For the Media

REPORTS FROM NEW ORLEANS SURVIVOR COUNCIL DELEGATIONS TO VENEZUELA, INDIA AND WASHINGTON, DC: CREATING INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES, SEEKING RESTITUTION

When: Saturday, June 16, 2007, 11am-1pm
Where: Old Pathway Baptist Church, 1908 Alabo St. (2 blocks off N. Claiborne) Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA
Contact: Ishmael Muhammad, 404-664-3009

Members of the New Orleans Survivor Council (NOSC) have been seeking alliances and support both internationally and nationally; their reports on their travels, observances, and sources of support will be presented at a meeting on Saturday, June 16th. Members from each of the delegations will be in attendance, offering strategies for garnering support and translating it all into opportunities for survivors to return home and rebuild their homes, families, lives and communities.

A delegation of 4 NOSC participants went to Venezuela (see full information below) to garner moral and financial support from the Communal Councils (neighborhood people’s organizations) and the Venezuelan National Assembly to help poor, black New Orleaneans in their attempts to reclaim their city. Both the Communal Councils and National Assemblymen promised ongoing support to the survivors and expressed outrage that the money they had previously sent to New Orleans never reached the poor, most affected people in the disaster.

Immediately after returning from Venezuela, two of the members of that delegation, Bobbie Hammond and Gloria Williams, went to Washington, DC to meet with Senator Mary Landrieu to press her to support legislation that would re-open public housing in New Orleans and allow them to return to their units to which they hold leases. Landrieu has refused so far, and, in response, Hammond and Williams, along with others, are participating in a sit-in in that senator’s office right now.

Another delegation traveled to India, where they met with survivors of their tsunami and discussed each of their experiences with “disaster capitalism” that benefits the multinational corporations and contractors much more than the victims. The NOSC participants explained to the people of India how rejected and attacked our people have been by the governments on all levels—New Orleans, Louisiana, and US Federal.

Representatives of each of the delegations will be present at the meeting for reports, questions and answers, and interviews.

NEW ORLEANS SURVIVOR COUNCIL DELEGATION RETURNS FROM VENEZUELA:
FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT FROM VENEZUELA, REJECTION FROM U.S. GOVT.

Four members of the New Orleans Survivor Council (NOSC) traveled to Venezuela for one week and met with elected officials and members of the Communal Councils and got a rousing welcome and show of support. They arrived back in New Orleans on June 9th.

Bobbie Hammond, Alberta McCathen, Ishmael Muhammad, and Gloria Williams went as the second NOSC delegation to Venezuela to spread the word about the real treatment of poor black people in New Orleans, the ways in which all the governments in the US have abandoned them, and how the money Venezuelans and others gave to New Orleans never reached the poor people themselves. The delegation made the journey to get support from the Venezuelan people and government for the poor people of New Orleans.

The four New Orleaneans visited poor and working class people in Caracas. They were sent by the NOSC to carry a proposal for aid to the displaced black residents of New Orleans to friends and allies in the Communal Councils in the poor neighborhoods that were made on a previous trip, with the hope that Council members would accompany them to present the proposal to the government. The NOSC wants to establish a sister-city relationship with the Caracas Communal Councils and obtain the aid that the Venezuelan government offered and the US government rejected just after Katrina.

They were welcomed with open arms by the people in Caracas. Said Gloria Williams, “It was a great, great, great experience. I’ve never seen all this love in all my 60 years. The people at the Communal Council showed us so much love that I cried. They built an $8 million ASPCA in New Orleans, but nothing for us. In New Orleans, white people stepped over the black people to save other white people. But the Venezuelan people don’t look at color. They said they are from the ‘hood’ and they will help the NOSC because they are in the ‘hood.’” Alberta McCathen agreed: “They made us feel like we were princes and kings, showed their gratitude for what we went through. I’ve never been further away from home than Baltimore. We had to come right across the water to get all this love. They love us.” Bobbie Hammond added, “We had a great week. I’m going back to the projects. I feel like we are going to win this. We went to the mountaintop in the ‘hood’ in Caracas. The people are living up their comfortable, happy, and it belongs to them. If they can live in the hills, we are going to take our community back. I don’t feel as down as I did when I came here. They lifted our spirits. We have some brothers and sisters right here in Venezuela.”

The words of these Katrina survivors show the immense power of international solidarity among grass roots people. Their own government has deserted the poor and working black people of New Orleans, none of the billions of dollars in “aid” have reached the hands of poor people, their efforts to return home are thwarted at every turn, and all odds are stacked against them. But the love, support and unity from poor struggling people abroad instilled in them hope and determination. As Ms. Hammond put it, “I feel like I have my dignity and pride back. Everything is different with us now. The fight’s not over. If they could do it, we can do it.”

Ishmael Muhammad added, “The people of Venezuela are supporting the efforts of the poor black people in New Orleans displaced by US government policy. They are our friends. The US government turned a natural disaster, Katrina, into an unnatural disaster: we charge them with genocide, with the responsibility of killing 6000 people and making it impossible for hundreds of thousands of poor black folks from returning to their homes, families, and communities in New Orleans. The US government has denied all our basic freedoms.”

Together with Communal Council members, the NOSC delegation joined half a million people demonstrating in support of the government’s move to close down a TV station that had participated in a CIA-backed coup attempt five years ago. Ms Williams describes the scene: “We were in a parade with the poor and middle class people for Chavez. He has so much support among the people. They love him. We must have walked about 20 blocks, but it was worth it.”

The delegation also met with members of the National Assembly and spent several days attending meetings and appearing on radio and TV, spreading their message to people across Venezuela and other Latin American countries. The Communal Councils took the NOSC proposal to their umbrella organization, the Venezuelan Commission on Citizen Participation, which then presented a resolution to the National Assembly to support the NOSC and making it an official “sister Communal Council.” This would mean the NOSC would also be eligible for all the support that Communal Councils get from the government.

One part of the NOSC proposal asked for support for a Training Institute in New Orleans. Said Ms. Williams, “After meeting with National Assemblyman Francisco Torrealba, he indicated to the delegation that he wants to see a training institute in New Orleans so our people can be trained in all the skills they’ll need for the recovery. I told the National Assembly that none of the money they gave New Orleans got to the poor people. The congressmen had tears in their eyes.”

Communal Council members wanted the delegation to stay even longer than they did. They invited NOSC to come back, and offered to put people up in their own homes next time. The delegation went back stronger than it had left. As Ms. Hammond said when she was asked what she’ll do now that she’s back in her home town, “We are on our way back. I’ve been committed to the Survivor Council from the beginning. We will work even harder. The hood is our family.”