Voice of Revolution

Fighting for the Right to Be

As repeated actions continue to defend the rights of immigrants and all workers, and to defend the rights of Katrina survivors, the fight for the very right to be is coming to the fore. The government effort to criminalize undocumented workers simply for being in the country is a direct assault on their right to be as human beings. Similarly, the government assault on Katrina survivors, removing them from their homes, ripping apart families, exiling them outside New Orleans and even Louisiana while providing no means to return and rebuild, also is an assault on their right to be. Indeed it is an assault on the right of New Orleans - as a city of resistance - to be.

The very heart and soul of the city, nurtured by the resistance of African Americans, by Filipinos and Vietnamese, by Acadians, by Irish, by the workers of many nationalities is under attack. The same can be said of the assault on immigrant workers, from many nationalities, whose families are also being forced apart and whose very existence in the country is under fire. People are being criminalized simply for existing, and those who help them exist are also being criminalized.

Current proposals being debated in Congress go after those born in the country as well. There are plans to eliminate the long-standing practice of automatic citizenship for everyone born in the country. The proposals begin by denying citizenship to the children of immigrants born in the country. But there is nothing to prevent the government from then going further. Given the current widespread profiling and detentions and building of more detention camps, one can easily see the government denying anyone it brands as a "national security threat," or providing "material support to terrorists" or simply refusing to accept the government values of "liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others, and the English language."

The attack on citizenship, as part of the attack on the right to be, is a reflection of the utter failure of the U.S. state to uphold its social responsibilities to society and all of its members. Fundamental arrangements between the government and all civilians are being wrecked. This can be seen directly in the failure to provide for Katrina survivors and the continued assault on their rights now, including the right to vote. It can be seen in the criminalization of whole sections of the population, like Arabs and all immigrants more broadly, simply for existing. It can be seen in the broad impunity of government to detain, deport or imprison thousands of people without charges.

The various plans now for special -identification for immigrants and all workers is yet one more means to exile and exclude those who do not meet the identification requirements, or who simply are black-listed for whatever reason by government or employers. The overall picture is one of a civil death - where standards and rights as a member of society are denied. This also means the government denies any responsibility to meet those standards and rights and instead acts with unrestrained impunity.

The failure of the U.S. state is fundamental. It cannot be repaired. The pieces cannot be put together again. On the contrary, the failure is necessarily giving rise and impetus to the new, to the people empowering themselves to govern and decide. This can be seen in the battle for New Orleans, where survivors and people across the country are standing as one to bring to life their vision, which includes housing and healthcare for all, a political life that includes and encourages all. It can be seen in the massive actions by immigrants demanding justice for all workers, demanding that those who produce also decide.

The defense of the right to be by the workers, by the youth and national minorities, is gaining strength against the broad reaction of the U.S. state. These battles are bringing forward the new, something welcomed and nurtured by all humanity as it advances its fight to be.

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Government Refuses Satellite Voting for New Orleans

Demonstrators Demand Voting Rights

Thousands of protestors marched in New Orleans April 1, demanding their voter rights and rejecting government efforts to keep Katrina survivors from voting. Primary elections for mayor, City Council and other local offices are scheduled for April 22. The large majority of New Orleans voters, an estimated 250,000, largely African Americans, still remain exiled in 44 states across the country. Many are in Houston, others in Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco and elsewhere.

A main demand of survivors is for the government to provide satellite voting in the areas where survivors are located. It is well known that the federal government has a nationwide system of satellite voting, as it has been used for various elections, such as those for Iraq and Afghanistan. They refuse to provide it for the people of New Orleans.

In a situation where mail going in or out of New Orleans still takes weeks, and where the government addresses of survivors is likely to be highly inaccurate, mail-in ballots are the main form of voting being imposed. As well, a two-step process was imposed where an application for the ballot first is sent and then only on receiving the application is the mail-in ballot itself sent. All ballots then have to be mailed and received by the time of the April 22 election. The entire set-up is guaranteed to disenfranchise the large majority of New Orleans voters.

The refusal by the government to ensure the right to vote has been evident from the beginning. Initially, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refused to provide a list of addresses for people from New Orleans scattered nationwide. Louisiana was forced to file suit before FEMA handed the list over to state officials. The list itself is likely incomplete as it only includes those who have registered with FEMA, which was necessary to secure any assistance. While this is likely the majority of people, it is not everyone.

It should also be remembered that at the time of the government-organized disaster in the aftermath of Katrina, families were forcibly torn apart, children were separated from parents, husbands from wives, grandmothers from their children and grandchildren. Family members were not told where they were being sent and many were sent in opposite directions and then forced into concentration camps. It was not uncommon for survivors to say the action echoed the days of slavery, when families were separated, sold and sent in different directions.

Since that time, some people have been forced to move more than a dozen times, including evictions in March of thousands of people staying in hotels. More than one thousand people are still missing and unaccounted for. So the reliability and completeness of the addresses FEMA provided is in great doubt.

In addition, the Louisiana Secretary of State, the executive responsible for elections in the state, is refusing to make the voter roles public, which is the norm. So the 22 candidates running for mayor, for example, have no means to present themselves or their programs to the majority of voters. As with the satellite voting, there are mechanisms to overcome this problem, such as all-candidates video conferencing meetings. It is also the case that absent the voter roles, including the number of registered voters, the only one in a position to decide the accuracy, or fraud of the elections, will be the secretary of state. Given the wholesale disenfranchisement conducted by secretaries of state in the elections in 2000 and 2004, including excluding legitimate voters from the roles, many expect even those who try to vote will be disenfranchised as well.

The one measure the state and federal government did take was allowing for early voting at several sites in the state. Many survivors are driving the seven or more hours in from Houston and Atlanta, to vote. Activists are also organizing bus caravans from about 300 cities across Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas, so that more people can vote.

As speakers at the march brought out, significant precedents are being set with the New Orleans election that could impact elections nationwide. Keeping the voter roles private and exclusively in the hands of federal policing agencies like Homeland Security and the state secretary of state, excluding voters or limiting them to mail-in ballots in the name of an emergency, restricting voter locations, are all mechanisms that could be imposed elsewhere. All serve to further disenfranchise people and make voting even more subject to the arbitrary actions and impunity of government executives.

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New Orleans School Clean Up Begins!

- Kerul Dyer, Common Ground Volunteer -

In a vital act of solidarity, around 85 students and organizers from across the country risked arrest by entering Martin Luther King Elementary School in the devastated Lower 9th Ward. Outside the school, a crowd of around 300 gathered wearing Tyvek suits and respirators, holding hand painted signs and chanting to oncoming traffic. In an ongoing effort to rebuild New Orleans, residents of the Lower Ninth Ward requested that these supporters clean the school out.

Of the 117 public schools operational before Hurricane Katrina hit, only 20 are open. No plans exist to open schools in the Ninth Ward, giving residents no opportunity to rebuild their community.

Yvonne Wise, who is a leader in the Residents of the Lower Ninth Ward Community Council, addressed a crowded press conference before the young people entered the school. "We appreciate the students coming out and supporting our effort to open this school, we want our schools open." Without schools open, families who own homes in this neighborhood cannot return to rebuild their homes or their lives. Facing government inaction and reflecting the stand of the people across New Orleans, Wise said that if the government cannot get the schools open, residents must take things into their own hands.

Among the supporters present was a member of the School Board, Reverend Torin Sanders, of District 7. He said, "This is another way to keep the people from returning to the Lower 9th." He emphasized, "Everyone has the right to return."

After raking the leaves and debris littering the entrance to the school, the crowd of volunteers pounded their tools on the pavement, as police observed from across the street. The students made their way into the building and began sweeping and scooping piles of mud and debris from the lobby, carefully avoiding personal effects and sensitive items, such as plaques and framed pictures that had fallen from the walls in the storm.

About a half an hour into the demonstration, 150 Howard University students, a mainly African American university known for its long-standing political organizing efforts in the DC area, joined the crowd. The students echoed the chant with residents, "No, Child, Left Behind!" ridiculing the claim of the education act with the same name.

Common Ground Collective has hosted more than 2000 students during the Second Freedom Rides Alternative Spring Break this March and April. Students have been responsible for gutting more than 100 homes in the last 10 days. Common Ground, founded on September 5, 2005, by Malik Rahim and others who remained in New Orleans, operates five distribution centers, three primary care clinics, a bioremediation and garden project, a biodiesel processing facility, a legal committee defending the rights of New Armenians, a tool lending library, a women's shelter and Kids and Community Education Project.

Common Ground works closely with residents advocating for their needs with the simple motto of "Solidarity, not Charity."

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National Radio Broadcast, April 15

Katrina Survivors Unite for Voting Rights

- Operation Gulf Coast -

Operation Gulf Coast, a national relief effort of community and faith-based organizations, labor unions and the Pacifica Radio network, will broadcast a community dialogue from New Orleans on Saturday, April 15, from 3:00pm - 6:00pm (central time). Rev. Marjani Dele, pastor of Exodus Ministries, explains, "Our Gulf Coast Mainline dialogues focus on the needs of survivors and their families. Evacuees keep calling for a healing process and self-determination." Producer Rob Robinson adds, "Voters who were abandoned find it hard to believe mayoral candidates who promise government, business, and the media will now come to their rescue." Municipal elections are scheduled for April 22. Runoff elections will occur May 20.

Listeners may access this broadcast on the worldwide web at: www.pacifica.org. The broadcast will also feature a national 800-number enabling survivors throughout the nation to call-in messages to family and friends and raise concerns about the need for information in protecting their rights of return. Broadcasts are made possible with the support of the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ.

As governments continue sending mixed signals to residents about their property rights, voting rights, and their prospects of returning to their homes, jobs or good health, the mood at the grass roots is volatile. "My property in the Ninth Ward is destroyed. The power and phones and water are still off. I can't get a trailer. I can't get straight answers out of my insurance company, the Small Business Administration, or FEMA," says lifelong New Orleans resident, Celine Narcisse. "If the city seizes my property, they'll never pay me enough to buy a home. I'd vote for a candidate for mayor who'll take a stand for people like me - if I saw one."

The broadcast will facilitate dialogue among Gulf Coast based advocates such as REACH 2010: At the Heart of New Orleans; Common Ground, ACORN, All Churches Together; activists with New Orleans neighborhood associations; environmental justice groups; labor voices will include the United Teachers of New Orleans and the Communications Workers of America.

The public is cordially invited to participate in this dialogue. It will be held at the Ashe Cultural and Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pacifica stations KPFA (FM 94.1) in Berkeley, KPFK (FM 90.7) in Los Angeles, WBAI (FM 99.5), in New York City, KPFT(FM 90.1) in Houston, and WPFW (FM 89.3) in Washington, DC will air the broadcast live. Gulf Coast Mainline is looking for other broadcasters interested in airing our community dialogues.

ONTACT: Global Exchange Rev. Marjani Dele: 985-228-1018, revmarjani@operationgulfcoast.net Rob Robinson: 985-228-1226, robrobin@operationgulfcoast.net (http://www.operationgulfcoast.net).

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Steelworkers and Environmentalists Take Action on Toxic Soil

More than seven months after Katrina, the government--organized disaster continues. Many parts of New Orleans remain without gas for heating and cooking, much of the 9th Ward is still without electricity and water, debris still fills many streets and the bodies of people left to die by the government are still being found - by their families. The lack of housing and schools, which are the responsibility of government at all levels, remain major blocks to the return of the majority of survivors. The levees are still under construction and not expected to be ready at the needed strength for the start of the hurricane season. In the face of this disaster, it is the people themselves, organizing and building up their collectives and joint actions that are solving problems.

At the end of March, for example, the United Steelworkers (USW) union and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice teamed up to address one of New Orleans' important health and environmental problems: toxic soil. Currently, yards throughout New Orleans are contaminated with deadly heavy metals such as arsenic - some samples of which were 40 times greater than the permitted level - making it unsafe for residents to return to their homes.

"There are no acceptable levels of contamination for the thousands of hurricane victims now living in what resembles a sludge pit - no matter what state and federal environmental officials say," said Gary Beevers, Director of USW District 13, which encompasses Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. "The government was doing next to nothing to remedy these hazards, so the Steelworkers felt like we had to step in and take some action."

The Steelworker volunteers bring an uncommon expertise to the "Safe Way Back Home" initiative. Their members work in the most dangerous industries of any union - including oil refineries, chemical plants, and rubber factories - and they have been trained to work in toxic environments. USW's joint work with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice is an effort to bring the strength of both into the work to tackle the environmental problems facing survivors.

In addition to the problems in New Orleans, the area east of New Orleans also has toxic soil, as a result of a major oil spill from a Murphy's Oil storage tank. Thirty percent of samples from the area have high levels of arsenic and diesel contamination. The government agencies responsible at the federal and state level are not taking action, so residents are organizing to clean up the areas and protect themselves.

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Katrina's Aftermath Transforms Work in the Gulf Region

- Mark Brenner Labor Notes -

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast struggles with a new challenge - who will do the rebuilding? The region is awash in clean-up and reconstruction projects, but with more than 1.5 million people displaced by the hurricane, ready hands are in short supply.

In many areas, the tight post-Katrina labor market has already had stunning effects - construction jobs regularly advertise starting pay of $15 an hour or more, and a gig at Burger King might land you a $6,000 bonus. But even with tight labor markets, workers in the region are finding conditions, and organizing against those conditions, challenging.

Under the Gun

The hurricane has created enormous problems for the Gulf Coast's union workers. Waste Management Inc. - one of the largest waste services companies in the United States - is one such example. The company handled trash pickups for the City of New Orleans before Katrina.

But after the storm, FEMA took over garbage collection for the city and Waste Management secured several lucrative subcontracts for debris removal. In the process, the company dumped its unionized workers and replaced them with temps. Waste Management even set up a camp just north of the Huey Long Bridge for its temp laborers.

Similar problems have emerged for bus drivers in New Orleans, where service remains at less than 20 percent of what it was before the hurricane and at least 500 employees are expected to be permanently laid off.

"We've got so many issues down here," remarked Mike Parker, a 13-year streetcar operator and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1560 member who has been driving a bus since he returned home. "Since FEMA is paying the bill the company says we're emergency workers. We've got no seniority, and whenever it benefits them the company says we have to follow their policy. But when it benefits the operators against the company, then they say FEMA controls it and they hold up their hands like they can't do anything."

Meanwhile shipyard workers in Avondale, Louisiana and Pascagoula, Mississippi have been pressured by Northrop Grumman to re-open their contracts, not due to expire until 2007.

Although the Pascagoula workers refused to reopen, Avondale workers agreed, hoping to close the wage and benefit gaps that exist between the two sites. Pascagoula shipyard workers currently earn more, largely because Avondale was organized more recently, after a bitter struggle with shipyard owners.

Avondale workers voted four to one February 7 against a proposal that would have shifted health care costs to members, substituted bonuses for increases in base pay, and extended the life of the agreement by several years.

Migrant Workers Suffer

Conditions across the Gulf Coast have also prompted an unprecedented influx of Latino workers into the region. This largely immigrant workforce has frequently been shortchanged by the tangled web of contracting and subcontracting that emerged in the cleanup effort.

"It's really survival of the fittest out there - the raging, unregulated free market," noted Bill Quigley, lawyer with the New Orleans-based Loyola Law School Legal Clinic. "Since the hurricane we've really seen a meltdown of wage and hour laws, OSHA laws, and practically every other standard that exists for work in this country."

Quigley's colleague Luz Molina has been involved in several lawsuits trying to reclaim unpaid wages and help workers injured on the job. She agreed with Quigley's assessment. "It's a feeding frenzy. The money is going to the big corporations and not to the workers. There is no quality control and no oversight of who they are contracting with."

With more than 30,000 Latino workers flocking to the Gulf Coast after the hurricane, tensions with local residents have been running high.

"Certainly, people are upset because the money that is being spent on housing out-of-state workers could be used for rebuilding housing and housing local folks who want to return to the area and work," commented Stephen Bradberry, the head organizer for New Orleans Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

"But there is no side of this 'blame game' that benefits the local worker being locked out of the job," continued Bradberry, "or the undocumented worker getting mistreated, all for the sake of these contractors putting a few more dollars in their pocket."

Disaster Profiteering

Indeed, employers on all sides of the rebuilding efforts are doing all they can to line their pockets. Northrop Grumman's demands for concessions, for example, have nothing to do with offsetting the cost of post-Katrina rebuilding. Although Grumman estimates damage to its Gulf Coast facilities in excess of $1 billion, the company stands to receive more than $2 billion of FEMA relief under President Bush's plan.

In October Bush asked Congress to redirect $17 billion in FEMA funds to other federal agencies to assist in disaster recovery. With its slice of that money, the Navy has already promised to increase the payments on Grumman's existing contracts to cover reconstruction costs.

It is not surprising that Northrop Grumman is being tended to so well, given the fact that the company and its executives contributed more than a million dollars to Republican causes during the last election. And the pattern of political payback stretches well beyond the defense industry. The list of large contractors for hurricane clean-up and temporary housing is a Who's Who of politically connected corporations.

"There is an outlandish amount of money coming into the region," noted Ishmael Muhammad, organizer with the People's Hurricane Relief Fund. "But the money is not getting to people who have really suffered."

"I see it every day when I'm driving my bus," Parker said. "When I go by the casinos, they are breaking up perfectly good concrete and paving to put down this fancy brick. Go down another mile and it looks like the hurricane just hit yesterday.

"They find money to break good ground up and can't find money to get the power turned back on."

Survivors' Plan

But amidst the chaos and corporate giveaways, grassroots activists continue to fight for a different vision of the Gulf Coast. Survivors are developing a plan, and their plan is focusing on rebuilding the communities that the city says do not need to come back.

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Letter to Common Ground Collective

Spring Break Volunteers Speak Out

My family (two adults in their mid-40s and 50s, a 14 year old and an 18 year old) were overwhelmed by what we experienced last week in the 9th Ward. I felt like I was somewhere between Woodstock and the aftermath of a war zone. I have never seen such hope and inspiration, such determination and organization, such a commitment to emotionally and physically hard work, as we saw among the Common Ground Collective. The positive energy and selflessness of so many people between the ages of 20 and 30 was unlike anything else I have known.

As a family, we feel like we only -contributed an iota of help over our two days in mylar suits and respirators, but being witness to the movement and work of so many was an experience of a lifetime. For the first time in years, I felt, quite oddly, very patriotic - amazingly proud of the youth in our country. To meet kids from over 20 states and more colleges than I could list, giving up their 10 days of the beloved ritual of "spring break" to work in the heat, mold, and muck of the devastation of Katrina, living in tents and eating communally from buckets of casseroles and salad, was really inspiring. Our country is in good hands if this is the group about to take over after my -generation moves on.

Many thanks for all you are doing.

In peace,
Zendt family

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Seven Months After Katrina

Sleeping in Your Car in Front of Your Trailer in Front of Your Devastated Home, Tales of Lunacy and Hope from New Orleans

- Bill Quigley -

In New Orleans, seven months after Katrina, senior citizens are living in their cars. WWL-TV introduced us to Korean War veteran Paul Morris, 74, and his wife Yvonne, 66. They have been sleeping in their 2-door sedan since January. They have been waiting that long for FEMA contractors to unlock the 240 square foot trailer in their yard and connect the power so they can sleep inside it in front of their devastated home.

This tale of lunacy does not begin to stop there. Their 240 square foot trailer may well cost more than their house. While FEMA flat out refuses to say how much the government is paying for trailers, reliable estimates by the New York Times and others place the cost at over $60,000 each. How could these tiny FEMA trailers cost so much? Follow the money. Circle B Enterprises of Georgia was awarded $287 million in contracts by FEMA for temporary housing. At the time, that was the seventh highest award of Katrina money in the country. According to the Washington Post, Circle B was not even being licensed to build homes in its own state of Georgia and filed for bankruptcy in 2003. The company does not even have a website. Here's how it works: the original contractor takes their cut and subcontracts the work of constructing the trailer out to other companies. Once it is built, they subcontract out the transporting of the trailers to yet other companies which pay drivers, gas, insurance, and mileage. They then subcontract out the hookups of the trailers to other companies and keep taking cuts for their services. Usually none of the people who make the money are local workers. With $60,000 many people could adequately repair their homes.

Why not just give the $60,000 directly to the elderly couple and let them fix up their home? Ask Congress. FEMA is not allowed to give grants of that much. Money for fixing up homes comes from somewhere else and people are still waiting for that to arrive.

While many corporations are making big money off of Katrina, Mr. and Mrs. Morris wait in their car.

Craziness continues in the area of the right to vote.

You would think that the nation that put on elections with satellite voting boxes for Iraqis and Afghanis and Haitians and many others would do the same for Katrina evacuees. Wrong. There is no satellite voting for the 230,000 citizens of New Orleans who are out of state. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Advancement Project, ACORN and the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund have all fought for satellite voting but Louisiana and the courts and the U.S. Justice Department have said no.

The rule of thumb around here is that the poorer you are, the further you have been displaced. African Americans are also much more likely to be poor and renters - the people who cannot yet come back to a city where rents have doubled. They are the ones bearing the burdens of no satellite voting.

The people already back are much more affluent than the pre-Katrina New Orleans. The city is also much whiter. Many of those already back in New Orleans are not so sure that all of New Orleans should be rebuilt. The consequence of that is not everyone will be allowed to return. Planners and politicians openly suggest turning poor neighborhoods into green spaces. No one yet has said they want to turn their own neighborhood into green space - only other people's neighborhoods - usually poor people's neighborhoods. Those who disagree are by and large not there.

New Orleans has not been majority-white for decades, but it is quite possible that a majority of those who are able to vote in the upcoming election will be white. Thus the decisions about the future of New Orleans are poised to be made by those who have been able to get back and will exclude many of those still evacuated. Guess what type of plans they will have for New Orleans?

There are many, many more tales of lunacy all over town as all systems have melted down: criminal justice, healthcare, public education, churches, electricity, water, garbage, our environment - you name it, it melted down and is not yet fully back up.

But, there are also clear signs of hope.

Across New Orleans neighborhood groups are meeting every weekend planning their own comebacks. People catch rides back into town and visit ruined neighborhoods and greet neighbors and together make plans to recover. Because governmental action and contractors are so slow, groups are looking to their own resources and partnering with churches and community groups and universities and businesses to fill in the gaps where the politicos have not yet been able to respond. The citizens themselves are our greatest hope.

We also have allies that give us hope.

We have been amazed and refreshed by the thousands of college students who took their spring break in New Orleans helping our elderly and uninsured families gut houses, clean up streets and advocate for justice with Common Ground Relief, the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, Catholic Charities, ACORN and many other church and civic groups. Even law students! Over 1000 law students helped provide legal aid and are providing the first comprehensive documentation of abuses of local and out of town workers by businesses.

Over 100 clergy from across the US visited New Orleans with the PICO Network, as did hundreds of other people of faith with the Jeremiah community. The Protestant Women are here now and the Interfaith Worker Justice group meets here soon. Together, these groups raise the voices of their faith communities and call for justice in the rebuilding of our communities.

On the national level, we see rising support from numerous social justice groups. Several created the Katrina Information Network, an internet advocacy group that enables people across the country to take action with us to influence all levels of government in the rebuilding effort. We are inspired by the veterans and allies who marched from Florida to New Orleans to highlight the diversion of money from our cities to war efforts.

Yes, we have lunacy in New Orleans. But there are also signs of hope.

Whether lunacy or hope will triumph in New Orleans is yet to be determined. But we appreciate those of you who are working in solidarity with us to try to keep our hope alive.

Bill Quigley is a law professor at Loyola University, New Orleans.

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