The Anti-Disaster Capitalism Contingent and Katrina's Third Anniversary
As the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches what Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism remains the order of the day in New Orleans. Public housing, in the midst of a dire shortage of affordable housing, continues to be torn down. The preeminent institution of New Orleans public healthcare, Charity Hospital, remains shuttered. And it is now revealed that plans to build new medical facilities in the city will entail the wholesale destruction of hundreds of private, mainly working class homes
in the lower mid-city area of town. The fact that the completion of plans to construct the proposed LSU-VA medical complex would require the demolition of hundreds of homes occuppied by Katrina survivors in the lower mid-city area of town is not a matter of concern for New Orleans' heartless powers that be. And of, course, real estate sharks, acting in collusion with the greed driven, corporate owned politicians that pass for local public officials, are buying off public school properties at fire sale prices.
All of this raises a question vital to the future welfare of the great majority of New Orleanians: how can the orgy of greed that masquerades as the "recovery" be stopped before it plunges all but a select few into unmitigated squalor? Those who are seeking an affirmative answer to this question are urged to help build the Disaster Anti-Capitalism Contingent for Katrina's Third Anniversary.
If nothing else, the Contingent will provide a voice on August 29, 2008 for the many who are fed up with the campaign by the U.S. ruling class to transform New Orleans into America's model neoliberal city at the expense of the great mass of its humanity. Those who are interested in helping build this contingent are urged to attend the meetings to be held 7pm every Thursday at St. Jude's Church(400 Basin St.).
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