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