Activists in New Orleans. Some examples of their Blogs

international | anti-capitalism | news report Thursday November 03, 2005 04:49 by john throne - labors militant voice loughfinn at aol dot com

Hostile Take Over in New Orleans. The American Meat Pie Incident. Lafayette. LA.

Workers in the wake of Katrina are trying to self organize and fight back. Some of us activists here in the US are trying to help them both by going there and also by sending financial and other aid. Our aim is to help the workers self organize as opposed to being pushed around by the government and its many agencies. Arising out of this self organizing comes increased consciousness about our own power and this can lead to increased consciousness and struggle in all other areas of all of our lives.

Please check out the blog at bringdownbush.org and donate what you can through paypal on that site.

Hostile Takeover
October 17th, 2005

Shreveport, LA

I was thinking about what to write today as I was
driving out of Dallas. I was considering
something along the lines of "reflections on the
price of a gallon of gas", but then I met Albert.

Albert Sumrell is 44 years old and a painter by
trade. Like many in his profession, he has
worked for himself and for contractors. His
fiancée has family up here and there was a job
fair for evacuees, so Shreveport seemed like a
good place to spend some time. Albert still
considers the Ninth Ward of New Orleans Parish
his home. "I was born and raised in New Orleans
Parish. My mother is buried there. My sister is
buried there. My aunt and my nephew are buried
there. New Orleans Parish will always be my
home."

"Home," for now, is a Motel Six in Shreveport.
Albert was hired by nearby painting contractor at
the job fair. He was washing his white painter's
coveralls and jeans in the little motel laundry
room when I met him last night, shortly after
11:00 pm. Even though he had to be up for work
at 5:30, he was eager to share his thoughts with
me for almost two hours. I asked what he thought
about the situation down in New Orleans:

"It's nothing but a hostile takeover. New
Orleans is the next Las Vegas. Rich folks have
it all planned out. Donald Trump is buying up
the Ninth Ward while its still under water.
They've got it all planned out.

"This is all the same as in Iraq. Hostile
takeover. It can't be considered any way else.
Bush wanted that oil, so he took over Iraq.
He'll take over Iran, wherever, just to get more
oil. But if we have all that oil now, why does
the price keep going up and up? Hostile takeover.

"They can't ever get enough, like a drug dealer.
The dealer has this corner, but now he wants that
corner. If you're already there, he's got to
move you out. Hostile takeover.

"This is the thing: You leave the city flooded,
so the residents can't come back. Meanwhile,
Mayor Nagin is on T.V. saying he wants us all
back. Mayor Nagin may be black, but he's just a
puppet. They don't want us back. There are
questions they won't answer. They go on
television saying FEMA is giving us this and
giving us that. As soon as the cameras are gone,
that's it. We get it. I saw in the newspaper
that they rented those cruise ships to shelter
the residents, but then wouldn't let them move
in. They had picture of like eight middle class
black families on deck chairs on top, smiling all
happy. They're the only residents they let in.

"This was a hostile takeover involving the mayor,
the governor, all the way up to President Bush.
It's no secret that Bush is just a gangster. How
are you going to just 'take over' a presidency in
the first place?"
J

The American Meat Pie Incident

Lafayette, LA

I got thrown out of American Meat Pie in Lafayette, Louisiana today.
I pulled into a little strip mall on the Ambassador Caffey Parkway to
ask directions to Kinkos. It was almost 7:00 and the place was about
to close. The only people up front were a twelve or thirteen year
old girl doing homework at a corner table and woman sweeping up. The
woman told me they only had three pies left. I ordered a soda and
asked for directions.

We got to talking. The woman's name was Edie and she was very
interested in what I was doing in Louisiana. Edie was in her
mid-forties, with short blond hair and obvious kindness and decency.
Edie had met her share of Katrina evacuees. The little restaurant
was one of the first off the interstate, in a corridor of cheap
motels. Right after Katrina hit, she would meet as many as four or
five families a night. "Their stories broke my heart. I would go
home and cry a lot back then."

The girl in the corner had come over to listen to her mother and me
talking. While Edie started to get a bit emotional, recalling all of
the horror stories she had heard, Jessica told her to tell me about
"the man in the hospital clothes."

"One night back then, about this time, I was getting ready to close
up. I had the door locked because a lot of nights it's only me and
my daughter, so I don't feel safe with it unlocked. An older man
came to the door wearing nothing but a hospital gown. He was in a
panic. He could barely talk and was about to cry. He had just been
kicked out of a hospital on the outskirts of New Orleans."

Somehow, the man with only a hospital gown had managed to get to
Lafayette. He had a brother living outside of town nearby and was
desperate to reach him. All he wanted to do was use the phone. Edie
dialed the number for him and he his brother came to help. In the
meantime, Edie and the man mostly cried.

Jessica told me about the new evacuee friends she had made at her school.

Edie was very interested in the CRR and Labor's Militant Voice and
what we do. "I wish I'd known you ten years ago. I almost lost
everything when this contractor went out of business after selling me
a worthless house through the FHA."

It turned that Edie had been UPS teamster, like I had. She got fired
for flipping over a package van, but won her job back in a grievance
hearing. The company had "lost" the previous two weeks worth of her
vehicle logs in which she reported the dangerously loose steering.
She eventually was driven to quit. Being the only woman in her hub,
she suffered unbearable sexism. "I wouldn't work for them for 50
dollars an hour."

We could have talked for hours, but it was closing time. I asked if
I could take their picture in the meat pie shop for the blog. Edie
wanted to ask the owner's permission. That's when it things got
awkward. The serious little business man who came out of the back
office started off by saying how much he supported the evacuees. His
first hesitation to my camera was that he had "just taken down all
his Katrina pictures."

When he pressed me about what website the blog was on, he went from
suspicious to hostile. "Bring down Bush? What about bring down
Nagin? I'm no Democrat!"

"Neither are we," I said, "but as Californians, he is our president.
Bush has cost human lives by his actions." When the owner replied
that Bush responded faster than Clinton ever did to a disaster, I
could see this was getting pointless.

I smiled and said I've got to go. "Damn right you do!" I couldn't
help laughing in the face of this man as he grimaced at me. Edie
looked shocked and a bit uncomfortable. As I was walked out the
door, the man said something about "California liberals" and I
turned. I looked at Edie and said something about a world without
bosses. It was nice to see her smile one last time.

J