While we will cover the surface issues of gentrification and low-income housing, the crux of our presentation is about what we consider the root/fundamental issue: control over land and land struggles in the US.

Take Back the Land and the Umoja Village Shantytown are engaged in a real land struggle right in the continental US. We will discuss the origins of the concept and action as well as a description of daily life at the Umoja Village. In addition, we will propose land struggle as the future of progressive political work in the US. The subject is no longer the exclusive domain of the 'Third World,' particularly as corporate globalization bring the US closer to academic definitions of 'Third World' conditions, especially in terms of the super rich, super poor and lack of middle classes.

USSF Crosscutting themes: 1. We are offering a broader and more comprehensive framework to the the burning issue of gentrification, where the surface issue is gentrification, but the root or fundamental issue is land and land control, engaging a broader audience and deeper understanding of what is really at stake. 2. We have identified what we believe is the historical lineage of taking control of land and building a new society, as well as made connections between our actions here and the actions of social movements across the world. We will share those contributions. 3. Our third and highest political objective is "to build a new society." We are actually engaged in building a new society with the outcasts of the existing one.

Participant engagement: We have severla interactive portions of our presentation, including skits, and audience driven exploration of issues.

Language: English.

Interpretation: We have no staff and recieve no funding outside of individual donations, which are enough to feed and house our residents. As such, we do not have and cannot afford such equipment. However, we are willing to work with other organizations who can share their equipment with us.

Handouts: We will provide handouts. We will provide handouts in Spanish, however, it will likely be translated via software (we are working on translation donations).

Challenge: We face two primary challenges: first, fighting off attempts by the state to forcibly evict us from what they erroniously believe is their land; and second, maintaining the overtly political nature of our mission with no staff and no funding.

Alternatives: We propose that adversarial land take over is the wave of the future in dealing with land use crisis in the US.

Strategies: We have implemented ours due to a legal settlement unique to Miami. We are exploring strategies for other locations, including requests from Philadelphia, North Carolina and a few other locations.

Needs: We need a projector to share pictures and video from a laptop, as well as sound for the same.