Jordan Flaherty writes: 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.”
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
“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 [email protected].
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:
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