Teachers of Miami-Dade County Call:

Take a personal day or sick day, Monday April 12th to oppose Florida Senate Bill 6/ HB 7189
Meet 3:30pm at: Tropical Park, 7900 SW 40th Street, Miami, Florida

We need to show our power and force Governor Crist to veto the bill!
We need to meet and organize ourselves autonomously as teachers from the bottom up!

Why we should oppose Florida Senate Bill 6/ HB 7189:

• It’s a Tallahassee takeover of education at the expense of local collective bargaining
• It will destroy education by forcing it to focus on test taking tips, strategies and memorization techniques; rather than critical thinking, learning and understanding which can’t be measured in standardized tests
• It will increase inequalities by incentivizing teachers to abandon students with less parental support, financial tutoring means and family educational background in favor of schools with students with these background supports
• It’s an unfunded mandate that will take more money from public schools and put it in the hands of standardized testing companies
• It will take more time away from our students education in requiring class time for the administration of these new standardized tests in every subject
• It eliminates salary funding from areas with proven indicators of quality teaching: years of experience and higher education degrees
• It eliminates incentives for involvement in the National Board Certification program
• It makes teachers financial planning unstable by cutting their salaries in half and then basing the other half of their pay on varying student test scores on one high stakes standardized test at the end of the year
• It opens the door for greater nepotism and unstable and biased working environments by granting administrators excessive and arbitrary firing power

Please forward this information as widely as possible to all teachers, parents, community members and everyone you know to spread the word and support the struggle of the teachers against this attack on teachers and public education!

Note: This is a spontaneous call by teachers to take matters into their own hands. Miami Autonomy and Solidarity is posting the teachers’ call in a show of support for their struggle!

Teachers and Public Education are Under Attack in Florida

By Pablo- Miami Autonomy & Solidarity (MAS)

Education reform seems to be the buzzword coming out of all the politicians’ mouths these days, and these words have taken on a menacing form in the case of Florida.  In Florida, education reform is supposedly at the bottom of legislation such as HB7189 and SB 6.  These companion bills, emerging from the Florida House of Representative and the Senate respectively, claim to have education reform in mind, but are little more than thinly veiled attacks on the teaching profession, and in particularly its unions.  While I think there is much to be desired from our public education system, make no mistake about it these bills simply don’t address any of the fundamental problems plaguing our current system. 

Anarchist Accountability

by Thomas- Miami Autonomy & Solidarity (MAS)

“This disease of disorganization has invaded the organism of the anarchist movement like yellow fever and has plagued it for decades…There can be no doubt, however, that this disorganization has its roots in a number of defects of theory, notably in the distorted interpretation of the principle of individuality in anarchism, that principle being too often mistaken for the absence of all accountability.” –Delo Truda Group^[1]

“…[O]rganization, far from creating authority, is the only cure for it and the only means whereby each one of us will get used to taking an active and conscious part in the collective work, and cease being passive instruments in the hands of leaders.” – Errico Malatesta^[2]

The assessment of the Delo Truda Group from 1926 is as true today as it was 84 years ago.  But if that’s the case; and if, as Malatesta suggested, organization is the only cure for authority, how do we as anarchists differ from others in how we view organization?  Or more specifically, how does our view of individuality differ from the common misconception of anarchism as the “absence of all accountability”.  Perhaps it’s best summed up by Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt in their exhaustive account of the history of anarchist ideas, Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism. They explain:

“…[G]enuine individual freedom and individuality could only exist in a free society.  The anarchists did not therefore identify freedom with the right of everybody to do exactly what one pleased but with a social order in which collective effort and responsibilities- that is to say, obligations- would provide the material basis and social nexus in which individual freedom could exist.”[3]

This essay will describe anarchist accountability and how it differs from the types of accountability we’re trying to replace.   Implementing accountability in all of our practices is fundamental to our effectiveness now in our practice and how it prefigures the kind of society that we want to replace the existing society.

Latest Update on Haiti Solidarity

Dear comrades,

We wanted to update everyone on the money that has been raised for Batay Ouvriye , as well as what Batay Ouvriye has said they will use it for.  In the next week we will have a report of BO’s activities with more detail.

So far $6,724 has been donated and we have been able to distribute $2,320 to Batay Ouvriye.

If you would like to donate there are three ways to do so:

Online: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/811/t/3678/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5875

Mail: Miami Workers Center, 6127 Northwest 7th Avenue, Miami, FL 33127-1111      Please write “for MAS/BO” on the memo line

Bank: City National Bank of New Jersey
900 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102
ABA Number: 0212-0163-9 City of NJ Newark
For further credit to:
Account Number: 01 000 9845
Account Name: Batay Ouvriye
Account Address: Ave. Jean Paul II, # 7

Here is a direct quote from BO’s appeal letter sent on January 20th, breaking down their expenditures:

According to the inventory we have made up to now, here are our most immediate needs:

Destroyed homes US $    50,000.00

Destroyed belongings                          20,000.00

Hurt, crippled                                     10,000,00

Daily existence                                    30,000.00

Dealing with deaths                            10,000.00

Total                                        US $    120,000.00

We need to add 40% to this calculation because the various prices keep skyrocketing and will continue to do so. So, the real TOTAL of this section is about: $US 170,000.00.

We will continue to send updates periodically.  If you want to contact us directly our email address is miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com or you can visit our blog  https://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/ which will also contain updated information.

In solidarity,

Miami Autonomy and Solidarity

Donate now to Batay Ouvriye- Dona ahora a Batay Ouvriye- Faire un don à Batay Ouvriye- Donare a Batay Ouvirye – Doneer nu Batay Ouvriye

English Castellano Italiano Francais Ελληνικά Nederlandse

You can send donations by wire transfer to Batay Ouvriye here:

Bank Name: City National Bank of New Jersey
Bank Address: 900 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102
ABA Number: 0212-0163-9 City of NJ Newark

IBAN: 026009593
For further credit to: FONKOZE, Ave. Jean Paul II, # 7, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Account Number: 01 000 9845
Account Name: Batay Ouvriye

Account Address: Delmas 16, # 13 bis, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

For any further questions, contact Batay Ouvriye at: b a t a y @ b a t a y o u v r i y e . o r g

Appel à la solidarité et à l’envoi de fonds pour les travailleurs d’Haïti !

Appel à la solidarité

et à l’envoi de fonds pour les travailleurs d’Haïti !

Une catastrophe naturelle vient de s’abattre sur Haïti, dont nous n’entrevoyons encore que la surface. Les haitiens vont devoir lutter pour reconstruire leur vie et leurs maisons, et ce vraisemblablement pour des décennies considérant cet effondrement sans précédent, à la fois physique et social.

Call for Solidarity and Funds for the Working People of Haiti!

A natural disaster has descended upon Haiti whose scope we only are seeing the surface of at this time. The Haitian people will be struggling to rebuild their lives and their home possibly for decades in light of unprecedented collapse, both physical and social. Yet despite the unpredictability of earthquakes, this disaster is unnatural, a monstrosity of our time.

Έκκληση για αλληλεγγύη και οικονομική ενίσχυση

Μια φυσική καταστροφή έχει επέλθει πάνω στην Αϊτή της οποίας προς στιγμήν βλέπουμε μόνο την επιφάνεια. Ο λαός της Αϊτής θα αγωνιστεί για να ξαναφτιάξει τη ζωή του και τα σπίτια του, ενδεχομένως για δεκαετίες υπό το φως μιας άνευ προηγουμένου πτώσης, τόσο φυσικής όσο και κοινωνικής. Ωστόσο, παρά το απρόβλεπτο των σεισμών, αυτή η καταστροφή είναι ένα αφύσικο τερατούργημα της εποχής μας. Η έκταση των ζημιών εξαιτίας του σεισμού είναι μέρος του κόστους της ανεξέλεγκτης εκμετάλλευσης που σε κάθε βήμα βάζει το κέρδος πάνω από την υγεία, την ασφάλεια και την ευημερία του λαού της Αϊτής. Ενώ όλος ο κόσμος παρακολουθεί έτοιμος να βοηθήσει, η τοπική εξουσία βρίσκεται αντιμέτωπη με μια ευκαιρία.

Appello alla solidarietà e per l’invio di contributi ai lavoratori e alle lavoratrici di Haiti!

Una catastrofe naturale si è abbattuta su Haiti, della cui portata ancora intravediamo solo la superficie. Gli haitiani dovranno lottare per ricostruire le loro vite e le loro case, forse per decenni considerando l’entità senza precedenti del crollo, sia fisico che sociale.

Een onnatuurlijke ramp: Solidariteit voor Haiti!

Oproep voor solidariteit en fondsen voor de werkende mensen van Haiti!

Een natuurramp is op Haiti neergedaald, waarvan we op dit moment alleen de oppervlakte van de gevolgen zien. Het Haitische volk zal mogelijk gedurende decennia vechten om hun levens en hun huizen opnieuw op te bouwen, in het licht van de ineenstorting zonder precedent, zowel fysiek als sociaal. Toch is deze ramp onnatuurlijk, ondanks de onvoorspelbaarheid van aardbevingen, een wangedrocht van onze tijd.