Building Power and Advancing: For Reforms, Not Reformism

By Thomas (Miami Autonomy & Solidarity)

“We shall carry out all possible reforms in the spirit in which an army advances ever forwards by snatching the enemy-occupied territory in its path.” – Errico Malatesta[i]

As anarchist communists, we are against reformism.  However, we are for reforms.  We believe that fundamentally the entire system of capitalism, the state and all systems of hierarchy, domination, oppression and exploitation of humans over humans must be abolished and replaced with a direct democracy, egalitarian social relations and a classless economy that bases contribution according to ability and distribution according to need.  However, such a social revolution can only occur through the power of the popular classes themselves from the bottom-up.  In advancing towards such a social revolution and a free and equal society, we must build our power in preparation for this fundamental transformation of the world, building on struggles along the way.  Ultimately our demands will be too threatening to the elite classes for them to bear; and their resistance to our drive for freedom will be too much for us to tolerate any longer.

11/4/11 7pm: Occupations & Crisis: A film & discussion of La Dignidad de Los Nadies

Sweat Records
5505 Northeast 2nd Avenue
Miami, Florida

The system is in crisis, unemployment lines grow daily, and austerity is grinding away at our necessities and way of life.

In 2001 Argentina experienced an even greater collapse, and massive movements emerged to build alternatives to the misery that was imposed upon them. Occupations, massive strikes, and social disruptions are growing. As this crisis spreads, and new resistance and new movements are emerging.

We are faced again with the lessons and questions of these moments. What role can the popular movements play in defeating capitalism, and creating a new society based on collective democracy, mutual aid, and the defeat of hierarchy? What challenges do we face from those who try to coopt and channel the movement into controllable territory? if we reject trying to save capitalism, what could a popular democracy based on equality look like?

Join Miami Autonomy & Solidarity to watch the film the Dignity of the Nobodies (la dignidad de los nadies) in spanish with subtitles about the Argentinian crisis and movements presented through a narrative of interviews with the protagonists of those movements from the bottom. We will have a discussion of the film and our moment in history afterwards.

DIRECTIONS:

From NORTH- Take 95 South towards Miami, exit at 62nd st MLK and head East towards miami beach. Turn south (right) on NE 2nd Ave, it will be on your left with murals of musicians across from the Walgreens.

From SOUTH- Take 95 North towards Miami to the 195 East towards Miami beach. Exit at Biscayne Blvd (Miami Ave is closed, so this is the first immediate exit) and head north (right). Turn left at ne 54th st, and make a right onto Ne 2nd ave, it is one block ahead (north) on your right hand side after Churchills.

Miami Taxi Drivers Struggle Against the Sun Pass

Tuesday Miami-Dade taxi drivers organized with New Vision Taxi Association picketed outside of Government Center, where the county commissioners were meeting. The taxi drivers are engaged in a campaign to stop the passage of a law giving the county power to ticket any driver who drive without a functioning Sun Pass in their car. The drivers are demanding that the Sun Pass, a private commodity, be optional rather than state mandated. The county has been ticketing drivers for years without ever having passed into law an ordinance that would given them the power to do so. The new initiative by county commissioners to pass such an ordinance has been delayed twice before amidst protests by cab drivers. Drivers argue that they are being discriminated against as no other drivers (such as limo or shuttle van drivers) are being targeted for the law. The proposed ordinance falls upon individuals rather than companies, which creates paradoxes. A driver who rents different vehicles daily is unable to obtain a Sun Pass for each vehicle, which requires registering your personal license plate, and therefore would be ticketed for the owner not having obtained a Sun Pass for the vehicle they rent. New Vision says that such tickets are common.

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.