[Mb-civic] New Orleans: Community and Resistance

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

  Community and Resistance
  
  by Jordan Flaherty
  
  November 23, 2005
  
  A couple months before New Orleans flooded, I remember walking through my
  neighborhood on a beautiful weekend afternoon and hearing music.
  
  I followed the sound a couple blocks, to where about thirty people, all of
  them Black, followed a few musicians through the streets.  They were
  mourning the death of a loved one, New Orleans-style. Most folks were
  wearing custom t-shirts with a picture of the deceased.  Next to the photo
  were the words "sunrise" along with the date of his birth, and "sunset,"
  above the date of his (recent) death - he was 20.  Also on the shirt were
  the words, "No More Drama."
  
  On the back, the shirts were individualized, with the relation of the
  wearer to the deceased.  One woman's shirt said "momma."  A few teenagers
  had shirts that said "cuz."  A small child's shirt said "daddy."
  
  Despite their loss, they were dancing through the streets.  When the band
  finished their final song, everyone danced their hearts out.  I don't know
  what else to say, except that's how we do it in New Orleans, and the image
  of those people mourning through celebration sticks with me as I see New
  Orleans today, struggling with so much loss and tragedy.
  
  Cornel West, who has visited New Orleans often, said shortly after the
  city was flooded, "New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the
  edge, with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for paradise. When
  you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live more intensely,
  sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong came out of
  that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the history of
  American civilization. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the
  tragicomic lyricism that gives you the courage to get through the darkest
  storm.  Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown his
  horn. The history of black people in America is one of unbelievable
  resilience in the face of crushing white supremacist powers."
  
  More than anywhere else in the US, New Orleans is a city where people live
  in one neighborhood their whole lives, where generations live in the same
  community.  According to a recent census, of all US cities, New Orleans
  ranked second in the percentage of its population born in the state, at 83
  percent. (Santa Ana, Calif., was first; Las Vegas last.)  54 percent of
  the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward had been in their homes for 10 years
  or more, far above the national average.
  
  All of this is to say that New Orleans is not just a tourist stop.  New
  Orleans is a unique culture, one that is resilient, and with a history of
  community and resistance. And, despite everything, resistance continues.
  
  The People's Hurricane Fund has been doing direct outreach and organizing
  in cities across the US for their People's Tribunal and March for Justice,
  scheduled for December 8-10 in Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans.  They
  have organized communication centers in Jackson and New Orleans with plans
  for centers in Houston, Baton Rouge and Atlanta.
  
  On a national level, organizations such as colorofchange.org have
  mobilized thousands of people to pressure politicians, and the
  Congressional Black Congress has worked to keep this issue alive, both
  through legislation, and through joining protests, as Georgia
  Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney did by showing up for a march from New
  Orleans to Gretna a few weeks ago.
  
  Meanwhile, just days after DC organizers announced plans for a protest at
  FEMA headquarters, FEMA officials announced that they were pushing back
  the date after which they would stop paying for hotels for Gulf Coast
  evacuees from December 1 to December 15.  Continued pressure from across
  the US caused them to move the date again, to January 7.
  
  Here in New Orleans, volunteers with the Common Ground Collective have set
  up neighborhood distribution centers with food and supplies, have served
  hundreds of people in their free health clinic, setup a media center
  complete with a community radio station, and embarked on a project to
  rehabilitate houses in the Ninth Ward.  This week, hundreds of volunteers
  have arrived to continue this work, most of them staying on mattresses on
  the floors of warehouses and houses, sometimes thirty or more to a room.
  
  Any convergence of hundreds of mostly young and white activists in a
  overwhelmingly Black community is bound to bring skepticism and
  controversy, and Common Ground has received criticisms from some local
  organizers. However, Common Ground in many ways represents a big step
  forward for the global justice movement.  Rather than coming in, leading a
  protest, and leaving, activists were invited by Malik Rahim, a longtime
  community organizer, and have followed through and done real work in
  communities. They have been true to their commitments, and have shown by
  example that people with a vision of radical change and social justice can
  put FEMA or Red Cross to shame.
  
  Finally, yesterday saw a major legal victory in the struggle for housing.
  
  According to the statement from the New Orleans Grassroots Legal Network,
  lawyers representing a range of organizations, "brought suit against the
  U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Orleans Parish, and Jefferson
  Parish on behalf of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, UNITE-HERE Local
  50-2, SEIU Local 21, ACORN New Orleans, and individual tenants being
  victimized by landlords post-Hurricane Katrina. Because of the immense
  pressure that has been placed on the government and the landlords by the
  people, Plaintiffs were able to achieve the following result from this
  lawsuit:
  
  (1) All evictions in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes are immediately stayed
  - meaning, all eviction proceedings in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes stop
  immediately against residents who are not in the area and whose
  whereabouts are unknown to landlords.
  
  (2) Under the judge's order, FEMA is required, upon request, to provide to
  the Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, current contact information for the
  tenants who landlords are seeking to evict. Upon this contact information
  being provided by FEMA, the Parishes have to provide written notice of
  eviction to the tenants at the tenants' most current addresses. Tenants
  then have at least 45 days from the date of the mailing of the notice
  respond to the eviction action.
  
  "This victory means that displaced people have an almost two-month
  reprieve from having to face loss of their personal property and their
  homes.  This victory also means that for the first time FEMA has finally
  agreed to provide information to protect survivors. This is huge.
  
  "But overall, this case is just another step that the Grassroots Legal
  Network has taken to bring recognition that people who have suffered the
  worst impact by the natural and government disaster of Hurricane Katrina
  have a right to return to their homes. This victory also provides an
  opportunity for political and social rights activists to organize with
  grassroots people to assert pressure on those in power to respect their
  humanity."
  
  All of this leaves me feeling, for the first time in a while, that all of
  this fighting really does mean something, and New Orleans lives on.
  
   =====================================
   Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine.
  This is his eleventh article from New Orleans. You can contact Jordan at
  NewOrleans at leftturn.org. Jordan's previous articles from New Orleans are
  at http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx
   =====================================
  
  Based on conversations with organizers and community members, Left Turn
  Magazine has compiled a list of grassroots New Orleans organizations
  focused on relief, recovery, social justice and cultural preservation that
  need your support. The list is online at
  http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=689&type=W
   =====================================
  
  Other Resources for information and action:
  
  Reconstruction Watch - http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/
  United Houma Nation - http://www.unitedhoumanation.org
  Saving Our Selves coalition - http://www.sosafterkatrina.org
  Miami Workers Center - http://www.theworkerscenter.org/
  Common Ground - http://www.commongroundrelief.org
  Peoples Hurricane Fund - http://www.communitylaborunited.net
  Resource for Journalists - http://www.katrinainfonet.net
  justice fro New Orleans - http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/
  New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team - http://www.no-heat.org/
  
  
  Great commentary and first-hand reports from New Orleans:
  
  Catherine Jones' Blog from New Orleans is at:
  http://floodlines.blogspot.com/
  Abram Himmelstein's Blog from New Orleans is at:
  http://blogs.chron.com/exile/
  Walidah Imarisha's blog from New Orleans (and elsewhere) is at:
  http://www.livejournal.com/users/badsis/
  
  
  This is a low-volume email list for Jordan Flaherty's emails from New
  Orleans.  To subscribe, email jordanhurricane-subscribe at lists.riseup.net.
  To unsubscribe, email jordanhurricane-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net.
  
  ***
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/opinion/24thu3.html?th&emc=th
  
  
  

		
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