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This information is provided for historical background purposes, since ISBO grew out of the struggle in New Orleans, through PHRF and POC. |
2009
November 2009
Provisional Constitution of the Harper's Ferry Raiding Party
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August 2009
2008
July 2008
Fire Next Time:
Social Justice in America
July 1, 2008
In the Black church,
there's a spiritual that contains the line, "It won't
be water, but fire next time," where God essentially
tell Noah right after the flood, "You ain't seen
nothing yet." I think about this when I examine the
actions of American government immediately following
the Civil Rights movement, and I wonder if they got
the message.
After weathering the
storm of mass organization and protests through
trickery, decapitation, intimidation and petty
concessions, America went right back to its wicked
ways before the ink was dry on the Civil Rights Bill.
Under the guises of Reaganomics, 'the War on Drugs,'
‘Get Tough on Crime,' and ‘No Child Left Behind;'
exploitation, repression, and miseducation sought to
undermine any victories we supposedly won on paper.
But this time, prettier faces than Bull Connor and
Ross Barnett drove the point home. And here we are.
Schools have been re-segregated; Black ownership is at
an all-time low, while Black unemployment,
incarceration, and state-sanctioned mistreatment
threaten to surpass their 'pre-movement' levels.
To be fair, just as
the government is guilty of instituting these
practices, we are equally at fault as a people for not
recognizing what was going on and falling for the
trap. We cannot change the past, and it is the present
and future that are of concern to me. Each of the
disasters that have befallen this country in recent
times have presented opportunities for this country to
do what it says on the label, and each time, it has
failed miserably. I recall the U2 video, "The Saints
Are Coming," that showed the troops being called home
from Iraq to help people in need and military aircraft
dropping sandbags to fill the breached levees. Today,
that vision seems to have come from another universe.
Now, as desperation
overtakes caution, the results could very well prove
to be catastrophic. It is only for so long that a
people can be collectively exploited, oppressed and
degraded before those people begin to rebel. And now,
as youth and elder alike come to their senses, we
could very well be on the verge of such a desperate
time. I think back to that Negro spiritual, and I
think in this day and age it should read, "It won't be
marches, but action this time."
And when I speak of
action, I don't mean putting on shows or chanting
slogans or grandstanding by lukewarm organizations but
real change. The change I'm talking about is the
change that comes from recognizing the genius of the
poor, the overlooked, and the forgotten and realizing
that each of us has a contribution to make. Now more
than ever, an organized populace is essential to our
survival. We should all be well aware of what is
taking place. Whether through malice, neglect, or
incompetence the people of New Orleans were flooded
and then left to die. Our young men and women continue
to die on the streets of America's cities, and on the
battlefields of her unjust wars, and this current
economic crisis is sitting right on all our doorsteps.
But the time for complaining is past. It is time for
us to organize. Each and every one of us has to bring
his or her gifts skills and talents to the table, and
together let us determine how to best use them for our
collective survival. We are on our own, but with the
power that we have within us, sometimes I believe that
on our own is the best place for us to be. We each
have the potential to contribute to a better world if
we come together. Catch a fire, and let your light
shine.
Thank you
Jondrea Smith
Creating Bottom-Up
Organizations: a Working
Paper
Note: This paper is
an introduction to the
basic organizing theory
and practice of the
People's Organizing
Committee of the New
Orleans Survivor Council
July 1, 2008
Preface:
This paper is hoping
to help describe and
refine the working
models we are creating
to fight for and build a
new and just world. It
is based on what we've
learned so far and what
we want to share out of
"Bottom-Up" organizing
in New Orleans after
Katrina. This organizing
has not taken place in a
historical vacuum, and
we credit all those
people whose struggles
we've learned and
benefited from, from
Ella Baker (mentor and
trainer of young
"Bottom-Up" organizers
during the Civil Rights
Movement in the U.S.
during the 1960's) and
SNCC (Student
Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, the
"Bottom-Up" organizers
of the 1960's Southern
Civil Rights Student
Movement), to the
sharecroppers' unions of
the 1930s and 1940s, to
the classic revolutions
and struggles in the
last century, and to the
centuries of struggles
by our ancestors around
the world. We present
this working paper in
the hope that with the
help of many other
people, we can also make
a contribution to that
ongoing journey. We ask
that you lend your
experience and ideas to
this process.
When the authors of
this working paper talk
about the "bottom," we
are referring to the
roughly 80% of the
world's population that
lives collectively on an
average of $2 a day:
poor, hard-working
people who mostly live
on the fringes of cities
or in their ghettoes,
and in rural areas, who
are the most lacking in
resources, health care,
and formal education.
Some work in various
industries and
sweatshops or on the
land, some are
unemployed, and some
work in the so-called
informal economy. They
are the folk who live on
steep mountainsides in
constant danger from the
next hard rain, who live
in shantytowns where
AIDS and tuberculosis
are rampant, whose
children die of
malnutrition, diarrhea
or malaria in ungodly
numbers, whose youthful
daughters are sold into
prostitution, whose
neighborhoods are
victimized by drugs and
gang violence. Pretty
much everywhere you look
in the world; they are
also those with the
darkest skin.
Bottom people are all
over the world, but the
writers of this
document, the People's
Organizing Committee (POC),
are a group of
organizers that began
our work with the bottom
in the U.S. POC is an
organization created to
assist those catching
the most hell with
grouping themselves
together to attack the
problems they face in a
collective and unified
way. POC is not an
exclusively bottom
organization. It is a
space to which all
people can come that are
willing to work for and
submit themselves to the
direction and leadership
of the bottom. All of us
in POC, whether from the
bottom or not, have been
working directly for and
with the people on the
bottom. In New Orleans,
where we began, the
bottom is organized
through the New Orleans
Survivor Council (NOSC).
NOSC has reviewed this
document to guide its
development. Now we
offer the same
opportunity to you, the
readers.
The vision of poor,
black people on rooftops
and floating in poisoned
water in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina
brought to us
graphically the reality
of how the current
economic and political
situation treats poor
people everywhere. It
challenged us to look
carefully at the
dynamics of the struggle
of our people and to
investigate the existing
assumptions of who
should lead it. We
decided we must harvest
the agenda and direction
for responding to the
aftermath of Katrina
from those most impacted
by it – the same poor,
black, working people
left in the city to die.
We consider ourselves
revolutionary
organizers. By that we
mean that we have
concluded that the
status quo will never
lift up that 80% or
provide that 80% with a
decent life because the
status quo is
permanently invested in
maintaining inequalities
of race, class, and
gender. We believe that
the 80% needs to build a
new and entirely
different world,
eventually eliminate the
world's current bosses
and the structures those
bosses have erected
along the way. Most
revolutionaries in the
past have focused on
defeating the old system
through bringing regime
change: having workers
in charge instead of the
rich, having black
people overthrow whites,
having women in power
instead of men. Several
of these movements
actually succeeded in
overthrowing
governments, and began
trying to build
societies without
exploitation and
oppression. So far,
those attempts at
building a new world
have failed. Our feeling
is that our information
on the enemy and the
need to defeat its
empire is fairly well
developed and must
always be kept in mind.
But the challenge of
learning how to create a
just and egalitarian
world still lies before
us. In our view, this
will be a world created
and led by the masses
themselves.
The History:
Our first attempt to
develop the agenda
described below began
immediately after
Katrina with calling
together a coalition
that came out of many
years of organizing in
New Orleans. Although
most of the
organizations involved
did not have that
constituency or
membership, the decision
made by the writers of
this document was to
begin the process by
going to the bottom. We
decided to look among
the people most
impacted, gather them,
and ask them -- with
equal voice -- to come
up with solutions. We
assumed that most of the
people and organizations
in the "movement" would
be happy to come to work
with the people and
would acknowledge that
the agenda and
leadership of the
process should come from
organizations comprised
primarily of the people
most impacted by
Katrina, the people on
the bottom: the same
dark-skinned, poor and
working black people we
all saw on TV in the
flood, at the Superdome
and then scattered
across the country. We
began to call this
process "Bottom-Up
organizing."
(See
Appendix 1a,
which
is a timeline of the
work to develop
Bottom-Up organizing in
New Orleans. We would
suggest the reader look
at that timeline before
reading the rest of this
document.)
The Purpose:
In the rest of this
paper, we will try to
allow you, the reader to
walk through the steps
we have used in the New
Orleans to begin to
develop this thing we
call "Bottom-Up
organizing." We hope
that you will then help
us analyze how to
improve on it. We are
particularly interested
in those creative
thinkers, workers and
organizers who want to
invest in and experiment
with this process. The
things we are doing are
not presented as
antagonistic to other
types of organizing
already being done. This
is a particular body of
work we are engaging in
within the construct of
human development at
this period in history.
We want to investigate
collectively how theory
and practice come
together.
What we have observed
through doing this work
is that when the folk on
the bottom come together
on a principle of equal
voice and egalitarian
organization, they will
make fair, just, and
correct decisions about
how to conduct the work
of building a new world.
All doors must stay
open; we can't have any
space where the mass
can't enter, or where
the "true" leadership is
not mass. However, we
are not romantics or
delusional. We don't
think that the bottom
will magically change
the world into a
paradise. We know that
the conflict between the
collective impulse and
the selfish impulse
exists there, too. We
know that the enemy
lurks in the background
waiting to attack, and
will. We know this will
not be a short, easy,
smooth or peaceful road.
But our experience of
the past year and a
half, and standing on
the shoulders of our
brothers and sisters
before us, tells us that
there is genius among
the poor waiting to be
harvested to direct our
movement; that those who
are the most oppressed
can understand and deal
appropriately with all
of the challenges has
they arise, and that
the reins of our
movement should be in
their hands.
Documentation
of the Work:
In this part of the
paper, we will describe
the steps we took in New
Orleans to build the New
Orleans Survivor Council
(NOSC) and root it in
the principles of
Bottom-Up. Each
organizing situation
will have its own
particularities. For
example, in New Orleans,
we had an onslaught of
hundreds of volunteers,
which is not likely to
be the case in most
organizing situations.
We expect that people
organizing in cities or
rural areas, in the US
or so-called developing
countries, and so forth,
will face different
particular problems and
needs. However, if we
are sticking to the
principles that those on
the bottom should lead,
of respecting the human
drive to take care of
the needs of humanity
equitably, and of
treating all of our
people with fairness and
humanity, we all may be
able to use elements of
the model developed in
New Orleans.
Step 1:
Door-to-door and house
call to begin
relationship building
with the bottom
The first step taken
in New Orleans was
sending organizers and
volunteers into the
streets to meet and talk
with as many poor and
working black hurricane
survivors as we could.
The purpose in doing
this was to begin
building relationships,
make some initial
guesses about desire for
involvement, and
establish agreement for
future communication
with people who would
then be invited to meet
together in what was to
become the New Orleans
Survivor Council (NOSC).
Simultaneously, the
visits allowed us to
obtain the people's
agenda about the
issues and what
solutions were needed.
Almost 6,000 visits
were done (remember we
had an outpouring of
volunteers). We found
that we were gathering
very similar information
from many people about
what happened to them,
how they were treated,
and what obstacles faced
them back home or in
their efforts to return
home. Even before the
first meetings, we knew
something about the
consensus developing
among the people about
what they needed and
wanted done. The visits
were the source for
developing the first
agendas for the
community's initial
meetings. Much of the
information we received
provided the basis for
the people determining
and prioritizing later
legal actions to bring
to address community
issues.
In door-knocking, you
mostly listen to gain
initial understanding of
where the person is,
what they are thinking
about, and their desire
for involvement. After
that, you identify some
of the things you have
also heard from others.
You then tell them about
a meeting where others
with these same concerns
are getting together to
discuss the situation
community members are in
and how to get out of
it. You try to secure a
commitment to be there
and you deal with
problems or reasons for
not coming
(transportation, child
care, scheduling
conflicts, disagreement,
etc.), trying to make it
possible for the person
to attend. You ask if
you can contact the
person in the future,
and write down contact
information. When you're
leaving, you may leave a
flier as a reminder of
the meeting, but the
door-to-door is not
introduced by a piece of
paper.
This describes the
first time you knock on
a person's door. After
that, when someone is
expressing interest,
coming to meetings, or
doing some work, you
follow up with house
calls. In these house
calls, you plan to sit
and spend time with the
person, build a
relationship with them
and help them get more
involved in the work, a
committee, etc. Building
relationships is the key
to developing people
socially and creating an
ongoing organization
with stability, where
people feel they can
rely on each other. You
also, periodically,
conduct follow-up house
calls with people who
have not been as
involved, after certain
community victories or
new developments related
to the concerns they
have communicated.
It is really
important to constantly
reflect on the new
relationships you are
developing, understand
where your relationships
are, and be deliberate
about growing them when
opportunities for growth
present themselves.
As a result of the
work described above, by
January of 2006, the
first meeting of what
was to become the NOSC
was held in New Orleans.
Several hundred
residents attended,
despite the fact that
only a tiny fraction of
the poor black community
was back in the city.
Even before the first
meeting of the NOSC,
their organizers were
assisting residents with
whom they had begun
building relationships
to address issues in
their community.
NOSC residents
directed the filing of a
lawsuit to stop
evictions of displaced
renters without notice.
They directed the
development of a report
on conditions related to
laborers and other
workers in their
community by having
volunteers find
community members and
ask them to contribute
their testimonials.
Similarly, they directed
the development of a
report on conditions
related to members of
their community dealing
with incarceration
during the Katrina
disaster.
However, because the
residents had no
organizational identity
for their community and
for their work, credit
for the reports and the
lawsuit was almost
exclusively given to the
attorneys who were
working for the
residents and the
organizations those
attorneys belonged to or
to the advocacy
organizations that
partnered with the
residents. Organizers
were able to talk about
these efforts and
successes by the
residents during
house visits and also
have it serve as an
example of the need for
residents to develop
their own organization
so that they could give
more direction and
supervision to their
solutions. Even the
disorganized resident
successes were useful in
feeding a desire and
need for the community
to get together and
develop organization.
Planning those first
initial meetings for the
community is very
important.
(See
Appendix 1b, for
more information on the
history of NOSC.)
Step 2: Creating a
safe space for people to
meet
Before the first
meeting of what was to
become the NOSC was
convened, their
organizers, who were
mainly young people, had
to think carefully about
how to conduct it in a
"Bottom-Up" fashion. The
method chosen came from
"story circle," a
meeting model which
community elders had
been using in other
contexts for years. The
fundamental principle of
the story circle process
(also called "people's
circle") is
egalitarianism, or
treating everyone
equally and fairly and
ensuring everyone's
equal voice. This
requires several
elements:
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1) |
Make sure everyone
has equal
access to
the meeting
itself. This means
preparing the
meeting in a way
that takes
obstacles into
account and deals
with them. So, for
instance, each
meeting should
have
childcare
available, so
people with
children can come.
It should have
food,
so people don't
have to worry
about cooking.
These measures
particularly help
to remove
obstacles that
would otherwise
stand in the way
of women
participating, and
we have found that
women have taken
the lead in much
of this
organizing.
Transportation
should be
organized so those
without access to
it are enabled to
come to the
meetings. Chairs
should be set in a
circle
so everyone will
be able to see
everyone else's
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2) |
Take measures to
assure equal voice
in the meeting. Estimate
the number of people
expected, choose and (if
necessary) train enough
facilitator
teams, which include
facilitators,
timekeepers and
note-takers. The
role of the facilitator
team is to make
sure everyone gets an
equal chance to speak,
create the agenda,
understand the process
and participate; to keep
to the agenda and help
the meeting run
smoothly, to monitor
that the rules are being
followed, to call on
people during cross
talk, and then help to
gather the
agreements that
have come out of the
discussion. The
facilitator team also
assists in getting
disagreements tabled
for further discussion
between meetings or at
other meetings. The role
of women is important
here. Most meeting
facilitators from among
the grassroots in New
Orleans have been women.
We have come to feel
that participants
(normally accustomed to
male leaders and
spokesmen of
organizations) take the
group as a seriously
rooted group when women,
too, are taking visible
leadership roles.
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3) |
Begin the meeting
in a way that invites
everyone and makes
everyone comfortable. We
always start our
meetings with a
cultural or
spiritual offering
from someone in the
circle. When possible,
it is great to organize
some children to present
a song or poem. Or the
offering could be as
simple as a prayer to
invite the spirit into
the circle. This can
also be a good time to
present a
thought-provoking
prompt and do
one round of reflection
on it. (For example, at
one meeting, the prompt
was, "If we woke up
tomorrow morning and the
whole government was
dead, and we had all the
money and resources we
needed, what would we
do?")
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4) |
The meeting
usually starts with
reports on the work that
has happened since the
last meeting: committee
reports, organizer
reports, etc.
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5) |
Following reports,
the agenda is set by
taking suggestions from
the floor.
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6) |
If the group is
larger than 15 people,
break it into
smaller groups
to consider each of the
agenda items.
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7) |
The method of
discussion is
equal time for
each person. A
timekeeper
assists in assuring this
by timing each speaker
for the length of time
agreed upon by the room
(two minutes, for
example), and clap hands
or make a sign when that
time was up, at which
point the speaker
finishes his/her
sentence and stops
talking. While one
person is speaking, the
others are listening –
not responding,
interrupting, asking
questions or thinking
about what they'll say
when it's their turn.
Listening is the
most important thing
going on in the meeting.
If a person "passes"
their turn, they are
offered an opportunity
to say what they think
after the round is
finished and before the
next round begins. Each
prompt or agenda item is
taken separately and all
opinions put on the
floor in this way.
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8) |
Once everyone has
said what they needed to
say,
cross talk
occurs for the time
agreed upon by the room.
Cross talk is more like
a traditional meeting,
in which the facilitator
calls on people as they
raise hands. However,
the goal is not debate,
but to work toward
everyone having clarity
about each other's
contributions.
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9) |
If the meeting has
broken into smaller
groups, these groups
come together once all
agenda items have been
addressed and report
back. Common agreements
are now listed and
plans
made to carry them out.
The facilitator helps
guide the discussion to
breaking the plans down
into assignments, and
asks for
volunteers to take
on the assignments.
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10) |
The meeting closes
with another cultural
offering, most often
with everyone standing,
holding hands and
singing together.
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(Note:
The NOSC conducts its
meetings using this
model. The terms
"people's circle" and
"story circle" are used
interchangeably.
See Appendix 2,
the People's Circle
document, to get a more
detailed description of
the method.)
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We are sharing this
process not because we
feel it is perfect or
the "only way." The main
thing is to develop
meetings in a way that
honors the
principles of equal
voice, harvesting the
agreements and
moving on them, and of
making decisions
by consensus
rather than by vote. We
are not trying to engage
in debate and create
winners and losers. We
are trying to move
forward on those things
people have consensus on
at the moment. By the
same token, we are not
trying to ignore or
paper over differences
and disagreements,
merely to continue
talking about them until
there is agreement to
accept or reject a
particular idea by the
group as a whole.
Whatever meeting methods
and styles achieve these
purposes would be fine.
In line with these
principles, the NOSC
decided to form a
leadership committee.
Previous to this, the
entire group had been
meeting weekly and found
it too frequent a
schedule. However, they
felt they needed someone
meeting weekly to keep
the work going, to be a
link between what
happened in the meetings
and the people doing the
work. They decided not
to have traditional
elected officers, but
rather volunteers for a
leadership or organizing
team, and the door
always stays open to
anyone who wants to be
in that group and do
that work. Meetings of
the leadership team are
conducted in the same
style, and it became a
consistent working group
of pretty much the same
people each week. This
meeting has also been
used for
skills/technology
transfer, including
facilitation training,
bookkeeping, managing
volunteers, organizing
staff, etc.
Step 3: The
Work
This is not so much a
"step" as a brief
report. The work is
circular: that is, the
community meets and
decides on solutions to
problems and identifies
teams or
committees from
the community to move on
the solutions. Work is
assigned to a committee,
organizers build
relationships between
community meetings to
help build the
committees (phone and
house calls for existing
relationships,
door-knocking for new
relationships,
leafleting for anybody
you miss); committees do
the assigned work,
develop proposals for
additional work and new
solutions, and bring
reports and proposals
back to the next
community meeting.
In the very early
days, the NOSC asked
itself the question,
"What do people need in
order to come home?"
Residents agreed upon
four needs: a place to
live, a place to send
children to school, a
place to take people
when they are sick, and
a job. The issue of the
safety of the levees was
always in people's
minds, but more
recently, sound levees
around poor black
communities have also
been noted as a basic
requirement for people
to feel safe enough to
come home, so it has
become a fifth need.
Within these five
needs, the NOSC realized
that the hundreds of
volunteers at their
disposal could mainly
help initially with the
first (housing), and to
some degree the second
(education). They
decided to prioritize
the gutting, cleaning
and rebuilding of homes
according to the
principle of most need.
As house calls created a
list of people who
wanted help with their
homes, priority was to
be given, first, to
elderly and disabled
people with no insurance
or resources, second, to
single parents, and
third, to other
residents going from
people without resources
to people with some
resources. Initially,
the NOSC focused on
low-income homeowners
because they were the
first members of the
community to return in
large numbers.
Subsequently, the NOSC
began to also focus on
public housing residents
and then renters.
Volunteers also gutted,
repaired and helped
reopen schools and
meeting places. Once
again, the
decision-making was
based upon an
egalitarian
principle.
Following the same
principle; the NOSC made
and carried out
decisions to reopen
public housing, help
people get trailers to
live in while their
houses were worked on,
clean up two schools for
reopening, reopen one
school, develop a
reconstruction skills
training project, create
a "technology transfer"
program (i.e. teaching
survivors all the
information and skills
organizers had at their
disposal, from meeting
facilitation to grant
writing to computer
skills), and reach out
to immigrant workers
brought into Louisiana
in slave conditions to
begin to create unity
with them. Committees
were set up to do
various aspects of this
work. Part of the goal
of the technology
transfer program was to
develop the skills among
poor and working black
people to be able to
account for and manage
any money raised for
this work directly
through their own NOSC.
In many of these
initiatives, questions
came up that challenged
the egalitarian
principle. For instance,
at one point it was
suggested to help
rebuild the home of a
man who had worked very
hard for the NOSC
rebuilding other homes,
but did not fit the
priority criteria
because he had some
insurance and resources.
In another example, some
people initially
questioned uniting with
guest workers because
those workers were
taking jobs previously
held by black workers
until Katrina gave
employers an excuse to
fire them. A few people
wanted to set up the
leadership committee in
a traditional hierarchy
and be bossy. In each
case, the group decided
in favor of the original
principle. In each case,
opportunism was rejected
by consensus.
Step 4:
Developing across
Neighborhood Boundaries
The NOSC was first
conceived as a space for
poor and working darker
people in and displaced
from the New Orleans
area to come together to
direct the recovery and
reconstruction of their
lives and community. The
organizers began their
first relationship
building in the
neighborhood that
members of that
community lived in that
was the most devastated
during the Katrina
catastrophe. As a
result, the residents
that began to
participate in the NOSC
were low-income
homeowners from the
Lower Ninth Ward.
Some months after the
NOSC began its work,
public housing residents
who were returning to
the city on their own
and taking their homes,
or who were returning to
the city on vouchers,
began to participate in
the NOSC. Quickly,
public housing residents
decided that they wanted
their own committee to
deal with the struggle
to reoccupy public
housing. Organizers
began to assist public
housing residents in
developing their
committee, which gave
birth to a new
organization that named
itself Residents of
Public Housing (ROPH).
This new space had
two interesting aspects
about it. One, as a
space for public housing
residents to come
together to address
issues of return, it was
for all public housing
residents, across all
the developments.
Second, though it was a
space for public housing
residents to make
decisions autonomous to
the broader NOSC, ROPH
maintained a
relationship to the NOSC,
including reporting
about its efforts,
relying on and
participating in the
Reconstruction and Media
Committees of the NOSC
to achieve some of the
solutions that ROPH
determined for their
neighborhoods, and
recognized the NOSC as
their broader community
space.
By comparison, soon
after the beginning of
the Katrina tragedy,
poor and working darker
people from various
countries outside the
U.S. were shipped into
New Orleans as a part of
current day U.S. slave
trade. NOSC organizers
began an effort of
developing relationships
with the new residents,
understanding that they
were members of the NOSC
community. However,
language and cultural
barriers between the
NOSC organizers and the
new residents
contributed to a need
for assistance from
organizers who were more
familiar with their
language and culture.
NOSC organizers began
to call for organizers
to assist with
organizing these new
members of the NOSC
community. When these
organizers arrived, they
began to build
relationships and
nurture the development
of an organization for
this new population
independent of the NOSC.
In fact, the new
organizers even set up
their own organizing
committee separate from
the NOSC organizing
committee. The result
was that these poor,
hard-working
dark-skinned people, not
familiar to the area,
found themselves in new
groups that were totally
separate and isolated
from the organizations
of poor and working
dark-skinned people who
had been in the area for
centuries.
To say the least, the
effort to connect both
the "new to the area"
residents and their
organizers to the
residents and organizers
who have been in the
region has been a much
more gargantuan task
than maintaining
connectivity between
ROPH and the NOSC. We
started the process with
dialogue and rebuilding
relationships between
the organizers doing
"bottom up" within both
neighborhoods. Our
second step was to
extend invitations in
both neighborhoods to
send delegations to each
other's meetings.
Meetings between the two
groups led to work
between the two groups,
which began to lead
towards recognition
between the two groups
that they are one
community catching hell
because they are poor
and working darker
people. Both groups
began calling for unity
and considering a space
for developing that
unity.
These experiences
have helped us to
realize the importance
of the whole community
of poor and oppressed
people of color working
together in one
organizational process.
Having members of the
same community working
together in separate
organizations based on
single issues works
against strengthening
the bonds of the
community as a whole. We
believe in an
organizational process
that brings all bottom
folk together so that
people are working
together as a community
struggling for justice
and then use a committee
structure to iron out
the details related to
the different issues
that we are confronting
on the bottom.
By keeping all
decision making at the
largest level of
community involvement,
the most inclusive
level, a committees'
need for resources or
support would go through
approval from the
community as a whole.
This ties everyone
together and helps to
curb divisiveness or the
practice of working in
isolation from the rest
of the folks who are
struggling for the same
thing.
Step 5:
Developing
Internationally
While initially the
NOSC formed during
trauma to respond to
urgent needs and it
continues to do so,
through the process of
developing the work,
people began to think in
broader terms about the
meaning of their work.
Developing unity between
homeowners, renters and
public housing
residents, for example,
broke down previous
barriers. Meeting with,
supporting, and being
supported by immigrant
guest workers broke down
further barriers, and
people began to see the
struggle as unity
against a broader system
of slavery. They began
to see that many of the
problems of the bottom
in New Orleans are
shared by poor people
all over the world.
This process
eventually led to a trip
to Venezuela, to meet
with the Communal
Councils there. The
Venezuelan government,
just after Katrina, had
offered to send
resources to help the
recovery, but this move
was blocked by the US
government. So in early
2007, a delegation of
organizers and members
of the NOSC and ROPH
went to Venezuela to
appeal directly for
those resources. They
met with the Communal
Councils and saw the
work those groups are
doing in the poor
neighborhoods of Caracas
and elsewhere. With
members of the Councils,
they met with government
officials to make their
requests for support.
They decided to try to
build a sister-city
relationship between the
NOSC and the Caracas
Communal Councils. The
process of developing
international unity
between those on the
bottom in both
countries was begun.
After this first
effort towards
international unity,
NOSC sent a second
delegation to Venezuela
to continue to nurture
relationships between
the people of the
bottom. Following the
second trip, a POC
organizer returned to
Venezuela to spend six
months, continuing this
same process.
Conclusion:
Moving Toward Developing
an International
Organizing School
What we have learned
from putting one foot in
front of the other in
New Orleans is that a
mass, collective,
consensus-based
organizing process built
on a foundation of
egalitarian principle
has shown great
potential as a beacon
for the future. By
defending this kind of
active space, people
could begin to see
themselves as the
legitimate governance of
their own lives and
future. We've seen the
collective take the high
ground on each issue
that came before it. We
are convinced that the
folk on the bottom have,
collectively, the genius
needed to figure out how
to run society, and that
those of us who have had
the opportunity to learn
about history and
develop various skills
have the responsibility
to put that knowledge
and those skills at the
service of the people,
and help them learn to
lead the decision making
process. In this way,
through practice,
experience in the
struggle, trial and
error, we will work
towards understanding
how to build a future
egalitarian society and
begin building it.
Although there is
much more still to learn
than what we have
learned so far, we feel
that we have a precious
embryo in our hands. We
want help in nurturing
and developing it. We
have begun an
international school for
organizers in the hopes
of learning from the
struggles in New Orleans
and around the world –
landless struggles in
South America, the
Communal Council
movement in Venezuela,
the campesinos in
Oaxaca, and other
struggles on other
continents – and in the
hopes of creating
connections between
those struggles so we
can begin to move
together to create the
future. We invite you to
help in this process, if
you find yourself in
fundamental agreement
with the idea of
"Bottom-Up."
(See
Appendix 3,
"Creating Prototypes in
the Struggle for
Egalitarian Revolution"
for more discussion on
the International School
for Bottom-Up
Organizing)
Please contact us,
People's
Organizing Committee &
International School for
Bottom-Up Organizing
June 2008
 |
|
New Orleans Survivor Council |
Spring 2008
Volume 2, Issue 2 |
|
Doing
For Ourselves What the Government Won't! |
NOSC Encourages Reading
Throughout the City
In a time when
charter schools pick the cream of the crop and
the rest of the of our children are herded into
one of 5 public schools to sit in teacher-less
classrooms, a holding pen until they are forced
into holding cells, the members of the New
Orleans Survivor Council have decided to take
action. We have realized the only
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Special Features: |
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NOSC BookMobile passes out free books to
kids throughout New Orleans & St. Bernard
Parish! |
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Volunteers clean up overgrown lots in the
Lower 9th Ward. |
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Editoral by Council Member Jondrea Smith. |
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Contents: |
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Volunteers clean up Lower 9th Ward |
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A Valentine's Day to Remember |
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Fire Next Time: Social Justice in America
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BookMobile Summer Schedule |
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About NOSC |
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way to ensure our
children receive the education they deserve
to help them develop into literate,
productive members of our community, to
ensure they have the basic skills needed to
become anything they can dream; is to open
their minds ourselves. It is in this spirit
that the New Orleans Survivor Council (NOSC) received a Book Mobile.
The Book
Mobile, a mobile library, was donated to the
NOSC over a year ago. After overcoming many
obstacles such as the need for proper
insurance and a qualified driver, we were
able to fulfill our dream and bring reading
back to the Lower Ninth Ward, an area where
many schools remain empty or partially
knocked down. This lack of schools forces
the children who've returned home to wake up
at 5 am to make it to a bus that will carry
them into another community to sit in over
crowded classrooms because the only school
in their community has reached its capacity.
Through posting our contact information on
the literary network, we've already received
over a dozen boxes of books to give away to
the community and more books arrive every
day. We've also received donations of adult
books from the St. Bernard Parish Library,
creating the opportunity for entire families
to read together. Through visiting many
community businesses, we've received
donations to sponsor a community cookout
along side our Book Mobile. We serve free
hot dogs and snow balls, as well as bottled
water and cold drinks. Because many of these
businesses understand the value of reading
and care deeply about the community's
children, we've received their commitment to
support our community cookouts all summer
long.
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While browsing
through the numerous tables of free books, many
parents expressed the desire to donate books
their children had outgrown to the Book Mobile.
This has sparked a book recycling program where
families can bring their old favorites and pick
out new books to explore. The Book Mobile
provides the space for families to come together
to discuss the importance of education and
distribute books to fresh, young minds who enjoy
new adventures. This program is helping build a
stronger sense of community, as families are
cleaning out their closets to support each other
by giving away their old stories to families who
will use them. If you'd like to donate books,
food, drinks, and/or make a tax deductible
monetary donation to cover operation expenses
such as gas and insurance, please contact us at
504 655 2715. All checks should be made payable
to NOSC/IFCO and mailed to 2226 Ursulines Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70119.
To ensure that
all communities that suffer from a lack of
educational resources have access to free books,
we'll be cooking out in many different locations
all over New Orleans and St Bernard Parish for
the rest of the summer. Please check out our
Summer Schedule
to locate when we will be in a neighborhood near
you!
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Volunteers work hard to ensure displaced
residents are not fined
for overgrown yards. |
Volunteers Keeping It Clean
Since February of
2008, we have had over 200 volunteers cleaning
up lots in the lower 9th ward. They've been
working hard to ensure elderly members of the
New Orleans Survivor Council are not fined
$500/day for grass that stands over 18 inches.
Many of the elderly residents on our list are
still displaced to various parts of the country
waiting for Road Home to make good on their
promise to make them "whole". |
With the help of these volunteers, mainly high
school students from across the United States,
we have been able to clean and maintain 15
different lots. They were also able to paint a
rusted iron fence for a 70 year old widow, who
through the help of classmates was able to
return home but lacked the funds to replace the
rusted fence. Side-by-side with her
grandchildren, the volunteers restored the
beauty with a little elbow grease and a can of
paint.
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Volunteers have fun with a sing -along while
working to restore residents' homes. |
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After hard work, volunteers relax as Ms.
Walker prepares real New Orleans cuisine. |
|
 |
A
Valentine's Day to Remember
February 14th,
2008 was a day to show some love. Miss Ora
Green, an active member of the New Orleans
Survivor Council since January of 2007, was
finally able to plug in her deep freeze freezer
after it had sat, still in the box, on her porch
for over a year because the men who delivered it
refused to carry the freezer through her house
and set it up in her kitchen. For over a year,
Miss Green has feared that it would be stolen
before it ever entered the house.
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Once the help
was located, the fun began. To move the freezer
into her kitchen, the second to last room in her
historic 7th ward shotgun, NOSC volunteers Drew
and George helped her son, Freddie, load it into
the back of his truck. They then drove around to
the abandoned lot behind her house and lifted it
over the fence. They figured it would be easier
to take it in the back, rather than rearrange
the furniture in the house.
Soon to be 88
year old Miss Green played her part as well.
While the guys were busy lifting the new
freezer, she snuck into the kitchen and slid her
broken refrigerator out of the way, making room
for the new freezer. Miss Green is a constant
reminder that ‘age ain't nothing but a number'.
After situating the new freezer, the guys hefted
the broken fridge out of the kitchen and into
the back of the truck, so Freddie could dispose
of it.
Within 30
minutes of the volunteers knocking on her door,
Miss Green was plugging in her freezer with the
biggest smile I've ever seen her wear. She took
a moment to pose for pictures with Drew and
George and appreciated the help, saying, "It's
good to have friends."
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Fire Next Time: Social Justice in America
An Editorial by Jondrea Smith
In the Black
church, there's a spiritual that contains the
line, "It won't be water, but fire next time,"
where God essentially tells Noah right after the
flood, "You ain't seen nothing yet." I think
about this when I examine the actions of the
American government immediately following the
Civil Rights movement, and I wonder if they got
the message.
After
weathering the storm of mass organization and
protests through trickery, decapitation,
intimidation and petty concessions, America went
right back to its wicked ways before the ink was
dry on the Civil Rights Bill. Under the guises
of Reaganomics, 'the War on Drugs,' 'Get Tough
on Crime,' and 'No Child Left Behind;'
exploitation, repression, and mis-education
sought to undermine any victories we supposedly
won on paper. But this time, prettier faces than
Bull Connor and Ross Barnett drove the point
home. And here we are. Schools have been
re-segregated; Black ownership is at an all-time
low, while Black unemployment, incarceration,
and state-sanctioned mistreatment threaten to
surpass their 'pre-movement' levels.
To be fair,
just as the government is guilty of instituting
these practices, we are equally at fault as a
people for not recognizing what was going on and
falling for the trap. We cannot change the past,
and it is the present and future that are of
concern to me. Each of the disasters that have
befallen this country in recent times have
presented opportunities for this country to do
what it says on the label, and each time, it has
failed miserably. I recall the U2 video, "The
Saints Are Coming," that showed the troops being
called home from Iraq to help people in need and
military aircraft dropping sandbags to fill the
breached levees. Today, that vision seems to
have come from another universe.
Now, as
desperation overtakes caution, the results could
very well prove to be catastrophic. It is only
for so long that a people can be collectively
exploited, oppressed and degraded before those
people begin to rebel. And now, as youth and
elder alike come to their senses, we could very
well be on the verge of such a desperate time. I
think back to that Negro spiritual, and I think
in this day and age it should read, "It won't be
marches, but action this time."
And when I
speak of action, I don't mean putting on shows
or chanting slogans or grandstanding by lukewarm
organizations but real change. The change I'm
talking about is the change that comes from
recognizing the genius of the poor, the
overlooked, and the forgotten and realizing that
each of us has a contribution to make. Now more
than ever, an organized populace is essential to
our survival. We should all be well aware of
what is taking place. Whether through malice,
neglect, or incompetence the people of New
Orleans were flooded and then left to die. Our
young men and women continue to die on the
streets of America's cities, and on the
battlefields of her unjust wars, and this
current economic crisis is sitting right on all
our doorsteps. But the time for complaining is
past. It is time for us to organize. Each and
every one of us has to bring his or her gifts
skills and talents to the table, and together
let us determine how to best use them for our
collective survival. We are on our own, but with
the power that we have within us, sometimes I
believe that on our own is the best place for us
to be. We each have the potential to contribute
to a better world if we come together. Catch a
fire, and let your light shine. Thank you.
 |
|
Survivor Council member, Robert
Richardson, poses with his sign as
he recalls the early days of
protesting in the fight to return to
his home north of Claiborne Ave in
the Lower 9th Ward. |
|
Volunteer Ito reads books with
children
at BookMobile Community
Cookout in
the Lower 9th Ward. |
Bookmobile Summer
Schedule
May 31st -
MLK & S. Claiborne, Central City
June 7th - Caffin Ave & N. Claiborne,
Lower 9th Ward
June 14th - St Bernard Parish Library
June 21st - Ursulines & Roman
June 28th - Old Shadow Brook Complex
(Algiers)
July 5th - Caffin Ave & N. Claiborne,
Lower 9th Ward
July 12th - TBA, New Orleans East
July 19th - TBA, Central City
July 26th - Westbank
August 2nd - Caffin Ave & N. Claiborne,
Lower 9th Ward
August 9th - Chalmette High School, St.
Bernard Parish
August 16th - TBA, Upper 9th Ward
August 23th - Community Book Center, 2523
Bayou Rd
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About the New Orleans Survivor Council...
The New
Orleans Survivor Council meets every
Saturday to discuss community issues and
how we can solve them ourselves. Our
meetings are from 11am to 1pm at the Old
Pathways Baptist Church at 1910 Alabo St.
Our
organization is run according to the
‘Bottom Up' principle of organizing, where
the leadership of the organization comes
from its members. It is our goal to create
a safe, egalitarian space where decisions
are made according to the consensus of the
participants. All decisions regarding
resources, work, and the Council in
general are made according to this
process, and the benefits are twofold.
First, through consensus we ensure that
resources are allocated in a manner that
has the backing of the agreement of the
people, and secondly, through carrying out
our work in this manner, we grow
accustomed to the type of participatory
democracy that is necessary for us to be a
self-determined people. The primary goal
of our organization is community-building.
It is our goal to form the necessary
relationships to ensure not only will we
recover as a community, but that recovery
will be led and directed by the community. |
|
|
2007
November 2007
Farewell Letter from
Curtis Muhammad
November 12, 2007
A Message from an
Organizer to the Left
and Progressive Forces
inside the USA - by
Curtis Muhammad
With this second
anniversary of Katrina
upon us, there are a few
words I wish to speak.
This letter is written
to the progressive, left
movement for justice in
the USA. In the last two
years, every left
organization has been in
New Orleans, but despite
that there is still no
sign of a mass movement.
There is still no sign
that most activists are
willing to put their
knowledge and resources
at the service of the
grass roots and take
their leadership from
the bottom. I have found
myself wondering, have
poor black people been
so vilified and
criminalized that they
are completely off the
radar even of the
so-called left? When
Katrina happened, I
hoped and expected that
this would be the
trigger to once again
set off a true mass
movement against racism
and for justice in the
US, led by those most
affected: poor, black
working people. When it
became abundantly clear
that this was not
happening, I found
myself at the crossroads
of hope and
hopelessness, and began
to wonder how to spend
the last years of my
life in the service of
my people.
The thing that I remind
myself when I'm
contemplating
hopelessness is the
beauty of humanity and
the fact that people
have always fought for
what was right even when
they knew they couldn't
win. They tried because
they loved each other; I
think it's because it's
built into human beings
for people to look out
for each other. There is
a drive in humanity to
be just, to live in a
society that is just,
equal and respectful. I
believe that ultimately
people will achieve a
just society; I believe
humanity came out of a
just society and will
create it again.
I do believe that there
was a time that the
lovers of life, the
lovers of humanity, the
lovers of justice
dominated the world.
Some say this was so
during the
hunter-gatherer days,
when though there were
evil people they could
never gain dominance.
Their numbers were
always small, less than
1%; people ran their
lives collectively, and
therefore the greedy
could not dominate. Well
then, I say what
happened, there is only
that same 1% who
dominates the world now.
This thinking, this
logic has been the
motivating factor in my
life of movement work:
the belief that there is
a basic humanity that is
inside the soul of most
people. That this
humanity can be
harvested and organized
into a movement for
justice to free our
people from slavery,
bondage, oppression and
exploitation. That the
80% of the world who
live on an average of $2
a day can and will
overcome the 1% and
return us to a
collective life
organized around love,
justice and equality.
Most of you who know me
also know I'm a
storyteller and believe
story to be a universal
language that can be a
vehicle for voice – the
voice of all regardless
of status, class, cast,
race, gender. Story is
an egalitarian language.
So I wish to share with
you my story, an
abbreviated story of my
organizing work from
SNCC in Mississippi
through the ghettoes of
the US to the villages
and jungles of Africa,
to CLU, PHRF, NOSC, POC
and finally the
International School for
Bottom-Up Organizing. My
story is meant to
clarify why I now choose
to live, work, teach and
write outside the US and
away from the grip of a
drastically de-energized
and often opportunistic
and reactionary left in
the USA.
* * *
I grew up in a community
that, of necessity, had
to take care of its own.
In rural Mississippi in
the 40s, 50s and 60s,
mothers and fathers,
grandparents, uncles and
cousins protected the
children from the
hostile, racist world
and collectively helped
each other meet their
needs. Nonetheless, when
I was a child traveling
to church on Sundays, I
had to pass the tree
from whose branches my
cousin was lynched. The
community of my birth
gave me both my strength
-- my faith in the
people, my dedication to
egalitarianism – and my
undying hatred of racism
and the oppressive few
that control the world.
When SNCC came to town,
I found my direction. It
was both a community of
love and a set of
organizers devoted, at
the risk of their lives,
to the folk on the
bottom: the poorest
black folk in
Mississippi, those who
had nothing, not even
the knowledge of how to
read. SNCC introduced me
to the struggles of my
brothers and sisters
around the world, and
particularly in Africa.
I became an
internationalist and a
revolutionary. The
lessons of Ella Baker
and SNCC have stayed
with me throughout my
life; I labored to make
them a reality from
Mississippi to the
ghettoes of our major
cities, from my time in
the revolutionary
movement in Africa to my
work as a labor
organizer, and I have
done my utmost to apply
them in post-Katrina New
Orleans.
In 1998, I helped to
organize Community Labor
United (CLU), a
coalition that was
founded with a
commitment to Bottom-Up
organizing. (CLU
principles included
"ending the exploitation
of oppressed peoples
everywhere; educating,
organizing and
mobilizing the masses
within our organizations
and communities from the
bottom up.") After eight
years of organizing in
some of the poorest
areas of New Orleans, it
became the "first
responder" after
Katrina, and led the
formation of the
People's Hurricane
Relief Fund (PHRF).
As a founding member of
PHRF and an organizer
and New Orleans
resident, I was back in
the city within 8 days
of the flood, struggling
with overwhelming pain
and anger. I felt that
Katrina represented an
historic moment. Never
before had all levels of
government united to
attempt genocide of
100,000 black people at
the same time. Even in
the 60s in Mississippi,
they were murdering us
in ones, twos and
threes. I threw myself
into the attempt to put
the knowledge and
resources of the left
and nationalist
organizations and
"movement" people under
the direction of the
bottom: the poor and
working class black folk
who had been left to die
in New Orleans. PHRF
became a coalition that
committed itself on
paper to that goal.
What followed was a
dramatic learning
experience for me and
for all those whose
commitment is truly to
the people and not to
their own particular
grouping. Within months,
mainly as a result of a
speaking tour I went on
for PHRF, we had raised
about a million dollars
from folk across the
country who were deeply
moved by the attempted
genocide of over a
hundred thousand black
folk. And by December,
there was already
conflict over who
controlled that money
and how it was to be
used.
The New Orleans Survivor
Council was organized by
PHRF with the
understanding that it
was to become the
leadership of the
organization and the
movement, and should
control all resources.
By April of 2006, when
the NOSC began to sound
like it wanted oversight
of the funds, the
interim leadership of
PHRF took the money and
ran, firing its own
organizers for daring to
tell the poor black
residents in NOSC that
they had the right to
control the resources
raised in their names.
Undaunted, the young
organizers continued
working for the
survivors and formed a
new group called
People's Organizing
Committee (POC).
This event was a turning
point for me. I realized
that the words of those
who I had considered my
comrades were empty,
that their so-called
commitment to Bottom-Up
was a fiction; that
their real commitments
were to various
organizations and their
own egos. Our attempt to
institutionalize
Bottom-Up had led
instead to a coalition
of opportunists.
When I had spoken to
mass audiences about
Katrina in the fall of
2005, I had spoken of my
discovery of the depth
of the fear and hatred
America has for poor,
black people. The images
on the media of those
left to die could have
been taken in
sub-Saharan Africa or
the Caribbean: those
people were very poor
and very black. With the
desertion of PHRF, I was
confronted by the
knowledge that this
hatred of poor black
people extended into and
throughout the
progressive movement,
even within exclusively
black organizations. I
felt very lonely in my
continued commitment to
lift up precisely that
segment of oppressed
Americans to lead the
movement.
But POC plunged ahead,
still dedicated to that
vision. Thousands of
volunteers came in the
spring and summer, and
many continue to come to
this day. The hearts of
so many people are in
the right place. The New
Orleans Survivor Council
and its member group
Residents of Public
Housing continue to work
to put Bottom-Up
leadership on the map
and fight for the right
of our community to
return and control its
own destiny. But the
past year has also
revealed further
weakness and lack of
vision in our movement.
From the days
immediately following
the flood, we recognized
that immigrants – brown
people, some of the
poorest and most
desperate of our
brothers and sisters
from countries to the
south – were being
brought into our city.
They were put to the
dirtiest, most dangerous
clean-up tasks, and
later to replace the
forcibly dispersed black
labor force, for slave
wages and in slave
conditions. From the
start, we called for
organizing this new part
of the New Orleans
community in unity with
and under the leadership
of the black folk on the
bottom.
This call was part of my
message in the speeches
I made in the fall of
2005, and several
immigrant organizers
heeded the call and came
to work with us.
However, despite many
serious attempts to
develop unity between
black survivors and
immigrants, it has
become clear that those
organizers refuse to
unite with and take
leadership from black
folk. They have
organized immigrant
slaves into separate
groupings with no
contact with the NOSC,
despite their initial
commitment to unity.
They are essentially,
wittingly or
unwittingly, following
the government's agenda,
which is to build a
racist, assimilationist
immigrant "movement"
that will serve the
needs of a war economy
and patriotism.
And so we come to the
second anniversary of
Katrina. Bottom-Up
organizing is still
embryonic, though
hanging on to life and
with a small, dedicated
band of survivors,
organizers and
volunteers. But the rest
of the movement is in
shambles, or under
direct or indirect
influence of our
enemies.
Through the experience
of the last two years, I
have also come to the
conclusion that the
infiltration of and
direct attacks on the
movement that started
(in my lifetime as an
activist) in the late
60s and early 70s with
Cointelpro have never
stopped. Our movement
has been successfully
divided into thousands
of groupings,
non-profits and NGOs,
and the left has been
rendered ineffectual. It
is not an accident that,
for forty years now, the
movement has been so
totally reformist, or
that those who want to
be revolutionaries are
so isolated as to be
irrelevant. The
government and its
agencies have a
stranglehold on the
people, the culture and
even the left. I do not
think it is possible in
the U.S. at this time –
for me – to develop and
train organizers with a
real understanding and
commitment to the folk
on the bottom.
And thus, I find myself
at the crossroads of
hope and hopelessness. I
find myself possibly in
the position of writing
not mainly to the
current readers of these
words, but to those
future revolutionaries
who will learn from our
impasse. I find myself
deciding to work toward
creating an
international organizing
school as a vehicle to
discover, recruit and
train radical
organizers. I want to
continue my
investigation of the
movements in Mexico and
South America among very
poor -- members of the
informal economy,
workers, campesinos and
landless people -- learn
more about how class and
hue interact to shape
oppression, take
inspiration from the
fact that the struggle
continues, un-abandoned,
worldwide, and share my
own knowledge and
experience with the
rebels of today and
tomorrow.
I have lived 64 years
and have struggled
intentionally for
justice for about
forty-six of those
years. I am thankful and
appreciative to all
those who have traveled
some of that distance
with me: those who
helped nurture my
children, who stood with
me when I was imprisoned
and tortured, those who
have always supported my
work and stood by me
when all seemed to stand
against me. To these
worthy friends, comrades
and loved ones, I will
always honor you, be
there for you, and know
you are there for me.
Still, I have arrived at
a place in my life where
I wish to share
everything I have and
know with the
"sufferers." My
principle continues to
be the struggle to
engage the poor,
oppressed, voiceless,
and those who have the
least and suffer the
most. The only struggle
that matters to me now
is finding justice for
those who have never had
it.
This is me, where I am,
trying to figure out how
to organize our folk in
a way that we always
look at need as the
principle of justice. If
you are looking for me,
look among the youth,
the poor, and the
struggling masses
trapped in slave-like
conditions throughout
the world, for I am no
longer available to an
opportunistic and racist
left. I NOW SEEK REFUGE
AMONG THE POOR.
This is my struggle.
Wish me well,
Curtis
Click here to view a
videotaped interview by
Amy Goodman on Democracy
Now
August 2007
Greetings from the New
Orleans Survivor Council
and Residents of Public
Housing:
August 2, 2007
Residents of Public
Housing is an
organization of public
housing residents from
the various developments
throughout New Orleans.
We are assisting our
family, friends and
neighbors in public
housing with returning
home and with improving
the living conditions
and quality of life for
those of us who have
already returned. We
work together with the
rest of our community
who are not public
housing residents
through our New Orleans
Survivor Council. The
Council is made up of
people from the poor and
working black community
of New Orleans and
includes low-income
homeowners (most of whom
are from the Lower Ninth
Ward), renters and
public housing residents
from wards and
neighborhoods throughout
New Orleans, and
immigrants who have been
brought into our
community to as the new
slaves to replace the
old slaves. We have also
been assisting our
family, friends and
neighbors with returning
home, rebuilding and
repairing our community
and our lives, and
taking charge of our
neighborhoods. Our
mission is to do for
ourselves what the
government won’t.
Click here to download
document -
284 KB
New Orleans
Survivor Council &
Residents of Public
Housing Katrina
Anniversary 2007 Form
Click here to download
document -
31 KB
July 2007
NEW ORLEANS SURVIVOR
COUNCIL / CITIZENS OF
NEW ORLEANS COMMITTEE ON
RECONSTRUCTION AND
REBUILDING
Bad Neighbor Commission
Contact Information:
504-872-9591
July 30, 2007
NOTICE OF VIOLATION
Click here to download
document -
28 KB
Bring Our People Back Home!
Residents of Public
Housing Plan Anniversary Activities
July 27, 2007
Residents of Public
Housing (RPH) met yesterday at Guste High Rise
Community Center. Twenty-eight residents came from
several public housing neighborhoods, including
Iberville, Guste, St. Bernard, Lafitte, B.W. Cooper and
Desire. With the second anniversary of Katrina only a
month away, residents discussed plans for the
anniversary.
“Bring Our People Homeâ€
Block Party
On August 28, RPH will
sponsor a block party
outside the HANO/HUD
office on Touro Street,
starting at noon. At the
block party, we will be
presenting HANO and HUD
with a list of units the
community needs them to
reopen now.
Funeral Procession
and Memorial Service
On August 29, we are
having our funeral
procession and memorial
services for those from
the public housing
community who lost their
lives during the Katrina
tragedy. We will be
starting our
processional and
memorial services at the
St. Bernard Housing
Development at 10:00 AM,
and doing services at
St. Bernard, Lafitte,
B.W. Cooper and Guste,
and C.J. Peete. We are
looking for financial
support to provide buses
to enable residents who
are still outside New
Orleans to come home for
these events.
Please help us with
these events. Click the
“Donate†link on this
page so public housing
residents who are still
in exile can come home
to commemorate the
losses they suffered and
continue to suffer since
June 2007
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 capitalismâ€
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
levelsâ€"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."
MEDIA ALERT
For Immediate Release
Attention: News Assignment Desk |
Contact:
Nicole Banks
Renelle Carter |
WHO: New
Orleans Survivors' Council and Florida Public
Housing Residents
WHAT: Residents to Return Home
WHERE: Florida Public Housing Development
WHEN: Saturday, June 10, 2006 9:30a.m.
The Right to
Return to Public Housing
New Orleans, LA-
More than ten months after the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina, residents of New Orleans’
Public Housing Developments are still displaced
around the United States. After many months of
failed appeals to HANO, residents of the
Iberville, St. Thomas, and Gus Housing
Developments moved back into their homes
independently. Residents of the Florida Housing
Development have been inspired by these actions,
and after their own unanswered appeals to HANO,
they have decided to pursue a similar course.
Two weeks ago,
Florida residents came to the weekly New Orleans
Survivors’ Council meeting. They asked the Council
to support their effort to return home by
assisting in the clean up process. The Council
came to the consensus to help and formed a
committee to focus on public housing concerns.
Last weekend over 60 people came out to support
the cause as Council members gathered with Florida
residents to remove debris from ten homes.
This Saturday,
June 10th, at 8 am Florida residents and Council
members are scheduled to clear the debris from
thirty additional homes. In continuation of the
larger Right to Return to Public Housing Movement,
two families will move back into their homes which
were not affected by flood waters or the resulting
mold. These families and the others that are
slated to follow hope to inspire HANO to begin
repairs and reopen the doors of the Florida Public
Housing Development.
"This is my home.
I lost my only brother in the Florida Housing
Development four years ago, over ten dollars, but
I am here with my daughters to make it a better
place- I'm staying. I worked and had a nice
place," says Renelle Carter, a Florida Public
Housing resident.
This is an effort
of the New Orleans Survivors' Council to empower
the community to return to their homes, public or
private.
Genocide
We are in the middle of
genocide of black
people, people of
African descent. This is
not the sort of genocide
that we have been alert
to in the past, where
millions of people are
decimated over a
relatively short period
of time in a small
geographic and political
region. No. This
genocide is moving along
at a steady, relentless
pace, moving faster and
faster with many focal
points. But make no
mistake: there is a
“systematic program of
action intended to
destroy a whole racial
or national groupâ€
(Webster’s New World
Dictionary). Hundreds of
millions of people of
African descent are
being killed before our
eyes.
Read the rest of this
entry »
What is POC?
People's Organizing Committee
(POC) refers to a collaboration between a group of young
organizers from several different organizations that were
working under the People's Hurricane Relief Fund. PHRF was
founded on the principle that the people most impacted by
Hurricane Katrina should lead the movement to return to
and rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. In “PHRF â€" Who
We Are,†this principle was stated this way: “The purpose
of PHRF is to ensure that people from New Orleans and the
Gulf Coast region play a central role in all decisions
made about relief and the rebuilding of New Orleans and
Gulf Coast. PHRF believes that the people themselves
should be the leaders and that this is the only way
justice will be served.â€
Read the rest of this
entry »
Donate
All the money people generously donated to support this
organizing work has been taken from us. There are some who
are in the process of taking legal action (see “Disclaimerâ€
on this site), but meanwhile we need money to enable us to
do this work!
Please make checks
payable to IFCO/NOSC, mail contributions to:
People's Organizing Committee
IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organizing) / NOSC
2226 Ursulines
New Orleans, LA 70119 |
|
May 2007
May 1st
Celebrating Worker's
Day, Afrikan Liberation
Day and Ending Slavery
Time: 1:30 pm
Where: 2635 Orleans Ave.
Come and support our
demands:
We demand a Just
reconstruction that
includes the people that
have been displaced.
We Demand the
Immediate Reopening of
All Public Housing in
New Orleans
We demand that
contractors and
developers who are
ripping off migrants and
black people in New
Orleans be investigated
and placed under citizen
arrest.
Stop immigration and
police raids on the
Latino and Black
community.
We demand that all
money and resources for
poor and working black
people and other people
of color in New Orleans
be controlled, managed
and directed by us.
We demand immediate
temporary housing inside
the city of New Orleans
for all poor and working
black people who are
still displaced.
We demand that the
rent in the city of New
Orleans be set at what
it was before Katrina.
We demand the
rebuilding and reopening
of public schools under
community control.
We demand the
rebuilding and reopening
of public health care
facilities under
community control.
We demand the same
or better levee
protection for our
community as is provided
to the rich white
community in New
Orleans.
Note: As an act
of solidarity and
unity between the
Latino and Black
Communities; Latino
workers, members of
the Day Labor Congress
will be rebuilding
Mrs. Green House. Mrs.
Green is a 86 years
old lady, who since
hurricane Katrina,
hasn't been able to
rebuild her house due
lack of money.
|
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE. NO
JUSTICE, NO PEACE.
|
 |
Supported by:
New Orleans Survival
Council, Peoples
Organizing Committee,
the Day Labor Congress
of New Orleans, and the
New Orleans Worker
Center for Racial
Justice. For more
information, please
contact 504-872-9591.
Click here to download
document -
463 KB
May
Day: Remember Katrina
The Washington Post recently
published an article
exposing the fact that the
U.S. government managed to
turn back and/or not use
almost all the hurricane
assistance offered by
foreign governments (see the
attached article). This is
on top of all the
well-documented things the
governments at all levels
did when Katrina threatened
New Orleans and hit the Gulf
Coast, and during the
subsequent flood in New
Orleans – from not
evacuating residents to
turning back rescue efforts
from land, sea and air, to
scattering our brothers and
sisters across the country
never to return to their
homes.
On this May Day,
international workers' day,
let us not forget that these
actions represent the
biggest racist attack
against the working people
of the US in recent history.
Over 100,000 mainly poor
black workers were left in
New Orleans to die, and
would have died had Katrina
hit the city as it was
forecast to do. They were
forced at gunpoint to stay
in "shelters" with no food,
water, toilets or
electricity. They died in
the thousands. All offers of
aid were turned back. They
were sent away from home and
to this day have not been
allowed back. Their
neighborhoods look like they
did just after the flood.
Their schools are closed.
The public hospital remains
closed though it did not
sustain flood damage.
Most of this fascist reality
has been allowed to fly
under the radar, even of
many people who will
celebrate May Day.
POC asks that everyone
celebrating May Day this
year hold up this ongoing
racist, fascist attack for
everyone to see, and commit
themselves to the ongoing
fight for poor black
residents of New Orleans to
reclaim their homes. Fascism
succeeds when ordinary
people stand by and ignore
the attacks going on under
their noses! Let May Day
truly be a day of
anti-racist unity, bringing
together the struggles of
black (former slaves),
immigrant (modern slaves)
and white workers behind the
leadership of grassroots
black folks fighting to
regain their homes and
livelihoods.
Click here to download the
Washington Post document -
33 KB
March 2007
Survivor
Council to Open Lawless High
School Residents and
Volunteers Face Down Cops
and School Officials
March 8, 2007
On Thursday, March 8,
residents and volunteers
working with the New Orleans
Survivor Council faced off
against the Recovery School
District (RSD). The NOSC had
previously decided to reopen
the public school system
themselves, because the city
has taken public education
out of New Orleans. They are
targeting mainly poor black
communities, and
particularly the Lower Ninth
Ward and the area around the
C.J. Peete public housing
development.
As a result of NOSC
pressure, Martin Luther King
elementary school will be
reopened soon in the Lower
Ninth, but residents are not
happy about the fact that it
is reopening as a charter
school. People need to know
that all of their children
are guaranteed to be able to
attend school in order for
them to move back home.
Charter schools choose their
students.
So a few weeks ago, the
Survivor Council decided to
reopen Lawless High School,
also in the Lower Ninth, and
Tom Lafon near C.J. Peete,
as public schools. Student
volunteers have been
cleaning Lawless out for the
past week. This week,
students from Wilberforce
and FAMU were in the
building, cleaning and
salvaging usable educational
materials, when the RSD sent
contractors to the school.
The contractors demanded to
know who had authorized the
students to work. They
answered, "the New Orleans
Survivor Council authorized
us; this is their school,
and we're cleaning and
reopening it."
The contractors revealed
that they had been hired to
clear out the "full
contents" of the school,
throw them away, and prepare
the school for demolition!
The second floor of the
building had computers,
books, software still in its
original wrappings, and
other salvageable materials.
At schools that have been
designated as "full content"
schools, contractors are
instructed to throw away all
the contents of the school.
Nearly all of the schools
designated as "full content"
schools are in poor, black
neighborhoods. Other schools
are designated "partial
content" schools, and in
those, contents are
salvaged.
Since both the volunteers
and the hired contractors
were under instructions to
clean out the school, the
POC organizers proposed that
they all work together. An
agreement was worked out
whereby the RSD contractors
would work on the first
floor, where everything
needed to be thrown out, and
the NOSC volunteers would
work on the second floor and
continue to salvage
materials. However, then the
contractors added "you have
one day." After that, they
said, the students would be
in the way and would have to
go.
The volunteers responded
that they planned to stay
until they got the job done,
and added that if anyone
started tearing the building
down, the students would get
in their way. When the
contractors reiterated their
demand that the students
leave the following day, POC
and the Survivor Council
decided to pull out all the
stops. That night, they
called residents and the
press.
The next day (Thursday),
nearly a dozen residents
donned protective clothing
to join twenty students in
cleaning out the school. The
press watched as the
students, many of them
having done a quick
orientation in civil
disobedience, prepared to be
arrested if necessary,
alongside residents who were
not about to back down on
their goal of opening a high
school for their children.
Looking for a response, the
press called RSD officials
on the phone. The officials
asked where the things taken
out of the school were, and
residents responded that
they had salvaged it,
because the RSD was going to
trash useful materials and
equipment. The RSD then
decided that they did not
want the publicity that
would come from calling
police to arrest residents
and their volunteers
cleaning out their own
school, and finally said
they would meet with NOSC to
discuss the reopening of
Lawless School!
After the experience of MLK
School, residents don't have
confidence in the RSD to
look out for their
interests, but they knew
they had won at least a
temporary victory that day.
The next day, they sent
another team into Tom Lafon
School so that residents
determined to reoccupy C.J.
Peete would also have a
school to send their kids
to.
New Orleans Survivor Council
Turns to Venezuela for
Support
March 2, 2007
Poor and Working Class
Black Hurricane Survivors
Visit Venezuelan Communal
Councils and Expose "Hatred"
of the Poor by Progressive
and Government Forces in the
U.S.
New Orleans, LA, March 1 - A
delegation of four members
of the New Orleans Survivor
Council and two Bottom-Up
organizers have just
returned from a truly
inspiring and life-changing
trip to meet the people of
Venezuela. True to their
commitment to Bottom-Up
leadership in New Orleans,
they went directly to the
bottom: to the everyday,
grassroots folk of
Venezuela. They met with
several of the Venezuelan
Communal Councils (organized
groups of neighbors within
Venezuela who run their
communities, and control the
resources for their
communities; much like what
the New Orleans Survivor
Council is attempting to do
within their poor and
working black New Orleans
community), and told their
stories of survival and
struggle to an undeniably
attentive audience. The
Communal Councils were
equally excited and inspired
by the meeting with the
survivors, and leaped at the
chance to bring their needs
and requests to the
Venezuelan government.
This was the first time a
group of poor and working
class black people visited
Venezuela representing
themselves and their own
organizations and were not
just a backdrop or exhibit
for other groups led by the
privileged. The effort of
the New Orleans Survivor
Council delegation to
develop camaraderie and a
direct working relationship
with Venezuelans who are
also struggling through
class and racial oppression
is unheard of in the modern
era. Most relationships
between the masses of the
people throughout the world
have not been developed by
the masses themselves but by
people who claim to
represent them, or advocates
for them, or those who have
styled themselves as their
leaders.
For almost except one
Survivor Council member, it
was their first time outside
of the U.S. They had no
passports before the trip
and all of the delegation
was awestruck to meet people
who had such solidarity in
their hearts for the poor
and working black people in
New Orleans, the U.S. and
throughout the world.
Everyone saw each other as
part of the same struggle
and each person, those from
the Survivor Council and
those from the Communal
Councils had such similar
experiences in their own
countries, lives, and
organizations.
Because of the revolutionary
act of these New Orleans
residents and Katrina
survivors, a delegation from
Venezuela will soon be
coming to New Orleans to
follow up on the first visit
of the Survivor Council.
They want to see the
situation in New Orleans
with their own eyes, and to
help lay the basis for
meeting the needs identified
by the New Orleans Survivor
Council, as well as
investigating setting up a
sister-city relationship
between the Caracas Communal
Councils and the New Orleans
Survivor Council. There is
great hope among the poor
and working communities of
both places that the roots
of international alliance
that were planted in this
visit, will grow into a tree
of established sisterhood,
whose branches stretch from
the barrios of Caracas, to
the hoods of New Orleans.
If you would like to learn
more about this story,
please review the included
documents developed by the
New Orleans Survivor Council
to share with the people of
Venezuela and the documents
developed by the delegation
during the visit. The
documents have also been
attached to this release.
Greetings to the People of
Venezuela from the New
Orleans Survivor Council
To the people of Venezuela
and to the Venezuelan
Community Councils, we come
to you as people who have
been deserted by the
government in our own
country. We are survivors of
Hurricane Katrina, members
of the New Orleans Survivor
Council, poor and working
black folk who have
historically been ignored in
our country and feel we have
been set up for genocide.
When Katrina hit, we were
left in more than 20 feet of
floodwater for over 21 days
in a city that sits over 13
feet below sea level – left
to die.
The events of the past year
have caused us to
re-evaluate the direction of
the progressive and
revolutionary movement. We
noticed that those left in
New Orleans to drown were
the poorest and
darkest-skinned people of
the city. Looking around the
world, we see that the most
oppressed and cast-aside
peoples are those with
darker skin. We are looking
deeply at this intersection
of skin color and poverty
and asking everyone to do
the same. We are committed
to building an egalitarian
society. We have concluded
that the only way to
accomplish this is to look
to those very people who
have been relegated to the
bottom of society's heap for
leadership. We call this
Bottom-Up leadership.
Our people have also been
deserted by most members of
the progressive community at
home. We know that everyone
comes to you for help; the
Harry Belafontes, the Danny
Glovers, and the very
organizations that we helped
to start and that later
deserted us: they have all
come to you. Often, their
talk is of oil money. Our
appeal to you is something
quite different. We think
the most exciting thing
happening in your country is
the communal council
movement, and that is why we
are here.
We are looking for a
relationship with you.
Because we've been deserted,
we need to rebuild our own
communities, schools, and
hospitals. We need to
rebuild our levees so we
won't be washed away by the
next storm. We need to build
relationships with people
who care about us. From
listening to your
leadership, it sounds like
you care.
We are looking to forge
sister-city relationships.
These would be sister-city
relationships of a different
type: not with the official
City Council of New Orleans,
but with the New Orleans
Survivor Council, the
organization of the most
oppressed folk in the city.
Our council is the council
of the people, the
grassroots people who were
the most impacted by this
disaster, the council of the
people who were left to die.
And we have made great
sacrifice to come before
you, personally, in order to
represent ourselves and put
a stop to those who come
over and claim to represent
us, building the power and
prestige of themselves and
their organizations on the
backs of our suffering.
In your communal councils,
we see organizations similar
to ours. Our goal is to
empower the people at the
bottom to begin to
self-govern. You have a
government that declares
support for that process. We
don't, and that is why we
have come to you.
We are interested in
building our schools and
communities, and we
desperately need to build
our levees. We also have a
dire need for organizers to
help us build Survivor
Councils among the 200,000
New Orleanians still
scattered across six states,
in fifteen cities and
numerous trailer park
concentration camps.
We therefore come to you
with four requests:
That you send 25 of your
organizers to work with us
for 18 months to 2 years
and support them while
they are with us.
That you provide support
for 25 of our own
organizers for the same
period, to include a trip
here to see your model and
learn from it.
That you provide engineers
and resources to help us
build a small
demonstration levee to
world-class standards.
That you provide resources
to help our people take
back our public housing
communities and provide
alternative energy sources
for our people who are
moving back in because the
U.S. government has
refused to reopen these
communities or provide
heat light, or repair
assistance to those of our
community that have
reoccupied.
We thank you very much for
enabling us to visit and
learn from your work, and we
thank you in advance for the
help we hope you will extend
to us.
An Emergency Appeal to the
People of Venezuela
from the New Orleans
Survivor Council
We are a group of survivors
and organizers working for
the people who were left to
die when New Orleans flooded
after Hurricane Katrina. We
are visiting your country
for the second time on an
urgent mission on February
18 to appeal to you as
friends of the poor, black,
working class people of New
Orleans. We need your help
and support, as our
government has attacked us
and then turned its back on
our desperate needs.
When Katrina threatened our
city, local and national
government united to keep us
in the city as the
floodwaters rose. The
poorest and darkest skinned
of working class people were
left to die, and more than
6,000 of us did. We were
herded into shelters with no
food or water, and later
dispersed all over the
country with no way to get
back home. A quarter of a
million Katrina survivors
are still scattered all over
the country, and tens of
thousands of us are living
in trailer camps that are
like concentration camps.
Until now, the government
has put every possible
obstacle in our way, has not
rebuilt our neighborhoods
and has not even built
levees around them that
would keep out the water in
the next hurricane. They
closed the public hospital
and most of the schools.
Even the public housing
units thousands of us lived
in are scheduled to be torn
down, though the flood did
not damage them. Some
residents moved back in
anyway, and this week
heavily armed special police
units have kicked in the
doors at 2 AM to throw
people out and arrest them.
To replace us in the jobs we
once held, the government
has brought in so-called
guest workers from Latin
American countries, who they
tell a pile of lies to get
them here. Then they house
them in trailer
concentration camps, too,
don't give them medical care
or safety protection, and
pay them a fraction of what
they used to pay us for the
same jobs. These workers
cannot quit their jobs
without becoming illegal
immigrants, so they are
forced to work under these
conditions. This is modern
day slavery used to take the
place of the descendants of
their former slaves.
As former slaves and modern
slaves, we are building
unity. We realize that we
must take our future into
our own hands. The
government has proven that
it won't help us. We are
actively organizing to bring
the poor, black and working
class communities back to
our city and to unite with
oppressed working people of
other hues. We know that we
all have the same
oppressors, and in unity
there is strength. We are
one people. This is why we
are coming to you to ask for
your solidarity and support.
We have been struggling for
over a year now to rebuild
our communities and bring
our families back home.
However, it has become clear
to us that we are being cast
aside by the government and
much of our society.
Although everyday people
have poured in to help us
rebuild, no one with any
resources has helped us. No
money is coming to us from
government or private
sources, except the small
donations of poor people
like ourselves. We have come
to see that the poorest
black working class people
in the United States today
are in the same position
that our ancestors were in
on the Middle Passage from
Africa, that Jews, Gypsies
and other oppressed peoples
in Europe were in during the
1930's. Our young people are
thrown in jail by the
thousands and shot down in
the streets by the police.
Our access to health care is
so poor that tens of
thousands of us die each day
of preventable causes in the
richest country in the
world. Our children cannot
get a decent education and
look to a future without a
decent job. We are being set
up for genocide, and few
people see this, either in
our country or
internationally.
What is happening to us is
important to every struggle
in the world today. We are
the descendants of the
African slaves who built
this country with their
labor. We look around us in
America and all the world,
and we see that the darker
your skin, the closer you
are to the bottom of the
heap. Like oppressed people
everywhere, poor black
people in the United States
have always fought for
freedom. We have a culture
of resisting exploitation.
We refuse to work hard for
someone else's profit. We
fought slavery; we joined
the army in large numbers to
fight fascism in Europe
during World War Two,
because we know racism when
we see it; we rose up
against racism and burned
cities forty years ago. This
is why the government is
afraid of us and wants us
out of New Orleans. What is
happening to us is a
prediction of what will
happen across our country
and throughout the world as
the U.S. government sinks
deeper into fascism and
aggression. This is not our
struggle alone, it is the
struggle of all laboring,
oppressed and shunned people
of the world.
When we first visited your
country last year, we were
excited by promises of help.
We need that help
desperately. We have to
fight or die. We were very
impressed by your young
social workers. We ask that
you send twenty-five of them
for two years to help us
organize the rebuilding of
our communities. We also ask
that you provide financial
support for twenty-five
Katrina survivors to be
trained and supported as
organizers.
Another of our goals is for
our people, by our own
efforts, with our own hands,
to begin to rebuild the
levee around our devastated
Ninth Ward neighborhoods to
world-class standards. The
US government has left us
vulnerable to being swept
away by the next flood. We
appeal to you to help us
fund a demonstration project
that will rebuild one block
of levee. This will show the
government that the levee
can be rebuilt, that the
only thing lacking is their
political will to protect
us. And it will show the
world that someone does care
about the plight of poor
black people in the US.
The rich want us to believe
that as poor, working
people, and dark-skinned
people, we are not smart or
skilled enough to run our
own lives. On the contrary,
we believe that it is the
people on the bottom, all
over the world, who have the
skills, intelligence and
humanity to run the world.
Help us take a step toward
international unity of the
oppressed of all hues, under
the leadership of the most
oppressed, to stand up
together. It is a necessity
for the survival of all of
us.
Thank you.
The New Orleans Survivor
Council
The People's Organizing
Committee
The New Orleans Workers'
Center
February 2007
Click here to download our February Newsletter.
Click here to download the Summer Project Pamphlet.
Letter to President Chavez
To: The Honorable Hugo
Chavez, President of the
Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela
The Honorable Jorge
Rodriguez, Vice-President of
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
From: The New Orleans
Survivor Council Delegation
to Venezuela
Subject: A Report of our
Visit to Venezuela
Date: February 22, 2007
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