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	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
Special Features: NOSC BookMobile passes out free books to kids throughout New Orleans & St. Bernard Parish! Volunteers clean up overgrown lots in the Lower 9th Ward. Editoral by Council Member Jondrea Smith.   Contents: Volunteers clean up Lower 9th Ward A Valentine’s Day to Remember Fire Next Time: Social Justice in America BookMobile Summer Schedule About NOSC	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.
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!

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.   Volunteers have fun with a sing -along while working to restore residents’ homes. 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. 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.” 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 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.

December Newsletter

Work begins at NOSC’s new headquarters Survivor Council Ready to Move into New Quarters   The New Orleans Survivor Council is ready to move into its new headquarters at the Old Pathway Church on Alabo Street in the Lower Ninth Ward! The Reconstruction Committee, with the help of two small grants, ran a six-week training project in October-November. The Council was able to hire and train five trainees and several trainers. Volunteer trades people also provided indispensable and much appreciated help. The project succeeded in getting the Church almost ready for use. We are only waiting for an electrician to guide and certify the electrical work so the lights can be turned on and the walls closed up. The Church has agreed to allow the Survivor Council use of the facility for one year in exchange for fixing it up. In addition to moving into the Church, the Survivor Council has developed a volunteer Leadership Team, which is poised to take over all the resources of People’s Organizing Committee. This includes the bank account and finances, the vehicles, the office computers, and supervision of all staff and volunteers. When POC was formed in April, it was committed to the principle of bottom-up organizing: that those most affected by Katrina should lead the effort to return and rebuild. POC has consistently helped residents come together and learn to lead their own work, while using its resources and organizers under the direction of Survivor Council decisions. This transition from POC control of resources to direct Survivor Council control has been our goal from the beginning, and we are proud and happy that it is about to happen! DONATIONS NEEDED Help continue this work! Send donations to: POC/IFCO 418 W. 145th Street New York, NY 10031 June: residents at Florida try to return home Public Housing Residents Fight Back   In the last two to three weeks, public housing residents have been taking strong and active roles in the fight to return home. The People’s Organizing Committee, the Advancement Project, the Loyola Law Clinic, the NAACP, the United Front for Affordable Housing, and the Survivor Village have all benefited from their direction and leadership. Residents from various developments, including Lafitte, C.J. Pete, St.Bernard, Florida, Desire, B.W. Cooper, Guste and various scatter sites have met every second and third Thursday of each month. They call themselves Residents of Public Housing. The New Orleans Survivor Council works through Residents for Public Housing to help bring poor and working class black people back home to New Orleans. A couple of weeks ago, the New Orleans Survivor Council and Residents of Public Housing, in partnership with the People’s Organizing Committee and the Advancement Project sponsored transportation, child care and food for residents to travel from Houston to New Orleans in order to challenge HANO and HUD in their efforts to demolish the homes of public housing residents. The groups also participated in mobilizing public housing residents and supporters in Baton Rouge and New Orleans to address HANO and HUD. Over 300 public housing residents and over 200 supporters came together and denounced HANO and HUD and their efforts to take homes away from the people even though the homes are livable. Residents of Public Housing has vowed to reoccupy their homes whether HANO & HUD do the right thing or not. They assert that HANO & HUD do not have the authority or the power to deny them their right to return home. Residents from several developments are in the process of developing reoccupation plans and are readying themselves to take on HANO, HUD, the city, the federal government and all others who stand in their way. As a result of the strong and vocal opposition of public housing residents and their supporters to the HANO and HUD demolition plans, private developers and others who have been planning to make millions off of the demolition of public housing and the suffering of poor and working class black people have gone back to the drawing board. Now, private developers have been pushing HANO and HUD to open up at least some of the units in the development so that public housing residents can stop putting up so much resistance. Residents of Public Housing have said that all who want to return to their homes have the right to return to their homes and there will be no compromise on that. The New Orleans Survivor Council meets every first and third Saturday at Caffin and Claiborne, at 11:00 A.M. Summer volunteer meeting More Volunteers Headed to New Orleans!   In December, January and February, student volunteers are once again headed our way. Last spring and summer, hundreds of volunteers devoted time under the direction of the New Orleans Survivor Council and its People’s Organizing Committee organizers, gutting scores of homes, spreading the word about Survivor Council meetings and activities, going door-to-door in trailer parks and learning lessons to take back with them. We are gearing up to put volunteers to use again soon! Bottom-up Organizing in New Orleans Inspires International Discussion   Bottom-up organizing means helping the people most impacted by the problems to lead themselves. Since Katrina, we’ve discovered that mostly nobody wants to do this. Therefore, POC has sent out questions to start a dialog on how to understand our situation and deal with it. If you would like to read the questions and participate in the discussion, go to our website or write to us at our office. See the box below for the addresses. If We Don’t Think It, It Ain’t for Us People’s Organizing Committee 2226 Ursulines New Orleans, LA 70119 504-872-9591 Send Donations to: IFCO; 418 W. 145th St. New York, NY, 10031

Trainees install sheetrock at Old Pathways Reconstruction-Training Project Fulfills Principle of Serving Most in Need   In addition to preparing the Church for Survivor Council Occupancy, the reconstruction-training program also made a major start to the work of rebuilding a home in the Lower Ninth. In keeping with the Survivor Council principle, the home chosen belongs to an elderly couple who currently live in a trailer park and do not have the resources to hire people to fix their home. Although the home is not yet finished, we made great headway by jacking up the home and completely replacing the foundation and main structural elements.   Renaissance trailer camp Trailer Park Organizing Comes Together with “Guest Workers”   Last year, hundreds of thousands of poor and working class black New Orleans residents were forced from their homes, herded into buses and airplanes and snatched from their homes and communities. Some residents were relocated to various cities, while others were placed in FEMA trailer camps throughout the Gulf Coast. To this day, only a handful has been able to return home. Almost immediately Latin American workers were recruited, lured by promises of financial security and a better future for their families and communities, to come and work in New Orleans. These poor black residents of New Orleans were essentially “replaced” by a new and more profitable working class. The majority of these new workers came to New Orleans through the Guest Worker Program, in which immigrants are given temporary “H2B” visas, which are valid only as long as the worker is employed by the US company who recruited them. However, this presents a problem for the workers because most of them are forced to take out high interest loans in order to get the visa, and once they get here they don’t get paid enough to even repay the loan. If their employment is terminated for any reason, the visa is no longer valid, and they are faced with the double-edged sword of returning home with more debt than they started with or remaining in the country illegally to try to make back their money. The corporations that participate in the guest worker program do so only for the economic benefits. In the shipbuilding industry, for example, an inexperienced US citizen would expect to make roughly $14 - $15 dollars an hour, but the company knows it they go to impoverished countries in South and Central America, $8 an hour is a respectable rate, so they actively recruit workers to come to the US and work for these rates. The guest worker program is a blatant form of modern day slavery! The parallels between this program and the trans-Atlantic slave trade of a few centuries ago are clear. When these companies found a cheaper source of labor in another country, they went there, tricked the people into coming, and remain in complete control of the situation! They bring in a new group of workers every ten months or so, and keep the cycle going. Meanwhile, it has been virtually impossible for the “old” working class to return to New Orleans and resume their jobs. The biggest obstacle to people returning has been the housing situation, whether they used to be homeowners, renters, or public housing residents. Poor homeowners have been given virtually no assistance, renters have been unable to return because of the double and triple increases in rents, public housing residents have been unable to return because all of the Projects have been closed, barred, and scheduled for demolition. The message is clear; the powers that be do not want poor black people back in New Orleans! They already have a new, cheaper working class; in their minds, there is no reason for these people to return. But the people have already said that they want to return! The New Orleans Survivor Council organizers (POC) have been reaching out to those displaced residents in the FEMA trailer camps for several months now. Most of the trailer camps are in remote locations: small towns, nature reserves, airport land, etc. In these locations, it is virtually impossible for residents to find employment, hard for them to find transportation, and a very depressing situation overall. One of the parks that we found was in an isolated state park in Mississippi, the nearest town about twenty minutes away by car. A few of the residents shared their story with us. They were bused from New Orleans to a community center in Mississippi where they stayed for about two and a half months. After that the majority were placed in this state park, away from everyone and everything. One resident stated that she had been looking for employment since she had arrived at the park ten months prior, and had been unable to find any because the nearest town had no jobs. Even if they did, she had no transportation. So, she sits in her trailer all day, and confided that she has been terribly depressed since the day she arrived; that her children are the only reason she keeps going. Even in Baker, Louisiana, where they have a bus shuttle that takes residents from one camp to another, Baton Rouge, and to the local Wal-Mart, the residents feel the same way. Most are very depressed, mainly because of the extremity of their plight. They have been unable to receive any assistance to return home. What’s worse is that they have been unable to improve their position. Those who have searched for employment have been turned down as soon as employers find out they are from New Orleans. Many residents have remarked that, “unless you know someone out here, you won’t find a job”. They are giving up hope with every passing day. However, the Baker Survivor Council meets regularly to discuss issues and problems that they face, including how they will get home, and how to create more unity among the residents. They hosted a meeting with some “guest workers” to get to know each other and share common problems. The have helped gut homes in New Orleans, recently sponsored a basketball tournament in the park, and have instituted a weekly cookout in Renaissance Park. Organizing is also beginning in the Greenwell Springs Trailer Camp in Baton Rouge. Our vision of the FEMA trailer camp project is the unification of these past slaves (the poor black community) and the new slaves (the guest workers). We recognize that it is the same set of people – business and government – that have colluded to keep both of our communities down, and artificially separate us from each other: in reality we are one people! Once we come together, our vision is that together, we will rebuild New Orleans and create communities where we will live together, work together, and support each other in whatever ways possible.

Click here to download our current August Newsletter.

Click here to download our July Newsletter.

New Orleans Survivors Council Update
Reports from Meetings of May 20th and 27th

The New Orleans Survivors Council continues to meet each Saturday morning at 11:00 AM at the Sanchez Center on the corner of Caffin and N. Claiborne in the Lower Ninth Ward.

At the May 20th meeting, reports were made by the Reconstruction, Organizing and Finance Committees. Student volunteers from Hampton had been helping the Reconstruction Committee with ongoing house gutting. More volunteers are expected from around the country throughout the summer, and a number of students have volunteered to stay for longer periods of time to help with the work. A shipment of supplies is on its way from New York to help with the reconstruction work as well.

The Organizing Committee agreed on a Come Back Home Campaign to help displaced residents beat the August 29th deadline to begin work on reclaiming their homes. Meanwhile, the Finance Committee is communicating with People’s Hurricane Relief concerning funds for Council operations. The Committee also reported that residents without homeowners insurance can call 1-888-388-4673 for information on available resources and assistance.

Levee Walk

On Monday, May 29th, there will be a Memorial Walk to the new levee sponsored by NINA. Council members and friends are encouraged to attend.

At the May 27th meeting, the Reconstruction Committee reported that it has 60 more houses to work on. After gutting, the next step will be pressure washing and mold removal. The Committee is working to obtain resources for this type of work. Students from New York and Montana are coming in this week to help with the work.

Discussion was wide-ranging on new business, including comments on the new levees, which have been built only to withstand category 3 hurricanes, and the need for better media and other communication to facilitate displaced residents knowing about events in New Orleans and being encouraged to return home. There was also discussion about a group effort to rehabilitate the Florida housing projects on Saturday, June 3.

Events

In addition to the Levee Walk (see above), there the Survivor Council decided to support a tent city protest called Survivors Village, beginning Saturday, June 3 at the St. Bernard Housing Development. Gutting work at the Florida development is scheduled for later the same day. Volunteers who want to help with the Florida work should meet at the Sanchez Center at 11 AM for orientation, tools and protective gear; work will start at noon.

Electricity policy test

The city’s policy for allowing residents to return to their homes and receive electricity is that you must have an electrician confirm that your fixtures and wiring are in safe condition. Once your home has been inspected, the city is supposed to activity your electricity. To test this policy the council selected a resident who lives on Gordon Street to go through the necessary steps and see if the city turns on his power. This Council member will report the status of his endeavor at the next NOSC meeting on June 10.