Public Works Now!
Rebuild New Orleans, the U.S., and World!
During the commemorations for Katrina come to a talk by authors and activists Jeanette Gabriel and Adolph Reed on a real reconstruction plan for New Orleans and how to get there
Two years after Hurricane Katrina and the Great Flood, much of New Orleans remains in ruins. While the state has repaired the Superdome roof and the tourist corridor along the river is up and running--although with not enough workers due to the continuing affordable housing shortage--many working class neighborhoods are filled with abandoned houses, broken streets, and closed schools. Furthermore, the infrastructure is on life support. More water leaks through the city’s water pipes than makes it to people’s faucets. Public services are either inadequate, such as the public transportation, or worse yet, have been closed, such as Charity hospital and public housing. Most public schools have been privatized by for-profit and ‘non-profit’ agencies as part of the largest mass chartering of schools in the country. Billions have been made by corporate profiteers, while the index of homelessness, mortality, depression and misery skyrocket.
Is there an alterative? Two activists intellectuals--Jeanette Gabriel, immigrant rights activist and author of various works on FDR’s WPA program, and Adolph Reed, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and labor activist--believe there is. On the second anniversary of Katrina they will discuss the bankruptcy and impossibility of obtaining an economically and racially just reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf through a market-based, capitalist-led effort. They will lay out the urgent need, historical precedent, and political basis, for a massive public works program to rebuild the New Orleans and the Gulf, which could be a model for the rest of country and world.
Come here this important talk and join in the discussion on what it would take to make a public works program a reality.
Thursday, August 30
7 PM
St Jude Community Center
400 N. Rampart St.
Sponsors: C3/Hands Off Iberville, United Front for Affordable Housing
For more information cal Jay Arena at 504-520-9521
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