Max Rameau
While Occupy Wall Street’s pivot towards foreclosures and eviction defense is recent, the Take Back the Land Movement has been working to keep families in their homes through “positive action” campaigns, first in Miami and then nationwide, since 2006.
As a co-founder of Take Back the Land, Max Rameau played an integral role in developing political theory, engineering campaign strategy, organizing communities and engaging in direct action. Modeled loosely after the sit-in campaigns of the Civil Rights movement, Take Back the Land conducts “live in” campaigns, including land “liberation” (breaking into vacant foreclosed homes in order to house families) and eviction defenses. These actions have resulted both in keeping families in their homes and in Max getting arrested.
In pursuit of the dual political objectives of the human right to housing and community control over land, Max has successfully fused radical political theory with pragmatic political action.
As a result of this groundbreaking work, Max has been featured in the Michael Moore movie, Capitalism: A Love Story as well as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Mother Jones Magazine, CNN, the Rachel Maddow Show, Democracy Now, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, Fox News and PBS' NOW program, among others.
Max has worked on a range of issues, including economic development, immigrant rights, particularly those of Haitian refugees, LGBTQ rights and police abuse. In 2008, he authored Take Back the Land: Land, Housing and the Umoja Village Shantytown, recounting the experiences and reveal the political theory behind the building of the Umoja Village in Miami, a book used in numerous colleges and universities across the country. He is currently working on his next book, set for publication by AK Press in October 2012.
Through the non-profit organization Movement Catalyst, Max is engaged in movement building, consults organizations in campaign strategy and development, and is actively working to resolve the most persistent movement question: “what if we win?” Movement Catalyst is developing theory around policy initiatives as well as “third way” institutions.
Max is a sought after speaker and workshop facilitator who works with community based organizations, nonprofits, and student groups on subjects including:
- Designing Positive Action/Civil Disobedience campaigns
- Organizing communities for Positive Action campaigns
- Campaign development & strategy
- Movement building
- The Third Way: land trusts and coops for the future
- Race, gender and movement building
Here's a recentl clip of Max appearing on Democracy Now! from November 2011:
