People's Forces Organizing in Katrina Aftermath
"We're Not Counting on the Government to Take Care of Us Anymore"
Bywater evacuated at Gunpoint: "Our Government Has Failed Us, But the People Are Stepping Up"
Sadness, Anger and Hope in the Wake of Katrina

Defending Rights
Uphold the Right to Return, Rebuild and Remain Internationally Recognized Rights of the "Internally Displaced"
Not 'Refugees,' But Americans

Scenario for a Military Takeover of Civilian Life


People's Forces Organizing in Katrina Aftermath

"We're Not Counting on the Government to Take Care of Us Anymore"

Covington, LA -- Around 60 Hurricane Katrina victims are staying in the cafeteria of Pine View Middle School. Covington has suffered heavy wind damage from the storm but not as much flooding as other areas. Since September 2, members of Veterans for Peace, an anti-war group that had been on its way to Washington, DC, for protests later this month, have been delivering donated relief supplies to the area.

"We left Camp Casey, right across from Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and Cindy Sheehan with thousands of pounds of food that was donated there and we got here and handed it out within hours. That's our mission, to open up a functional supply line to southern Louisiana," said Dennis Kyne, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. "We're not counting on the government to take care of us anymore, they've already proven they won't."

The Red Cross, which is officially in charge of the shelter in Covington, is supplying basic medical care and shelter, while volunteers are helping to cook and provide additional supplies.

"When we first showed up they were without power and they had some medical needs," said Douglas Soderbergh, who served in Lebanon and in Iraq in 1991. "We have power generation and we hooked them up. They have a small child here that has cystic fibrosis and requires physical therapy with a small chest bag that pounds his chest and loosens him up and he has a ventilator. We fed them a hot meal, they had until then been eating MREs-Meals Ready to Eat- or cold food."

Soderbergh said the group was invited by local police to stay at the middle school, but that initially there was some friction between Veterans for Peace and officials from the Red Cross, FEMA and Homeland Security at the regional level because of the group's anti-war advocacy.

"They tried to get us out of here, but the volunteers from the Red Cross said 'if you kick the veterans out, we're leaving too," Soderbergh said. "That stopped it pretty quick." The regional directors have since returned to check on the site.

"They've been here several times in the past few days and acknowledged our value and thanked us for our service," Soderbergh said.

Red Cross volunteers at the shelter said that the volunteers from Veterans for Peace have been invaluable because they are not bound by the same restrictions as the relief agency, and some of the volunteers have even brought supplies for the veterans to hand out.

"These people didn't have any baby diapers," said Joanne Tandler, a Red Cross volunteer from New York.

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Bywater Evacuated at Gunpoint

"Our Government Has Failed Us, But the People Are Stepping Up"

The entire city of New Orleans is under evacuation orders. I just spoke to my friend Daniel in the Bywater (9th ward). He reports that unmarked police vehicles (Cadillacs) are driving through the neighborhood with SWAT team police armed with 'big black machine guns' telling people through bullhorns they are under orders to evacuate and must leave the city now.

People in that neighborhood are being told to go to the big pool on the corner of Lesseps and St. Claude (this is one block from my house) to be airlifted out, though people are allowed to leave by their own means if they can. He reports helicopters all over the place of all kinds -- everything from large Army helicopters with guns to Red Cross helicopters -- they are swooping down low in the neighborhood and 'buzzing' houses. He said one just flew low enough over him to blow shingles off the roof.

He is starting to see National Guardsmen marching through the streets with guns to make sure people obey evacuation orders. He wanted to get into a neighbor's house to save their dog that is locked up in there, but was told by a National Guardsman that unless he has keys to the house, if he tries to break the door in he will be shot on the spot.

He also reported that Dr. Bob, Bywater artist, was beaten by NOPD who thought he was a looter. They beat him up severely and took his weapons.

Daniel reports that in 6 days they had not seen or received any help. In 6 days they saw one policeman flying through the neighborhood in a police car at 40 miles an hour. He reported that for the first two days after the storm, Wildlife and Fisheries were rescuing people from the flooded out lower 9th ward, blocks from my house and his house by boat -- and just dropping the people off on the dry side of the levy, with no food or water or anywhere to go. He said that after two days the boats just stopped coming. He had no idea why until I explained the situation with the National Guard to him, and that the rescue boats were told to stand down and stop rescuing people.

The people locked down in the city have no idea that supplies are sitting just outside the city and being turned away. The only reason they have food is they managed to gather what they could from friends' apartments, etc., but again, no one has come to help them or bring them food. Other than the people left stranded in the neighborhood, it was completely abandoned by all official entities. Now, as with others we have had contact with in New Orleans, Daniel reports that people are afraid to leave their homes because of the National Guard, who have permission to shoot anyone on the spot.

We are being forced out of our city, with no word as to if and when we will be allowed to return. We've been wondering what they would do after enough people were forced to die of starvation. Population reduction has been accomplished.

Some important information:

Thanks to everyone for your generous donations of money and supplies. We wish we had the time to thank each and every one of you individually, but please know that we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, as do the people of New Orleans. Our government has failed us -- or worse -- but the people are stepping up. Please keep spreading the word and encouraging others to send donations. Our relief efforts will be going on for weeks, if not months, and we will keep getting supplies and getting them to the places needed the most.

You can always donate online via Paypal at http://www.getyouracton.com.

Some people have asked for a physical address to send money to, so here are two places you can do this. Our good friend Ward Reilly, who will act as our Baton Rouge liaison and staging ground, can cash checks for us (we will not have access to bank machines in New Orleans to cash checks!). The best and easiest thing to do is send a check or money order made out to Ward Reilly and note on the check that it is for Get Your Act On.

Please send to:

Ward Reilly 645 Kimbo Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Checks and money orders can also be sent to my sister in Philadelphia. They can cash checks for us and paypal us the money. So you can also send donations to:

Rachel Garland 824 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA 19147.

We apologize for not having an official Get Your Act On! bank account set up, but, well, we weren't exactly able to plan ahead for this. If possible, we will have one sometime next week, but for now, please send snail mail donations to either of the places listed above or online via paypal at our site.

One hundred percent of all donations go directly and immediately to relief efforts where they are needed most.

People that are on their way to Louisiana to help or want to come down   right now we do not advise people to try to enter the city of New Orleans until we know better what the situation is, especially with the breaking news about the forced evacuations. However, there are hundreds and thousands of displaced people in the areas around New Orleans, and there is a desperate need for help there.

We need to make it very clear that if you want to go to Louisiana to help, you must be prepared for hard and exhausting work. If you are not up to this, you will merely add to the already overwhelming problems. There is plenty of work to be done in other places -- helping raise money, put on a fund raiser, hold a vigil or rally in solidarity, spread the word about what is really going on in New Orleans -- all these efforts are just as important and crucial to what needs to be done as physically going down to help.

If you are ready and willing to help, here are some places you can go to help: In Baton Rouge:

Volunteers are asked to go to the LSU P-MAC Assembly Center on the LSU Campus. Very important: they WILL NOT be able to put you up, so it is a good idea to come in a vehicle you can sleep in, or bring a tent and sleeping bag.

In Covington:

People and supplies are needed in Covington at the Pine View Middle School, 28th Street. Please contact Albert Marino at loveisinyourmind@yahoo.com for more details. I have heard that some kind of official permission may now be needed to get into Covington.

In Donaldsonville:

The 'Dream Center' Shelter is in desperate need of volunteers. To help them, please contact the Dream Center in Los Angeles: www.dreamcenter.org or in Louisiana call (it's mostly busy, but keep trying) 225-474-6688.

We will continue to post more locations that need volunteers as we get the information.

Spread The Word About What Is Going On! New Orleans Has Been Taken Over By The United States Government. Beware, This May Come to a Neighborhood Near You.

Andrea Garland is from Get Your Act On and a member of the Green Party of Louisiana

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Sadness, Anger and Hope in the Wake of Katrina

Dear Friends in the Struggle for Peace and Justice,

As reports continue to come from the Gulf, we continue to be saddened and angered by what we hear.

As Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast we received reports from School of the Americas (SOA) Watch activists who were stranded. Some could not leave and some stayed to be with those who had no way of leaving. In the days that followed, after the levees broke, we continued to hear from friends in New Orleans who were trapped in the city. The reports were difficult to hear.

We also learned that over the last three years the monies that were allotted to reinforce the levees in New Orleans were cut by the Bush Administration as the budgets increased for Homeland Security and the Pentagon. We see U.S.-funded wars waged in places like Colombia and Iraq resulting in great loss of life. We see the funding of military training schools, like the SOA, resulting in Latin American soldiers returning home to bring suffering to their own people. We are angered that money for fixing the levees was cut and resources to assist survivors did not materialize in the days that followed Katrina. New Orleans was destroyed not by Hurricane Katrina, but by levees that could have been fixed.

We see National Guard Units in Iraq while we needed to see them and their equipment at home. Our anger grew as we learned of how many people were trapped and how many people would continue to die because rescuers were not on the way.

The federal government abandoned black people and poor people. The media showed images of people of color carrying food and reported that they were "looters;" nearly identical images of white people finding food carried captions describing the people as "finding food."

Clearly, institutional racism in our government caused people to die, and institutional racism in the media criminalized people of color as they were struggling to survive.

SOA Watch adds its voice to the outrage that millions are feeling in our country now. We demand accountability from a government that would take our money to fund a murderous foreign policy in the Persian Gulf while neglecting our infrastructure at home -- neglect that is responsible for killing thousands on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

SOA Watch believes that our country would be more secure by no longer training assassins in the Americas and by no longer sending our troops to wage war on people of color abroad. We believe that a true homeland security will be achieved not by funding war, but by supporting a global security where our country's deteriorating infrastructure is repaired and all around the globe people have access to education, a living wage and healthcare.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we were inspired to hear your stories of the true heroism, generosity and mutual aid that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In recent days you've shared with us how you've taken this struggle for life into your own hands. You told us that some of you were in the Gulf and continue to remain there adding your hands to the thousands who stayed to help others. We continue to hear that many of you are coordinating food and clothing drives, that you're finding housing for displaced people in your area or that you've left for the Gulf with groups like Veterans for Peace to volunteer in some of the areas that need our help most.

We will all continue to assist the survivors in the Gulf, to find homes for the displaced and to respond to this catastrophe as we hold onto our anger and sadness. We will carry our outrage and grief as we demonstrate in Washington this September -- and we will take it with us as we remember and resist at the gates of Fort Benning this November 18-20.

We are a part of the millions in our country who believe that love is more powerful than prejudice, that hope will prevail over despair and that our hands united are building a world where respect for life triumphs over political interest.

Yours in the Struggle for Life,

Staff of the School of the Americas Watch

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Uphold the Right to Return, Rebuild and Remain

In a few days, the Congressional Black Caucus will hold their gala weekend in Washington, DC. This event takes place at a time of great crisis, requiring every exertion of our political powers. Yet another wave of Black Exodus is occurring in the United States -- an ethnic cleansing disguised under cover of natural disaster.

There is nothing natural about the dispersal of untold numbers of Gulf state residents to points unknown. There is nothing natural about the deliberate federal policy of emptying the region of the Black and poor, without even the right to know their own destinations. It is a peculiar torture for a Black person to be directed to a plane, only to be told, once airborne, that she is headed for Utah.

What are her rights in this matter? Does the dispersed Black majority of New Orleans have any rights in deciding the fate of their city, in its new configurations? Of course they do, but these are rights that the Bush regime feels it is not bound to respect, recognizing as it does only property rights, not human rights. The Congressional Black Caucus must take a stand for humanity, if it is to maintain any just claim to be the "conscience of the Congress." The coming weekend will be their great test. The Caucus should know that it is being held to the most urgent account. They must affirm the human and political rights of those who have been displaced, and resist the corporate flood that is -- as we speak -- inundating New Orleans and much of the Gulf.

The people of New Orleans and the swelling Diaspora have the Right to Return. They have the Right to Rebuild. And they have the Right to Remain in their region. They have more rights than any speculator to shape the new communities that will be rebuilt on the federal tab.

Who are these people? George Bush and his militarized Homeland Security apparatus don't seem to want to know. They just want them gone. The Congressional Black Caucus must demand that a comprehensive list be drawn up of all those who lived in the battered region, so that they may be enabled to effectively exert their will -- their political and human rights -- on the direction of the hundreds of billions of dollars that will ultimately be spent in the Gulf states. They are the one's who have the Right to Rebuild. They must be counted, enumerated, and empowered. It is these stakeholders who have the moral and political right to approve all reconstruction plans and contracts.

And, once returned, and in the process of rebuilding, this population must be afforded the sustenance to remain, as the democratic project is done. We must think of this project as a new social contract for America -- a redefining of citizenship. The United States has not had much of a social contract, heretofore. Let us create one now, out of the floodwaters. The Congressional Black Caucus is the proper vehicle for this national reawakening.

Iraqis in Des Moines and Detroit were allowed to vote for the new government in Baghdad. The people who have been displaced from New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama should certainly have the same right, to direct the Reconstruction of their region. They have the Right to Return, the Right to Rebuild, and the Right to Remain. We demand that the Congressional Black Caucus treat these as inalienable rights.

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Internationally Recognized Rights of the "Internally Displaced"

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the debate is already raging on how to deal with those displaced by the disaster and whether to rebuild New Orleans and other coastal communities. Competing interests combined with poor planning and a disjointed response from public and private agencies have created confusion about priorities, funding and other crucial details. It is imperative that a human rights and humanitarian law framework be applied to these discussions and form the basis for all future action.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide just such a framework. The principles identify the internationally recognized rights and guarantees of people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and communities due to a number of factors, including natural disaster. According to this set of principles, those who have been displaced from their homes but not crossed international borders are classified as "internally displaced persons," not "refugees" or "evacuees." This is not a mere question of semantics, but an essential definition that establishes the obligations that government has to protect and defend the rights of the Gulf Coast residents who have been dispersed across the country.

The extent to which various aspects of the recovery should be funded will be a topic of much debate among policymakers, especially given the federal deficit and competing economic needs. But the rights of the displaced must be viewed as a separate and overriding issue. Receiving protection and humanitarian assistance from government authorities is not an act of benevolence, but rather is obligatory for displaced people - for the duration of their displacement. This will be especially important to remember after media coverage of Katrina has faded, and we must not compound the plight of the displaced by letting them fend for themselves once the dust has settled. If we accept that it will take years to rebuild New Orleans, we must also accept that it will take no less time to rebuild the lives of the displaced from New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast.

One of the most contentious issues that will emerge in the near future is the fate of the large numbers of people, largely poor and African American who may want to return to their homes and communities but may not have the resources to do so. But as the U.N. guidelines clearly state, "Authorities have the duty and responsibility to assist returned and/or resettled internally displaced persons to recover, to the extent possible, their property and possessions which they left behind or were dispossessed of upon their displacement." We know that there are powerful forces in New Orleans and elsewhere on the coast who would prefer that the poor of those communities not be allowed to return. Low- and middle-income property owners will have particular difficulty meeting their financial obligations and will require protection from creditors; speculators are already targeting the most vulnerable and desperate property owners, offering cash for their holdings at pennies on the dollar. The sharks are circling, and we must ensure that they are not allowed to feed.

In fact, the problems the displaced will face in the future may well dwarf what they've already been through. Assessing and then meeting the individual needs of several hundred thousand people scattered in dozens of states will be a difficult and time-consuming task, the magnitude of which argues strongly for a coordinated response that must begin now. This might well include a role for the U.N. High Commission on Refugees, which has considerable experience with displacement issues, and other international agencies. Regardless of the mechanism, alternatives to dumping the entire recovery burden on FEMA or other already-overextended agency must be explored. Without a coordinated plan that specifically addresses critical long-term issues, the likelihood will only increase in coming months that the most powerless victims of Katrina will be left with nothing.

The disproportionate hardships shouldered by poor, mostly minority residents of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina have been well-documented and acknowledged by most observers. It is not enough, however, to address this reality merely by issuing debit cards, formulating more equitable evacuation plans or otherwise better preparing for future disasters. Rather, as the U.N. principles clearly state, continued relief efforts must be viewed in the context of providing meaningful opportunities for the displaced and their families in the months and years to come. Stories of evacuees airlifted to destinations far from their families and friends, sometimes against their will, reinforce the importance of viewing the emergency measures as a temporary, not a permanent, solution. The idea that evacuees will remain where they've been dropped assumes that they have no other options; providing such options is an essential component of the government's obligation according to the U.N. principles.

Missing from the press conferences and official statements has been any commitment to another of the U.N. principles: that the victims of Hurricane Katrina have the ability to decide for themselves how to reconstruct their lives. As the principles state unequivocally, the displaced have an inalienable right to participate in decisions about their future, and any recovery plan in Katrina's aftermath must therefore include substantive input by those who have the most at stake. This is not a courtesy that can be discarded if it becomes inconvenient, but an absolute necessity.

It is important to note that the United States has consistently upheld the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement when similar circumstances have arisen in other countries. If the fundamental rights of displaced people apply in countries far less able to cope with such disasters as Hurricane Katrina, they certainly apply here.

Ajamu Baraka is Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than 170 organizations working on the full spectrum of human rights issues.

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Not 'Refugees,' But Americans

Late into the third night of the horrifying television coverage, it hit Frances White. "Wait a minute," she said, staring at the screen. "Something is wrong. Why are we calling them 'refugees'?"

For three days, she had watched the images of Hurricane Katrina. People stranded on rooftops screamed with outstretched arms. Thousands of ravaged adults and frightened children packed into the Louisiana Superdome, many of them so hungry and thirsty they were talking out of their heads.

White shook her own head in disbelief at the images of bloated bodies floating face-down in flooded streets. "I cried so hard my heart hurt," she said.

On the third night, the Warrensville Heights, Ohio, woman grew angry.

"It's 'refugee' this, and 'refugee' that. Those are poor people, poor people who are citizens of the United States. They aren't refugees, they aren't running from their government. They had no means to get out. No car. No money."

Her voice fell soft and sad. "I'm a black woman, but this isn't about race. This is about poverty. There are poor white people there, too. And it is not respectful to call any of them refugees in their own country. Not in a place like this. Not in America."

For some Americans, the word "refugee" is just that, a word, and a fitting one to describe the hundreds of thousands from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who were displaced.

Many Americans, though, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have denounced the depiction as racist.

The United Nations describes a refugee as someone who has fled across an international border to escape violence or persecution. Webster's New World College Dictionary defines it as "a person who flees from home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time of war or of political or religious persecution."

To understand why "refugee" is a loaded word, consider who was left behind in the hurricane. An Associated Press analysis showed that about 60 percent of the 700,000 in the three dozen neighborhoods hardest hit were minorities. Nearly 25 percent of them were below the poverty line, almost double the national average.

Consider, too, the appalling disconnect between the federal government and the people who desperately needed its help.

While the storm raged, the president attended a fundraiser and played golf. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went shoe shopping in New York.

Three-and-a-half days after Katrina hit the ground, Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN that he did not know until that very day that tens of thousands of New Orleans residents and tourists were holed up at the city's convention center.

Early last week, the president's mother, Barbara Bush, visited the Houston Astrodome, where tens of thousands of the poor who lost everything in the hurricane were waiting.

They're fine, she said. Just fine.

"So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them," she said.

Define "well."

"Refugee" no longer feels like a word, but a way to distance ourselves emotionally from what we can not quite believe is happening to citizens in our own country. To many, it sounds like an attempt to excuse the inexcusable.

The American Red Cross has instructed all its chapters not to use the word "refugee." Many newspapers also are not using it.

This may strike some as just too politically correct, but to others it's a small gesture with a huge embrace. In the weeks and months ahead, we will have plenty of chances to show support and concern for survivors we've never met but feel we know by now.

Let's not start by calling them refugees. They are Americans, and it's time we take care of our own.

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Scenario for a Military Takeover of Civilian Life

The New Orleans fiasco is revealing how the U.S. failed state is transforming all social, civil and political affairs into military matters. Military control and martial law over foreign occupied territories are being extended to the U.S. homeland, and an annexed Canada and Mexico. Political, civil and social authority increasingly resides in the U.S. Military's Northern Command (NORTHCOM), a militarized Department of Homeland Security and the executive branch of a United States of North American Monopolies.

A tremendous struggle has erupted within the ruling circles and monopolies of the U.S. failed state over control of NORTHCOM and Homeland Security and the people are paying the disastrous price with their lives, the lives of their families, their dignity and meager possessions. The struggle is apparent within the institution responsible for civil defense against natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Under President Bush's executive rule, the Department of Homeland Security has taken control of FEMA and submerged its civil defense preparations into the U.S. failed state's war on terror. Funds, professional personnel and equipment for civil defense have been seconded into the war on terror.

Contradictions within Homeland Security/FEMA are evident in comments from local and other FEMA professionals who have denounced the sabotage of preparations to defend the Gulf Coast from hurricanes, in particular the refusal to provide public assistance to evacuees and the neglect of the levees, delta and wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Certain local FEMA leaders have even suggested a secret agenda in diverting funds from levee strengthening and the incessant destruction of the delta and wetlands, which form a natural barrier to a storm surge.

An indication of the antagonism within Homeland Security/FEMA is the following comment by Eric Holdeman, director of the King County, Washington State, Office of Emergency Management: "The country's premier agency for dealing with such events (Hurricane Katrina) -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security. Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why FEMA will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness...? What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the pre-eminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American public in times of trouble, such as the present.... FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission. FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That's because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism, even if the Department of Homeland Security still talks about 'all-hazards preparedness.' Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the 'homeland security' mission. Our 'all-hazards' approaches have been decimated by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism."

Even a leading member of the U.S. ruling class is critical of the changes fashioned by those in Homeland Security. James Lee Witt, former national leader of FEMA in the 1990s said recently at a U.S. Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."

FEMA/Homeland Security and other government officials refused to organize an evacuation of New Orleans by providing public transportation and accommodation. This was an abdication of the state's responsibilities and duty to its members and society, and is evidence of a failed state, especially a state with an abundance of modern social means of transportation. Eyewitness reports say the monopolies that control thousands of buses in the city locked them in compounds to prevent them from being used by desperate evacuees. Most of the buses are now under water and unusable until repaired. After leaving the poor, elderly, children, tourists and even those in hospitals and jails to an uncertain fate at the hands of the hurricane, the failed state turned on the victims and began a campaign of public torture, humiliation and violent abuse of those left behind in a city whose defenses failed. African Americans taking supplies from the stores to survive were denounced as "looters" by the mass media of the failed state with many arrested or shot.

In the past, the U.S. state primarily used the National Guard for civil defense emergencies. Today all the anecdotal evidence points to the deliberate sabotage of the civilian infrastructure by a section of the ruling class to further their own agenda. Many Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard troops are deployed in the U.S. Empire's occupation and aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. No troops or equipment were transferred into those two states during the hurricane season to compensate for the missing local National Guard members. Even after computer projections predicted that Hurricane Katrina would almost certainly turn towards the Gulf Coast, no movement of National Guard troops and equipment was ordered. They only began to arrive with supplies five days after the hurricane struck. When the military did arrive it was made to appear as conquering heroes that would save the people and destroy the bad guys, similar to its fabricated image in Iraq.

All indications are that part of this scenario is to make the military the solution to the problems of the U.S. failed state in the minds of the U.S. people. The relief efforts are characterized in the mass media as deliberately sabotaged by certain civilian political leaders at the local and state levels, while the military is portrayed for the most part as firm, competent and successful, if civilians and politicians do not interfere with their mission. The mass media seem to be preparing the people to accept the notion that the only solution to the contradictions within the ruling class and U.S. society is to put the military at the heart of the civil, social and political life of the country. Also, the constant harping by some that the all-volunteer military is not large enough to wage war abroad and deal with the situation on the home front is leading to calls for even bigger military budgets and a reinstatement of the involuntary draft.

From AP: "'The cavalry has arrived! The cavalry is and will continue to arrive,' said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard. Blum said half of the 7,000 Guardsmen had just returned from assignments overseas and are 'highly proficient in the use of lethal force.' He pledged to 'put down' the violence 'in a quick and efficient manner'."

From AP: "Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the National Guard arrived in force Friday with food, water and weapons, churning through the floodwaters in a vast truck convoy with orders to retake the streets and bring relief to the suffering."

The Governor of Louisiana shamelessly blamed the people of New Orleans for their predicament suggesting they purposely remained in the city ignoring the evacuation order. The governor reveled in the military might of the U.S. armed forces and their ability to protect the private property of the monopolies and the relations of production dominated by the owners of monopoly capital: "'They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded,' Gov. Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. 'These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will'."

The mass media repeated the call by many leading figures that the solution to the problem created by politicians and civilian authorities is to strengthen Homeland Security and the military. AP advanced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as an example: "Even Republicans were criticizing Bush and his administration for the sluggish relief effort. 'I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?' said Gingrich."

The Christian Science Monitor took up the same theme: "Katrina poses key test for stretched National Guard. Part-time soldiers -- having served in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are now called up for duty in Gulf Coast disaster. Now, with some Guard members comparing New Orleans to Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein -- gripped by chaos and looting -- the Pentagon will have to prove its calculations correct. It comes at a time when 138,000 troops -- including 80,000 members of the National Guard -- are deployed in Iraq.... Outbreaks of violence in New Orleans hinted at the potential for wider unrest and further call-ups, which could reveal weaknesses elsewhere in the nation. 'What do we do if there is a terrorist attack?' asks Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst at the Center for American Progress here. 'We're increasing our risk'."

The newspaper proposes a greater role for the full-time military within the U.S. and hints at expanding its numbers, which could only mean an involuntary draft. The Monitor continues: "The heightened role of the active military in disaster relief could help ease the burden. While the active military has always been involved in disaster relief on some scale, the creation of a command center specifically designed to deal with disasters and homeland security after 9/11 has resulted in a military response that is 'more robust, quicker, and more accurately targeted,' says Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly of NORTHCOM.... Yet protracted relief efforts could present a problem. The Pentagon's plans had always been for short wars and short disaster relief."

The image of chaos, looting and anarchy presented by the monopoly media as unleashed by the masses is counterposed by the bringing of order by the U.S. military. A phony contradiction is constructed of anarchy versus military rule. The mass media implies that when the people are left to their own devices they are incapable of governing themselves; they are incapable of creating institutions and political ways and means to govern themselves in peace and harmony upholding the human factor/social consciousness.

The truth lies elsewhere, seen in the thousands of volunteer forces organized by the people themselves. Voice of Revolution points out: "People are bringing to bear all their organizing experience of the many struggles for rights and against imperialist war.... Medics trained for demonstrations are heading to New Orleans and the surrounding communities. Food Not Bombs, well known for feeding demonstrators and communities, is setting up kitchens in the region and training local people to do the same. The many military families and others involved in the Crawford Camp Casey at Bush's ranch have sent supplies, a bus equipped with satellite for communications and medicine, and are setting up a new Camp Casey in Covington, Louisiana....

"Through their actions, everyone is showing their rejection of the failed U.S. state and coming forward to show that they are the representatives of the people, they are the new, emerging in the face of this failure. Many have brought out, for example, that the massive efforts to get tens of thousands of people to Washington D.C. by bus for September 24 anti-war actions, with organized pick up points and known destinations, to set up tents and water and bathroom facilities, show the abilities of the people to organize to solve such problems. There is no doubt that, given the opportunity, transit workers could have organized the evacuations before the hurricane hit. Schools, universities, churches and nearby communities, like Algiers in New Orleans, could and can provide housing...."

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Voice of Revolution
Publication of the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization

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