URGENT SUPPORT NEEDED FOR ACTIVISTS PROTESTING THE FTAA AS PER COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY INTERNATIONAL ANSWER TODAY NOV 22, 2003
URGENT SUPPORT NEEDED FOR ACTIVISTS PROTESTING THE FTAA
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition calls on all those who have
been involved in the anti-war movement to show their
support for those in Miami protesting at the FTAA
negotiations who are being brutalized and incarcerated in
a coordinated police state action designed to stifle
dissent in the United States.
Police have attacked protestors with tear gas, pepper
spray, concussion grenades, stun guns and by shooting
activists with rubber bullets. Medics have not been
allowed in through the police lines to treat the injured.
Protestors have been grabbed, seemingly at random, and
taken off the street in snatch operations conducted by
police in unmarked vehicles. The police are also directly
targeting the legal support for the demonstrators,
including National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers. Many who
have been taken away have been beaten.
Your urgent help is needed now. The National Lawyers Guild
and the Miami Activist Defense are asking that you contact
the Mayors, the City Attorney, Police Chief Timoney and
the media. Below is contact information -- please call or
email now and let them know their actions will not be
tolerated.
The attack on the protestors gives lie to the claim that
the U.S. is fighting for democracy abroad -- when people
who participate in political dissent at home are subject
to brutal systematic police abuse and government
repression.
The U.S. government in pursuit of corporate globalization
uses all methods in its arsenal - from invasion and
bombing to economic sanctions and IMF imposed austerity
plans. The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) is
merely another mechanism to extend the exploitative reach
of corporate domination over the people of the Americas.
Show your solidarity with the people in the streets of
Miami. Miami Activist Defense asks that the following be
contacted:
ALEX PENELAS
Mayor, Miami-Dade County
305-829-9336 home
305-375-5071 office
MANUEL A. DIAZ
Mayor, City of Miami
305-250-5300
305-375-5071
mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us
JOHN TIMONY
Chief of police
305-673-7925
305-579-6565
ALEJANDRO VILARELLO
City Attorney
305-416-1800
law@ci.miami.fl.us
JOE ARRIOLA
City Manager
jarriola@ci.miami.fl.us
JOHNNY WINTON
Miami City Commissioner
305-858-7344 home
305-250-5333 office
KATY SORENSON
Miami Dade County Commissioner
305-375-5218
305-378-6677
Local media has been grossly biased in their coverage.
While this is somewhat to be expected the following are
numbers that people could call.
CBS4: 305-639-4551, 305-639-4601, 305-639-4426
WPLG channel 10: 305-576-6397
WSUN Fox: 954-524-0388 (Rosh Lowe)
Original: URGENT SUPPORT NEEDED IN MIAMI