heresy writes:

"Advertising, treated as commercial speech and invested with First Amendment rights, enables giant private economic entities, in direct proportion to their command of resources, to shape national economic activity as well as national consciousness. The needs of individuals -– actual individuals –- hardly are congruent with the goals of billion-dollar companies.” –- Howard Schiller, Culture, Inc.

New York City’s public spaces are under seige by government collusion with private interests, in a business arrangement that would clearly undermine democratic principle and practice in the informational-cultural sphere.

nolympics submits:

"Extraordinary Times:

Dissent and the New Model of Homeland Defense"
J Pupovac, December 1, 2003

Miami is the land of opportunity for your typical South American drug king pin, the narcotics agent that spent years pursuing him and the flaming Cuban salsa instructor he had an affair with years ago. So why does a middle-class, white suburban activist chick have such a hard time getting along? Well, I'll tell you why. The activist is the only one who gives a damn about the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a hemispheric trade agreement that seeks to expand NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), a botched plan for trade "liberalization" that has had a devastating effect on the working class of Mexico, the US and Canada.

rob eshelman writes:

"Miami, Laboratory of Repression"
Writer’s Block

At Thursday’s direct action against the FTAA, we gathered in the ghost town of Miami city center. Some only partially awake at this early hour; sipped hot dark liquids while others danced to the sound of drums and protest chants. A group of steelworkers, not happy in only attending the ritualized AFL-CIO sponsored rally later in the day, were nervously grouped on the perimeter of the gathering. A smattering of public sector workers who hadn’t been given the day off in anticipation of violence and property damage looked on in curiosity, some popping off a few shots from their disposable cameras. This was the kick off to the day of direct action against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and it was shaping up to be a total disaster.

Rob Eshelman writes:

"The Capital of Violence and the Violence of Capital"
Writer’s Bloc

We’ve already won. The City of Miami, Department of Homeland Security, and an array of private dicks and corporate media boosters have successfully accomplished what the movement aims to achieve at each anti-capitalist convergence -- the total shutdown of the host city.

Because of this victory, the carnival has begun, and as the late afternoon sun arcs down into the West and a cool evening Caribbean breeze blows across Biscayne Bay onto the Florida mainland, 300 anti-globalization activists march on downtown Miami.