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This information is provided for historical background purposes, since POC got its start as PHRF. |
December 2006
Click here to download our December Newsletter.
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POC Calls for Dialog on Direction of Movement
December 22, 2006
A little over a year ago, Hurricane Katrina headed for New Orleans,
and the government at all levels decided to leave over 100,000 mainly poor, black working people in the city to die.
When Katrina didn’t hit the city, they did the next best thing,
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refusing to mount a rescue effort for days, herding people into abominable conditions, shooting young people trying to
get food and water from abandoned stores and finally strewing people
across the country against their will and without support. The ASPCA
treated the animal victims of the flood better than the government
treated black human beings.
In the wake of these events, activists from
the left and from black nationalist organizations came to New Orleans to
organize. After a brief commitment to the concept of bottom-up leadership
- to the idea of organizing and lifting into leadership those most impacted
by the hurricane - virtually all these groups deserted that commitment and
went back to business as usual: using the internet to organize
mobilizations and pressure the legislature. Only a few organizers,
mainly young and inexperienced, remained committed to the painstaking
work of going door-to-door, developing relationships with survivors in
the city and in the trailer parks, putting together survivor councils and
trying to develop and support the leadership of the people themselves.
From these experiences, and from a lifetime
of movement activity beginning in the days of organizing in Mississippi in
the early 60’s, we have found ourselves needing to rethink and re-evaluate
how we understand the revolutionary movement and what its strategy should be.
We are feeling frustrated with what is currently in place in our movement,
and we’re looking for others who feel similarly frustrated to help figure
out where we are and how we need to proceed. Mostly, we have questions, and
we are asking you to help us find answers to them. We are inviting you into
study and dialog on these questions. We’re looking for existing discussion
on these topics, reading materials, and opinions. We’re not looking for
academic debate, however; we want input from people who are ready to consider
alternatives to the current movement paradigms.
Our questions are based on a commitment to egalitarianism, and to the concept of bottom-up leadership: that the folk, worldwide, who are most oppressed and cast aside by international capitalism must be looked to for leadership of the movement against it. The first step is study and dialog. The next will be the formation of a school to continue that study and to train organizers as we begin to develop some clarity on direction. We are asking you to consider these questions, send recommended readings, send opinions and your own questions, and most important, take the dialog to the grassroots people you are working with for their input.
- Most Americans were unable to see the Katrina experience as attempted genocide in spite of watching it with their own eyes. Why was the physical evidence so easily contradicted by intellectual arguments about why the government "wouldn’t do that?" Today, hundreds of thousands of former New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents, overwhelmingly black, remain scattered across the country, tens of thousands of them still living in fenced, concentration-camp-like trailer parks, patrolled by armed guards - and most Americans are unaware of it. Of all the oppressed working class people in this country, one segment - poor black workers - has been criminalized and vilified so deeply as to be off most people’s radar, including that of revolutionaries and activists. Is it possible that we’ve reached a point where poor blacks can be murdered in large numbers by the government without a defense being mounted by the rest of us?
- The founders of the anti-capitalist movement, Marx and Engels, were great visionaries and their work laid the basis for major revolutionary movements in the Twentieth Century. At the same time, they were products of a time in which the issue of race was not on the front burner, and they had a limited understanding of it. The first line of the Communist Manifesto reads "a specter is haunting Europe . . ." -- not "the world." While they were anti-slavery and anti-colonialism, they also believed that some human beings were more evolved than others. (Engels, for instance, referred to the "lowest savages" who had regressed to an "animal-like condition" in The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man. Undoubtedly, he was referring to dark-skinned, colonial peoples; he mentioned European artists and thinkers as the most evolutionarily advanced.) Did this historical blindness on their part (probably unavoidable given what they knew and experienced) prevent the following generations from learning from the struggles and experiences of dark-skinned people worldwide? For example, what could we have/can we/should we learn from the struggles going on simultaneously to those in Europe studied by Marx and Engels? What do we make of the Haitian revolution, led and organized by slaves? Of Gabriel Prosser’s revolt, which organized thousands of slaves, led by men and women, supported by a few whites, under a plan that could have initiated a guerilla movement? Of the Harpers’ Ferry raiders? Of the African anti-slavery movement, led by former American slaves returned to West Africa? The Mexican revolution, the early pan-African movements, struggles in India and the rest of Asia?
- How does our movement explain the nearly universal fact that the poorest, most oppressed and outcast workers are those with the darkest skin? Do we have an understanding of how that came about, and what its significance is for organizing?
- Marx thought that colonialism, while exploitative, had the positive side of moving the colonies into the modern age. Lenin, understanding the problem inherent in this thinking, made what was essentially an anti-racist call for the self-determination of nations, against imperialism. This line, however, still said that the needs of people in the colonies were different from those of workers in the imperialist countries (the colonies needing national independence, workers in the imperialist countries needing communist revolution). The national liberation movements of the 20th century turned out not to liberate the colonial peoples; the revolutions stopped at the boundaries the imperialists had created as borders and ended up with new exploiters. But how do we understand and incorporate in our thinking those revolutionaries who called for continuing and extending those revolutions, disregarding the borders, overcoming tribalism, creating pan-African socialism? Of the world’s oppressed, should we be looking for leadership to the industrial workers of today’s most advanced capitalist nations, or to the most oppressed workers of the former colonies?
- In the 19th Century, most revolutionaries thought revolution would happen first where capitalism was most advanced. They were wrong. The first communist revolution happened in Russia, then the most undeveloped capitalist country in Europe (and not even regarded as European by many). Only 3% of the population was industrial workers. The next major revolution was in China, a recent colony, where an attempted uprising by industrial workers in the cities was quickly and brutally defeated in 1927, and Mao made the controversial move of going to the countryside and basing the revolution among the poor peasants, the largest and most oppressed part of the population. While it is true that industrial workers are central to the capitalist economy, and could have a stranglehold on the economy if they chose to, does this necessarily make them the main people to look to for leadership in a revolutionary movement? If workers on the "bottom," like the poor peasants of China and Vietnam, were key to previous revolutions, who are the corresponding people in our world today?
- Have revolutionaries overlooked the genius of the poor out of blindness caused by racism and by lack of attention to the lessons of previous revolutions about who were the key movers? To what degree have we bought into, for instance, the idea that poor, inner city black workers could do better in life if they tried? What is the real significance, in terms of the movement, of the fact that black workers, especially the poorest, resist working hard for the system and resist joining the military? What is the significance for the movement of the fact that black gang youth looted stores in New Orleans, at risk of their lives, to bring diapers, water and baby formula to the people trapped in the so-called shelters, first clothing themselves with identically-colored raincoats so they could identify each other? What is the significance of the fact that this is also the segment of the population (not industrial workers, not radical organizers) that has been imprisoned by the government in staggering numbers, to work as slaves in prison industries?
- Throughout the world, there are huge populations of oppressed workers who correspond to poor black workers in the US. Indigenous peoples of Central and South America, the vast majority of Africans, the poorest, dark-skinned Asians and Australians. Often these people are considered marginal to the economy; some call them the "informal economy." They are in and out of paid jobs, and eke out a living by whatever means are available, living in squalid conditions, often on the outskirts of cities or deep in the countryside. Are these folk "outside the capitalist economy," as some say? Are they parasitic? Or are they the most oppressed segment of the population? Could it be that organizers should focus energy on this group as potentially the most revolutionary? How should we understand the struggles of the landless in Brazil, the indigenous peoples Oaxaca, Chiapas, Bolivia, etc.?
- Socially marginalized people are always at greatest physical risk because they occupy the riskiest environments. They live on steep, landslide-prone slopes of the barrios that surround major cities in poor countries. They live in swamps and flood-prone riverbanks of urban peripheries. They live in poorly built houses that collapse easily when shaken by earthquakes or are wrecked by floodwaters. They lived in the 9th Ward of New Orleans." (John Mutter, deputy director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University) We can add that our people also have the least access to education, health care, social services, are the poorest and most victimized by every aspect of capitalism. Their languages are disrespected, their culture is disrespected, their intelligence and even humanity itself is disrespected. To capitalists and their state and other institutions, our people are cast aside, left out and ignored, except as their labor can be used for a profit, their youth as cannon fodder. However painful it is to look at honestly, they are also cast aside, left out and ignored by the traditional left - perhaps not in words, but, overwhelmingly, in practice. Where are the poorest of the poor, probably at this time a large majority of the world’s population, in our organizations? In the leadership of our organizations? How has this situation come to be? Do we, also, disrespect the genius of the poor? We sometimes behave as if socialist and communist theoreticians invented the idea of egalitarianism; however, hasn’t there been a thread of egalitarianism throughout the existence of humanity? Didn’t human beings start out in egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies? Is there not an oral tradition of egalitarianism handed from generation to generation amongst the laboring peoples of the world? Doesn’t it show itself whenever there is a crisis or disaster, or even in the last few days before first-of-the-month checks arrive? How can we lift up this tradition and the genius it represents to take leadership of the struggle to remove the yolk of capitalist oppression?
- In a similar way to the left, nationalist organizations have also ignored the genius of the poor. Just as the left has historically taken Europe as its starting point and accepted the assumption that the "most advanced" capitalist countries and industries would provide the leadership and initiative in the class struggle, the nationalists have assumed a European paradigm in looking to the nation-state and its structures as their goal. The idea of the "talented tenth" is a mimicking of capitalist and European cultural standards of judgment of worth. Those black people who are educated to control the standards of language, culture and education held up by North American and European ruling classes are considered worthy of leadership. Nationalists chase "equality" by setting a goal of having everything the European capitalists have: their own nations, their own businesses, their own wealth, their own servants. Instead of promoting international unity between the poor of the world, nationalism promotes mimicking and joining the European colonial bosses. In the course of raising and training their youth to speak African languages, carry out African cultural activities, eat healthy food, go to college and graduate school, work their way up the economic strata, what has happened to a commitment to serve and fight for poor black people? In accepting a European paradigm of nation-states, what has happened to an understanding of the essential sameness of even the struggles of poor black people across national boundaries? How can we engage militant youth in the nationalist sphere to broaden their horizons to consider international unity? Since race and class have intersected as the basis of oppression, how do we participate with them to arrive at a new understanding of fighting for a raceless, classless society?
- Looking at the left in the US, a related set of questions arises. Much of the mass, grassroots activism of the 60s and early 70s, from the ghetto rebellions to the anti-war movement, had its roots in the organizing of sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the early 60s civil rights days. These organizers, many of them in SNCC, in turn took their lead from community elders who had experience in the anti-racist and labor struggles of the previous generation. With the end of the Vietnam War, Cointelpro and the pumping of government dollars into organizations of all stripes, the movement died out. What has evolved since then bears investigation. In large part, door-to-door organizing and grassroots activism have given way to mass mobilizations organized over the internet. Single-issue non-profits have proliferated, and there are dozens of parties calling themselves revolutionary, most of them very small. Much of the work of all of these formations has served to support the election of Democratic Party candidates to various local, state and federal offices. The immigration reform movement has been developed as a patriotic, pro-Democratic movement. Friction between black and immigrant workers has been allowed to fester without sharp, well-organized opposition on either side. The movement against the war in Iraq has lacked the militant activism of the anti-Vietnam-war movement. A generation of young black activists has been diverted into non-revolutionary paths and away from poor, working class black people. Virtually all of the organizations on the ground in New Orleans since Katrina have avoided organizing the people most impacted by the hurricane and instead focus on electoral and non-confrontational reform issues.
How have these things come about? What has happened to the lessons learned about militant, grassroots organizing and action by today’s movement elders? What has our enemy been doing for the last 40 years to temper, squelch or control the movement? How have they used the mass organizations, the campuses, even the revolutionary parties to accomplish the pacification of the movement? How did we get convinced to use the internet and NGOs in place of mass organizing and action? How did we end up with movement leaders who take us to the polls instead of the streets? What should we do about leadership that thinks changing politicians will win our freedom? What should we do about leadership that fails to prepare us for violent attack by the state, as just happened in Oaxaca? Why have we had a harder time recognizing the genius of poor African-Americans, while elevating the poor of other countries, such as the Zapatistas, the landless movement in Brazil, the campesinos and teachers of Oaxaca? Who is running our movement, and how do we begin to develop a truly radical, revolutionary movement that is independent of the ruling class and the government?
- Finally, what does the society we would like to see look like? What are the lessons of egalitarian experiments throughout history, from Reconstruction to the literacy campaigns in Brazil and Cuba, to the Brazilian landless movement, elements of the Zapatista movement, the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution in China? What are the lessons of these and other experiences in terms of what we’re fighting for? In terms of leadership? What is the difference between a vanguard party and a mass party? What do we need? What does that look like?
We welcome all comments, questions and ideas. Please send responses to: bottomuporganizer@yahoo.com.
You can also submit them to the blog on the POC website: www.peoplesorganizing.com
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New Orleans
Survivor Council’s New Bookmobile |
Plans are under
way to use the NOSC Bookmobile to bring
reading materials to New Orleans residents
displaced in FEMA trailer parks with no
library access. |
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Click Here to see all of our most recent
photos added to our Photo Gallery. |
October
2006
Dear Friend in the
Struggle,
October 17, 2006
At the last meeting of the
New Orleans Survivor Council, a profound issue was raised
and decided upon. It didn’t take much time, and less
fanfare, but that made it no less profound.
But don’t let me get
ahead of my story. You need to know the beginning before I
tell you the end.
You may or may not know that there is about $210
billion in grant and aid money in New Orleans right now.
Funding agencies are giving money out like lollipops to
people who want to study something, relate something to a
political issue or campaign, promote charter schools, or
whatever. But no one wants to give money to poor people.
They’ve gotten none of it. Their neighborhoods, schools
and health care are still shut down.
The Survivor Council, indomitable, growing, determined
to grasp its own future, was able to get two small grants
of $10,000 each to set up a construction-training program
and rebuild some houses. If you’re a homeowner, you know
that $20,000 might get you a deck or part of a kitchen.
But we were determined to use the money to start
training some residents in skills they can use for a
lifetime, in the process of helping some people without
resources get their homes together. We had no trouble
recruiting trainees or trainers, and got started on a side
project of preparing a space for our office and volunteer
housing. But then we had to choose a house to start
rebuilding, and there came the rub.
With tools in hand and paychecks looming, the
Reconstruction Committee met. Two proposals were on the
floor. The “practical” one was this: here’s this guy, his
house has been on our list for months, he’s been working
hard with the Survivor Council, and he has insurance money
to buy materials. Let’s start with his house, because we
don’t have money for materials.
But other folks were saying – wait a minute! Back in
the winter, the Survivor Council laid down a set of
principles for prioritizing houses to work on. This was
the way we determined the order in which we had our
hundreds of spring and summer volunteers gut the houses,
and we should be using it now, too. The principle was
according to need: first priority for help should go to
those with the least resources. First elderly and
disabled, then single parents, and so on: those without
insurance or money first, then on down the list.
What a radical principle! And truly it is: just take a
look around this city and see who’s getting help. The more
you already have, the more you get.
Well, the Reconstruction Committee debated the issue
back and forth. We can start Monday if we do this guy’s
house. If we stick with the principle, how can we get the
materials? Finally, one man offered his insurance
settlement of $6,000 as a loan to buy the first materials.
Someone said, let’s go to Habitat: they raised all this
money in the name of the poor people of New Orleans; they
should provide materials for our house.
The eight or ten people in the room couldn’t agree. So
it was decided that the issue should go before the
Survivor Council meeting that Saturday for a decision.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this letter.
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Thirty
residents sat in the gutted, unlit Sanchez Center in
the Lower Ninth ward, where they meet twice each
month. Most of them lost everything to the flood, but
they are determined to fight back and come back. They
were discussing everything from how to get trailers to
how to open schools. The issue of choosing a house to
rebuild was raised, including both of the solutions
offered in the committee meeting. The first response
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was voices from around
the room with suggestions of places that were giving away
this or that material. After a few brief moments of
discussion, the facilitator said, “Well, how should this
go? Should we do the man’s house or should we go with the
principle?” |
Hands went up, accompanied by voices, around in the
circle, “Principle.” “Principle.” “Principle.”
“Principle.” “Principle.” Complete consensus.
There aren’t too many places in the country where
you can see something like this.
So, the work starts on the home of an elderly,
disabled couple, still living in a dismal trailer park
an hour outside of New Orleans. The $6,000 loan gets
the first materials bought, but a volunteer carpenter
has estimated we’ll need nearly $10,000 more. Plus,
she suggests making sure the trainees go away from the
project with at least a minimal toolkit. Plus, what
about the next house, and the next, and the next? So
we swing our volunteer proposal
writers/organizers/office managers/supporters into
activity, researching and writing more grant
proposals. But we’re worried. Because we know that
this is not the type of activity, nor the type of
people, that attracts major funding. What big
corporation, what organization wants to put a large
sum of money in the hands of poor people?
And so, you’re getting this letter. Because we know
that the main people we can really count on are people
like you, people who know about the struggle. You may
not have millions, but you know the principle. And
that’s the real bottom line.
The poor black people of New Orleans have been
deserted by the government and all but forgotten as
they linger in their trailer parks or unfamiliar
cities, far from home. Let’s not let the government
get away with their plan to keep them from coming
home. Please dig deep to help this reconstruction
project continue to train residents, fix homes, and,
most important, give hope and inspiration to those who
won’t give up the fight.
Thanks, again and again.
New Orleans Survivor Council and the People’s
Organizing Committee
| Please send contributions to:
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IFCO / POC
418 W. 145th St.
New York, NY, 10031 |
The Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organization (IFCO) is proud to serve as fiscal
sponsor for the People’s Organizing Committee (POC).
IFCO is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that has
worked to advance the struggle for racial, social and
economic justice since 1967. Your donation to IFCO/POC
is fully tax-deductible.
September 2006
Click here to download our September Newsletter.
Survivors Demand Quality Local Schools for Their
Children
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NO Survivor Council
meeting, Sept. 2006 |
On the first day of school in New Orleans, several
hundred parents and children came to Colton School to
protest the fact that the school was not ready for
occupancy. The action was led by the NAACP with the
cooperation of the People’s Organizing Committee and
New Orleans Survivor Council. At the end of the event,
the people conducted a spirited march to school
administration headquarters.
Meanwhile, parents of students at Martin Luther King
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in the Lower Ninth ward are meeting with the New Orleans Survivor Council to
plan strategy to force the opening of their school in its
original building on Caffin Avenue. In late spring,
residents and volunteers defied police orders to stay out
of the building and went in to clean it and gut it. It is
estimated that it would only take two weeks to prepare the
building for use, but no attempt has been made by school
administration to do that. Instead, parents are still
waiting to hear where their children should report to
school and when.
The Survivor Council
insists that education is a civil right. The State of
Louisiana has done everything in its power to stop the
parents and students of Martin Luther King from holding
school at its regular building site on Caffin Avenue.
| To this date the state
still has not provided adequate facilities for our
African-American students. Some residents have discussed
the possibility of opening a school on their own, using
retired teachers from around the country who will teach on
a voluntary basis. Their rallying cry is “We Must Take
Back Our Schools!” |
Parents and children
protest on opening day |
August 2006
Click here to download our August Newsletter.
New Orleans Survivor
Council Attempts to Seize Trailers
August 29, 2006
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Residents demand FEMA
trailer, Aug. 29, 2006
Mr. Muhammad is arrested
at FEMA site |
On August 29, members and
supporters of the New Orleans Survivors Council and
People’s Organizing Committee went to the Six Flags FEMA
storage site to take a long-awaited trailer to the home of
a resident of the Lower Ninth ward. Mr. Curtis Muhammad, a
Survivor Council member, was handcuffed, arrested and
charged with municipal trespassing. The action followed a
resolution on the right to return issued by the Survivors
Council.
Mr. Muhammad stated, “Our
government left us to die. One year has passed and not one
house has been restored by the
local, state or national
governments for poor black folk. It is now time for
the poor black community to take charge of their
future.”
The woman who the
trailer was for stated that this was the first time
anyone had done anything of significance to help her.
She had been promised a trailer since December 2005.
The New Orleans
Survivor Council believes that it is a violation of
basic human rights to prevent people from returning to
their homes in New Orleans, and therefore the citizens
have a right to reclaim their homes.
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Attend the Trial
October 24
Mr. Muhammad pleaded not guilty to the charges and
will be tried in Municipal Court on October 24, 2006.
The New Orleans Survivors Council will use this case
to expose how the government on every level has denied
poor, black New Orleanians their right to return. The
Council encourages all readers to attend the trial in
support of the right to return.
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DONATIONS NEEDED
Help continue this work! Send donations to:
POC/IFCO
418 W. 145th Street
New York, NY 10031 |
Survivor
Council Update
About 45 residents
attended the New Orleans Survivor Council meeting on
September 2 shortly after the anniversary of Katrina.
Members of the Council had taken action on August 29 to
try to obtain a trailer from FEMA for a resident who had
been promised one since last December.
The meeting discussed the
Right to Return resolution, which affirms the right of
residents to take trailers from FEMA lots for their use
while rebuilding their homes and the right of public
housing residents to occupy their units.
Another topic for
discussion was the school situation. Children are being
placed on waiting lists with no actual school placements,
schools in poor black neighborhoods are not reopening,
causing children to have to go to school outside their
neighborhoods, and school expulsion hearings will now be
held in Baton Rouge, which means kids and their parents
will not be able to attend to defend their rights.
Also, residents discussed
taking over control of the People’s Organizing Committee
as well as Survivor Council finances, and other tasks that
POC is currently coordinating, such as the job training
program, house gutting and reconstruction, and the
responsibility for volunteers from outside the city.
Attendees broke up into
smaller discussion groups so everyone’s voice could be
heard. When they came back together, they had consensus on
the issues discussed, and residents joined committees to
implement the work. The meeting ended with socializing and
eating barbequed chicken!
The New Orleans
Survivor Council meets every first and third Saturday at
the Sanchez Center, corner of Caffin and Claiborne, at
11:00 A.M.
July 2006
Click here to download our July Newsletter.
First
Gutting Block Party a Resounding Success!
July 29, 2006
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On
Saturday, July 29, the New Orleans Survivor Council
and People’s Organizing Committee sponsored their
first Gutting Block Party. Others participating in the
effort included many volunteers from Common Ground and
Acorn. Over one hundred people attended to help gut
five homes or help out with cooking (and eating!)
plenty of good food. A DJ lent a festive atmosphere to
the lawn of the Sanchez Center on the corner |
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Caffin and Claiborne, where the food was set up.
Gutting volunteers arrived at 8:00 AM and were sent to
homes in the neighborhood after putting up the tents.
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Sign-up sheets were available for gutting and for the
reconstruction training program. Many residents helped
cook food, set up and clean up, and talk to their
neighbors about getting active in the rebuilding
effort. People came from as far away as Baker,
Louisiana to participate.
Not only was real
progress made in gutting several homes of residents of
the Lower Ninth Ward, but the Block Party was a |
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| great
morale boost for residents who are trying to bring
back their community from the ruins. Since the
government is not helping people reclaim their
communities, residents are doing it themselves, and
having festive events like this helps to lift
everyone’s spirit of optimism.
Organizers from NOSC,
POC and Common Ground have already met to collaborate
on the next Gutting Block Party, which will take place
on August 12. Through our own efforts and the help of
our volunteer supporters from around the country, we
are moving forward!
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Reconstruction Training Program to Start up Soon!!
New Orleans Survivor
Council and the People’s Organizing Committee have both
just been informed that they have succeeded in getting
grants to do reconstruction training programs. Each grant
is for $10.000 and will be used to match up residents with
construction skills (carpentry, electrical, plumbing,
sheetrock, painting, etc.) with residents who would like
to learn those skills while rebuilding homes. Some of the
money will pay participants (trainers and trainees will
receive the same pay) and some will buy tools and
materials to accomplish the work. Homes will be chosen on
the basis of agreement from the homeowner to allow use of
the property for the organizing and rebuilding effort for
a period of time.
Everyone wins through
this program: some folks will have income for a while,
young residents will learn job skills that can serve them
for a lifetime, and a few properties will be brought back
into use.
If you are interested in
participating in this program, either to teach skills or
to learn and work, please call the POC office at
504-872-9591 and ask for Steve.
June 2006
Click here to download our June Newsletter.
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Hampton & New York students helping with
reconstruction in May |
Summer
Project Testimonial
Over the summer
from July 10 2006 to July 31 2006 I went to New
Orleans as a volunteer. For three weeks I worked
with a non-profit organization call People’s
Organizing Committee. This organization’s main
goal was to get the people most affected by
Katrina to play a leading role in
rebuilding New Orleans. One year after the storm the
lower class communities still have not received the
proper care or been helped to rebuild their homes. POC
decided to get hands on with helping these
communities. |
The organization did
this by having volunteers work with the victims of Katrina.
The volunteers did two things when working with POC.
One group would gut out residents’ houses that
were most affected by the storm. This group
basically took everything out of the house until
nothing was left but the frame of it. This group
worked mostly on houses in the lower ninth ward, a
mostly lower class community. While the gutting
group was gutting another group was canvassing
around different communities in New Orleans to
invite residents to a Survivors Council. In this
Survivors Council POC guided the residents to
organize their community’s top priorities and
fight for them. Some of these community issues
were building schools for the kids, building
hospitals for the sick, and getting residents back
in their homes. For three weeks I did this as a
volunteer. This trip was an experience of a
lifetime, personally and educationally.
Personally, so much anger was
building, living and seeing the conditions Black and Latino
communities are living in. I felt this trip was not only an
eye opener, but also an emotional cooler. POC’s way of
logically thinking situations through taught me basically to
turn my anger into something useful, whether it moves me to
take a leading role in changing the direction of my
community’s lifestyle or joining groups that agree with my
views to make a change. When I went to New Orleans and
actually experienced a taste of what the lower class residents
of New Orleans were going through I became angrier. But the
more I stayed down in New Orleans I began to realize that
being angry wasn’t useful to myself or my community. In fact,
it was more harmful than good. I soon began changing my whole
attitude and instead of being angry at the world I realized I
could fight passionately and smartly against the oppressor.
What really inspired me were the Katrina victims. Just seeing
how bad they were being treated by the government, but instead
of being angry and sour they didn’t let their condition bring
their spirit down. These people were open-hearted, god-loving
people that didn’t even show how angry they were. They fought
for their homes, fought for their rights, and never gave up.
Now I feel at peace. I feel like I’m ready to take on the
world with a different attitude, a different understanding of
myself. But sadly I feel like I left New Orleans with a burden
on my shoulders to change how minorities are treated in
America.
This trip was also
educational. I learned a lot about socialism, racism, and
sexism. These issues were brought up in several conversations
down in New Orleans. POC staff encouraged me to approach these
issues logically and strongly which allowed me to take a
stance on all of them. Being that these issues are so large
and complex I can’t give you a solution for any of them, but
this experience allowed me to think out of the box and attack
some of these issues in my daily routine. For example, in my
culture the word “bitch” is a common word in speech directed
to females. I was educated on how that might be sexist and how
that affects how I treat women.
Another thing I learned when
working with the POC was bottom-up organizing. Bottom-up
organizing is basically having people at the bottom take power
in organizing whatever needs to be done in their communities.
Instead of having the rich higher class or the politicians
make the decisions for the working class, the working class
should make the decisions telling the politicians what they
need to do. This was the POC’s main goal and view and by
staying with this organization more and more I understood
bottom-up organizing and why it is key for Americans to
function correctly with it.
I also learned a lot of
cultural things in New Orleans. Jazz is big down there so I
learned a lot of interesting facts about Jazz. Also, many of
the housing structures down there were built by slaves and
these structures hold a lot stories. The most interesting
thing I learned was that In New Orleans the deceased were
buried above the ground.
Overall, the experience was a
life changer. I came to New Orleans confused with my life and
where it was heading and I left ready to move on to the next
chapter prepared. Now I know what direction I want to go in
life. I don’t want to be stuck in the “ghetto” all my life. I
want to be the wise old man that lived through the darkness,
but found a spark of light and used that one spark to move on
and live in the light. This trip was that spark. This
experience, even though it was only three weeks built my
character a lot. This experience made me less passive and more
aggressive with my future, more focused on the task at hand,
less focused on my peers and girls. I learned to express
myself more clearly and not close myself when people don’t
understand where I’m coming from. It may seem like all of a
sudden I woke up a new man, but I see it like this: I just
needed to clear my mind and really think about life in a new
environment and not in chaos, something which I’m usually at
the center of. I want to thank Herb Mack and the Urban Academy
staff for never giving up on me and allowing me to experience
this trip.
Click here for more “Volunteer Information”.
Click here for the Summer Project Pamphlet.
Click here to view our entire Photo Gallery
Thank You.
Julius Rainey
Updates from Baker
Survivors’ Council: Bottom-Up Organizing in Action
Monday, June 5th, 2006
POC organizers arrived at
Airport 1, one of the trailer park communities for those
displaced by Hurricane Katrina, to pass out flyers before
the third meeting of the Baker Survivors’ Council. A
resident, the daughter of an organizer at the Renaissance
trailer park, walked us around the park to meet a few of
the residents. We were met with both smiles and
resistance. “I know how Louisiana is. They ain’t gonna let
that happen. It don’t work like that,” said Mike, a
resident, while admitting that he liked POC’s ideals.
Despite his words, Mike
showed up to join the other 30 people in the circle,
chimed in with his thoughts and spoke about the cause of
his cynicism. Prior to the meeting, Mike wasn’t returning
home, but afterwards, like many others, Mike is now
undecided about returning home.
The meeting was a good
one. It was very high in energy. The people of the Baker’s
Survivors’ Council are excited about the effect they can
have on the situation in New Orleans. They want to return
and are willing to do what it takes and to work together
as a community to rebuild New Orleans the way they want it
rebuilt.
They formed five
committees -- Organizing, Reconstruction, Education,
Finance & Fundraising, and Media – and then discussed
specific tasks for each. The Finance & Fundraising
Committee started raising funds at the meeting. D. M., who
has volunteered to be the committee coordinator, said, “I
got five bucks,” when they asked him how he was going to
raise money. His comment started others reaching for their
wallets. Everyone pulled out a dollar or more and tossed
it in the pot in the center of the circle. In just a few
short minutes, the survivors’ had raised $65 and decided
to use it to buy water for the volunteers who came to help
gut houses.
As a POC organizer, I’m
grateful I was able to attend the Baker’s Survivors’
Council meeting. The positive energy and hope that flowed
from the survivors was intense and made me realize that
the reason some people don’t want to return home is
because they have no hope of a better life. It seems
people are discovering the hope and strength they need to
continue the struggle in the thoughts and words of their
community. It was inspiring to see a couple of the youth
buzzing around outside of the meeting. I made it a point
to talk to them and to invite them and their friends to
the next meeting. They seemed excited at the idea that
they can have a say in how their city is rebuilt. I know
this is just the beginning of a very long journey, but the
folks at Baker have the attitude to succeed.
Submitted by K.M.
Nothing about us, without us, is for us!
Monday, June 12th, 2006
The fourth meeting of the
Baker’s Survivors’ Council, and all I can say is WOW!!!
Five of us arrived about four hours early to talk to
residents and invite them to the meeting. We split into
two groups, one to scout out new folks and one to visit
current members. I stopped by a couple trailers and
chatted with a few of the committee coordinators. I
discovered just how active the Baker survivors had been
over the last week.
Each of the committees
had been out fulfilling the tasks the council had outlined
the week before. The education committee had been to a
conference over the weekend and made several contacts with
folks who wanted to talk to the parents in the trailer
park about teaching their children. A couple different
dance teams want to help with the mentoring program by
establishing dance teams for the girls and a semi-pro
coach wants to set up a football team for the boys. The
YWCA wants to be involved as well as many other contacts.
With all of this good news, I was told the best was yet to
come, but I had to wait until the finance & fundraising
committee report at the meeting.
They were right; I was
jumping for joy at the meeting. The finance & fundraising
committee coordinator had been busy. The idea from the
last meeting was to talk to all of the businesses who the
trailer park residents support regularly. The first stop
was Baker Hardware, where the residents purchase their
propane. Baker Hardware made the commitment to donate all
the plumbing supplies we need. Several of the RTA workers
eat breakfast everyday at Baker Express. They have allowed
a donation jar to be set next to the register with a note
explaining our purpose. The organizing committee
coordinator was involved with the fundraising aspect as
well. She called Wal-Mart to ask for their support. They
have agreed to donate two cases of water a day for the
gutting and reconstruction crews.
There were a lot of new
faces at the meeting this week. It was evident that the
organizing committee had been spreading the word around
the different trailer park communities in Baker. All
throughout the meeting people kept showing up and asking
questions. A couple of guys in their early twenties not
only came but stayed for the entire meeting. They want to
be involved. They are thinking of having a party/barbeque
to raise funds possibly the weekend before July 4.
Once again, I was
inspired to witness the environment at the Baker’s
Survivors’ Council. I couldn’t believe how much they
accomplished in a week. Their involvement in active
committee work is an example for the New Orleans Survivor
Council! The dedication of the residents in the trailer
parks in Baker gives me hope that leaders will rise up
from the devastation and take an active role in deciding
their fate. People want to go home. The people in Baker
know they can make it happen. I hope their attitude and
determination spreads to the community of New Orleans as a
whole because together we can do anything. The people hold
the power, and because of the folks of the Baker’s
Survivors’ Council, my strength and determination to
illuminate the power of the people has been rejuvenated.
Thank you, Baker!!!
Submitted by K.M.
HELP SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE BAKER AND NEW ORLEANS
SURVIVORS’ COUNCILS!
|
Please send
contributions to: |
People's Organizing Committee
IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organizing)
418 W. 145th St.
New York, NY 10031 |
|
Contact us: |
504-872-9591
|
Housing Project
Residents Lead the Way to Take Back Their Homes
June, 5th, 2006
On Saturday June 3rd a
group of approximately 8 residents were joined by over 20
volunteers and supporters at the Florida housing
development. Media coverage was present as residents tore
down the wooden boards that kept them from entering their
homes and went in to remove piles of debris and furniture,
beginning work on what is planned to be a permanent return
to their homes. It was an emotional day for many survivors
as they re-entered their homes for the first time since
September and saw the full extent of the damage to their
homes and belongings. Some tried to salvage mementos and
pictures that they were able to find among the debris.
Although witnessing the destruction may have been
disheartening, many expressed a deepened determination to
return to their homes and communities regardless of any
city policies. It was a reminder for all present of the
power and beauty inherent in community and unity. We must
all remember this as we continue to struggle for the
return of displaced residents and the rebuilding of this
vibrant city.
At the St. Bernard
housing development residents set up a tent city which
they named Survivor’s Village as a sign of resistance to
the city’s no return policy for most of the city’s public
housing residents. Although residents are keeping their
activities off of HANO property for the time being, they
plan to take the same course of action that Florida
housing residents have taken and begin the gutting work
necessary to move back into their homes.
The two actions, though
organized separately from one another, were attended by
residents of both housing projects, and it is hoped that a
coalition will arise out of the support the residents have
been showing for each other’s activities.
The St. Bernard leadership committee met Monday June 5th
to discuss the events that took place over the weekend,
and to decide upon further courses of action. High on the
list of priorities was the topic of unity. Residents have
already been meeting weekly at St. Bernard’s, and it was
discussed whether those meetings should be used as the
basis for a new coalition of residents and organizers, to
build and connect around issues and needs specific to
residents of public housing.
Those present came to the
consensus that the presence of Survivor’s Village created
an excellent opportunity to make a strong and visible sign
of unity between the different developments, and that a
tent would be put up to represent each different
development, with residents from each site manning and
occupying each tent.
In order to show that the
residents are determined to return to their communities,
regular activities will begin to take place throughout the
week at Survivor’s Village. The need for a sense of
“community normalcy” was expressed and Sunday church
services were among the activities that were suggested be
held at the site. The weekly St. Bernard meetings are
already taking place at Survivor’s Village.
It was also decided that
residents could use Saturdays as a weekly opportunity to
carry out a planned course of action and show a unified
front of residents from across the public housing
community, so each week residents will gather at a
different development to carry out reconstruction work on
various homes.
June, 7th, 2006
Leaders from the Florida
Public Housing Development that are heading up the public
housing workgroup of the New Orleans Survivor Council met
today with POC organizers and laid out their plan for
returning to the Florida. Looking to reclaim their homes
without leaving HANO any room to violate their leases, the
Florida residents have decided that instead of moving into
those homes that need to be gutted out, they would move
back into homes that need no gutting. The Florida Housing
Development currently has no power so residents have begun
to solicit generators in order to assist them in their
return home.
On Saturday, June 10,
2006, over thirty residents of the Florida Housing
Development will meet up at their homes and continue the
cleanup that they started on last week. Two residents have
committed to moving back into their homes Saturday and to
look out for the homes of all the residents who have yet
to come back.
POC organizers also met
with a supporter of the New Orleans Survivor Council and
POC who works with the City of Kenner. The supporter has
pledged to deliver additional resources to assist Katrina
on the Ground students with their efforts to volunteer for
the New Orleans Survivor Council in repairing their homes
and reaching out to more residents throughout the city in
order to empower themselves.
Lower Ninth Ward
Remembers Victims of the Levee Break on Memorial Day
June, 2cd, 2006
|
Reading names of the dead
at Memorial Day levee service, May 29 |
There was a memorial for the
victims of Hurricane Katrina this past Monday, May 29. The
memorial walk was organized by Ninth Ward NENA and
citizens throughout the communities surrounding the lower
9th ward. The New Orleans Survivor Council supported and
organized for the walk. Anywhere from 150-200 people came
out to honor the memory of thousands of victims of the
Katrina disaster. Residents took turns reading out
hundreds of names of people that did not survive Katrina.
The memorial included going on a march around the lower
9th ward with a band playing uplifting music. There was a
lunch provided for the people involved in the memorial
service by the emergency relief committee. It is important
to remember the victims of hurricane Katrina and to
rebuild the community with them in our hearts.
|
May 2006
Click here to download our May Newsletter.
Resistance in the Belly
of the Beast:
A Survivor Council Develops in a Trailer Park
Baker, Louisiana,
Monday, May 29th, 2006
“When these folks
[People’s Organizing Committee] came here last week, I
figured they were just another group promising stuff they
wouldn’t deliver. They were promising to gut people’s
places for free. So I decided to challenge them – I told
them, okay, you can gut my house. But I didn’t really
expect them to do it. So on Saturday, I drove over to New
Orleans, and I called them. They said they were already on
their way. So that was the first surprise. But when they
got there, I saw it was S. and four women. I thought, no
way, these folks are not for real. My house doesn’t have
dry wall, it has plaster walls. No way some women were
going to knock that stuff out – it’s hard as concrete. But
those ladies got to work, and I couldn’t believe what I
was seeing. They just worked! They were covered in dust
and insulation. I was so impressed with them. So I told
them I was going to the store and asked them what they
wanted – they said, just some juice. Man, I went and
bought everything, sandwiches, chicken, fruit, juice. They
were amazing. So I want you all to know, these folks are
for real. They do what they say. And I am so grateful to
them, I got this thank you card I’m going to read to you
and give them. But you can trust these folks, they really
are for real!”
|
Baker Trailer
Park /
Concentration Camp for Katrina survivors |
These were the words that
opened a meeting under the tent in the middle of a trailer
park in Baker, Louisiana. The previous week, when POC
organizers went to the park, nine people came to the
meeting they had called. This time, we made a circle of
fifteen folding chairs, hoping for a slightly larger
crowd. As the meeting went on, we kept having to add
chairs, move the circle out, add more chairs. By the end
of it, nearly 30 residents took part in the meeting.
This trailer park is
one of many scattered around the Gulf
|
Coast. It is really more
like a concentration camp than a trailer park. Several
thousand tiny trailers are lined up on a treeless patch of
gravel on a dead-end road, surrounded by chain-link
fencing. Dozens of security guards in black shirts patrol
constantly. When we drove up to the entrance, we had to
say who we were seeing and give their “address,” and
everyone in the car had to produce picture ID. The guards
wrote down each name. When we started to take a few
pictures, security ordered us to stop – they said because
it was government property. Security even attended the
meeting (though much less than last week, when there was
more security than residents!).
In spite of these
intimidating conditions, people spoke freely at the
meeting. Everyone introduced themselves, and said whether
they wanted to move back home to New Orleans or not. Now
that they saw POC was serious, nearly everyone wanted to
return. Three construction workers in the group
volunteered to form a committee to find out the needs of
everyone who signed up for house gutting or renovation.
The first three homes were scheduled, and people talked
about the importance of helping each other on this work.
Another resident signed up to be an organizer, in
particular to spread the movement to the other trailer
parks in the area, and this work was begun on Thursday.
The next two house-guttings will happen on Saturday and
Sunday, June 3rd and 4th.
At the end of the
meeting, we all stood in the circle holding hands and sang
“Hold my hand while I run this race, ‘cause I don’t want
to run this race alone.” The POC organizer and three
volunteers were greatly inspired by the folks who lost all
in the hurricane except their humanity, unity and
determination!
April 2006
Momentum Building for Massive April 29 March for Peace, Justice & Democracy
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
Like the recent immigrant rights actions across the U.S., a massive
turnout is expected for the March for Peace, Justice & Democracy on
Saturday, April 29 in New York City. Organizers anticipate an unprecedented crowd, which will gather in the area stretching from 7th Avenue to Park Avenue South and 18th to 22nd Streets. The march will step off at […]
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Town Hall Meeting
Thursday, April 13th, 2006
This Saturday, April 15th at 11 AM PHRF will host a Town Hall meeting to formulate a grassroots response to Blanco’s community block grant plan. Representatives from all regional community organizations are welcome to come and contribute. Meeting will be held at The Sanchez Center, at the corner of Caffin and Claiborne in the lower […]
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National Day Laborer Run for Peace Dignity
Thursday, April 6th, 2006
This Saturday - Runners from The National Day Laborer Organizing Network NDLON will join us in New Orleans!
1. To raise awareness around anti-immigrant legislation
2. Help forward a worker organizing project in New Orleans for all workers.
3. Provide a space for testimony on harassment by police and lack of payment by contractors.
4. […]
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Discussion Document for PHRF/CLU Leadership and Staff
Monday, April 3rd, 2006
[Please read and give comments and feedback toward developing a collective position paper on grass-root “bottom-up” organizing and leadership development]
From the first time one person took something for himself and denied it to his fellows, humanity has resisted. From the beginning of private ownership and exploitation and oppression, there has been resistance. Human beings have […]
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March 2006
Charity Hospital Is “Next Victim” in Post-Katrina Pillaging of Poor Communities
Saturday, March 25th, 2006
Fight to save last N.O. public hospital mirrors struggle to halt sell-off of community resources
New Orleans – Community groups representing neighborhoods, African-Americans, low-income people, prisoners, disabled people, Katrina reconstruction workers, health care workers and public officials today defied the depopulation of New Orleans, bringing a crowd of marchers to demand that Charity Hospital be reopened […]
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Know Your Rights Workshop
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
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Important Message from PHRF
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
Friends:
We’re writing to you from New Orleans, more than six months after the levees broke—killing loved ones and washing away the homes, life work and life dreams of hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians. Of the 270,000 evacuees who sought public shelter, 93% were African American. One third of them had incomes below $10,000. […]
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9th Ward Residents Rebuild School
Thursday, March 16th, 2006
[New Orleans March 16, 2006] Lower 9th Ward residents and volunteers began renovations today on MLK elementary school at Caffin and Caliborne. Their goal is to bring families back to their neighborhood, which was badly flooded following the levee breach in the Industrial Canal. Community meetings in this damaged neighborhood have inspired the […]
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Global Women’s Strike Action in LA Highlights Katrina & other Global Warming Survivors
Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
Global Women’s Strike Action in LA Highlights Katrina & other Global Warming Survivors
by Susan Andres
“Everything was calm. I had just gone from the sofa into the kitchen. That’s when the water came gushing in. I saw my little dog, Queenie, struggling to get up on the sofa. I grabbed her up, […]
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Rally to Save Charity Hospital
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
On March 25, 2006, at 2 p.m., several hundred doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, hospital employees, politicians, and political activists will be meeting outside of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital to protest the closure of this esteemed public institution. Considered the oldest continuously running public hospital in the country, Charity has cared for thousands of […]
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NOLA Property Owner’s Rights After Katrina
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
Click here to read the rights of homeowners!
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February 2006
Chicago and New York Protest Evictions and Homelessness of Katrina/Rita Survivors
Monday, February 27th, 2006
National Protests are taking place this tuesday, February 28th against constant rolling deadlines, threats of eviction.
Chicago - 536 S. Clark Street, 12:30 PM, March to Federal Plaza (Adams and Deerborn) Contact: Cassandra Burrows 773-307-9686 casbur@hotmail.com
New York City - 26 Federal Plaza, 4-6:30 PM FEMA headquarter and March to City hall to protest beurocratic, oppressive […]
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Proposal to Make Our Communities Livable
Sunday, February 19th, 2006
To: Governor Kathleen Blanco
From: People of 9th Ward of New Orleans and Other Survivors of Katrina
Subject: Proposal to Make Our Communities Liveable
Residents, property owners, and business owners of the Lower 9th Ward, The New Orleans Survivors’ […]
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People’s Hurricane Relief Fund Statement on Gulf South Housing Crisis
Thursday, February 9th, 2006
In the wake of thousands of hotel evictions on Tuesday and with thousands more being made homeless in the weeks to come, hurricane Katrina survivors are continuing to struggle for long term housing, a right to return to their communities and justice in the rebuilding process.
Government failure on housing issues has manifested […]
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Hurricane Survivors Displaced Again: Nationwide Actions to Combat FEMA Evictions 2/7/06
Monday, February 6th, 2006
Demonstrations: February 7th, 2006 in New Orleans, LA, Jackson, MS, Atlanta, GA, Oakland, CA, New York, NY, Raleigh, NC, Washington, D.C. See below for details
February 7, 2006- At local FEMA office headquarters in cities
throughout U.S., Hurricane survivors and community supporters will demonstrate to call for an end to unjust hotel evictions.
Following several deadline extensions and […]
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New Orleans Residents Confront Governor Blanco
Sunday, February 5th, 2006
Press Conference and Rally:
Monday Feb 6, 2006 at 2 PM
Sanchez Center, Corner of N. Claiborne and Caffin
New Orleans, LA Lower 9th Ward
Contact: Sakura Kone 917-440-9679 media@communitylaborunited.net
New Orleans Residents Confront Governor Blanco
Express Concerns about Land Grabs and Unfair Rebuild Plan
Residents of the 9th Ward and other low-lying areas plan to confront Governor Blanco during her New […]
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College Students Nationwide Plan Spring Break in Gulf Region
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
College students will hit the Gulf Region Sunday, March 5th – Saturday, April 1st opting to engage in rebuilding instead of recreation. Katrina on the Ground is a Spring Break initiative organized by hiphop generation leaders and college students like Kevin Powell (Writer/Activist), Wesli S |
