Tag Archives: food not bombs

Ft. Lauderdale homeless hate laws developments 

by Bailey Riley

Since mid-November, in Ft. Lauderdale, there have been multiple changes in approach and methods of action, both on the legislative end and in circles of those directly participating in the resistance against the homeless hate laws.

When the end of Jillian Pim’s second week of hunger strike was rolling around, over 700 people participated in a one-day solidarity fast, including some international folk. Subsequent to that, at least seven others joined her indefinitely. They all had the same goal in mind: starving themselves until the food sharing ban was either lifted or enforcement was ceased. 

Arnold Abbot, the 90-year-old chef from Love Thy Neighbor, who was the first cited for sharing food under the ban, brought a law suit against the city which resulted in a 30-day injunction against the ban beginning on the third of December.

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Ft. Lauderdale fights against homeless hate crimes

by Bailey Eva Riley

This year has been a busy one for the homeless of Southern Florida and their advocates; some of them even spending just about as much time at City Hall as the city commissioners themselves. Since the beginning of the year the city has made triumphant efforts to curb several basic human behaviors of houseless folk by deeming them illegal. As if the houseless have ever been granted any real representation or rights, now the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) of Ft. Lauderdale has outlined a plan to “establish, maintain and preserve aesthetic values and preserve and foster the development and display of attractiveness.” The DDA doesn’t seem to acknowledge the consequences of these laws, and in fact, it seems difficult for them to really comprehend how dehumanizing they are. These efforts make one think that the city of Ft. Lauderdale and the DDA have an inability to recognize the worth in anything beyond its material value.

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Workers’ Memorial Day and May Day 2012

BY ROBBIE CZOPEK

The Federation of Organized Trade and Labour Unions in 1884 proclaimed that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.” On May 1, 1886, in the U.S., 300,000 workers walked off their jobs from 13,000 businesses to demand the 8-hour workday. Most of the world’s workers celebrate May 1 as May Day or International Workers Day in remembrance of this. However, the U.S. government chose an arbitrary date in September to celebrate Labor Day in order to distance workers from the holiday’s significance.

The Gainesville Area General Membership Branch of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is working with many other local labor, progressive and radical groups to bring Gainesville a fantastic May Day Celebration. So far that list of groups includes the North Central Florida AFL-CIO, Gainesville International Socialist Organization, Gainesville Food Not Bombs, Alachua County Labor Party and Occupy Gainesville. As of the time of this article, we are still in the process of reaching out to many other local groups and hopefully your group has been contacted by now. If not, you can contact the the Gainesville May Day Planning Committee at gville.mayday.2012@gmail.com or stop by our weekly planning meetings, every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Sun Center behind Maudes. For more information, please go to gainesvillemayday.tumblr.com .

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