People’s Organizing Committee (POC) Contact List
 

Volunteer Coordinator Annemarie: (917) 294-4224 Ka-Adira: (504) 287-6215 Public Housing Organizing Musa: (201) 725-2607 Trailer Park/Immigration Organizing   Josh: (404) 446-5552 Reconstruction and Gutting Rock: (504) 287-6215 Communications Jondrea: (504) 415-8001 Kathy: (847) 833-7099             (504) 872-9591 New Orleans Organizing Project Coordinator Ishmael: (404) 664-3009 New Orleans Survivor Council Leadership Team Contact: Odessia Lewis: (504) 972-0753

The effort to organize the people who have been most impacted in this disaster and to rebuild their community in the New Orleans area and among displaced New Orleanians is directed by the New Orleans Survivor Council.

Resistance in the Belly of the Beast:
A Survivor Council Develops in a Trailer Park

Baker, Louisiana,
Monday, May 29, 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!”

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!

Lower Ninth Ward Remembers Victims of the Levee Break on Memorial Day
June 2, 2006

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.