in a truck, and not even fill the house with another family, but leave it vacant, potentially for years to come.

Housing is a human right which is threatened by corporate demands to maximize profits. Take Back the Land calls on people of good conscience to defend their communities and fight for the right of human beings to housing, particularly during this economic crisis.

To continue to receive these email updates, sign up for the Take Back the Land listserve at: http://groups.google.com/group/take-back-the-land. You can also get more information about Take Back the Land at our website, TakeBacktheLand.org.

forward,

Max Rameau

takebacktheland.org

takebacktheland@gmail.com

Fwd: Take Back the Land Liberates Another Home- Feb. 23 at 12noon

2009-02-23T11:57:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

The home is located at 849 NW 137^th St. in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. As this message is sent, Take Back the Land is assisting the family in their move back into the home.

It is inhumane and immoral to evict a family of 12 human beings, who are left to sleep in a truck, and not even fill the house with another family, but leave it vacant, potentially for years to come.

forward,

Max Rameau

takebacktheland.org

takebacktheland@gmail.com

AP Story on Take Back the Land

2008-12-01T19:17:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Below is a link to an Associated Press (AP) story on Take Back the Land and the Take Back the Housing campaign, as it appears on the NPR website.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97660799

As a result of the crises of gentrification, housing and now foreclosures, Take Back the Land has been liberating public and foreclosed land and homes since 2006.

Each community has the right to control the land upon which people live, work, play, learn and worship. Take Back the Land is, therefore, asserting the right of the Black community to control the land in our community and use it for the benefit of our community, including, but not limited to, providing housing for our members in need. We urge every community to exercise the same right.

Take Back the Land further asserts it is immoral to maintain vacant homes for the purpose of profits in the future, while human beings are forced to live on the street today. The madness of such a policy is only compounded when one considers the owners of these vacant homes are not other people, but banks, the same banks receiving billions of dollars in bailouts without having to trade in the foreclosed homes for use by some of the people financing the bailouts. Additional government resources, including police and other government agencies, should not be used to evict low income people from homes in order to maintain vacant structures for bailed out banks to profit from some time in the future.

We call on communities to follow the lead of organizations like City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston and others, and defend families against foreclosures and evictions. For more information and to support the work work of Take Back the Land, please visit our website at www.takebacktheland.org.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97660799

forward,

Max Rameau
takebacktheland@gmail.com
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

The Peoples' Bailout- Take Back the Housing

2008-11-26T08:19:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

As the government continues to bailout the mega corporations responsible for this economic crisis- by taking our tax money, without our permission, and giving it to the wealthy- some organizations and individuals are moving their own bailout.

Since October 2007, Take Back the Land has been identifying vacant government owned and foreclosed homes and liberating them by moving homeless people into people-less homes- without permission from the government or the banks. This is the real bailout.

So, as this country celebrates the Pilgrims- who took over land without permission from the owner- we must think about using land to benefit people, not just corporations. We assert that our right to housing supercedes the corporate right to profit.

Below are three stories about the Take Back the Housing campaign by Take Back the Land, including a news video from Tuesday, November 25. You can get more information at www.takebacktheland.org.

http://www.local10.com/video/18149053/index.html

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-11-20/news/squatters/

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/05/foreclosure-nation-squatters-or-pioneers.html

forward,

Max Rameau

One Year Since Blackwood and Knight Killed by Miami-Dade- Vigil on Wednesday

2008-11-11T22:41:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

On November 12, 2007, Miami-Dade police shot and killed two unarmed Black men, surrounded by police while in an SUV facing a dead end. As Frisco Blackwood attempted to put the vehicle in park- following police orders- the car lurched slightly and police opened fire, killing him and Michael Knight and injuring a female passenger in the back seat.

The killings capped a 19 day span during which Miami-Dade police killed four (4) unarmed Black men, including BG Beaugris, a 19 year old shot and killed just yards from his front door while walking home with friends from doing his father's laundry, and Roger Brown, kicked and beaten on NW 79th St. after suffering a mental health crisis.

Join your community in honoring the lives lost to police violence on the one year anniversary of Frisco and Mike's death.

The vigil will be held on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, at 6:00pm, at the location of their death, on the corner of 65th St. and North Miami Ave. in the Little Haiti section of Miami.

Justice for Frisco and Mike! Justice for victims of police violence!

forward,

Max Rameau

BUY THIS BOOK NOW: The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones

2008-10-05T18:47:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

I am writing to URGE you to order a new and important book by activist Van Jones: The Green Collar Economy: How one solution can fix America's two biggest problems (Published by HarperOne; ISBN 978-0-06-165075-8)

To order go to: http://www.vanjones.net/page.php?pageid=2

Providing the ultimate in win-win solutions, Jones, the leading voice for a "green economy" with a focus on "green collar jobs" centered in inner city communities, eloquently argues that creating green collar jobs will revive the stagnant US job market, as most of this work cannot be outsourced. As an added bonus, these clean, environmentally friendly jobs will be replacing those which previously contributed to the pollution and destruction of the planet.

You should order this book for two reasons: first, the information and analysis in the book is critical to our understanding of this global environmental crisis, and one of the potential solutions to the problem. As if that were not enough, the "green economy" takes on an even greater significance in the context of the potential collapse of the US financial system. And second, because when an important book is written by a person of conscience, we must support the effort or risk the system blocking future attempts at mass publishing.

In short, if you are one of those who complains about the state of mass media, TV and books and do not buy this book, you have no business complaining, because you are part of the reason they will not publish and promote good books. On the plus side, you will surely enjoy the latest books detailing the inside story of OJ Simpson in jail and Paris Hilton at the club.

To date, no Black author has ever written an environmental bestseller. Here, this long time activist has penned a thoughtful and thought provoking book which will likely provide a roadmap for a growing sector of the US economy in coming years. A Black author writing about the environment, with the Black community at the center of the solution. Help make this a best seller by ordering your book by Tuesday, October 7, shooting this book to the top of the sales charts. It is important on so many levels.

For the record, I know and respect Van, but receive no compensation or consideration for this email or your purchase of the book. I am asking you because I think the book is important and the subsequent opportunities for good political books are immeasurable. Put your money where your politics are and buy this book.

To order go to: http://www.vanjones.net/page.php?pageid=2

forward,

Max Rameau

Krystal Birdsong Remembrance- Thursday October 2 5:30pm

2008-09-30T10:45:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, October 2, 2008, you are invited to celebrate the life and contributions of ancestor Krystal Birdsong in two services.

The first service is a mass at the Barry University Chapel, located at 11300 NE 2^nd Ave. in Miami Shores, beginning at 11:00am.

The second event is a community celebration of Krystal's life and contributions to be held at the Take Back the Land office, 6819 NW 15^th Ave., in Liberty City. The program begins at 5:30pm, however, we will be welcoming friends as early as 2:30pm. Food will be provided.

Ancestor Krystal Birdsong was a Barry University grad student and beloved community activist with both Power U Center for Social Change and Take Back the Land. She worked tirelessly for social justice by organizing meetings, protests, service events and building community power.

Krystal's passing is a devastating loss for the community, organizations and individuals she touched. She will be fondly remembered. Come celebrate her life and continue her legacy.

Take Back the Land

Power U Center for Social Change

Gentrification is Dead: a proposition

2008-07-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

As you are aware, the current global economic crisis, and the accompanying housing crash, have led to significant changes in the market for housing and the development of land. As such, the economic outlook, particularly for the housing market, is drastically different today than it was just a few short years ago.

The economic cycle of gentrification, against which many organizations and individuals have struggled for years, is primarily defined by the ability of developers and speculators to buy land for cheap in low-income communities, displace the residents, and then flip the property for big profits. The recent collapse of the housing market severely compromises the ability of developers and speculators to continue this path (at least for now).

The movement must constantly assess the economic and social conditions on the ground and adjust our strategies and tactics accordingly.

Consequently, Take Back the Land, a project of the Center for Pan-African Development, propositions that the recent economic cycle of gentrification is effectively over. In the attached position paper, Gentrification is Dead, we define gentrification, identifying the elements and characteristics therein, and then lay out an argument as to why those elements and characteristics are no longer actively in existence. In addition, we attempt to identify what economic cycles might follow gentrification and how our strategies and tactics must change in order to meet the challenges of the new economic cycle.

This proposition is not intended to answer all questions or issue orders from the top. Instead, it is an attempt to begin an honest assessment of material conditions on the ground and shape appropriate responses to those conditions. As such, please forward this widely and discuss rigorously.

The piece can also be found, in its entirety, at:
http://www.thepanafrican.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsstory&newsletterID=18

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Live from Main Street- Town Hall Meeting, Saturday, July 12, 3pm, Lyric Theatre, Overtown

2008-07-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Join us for a nationally televised townhall meeting in Miami on Saturday, July 12, 2008, beginning at 3:00pm, at the historic Lyric Theatre, 819 NW 2nd Ave. in Overtown, beginning at 3:00pm.

The event is called Live From Main Street, "Magic City, Hard Times: How is Miami Facing the Economic Crisis and Working Toward a Sustainable Future?" and is hosted by GritTV's Laura Flanders and 99Jamz Cheryl Mizell. The event will be taped for television and internet broadcast. The panel will focus on the housing and other crisis' facing our communities. Panelists include:

Gihan Perera, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Miami Workers Center
Max Rameau, Founder/ Author Take Back The Land
Darin Woods, Countrywide Mortgage Sales Manager
Denise Perry, Director of the Power U Center for Social Change
Barbara Jordan, Miami – Dade County Commissioner
Carolina Delgado, Jobs with Justice Campaign Membership Director
Sonia Succar, Chairperson of Emerging Green Builders of South Florida

The event is free, the audience will have the opportunity to participate and refreshements are served afterwards. COME AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.

Live from Mainstreet Promo: http://www.youtube.com/user/LiveFromMainStreet
Previous Live from Mainstreet, Minneapolis, MN:

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

FWD: After Protest Party at Amendment XXI Miami

2008-06-19T13:35:00.000-05:00

In Miami for the Mayor's conference?

Come to the after party at AMENDMENT XXI, the local hangout for progressives at 190 NE 46th St., in Miami (on the corner of NE 2nd Ave. and 46th St.) Enjoy the great atmosphere, drinks and friends. Meet other progressives and great people.

We are celebrating everyone coming out to present the people's agenda to the Mayors. Come to protest the Mayors, stay for the drinks and music!

THURSDAY, JUNE 19

Happy Hour 5pm to 10pm

Music and drinks all night long

FRIDAY, JUNE 20

Happy Hour 5pm to 10pm

Music and drinks all night long

SATURDAY, JUNE 21

Drink special: Sweet Justice- $5

Music and drinks all night long

Amendment XXI

190 NE 46th St., Miami

On the corner of 46th St. and NE 2nd Ave.

Take Back the Land in Mother Jones Magazine

2008-06-08T21:50:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

The May edition of Mother Jones Magazine features an article on Take Back the Land and our Take Back the Housing campaign.

You can find the article at:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/05/foreclosure-nation-squatters-or-pioneers.html

The piece describes our campaign of identifying vacant government owned or foreclosed homes and moving families into those locations, providing housing for otherwise homeless families. Here are the opening paragraphs:

"Mamyrah Prosper steps gingerly over ankle-high grass strewn with plastic bags and empty soda bottles in the yard of a vacant redbrick house in Miami's Liberty City. She peers through a gap in a boarded-up window. "It looks in good shape," she says. "I mean, the walls aren't falling down. This is definitely one of our stronger options."

Prosper means that if the place checks out, she and her colleagues from Take Back the Land, a local group that advocates for affordable housing, will break in, change the locks, paint and clean, innovate a way to connect water and electricity, and then move a homeless family into the house. The criminal laws they'll violate in the process range from trespassing to breaking and entering (even burglary, if the police get ambitious), which requires the organization to keep a pro bono lawyer on standby.

"We call it 'liberating the housing,'" says Take Back the Land's cofounder Max Rameau..."

Remember, you can get a copy of the book about Umoja Village entitled "Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown" at niapress.niainteractive.com, at Amazon.com or at Books and Books bookstore in Coral Gables.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/05/foreclosure-nation-squatters-or-pioneers.html

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

New Book on Umoja Village and Take Back the Land by Max Rameau

2008-03-27T01:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

On October 23, 2006, in response to one of the most severe epidemics of gentrification and low income housing in the United States, a small group of activists, members of Take Back The Land, seized control over public land, created the self-governed shantytown of Umoja Village, and started a movement.

Take Back the Land: Land Gentrification and the Umoja Village, the new book by Umoja Village organizer Max Rameau, is part political theory and part narrative, documenting the planning, development, struggles and triumphs endured by Take Back The Land activists and Umoja Village residents, and tackles the larger fundamental issues of land and power distribution in black communities.

In the wake of public housing vacancies, corrupt government officials and flawed federal programs, a community found the courage to fight back, offering a model for fighting against gentrification and for land. Detailing the thoughts, arrests, conflicts and the devastating fire which would reduce the village to ashes, the book describes how one community built Umoja. This book is a great tool for activist, organizers and historians.

The book is 134 pages and can be purchased directly from Nia Press or from Amazon.com. Buy the book NOW at:

http://niapress.niainteractive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=productdetail&productid=349

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Back-Land-Gentrification-Shantytown/dp/1434845567/

forward,

Max Rameau

LC7- Closing Arguements Wednesday, March 26

2008-03-24T20:44:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

After several weeks of testimony, the Liberty City 7 retrial is coming to a close. The government put on only a skeletal version of the show they performed during the last unsuccessful trial. So, here is the updated schedule.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008. There is no trial on Tuesday, therefore, we will not be protesting Tuesday morning. Tuesday's regular protest is cancelled.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Protest against the Liberty City 7 trial at 9:00am, in front of the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami Ave. in downtown Miami. Then, as many people as possible will attend the first day of closing arguements.

Thursday, March 27, 2008. Final day of closing arguements. We need people to attend the final closing arguements.

If you are going into the courtroom, do not bring your cell phone, as they will not let you into the courtroom with a cell phone.

Please come and show your opposition to this witch-hunt and waste of our tax dollars.

forward,

Max Rameau

Take Back the Land on NPR- The Story

2008-03-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Tonight, Wednesday, March 19, 2008, a tenant of Take Back the Land will be featured on The Story, an NPR program. In Miami, The Story is heard of WLRN 91.3FM at 8:00pm. Check your local listings at www.thestory.org.

As you are aware, since the fire which destroyed the Umoja Village, Take Back the land has continued our mission by moving families into vacant government owned and foreclosed homes. The Story will tell the story of one of those families tonight. Please take a listen.

forward,

Max Rameau

Rally for Community Control Over Housing- March 14 at 6PM

2008-03-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

On Friday, March 14, 2007, Take Back the Land is hosting a rally for community control over housing. The rally will be held at 6:00pm in front of the vacant public housing units on 46th St. and NW 25th Avenue and will feature food, music and a message of community empowerment.

Miami-Dade County has one of the highest rates of public housing vacancies in the United States, a rate which has not diminished since the federal government took over the housing agency. A symbol of this failure to provide housing during a housing crisis lies in the vacant and boarded up units of public housing on 46th St. and NW 25th Ave. The fact that there are tens of thousands of families on the housing assistance wait list while over a thousand units of public housing sit vacant is nothing short of criminal. These units should- and must- be filled immediately.

However, because local governments do not want to provide housing for low income people, the only solution to the problem of vacant public housing units is not federal or county control, but community control over the public housing stock.

We invite the entire community to come out and support the call for direct community control over housing.

Land
Self-Determination
Housing as a Human Right
Community Control Over Housing

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Liberty City 7 Trial- Call to Action for Tuesday, March 11

2008-03-10T10:28:00.001-05:00

Protest the LC7 trial on Tuesday March 11th and 18th at 9:00am in front of the courthouse, 301 N. Miami Ave.!
Pack the courthouse to show opposition to politically motivated trials! Court is Tuesday to Fridays, 9:30am to 5:00pm!

Greetings:

As you are aware, the Liberty City 7 retrial has been ongoing for over a month. Last week, the prosecution rested after presenting the same lame case which earned one acquittal and a hung jury in the first trial. The judge continues to rule overwhelmingly against the defense and the government is making a federal case out of seven impoverished young men with access to no weapons or training, while allowing right wing Cuban paramilitary groups to train to attack hotels and tourist destinations, unmolested.

This will likely be remembered as one of the more significant trials of our time, determining the boundaries for politically motivated prosecution of organizations and individuals across the country. That is to say, if noone cares when the government entraps a group with no intention and no capacity to commit terrorist acts, and then throws tremendous federal resources behind a flawed and weak case, you and your organization might be next.

This week, the accused present their defense with one or more of the Liberty City 7 testifying in court. We must be there to find out, first hand what happened, and show opposition to this type of politically motivated prosecution.

As such, as this case winds down, CopWatch is calling on people of good conscience to do two things:

- Protest against the Liberty City 7 case. We protest every Tuesday morning at 9:00am in front of the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami Ave. in downtown. Please make plans to protest this Tuesday, March 11 and next Tuesday, March 18.

- Pack the courtroom. Attend the trial. Listen for yourself. Show the world and the federal government that people are watching and care about the outcome of this case. Trial is held Tuesday through Friday from 9:30am to 5:00pm. Come with your organization or friends. We must pack the courtroom to show our opposition to this case. The trial is held at the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami Ave. in downtown Miami. No cellphones are allowed in the courthouse, so please leave yours in your car.

Please make plans to protest and attend this trial during the next two weeks.

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Edison Students to Protest Monday March 3

2008-03-02T22:25:00.001-05:00

After successfully propelling themselves onto the stage of a public meeting regarding police attacks on protesters, Miami Edison Senior High School students are preparing to boycott what they call an "unsafe" environment at the school. The boycott starts on Monday, March 3, 2007 at 7:30am at Athalie Range Park, across the street from the school on 62nd Street and NW 5th Avenue.

In response to the incidents of Friday, February 29, when school, city of Miami and Miami-Dade County police brutally beat, tased and sicked K9 dogs on students protesting police brutality on campus, the school principal called an open meeting on Sunday, March 2 at the school. She began the meeting by announcing that students will be heard on Monday, at a school assembly, but not at the public meeting. In addition, the public was not allowed into the school assembly, a clear attempt to prevent the student's from publicly relaying the events of the 29th.

Students, however, maintained their protest spirit, chanting until the Principal agreed to allow students to speak. While she promised the police would be available to answer questions, neither Chief Darling of Miami-Dade Public Schools or any other police officer answered questions from students, parents or the public.

Student leader Chris Green spoke eloquently about what he witnessed and the biased media reporting on the story. Green also laid out the student demands, including the arrest of assistant principal Perez for assault on a student; dropping all charges on those arrested Friday; No retaliation against students; and the institution of Restorative Justice as a problem solving model, instead of arresting more young people in the future.

In addition, Green and other students announced the boycott. Students are asked to arrive on time and in full uniform for school, but instead of reporting to school, gathering at the Range Park across the street. Many students and parents expressed concern that they were to return to the same school and police force responsible for the violence on Friday. Organizations supporting the student movement are organizing workshops and classes at the park. Students say the boycott will continue until all demands are met and they feel safe at the school.

Defying charges of apathy and lack of civic involvement, the youth of Edison saw a wrong and organized to stand up for their rights. Instead of talking to the students and working towards a solution, the administration ordered the police to beat and arrest the mostly Black students. These young people are on the front line of a new wave of student activist and need our support and understanding, not beatings and jail time.

CopWatch is calling on activists to show up at the Athalie Range Park, with video and still cameras, to support the students and protect them from other potential attacks by the school administration and police. Students are gathering at 7:30am Monday and will remain throughout the school day.

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

Students Protest and Police Riot- Edison Sr. High School

2008-02-29T12:34:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Miami and Miami-Dade School police are rioting against students of Edison Senior High School on the morning of Friday, February 29th. The story is all over local and national news, but is being skewed against the students. Here is the real deal:

On Thursday, February 28th, a teacher apparently put a student in a choke-hold during school, according to eye witnesses and CBS 4 News (http://cbs4.com/local/disturbance.miami.edison.2.665835.html "One student told reporters that the fight started after students staged a protest Friday morning against a teacher at the high school who allegedly placed a student in a choke-hold Thursday.") Then, police enter the classroom and brutalize the student before arresting him in front of classmates and a teacher, according to eye witnesses and the Miami Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/438888.html "The student, she [an unnamed teacher] said, was handcuffed in front of his classmates and teacher."''They felt as though the way the young man was handled wasn't proper; they felt it was too brutal,'' said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not have permission to talk with the press.")

The mostly black and largely Haitian-American Miami Edison students organized a protest this morning at the school courtyard. According to all accounts, the protest was peaceful, possibly including civil disobedience (Miami Herald: "The incident apparently began as a peaceful protest, according to a teacher inside the school, but got out of hand." CBS4: "The student said police were called to the school to respond to the protest, and when students objected a scuffle broke out, escalating quickly into an all out fight between students and officers.").

Police were called in to break up the protest and when the students refused- exercising their right to protest- school and city of Miami police attacked them and the students defended themselves against attacks by police.

While the media is trying very hard to connect this police riot to instances of violence at Miami-Dade schools over the past two days, it is clear that in this case the schools themselves started the fights and inflicted the majority of the violence. CNN.com is calling this a "school fight."

There are currently over 70 police cars at Miami Edison and police are arresting large numbers of students. No police or administrators have been arrested for assaulting students.

CopWatch and the Power U Center for Social Change are calling on people to support students' right to protest and condemn school police for mistreating students.

Please call the Miami-Dade County school board to complain about this police abuse: 305-995-1000.

Also, please go to the school tonight, Friday, February 29 at 6:00pm to protest police abuse and support student rights to free speech.

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Picket to Support the Liberty City 7- Tuesday 9am Federal Courthouse Miami, FL

2008-02-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

CopWatch and other community organizations are organizing a picket to demand the acquittal and immediate release of the Liberty City 7 (LC7). The re-trial of the six remaining defendants begins today (Friday, February 1, 2008). The picket will take place on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami, Ave. in downtown Miami, beginning at 9:00am.

The LC7 were arrested amidst great fanfare during the summer of 2006, with then attorney general Alberto Gonzalez calling them Muslim terrorists. It was quickly discovered that the men were neither Muslim nor terrorists. While the Bush administration trumpeted the arrests as a significant advancement in the "war on terror," the case clearly lacked substance: the men were never in contact with Al Qaeda; they lacked the capacity to carry out the acts they were charged with planning; it was clear the government agent, not the LC7, was leading the planning; there were no weapons or bomb making materials found in their possession; and the group dismantled itself more than a month prior to the arrests.

While the case was lacking, the motivation for bringing the case was obvious. On Friday June 23, 2006, The New York Times planned to release a story about the Bush Administration spying on the financial transactions of millions of American citizens, without a warrant. On Thursday, June 22nd, FBI Director Rober Mueller announced the raid of the LC7 warehouse (none of the them were in the building at the time) on live television during an interview. The next day, instead of focusing on the Bush Administration spying scandal, the media and general public only talked about the seven "terrorists" in Miami. As George W. Bush might say, "mission accomplished."

The first trial ended in one acquittal and a mistrial for the other six. The judge immediately called for and set a date for a new trial. In addition, the judget put in place a number of "security measures," such as refering to jurors by number instead of name and ordering the jury escorted by armed marshalls, which do not protect the jury- there was no tampering during the last trial- but, instead, is designed to intimidate the jury into thinking the men pose a security risk. It was extremely telling that in this politically charged climate, the government was unable to secure even on conviction of a Black man charged with terrorism.

The LC7 case is important because it directly targets Black organizations and movements under the guise of fighting the war on terror. If this travesty is allowed to proceed unchallenged, every organization pushing a progressive agenda will be targeted and charged with conspiracy. Make no mistake about it: this is the new McCarthy Red Scare in this day and age.

Future generations will demand to know what YOU did during the time the government targeted innocent people and charged them with terror related conspiracies. How will you respond?

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Rally to Release the Liberty City 7- Monday, January 7 at 9AM

2008-01-04T06:32:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

On Monday, December 7, 2008, CopWatch and other community organizations will protest the first day of the re-trial of the Liberty City 7 (LC7). The picket line will take place at the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami, Ave., in downtown Miami beginning at 9:00am.

We are calling for the immediate release of all of the men and that the government drop the trumped up, politically motivated charges, thereby ending the re-trial.

During the first trial, which ended in December 2007, the jury saw through the sham charges and acquitted one of the men, Lyglenson Lemorin, outright and deadlocked on charges against the other six. Not surprisingly, the judge continued to push the official government line by calling for a new trial in less than 30 days. Lemorin remains in federal custody, held by immigration who will try him again on the same charges. Lemorin is a legal US resident.

During the summer of 2006, seven men, mostly of Haitian decent, were arrested and charged with planning to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as well as federal buildings in Miami. The arrests were timed to coincide with FBI Director Robert Mueller's appearance on the Larry King television show, and the government falsely reported the men were part of a "radical Muslim group" in order to foster suspicion and anti-Muslim sentiment in the general public.

Of course, none of the men were Muslim and no weapons or bomb making materials were found in their possession and the "plot" was primarily crafted by an FBI informant, not the men. Most importantly, the group disbanded shortly after the infamous "Al Qaeda oath," which was orchestrated by the FBI informant and during which several of the men expressed confusion about the wording of the oath and at least one slept through the ceremony, exhausted from working all day.

The arrests were a politically motivated ploy to divert attention from the story, released the following day by the New York Times, detailing the Bush administration's spying on ATM and credit card transactions of millions of American citizens. The diversion worked as media outlets turned their attention to the story of "homegrown terrorists.

Even in this current political climate, the US government was unable to secure even one conviction against seven Black men. You know that if you cannot convict seven Black men of conspiring to do something, your case has some problems.

Taking no chances for the second trial, the judge called for a new trial to begin less than 30 days after the first one ended. In addition, she plans to sequester to jury and provide armed escorts for the jury to and from the courthouse. Neither one of these measures were in place during the first trial and no incidents occurred. Clearly, the judge is looking to intimidate the jury, using the beefed up security to create an atmosphere of fear in an attempt to make jurors think that if all this security is required, there must be a threat associated with the men. The worse part is that none of this is making anyone safer.

This is no idle exercise to show support for seven confused young men. The so-called "war on terror" has served primarily to increase the power of government to do what they were unable to do pre-September 11: spy on us without fear of public outrage. The potential for utilizing the Justice Department to quell political dissent and activism- all in the name of fighting terror- is real and will fundamentally undermine the ability of political activists to receive a fair trial, either in court or in the court of public opinion.

This case is clearly a trial balloon to determine what people will tolerate from the US government. The target- seven impoverished black men- was obviously selected in order to minimize public sentiment and support. When arrests on flimsy, politically motivated charges of terrorism become common place, you will be unable to argue that you did not see this coming.

We demand the immediate release of all the men and the dropping of these politically motivated charges. Please make plans to attend the rally in support of the LC7 and against this gross violation of justice.

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

Community Calls for Freedom for Liberty City 7

2007-12-23T12:31:00.000-05:00

Press Release
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Community Activists Demand Freedom For the Liberty City 7
for immediate release

CopWatch and other community organizations, led by CopWatch, are calling for the Justice Department to drop all charges against the Liberty City 7 and to release all seven men so they can spend the holiday with their loved ones. The press conference will be held on Monday, December 24, 2007 at 10:00AM in front of the warehouse used by the group on NW 15th Ave. at 63rd St.

Following the highly publicized arrests in the summer of 2006, including a press conference by then Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, community members and legal experts raised questions about the quality of those arrests, given the dubious charges and claims by prosecutors that seven impoverished and unarmed black men concocted a viable plan to overthrow the United States government.

Days after the arrests, CopWatch organized a press conference raising questions about the political nature of the charges, rhetoric and timing of the raid, set to coincide with an appearance of the FBI director on the Larry King show. At the time, the New York Times was set to release a story about the Bush Administration spying on the financial transactions of millions of American citizens. Subsequent media coverage of seven "home grown terrorists" easily outpaced that of stories recounting government spying on US citizens. Since then, the Justice Department has been hammered with accuasations of politically motivated investigations and arrests, ultimately resulting in the resignation of Attorney General Gonzalez.

Since then, the seven men faced prosecutors and a jury which could not find six of the men guilty, but did acquit one defendant, Lyglenson Lemorin, outright. In spite of his acquittal, Lemorin remains in the custody of federal immigration officials and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, even though he is a legal resident found guilty of no crimes. Community organizations argue that the arrests were motivated by political considerations, not national security. The men are no threat to anyone, and, therefore, all charges should be dropped.

"In this political climate, the fact that a jury refused to convict a group of men charged with terrorism speaks volumes about the weakness of the case against them," says Max Rameau of CopWatch. "The US government is using the 'war on terror' to advance a domestic political agenda. In addition to costing time and money, in addition to ruining the lives of these men and their families, this is not making anyone safer."

The groups are calling on the Justice Department to drop all charges and cancel the upcoming new trial set for January 7, 2008. Community organizations and individuals will speak at the event.

Contact:

Max Rameau, CopWatch
afrimax@gmail.com

Killer cops back on the street

2007-12-13T12:55:00.000-05:00

In the midst of what Miami-Dade police cynically call an
"investigation" into whether cops unlawfully shot and killed two men
and injured one woman, those same two cops are back on the street
where they can shoot even more unarmed people in cars- and they did.

On November 12, 2007 Officers Michael Mendez and Ryan Robinson killed
Frisco Blackwood and Michael Knight, and injured a female passenger,
in a barrage of bullets targeting the SUV in which they sat. Less than
30 days later, the pair was at it again, this time shooting, but
fortunately not killing, Robert De Armas, who was in a car as well, on
23rd St. and NW 18th Ave.

This means that two police officers, under an ongoing investigation
ostensibly designed to determine if they murdered two civilians, were
allowed back on patrol, this time under the auspices of an aggressive
police program, the RID, commonly known as the "jumpouts."

The development is disturb ing on many levels, none so more than this:
Miami-Dade blatantly disregards community will, outrage and the
possible wrongdoing by officers in the line of duty. Top brass
continues blind support of cops who commit wrongdoings under the color
of law, as the Black community continues to bury young men killed at
the hands of police.

The community is outraged and hurt by the rash of police shootings and
the police responds by putting the cops at whom the outrage is
directed back on the streets in our community. During an ongoing
investigation of wrongdoing.

The harsh truth is that there is no credible investigation of any of
the deaths at the hands of police being conducted either by Miami-Dade
police or the State Attorney's office. They are not investigating
Christopher Villano, the cop who killed BG Beaugris in North Miami.
Nor the cops who tased, kicked, beat and hogtied Roger Brown prior to
his death. And, obviously, there is no serious investigation of
Michael Mendez and Ryan Robinson, together shooting at Michael Knight
and Frisco Blackwood over 20 times.

It appears as if when a cop is involved in the shooting of unarmed
Black people, a shooting invoking controversy and outrage in the
broader community, Miami-Dade police take those cops off of uniformed
duty and place them, instead, on undercover duty, as "jumpouts," in a
Black or Latino community, from where they can shoot, and possibly
kill more Blacks and other people of color.

The Black and broader community must understand that when the police
say they are conducting a thorough investigation of their own, they
are lying. There is no good faith investigation or even intent to
conduct a thorough investigation. Now it is evident that there is not
even an attempt to pretend as if there is an ongoing investigation.

Equally as important, after police complete an "investigation" of
other police and clear them of all wrongdoing, they are lying.

We are not children and have no interest in being humored or
patronized. The police regularly lie to us about fair and thorough
investigations, and that practice must stop. Instead of lying before
the community and the media about intentions to conduct an
"investigation," the police should simply state the truth: police are
allowed to shoot Black people virtually at will, and, therefore, there
is no need for an investigation.

This honesty will improve police-community relations as the community
realizes the police are no longer lying to us. In addition, the move
will save countless administrative hours and money currently wasted on
fake investigations and meaningless reports on behalf of the police
and the state attorney's office.

In the mean time, there is a fundamental unfairness in forcing members
of the Black community to pay taxes for a police force unwilling to
adhere to our demands and cries. The fundamental power relationship
between the police and the community is askew. The Black community
must, therefore, develop alternate means of securing our communities,
including against out of control police forces with no respect for our
rights.

Forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Umoja Village Photo Book

2007-12-12T07:19:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

I am proud to announce the release of the Umoja Village Photo Book and invite you to purchase your own copy at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/1578519

The book tells the story of the Umoja Village Shantytown, from the frantic first days all the way through the fire- and the protests which followed. This photo essay includes 25 pages of professionally shot photographs donated by Jhon Luna, Rolfe Ross, Cindy Karp and Noelle Theard.

See the shanties, the residents, the victories and the results of the devastating fire, all in a full color 9 x 7 photo book. The story is compelling and the photographs are beautiful.

The Umoja Village Photo Book is just $30 (plus shipping) from Lulu.com and a portion of the proceeds will go to Take Back the Land to continue our great work. Thank you for your interest and support.

http://www.lulu.com/content/1578519

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.takebacktheland.net

Community Outraged at Police Beating 74 year old Activist into a Coma

2007-12-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

CopWatch and other community organizations and individuals are holding a press conference to condemn the beating of 74 year old Bernie Dyer by the Miami Beach Police. The beating takes place shortly after Miami-Dade police killed four (4) unarmed black men in 19 days. The press conference will be held on Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 2:00pm in front of Bernie's apartment building, 1745 Marseille Dr. in Miami Beach.

On Friday, November 23, Dyer was suffering a mental health crisis in his Miami Beach apartment. When his family heard the news, they came to explain to police Dyer's history of mental health crisis, dating back to his service in Vietnam. The family explained Dyer was of no threat to anyone, and that if allowed, at 74 years old, he would eventually wear himself out and fall asleep. After assurances that the police understood the situation, family members left the scene. Police then lobbed several canisters of tear gas into the one bedroom apartment before storming in and beating Bernie Dyer.

After more than a week, Bernie Dyer remains in a coma at Mt. Sinai Hospital. At the press conference, Bernie's family will speak about his condition and prognosis.

After organizing in Harlem, NY, Bernie Dyer moved to Miami in the mid 1960s, eventually directing the Liberty City Community Council, an organization financed by the Christian Community Service Agency, located on 62nd St. and NW 12th Ave. in the heart of Liberty City. Dyer played a significant role in restoring calm following civil unrest in 1968 and 1980. His role in calling out injustice was so controversial that his family was forced to flee the country, briefly, in order to avoid persecution by the police and others in positions of power.

Dyer also played a significant role in building the community, helping to found a number of organizations, including the Martin Luther King Economic Development Corporation.

The attack on Bernie Dyer raises serious questions about the actions and attitudes of police, such as why Miami Beach police required several cans of tear gas, a swat team and physical brutality to "subdue" a 74 year old man; what are appropriate responses to people enduring a mental health crisis; and is this beating part of a larger trend of police abuse, one which already has taken the lives of 4 black men in 19 days in Miami-Dade County.

Several community members and organizations will speak at the event.

To reach the location from Miami, take 79th St. across the causeway and into the Normandy Isles neighborhood. At the light, turn LEFT at Esplanalde and then another LEFT at Marseille Dr.

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Rally Against Police Abuse on Saturday 4:00PM. 4 Dead in 19 Days.

2007-11-23T13:40:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

In just 19 days, 4 unarmed Black men died at the hands of one department: Miami-Dade Police. And they want the right to carry shotguns.

On Saturday, November 24, 2007, beginning at 4:00PM, the community will rally for justice and against police abuse at the Miami-Dade Police Intracoastal Station, located on Biscayne Blvd. and 156th St. in North Miami. The rally will follow the funerals of Michael Knight and Frisco Blackwood, two men shot dead by Miami-Dade Police on November 12.

Virtually anywhere else, the violent deaths of four unarmed people by one police department would trigger headline news and federal investigations. However, in 2007's Miami-Dade County, the deaths have not been tied together by the media or even elicited any public statements by elected officials, not even the Black ones. The shocking silence of the elected officials and the unwillingness of the media to ask questions, speaks volumes about the state of Black people in this part of the United States.

However, in a real demonstration of people power, the Haitian-American and African-American communities, along with people of good will of every race and nationality, are joining for a single rally for justice for all victims of police brutality. This rally might usher in a new day in communities fighting injustice together, rather than separately.

Over the past few months, Miami-Dade Police have launched a series of aggressive police sweeps, targeting Black communities and people. These aggressive police units- locally known as the "jumpouts"- feature police jumping out of unmarked cars with guns drawn and pointed while barking orders to scared and confused people. Men, women and children in Liberty City, Little Haiti, Overtown, North Miami and other Black communities are forced to lay down on the ground, take off their shoes and socks and endure disrespectful treatment, even when doing nothing wrong at all. The end result was predictable: the same police encouraged to and rewarded when engaged in overly-aggressive police tactics, killed four unarmed Black men in 19 days.

On October 25, 19 year old BG Beaugris talked with his younger brother and two friends a mere 100 feet from his own apartment, having just completed his father's laundry. Undercover "jumpout" Christopher Villano saw four Black men and, according to Villano's lawyer, considered them "suspicious." Villano jumped out of his unmarked car, gun drawn, and ordered the young men against the wall. After finding nothing illegal or dangerous, Villano engaged in a verbal argument with BG before jumping on him and placing him in a headlock. With his free hand, Villano drew his weapon and shot BG once. As he lay on the ground injured, Villano shot BG twice more, killing him.

On November 7, Roger Brown was apparently driving erratically before being stopped by school and Miami-Dade police. Several cops jumped on the 40 year old Brown, claiming he was resistant, behavior typical of individuals suffering a mental health crisis. According to witnesses, after tasing Brown, police kicked him in the face and beat him with night sticks before placing him in a "hogtie" position and throwing him in the back of a cruiser. Brown stopped breathing and was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

On November 12, Frisco Blackwood and Michael Knight were dropping a friend off at her Little Haiti home. A marked Miami-Dade police car followed them and eventually pulled them over, allegedly for running a red light. The rented SUV pulled into a dead end- leaving the three with nowhere to run, even if they wanted to- and the police jumped out of their cruiser with guns drawn on the car, all for running a red light. The guns and barked orders made Blackwood nervous and police open fired when the vehicle did not do exactly what the cops wanted it to. After getting hit by multiple bullets, Blackwood's body convulsed uncontrollably, throwing the vehicle into reverse. The female passenger in the back seat was shot in the leg and survived watching her friends die at the hands of the police.

These deaths would not happen in wealthy white neighborhoods, not because there are no criminals there, but because police do not jumpout with guns drawn on traffic stops or on white people doing their laundry. We urge all people of justice to demand an end to the unfair police practices in the Black community.

Attend the rally on Saturday, November 24, 4:00pm at the Miami-Dade Intracoastal Station, Biscayne Blvd. and 156th St. We also urge you to attend services for Frisco and Michael.

Services for Michael Knight
Viewing • Friday, November 23 • 6:00PM-9:00PM • Poitier Funeral Home • 2321 NW 62nd St. • Liberty City, FL
Funeral • Saturday, November 24 • 10:00AM • Jordan Grove Baptist • 5946 NW 12th Ave • Liberty City, FL

Services for Frisco Blackwood
Viewing • Friday, November 23 • 9:00AM-9:00PM • Wright Funeral Home • 15332 NW 7th Ave. • Miami, FL
Funeral • Saturday, November 24 • 2:00PM • Westview Baptist • 13301 NW 24th Ave. • Opa-Locka, FL

CopWatch • Haitian American Grassroots Coalition • Power U Youth • Miami Workers Center • Haiti Solidarity Committee • Bolivarian Youth • Veye-Yo • South Florida Peace & Justice Network • Miami-Dade NAACP

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

4 Dead in 19 Days. Rally Against Police Abuse Saturday 4:00PM

2007-11-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

In just 19 days, 4 unarmed Black men died at the hands of one department: Miami-Dade Police. And they want the right to carry shotguns.

On Saturday, November 24, 2007, beginning at 4:00PM, the community will rally for justice and against police abuse at the Miami-Dade Police Intracoastal Station, located on Biscayne Blvd. and 156th St. in North Miami. The rally will follow the funerals of Michael Knight and Frisco Blackwood, two men shot dead by Miami-Dade Police on November 12.

Virtually anywhere else, the violent deaths of four unarmed people by one police department would trigger headline news and federal investigations. However, in 2007's Miami-Dade County, the deaths have not been tied together by the media or even elicited any public statements by elected officials, not even the Black ones. The shocking silence of the elected officials and the unwillingness of the media to ask questions, speaks volumes about the state of Black people in this part of the United States.

However, in a real demonstration of people power, the Haitian-American and African-American communities, along with people of good will of every race and nationality, are joining for a single rally for justice for all victims of police brutality. This rally might usher in a new day in communities fighting injustice together, rather than separately.

Over the past few months, Miami-Dade Police have launched a series of aggressive police sweeps, targeting Black communities and people. These aggressive police units- locally known as the "jumpouts"- feature police jumping out of unmarked cars with guns drawn and pointed while barking orders to scared and confused people. Men, women and children in Liberty City, Little Haiti, Overtown, North Miami and other Black communities are forced to lay down on the ground, take off their shoes and socks and endure disrespectful treatment, even when doing nothing wrong at all. The end result was predictable: the same police encouraged to and rewarded when engaged in overly-aggressive police tactics, killed four unarmed Black men in 19 days.

On October 25, 19 year old BG Beaugris talked with his younger brother and two friends a mere 100 feet from his own apartment, having just completed his father's laundry. Undercover "jumpout" Christopher Villano saw four Black men and, according to Villano's lawyer, considered them "suspicious." Villano jumped out of his unmarked car, gun drawn, and ordered the young men against the wall. After finding nothing illegal or dangerous, Villano engaged in a verbal argument with BG before jumping on him and placing him in a headlock. With his free hand, Villano drew his weapon and shot BG once. As he lay on the ground injured, Villano shot BG twice more, killing him.

On November 7, Roger Brown was apparently driving erratically before being stopped by school and Miami-Dade police. Several cops jumped on the 40 year old Brown, claiming he was resistant, behavior typical of individuals suffering a mental health crisis. According to witnesses, after tasing Brown, police kicked him in the face and beat him with night sticks before placing him in a "hogtie" position and throwing him in the back of a cruiser. Brown stopped breathing and was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

On November 12, Frisco Blackwood and Michael Knight were dropping a friend off at her Little Haiti home. A marked Miami-Dade police car followed them and eventually pulled them over, allegedly for running a red light. The rented SUV pulled into a dead end- leaving the three with nowhere to run, even if they wanted to- and the police jumped out of their cruiser with guns drawn on the car, all for running a red light. The guns and barked orders made Blackwood nervous and police open fired when the vehicle did not do exactly what the cops wanted it to. After getting hit by multiple bullets, Blackwood's body convulsed uncontrollably, throwing the vehicle into reverse. The female passenger in the back seat was shot in the leg and survived watching her friends die at the hands of the police.

These deaths would not happen in wealthy white neighborhoods, not because there are no criminals there, but because police do not jumpout with guns drawn on traffic stops or on white people doing their laundry. We urge all people of justice to demand an end to the unfair police practices in the Black community.

Attend the rally on Saturday, November 24, 4:00pm at the Miami-Dade Intracoastal Station, Biscayne Blvd. and 156th St. We also urge you to attend services for Frisco and Michael.

Services for Michael Knight
Viewing • Friday, November 23 • 6:00PM-9:00PM • Poitier Funeral Home • 2321 NW 62nd St. • Liberty City, FL
Funeral • Saturday, November 24 • 10:00AM • Jordan Grove Baptist • 5946 NW 12th Ave • Liberty City, FL

Services for Frisco Blackwood
Viewing • Friday, November 23 • 9:00AM-9:00PM • Wright Funeral Home • 15332 NW 7th Ave. • Miami, FL
Funeral • Saturday, November 24 • 2:00PM • Westview Baptist • 13301 NW 24th Ave. • Opa-Locka, FL

CopWatch • Haitian American Grassroots Coalition • Power U Youth • Miami Workers Center • Haiti Solidarity Committee • Bolivarian Youth • Veye-Yo • South Florida Peace & Justice Network • Miami-Dade NAACP

forward,

Max Rameau

BG Beaugris Funeral Saturday 10AM

2007-11-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

The funeral for Gracia "BG" Beaugris, killed by Miami-Dade police office Christopher Villano, will be held on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 10:00am at the New Birth Baptist Church, 2300 NW 135^th St. in Opa-Locka.

BG was shot to death on October 25, less than 100 feet from his own front door. After completing his father's laundry, BG stood yards from his home with his brother and two friends when Miami-Dade police officer Christopher Villano jumpout out of his unmarked cars because the young men looked "suspicious." After searching each of them, Villano found nothing- no weapons, drugs or stolen goods- and the youth began asking why they were targeted. Villano physically attacked BG, ultimately shooting him a total of three times, two while BG lie on the ground.

Since BG's slaying, three others have been killed by Miami-Dade police, including Roger Brown who on November 8 was tased, kicked in the face and beaten with batons before being hogtied and thrown in the back of a police car on 95^th Street and NW 17^th Ave. Brown died a short time after.

Childhood friends Michael Knight and Frisco Blackwood were driving a friend home on November 11 when police stopped the vehicle, allegedly for running a red light, and surrounded it with weapons drawn. Fearful for his life, Blackwood followed orders to lower his window, but he accidentally put the vehicle in neutral rather than in park. As the SUV resettled on the uneven ground, police open fired, killing the two unarmed men and wounding the female passenger.

These killings are the direct result of the latest round of aggressive police tactics targeting Black communities such as Liberty City, Little Haiti, North Miami and elsewhere.

Several community organizations, including CopWatch, planned a demonstration in front of the Miami-Dade police station for Saturday to protest BG's killing. However, due to the funeral arrangements, the protest will be postponed. That means the 2:00pm protest at the Miami-Dade police station is canceled.

The viewing for BG Beaugris will be held on Friday, November 16, 2007 from 6:00pm until 10:00pm, at the St Fort Funeral Home, 16480 NE 19th Ave.

We encourage everyone to attend the funeral.

Forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Vigil for 2 Killed by Miami-Dade Police Monday

2007-11-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

Candlelight Vigil for 2 Men Shot Dead by Miami-Dade Police

Once again, community members and organizations join a grieving family to remember an unarmed person shot and killed by Miami-Dade police. The candlelight vigil will commemorate the lives of Michael Knight and Frisco Blackwood, both killed in a hail of Miami-Dade County Police bullets. Another passenger was shot, but survived. The vigil will be held on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:00pm at the location of the killing, 65^th St. and North Miami Avenue in Little Haiti.

Police were conducting a traffic stop on the evening of Monday, November 12. After the car pulled over without incident, police surrounded it with weapons drawn. The driver followed police orders to lower his window, but when told to put the car in park, he accidentally shifted into neutral instead. As the vehicle re-settled from the gear shift, police opened with a barrage of shots, mortally wounding both men.

While police claim they fired because the vehicle backed up into a police car, witnesses believe the vehicle did not move backwards until after the shooting began, raising the possibility that gunshots forced the driver into shifting gears and accidentally hitting the gas pedal.

The killings mark the third and fourth deaths at the hands of Miami-Dade police in less than 20 days. On October 25, Miami-Dade "jumpout" police stopped and searched an unarmed 19 year old Gracia "BG" Beaugris, who stood 100 feet from his own front door talking to his brother and two friends. After finding nothing, officer Christopher Villano shot Beaugris three times, including twice while Beaugris laid on the ground. On November 7^th, Miami-Dade police surrounded 40 year old Roger Brown on 95^th St. and NW 17^th Ave., for acting "erratically." According to witnesses, Brown was tasered, kicked in the face and beaten with night sticks before being hogtied and thrown into a police car. Brown died at North Shore Medical Center.

The men killed by Miami-Dade police were unarmed and no drugs were in the vehicle. Michael Knight celebrated his 21st birthday on Friday.

The vigil is being organized by CopWatch, which is not only concerned about this shooting, but the aggressive police tactics police are employing in Black communities. Liberty City, Little Haiti, North Miami and other Black communities are flooded with cops behaving aggressively as they pull over cars for minor, or no, infractions and force men, women and children onto the streets at gun point. These tactics are not being employed in wealthy white neighborhoods.

These types of shooting deaths are the direct result of the public policy of aggressive police tactics. Jumpouts and other aggressive forces are encouraged to make large numbers of arrests and are rewarded for abusing the rights of the poor and the Black. Because the victims are poor and Black, neither internal affairs nor the state attorney nor the courts nor the media believe them when they complain of police misconduct.

As these police tactics continue- in fact they seem to be escalating, not declining- there will be more unarmed dead Black men across Miami-Dade County and no cop will ever be punished, and certainly not by Katherine Fernandez Rundle. We must take to the streets and demand justice for the victims and their families. Equally as important, we must demand an end to the aggressive police programs which generate those victims.

JUSTICE FOR MICHAEL KNIGHT AND FRISCO BLACKWOOD!
PUT KILLER COPS IN JAIL!
END THE JUMPOUTS!

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch

Rally for Justice for BG Beaugris

2007-11-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Join the Committee for Justice for BG Beaugris for the Rally for Justice on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 2:00pm at the Miami-Dade Police Intracoastal Station, located on Biscayne Blvd. and 156th St.

On Thursday October 25, 2007, an unarmed BG Beaugris was shot in the head by Miami-Dade police, after picking up his father's laundry, just a few steps from his home.

Miami-Dade "Jumpouts" harassed and searched several young black men who were talking to each other. Police found NOTHING on the men and started beating on BG. Office Christopher Villano then shot BG once in the chest and twice again while he lay on the ground. This was a murder.

DEMAND JUSTICE FOR BG AND HIS FAMILY!

Prosecute Christopher Villano!
Stop Harassment of Youth in North Miami!
End the Jumpouts!
Stop Police Brutality!

Committee for Justice for BG Beaugris
CopWatch • Haitian American Grassroots Coalition • Veye Yo • Power U Youth • Haiti Solidarity • Bolivarian Youth • Miami-Dade NAACP

Vigil for 19 yr old shot in head by Miami-Dade Police- Tuesday 6pm in North Miami

2007-10-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

Candlelight Vigil for Garcia "BG" Beaugris

Miami CopWatch and the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition invites you to a candlelight vigil to commemorate the life of Garcia "BG" Beaugris and demand justice for him and his family. BG was brutally shot and killed by Miami-Dade police on Friday just a few feet from his North Miami home. BG's death will likely be remembered as one of the most brutal police killings in recent memory. The Vigil is set for Tuesday, October 29, 2007 at 5:30pm on the corner of 128^th St. and NE 7^th Ave., just off of West Dixie Highway.

According to multiple eye witnesses, BG was shot once in the chest and then twice again as he lay wounded on the ground, at virtually point blank range, while he was talking to friends just 100 feet from his home.

Miami-Dade "jumpout" police rolled up on several young black males talking to one another next to BG's home. After searching the teens and finding nothing, Miami-Dade cop Christopher Villano verbally harassed and then physically attacked BG, ultimately shooting him dead.

The community is gathering to commemorate the life of BG Beaugris and to demand justice for him and his family. We demand the immediate arrest of Christopher Villano, with the appropriate charges of murder, and the end to the "jumpout" police programs in low income black communities.

BG's death will be remembered as one of the most notorious police shootings in Miami-Dade County. Join the fight to stop police brutality and win justice for BG Beaugris.

What: Candlelight Vigil for BG Beaugris

When: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 5:30pm

Where: 128^th St. and NE 7^th Ave. (just off of West Dixie Highway), North Miami, FL

Why: an unarmed BG Beaugris was shot dead by Miami-Dade police

forward,

Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Take Back the Housing

2007-10-24T13:26:00.000-05:00

Miami Herald Story on the Housing Takeover by Take Back the Land: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/282253.html

October 23, 2007 marks one year since the rise of the Umoja Village Shantytown in the Liberty City section of Miami in response to the crisis of gentrification and low income housing. In the year since this "people power" action, much has changed and much more remains the same. Black and other poor communities are ravaged by the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing while the same government which extracts taxes from us, does nothing to alleviate the crisis. One year later, the issue of community control over land remains fundamental in solving the crisis.

As the real estate bubble explodes around us, vacant foreclosed homes litter our communities and speculators choose to hold onto vacant houses and apartments, waiting for the next market swing in order to make their millions. For it's part, in spite of all the scandal and crisis, Miami-Dade County doggedly maintains an unconscionable and immoral stockpile of vacant public housing units, units which otherwise would shelter some of the 41,000 families languishing on the housing assistance waiting list.

All the while, the homeless population grows, particularly among the "under-housed," those not living on the street, but doubling and tripling up in single family homes, including public housing, where the extra families live illegally, endangering the housing security of the entire extended family, sometimes right next door to a boarded up, vacant unit.

We are forced to conclude that Miami-Dade County intentionally leaves units vacant, or tears down public housing all together- exemplified by the HOPE VI funded Scott-Carver public housing project demolition- as a means of fueling the real estate "boom." When governments take units of low-income housing off of the market, the value of the remaining privately held units increases, as families scramble to find new living arrangements. This is nothing short of tax financed market manipulation, designed to decrease supply at a time when demand is sky high, resulting in a government sponsored- not market driven- real estate "boom."

In the end, human beings are homeless because developers and speculators seek to profit from the misery of the poor. The laws allow it and the government provides direct assistance. There should be no right to profit from human misery.

In spite of the crisis, scandal and controversy, the reality is that local governments continue to enrich wealthy developers and have intentionally failed to address this crisis in any meaningful way. Neither Miami-Dade County nor the federal government operates based on the interests of poor Black people. As such, we are left with no other option than to provide for the people for whom the government is not providing.

Take Back the Land, again, asserts the right of the Black community to control land in the Black community. In order to provide housing for people, not for profit, this community control over land must now take the form of direct community control over housing.

Consequently, Take Back the Land has initiated the process of moving families and individuals into vacant housing, whether public, foreclosed upon or privately owned and intentionally vacated.

As of this writing, several families have already been moved into housing and several more are desperately awaiting their turn. We will move families and individuals into vacant housing units all across Miami-Dade County.

Housing is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Housing is a human right, and we, hereby, assert our humanity.

Miami Herald Story on the Housing Takeover by Take Back the Land: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/282253.html

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.TakeBacktheLand.net

Umoja Village Anniversary Event

2007-10-23T10:09:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Take Back the Land cordially invites you to attend a rally in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the founding of the Umoja Village Shantytown. The rally starts at 5:00pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2007, and we have moved the location to our new office at 6819 NW 15th Ave., in the Liberty City section of Miami, FL.

Come join us as we announce our next efforts to Take Back the Land and how you can support. The event will include food, music and speakers from numerous organizations.

We are also accepting donations and volunteers for our political work and for the former residents of Umoja Village.

forward,

Max Rameau

CORRECTION- Umoja Village 1 Year Anniversary 5PM October 23rd

2007-10-18T15:15:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

I apologize for the resend. Please not the CORRECT TIME: 5:00PM on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007. Thank you.

forward,

Max Rameau

Greetings:

Take Back the Land cordially invites you to attend a rally in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the founding of the Umoja Village Shantytown. The rally starts at 5:00pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2007, on the corner of 15th Ave. and NW 62nd Terr., in the Liberty City section of Miami, FL.

On October 23, 2006, Take Back the Land seized control over public land on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City, building the Umoja Village Shantytown, providing housing for as many as 53 otherwise homeless people at one time, and close to 150 people in all. Residents of the Village did not live in opulence, but they did live in dignity, with their own shanties and running the village themselves in a direct democracy. The Village survived numerous attempts by government officials to shut it down.

On April 26, 2007, just three days after its six month anniversary celebration, the Umoja Village burned to the ground in a suspicious fire. While the physical structures burned, the Umoja- Swahili for 'Unity'- we built cannot be destroyed.

The crisis of gentrification and housing which spurred the creation of the Village rages on today. During the rally, Take Back the Land will announce future plans to address the crisis. The event will include food, music and speakers from numerous organizations. We are also accepting donations for our political work and for the former residents of Umoja Village.

forward,

Max Rameau

Umoja Village 1 Year Anniversary

2007-10-18T09:46:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Take Back the Land cordially invites you to attend a rally in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the founding of the Umoja Village Shantytown. The rally starts at 6:00pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2007, on the corner of 15th Ave. and NW 62nd Terr., in the Liberty City section of Miami, FL.

On October 23, 2006, Take Back the Land seized control over public land on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City, building the Umoja Village Shantytown, providing housing for as many as 53 otherwise homeless people at one time, and close to 150 people in all. Residents of the Village did not live in opulence, but they did live in dignity, with their own shanties and running the village themselves in a direct democracy. The Village survived numerous attempts by government officials to shut it down.

On April 26, 2007, just three days after its six month anniversary celebration, the Umoja Village burned to the ground in a suspicious fire. While the physical structures burned, the Umoja- Swahili for 'Unity'- we built cannot be destroyed.

The crisis of gentrification and housing which spurred the creation of the Village rages on today. During the rally, Take Back the Land will announce future plans to address the crisis. The event will include food, music and speakers from numerous organizations. We are also accepting donations for our political work and for the former residents of Umoja Village.

forward,

Max Rameau

Community Demands Control Over MDHA

2007-09-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

Friday, September 28, 2007

The deal announced today between Miami-Dade County and the federal government, finalizing short and long term control over Miami-Dade Housing Authority (MDHA), and the millions of dollars earmarked for low-income and subsidized housing, fails the needs of this community and is doomed to deepen the crisis of gentrification and low income housing for tens of thousands of people.

Once again the powers-that-be on the local and federal level have worked out a deal, through closed door negotiations, without the participation of, or regard for, those impacted by the policies and actions of MDHA and who will bear the brunt of this agreement. The beneficiaries of MDHA, including public housing residents, section 8 recipients, subsidized housing and former Scott-Carver residents, must be included in every step of the decision making process, including representation in court mandated mediation, the results of which could severely impact their lives.

More to the point, the agreement achieves the goals and needs of the two parties involved in the negotiation, but does not address the fundamental problem of the disconnect between the needs of low income people and the actions of government officials, local and federal.

Clearly, the feds achieved their objective of wresting temporary control over MDHA from the County. Conversely, the agreement secured the county's two main objectives: first, ensuring the feds do not sell any properties the county wants to sell, or give away to wealthy developers, themselves; and second, assuring that at the end of the process, power over MDHA, and it multi-million dollar budget, returns to the county and not to an independent trust or board, as is common practice throughout the United States.

The only entity which achieved none of their objectives- no local control, no clear end to public corruption and, most importantly, no change in public policy resulting in adequate amounts of low-income housing- are those in need of low-income housing and their supporters.

This community has been presented a false choice: either accept federal control over MDHA or allow the county, those responsible for the dis-function of the agency in the first place, to retain control. The only viable option, minimizing risk of public corruption and maximizing the opportunity to build adequate amounts of housing, is for community control over MDHA via an independent and autonomous Trust.

We demand community representation in every aspect of the hand-over and ultimate community control over MDHA. MDHA must be used to benefit the people, not political connected developers.

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land

Denise Perry
Power U

Delores Turner
Miami ACORN board chair

Mae Singerman
Community Benefits Coalition

123,564

2007-09-02T09:11:00.001-05:00

123,564

Miami-Dade's airwaves, op-ed pages and water cooler discussions are alive with vigorous condemnations of the gross public corruption and pilfering of funds earmarked for low-income housing. While such discussion is just and appropriate, particularly in the context of a devastating crisis of gentrification and low-income housing, not nearly enough time, energy and brain power is devoted to solving the housing crisis itself.

While shocking, immoral and criminal, the reality is that the impact of public corruption on the crisis pales in comparison to the impact of bad public policy on the crisis. If government officials stop stealing tomorrow, or, God forbid, they are actually charged with stealing, the crisis itself would continue, unabated, because there is neither the political will nor the plan to build enough low-income housing to meet the demand. Therefore, ending corruption is important, but insufficient, in addressing this crisis.

In October 2006, the Miami-Dade Department of Planning and Zoning updated its 25 year Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP), outlining challenges, goals and objectives for several strategic 'elements,' including transportation, conservation, waste management and the like. On page one of the Housing Element of the CDMP, census and housing data is used to conclude the county "will require 294,200 new housing units" by 2025, of which "about 42 percent... will be needed by very low and low-income households."

123,564.

To adequately address the continuing crisis of gentrification and housing, 123,564 new low and very low income housing units must be built. This number, the CDMP stresses, will not address the current crisis, only the future.

This is not a stunt promoted by radical fringes or a conjured total invented by special interest groups. 123,564 is derived by professional staff paid to develop public policy objectives based on measurable needs and without regard for political considerations.

During this time of budget cuts and housing busts, the notion of building 123,564 housing units, substantially subsidized by public money, is a grand idea whose time has come. This idea requires shifting budget priorities, focusing talent, pooling resources and, yes, ending public corruption.

The lofty objective of providing housing for human beings, our neighbors, friends and even family, is not something one county or large city can accomplish alone. Every municipality, even the wealthy ones, must contribute their fair share to the total; Corporations must reinvest profits back into the communities which enrich them; professionals must contribute their talents and skills; social justice organizations must dedicate their organized energy; and individuals must give of their time; all for the greater good.

Experience teaches us that simply building the requisite number of units will not resolve this dire situation. Thus, the 123,564 new units must be built inside of at least three parameters.

First, once built, the units must be occupied by low and very low income residents, not sold to politically connected developers who "flip" the units into profitability for them and out of affordability for the poor. Second, development must mesh with other common objectives, such as mass transportation and meeting the unique social and cultural needs of the community the project serves, not the developer or gentrifyers.

Third, in function and in form, the new wave of development must be both humanitarian and green. In times of water shortages, spiraling energy costs and other environmental impacts, a socially conscious green wave of development is the only way to ensure the sustainable economic and social growth of a community and the survival of our planet. Development must take place with reverence for green spaces, animal habitats and our finite water supply, among other factors.

Two things are needed to accomplish this objective: first, the political will and a solid plan. But ready or not, by 2025 over 100,000 additional families will need low income housing in South Florida, and the conditions under which they will live then- in clean, safe housing or in shantytowns- will be determined by what we do now.

Too much money? Too much trouble? What is the alternative?

Today, approximately 50,000 luxury condos prepare for grand opening, presumably followed by foreclosure and indefinite vacancy. Meanwhile, over 40,000 families languish on the county's housing assistance wait list, a number, according to the CDMP, which will grow exponentially. What happens when tens of thousands of home-less people suddenly realize they are living in the shadow of people-less homes?

The question is not what is the alternative to building all of those units, but rather what is the alternative to what will happen when they are not built. The answer is as easy as
123,564.

We invite and challenge every organization and individual concerned with the crisis of gentrification and housing to join the effort to build 123,564 new low and very-low income units in Miami-Dade County by 2025.

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.TakeBacktheLand.net
afrimax@gmail.com

Miami-Dade County CDMP Housing Element
http://www.miamidade.gov/planzone/cdmp/plan/III-%20Housing%20Element.pdf

Community Groups Storm HUD office in New Orleans

2007-08-31T12:14:00.001-05:00

Community Groups Storm and Take Over New Orleans HUD Office

Several community organizations, including Power U Center and the Miami Worker's Center from Miami, took over the US HUD administrative office in New Orleans today, Friday August 31, 2007 at around 12:30pm. The groups are in New Orleans to commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The groups and residents are demanding that HUD open St Bernard's Parish housing project, which serves low-income Black residents. Two years after the area was evacuated in the post-Katrina floods,the housing project remains empty. Residents and groups have been prevented from rehabilitating and filling the vacant units, and the federal government has refused to do so.

US military vehicles, including armed Hummers, have surrounded the 25 people encamped inside, who refused to leave the building unless HUD officials acquiesce to community demands.The community effort to open St. Bernard's Parish is symbolic effort of the dislocated Black community of New Orleans to return to home. Residents such as former public housing residents have been met ignored, criminalized and otherwise excluded from the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Denise Perry, executive director of Power U, is in the building and available by phone: 305-491-7764.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Umoja Fire Trial- Monday Aug. 13, 11:30AM

2007-08-12T09:58:00.001-05:00

Press Release
for immediate release
Sunday, August 12, 2007

Umoja Village Arrest Trial Set for Monday, August 13, 2007

Long time resident John Cata on trial for disorderly conduct arrest following shantytown fire

Former Umoja Village resident John Cata is set to go to trial for his arrest which followed the fire which destroyed Miami's shantytown. The trial is set for Monday, August 13, 2007 beginning at 11:30am, at the Richard Gerstein Justice building, 1351 NW 12^th St. in court room 2-11.

A devastating fire destroyed the Umoja Village Shantytown on April 26, 2007, just three days after the village's six month anniversary. Over one hundred community members turned out to support the residents and defend the Village before city of Miami police arrested 11 people, including John Cata. Cata was charged with disorderly conduct for attempting to retrieve his belongings from the ashes of the fire and with resisting arrest without violence after his weakened condition obligated police to carry him to the police car. Cata subsequently fainted and was taken to the VA hospital instead of jail.

While the lot remained vacant for eight (8) years, the city of Miami was able to erect a fence around the lot within hours of the first arrest.

In 1968, a 25 year old John Cata lead the team negotiating the first contract for 1,000 newly unionized Jackson Memorial Hospital workers. After successfully winning higher wages for Jackson workers, Cata was drafted and sent to Vietnam where he served two tours of duty. In 2006, Cata returned to South Florida and, due to the lack of viable options afforded by his pension, lived in a vacant lot for months prior to discovering the Umoja Village.

Umoja Village was created on October 23, 2006 in response to the crisis of gentrification and housing in Miami-Dade County. The shantytown housed as many as 50 otherwise homeless people at a time, serving both as a solution and living protest to the housing crisis and the government corruption which contributed to the crisis.

The trials of village organizers Max Rameau and Amanda Seaton are set for later in August. Other arrestees have settled their cases.

- end -

Umoja Village Burned Again

2007-08-01T20:58:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Less than one week after voting 4-0 to support the conveyance of land to the Umoja Village residents, city of Miami officials completely reversed themselves after a wealthy, high powered lobbyist unilaterally killed the entire deal. The political settlement won by Take Back the Land was scrapped as those with the real power vetoed the vote and maintained the status quo, to the benefit of those in power and at the expense of the black community.

The Umoja Village Shantytown stood for just over six months, directly feeding and housing people and challenging the notion that developers should control land in the black community, before it burned in a tragic fire on April 26, 2007. After the fire, the city offered the land to the residents and organizers of Umoja, in order to build supportive housing, a deal ultimately accepted by Take Back the Land.

The city was embarrassed and hostile towards the Umoja Village, however, overwhelming community support and attention forced officials to deal with the crisis. After months of planning and last minute wrangling, the city of Miami Commission voted to support the conveyance of the land to the residents and organizers. Technically, the vote approved of the idea, and ordered the city Manager to work out the details for a final and official vote in less than a week. The implications of the victory, which was now within grasp, for the black power and broader social justice movements are significant, a fact not lost on local gatekeepers and power brokers.

Just hours after the initial vote, the real powers-that-be went to work. Ron Book, one of the most powerful lobbyists in the state of Florida and operating as the chair of the Homeless Trust, employed his lobbying skills to kill the deal. He not only registered his opposition to city and county officials, but he intimidated the development partner, who depends on Trust for their funding. Equally as significant, he used his position as the chair of the Trust to threaten the funding. With the project funding gone- valued at up to $20 million- the development partner ready to bail, and elected officials on notice, the deal was effectively dead the very next day.

Book's justification for his stand was that no public land should be conveyed to an organization without a bid process, and that the Homeless Trust does not financially support no bid deals, even when legal and transparent and even when the Trust does not own the land in question. The obvious question arose: has Ron Book or the Homeless Trust ever supported a no-bid deal?

With Book, with multiple clients and a controversial professional record, finding instances of his support for numerous no-bid contracts was easy. More importantly, in February 2006, an apartment building located at 6000 NW 12^th Ave., just seven blocks from the Umoja Village site, was conveyed to New Horizons for use as supportive housing, for free by the city of Miami in a no-bid process. In that virtually identical situation, the Trust supported the deal and continues to fund the project today. Not surprisingly, in addition to being the chair of the Homeless Trust, which directly funds New Horizons and others, Ron Book is also a paid lobbyist for New Horizons. He was paid no less than $40,000 by the non-profit organization in 2006, while making decisions about their contracts.

This information was brought to the Miami Herald, the local paper of record, including citations and public records proving the allegation. While a reporter supposedly worked on the story for at least four days, the story was never published.

The fact is that the black community built enough power to win a significant political victory at the city of Miami, the alleged decision making body. However, there are unelected forces with more power than lowly local governments, who make unilateral decisions without public hearings, and those powers have an interest in ensuring the black community cannot exercise self-determination. A wealthy white power broker and an unelected agency effectively vetoed the political settlement approved by a city government, a move with serious implications for the social justice movement and basic democratic rights.

This turn of events also confirms a truism of power: once a set of rules begin to benefit the people instead of those in power, those rules are subject to change.

In the mean time, the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing rages across Miami-Dade County and the US. We have an obligation to feed and house people in our community, and obligation which is only heightened by the refusal of governments to provide those services. Having failed at engagement with the system, Take Back the Land will continue to meet our obligations.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.takebacktheland.net

check out the chronology of events and longer pieces at
www.takebacktheland.net or takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Support Umoja Village- Wednesday Aug. 1, 10am City of Miami

2007-07-30T09:55:00.001-05:00

Take Back the Land

WHAT: Vote on Umoja Rising, the development to rebuild the Umoja Village as up to code low-income, supportive housing with ground floor retail/commercial.

WHEN: Wednesday, August 1, 2007, 10:00AM

WHERE: City of Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan-American Drive, Coconut Grove. We are also doing a caravan, leaving from the Umoja Village land (62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave.) at 9:00AM.

Come Voice your support for the Umoja Rising! Witness this historic vote! Speak out against Ron Book and the Homeless Trust efforts to undermine this historic proposal!

Support Umoja Rising

After six months of housing and feeding otherwise homeless people, the Umoja Village Shantytown, built on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave., was destroyed by a devastating fire. The Umoja Village was part protest, part living symbol of the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing and all home for almost 50 people.

Subsequently, Umoja Village organizers and residents proposed building up to code low-income supportive housing on the land. On Wednesday, August 1, 2007, the Miami City Commission will vote on a resolution proposed by Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones to convey the land for the Umoja Rising project, conditioned upon proper financing for about 60 housing units and ground floor retail/commercial space.

The vote is nothing short of historic, particularly for the black community, which endures the brunt of the crisis. The vote is transparent, open to the public and a fair response to the extreme housing crisis.

In spite of this ground breaking political solution, to the direct benefit of the Liberty City community, the powers that be at the Homeless Trust are preparing to use their status as gatekeepers to unilaterally crush the Umoja Rising. The Trust claims it only opposes the lack of a bid process in conveying the land, however, it is clear this argument is only a front used to legitimize what is opposition to the project based on petty, not principled, reasons. Not only is there no written policy against local governments offering no-bid contracts or land, the Trust's chairman has personally lobbied for no-bid contracts in the past, while the Trust itself continues to support and fund two agencies who received no-bid contracts. Not surprisingly, the Trust's chair is on the payroll of one of those organizations, while the other one votes to give him money.

The Homeless Trust is the clearinghouse for agencies and programs impacting the homeless in Miami-Dade County. Ron Book, the chair of the Trust, argues that the publicly owned lot should be put out to bid instead of directly conveyed. To be sure, this is not an unreasonable position, in and of itself, particularly in the context of recent corruption scandals. However, it must also be noted that most of the scandals recently reported have involved cases in which bids were used. The bid process is not free from the corrupting influences of money, crooked politicians or unethical lobbyists.

In this instance, direct conveyance is not only appropriate, it is the right thing to do and supported by the impacted community. Those who disagree are free, and encouraged, to voice their opinion at the Commission meeting. What Book and the Trust are doing, however, is not just voicing, or even lobbying for, their position. They are circumventing the political process in order to make unilateral decisions, behind closed doors, which will doom the project regardless of its support in the community or by elected officials.

In order to finance low-income supportive housing, builders must apply for state tax credits, a process which requires the signature of the Homeless Trust. Even if the land is properly and legally conveyed, enjoys broad community support and meets all other requirements, the Homeless Trust can unilaterally, without an open and transparent process kill the entire deal, simply by refusing to sign. The project will not qualify for tax credits, which are, incidentally, awarded via competitive bid by the state of Florida, not the Homeless Trust.

Consequently, even if the black community garners the political power to win the land, Ron Book and the Trust can kill the deal by denying us the funding required to build on the land.

Two fundamental issues are at stake with the Ron Book/Homeless Trust opposition to the Umoja Rising conveyance.

First, there are serious public policy implications involved when an unelected county agency unilaterally imposes demands on the political process of sovereign municipal governments. When local elected governmental bodies determine processes by which they award contracts or convey land, and the process is legal and not corrupt, the mayor can veto and the courts can overturn. If the Trust has its way here, unelected agencies could use the power of the purse to trump decisions made by elected officials.

When unsatisfied with housing policies, community organizations petitioned local elected governments for changes in policies, laws and budget priorities. Who elects Ron Book? How are the policies of the Homeless Trust determined? Where are those polices published (they are not on the Homeless Trust website)? What is the recourse if those policies are bad or unpopular or themselves illegal or corrupt?

Worse still, what happens when two or more agencies enforce conflicting policy demands? What if, due to recent revelations of influence peddling during the bidding process, Community Development demands all contracts must be awarded by direct votes of the commission, without bids? With each agency refusing to approve projects which fail to meet their own internal, and secret, policy objectives, the level of gridlock would ensure no project ever proceeds.

The second issue at stake is simple fairness and consistency. Does the Homeless Trust have a written, verifiable policy opposing no-bid contracts, for products/services or land and second, has the Trust ever continued a relationship with an agency which received a no-bid contract for products/services or land?

Prior to addressing the Trust itself, because Ron Book is personally advocating, it is appropriate to explore his own personal commitment to this position. Given Miami-Dade County's reputation for influence peddling, it would be difficult to imagine that a high powered lobbyist has never advocated for a no-bid contract.

In early 2001, South Stevedoring, Inc. was awarded a 20-year cargo terminal operating lease from the Broward County Commission, without a bidding procedure or process. The award was controversial not only because one of South Stevedoring's founders was indicted on corruption charges related to that company's work in the Port of Miami, but because another firm vied for the contract by offering Broward County $750,000 more per year in return. Ron Book represented South Stevedoring, arguing that the company should get the contract in spite of the controversy and without a bid process.

The Miami Herald reported: "There was no bidding procedure... South Stevedoring has hired well-connected lobbyists and political consultants Ron Book and Judy Stern to convince the County Commission to endorse that choice." Clearly, there is no principled opposition to the no-bid process.

The Homeless Trust Supports No-Bid Winners

As far as we have been able to determine, the Homeless Trust does not have an official policy regarding the manner in which contracts or land is awarded to agencies outside of the Homeless Trust itself. That is to say, even if the Homeless Trust itself only awards contracts and conveys land via the bid process, it does not have a policy requiring its agencies to win all other contracts and land in the same manner from other sources. Such a policy would appear invasive not only of the agency, but of local governments as well. The merits of the policy aside, it does not seem to actually exist.

None-the-less, the Trust, through chair Ron Book, is claiming that they "don't support giving any deal"- presumably land or other financial contract- without a bid process. In practice, however, the Trust has, and continues to support those deals.

JESCA

The James E Scott Community Association, whose executive director is Miami-Dade Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, under a constant ethical cloud for his dealings with land and housing issues, is in the Homeless Trust continuum of care, even after reports of severe financial mismanagement, including accounts overdrawn by over $300,000. More germane here, JESCA has been awarded multiple no bid contracts by Miami-Dade County, including one by the infamous Miami-Dade Housing Corporation.ⁱ In all, JESCA received approximately $220,000 per year in no-bid grants from Miami-Dade Countyⁱⁱ, the government which funds and houses the Homeless Trust.

In spite of these facts, well documented in the media, the Trust continues to include JESCA in its continuum of care, even listing them on the Trust's official directory of supportive housing services,ⁱⁱⁱ the same directory in which the Umoja Rising development would one day be listed.

New Horizons

During the November 3, 2005 meeting, then District 5 Commissioner Jeffery Allen motioned to give both the land and the apartment complex on the land, located on the corner of 60^th St. and NW 12^th Ave., just seven blocks from the Umoja Village, to New Horizons, for free.^iv The commission approved, with support from the Mayor's office, and the land was conveyed in February 2006 for $0.00^v. The apartment complex is currently used as supportive housing and New Horizons is on the Homeless Trust continuum of care and directory of supportive housing services.

In neither instance was the Trust recorded as either opposing the no-bid deal or, more importantly, the agency's subsequent inclusion in the continuum of care, and the benefits included therein.

Why the nonchalance regarding no-bid contracts one minute and the hard line opposition to them the next? Perhaps one reason is that both agencies are exceptions to the "policy," is that they both, in one way or another, have paid Ron Book.

Ron Book is a paid lobbyist for Miami-Dade County, a contract for which he was paid $200,000 in 2006 for his work in Tallahassee alone^vi. Dorrin Rolle is not only the executive director of JESCA, he sits on the board that votes to give Book the $200,000.

Oddly enough, Book is also a paid lobbyist for New Horizons. In 2006, when their land deal was consummated, Book was paid approximately $40,000 by New Horizons to lobby on their behalf in Tallahassee. During this same time, Book, as Chair of the Trust, is helping make decisions about how much support to provide to his client, New Horizons.

We have been unable to find a Homeless Trust policy regarding board members who vote on Trust agencies while simultaneously receiving checks from them, but this would probably represent a better use of their time than trying to control the way government bodies convey their land.

In the context of the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing, direct conveyance of land for the building of Umoja Rising is legal, proper, appropriate and the right thing to do. There is legitimate concern as to whether the organized and powerful opposition to the project is based on principle, or if the "bid policy" argument is merely a smokescreen used to justify unprincipled opposition.

We implore the city Commission to vote for the conveyance of land for the Umoja Rising project and people of good conscience to come out and support the proposal.

Note: Serve the People, Inc., a 501(c)3 pending organization, is partnering with Carrfour Supportive Housing, the (a) premier supportive housing building in the state of Florida, and NANA, the premier small business support organization in Miami-Dade County, to build Umoja Rising.

i The Miami Herald, House of Lies: County official's agency gets cut, County Commissioner

Dorrin Rolle's nonprofit agency won a lucrative food-services contract with no bid required

by Debbie Cenziper, July 2006

ii Miami New Times, The Ghetto Governor, Dorrin Rolle's dedication to his district is in question by Francisco Alvarado, July 20, 2006

iii http://www.miamidade.gov/homeless/directory.asp

iv City of Miami Commission Agenda Minutes, Page 65, Item: 05-01218a, Thursday, November 3, 2006

v Miami-Dade County County Property Records, http://gisims2.miamidade.gov/myhome/propmap.asp, address: 6000 NW 12^th Ave., Miami, FL,

Folio: 01-3114-043-0580

vi http://www.floridalobbyistdirectory.com/LobbyistDetails.aspx?id=1362

Umoja Rising Story- Miami Herald

2007-07-27T00:20:00.001-05:00

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/183900.html

Activists for homeless closer to getting site for housing

BY LISA ARTHUR

larthur@MiamiHerald.com

The Umoja Village activists are one step closer to winning the land where their Liberty City shantytown once stood so they can develop it as transitional housing for the homeless.

The Miami City Commission passed a motion late Thursday night to support a project called Umoja Rising, that would be built in partnership with Carrfour Supportive Housing, a Miami-based organization with a track record.

The commissioners stopped short of conveying the land at the corner of 62nd Street and Northwest 17th Avenue to the group. That step will come up at a commission meeting Wednesday after the Umoja proposal is hammered out between city staff and the activists.

Opposition could come from other developers of affordable housing and homeless housing, because the city-owned land would not be put out to bid to give all interested builders a chance to compete.

But several commissioners said other land has been conveyed without going out to bid to non-profit groups in the past, and the Umoja activists deserve special consideration.

Umoja Village was founded in October 2006 by community organizer Max Rameau, who took a page from the playbook of activists in Brazil, South Africa and Mexico and strategically selected a piece of public land to seize and give to ''the people'' after he became frustrated with the county's lack of response to the region's affordable housing crisis and allegations of mismanagement and possible malfeasance in Miami-Dade's public housing agency.

Rameau and the homeless built a community on the lot out of cardboard, wood and stubborn hope. They voted on rules, like evicting disruptive residents. They grew collard greens and spinach and cooked their own food. They planted sunflowers. College students donated enough books for a library. Social service agencies offered help -- and have placed about 30 former residents in permanent housing.

The government-owned lot at 6201 NW 17th Ave. was once the home of a building of affordable apartments. The apartments were bulldozed years earlier and new apartments promised for the poor never materialized.

For six months, the Umoja communal existence drew international attention. Then one night in April, a candle tipped over and the shantytown burned to the ground. No one was injured.

Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones has worked with the Umoja activists since the fire to come up with a plan to build housing for the homeless and other support services on the site.

''I know we aren't going to convey this land here tonight at 10:45, but I'd like to make a motion asking my fellow commissioners if they will support this when it comes back August 1,'' she said.

Commissioner Tomas Regalado pledged his support and praised Rameau. He said after last summer's expose by The Miami Herald of deep problems in the Miami Dade Housing Agency, Rameau could have gone home and written a letter to the editor.

''But instead he did another thing,'' Regalado said. ``He focused the attention nationally on this housing crisis here.... We have a lot of good things in Miami, but we can't hide our problems. And now because of Umoja and because of a newspaper, things are moving in the right direction.''

The commission unanimously passed Spence-Jones' motion asking for support of the Umoja proposal when it comes back Wednesday.

Take Back the Land, the Rameau group that founded Umoja, has formed a sister agency, Serve the People, Inc., which has a 501(c)3 non-profit application pending. The non-profit would serve as a landtrust and take ownership of the lots at corner of 62nd Street and Northwest 17th Avenue.

A preliminary proposal calls for $3 million in financing from the city and $7 million from Miami-Dade County. The bottom floor of the development would include some type of commercial space for small businesses and for social service agencies. The housing above would include a mix of transitional, low-income and possibly workforce housing, depending on what the Liberty City community wants.

Outreach surveys are being done by the Umoja activits to get community input.

The proposal from the activists says they would include a clause that would require the land and money to revert back to the city and county if malfeasance is found, or there is a general lack of progress in the development.

Rameau thanked commissioners for their pledge of support, and promised that the project, if approved, would meet the needs of those living in Liberty City and of any of the 44 Umoja residents who decide to return.

''It will meet the needs of the people already in the community, not the needs of people who want to come in and move out the people already there,'' he said.

Umoja Rises!

2007-07-27T00:14:00.001-05:00

Greetings All:

At approximately 11:00pm on Thursday, July 26, 2007, exactly three months after the devastating fire which destroyed the Umoja Village Shantytown, the Miami City Commission voted 4-0 to direct the city manager to craft a resolution to convey the land on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. to the residents and organizers of the Umoja Village.

The motion was sponsored by District 5 Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. The vote on the official resolution to convey the land will happen on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at a time to be determined.

This is a significant victory for the residents of the Umoja Village, all of Liberty City, for low-income housing in South Florida and for the entire social justice movement, particularly those engaged in land-based struggles against gentrification and for low-income housing.

The Umoja Village Shantytown was founded by Take Back the Land on October 23, 2006, and for six months housed and fed otherwise homeless people. Our political objectives are to house and feed people; assert the right of the black community to control land in the black community; and to build a new society. Residents ran and managed the village, were responsible for building and maintenance and voted on rules for the village in which they lived.

Umoja was something special, inspiring residents, supporters and visitors alike. Building the village also changed the terms of the struggle against gentrification, squarely addressing the issue of control over land as a means of addressing a housing crisis. After a fire destroyed the village, real questions emerged about what constitutes a logical conclusion to the campaign. This agreement provides some answers to those questions.

The land will be conveyed to Serve the People, Inc. and developed by Carrfour Supportive Housing with small business technical support provided by Neighbors And Neighbors Association, Inc. The ground floor of the development will be devoted to economic development, in the form of retail/commercial space, with the upper floors offering supportive and low-income housing.

While the vote and conveyance represents a significant victory for the Umoja Village, Liberty City and the broader movement, this is not a done deal. The vote did not actually convey the land, only direct the manager to prepare a resolution to convey the land. The final resolution must be approved by the commission on Wednesday, August 1, 2007. While our chances look good, we cannot become complacent.

Please keep informed about and support this important campaign. More updates coming soon!

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.TakeBacktheLand.net

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=umoja+village&search=

Support Umoja Village at City Commission Meeting

2007-07-23T05:11:00.001-05:00

Greetings:

Take Back the Land is calling on supporters to attend the city of Miami Commission meeting on Thursday, July 26, 2007, beginning at 3:00pm. Miami City Hall is located at 3500 Pan-American Drive, in Coconut Grove. At the meeting, the Commission will vote on the fate of the Umoja Village Shantytown's land.

After promising to convey the land to the residents and organizers of Umoja, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is going back on her promise and putting the lot out for bid, a notoriously corrupt process in the city of Miami. We demand that the city keep its word, and convey the land to the Umoja Village.

Following the tragic fire which destroyed the Umoja Village, Miami Commissioner Spence-Jones contacted Umoja Village, met with organizer Max Rameau and resident John Cata, and offered direct conveyance of the land, without a bid process. She also agreed to provide immediate housing for former Umoja residents, and the deal was reported in the Miami Herald and Miami Times.

After intense debate, we called off our planned protests and accepted the offer. We met with potential partners and crafted a proposal, which we submitted to Spence-Jones, as agreed, and tried to confirm the item for the July 26^th Commission meeting.

Instead, Spence-Jones unilaterally and without explanation, nixed the deal and put the lot out to bid. Miami's bid process is notoriously rigged and corrupt, as often reported in the media, giving politically connected developers the inside track to use this public land for a gentrification project.

This is the same kind of double dealing which got us into this mess in the first place. Umoja was a tremendous victory for this community, and will not be swept under the rug.

Show your support for Umoja by attending this meeting and demanding elected officials live up to their commitments and convey the land directly to the residents and organizers of the Umoja Village. If officials are able to continue to lie to us and get away with it, we will be forced to resort to more drastic measures to house people ourselves.

Forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.TakeBacktheLand.net

A Cafe Hosts Fundraiser June 20th to Benefit Take Back the Land

2007-06-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

Fundraiser to benefit
Take Back the Land at

A Cafe Organic French Carribean Cuisine

Wednesday, June 20th
5PM- to Midnight

4582 NE 2nd Ave
A Cafe Best Natural Food Restaurant, Best of the Best, Miami New Times 2007

Music by DJ Juan 51 and Live Performances by:
Live Poets Society, AfroBeta, Adolfo and Katrina and Lyrical Impress

Join us for a evening of amazing food, cultural performances, and updates on Take Back the Land and Umoja Village

Press Conference: Response to Manny's "no crisis in housing" assertion

2007-06-12T06:15:00.001-05:00

Press Release

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

for immediate release

contacts: Denise Perry: 305-491-7764

Community to Manny Diaz:

There is a crisis in housing

Community responds to Diaz' contention that there is "no crisis in housing"

Low-income residents, activists and community organizations are holding a press conference to protest the City of Miami's housing policies and gross corruption in the arena of low-income housing development. In addition, community members are set to respond to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz's opinion piece, recently published in the Miami Herald, titled "There is no crisis in housing." The press conference, organized by the Power U Center for Social Change, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 11:00am in front of Miami's City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive in Coconut Grove. Participating organizations include Umoja Village's Take Back the Land, the Miami Worker's Center, ACORN and Jobs with Justice.

In his piece, Diaz minimized the scandals detailed in recent media articles and dismisses the impact of this corruption on the poor. In spite of Miami's status as the least affordable city in the nation, Diaz contends there is "absolutely not" a crisis in housing. Not surprisingly, Diaz is the darling of big money developers and the frequent target of low-income people and housing advocates. Howard Watts, long time Miami resident, and member of Power U, who is living the housing crisis says, "I couldn't find any place to live. Not even a shelter would take me because they are over crowded or because of my disability. Manny Diaz needs to walk in my shoes for a day."

Activists demand Manny Diaz publicly admit that there is a housing crisis and take steps, along with City Commissioners, to concretely address the crisis by committing funds to build low-income housing, ending public corruption by the administration and ending public subsidies of luxury condos, such as the proposed the Crosswinds condos in Overtown. "Manny Diaz' disregard for the peoples reality in the city of Miami in order to protect his own image and profit is a crime," contends Denise Perry, executive director of the Power U Center for Social Change.

During a time of record housing prices and construction of high rise luxury condos in Miami, many projects with the personal blessing of Manny Diaz, and huge profits on the part of developers, over 41,000 families are on the Miami-Dade County housing assistance wait list. The local housing market has been seen as a boom for developers and a serious crisis for the poor and the majority of Miami's residents. Diaz himself is a developer and is not on the housing assistance wait list.

"Manny Diaz and his friends have all gotten rich from government subsidized development," says Max Rameau of Take Back the Land. "For them, there has been no crisis. He is the mayor of the rich and out of touch with the suffering of poor people."

Ban the N-Impact

2007-05-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

The Pan-African Perspective: Ban the N-Impact

In a move designed to garner headlines instead of results, Miami-Dade County District 1 Commissioner Barbara Jordan has proposed criminalizing, albeit without penalties, the use of the n-word. Like so many other acts debated and passed by government bodies, this one will take up time, space and public interest, but will have no beneficial impact whatsoever on the lives of poor, black people.

Like every other word in any other language, the n-word is a string of letters combined to make a particular sound, which is associated with a specific meaning. This is not an attempt to minimize the importance, value and impact of words or language, and that goes double for this word. However, what makes this word so ugly and harmful is not the combination of letters or even the enunciation (either ending with "a" or "er"), it is the devastating history of actions and impacts associated with the word.

Let's be blunt. Nigger means lynching. It means hundreds of white people, including children, gathered to watch a black man, a human being, dragged, beaten, hung from a tree and cooked alive. It means grinding poverty. Today- not 30 years ago, but today- blacks are disproportionately poor, hungry and die of illnesses which do not kill whites. This is true on planet earth, the United States and right here in Miami-Dade County. It means police harassment and brutality. Being pulled over by the police for lesser, or no transgressions; being shot 41 times after going for your wallet; it means a toilet plunger; it means a disproportionate number of black people arrested, convicted and imprisoned.

Why do other ethnic slurs, such as 'cracker,' fail to engender the same passion as the n-word? That's easy: there is no widespread association between those words and murder, torture, abject poverty, discrimination and other inhumane impacts. The word is highly problematic, to be sure, but the word is not the problem.

If all we had to do to end racism, sexism, poverty and oppression was to ban a few words, this would be a wonderful planet, full of happy people with a delightfully limited vocabulary. However, banning the n-bomb does not ban the racist collateral damage which that word has come to represent. And, in the final analysis, what is so harmful and degrading to the black community are the racist sentiments, actions and impacts, not the individual words which brutally encapsulate those sentiments, represent those actions and foreshadow those impacts.

This is not a defense of the use of the n-word, but it is a call to stop fighting for symbols as a means of drawing attention away from the fact that you are not fighting for anything of substance. If forced to choose between getting rid of the word and getting rid of the very real impacts and conditions the word represents, most sane and rational beings, of any race, would vote to keep the word. The truth is that if everyone stopped using the word tomorrow, we would still have poor, hungry, undereducated and unemployed black people living in squalid slums.

Society as a whole, and the black community in particular, must condemn and sanction people who use racial, sexists, homophobic and classist epitaphs. However, as it relates to racism, it is not the government's job to control what people say, it is their job to stop racist actions and correct or change the impacts of those actions.

Jordan and the BCC have no power at all over the use of this, or most other, words, but are spending valuable time, money and brain power on a fight which, at the end of the day, is symbolic at best and irrelevant at worse. What is so infuriating is that Jordan and the BCC do have the power to change the conditions which give the n-word such horrific value to this day, but are not trying to change the conditions over which they have power, only the symbols over which they have none. It is insulting to think that the BCC contemplating a symbolic ban on this word, is the same one which has consistently diverted tax dollars earmarked for the black community over to wealthy white business interests. I submit that banning the latter activity will do more to defend the integrity of the black community than banning the former.

If the Commission really wants to defend the black community, they should:

Ban Poverty. Instead of banning a word, the county can end the degradation of the black community by banning poverty. Instead of stealing public money, feed and provide housing for the poor black people who should not be called by the n-word.
Provide jobs. Those who used the word in the past did not want to hire black people. Show your opposition to the word by providing jobs for those same black people.
Stop police brutality and the criminalization of the black community. Racists used the police to intimidate and attack the n-people, a practice which has not significantly abated.
End racist government policies. The only thing worse than being robbed by someone who calls you the n-word is being robbed by someone who calls you buddy. Don't just stop use of the word, stop the exploitation and oppression.

Max Rameau
The Center for Pan-African Development

The Real MDHA Takeover

2007-05-09T06:14:00.001-05:00

Pan-African Perspective: The Real MDHA Takeover

The recent talk regarding the proposed takeover of Miami-Dade Housing Agency (MDHA) is framed around offering residents of Miami-Dade County, including victims of the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing, a false choice: choose between the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners (BCC) or the federal government in their big money power play over control of MDHA. Neither choice is good. The only viable solution is community control over MDHA.

Determined to takeover, the feds forwarded three demands: first, strip the BCC of power over MDHA; Second, give MDHA independent legal representation instead of the county attorneys, who represent and can be fired by the BCC; And third, give HUD the power to appoint the MDHA administrator, thereby taking power from the Mayor.

The first two demands are not only reasonable, given the dire situation, but have already been proposed by community organizations fighting for low-income housing. To be plain, the BCC is responsible for this housing mess. The only issue left to debate is whether Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, and the economic development committee he chaired, simply failed to exercise proper oversight or actually encouraged the corruption and abuses at the agency.

Equally significant, the BCC approved public policy disasters, including HOPE VI, which destroyed a net of over 750 units of public housing during a housing crisis. It should be no surprise that Rolle gets most of his campaign contributions from wealthy developers who do not live in his district, but financially benefit from their, um, I mean his, initiatives.

And, while Mayor Alvarez has promised the county will refrain from stealing more money from housing- which, in this town, counts as a major moral stand- he has failed to provide any leadership or vision in determining what MDHA would actually do, once they are no longer busy stealing and covering up. He has not proposed public policy initiatives resulting in more low-income housing for those in need. While refraining from public corruption is a step up from the status quo, it simply does not address the current housing crisis.

On the other side, federal takeovers of housing in New Orleans and elsewhere are disasters. Little consideration for local voices; powerful national corporations monopolizing contracts; and disconnected and unclear housing policies have frustrated residents and failed to serve the needy. Equally as important, the feds appear on a mission to privatize public housing and vouchers, handing over the reigns of power to greedy business interests, a move which would all but pull the plug on a already critical patient.

Consequently, while most endorse the idea of stripping the County of its power over the housing agency, just as many have serious reservations about handing that power over to the feds. And just because the County is removed from power, does not necessarily mean the feds should inherit it.

So, the BCC is out, the feds are not much better and the Mayor has done nothing to earn it. The third, and only viable, option is that the community must control the housing agency.

A number of community organizations wage the fight for the housing rights of low-income people. Those organizations have earned the trust of this community and should be given an opportunity to put some action behind their intentions. In addition, room must be explicitly created for the housing agency 'clients' to play a significant role in determining housing agency polcies.

A community housing trust will serve as the board governing the housing agency, with power to set policy and hire and fire key staff, including the director or administrator. The trust is advised by their independent attorney and consultants and compels MDHA to work for the benefit of families in need of housing rather than developers in need of extra profit.

Such a trust will provide immediate relief from the corruption, address local concerns and empower people to make decisions about their community. More than that, the trust will change public policy so that the housing agency responds positively to the housing crisis and to the families in need of relief. The feds say they want to protect local families and the County government and others pleads for local control. Both objectives are met.

While there is a clear need for intervention to stave off further disaster, the feds never bothered to query the stakeholders of this process. We ask HUD: are you doing this with us, for us or to us? If HUD truly "intends to take any and all necessary steps to protect the interests of Miami's most vulnerable families" then take this step: join us in demanding community, not federal, control over the housing agency. Do not make decisions about us without consulting with the community you claim to be representing.

Community control over housing. An idea whose time has come.

Max Rameau
The Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

County Stalling on Tent City Permit Request

2007-01-27T07:10:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

First off, the Umoja Village Shantytown and the issue of gentrificiation in the housing boom has been featured in an AP story as well as on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Please follow the links for the stories.

AP- Glitz and Glamour Overshadows Majority of Miami's Population

NBC Nightly News

As part of the Week of Action Against Gentrification and For Low-Income Housing- which is coordinated among several groups- Take Back the Land and others applied for a permit to build a tent city at County Hall, at 111 NW First St. in downtown Miami. The objecitve is to highlight the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing and the role the Miami-Dade County government has played in exacerbating that crisis. A similar tent city was put up in September 2006 by the Emergency Housing Coalition to protest the same.

The County, however, does NOT want the Week of Action or Take Back the Land to erect a tent city.

Building manager Carol Dickson, who is responsible for granting such protest permits on county property insists that only two groups are eligible for those permits: 501(c)3 organizations (federally recognized non-profits) or those sponsored by the county or a county commissioner (which means groups who protest in favor of the government). That means in Miami-Dade County, non-human compilations of professionally organized paperwork have a greater right to free speech and petitioning the government than you do.

In addition, Dickson wants to charge for insurance, security and janitorial services. Free speech is not so free. She has also ignored the request for a copy of the regulations which govern these permits.

The ACLU is on the case, but we need your help! Please, call Carol Dickson and tell her to stop stalling and grant us our permit. Call the new strong mayor Carlos Alvarez and tell him to show his strength by supporting peoples right to free speech. Call your commissioner and tell them that people have a right to protest.

If the County does not want us to protest the housing scandal, then they should stop stealing the housing money and do their jobs instead of denying people their right to protest. This impacts us today, but if unchecked, it will impact YOU tomorrow!

Carlos Alvarez, Miami-Dade County Mayor, 305-375-5071, mayor@miamidade.gov
Carol Dickson, Building Manager, 305-375-2616, dickson@miamidade.gov

Here is the Miami New Times story on our permit fight.

Please support the work of Take Back the Land and the Umoja Village by dropping off a donation of money, bottled water, canned meat, dish soap, bleach, food and anything else needed to run your own household, at the Umoja Village on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. Of course, you can always make a much needed financial contribution donation via our paypal account: Make a Financial Contribution.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Time.com on Shantytown

2007-01-19T09:38:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

This busy week for the Umoja Village Shantytown is capped by a story on Time.com.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1580473,00.html

This national spotlight on the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing in Miami-Dade County is important, especially as the powers-that-be try to polish the image of South Florida as a trouble free playground. We cannot allow the illusion of glamour and glitz to dominate the reality of poverty and public corruption. Local governments- particularly Miami-Dade County- are largely responsible for making South Florida the least affordable area in the country.

Worse still, the Board of County Commissioners have displayed no shame or remorse about their own role in exacerbating the crisis. The BCC, especially the Black commissioners, on the one hand are telling us that we need balance in government and therefore, we should allow them to keep their powers, while they use the other hand to vote for sweetheart deals for their developer friends and contributors. What is the point in having strong commissioner representation and power if they only use that power to benefit developers, not the community they are supposed to represent? If you are getting gentrified out of your neighborhood and not getting any jobs, does it really matter if the cause is a corrupt mayor or a corrupt commission?

Dorrin Rolle wants us to vote to defend his power, but he has only used his power to dislocate thousands of poor people from their homes and delay rebuilding. You don't hear many developers complaining about him, though. He wants us to defend him, but far from defending us, he sold us out, and the other commissioners followed gleefully. So, while most people think the real question is should powerful lobbyists have to bribe one official or 13, the real question actually is

Finally, early next week watch for the calander of events for the Week of Action Against Gentrification and for Low-Income Housing. The Week of Action will take place between January 29th and February 3, 2007, also known as Superbowl week.

Please support the work of Take Back the Land and the Umoja Village by dropping off a donation of money, bottled water, canned meat, dish soap, bleach, food and anything else needed to run your own household, at the Umoja Village on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. Of course, you can always make a much needed donation via our paypal account:
Take Back the Land Paypal Donation

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Umoja Village on NY Times

2007-01-16T07:35:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

The link below is the New York Times (yes, that NY Times) story on the Umoja Village Shantytown in Liberty City:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16umoja.html?ex=1169614800&en=e4e7c717c2560a57&ei=5070&emc=eta1

The Umoja Village Shantytown was started on October 23, 2006 in response to the crisis of gentrification and lack of low-income housing and the local government's role- particularly Miami-Dade County- in exacerbating the crisis. Bad public policy and the outright stealing of money earmarked for the poor by Miami-Dade County has made a bad situation worse. A group, calling itself Take Back the Land, took control over a vacant public land, which formerly housed a low rent apartment building, and built a full-blown shantytown in the US. There are currently over 40 residents who sleep and eat there.

The shantytown is protected by the landmark Pottinger Settlment, in which the city of Miami conceeded that it was not a crime to be homeless. Therefore, anyone who is homeless, when there are no free shelter beds (which is everyday), and on public land, cannot be arrested for engaging in "life sustaining conduct," such as eating, sleeping, bathing, responding to calls of nature and building "temporary structures" to protect one from the elements.

A key component of this model is that the residents must run their own village, doing most of the work, providing security and making decisions through consensus during group meetings.

In addition, check the newest Youtube.com documentary on the shantytown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnafqFm3-s

Visit our blog for all of the latest updates, including a new media coverage list:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Of course, you can always make a much needed donation via our paypal account:
Take Back the Land Paypal Donation

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Rally at Umoja Village Shantytown

2007-01-10T22:02:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

On Thursday, January 11, 2007, at 6:00pm, everyone is invited to a rally against Gentrification and for Low-Income Housing for all at the Umoja Village Shantytown, on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave., in the Liberty City section of Miami, FL.

As you know, because of overwhelming community support, the city of Miami has pulled the anti-shantytown ordinance from its agenda. We invite everyone to join us to celebrate today and prepare to resume work tomorrow.

At the rally, meet other supporters of the shantytown and others in the fight for low-income housing. Hear from other organizations and get involved in the movement for social justice. We will also announce plans for a Week of Action Against Gentrification and for Low-Income Housing, set for January 29th through February 3rd, also known as Superbowl week. While Miami-Dade County wants to maintain the illusion of glamour and glitz, many of us are forced to deal with the reality of poverty and government corruption. During Superbowl week, everyone will be reminded of the reality.

The Umoja Village was founded on October 23, 2006 in response to the crisis of gentrification and affordable housing and the government's role- especially Miami-Dade County- in creating that crisis. The Shantytown currently houses and feeds over 40 otherwise homeless people.

We are asking everyone who can to come with a side dish (rice, potato salad, fruits, veggies, anything) and a donation of some sort (money, bottled water, clothes, canned food, blankets, hand soap, paper plates, plastic forks, etc.). The village runs entirely from donations, so you can write a check to 'Take Back the Land' or make a paypal payment by clicking here.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Victory for Umoja Village Shantytown!

2007-01-07T15:21:00.000-05:00

Anti-shantytown ordinance is pulled, will not be voted on

After initially sponsoring the item, city commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones pulled the "anti-shantytown" ordinance from the January 11 agenda. This means the new law will not be voted on and, therefore, the Umoja Village Shantytown is safe- for now.

Take Back the Land is organizing a press conference to announce the legal victory and next steps. The press conference is scheduled for Monday, January 8, 2007, beginning at 4:00pm at the Umoja Village, on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. We will also host a rally at the Umoja Village on Thursday night at 6:00pm. See details at the end of this message.

There is no two ways about it: this is a clear and major victory for Take Back the Land and our supporters. This item was pulled due to the tremendous and overwhelming opposition to the ordinance. We thank each and every one of you for your support, calls, emails, petition signatures, support and contributions of time, goods and money.

WE WON THE BATTLE, BUT THE WAR IS NOT OVER! The ordinance was pulled, but it was not voted down. As such, it can be revived at any time in the future, or different tactics can be used to try to bring down the village. Our support network and legal team remain intact and ready to activate.

In response to the crisis in gentrification and low-income housing, and the role local government policies and corruption played in exacerbating that crisis, on October 23, 2006, several organizations and individuals took control over the vacant publicly owned lot on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City. Using the legal protections afforded in the landmark Pottinger Settlement, the Umoja Village currently houses and feeds over 40 otherwise homeless people in wood frame shanties.

Acknowledging our legal rights to the land, the Miami city attorney crafted the ordinance to outlaw "assemblies" of any size on vacant public lots. In addition to restricting the public's right to free assembly, the ordinance would have, theoretically, outlawed the shantytown and set up a showdown and potential raid of the village.

The pulled item allows Take Back the Land to refocus energies on improve the quality of life for residents of the Umoja Village and taking on new initiatives, some of which will be discussed at the press conference on Monday and rally on Thursday. Please come to the events and check your email for important updates.

In recognition of this new development, Take Back the Land is hosting a celebration rally on the day the vote was to take place. On Thursday, January 11^th, 2007, at 6:00pm, at the Umoja Village, we rally in celebration of our victory and continue our march forward. We ask that you bring a side dish to share and bring a donation to the village, such as money, bottled water, canned meat, blankets, dish soap, bleach, large trash bags (39 gallons or larger), clothes and money. All are invited and welcome, so come rally in support of the village, against gentrification and for housing for all and celebrate our victory- YOUR victory- with us on Thursday.

Take Back the Land runs entirely off of donations, so please contribute generously in person or by donating online via a secure paypal payment.

Forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
A project of the Center for Pan-African Development
Takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Shantytown Support Grows

2007-01-03T09:01:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

As you are aware, the Umoja Village Shantytown, home to about 40 otherwise homeless people is under raid-watch. On January 11, 2007 the City of Miami Commission will vote on a new ordinance which would outlaw the shantytown. In classic Miami style politics, when the housing crisis boils over, instead of passing a law which deals with housing, they are passing a law to keep us from talking about the housing crisis.

As we build our campaign to fight this overt attack on the shantytown and the continuation of cruel policies against the poor and homeless, we are picking up support. Check out these stories:

Editorial from local journalist Kathie Klarreich

Miami Commissioner Regalado Supports Shantytown and will Face Arrest in Support (CBS 4 News Video)

Daniel Ricker's Watchdog Report on Commissioner Regalado's Support for the Umoja Village Shantytown

Open Letter to Miami Commissioners from South Florida Peace & Justice Coalition

Again, we urge you to do four things:

1. Sign our petition . Either online or in person, sign the petition to oppose this ordinance and other attempts to raid the shantytown.

2. Contact Miami Commissioners and Mayor and tell them to vote 'NO' on the anti-shantytown ordinance. Below are the ones who support the ordinance, so we must change their votes:
Mayor Manny Diaz (tell him to veto the anti-shantytown law)
phone: 305-250-5300    fax: 305-854-4001     email: mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us

District 5 Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones
phone: 305-250-5390     fax: 305-250-5399     email: mspence@ci.miami.fl.us

District 1 Commissioner Angel Gonzalez
phone: 305-250-5430     email: agonzalez@ci.miami.fl.us

District 3 Commissioner Joe Sanchez
phone: 305-250-5380     fax: 305-250-5386     email: jsanchez@ci.miami.fl.us

3. Speak out on January 11, 2007. The city commission will vote on the ordinance. Come make your voice heard by speaking at the commission meeting. Start time will be posted on our blog ( takebacktheland.blogspot.com) early next week.

4. Make a financial contribution to the shantytown. We need funds to keep housing and feeding people for free, as well as run our campaigns. Please contribute generously. Payments are made through paypal.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Holidays at the Umoja Village

2006-12-25T11:12:00.000-05:00

The Umoja Village Shantytown is commemorating the holidays this season with two events. Each event is open to the public and will be held at the Umoja Village, 6201 NW 17^th Ave. on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami.

On Monday, December 25, 2006 beginning at 5:00PM, Umoja Villagers will commemorate the Christmas holiday with a dinner and Christmas tree. Residents will leave their wishes on the Village Christmas tree. Friends and supporters are asked to remember those less fortunate during the holiday season and deliver a donation any time this week.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 marks the opening of the seven day Kwanzaa celebration. Each of the seven days corresponds with a principle of Kwanzaa, and the first principle is "Umoja," or unity, the shantytown's namesake. On Tuesday, come celebrate "Umoja" at "Umoja." At 6:00pm, renown local Kwanzaa expert Altine Baki will lead Kwanzaa's opening ceremony at the Umoja Village Shantytown. Bring yourself, your family and good spirits to learn about Kwanzaa, the Umoja Village and what Unity is all about.

The Umoja Village Shantytown was founded on October 23, 2006 in response to gentrification and the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County. Fed up with government corruption and support for wealthy developers at the expense of low-income people, Take Back the Land used the Pottinger Settlement to establish the shantytown. Today, the Umoja Village houses and feeds approximately 40 people for free.

We welcome the entire community to join us for the beginning of Kwanzaa and the celebration of the principle of Unity. In that spirit, we ask supporters to unite with us in opposing the city of Miami ordinance designed to make the shantytown illegal, setting the stage for a raid. The final vote on the ordinance is set for January 11, 2007. Visit takebacktheland.blogspot.com to sign our support petition and get the number to the city commissioners to call in your opposition to the ordinance.

We also ask that this holiday season, you consider making a generous donation to Take Back the Land. You can deliver water, clothes, canned meats, fresh food, batteries, candles, mattresses or anything else you think we might need to the village. You can also make financial contributions with checks made out to 'Take Back the Land' or visit our paypal site at:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=afrimax%40niainteractive%2ecom&item_name=Take%20Back%20the%20Land%20Donation&item_number=TBtL_1&no_shipping=1&return=http%3a%2f%2ftakebackth eland%2eblogspot%2ecom&cn=Special%20Comments&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

Thank you for your support and we look forward to greeting you on liberated land.

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
A project of the Center for Pan-African Development
Takebacktheland.blogspot.com

'Hands Off' Take Back the Land Shantytown Press Conference

2006-12-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Local clergy are set to express their support for the Umoja Village Shantytown and the Take Back the Land effort, calling for community support for the project and demanding the government refrain from raiding what has become a home for several dozen poor individuals and families. The press conference will take place on Thursday, December 15, 2006 beginning at 2:00pm at the Umoja Village Shantytown, 6201 NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City.

The religious community has been essential to the success of the shantytown, donating food, money, time and moral support for the project and its residents. Clergy who are confirmed participants include: representatives for Bishop Victor Curry, New Birth Baptist Church; Rev. George McRea, Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. Richard Dunn, President of PULSE; Pastor Anthony Dawkins, Project Hope Ministry; Rev. Ralph Ross, Historical Mt. Zion Baptist Church; Father Cox, Holy Redeemer Catholic Church; Minster Gerald Muhammad, Muhammad's Mosque #29; and New Beginning Church.

As you know, in response to gentrification, a severe housing crisis and public corruption which resulted in the diversion of tens of millions of low income housing dollars into the pockets of wealthy politically connected developers, Take Back the Land occupied the vacant lot at 6201 NW 17th Ave. on October 23, 2006 and built a shantytown. Today, the Umoja Village feeds and houses approximately 40 residents. In late November, the Village reached it's building capacity and has been turning away potential residents on a daily basis. The operation subsists entirely on donations.

In spite of the fact that we are protesting their unwillingness to solve the problem and doing their job for them by feeding and housing the homeless, we are increasingly concerned about a government ordered raid on the Umoja Village. We are doing important and historic work here and the people who now call this village home deserve a place to stay, however, modest.

As such, we invite all activists, organizations and concerned parties to come to the press conference, if possible. We are asking clergy to speak, but your support is critical. We must send a message to Miami's Manny Diaz and the County's Carlos Alvarez that the shantytown is here because they are not doing their jobs and to keep their hands off the Shantytown!

You can also show your support by bringing a donation of any size. We need money, canned meat, pillows, blankets, clothing, fresh food, nails, water, bleach, ice, eggs, dish soap, flashlights with batteries and anything else you need to run your household.

Visit our blog, where you can get an update on our progress, sign our petition and donate money via paypal:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

forward,

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Umoja Village Shantytown Full to Capacity

2006-11-29T00:12:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

After just one month and four days, the Take Back the Land Umoja Village Shantytown is built and occupied to full capacity. We have no more land on which to build and we have already turned away no less than three (3) homeless people looking for permanent shelter.

The Umoja Village Shantytown houses approximately 35 full time residents who, otherwise, would have no where to live. These are people who CHOOSE to live in a wooden structure and work for free building and maintaining a shantytown in the United States. We have no more land onto which we can safely build on our side of the lot.

This turn of events is important because it shows the critical need in South Florida for low-income housing and the extent to which local governments are unresponsive to the needs of the people. The needs of each and every developer are met upon arrival, yet the needs of the poor- especially in the Black community- languish.

This does not mean we do not need your support- in fact, quite the opposite. We ask people of good conscience to do one or more of the following:

VISIT THE UMOJA VILLAGE SHANTYTOWN. Come see what has been built and feel the love and buy in of the residents. Make the Umoja Village a permanent part of Miami by visiting and granting us legitimacy. We are at 6201 NW 17th Ave., on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami.

MAKE A CASH DONATION. We have several things we need to build and purchase on the lot besides additional units. You can make that happen by making a cash donation. Donate via PayPal on our blog (takebacktheland.blogspot.com) or by following this link:

Take Back the Land PayPal Donation

( https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=afrimax%40niainteractive%2ecom&item_name=Take%20Back%20the%20Land%20Donation&item_number=TBtL_1&no_shipping=1&return=http%3a%2f%2ftakebacktheland%2eblogspot%2ecom&cn=Special%20Comments&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8 )

DONATE STAPLE GOODS. We are always in need of the basics: fresh food; canned food; water; ice; hand soap; forks and knives; clothing; shoes; large garbage bags; plastic tarps; plywood and 2x4s; and anything else needed to run a city.

DONATE A BIG TICKET ITEM: We need some other items, including: twin sized mattresses; a metal shed; carpet; wooden doors; two 150 gallon water containers with spouts; a 55 gallon drum; four pop-up canopies;

TELL THE GOVERNMENT: HANDS OFF UMOJA VILLAGE. In spite of doing the government's job for free, the city of Miami continues to send agencies and provocateurs to the shantytown in an effort to disrupt us and our neighbors. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THEY WILL RAID AND DESTROY UMOJA VILLAGE. You can stop them. Contact Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and tell him to keep his hands off of Umoja Village. You can help by:

1. Visiting Umoja Village and signing our petition.

2. Sign our on-line petition (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TakeBacktheLand/index.html).

3. Email and call Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and tell him to keep his Hands Off Umoja Village (email: mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us; phone: 305-250-5300).

4. Email and call Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and tell him to keep his Hands Off Umoja Village (email: mayor@miamidade.gov; phone: 305-375-5071).

Let them know we are providing a needed service and should be left alone. If they know we have support, it decreases the chances of them attacking us.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
Take Back the Land
Takebacktheland.blogspot.com

afrimax@gmail.com

Umoja Village Shantytown Holiday Dinner

2006-11-22T12:54:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

On Thursday, November 23, 2006, beginning at 3:00pm, the Umoja Village Shantytown will host our Umoja Dinner. The event will be held at the Shantytown, located at 6201 NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. The dinner will feed residents of the shantytown as well as neighbors from the Liberty City area.

Friends and supporters of the Umoja Village Shantytown are also invited to join for food, friends and fun.

In response to gentrification and the severe housing crisis, several organizations and individuals took control over a vacant lot on October 23rd 2006. Since then, the group has built a shantytown- later named Umoja Village- on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. The shantytown currenlty houses between 25 and 30 people and provides food every night. The shantytown was constructed and is maintained through volunteer labor and donations.

For the Umoja Dinner, we are still in need of donations of side dishes- such as macaroni and cheese, rice, potato salad, corn bread, etc. So, please make donations at the shantytown before 3:00pm on Thursday.

We are always in need of blankets; twin sized mattresses; water; food; clothes; shoes; 2 x 4 wood; plywood; coolers; ice; soap; and other items needed to run a household and a city. Direct financial contributions can be made via paypal by following this link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=afrimax%40niainteractive%2ecom&item_name=Take%20Back%20the%20Land%20Donation&item_number=TBtL_1&no_shipping=1&return=http%3a%2f%2ftakebacktheland%2eblogspot%2ecom&cn=Special%20Comments&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

Thank you in advance for your support.

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
Take Back the Land
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

Shantytown Naming Ceremony

2006-11-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Take Back the Land invites all to the Shantytown Naming Ceremony on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 6:00PM, at the Shantytown on 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. There will be free food and fun as we give name to the land we liberated.

A group of organizations and individuals took control over the publicly owned lot on Monday, October 23, 2006. Since then, a full Shantytown has been built, providing food and housing for the homeless, using public land for public good and doing what local governments have been unwilling to do themselves. The take-over was planned after years of government neglect and corruption conspired to exacerbate gentrification and a serious housing crisis in South Florida. Local governments have been non-responsive to community demands for affordable and low-income housing, and so, Take Back the Land took matters into their own hands.

All are welcome to meet the residents and neighbors on this community land. Donations are welcome and appreciated. Visit our blog for more information at:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development

Miami's Shantytown

2006-11-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Below, please read the latest news update on the Liberty City Shantytown from the Orlando Sentinel/South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Also, click on the link to the story, where you can find good pictures of the shantytown.

Also, check out this link to an indy media video on the same:
http://houston.indymedia.org/uploads/2006/11/take_back_the_land1.mov

If you have not already done so, please visit our blog to sign the petition and donate to the cause:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
Take Back the Land
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-shantytown1306nov13,0,7312775.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

Miami's shantytown

Sick of what they say are officials' broken promises, the poor take over a lot in Liberty City and call it home.

Maya Bell
Sentinel Staff Writer

November 13, 2006

MIAMI - squatters village rising on public land in the heart of one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods doesn't have even the barest comforts of home.

A dozen shanties, made from pallets and plywood, are each just big enough to accommodate two mattresses and a few meager belongings. There is no running water, electricity or refrigeration. The bathroom consists of a portable toilet, and a large, round mirror, where men stoop to shave.

Yet most of the ragtag residents are finding something they never found in jail, or under bridges or in homeless shelters where they often spent their nights: a sense of community and purpose.

"This is a stand for action," said Jonathan Baker, 33, who until recently lived under a Metrorail overpass. "If the county and the city aren't going to live up to their promises to provide affordable housing, we'll do it ourselves."

The stand began Oct. 23 when homeless, housing and other community advocates, fed up with years of broken promises to build affordable housing for Miami's poor, took control of a 1-acre lot in Liberty City and began erecting the "Take Back the Land" Shantytown.

They have no permission to be on the city-owned parcel, but Max Rameau, a community activist and one of the organizers, says they are operating under the protection of a court agreement that forbids the arrest of homeless people engaged in "life-sustaining" misdemeanors. That includes sleeping and bathing in public, or trespassing and camping on public land.

For now, Miami police are treating the encampment as a protest and leaving it alone.

"It was decided to let them exercise their First Amendment rights," police spokesman Delrish Moss said. For how long, he said, is up to the city, raising the possibility that a showdown might be looming.

The new city official charged with developing the property said her office is about to issue requests for proposals and is awaiting the "next step" from the city attorney.

But City Attorney Jorge Fernandez said he has yet to be contacted about the issue.

The protesters are operating under a pact known as the Pottinger Settlement, named after the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit. The settlement came in 1998 after nearly 10 years of litigation over Miami's treatment of its homeless, which a federal judge condemned as "offensive and repugnant."

It put a halt to the police practice of clearing the homeless from downtown encampments by confiscating and burning their belongings -- often right before Miami was to host an event that put the city in the spotlight, such as the Super Bowl or a visit by the late Pope John Paul II.

In the ensuing years, local authorities established homeless shelters and other outreach programs. But, Rameau says, city and county officials have worsened the area's affordable-housing crisis by razing public or low-income apartments, often letting the land lie fallow until developers replace them with gleaming condos or other pricey dwellings well out of the reach of the displaced.

A case in point, he said, is the once-garbage-strewn parcel now covered in fresh mulch and dotted with the 12 pallet shanties and a few tents in the heart of Liberty City, a predominantly black neighborhood plagued by crime and poverty.

In 1997, Rameau said, the parcel housed the Martin Luther King Jr. Complex, a privately owned three-story apartment building with 62 units and rat holes in the walls, crumbling stair railings and leaky, smelly pipes.

When he and other activists complained about the deplorable conditions, the city declared the complex uninhabitable and promptly evicted the residents. The following year, the city purchased the property for $900,000, promising to rebuild affordable and safe housing there for the displaced. But until last month, the land remained vacant.

Today, Rameau says, he and a cadre of volunteers have done more in three weeks to serve the overlooked than the city has managed in eight years. Every night they are feeding and housing up to 15 people. And, he said, they have every intention of making the shantytown, and others like it, permanent and self-sustaining.

"It makes more sense to just take the land than continue going to government for solutions," Rameau said. "All they do is lie to us, ignore us, disrespect us, and then steal the money anyway."

Adding fuel to his charges are ongoing investigations into potential fraud and other abuses at the Miami-Dade Housing Agency and the Model City Trust, the quasi-city agency responsible for revitalizing the Liberty City area.

Last year, The Miami Herald reported that the county agency paid millions of dollars to developers for affordable housing that was never built. And this past July, a scathing city audit found that the trust, now called the Liberty City Trust, has spent $8.5 million but has only rehabbed or rebuilt eight homes in four years.

The former trust president is now gone and her replacement, Elaine Black, conceded the property has lain dormant for too long, but she could not explain why.

"I do know that our mandate is to make sure development does occur on that site and others," Black said. "There definitely is a need for housing, and we are preparing requests for proposals."

As such, she is not happy about the shantytown, which she said is a "health hazard" and the subject of complaints from nearby residents.

That's news to Rameau, though, who is counting on public support as much as the Pottinger Settlement to protect the encampment. He notes that the village is surviving almost solely on contributions from supporters, including the residents of the apartment complex next door. They took up a collection and made the first donation -- $7.

And as rudimentary as it is, the shantytown becomes more rooted every day. Strangers regularly drop off boxed dinners, canned goods, clothes and other supplies. A shower stall is under construction, and tomatoes and kale are sprouting in box gardens.

Mornings usually start with coffee brewing on a "rocket stove," a pile of bricks that funnels heat up. While some residents such as Baker head to the labor pool, others help volunteers nail together another shelter, sheathing the wood-pallet walls in cardboard and topping it with plywood.

Dinners are communal, and Fridays are movie nights, with a sheet serving as the big screen and electricity borrowed from the neighboring apartment complex running the laptop that doubles as a projector.

"The more support we get from the community, the more difficult it will be for them to get us out," Rameau said. "The longer they wait, the bigger the outcry."

Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003.

Tonight: Shantytown Grand Welcoming

2006-11-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

All are invited and welcome to the Take Back the Land Grand Welcoming celebration, tonight, Thursday, November 2, 2006 beginning at 6:00pm at the Take Back the Land Shantytown, on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City.

Come experience the Power of the People as we celebrate the liberation of public land for the public good.

In response to the severe housing crisis, and the active role played by government officials in exacerbating the crisis, several organizations, led by the Center for Pan-African Development, took control of publicly owned land on NW 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami.

Since then, we have provided food for the hungry and housing for the homeless on a daily basis.

Come meet our hard working residents, our wonderful neighbors and our dedicated volunteers as we celebrate a new way to address social issues- by solving the problem ourselves.

We look forward to seeing you there. Donations are welcome.

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

blog, petition, pictures and donations:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

media coverage
http://www.category305.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=348&Itemid=147

Shantytown Grand Welcoming

2006-10-31T15:31:00.000-05:00

You are cordially invited to the Take Back the Land Grand Welcoming celebration.

The event will be held on Thursday, November 2, 2006 beginning at 6:00pm at the Take Back the Land Shantytown, on the corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in Liberty City.

Come experience the Power of the People as we celebrate the liberation of public land for the public good.

In response to the severe housing crisis, and the active role played by government officials in exacerbating the crisis, several organizations, led by the Center for Pan-African Development, took control of publicly owned land on NW 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami.

Since then, we have provided food for the hungry and housing for the homeless on a daily basis.

Come meet our hard working residents, our wonderful neighbors and our dedicated volunteers as we celebrate a new way to address social issues- by solving the problem ourselves.

We look forward to seeing you there. Donations are welcome.

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

blog, petition, pictures and donations:
takebacktheland.blogspot.com

media coverage
http://www.category305.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=348&Itemid=147

Shantytown Pix

2006-10-29T12:18:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

No, Take Back the Land and the Shantytown are not an elaborate internet hoax. To prove it, here are a few pictures from the liberated land. I hope you enjoy the pictures and support the cause.

You can keep up with the progress, sign our petition and make a donation from our blog at

takebacktheland.blogspot.com.

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development

Anti-War Rally at ShantyTown

2006-10-27T15:31:00.000-05:00

DEMAND MONEY FOR HOUSING
NOT FOR WAR!

HEAR CARLOS & MELINDA ARREDONDO
SPEAK IN LIBERTY CITY

SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE "TAKE BACK THE LAND" ACTION

SATURDAY 4 PM
TAKE BACK THE LAND SHANTYTOWN
NW 62 ST AND NW 17 AVE, MIAMI
Exit I-95 at NW 62 St Exit and travel 10 blocks west- NE corner

The South Florida Peace & Justice Network's "Peace SpeakingTour" will be stopping in Liberty City this Saturday afternoon at 4PM were Carlos and Melida Arredondo will join the "Take Back The Land" squatters and protesters to demand "Money For Housing Not For War!"

We will be focusing in on the corruption that is behind both the City of Miami housing crisis and the war in Iraq and on the need to build grassroots movements that put people before profits.

Please join us and take advantage of this unique opportunity to meet with both the organizers of the Liberty City protest and the Arredondos.

Carlos Arredondo became famous as the Hollywood father who, when advised of the death in Iraq of his son, Lcpl. Alexander Arredondo USMC, responded out of anguish and grief by setting fire to a US Marine van and to himself. Melida Arredondo is Carlos' wife and stepmother to Alexander. The Arredondos began speaking about the tragedy of becoming a Gold Star Family at the one-year anniversary of Alexander's death. They have traveled throughout the US speaking in both English and Spanish and have had numerous articles written chronicling their work.

A visit from the Miami CRB

2006-10-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Miami Community Relations Board (CRB) paid a little visit to the shanty town on Thursday. They came in, sat down and wanted to talk about our concerns and problems.

Several of us, including me, had no interest what-so-ever in the conversation for at least a few reasons: first, we have nothing to discuss. They know our issues and the know our only demand (Leave us Alone), and if we discuss that demand, then they will not actually be leaving us alone, now would they? And second, if we were to negotiate, they do not have the power for us to negotiate with them.

In any event, several volunteers, activists, residents and neighbors were at the site talking, so they CRB talked to them. While we missed most of the conversation, this one snippet we caught was great:

A CRB member said she wanted to address the issues because the shanty town was unsafe for adults and children. One of our neighbors from the complex behind the lot got hot under the collar quick. She said: "Unsafe? My child has been bitten several times by rats right in our apartment! The shanty town is safer than my apartment. You (the City of Miami) should shut down my apartment complex and leave the shanty town alone."

Surely the CRB members were disgusted when all involved demanded they take a tour of the dilapidated apartment complex. Of course, we all know the CRB was not there to address the issues of poverty and housing, they were there to shut down the shanty town and reclaim government land.

Nice try!

Community Support

2006-10-27T15:13:00.000-05:00

Community support for the Take Back the Land shanty town has been incredible.

First of all, immediately behind our lot is a dilapidated apartment complex. The residents are very unhappy with the conditions of the complex and fully support our mission. On the first day, they, without being asked, took up a collection and gave us our first donation. Since then, they have helped us cook and build our housing structures.

Several individuals have offered to provide food, including two ladies who cooked twice for us, so far, in four days. They drive from downtown, past our location during rush hour traffice, get home, cook for us, then go back home for the evening.

Total strangers drive by, pull over and help carry things, donate clothing, water, food or money and lend their emotional support. Small businesses donate some of their goods to us. And one contractor stopped by with roofing materials and four roofers to make our kitchen and housing units water proof.

Each stop is a huge moral boost for our volunteers and residents who see, in a concrete manner, that we are supported by the community around us. We would not be able to do this without their support and know we are doing the right thing as we continue to recieve it.

Take Back the Land Appeal for Support

2006-10-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

In response to a critical crisis of affordable housing for low-income and the homeless, particularly in the Black community, On October 23, 2006 at 3:00pm, a group of organizations and individuals took control of city and county owned land for the benefit of the people.

The 'Take Back the Land' movement is appealing to all people of conscience for your direct support.

The group, convened by the Center for Pan-African Development, took control of vacant land on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami, FL, with no permits, permissions or agreements to use the land. After a brief standoff with Miami police, officials recognized our right to public land and left us alone.

Today, the land, which stood vacant for 9 years after the demolition of a low income apartment complex, feeds people every night and houses the homeless in tents and makeshift structures built from wood and by the hands of all volunteer labor. We took control of the land because the government has been actively making matters worse, not better. Therefore, we are forced to provide for our community in a way the government is unable or unwilling to do themselves.

The powers-that-be are not pleased that a bunch of poor people and activists have taken over the land they want to develop for the benefit of the rich. We know they are planning the best way to force us off the property. We, therefore, are asking for your support in two ways:

1. Send a Letter of Support. Sign our online petition of support, or send one of your own, to the Center for Pan-African Development, Carlos Alvarez, Mayor of Miami-Dade County and Manny Diaz, Mayor of the City of Miami. We only have one demand: Leave us alone. The government has broken enough promises and stolen enough money that we do not want their "help," we only want them to leave us alone as we help our people.

2. Make a Donation. We are building structures, providing food, some clothing and housing to people at no charge to them with an all volunteer workforce (including the homeless and local residents). There is no other way to put this: we need your financial contribution to continue. Please, make a Paypal contribution to the cause, or mail a check direct to us.

Social movements emerge, survive, thrive and advance through the work of the community and the support of people of good conscious. We need your help now. Thank you in advance.

Forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development

Blog
http://takebacktheland.blogspot.com

To make a donation:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=afrimax%40niainteractive%2ecom&item_name=Take%20Back%20the%20Land&item_number=TBL1&no_shipping=1&return=http%3a%2f%2ftakebacktheland%2eblogspot%2ecom&cn=Special%20Comments&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

To sign onto our petition of support
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TakeBacktheLand

To send your own message in support of the 'Take Back the Land' shanty town to:

City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz
E-mail: mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us
Telephone: 305-250-5300

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez
E-mail: mayor@miamidade.gov
Telephone: 305-375-5071

Media coverage
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/1583304.htm
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=24699@wfor.dayport.com

Take Back the Land Update

2006-10-24T06:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

We did it!

Yesterday, a group of organizations and individuals, led by the Center for Pan-African Development, successfully took over land in Liberty City.

Fed up with broken government promises and stolen money, activists and residents took over the vacant publicly owned land on 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. Miami police tried to evict us, but, having done our research in advance, we had lawyers tne the law on our side.

We fed over 50 people and housed about 20. Today and through the week, we will continue to build our city. Our objective is not just to make a statement, it is to directly provide housing to poor Black people, to do for our community what the government and market are unwilling and uncapable of doing.

Please show your support by coming to our shanty town any evening you can. We are also in need of donations: wood, building material, blankets, tarps, tents, food, money and your time. We must show that the concept of direct people control over land is an idea with support.

Also, review two media pieces from yesterday at:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15833004.htm
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=24699@wfor.dayport.com

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development

URGENT: Take Back the Land Needs Support

2006-10-23T14:13:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

You have heard people say it and now it is being done: The Center for Pan-African Development, together with several other dedicated organizations and individuals, have taken over a vacant parcel of publicly owned land and will build a shanty town to house the homeless.

As you are aware, South Florida has suffered under a critical shortage of affordable housing. However, instead of creating more affordable housing, local government officials have been busy decreasing the number of affordable housing units, through bad public policy, such as the HOPE VI project, which destroyed 851 units of public housing, replacing it with 80 units; and the intentional vacancies in public housing. Following a series of media reports detailing practices of stealing from the poor to deliver to the rich, county officials have given virtually nothing to the community to compensate for the lost housing, stolen money or broken trust.

The reality is this: far from providing a solution to the housing crisis, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami officials are exacerbating the crisis. Poor Black people in need of housing are suffering disproportionately and unnecessarily, just so that a few officials and developers can line their own pockets. Therefore, the Black community can no longer depend on the government to provide basic human services for us. Consequently, we must provide it ourselves. We must 'Take Back the Land' so that we can circumvent the problem and implement our own solution.

As of 3:00pm today, Monday, October 23, 2006, we are attempting to liberate the land on the corner of 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami, and build a shanty town to feed and house the homeless and those living in squalor.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Come out RIGHT NOW to support the drive for community control over community land. Your support could be the difference between success and failure. We need people there now to show support for this important and historic effort. Do your part to ensure this land belongs to the community, and is not given away to wealthy developers. With your support, we will be there all night, all week, all year, providing basic food and shelter for the homeless.

We need your help. Come to 62^nd St. and NW 17^th Ave. in Liberty City now and all of this week.

Forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

The Pan-African Perspective: The Housing Crisis: What Next?

2006-10-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

The Pan-African Perspective
The Housing Crisis: What Next?

In South Florida and across the country, poor people suffer under a crisis of affordable housing. The shrinking housing stock forces people to commit desperate acts just to access decent and safe housing they can afford. The impact on the Black community is devastating, as gentrification moves us out of our long time neighborhoods to make room for wealthier, lighter people.

As the crisis worsened, instead of increasing the amount of affordable housing, local governments worked hard to decrease the number of units, directly, and intentionally, contributing to the crisis in the process. Far from being an ally in the fight for decent human housing, the government, in the pockets of wealthy developers looking to become even wealthier, made the crisis worse.

In response to the crisis, community organizations and individuals tried in vain to meaningfully impact public policy through engagement. At least since 1998, we organized residents, met with commissioners, developed alternative policies and plans, attended meetings, supported initiatives of elected officials and even protested. We addressed HOPE VI, vacancies in public housing, the destruction of rental units by the city of Miami in Liberty City, improving conditions in public and low income private housing, increasing Section 8 vouchers, increasing affordable housing, supporting small locally owned businesses and other measures designed to increase the housing stock and stop gentrification.

The activists did everything "responsible" people should: engaged decision makers with a combination of sweet talk and pressure, relying on logic, statistics and appeals of conscious, urging a public policy which benefits the common good. Running up against the interests of developers and the power of their lobbyists, the community stood no chance.

Elected officials dissed us, the media ignored us and the people suffered. Nonetheless, it cannot be said that the community did not work within the system to seek meaningful change. We tried that route, in good faith and over time. The system failed us, and, therefore, we can not rely on it to solve our most fundamental problems.

As gentrification and the housing crisis have re-emerged in public discourse, spurred by the exposure of scandal inside Miami-Dade County government, it is clear that three distinct issue areas exist:

● Corruption. Government officials and developers engage each other in immoral, unethical and illegal ways. Corruption prevents the public from getting the most for their tax money and officials from making decisions with the best interest of the people at heart. Corruption is a severe and pervasive problem in South Florida government and business life. However, it is important to recognize that corruption did not cause the shortage of affordable housing, it only exacerbated an existing crisis.

● Public Policy. Even without an ounce of corruption, there would still be a housing crisis. Government policies on affordable housing promote the interests of developers at the expense of the poor, thus advancing the crisis. For example, during the crisis, officials voted to raze 851 units of public housing, and replace it with 80 new public housing units and 450 units total, all against the wishes of the impacted community. The HOPE VI plan deliberately reduced the number of affordable housing units, granting developers millions in contracts and empowering landlords to raise rents on the shrinking affordable renting stock. This and other government policies intentionally promote the housing crisis.

● Economic and Social System. Corruption and public policy aside, the real question is this: does the economic and social system directly benefit from maintaining a permanent underclass? If so, is the system itself capable of providing that class with housing and social services? The structural issue of the relationship between poor Black people and the land they occupy, but do not own or control, is at the heart of segregation and gentrification.

The surface issues we confront are gentrification and housing, however, as the system and structural questions imply, the fundamental issues are really land and power. We must fundamentally change the power relationship between people and land in order to avoid being segregated into and gentrified out of our land, at the whim of those who benefit from our misery and the officials who do their bidding.

So, what is the next step in the fight? Historic and recent experience demonstrate that defending our community against gentrification and ensuring housing for all, demands we circumvent the powers that be and exercise direct control over land. That is the only viable option remaining.

Max Rameau
The Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

Miami's CRA: Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich

2006-10-05T12:48:00.000-05:00

Miami's CRA: Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich

It's happening again. Poor people are in need and South Florida officials are jumping into action to fund yet another public boondoggle which will do absolutely nothing to address the problem.

In the midst of a housing crisis and scandal, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami, who both failed to find money for affordable housing, are breaking their necks to fund two big projects: parking for the performing arts center and an underground tunnel leading from I-395 directly to the Port of Miami.

The arts center, renamed the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA), opened 20 months behind schedule and almost $200 million over budget. If that makes you happy, you will be thrilled to learn that the CCPA was built without any parking spaces. The local powers and media are so eager to open the world class arts center, that they won't even investigate an obvious scam (suggested title: 'Opera House of Lies'). After $446 million, there are no arrests, no investigations and no parking.

Separately, in 1981, Congressman Claude Pepper proposed an underground tunnel connecting the Port of Miami directly to I-395, allowing cargo trucks to avoid downtown traffic altogether. The project is now in the final planning stages, with a preliminary price tag of $1 billion. We can only hold hands and pray that this project is not managed by the same people who built the CCPA.

In spite of the County housing agency scandals and the demands of community groups for more low income housing, County Commissioners displayed no sense of shame, declining to even replace the money stolen from the affordable housing programs. In Miami, Manny Diaz trudges forth in his quest to reduce poverty by removing all poor people from the City limits, replacing them with yuppie condo dwellers.

It is in this context that Miami's Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is poised to divert millions of dollars from the poor, to fund parking for wealthy patrons of the CCPA and a tunnel for the Port of Miami.

Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes allow the creation of CRAs to alleviate "blight" and "slum" areas by redistributing property and reinvesting captured property tax increments. The law allows great flexibility, but does require the production of a Community Redevelopment Plan, whose only tangible objective is to "Provide for the development of affordable housing in the area," or "state the reason" for not doing so (F.S. 163.360 S. 2(c)).

The proposed amendment to the Omni CRA Plan describes Central Miami, identifying East Omni as one of it's wealthiest areas, with average household income at $36,547, raising obvious questions regarding its inclusion in the CRA in the first place. Just across Biscayne Blvd., the West Omni is it's second poorest community, at $14,560 per household.

Naturally, the amended plan urges building over 2,000 "moderate and upper middle" income housing units for the wealthy East Omni. However, because the poorer East Omni "shows a very low demand for new units," urges a mere 394 units there. Evidently, the East Omni is the only low income area in Miami against more affordable housing.

What planet are these people from?

Because they are not spending it on affordable housing, the CRA is being tapped for $50 million to pay for Miami's share of the Port Tunnel. Because the Port is not, technically, in the CRA district, City Commissioners, who head the agency, will redraw the CRA boundaries in order to make sure the cash grab is legal, even if not moral.

Best of all, while local governments are crying broke when asked to fund housing, the $50 million tunnel contribution is not even in the CRA Plan. Commissioners will ignore both the plan and the CRA boundaries in order to creatively finance emergency funding for a proposal which has been on the table since 1981. On a legal note, while the Statute requires a Plan, there is no language obliging the CRA to actually adhere to the plan.

The lesson here is that when politicians want to fund a project, they will find the money. Politically connected developers will get their share, a portion of which they will gladly reinvest in the elected officials who approved the expenditure in the first place.

Today, the CRA has more than $50 million earmarked for the poor, which can be used to build affordable housing. But elected officials simply do not want to build homes for poor Black people. These officials, whether through the CRA or other government agency, take money from the poor, drive it through the underground tunnel, and deliver it to the center for the performing rich.

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development
afrimax@gmail.com

CopWatch Protests Police Led "Peace" March

2006-09-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

City of Miami police tried to hi-jack the International Day of Peace. The UN sanctioned event is celebrated throughout the world with marches and teach-ins for peace and against war and police brutality, among other themes. Of course, in Miami the event is led by the police itself.

CopWatch, a project of the Center for Pan-African Development, protested the march. School children were forced to attend, as were government employees, but few residents showed. Several of the residents who did attend were there to protesting the march.

The message was clear: the police have no moral authority to lead a peace march; police violence is not peace; and the only way to peace is through justice.

forward,

Max Rameau

Liberty City peace march gets mixed reception

BY DANI MCCLAIN

dmcclain@MiamiHerald.com

Liberty Square resident Patricia Kinsey struggled to get her local neighbors to join in the International Day of Peace festivities on Thursday.

''Everybody, come out!'' she said, beckoning those who remained on their porches, watching the peace march pass by. ``This is for your benefit, too!''

The goal of the event, a joint effort by the Miami Police Department and City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, was to bring a message of peace to a community rocked by gun violence. Holding the street festival on Thursday morning was a symbolic gesture: More than two decades ago, the United Nations proclaimed Sept. 21 an International Day of Peace.

Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning was among the guests who filled the stage near the housing project's community center. A high school marching band blasted classic R&B songs through the streets, and there were enough free tee shirts to go around.

State Sen. Frederica Wilson addressed the crowd of more than 100, most of whom were students from Edison, Allapattah and Charles Drew middle schools and Northwestern High School. She said the event was geared toward the young people in attendance.

''We don't want them to use people who use violence as their role models,'' she said, and acknowledged members of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence, a countywide dropout prevention program for boys. Members wore red ties and marched into the event with the precision of a military unit.

Joseph Gedeon attended the march in honor of his 18-year-old son, Prince, who was killed in a drive-by shooting near the housing project last month. No arrests have been made and though the murder happened on a busy corner, no witnesses have stepped forward, Gedeon said.

Not everyone was supportive of the march. Taking note of the many armed police officers in attendance, a handful of protesters gathered around the stage, holding signs that read ''How can you lead a peace march with all those guns?'' and ``We want peace, not more police!''

Max Rameau of the Center for Pan-African Development was among the protesters. He said the true solutions to gun violence are jobs and job training. 'We don't want `peace' to be used as a pretext for them to move more police activity here,'' Rameau said.

Acknowledging the protesters, Wilson responded: ``There has to be some healing in this community between the residents and the police.''

The mixed mood at the march underscored the frustration felt by a community that has had to bury scores of children and teens murdered in senseless acts of violence. Among the victims: 9-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins, 17-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, Jr. and 17-year-old Otissha Burnett.

Members of a group called Families Against Senseless Shootings circulated a petition to repeal the ''Stand Your Ground'' law, which allows anyone who fires a weapon and kills innocent bystanders to avoid prosecution by claiming self-defense. The families of Jenkins, Johnson and Burnett support the petition drive.

Marcus Garvey Earthday

2006-08-16T11:46:00.000-05:00

Greetings:

Make plans to attend the annual Marcus Garvey Earthday Celebration, including a panel forum and the lionsplash concert, all beginning August 17, 2006.

The Annual Marcus Garvey Lecture/Forum covers "Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Co-operation in Practice in the Pan-African Community" and is held on Thursday, August 17, 2006, beginning at 7:00pm at the Florida Memorial University, 15600 NW 42nd Ave. in Miami Gardens. Panelists include:

   - Dr. Keshia Abraham, FMU professor;
   - Desmond Alufohai, International Business Manager, Chair, Africa Reconnect;
   - Carolyn Kennedy, NEWUS, Inc.;
   - Dr. Marcia Magnus, Associate Professor, FIU;
   - Babacar M'Bow, International Programs, Broward Libraries;
   - Max Rameau, Miami CopWatch, a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Get involved! Participate! Attend the community forum!

On Saturday, August 19, from noon until 2:00am, FMU, 15600 NW 42nd Ave., hosts the annual LionSplash Pan-African Birthday Bash, Back to School Family Fun Day and Cultural Concert, featuring:

African Ancestral & Rastafari Drum Tribute, Revelation Sounds; Spoken Word Artistry; Poolside Lime; Food & Drinks; Art; Crafts; Children's Games; Martial Arts; Yoga; Health Screening; Soccer; Netball; Local & International Performers of Reggae, Gospel, Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz…

SPONSORS: Florida Memorial University, EBS Engineering, East Coast Inter-Modal, South Florida Neurosurgical Institute, Garden of Eatin, Statutory Fingerprinting & Notary, Whitsyms Nursing Registry, Cordon Law Office, Goldson Chiropractic, Iahdauta Enterprises, American Mortgage Funding Corp
Presented by: The INIversal MARCUS InstiTRUTH (IMI) Inc.; The Marcus Garvey Celebrations Committee and

The Olugbala Collective: Tel: 786.663.3000 or 786.877.4307 or 954.583.6190 eMail: imimarcus@yahoo.com

Special Thanks to the media: SouthFloridaCaribbeanNews.com; UANNews:; Caribbean-American Commentary; Miami Times; Caribbean Today; Caribbean National Weekly; Broward Times; Miami Herald; Music Lessons-WAVS1170; London Connection-WAVS 1170 AM; Mystik1400 AM; Hot105 FM; WTPS1080 AM; WDNA88.9 FM; Roots Uprising-WPRK 91.5 FM; Ridims Mktng;

The Real House of Lies: Government Causes Housing Crisis

2006-07-31T09:59:00.000-05:00

As the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County, and across the country, mushroomed, with dire especially for Black and poor people, many expected local, state and even federal governments to step in to provide relief to the forced removals, high home prices and development run amok. Instead, governments have led the charge for zoning variances, high rise developments and sweetheart deals for politically connected developers.

The recent high profile media reports detailing the millions spent for affordable housing never built raises obvious questions about corruption and cronyism of elected and housing officials in Miami. However, the relationship between the actions of Miami-Dade Housing Agency (MDHA) and the red hot housing market raises deeper questions about who the government represents and their real role in the housing market.

Logic would dictate that during an affordable housing crisis, the local housing agency would create more affordable housing. However, in the mid 1990s, as the housing wait list grew to over 40,000 people, the exact opposite occurred: MDHA was actively eliminating affordable housing units.

Through HOPE VI, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted over $100 million to raze 851 public housing units in Liberty City's Scott Projects and replace it with 450 overall units, including only 80 public housing units, and failed in a bid to similarly decimate the Liberty Square Projects. In 2002, as the crisis reached epidemic proportions, MDHA vacated over 1,000 units while the housing wait list swelled to over 63,000 people.

After months of actions, negotiations and outright begging, community groups such as the Miami Workers Center and LIFFT compelled the BCC to earmark $1.5 million just to fill the vacancies. One year later, however, the $1.5 million was spent, but the vacancies increased from 1,000 to over 1,700. The BCC continued to drag its feet, ignore pleas and outright refused to hear activists on the subject, at one point avoiding the agenda item with security forcing us from the Commission chambers. To this day, there is no accounting of the $1.5 million.

During the same time frame, the BCC awarded millions of dollars to politically connected developers, who never did get around to building affordable housing, but somehow managed to donate money to the re-election campaigns of the same commissioners who gifted them the contract.

The elected officials and even the mass media spin the facts, attempting to convince us there is nothing more going on here than incompetence and corruption, nothing that a few arrests can't solve. That, however, rests on the assumption that the role of the BCC and MDHA is to serve the interests of poor Black and Latino people. Nothing could further from the truth.

Does anyone really believe that none of the 13 elected officials, with their paid staff, and scores of housing agency professionals were unable to recognize the housing crisis? Or that they did not realize the solution was to build more affordable housing, not less? Or that the campaign contributors and friends were getting paid for doing no work? These are professionals and they knew exactly what they were doing.

Developers reap millions from the "housing boom," but the other side of that coin is the rising housing prices and gentrification of our communities, problems which many expect the government to address on our behalf. However, because government officials represent the interests of the developers, government actions have quietly, but deliberately, spurred gentrification and the housing crisis, not alleviated them.

Eliminating public housing, via either razing or vacating, reduces public affordable housing, thereby enabling private building owners, who are no longer competing with public housing, to raise rent prices at will. Government sponsorship, through zoning variances, tax breaks and other support, of certain projects, advance the gentrification of our neighborhoods.

So, don't believe the hype. The BCC and MDHA were not ineffective in serving the interests of the poor, they were effective in serving the interests of the rich developers. Even when a project is actually completed, the final product never seems to meet the needs of the residents. The reason is because the real objective of the project was to meet the needs of the developer, not the residents.

Far from failing because they did not alleviate the problems of the housing crisis and gentrification, the BCC was spectacularly successful in exacerbating those problems, to the benefit of the wealthy developers who profit from our misery. The MDHA scandal, then, is not a case of incompetence on their part, but rather, a case of naive expectations on ours.

So do not be fooled: this government does not represent your interests. Maybe its time we organize to get ourselves one that does.

Max Rameau is with the Center for Pan-African Development

Rally Against Housing Crisis

2006-07-27T15:22:00.000-05:00

Greetings All:

On Friday, July 28, 2006 at 11:00am, community groups and people will rally against the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County and the public corruption which is fostering the crisis. The speak out gives people the chance to tell how they feel about the situation.

Join the movement to demand social justice for the poor and criminal justice for the crooks stealing our tax money.

When: Friday, July 28, 2006 at 11:00am
Where: Stephen P. Clark Government Center
111 NW 1st St.
Downtown Miami

Check the press release below.

forward,

Max

Residents Speak Out Against Housing Crisis and Corruption Public outrage in the wake of 'House of Lies' the Miami Herald expose

MIAMI – Low-income residents, community organizations and the general public will speak out against the Housing Crisis and political corruption at the steps of county government, Stephen P. Clarke Building, Friday July 28th at 11 am. The Community Speak Out will be an open forum where impacted families will voice their experiences, state their concerns and offer solutions to the problems exposed by the recent Miami Herald expose on affordable housing in Miami.

In the four part series "House of Lies" the Miami Herald exposed years of corruption within the MDHA and county government that has a had dire repercussions for Miami's low-income residents. In the height of a housing crisis, the Herald exposed a major causes of the delays in construction is elected and appointed county staff. The series has exposed the most hurtful kind of greed.

Leading the charge for putting forward a people's response is Low-Income Families Fighting Together (LIFFT), Miami Workers Center (MWC) and Power U
Center for Social Change. All three organizations have been organizing residents in Miami's low-income Black and Latino neighborhoods in opposition to gentrification. Power U has long standing campaign against the Crosswinds development in Overtown. MWC and LIFFT have a long standing campaigns in Liberty City around the destruction of HOPE VI Scott-Carver Homes and throughout Miami-Dade County in the Fill the Vacancies Campaign for public housing access.

Tony Romano, Organizing Director of MWC said of the widespread corruption and failure of MDHA and the County, "For years these people have been making money on the backs of poor Black and Latino people. Real justice would be for those who are really responsible for this dismal situation to resign and for the money and resources to be returned to the community for community led development of housing."

Denise Perry, director of Power U referencing the Crosswinds project in Overtown stated, "This is exactly why there needs to be an accountability process that engages the community. We need to stop this giving of our tax money to developers, for their profit and our detriment. We will continue to fight for the rights of the people in the process and government accountability."

"They finally got some of these thieves. We have been shouting about these crooks for years: MDHA, Model City Trust, Dorrin Rolle. And we will keep shouting until all of them are exposed for what they are." said Ms. Mary Wadley, leader of LIFFT.

The Community Speak Out will be the continuation of longer fights for justice for Miami's poor residents.
# # # #

VISUALS: Residents speaking out. Banners. Signs.

Power U Center
1633 NW 3rd Ave.
Miami, FL 33136
305.576.7449

We Condemn US Attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan- August 1998

2006-07-15T08:10:00.000-05:00

Why We Condemn the US Attack on the Sudan and Afghanistan
August 1998

On Thursday, August 20, 1998 the US launched a vicious attack on two locations the US claims to be terrorist hot spots, near Khartoum, Sudan in Africa and Kabul, Afghanistan in the Middle East. While the attacks were carried out unannounced, they were not completely unexpected, particularly in light of the terrorist bombings of two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Africa, and the characterization of the bombers as "animals" by Bill Clinton.

Aside from the obvious attempt by the White House to change the course of national discussion from Clinton's sex scandal to Clinton's military might, and the morally disturbing questions raised in the killing of people for public relations advancements, the US bombings of the Sudan and Afghanistan were wrong, they must be condemned and every effort must be made to prevent any further attacks on national sovereignty and African people.

It is important to directly address the very issue used to justify the US bombings in the minds of so many people- the attacks on two US embassies in Africa. Firstly, the opposition to US military, cultural and economic dominance and influence in the world is a legitimate issue debated, argued and engaged in numerous regions around the world, including South America, Central America, Eastern Europe, parts of Western Europe, South East Asia, the Middle East and the entire continent of Africa.

US Imperialism faces opposition across the globe from all walks of life. It is vital to keep in mind that the US is able to maintain it's own position of power and unwelcomed presence throughout the world with military might, which includes soldiers, guns, warplanes and weapons of mass destruction. In efforts to keep "friendly" regimes in place, the US has eagerly supported brutal dictators, murders and, yes, terrorists, as a means to achieve very questionable ends.

Because they targeted, injured and killed so many civilians, primarily Africans, the acts of resistance against the US presence in Kenya and Tanzania were wrong and should be condemned. There is nothing inherently wrong with seeking justice for the perpetrators of those acts. To be fair and equitable in the distribution of blame, it is only just to condemn the US for it's own support of terrorism and brutal dictators.

A DISTURBING PATTERN

In what is developing into a disturbing pattern of behavior, the US once again has cultivated an ally to achieve specific objectives, only to later condemn and target that same individual or group. It happened with US support and subsequent condemnation of the brutal Duvalier regime in Haiti (followed by the CIA employed military junta); it happened with countless US trained military leaders in South and Central America, guilty of crimes against their people and humanity; the US supported Panamanian strong man Manuel Noriega a few short years prior to the invasion, kidnapping and ultimate trial and incarceration of him; and the US had no problem with the psychopathic tendencies of Saddam Hussein until his invasion of oil rich and friendly Kuwait.

In the same way, during the illegal and immoral Soviet occupation of Afghanistan which began in 1979, during the throws of the Cold War, America had few qualms providing Osama Bin Laden and others like him with financial, technical and material support as long as all terrorist acts were directed towards people the US did not care for.

Without making a judgment one way or the other about bin Laden and his theology/ideology, his objectives and methods appear to have changed little over the past 20 years- the removal of all foreign presence from Muslim populated lands in the Middle East through a military campaign which may include civilians as targets. As such, his disposition towards the US, which has a sizable military presence in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries, to the chagrin of most people in the region, should not come as a surprise to anyone because it is consistent with his theological/ideological position and prior behavior.

Because, dependent upon the strategical value of the civilians killed, the US appears to support murderers and even terrorists in the region and other parts of the world, the strong pronouncements against terrorism which served as the rallying points for the bombings of the Sudan and Afghanistan are seriously called into question. If America is opposed to terrorism, it must be opposed to ALL terrorism, not just the terrorism it does not fund or control, or the terrorism which adversely effects US interests.

Continued support for large scale murderers and terrorists undermines US credibility and moral authority in making proclamations against terrorism. For those with whom notions of moral authority carry little weight, the very motives of people who indignantly claim to be against something they are active participants in themselves must come into question.

ATTACK TARGETS

The US military bombed sites in the Sudan and Afghanistan as retaliation against Osama Bin Laden, the alleged perpetrator of the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. While there is little doubt that bin Laden himself is a terrorist, capable of planning and carrying out such attacks, it is unclear if US intelligence has proven that bin Laden in fact was the one behind those specific bombings.

According to the pop-psychological profiles of bin Laden- undoubtably provided by US intelligence- he is something of an ego maniac desperate for attention. While motives for denying his involvement exist, recognition as the mastermind behind the embassy bombings would blow up bin Laden's stature and reputation in the region. The US has provided little, if any, proof of bin Laden's involvement, and the mainstream media has neither quoted sources outside of the CIA, state department and Pentagon or provided a critical analysis of the official US government position.

The fundamental dilemma facing those attempting to make educated judgments about culpability for the embassy bombings is that we must choose between the word of a renown terrorist versus the word of a renown terrorist organization- the CIA and the military industrial complex- with it's propensity to exaggerate, fabricate evidence and flat out lie to justify their military objectives.

The US chose to attack a pharmaceutical company in the Sudan- which a high ranking state department official declared, under the cover of anonymity, was unable to prove it produced pharmaceuticals. Less than a week after the attack, pictures of the flattened building revealed countless bottles of medicine and medicine producing machines blown to smithereens. The attack of a tent city in Afghanistan was justified because it was a suspected training ground for paramilitary groups who conduct military operations, including those directed towards civilians.

The logic behind tent city bombing was that the location served as a training school for terrorists, and therefore, in order to punish for previous terrorist acts and to prevent future terrorist training, it was an essential target.

On Friday, August 21, 1998, the Miami Herald declared in an editorial that US attacks on a terrorist compound in Afghanistan were "amply justified self-defense." In an ironic, but surely unintentional juxtaposition of articles, the opposite page featured an opinion from Florida Council of Churches executive director, Fred Morris.

Morris is a former missionary who was kidnapped and tortured in 1974 by the Fourth Army of the Brazilian Military. According to Morris his abusers "bragged" of their graduation from the US funded and operated School of the Americas, then based in Panama, now based in Fort Benning, Georgia.

According to Morris, "thousands of Latin Americans have been trained by the US Army at the SOA," with many of the graduates applying their learnings at the expense of their own people. Morris claims the brutal human rights abuses meted out by dictatorships in South and Central America were largely conducted by graduates of the SOA. This included not only the highly publicized murders of nuns and priests in El Salvador, but the murder of over 200,000 people in Guatemala, all led by SOA graduates.

Morris writes "In 1996 the US Army released copies of training manuals that promoted the use of torture, execution, illegal detention, truth serum, and other human rights violations." Needles to say, the School of the Americas remains open today, teaching lessons to the next generation of military terrorists.

While some will forward the notion that America is subject to special rules and considerations not applicable to the rest of the world, the truth is that wrong acts are wrong. As such, if the US can bomb Afghanistan for allegedly training terrorists, countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia and Guatemala should have the right to bomb Fort Benning, Georgia in retaliation for the hundreds of thousands of murders and acts of terror which were committed with the complicity and training of the School of the Americas, as well to prevent the graduation of a new generation of terrorist trained by the US military.

If it is right for the US to bomb Afghanistan for training terrorist, it must be right for other countries to bomb the US for training terrorist. Those who cannot stomach the notion of an attack on the US in retaliation for or prevention of terrorism, must actively oppose attempts by the US to do the same.

As a side note, there are plenty of terrorist training facilities in Montana, Oklahoma, North Carolina and other Freeman strongholds which can keep the US military occupied for some time.

As previously mentioned, the targeting of civilians is not an acceptable means of liberation warfare, and those injured in the Embassy bombings have the right to justice. The pursuit of justice internationally for the victims of the embassy bombings, however, must be tempered with the same concepts of justice which apply- or at least should apply- in the US and which people who live in the US demand for themselves. In short, you cannot kill several people in two locations in pursuit of one person who is accused, but not convicted, of a crime.

There is a term for attacking innocents along with the guilty in retaliation for a particular action or policy- that term is TERRORISM and the US is as guilty of terrorism for the dual bombings of August 20 as those responsible for the dual bombings of the US embassies two weeks prior. In the same way rebel groups are scolded not to demonstrate their opposition on non-participants, the US should be held to at least the same standard and expected not to bomb wide areas in pursuit of one man or a particular group of people.

Finally, we must oppose US aggression abroad to prevent the continued use and abuse of Africa as the military theater for the same immoral games of wars by proxy which defined the Cold War. For all the debate about who won each round of bombings, the cold hard facts are that African people lost them both.

Max Rameau

The Center for Pan-African Development

Miami CopWatch

Center for Pan-African Development Blog

2006-07-14T11:24:00.000-05:00

This is the beginning of the Blog for the Center for Pan-African Development.

Blogs are authored by Max Rameau, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you and see you soon.

forward,

Max Rameau