New Orleans, LA – Community members rallied in front of the closed Louis Armstrong School in the Lower Ninth Ward here, Nov. 10, to save the building from being sold by the Orleans Parish School Board. The event was organized by A Community Voice, a group of community members who want to see the Orleans Parish rebuild and invest in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Years after Hurricane Katrina, the Louis Armstrong School still sits vacant and barricaded on St. Claude Avenue. “We’ve been fighting for seven years now, and we’re not gonna give up on this fight!” said Vanessa Gueringer, a representative of A Community Voice. Signs on the school entrance demanded “Rebuild now,” “No bulldozing,” and “Not for Ssle.”

The New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD) was tasked with rebuilding schools. It promised $39 million to build a new high school in the Lower Ninth Ward. Years later, the proposed location for that school near Andry Street and Florida Avenue still sits vacant. Armstrong School is just one of many schools across New Orleans whose existence has been threatened by the RSD, which has sold many public schools and handed public education over to private charter institutions.

Outside Armstrong High School, community members handed out fliers reading, “The RSD has said they will not rebuild an elementary school in the Lower 9. Don’t our children deserve better?” Orleans Parish received well over a billion dollars of aid in the wake of Katrina, but community members in the Lower Ninth Ward say that money was not distributed, but spent on projects for the elite. “People come down here and take pictures but that doesn’t bring any money,” said neighborhood activist Loyed Lonzo.

“From what we’ve seen, the only way we can get them to do something is to protest,” said Vanessa Gueringer. Orleans Parish still has millions in aid and grants to rebuild, but it is spent predominantly in upper-class neighborhoods, on infrastructure for tourism and on projects for the upcoming 2013 Super Bowl.

“There has been disenfranchisement here for decades and we will never get representation if we don’t fight,” Gueringer said. “The city of New Orleans needs to be ashamed of itself for seeing all of those people devastated by the flooding and then take that FEMA money and not do anything for us.”

#NewOrleansLA #HurricaneKatrina #LowerNinthWard

Minneapolis, MN – Más de 50 personas protestaron aquí, frente al edificio del gobierno federal, el 15 de septiembre, para exigir justicia para las victimas del huracán Katrina. La protesta fue organizada por el Comité para el Derecho de Asistencia Pública.

En la protesta, Virginia Amy Weldon del Comité dijo, “Estamos aquí hoy para denunciar el gobierno de Bush y su intencionada traición a los pobres y los Afro-Americanos residentes de Nueva Orleans y la Costa del Golfo. La perdida de vida sin razón debido a la indiferencia despiadada de Bush nos da mucha rabia e indignación. Mientras la gente de Nueva Orleans, la gran mayoría pobre y negra, se ahogaba, se deshidrataba y moría de hambre pidiendo ayuda y evacuación, Bush siguió en su vacación y la gente incompetente de su administración en Washington no hizo nada tampoco.”

Tracy Furney, también del Comité para el Derecho de Asistencia Pública, postuló las siguientes demandas: que el gobierno satisfaga las necesidades de los sobrevivientes en cuanto a dinero, hogares, comida, ropa, medicina y otros recursos; que restauren y reconstruyan completamente los vecindarios de gente de bajo ingreso económico de la Costa del Golfo; que los residentes de bajo ingreso tengan derecho de regresar a sus vecindarios; reparaciones para los sobrevivientes de Katrina; un fín a la política racista y anti-pobre del gobierno de Bush; y que Bush y sus compinches tomen responsabilidad completa por las consecuencias de su premeditado fracaso y su traición a la gente de la Costa del Golfo.

Trishalla Bell, otro miembro del Comité, habló de sus experiencias en Houston, Texas con los evacuados de Nueva Orleans, donde ella paso tiempo haciendo reportajes para el periódico ¡Lucha y Resiste! Ella criticó fuertemente a las operaciones de ayuda que tildó como no adecuadas.

Las pancartas en la protesta dijeron, “Bush jugó, la gente se ahogó”, y “Katrina – una obra de la naturaleza, una falla del gobierno”, y también hicieron llamadas para las reparaciones. Muchas personas que pasaban en carro, a pie, en bicicleta y en bus tocaron sus bocinas y mostraron su apoyo cuando pasaron por la protesta.

El Comité para el Derecho de Asistencia Pública también colectó más de $600 para su organización gemela, el Comité para el Derecho de Asistencia Pública de Nueva Orleans. El director de dicha organización todavía no se le ha encontrado después del huracán.

#MinneapolisSanPabloMN #News #AfricanAmerican #HurricaneKatrina #WelfareRightsCoalition

Protesters marched through largely vacant neighborhoods destroyed by the hurricane and flood, chanting, “The projects united will never be defeated!” and carried banners demanding justice for Katrina survivors.

Speakers included community organizers who have been putting pressure on the local and state officials to do something about the housing and community demands. A coalition of lawyers has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the survivors and community. According to Bill Quigley, one of the lawyers who spoke at the rally, there are currently 90,000 families still in FEMA ‘refugee’ trailers. Thousands more have simply not been allowed to return home. “The right to return to homes is guaranteed by international law,” said Quigley. “Whether they rent or own their homes, they have a right to return!” he declared. “Give the people brooms, buckets and supplies – they will take care of themselves.”

Though some money has been allocated to the Louisiana state government to rebuild the coast, the hardest hit communities, predominately working-class and African-American, have seen little of these funds. Many residents believe this is not simply a matter of incompetence, but amounts to a deliberate attempt to ‘whitewash’ New Orleans.

Robert Richardson, a resident from the Lower Ninth Ward, held a sign which read, “Stop ethnic cleansing.” He is convinced the government is attempting to remove the African-American and poor people from New Orleans. Richardson has heard talk of the government’s plans to expand Bourbon Street, encroaching on nearby neighborhoods. Failure to have your house “gutted and boarded” by an August deadline will result in seizure and demolition of your property, meaning that thousands of New Orleans residents will lose their homes for good. “They’re trying to discourage us, weigh us down,” said Richardson. “But we’re going to survive this. We’re not going to walk away.”

Richardson is furious with the condition of his neighborhood and the criminally slow response of state and local authorities to rebuild New Orleans. “I still don’t have water or plumbing,” Richardson said, “My taxes are five times as much as they were last year. It’s unreal.”

The crowd’s demands consisted of public housing, the right of survivors to return home and for community and people’s control over relief efforts and funds to end the crisis in New Orleans. The African-American and working-class people of New Orleans, finding themselves ignored by state and local governments, want control of the reconstruction process and want to be in charge of rebuilding their communities so that residents can finally return. “This is a people’s struggle,” one speaker emotionally stated. “I’ll be dead sleeping in my grave before [they] tell me I can’t return to my home! Poor, middle class, whatever. We all have a right to return home.”

#NewOrleansLA #News #AfricanAmerican #HurricaneKatrina #NinthWard #SaintBernardHousingProject

A ‘giant’ depicting Bush in full battle gear was the favorite target of the protesters. Messages of solidarity and thanks from the U.S. anti-war movements were read to protesters, to loud applause. Among the speakers at the rally were Professor Lieven De Cauter (Brussells Tribunal), with an Open Letter to Bush; Pol De Vos (StopUSA); Carla Goffy (Christian Movement for Peace) and Katrien Demuynck (Iniciativa Cuba Socialista). Among the co-organizers of the rally was Vrede/Peace, while people from other third world solidarity, social and migrant organizations attended as well.

#BrusselsBelgium #Brussels #News #Europe #HurricaneKatrina #VredePeace

Fight Back! reporters and distributors are in Houston, Texas, so we can bring you front line accounts of the plight and fight of the tens of thousands of evacuees from New Orleans. From Bush on down, government officials are trying to defend their conduct. We will be sending out reports about what evacuees have to say about the relief operations.

As you know, there is nothing natural about the disaster experienced by the people of New Orleans and the South in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The rich and powerful who rule this country, along with government at all levels are responsible for the death and suffering of many thousands – most of whom are African American and low income.

In addition to reporting the facts, our Fight Back! team in Houston will be distributing copies of this newspaper along with a special editorial on the causes and impact of this ongoing disaster. We are offering free Fight Back! subscriptions to evacuees.

To sustain this project we need money. We urge you make a contribution today. You can send it via mail or go to our website and contribute online at http://www.fightbacknews.org/2005/01/contribute.htm

Together, we will expose those responsible for this catastrophe, and do what we can to build the fight for justice.

Sincerely,

Mick Kelly,

For the editors and staff of Fight Back!

Fight Back! Newspaper

P.O. Box 582564

Minneapolis , MN 55440  USA

#UnitedStates #Editorial #HurricaneKatrina #Houston #contributeToFightBack

Houston, TX – Requests for American Red Cross assistance surged beyond its capacity to deliver Sunday afternoon at the new St. Agnes Baptist Church for the second day in a row. The make-shift Red Cross center was opened Saturday in the heart of Houston’s African American community, eight miles away from the Astrodome and nearly an hour’s bus ride from downtown. As a red, black, and green Black Liberation flag waved overhead, aid volunteers passed out water and registration forms to those waiting outside.

Hurricane evacuees began lining up at 2:30 a.m. this morning. At its height, the line stretched for a mile through the church’s large parking lot into the street and down the block to Carter G. Woodson Middle School. The center processed approximately 3,000 people today. Aid checks were worth $1,500. In order to receive the monies, applicants were required to show valid identification from an evacuated region that matched their residence address and/or copies of utility bills, leases or other documentation.

Today’s Houston Chronicle headline referred to the red tape that evacuees have had to wade through for basic aid. For those who arrived too late, another day standing in line awaits them. Doors open 9:00 a.m., but volunteers are telling people to get there hours earlier.

#HoustonTX #News #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #RedCross

The Red Cross had chosen that location to hand out checks and debit cards with emergency funds up to $1500 for Katrina survivors. The people converging there had been chasing after the cards for days – from the Astrodome, to the George R Brown Convention Center, and now, to the far edge of Houston.

People who arrived saw thousands waiting outside the church. At some points, the barricades snaked the people towards the outer edge of the winding maze of fencing. When asked what time she arrived, one woman said, “4:30 this morning.” It was 11:00. She was about three quarters of the way to the door of the building. Everyone around her had come at the same time. Doors had opened at 9:00.

An elderly woman who was waiting in the shade of an ambulance while the rest of her family was in line said, “This is worse than being in a hurricane. It’s the worst time of everybody’s lives and everybody’s depressed. They don’t know what to do next – and then to have come over here and sit out here like this. They have ladies out here heavy pregnant, with one baby on their arm and a baby in their stomach. And they can’t hardly make it.”

Volunteers scurried about, hauling ice, handing out water, snacks and kind words. A few beleaguered nurses tried to assess how people were handling the heat. Some evacuees – a very few – were brought to wait in the shade of one of the many ambulances parked in the lot. Police officers were everywhere – on the road to the church, standing back watching the line, and clopping about on horses.

People in line, mostly Black, Chicano and Vietnamese, were resigned and exhausted – hoping this, finally would be the last line they would have to stand in for a while. Most were staying in private homes – packed in with relatives, already nervous about wearing out their welcomes – or in hotels or small shelters around the area. Most were eager to talk, to tell their stories and to express strong opinions about the fiasco that is passing for the U.S. government’s response to the disaster.

John Curtis and his partner Shirl and four children just arrived at a Houston hotel. They had a harrowing journey from Louisiana and were originally sent to Arkansas, where they tried and tried to reach the Red Cross and FEMA. They finally took a Greyhound to Houston, where they heard they could get services from those groups. Mr. Curtis said of his experience with the Red Cross and FEMA up to now: “Don’t beat around the bush and tell a person lies – just come out straight forward. Don’t tell me to call this number and that number and when I call you hang up on me.” He went on to say that he would rather be told they couldn’t help him for three weeks than to be lied to for three weeks.

People expressed cynicism over what the future would bring. They agreed that once the mainstream media got bored with the story, things could be even worse for them. They were happy to hear that there is growing movement to stand up for the rights and for reparations for evacuees.

#HoustonTX #News #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #debitCards #RedCross

The tribunal was convened to determine whether the U.S. government’s response – or lack of response – constituted a crime against humanity , to expose the gross violations of human rights experienced by Katrina survivors and to strengthen the movement to demand reparations and justice for these abuses.

“The aim of the tribunal is to show the whole world who is responsible for this situation in New Orleans,” said Edenice Santana de Jesus, chair of Black Women in Struggle and executive director of the CUT Trade Union Federation in Brazil. “It is necessary to show that we have a common enemy and that it is necessary to organize in unity, because the struggle in defense of the Black victims of Katrina is the struggle of all the Black people of the world.”

Over the course of five days, tribunal judges from seven different countries heard testimony from Katrina survivors. Witness after witness rose to testify to post-Katrina conditions and brought charges against the U.S. government ranging from the violations of labor rights to education rights. High school students from the Fire Youth Squad, a grassroots organization of young activists, spoke to the dismal conditions of their schools. “There’s no toilet paper in the bathrooms, no lockers, no buses,” one young woman said. “How are we supposed to concentrate on school when our minds are on the cold meals we had for lunch, or when it’s too hot because there is no air conditioning?”

Health care, already sub par for the uninsured, the majority of whom are African American, deteriorated even more after the hurricane. Charity Hospital, one of the largest facilitaties that treated the uninsured of New Orleans, was shut down; the medical centers that are available are understaffed and overcrowded. Despite the desperate need for medical assistance and aid, the U.S. government refused offers from both Venezuela and Cuba, which, a day after the hurricane struck, were prepared to send up to 1600 doctors, including psychologists to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Medical supplies the Italian government sent spoiled on docks.

“Health care delayed is health care denied,” said New Orleans resident Kim Stevens, expressing her indignation at being passed over in lieu of white patients and having to wait for over twelve hours to be treated.

Gentrification of the city is well under way, as more than half of the African-American residents have been dispersed and are denied the right to return.

Perhaps the most emotional and chilling testimony was that of the role of the military in the aftermath of Katrina. After the government-issued a ‘shoot to kill’ curfew, white vigilantes roamed the streets armed, given a free-hand to kill supposed ‘looters,’ according to Malik Rakim, executive director of Common Ground Collective and former member of the Black Panther Party.

The tribunal’s prosecution showed film clips of white residents of Algiers parish bragging that it was “like shooting pheasants in North Dakota.” These white vigilantes, as well as police, soldiers and private security contractors – which one judge compared to paramilitary death squads operating in Latin America – terrorized, harassed, threatened, beat and murdered African-Americans in New Orleans.

Over the course of several weeks, hundreds of bodies – all African-American – wound up in the streets and in the coroners office with gunshot wounds or other ‘unexplained’ injuries. “It was a military occupation, not a rescue,” said Rakim. “The Coast Guard was already here doing rescue operations. You can’t rescue a person with an M-16, heavily armed humvee, and attack helicopters. What they do in Fallujah in Iraq- that’s what they’d do here. They came to crush a rebellion, to impose ‘law and order,’ not offer relief.”

It has been two years since hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, and the tribunal’s participants say there has been little progress, and won’t be until the African-Americans of New Orleans are in full control of the recovery process. According to Kali Akuno, executive director of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition, who organized the event, “The International Tribunal is a critical step in the ongoing struggle for the right of return and a self-determining reconstruction process.”

The tribunal was an impressive show of international support and solidarity and participants from all over the world pledged to continue their support for Katrina survivors. “We in Africa are at your side in this struggle for justice, reparations, reconstruction and the right to return,” said Tiyani Lybon Mabasa, President of the Socialist Party of Azania (South Africa) and founding member of Black Consciousness Movement, addressing the participants. “Just as we need your help so that we can start to turn things around, so that we can forge our own solutions – something that is not possible as long as Black people are denied political sovereignty and self-determination wherever we may live.”

#NewOrleansLA #News #AfricanAmerican #HurricaneKatrina #InternationalTribunal

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 people demonstrated here at the Federal Building Sept. 15 to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The protest was organized by the Welfare Rights Committee.

Tracy Furney of the Welfare Rights Committee put out the following demands: that government address the Katrina survivors’ needs for money, housing, food, clothes, health care, medicine and other resources; that the low income neighborhoods of the Gulf Coast be completely restored and rebuilt; that the low-income residents have the choice to return to their former neighborhoods; reparations for the Katrina survivors; an end to the racist and anti-poor policies of the Bush government; and that Bush and his incompetent cronies be held completely accountable for the consequences of their failure and betrayal of the people in the Gulf Coast.

Trishalla Bell, another WRC member, told of her experiences in Houston, Texas among the evacuees from New Orleans, where she was reporting for Fight Back! She slammed the inadequate relief operations.

Protest signs read, “Bush clowned, people drowned,” and “Katrina – act of nature, failure of government,” along with calls for reparations. There were many honks and thumbs up signs from passing motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists and city bus drivers.

The Welfare Rights Committee also raised more than $600 at the protest, to be distributed by their sister organization, the New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization.

#MinneapolisMN #News #AfricanAmerican #HurricaneKatrina #BushClownedPeopleDrowned

Houston, TX – The fight for survival goes on in Houston. Families spent all day traveling miles back and forth across the city, looking for opportunities to register for aid that may or may not be there. Many picked up food, water, clothes and toys for their children; walking with awkward loads to wherever they are stuck sleeping for the night.

At the Astrodome/Reliant Center, the fury is spilling over and the repression is building. This morning, the number of police at the barricades was five times what is was yesterday. One outraged resident, Celesta Johnson, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, exploded, “They have us with bands on our wrists. They make you wear bands when you’re in prison.” She was outside the Astrodome with her friend Felicia Mudro, also of Jefferson, and Felicia’s daughter Curston. The women explained that if the children lost their wristbands, or if a person’s wristband appeared too large, the police would take the band and they would not be allowed back in to the Astrodome at all. “We saw a three-month old baby and her mom sleep out on the street because the baby lost his wristband.” There were many others sleeping out last night because of the curfew, according to the pair.

Many are outraged at what they have been seeing from the time they left New Orleans and are suspicious of what will happen to their city. According to Mark Hooktin, 33, staying in a hotel with his two and one-year old sons and fiancé, “Everyone should have been evacuated 50 hours, 60 hours or more before the hurricane come. I think that dam broke on purpose, that’s what I think. I think they wanted to clear New Orleans, and get all of the Black people from out there. I don’t think they want nobody to come back. But I am going back.”

Hootkins’s feelings about the future of the city were echoed by Roy Camry, a tenth-grade student at Mcdonogh Senior High in New Orleans, “It’s not going to be really for Black people. To tell you the truth, I think they’re going to make it all a big suburb.”

Ms. Mudro and Ms. Johnson also spoke of their harrowing trip out of Jefferson Parish and into Houston. Felicia Mudro recounted her experience; “They treated us like dogs, the military police. They wouldn’t give us water, wouldn’t give us food, passed us up for three days on the highway with our children. The whole world needs to know they are screwing us over.” Both women said they had no choice about coming to Houston. “We didn’t ask to come to Texas, they loaded us up and made us come here.”

A man who worked at Tulane University, who wandered with his wife and three children from Mississippi to Arkansas and then to Houston in search of help, said, “I’m from Bangladesh and there they do a damn good job [of disaster relief], but here…I was just joking that they should send them [FEMA] over there, to train them. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, and they do a better job.”

Today at the Astrodome, many people continued to arrive. FEMA showed up in force for the first time. FEMA agents, wearing dark blue uniforms were handing out flyers under signs that said, “No debit cards here today.”

For the past few days, people have been scrambling to get emergency debit cards worth $2,000 to meet buy necessities, move into apartments or leave town. Late yesterday afternoon, people were told to show up for their cards by 8:00 a.m. this morning. Last night it was announced around 9:00 p.m. that FEMA had cancelled the card program. FEMA spokesman Tom Costello was quoted in today’s Houston Chronicle: “We regret the late announcement.” FEMA said they ‘ran out’ of plastic needed to make the cards. Instead, FEMA will direct deposit money to those who have bank accounts or mail checks to those who have mailing addresses.

Besides lining up for hours a day at the Astrodome, people also lined up at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, to continue to chase after FEMA and other aid. One woman, who got sick of getting nowhere on the telephone said, “I called FEMA at 2:30 a.m. in the morning. I put the speaker on and said if she [the operator] came on, I’ll wake up. I did three families in one phone call. I said, ‘Baby don’t hang up cuz I got three families staying in this place and everybody lost everything.”

#HoustonTX #PoorPeoplesMovements #News #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #FEMA #Astrodome #debitCards

According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup/Red Cross poll, 39% of New Orleans families are still split up. People recently interviewed by Fight Back! casually mentioned children and grandchildren living in five different states. Parents with children in school are staying in whatever town they landed in after Katrina, at least through the end of the school year. Then a decision has to be made about uprooting again. According the poll, 15% of New Orleans respondents still don’t know where some of their relatives are.

Over 600,000 people were moved from shelters to hotels by mid-October. As of Oct. 14 over 15,000 people were still in shelters. The U.S. government then closed the shelters, sending people mostly to hotels. FEMA trailers are being set up in Louisiana and around the Gulf. Families have priority for trailers, but the waiting list is already months long – shutting out many families and virtually all singles. Being forced to live in a hotel room is not a vacation. Every aspect of living becomes a logistical hurdle: eating, laundry and basic privacy.

Hundreds of thousands lost their jobs. People who have worked all their lives are stalled. Many of us have experienced the agony of weeks of job search, knowing the jobs aren’t really there. Add to that having to struggle daily for the basics of hygiene, food, housing and transportation and your chances are grimmer. Over 363,000 people filed for hurricane related unemployment – but many are discouraged about even doing that, since its just another snarl of red tape to be navigated.

The federal Opportunity Zones for ‘rebuilding’ the Gulf offer pathetic wages and overturn affirmative action hiring – ironic when one considers 75% of New Orleans residents are non-white. This opens the specter of white-owned companies hiring oppressed nationality people at less than prevailing wage (less than $7 per hour, in New Orleans) to demolish homes of poor Blacks and Latinos to replace those homes with mansions for the rich.

For homeowners, the struggle with insurance companies has begun. For those who are uninsured, ‘underinsured’ – a term that will come as a surprise to many – or who get swindled by greedy insurance companies, rebuilding will be difficult or impossible. Many are being forced, out of sheer financial desperation, to put their family property up for quick sale. Real estate speculators are already circling like vultures to cash in on people’s tragedy.

The most devastated part of New Orleans is the Ninth Ward, which was submerged under floodwaters from Bush’s broken levies. Many residents are trying to come back, after dealing with the continued nightmare of a FEMA and government failure. But it seems like the government is determined to shut out Ninth Ward residents. Bush’s Housing and Urban and Development secretary, Alphonso Jackson, was quoted in the the Houston Chronicle, Sept. 29, “New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.” The Chronicle said that HUD Secretary Jackson wasn’t sure if the Ninth Ward should be rebuilt at all. 20,000 people are from the Ninth Ward, almost all of them Black and low-income.

On Sept. 27, Bush gave a fancy speech and moved on. The speech and smirking ‘apology’ were designed to lull us into thinking things were OK, but the Katrina evacuees outside the Reliant Center/Astrodome said, “Too little, too late.” The lives of thousands of displaced New Orleans residents were destroyed because of Bush’s deliberate decision to not fund basic maintenance on the levies, followed by his callous disregard for human life.

Over half of homes in New Orleans (which is 67% Black) were rented. Low wages, even for skilled workers, combined with national oppression have made renting a fact of life. A poll conducted in early October said 60% of folks plan to return to New Orleans. It stands to reason many are people who rented. On Oct. 25, many renters were officially evicted. It is essential that repatriation efforts include not just the construction of affordable rental housing and more subsidized housing – but homes to all former renters who want them. Bush’s call relies on private charities – and we know from bitter experience that charities pick, choose and discriminate. Poor people and Black people in New Orleans deserve reparations from the U.S. – a government that killed hundreds of New Orleans people. Housing should be given to all former residents who want it, no questions asked.

These disasters spawned by Katrina and Bush will continue every day. When the government keeps your life turned upside down, it is a hurdle to demanding the justice you deserve. That is why it is crucial for everyone all over the country to keep up the struggle for justice for Katrina survivors – read between the lines of what the mainstream media puts out and think about the people’s lives behind the government sound bites. It is up to us to keep the truth front and center.

The events following Hurricane Katrina show some basic truths about this country: The government and the economic system – monopoly capitalism – serves the very rich and no one else. African Americans face a system of racism and national oppression that robs Black people of equality, land, democratic rights and political power. The shadow of the plantations still hangs over the Gulf region. Black people in the South need political power, liberation and the right to self-determination. A system that lets people die on freeway overpasses has forfeited its right to exist.

#UnitedStates #PoorPeoplesMovements #Analysis #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #FEMA #OpportunityZones #monopolyCapitalism

Houston, Texas – Hundreds more New Orleaneans came to the Astrodome today seeking help. Yet many were turned away at the security gate and given nothing. The people who left New Orleans before Katrina landed are very aware that without federal government aid, they will not be able to survive much longer.

Heather Pierre, a mother of a two-year old boy talked about being turned away from FEMA help for not having a wristband: “They're telling us to come to the Astrodome to see about FEMA funds, and when we get there they're turning you around at the gate because you don't have a wristband on your wrist. People have been standing here since 5:00 this morning and we haven't been getting any help. I haven't been able to find a job – I don't have any income at all. And if I don't get this help from FEMA, I'm going to be stuck out, just like everybody else. It's a no-win situation out here.”

Of the 1,000,000 people who fled New Orleans before Katrina, several hundred thousand are believed to be living in Houston, Texas. Most people have managed to find friends, family, strangers and hotels to take shelter. But as the draining of their city continues, most are now facing a confusing bureaucracy that drains them financially and emotionally as well.

FEMA? What FEMA!

Thousands of people walked to the Astrodome main entrance. Some were warned by those leaving that they would not be allowed to enter because they were not wearing a wristband.

FEMA cards worth $2,000 in cash value were supposed to be given out to Astrodome residents. Some cards malfunctioned and had no money. Stores next to the Astrodome (Target, Fiesta Mart, Big Lots, Payless Shoes and others) were racking up strong sales throughout the day with clothing, shoes, suitcases and hot, cooked food being the most popular items.

People from New Orleans, outside the Astrodome in Houston.

For non-Astrodome residents to get FEMA cards, you need to go to Social Security to register even if you have already received your FEMA number from their website and then must return to get processed. Today processing of new cards stopped by 2 p.m. because there were too many people. The FEMA phone number had a recorded message, “Because of the high volume of calls for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, all representatives are busy. Your call will now be disconnected.”

“Bush really needs to open his eyes and see what's really going on and get off his high horse and help us. There's too many people walking around here with the clothes on their back,” Thomas said.

The real-feel temperature reached 95 degrees. Taking shade under trees at the intersection of the Astrodome entrance and Kirby Street was a temporary rest for two African American boys who only wanted to attend school. Ninety-nine percent of the people coming to the Astrodome are African American. From yesterday to today, the police and store security guards have become a visible presence watching over the people here.

The government brags about getting folks out of the Astrodome in Houston. However, as the thousands turned away today can speak to, once they are out, all help is gone. Proud families are forced to wander from place to place in search of the basics of food, clothing and shelter. This is the government's version of 'success.' But the people outside the Astrodome today were not fooled. The anger of the mothers, fathers and children was unmistakable.

#HoustonTX #News #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #NewOrleans #FEMA #NewOrleaneans #Astrodome #HeatherPierre

The following is a special editorial from Fight Back! that's being distributed as a leaflet among the evacuees in Houston, Texas.

We demand justice for the people in Houston and others scattered across the South by Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the power of nature and the weakness of U.S. society. Not all of the disaster is natural – much of it is manmade and preventable. In fact, it is an unnatural disaster.

For poor folks, for Black folks, there was no evacuation plan. Those who could not evacuate could only turn to each other and hold on for dear life, hoping for the best. But what we have gotten all along is the worst. While FEMA claims it ‘could not reach the Superdome,’ CNN was able to broadcast from the scene. Two days after Katrina passed, FEMA turned away three semi trucks of water! All this while mothers watched their babies die of dehydration. Those of us watching on TV wept and raged at the disaster unfolding before our eyes.

The survivors of Hurricane Katrina are the victims of a careless and hard-hearted government. More than that, Bush, in the face of an extreme emergency, did nothing and acted with blatant disregard for working-class people, mostly African-American. Bush’s failure to respond is criminal. President Bush and his administration must be held accountable. While Bush stayed warm and dry on his vacation, New Orleans’ people were left to tread water, drown and die by the thousands.

At the Superdome, there was no relief plan and there was no emergency response. The people of New Orleans remained calm and determined to survive the worst disaster in U.S. history, while Bush hesitated and delayed. The death toll from this disaster promises to be three times that of the events of 9-11. George Bush and his administration are responsible.

Some say, “This is not the time for blame.” But there is plenty of blame to go around. The failure is not just one of Democrats or Republicans — the burden has to fall on the people with the resources to take care of business, and that is the Bush administration. Now, over a week later, Army paratroopers in inflatable boats are still rescuing the stranded. The facts are clear: The response was too little and too late because the rich who run the U.S. system, the millionaires and billionaires who profit from the system, do not care about poor, working-class people, especially if they are African-American or non-white.

It has long been known that a disaster of this magnitude was possible. Congress refused to spend money to protect the low-lying and poorest parts of the city. This is not “a mistake.” It’s a crime. The racist attitude of FEMA has not changed, even with all the outrage. On Sept. 7 there was a report from Bogalusa which showed guards with pallets of water at the airport. You could have some if you get there, but not a single bottle was delivered to ‘the other side of the tracks.’

We demand that the government do whatever it takes to provide meaningful aid to the victims of this crisis – now! The priority must be placed on those who have the greatest needs. We must turn our collective grief into a storm of anger. Help is needed. And so is justice.

We also demand that:

• Bush be held accountable.
• We need real and immediate relief that allows us to live with dignity. The includes decent housing until we can return to our homes.
• We want respectful treatment from government at all levels.
• We demand that our housing be repaired or we that we get new homes and apartments – before one cent of assistance is given to any big corporation.
• Our property needs to be protected. Government should not use condemnation or eminent domain to steal our land.

#UnitedStates #StPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #Editorial #Editorials #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #Houston #disaster #unnaturalDisaster #FEMA #Superdome #Bogalusa #BushBeHeldAccountable

Statement by Freedom Road Socialist Organization

We express great sadness and extend our solidarity to all who have lost loved ones and their homes in the great disaster that has struck the South and New Orleans in particular. Bodies are floating in the water. Rooftops and bridges are crowded with those who have received no assistance whatsoever. No water. No food. Nothing.

While the rich were able to flee in their custom SUVs and get on planes to faraway second homes, the low income, working class and especially Black people suffered the brunt of the hurricane’s devastation.

Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the power of nature and the weakness of U.S. society. Not all of the disaster is natural; much of it is manmade and preventable. In fact, it is an unnatural disaster. Why do we say this? For poor African Americans there was no evacuation plan. None, period. Those who could not evacuate could only turn to each other and hold on for dear life. Not the city, nor the parish, nor the state had a plan for evacuation. Consider this fact: The authorities knew that in the event of a serious hurricane, a disaster of this magnitude was possible. Congress refused to spend money to protect the low-lying and poorest parts of the city. This is not ‘a mistake.’ It’s a crime.

Bush was warm and dry in Texas – on vacation. At his press conference following the hurricane, he had a stupid smirk on his face and preached “patience.”

Though the powerful storm was tracked and announced on every news station – every hour on the hour for days – and the region had experienced being smashed by big hurricanes in the past, government and politicians let this catastrophe happen and are now allowing the situation to get worse. The reason: Low-income Black people do not matter to them. Not to Bush, not to the Republican party, not to rich white people. Black people’s lives are not worth a thing to them. Poor people are expendable and their homes and livelihoods are unimportant to those who rule the land. Remember, this is the South and Black people are an oppressed nation in this part of the U.S. Black people’s oppression is not just history, it is now. The outrage is building across the country.

The authorities don’t care about those who need help – but let thirsty, starving, half-drowned people take from the shelves of stores sinking under water, and the police, the National Guard, the army and marines are called in to ‘keep order.’ Search and rescue operations were curtailed.

Bush and the handful of rich billionaires and multi-millionaires who rule the U.S. empire will send an army halfway around the world to occupy a country for its oil, but won’t mobilize the resources needed by the people of New Orleans and surrounding coastlines. Heaven and earth should be moved to stop this deepening disaster. Instead the politicians and the rich watch and wait. Allowing low-income African American people and others to suffer and die.

The current government-sponsored ‘rescue and relief’ operations are worse than inadequate. And those responsible need to be held accountable. We demand that the government do whatever it takes to provide meaningful aid to the victims of this crisis. Now. The priority must be placed on those who have the greatest needs. We must turn our collective grief into a storm of anger. Help is needed. And so is justice.

#UnitedStates #Editorial #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HurricaneKatrina #greatDisaster #NewOrleans #PeopleAreDying #poorAfricanAmericans #AfricanAmericans #rescueAndRelief