December 9-10 Mobilization : NOLA Indymedia

FROM OUTRAGE TO ACTION !!!
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STATE OF EMERGENCY CONFERENCE AND SURVIVORS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JACKSON, MS
DECEMBER 8, 9, 2005
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MARCH ON NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 10, 2005
"DEMAND THE RIGHT TO RETURN"

On August 29, 2005, Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with the full force of a category five hurricane. Within hours, floodwaters covered the City of New Orleans, pouring out of an outdated levee system that, due to years of gross and blatant government neglect, was not prepared to withstand Katrina's powerful winds. Quickly these waters found and overwhelmed the city's majority Black and poverty stricken communities, while miraculously, the more affluent communities were spared. Indeed, many survivors reported hearing explosions before seeing the advancing waters. This has left some to conclude that the floodwater invasion was not an act of nature but more of an act of design.

Many survivors recalled that in 1927 white business owners busted the levee in Black areas in order to direct the water away from their businesses and affluent communities. This history supports the belief that Katrina's floodwaters found their way to the black ninth ward and East New Orleans by design.

Within days after Katrina struck, dead bodies, mostly Blacks, floated through the streets as ambulances and helicopters rushed passed Blacks and poor survivors toward white and affluent communities, leaving the lower socio-economic survivors and Blacks to defend for themselves. This situation produced countless acts of heroism and courage as men, women and children reached out to each other and saved the lives of family, friends and strangers as government agencies and the Red Cross rushed to the aid of the affluent or dilly dallied as the devastation and disaster mushroomed. The survivors sought refuge in the New Orleans Super Dome and at the Civic Center as they gathered and waited for buses, which took three to six days to come. The people waited in dangerous and unhealthy conditions without clean clothing, water, electricity, toiletries, and often without food.

The major media turned away, ignored or failed to show people's acts of courage and heroism, as they were preoccupied with reporting so called looting (as Kanye West so passionately stated when it was Blacks it was looting - when it was Whites it was food for survivor). Although there were few if any gun shot casualties reported to any law enforcement or medical personnel, the media repeatedly ran stories on phantom shootings at police and medical aids by so called armed thugs, while broadcasting over and over again the same picture of the same few people carrying gym shoes, clothing, food, and in one case a television.

The Governor of Louisiana called on State and local law enforcement to shoot to kill the so-called looters. The numbers of those gunned down by police and National Guards are suspected to be at least thirty (30). In Mississippi and New Orleans, many were herded into jail with high bonds for petty larceny or other exaggerated charges.

When the buses finally arrived, Blacks and many poor survivors were taken to so called shelters and placed in concentration camp-like conditions, while the National Guard confronted them with guns. Whites and the more affluent were transported to white churches and other facilities and shelters.

Across the country outrage has grown and still grows as the failure, human indifference and mistreatment by the U. S. Government, FEMA, the Red Cross, state governments, and local governments towards the survivors and victims of hurricane Katrina becomes more and more apparent.

The outrageousness of the behavior of these Governments and agencies have become even more obvious, as Katrina survivors were left with little money, without homes, jobs and dignity and some without their children, who could not be found. Where is the concern and help? Survivors seeking help have been frustrated by the lack of organized management and shuffled from the Red Cross, to FEMA, to insurance companies and back to the Red Cross again still receiving little or no relief. The insurance companies refuse to pay for homes lost. FEMA pays too little and is too slow. Large numbers of Red Cross workers are dishonest, and unreliable at best. The U.S.government, the state and local governments involved and big time money changers go forward on plans to rebuild New Orleans without most of its displaced black and poor populations. Meanwhile, hundreds of Katrina survivors linger in jail charged with a variety of illegitimate charges. Over 1,000 died as a result of Katrina and the government's brutal neglect. The families of these victims have buried their dead and no compensation for wrongful death has been offered or seriously considered.

The burden of suffering and financial loss will once again be slung on the back of the poor and a nation of black people which already finds millions of its people in poverty, prison and jails, many being held as political prisoners. This cross is to be carried by a nation of people already owed reparation for centuries of slave trade, slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, discrimination and countless other acts of lawlessness.

Remembering the horrors of Katrina and the history of racial and class oppression is not enough. The time has come to turn outrage to action.

On December 8, 2005 through December 10, 2005 scores of survivors and their supporters,(people who believe in freedom and justice) will gather in Jackson, MS and New Orleans. We will gather for the National State of Emergency Conference in Jackson on the 8th and 9th of December. Supporters, representatives and leaders from over 50 black organizations and labor unions and their third world and anti-racists allies will meet in solidarity with the survivors and initiate an action plan to rescue the Black population and all oppressed populations from their dependency on racist and incompetent governments. Most important the Katrina Survivors will gather at the same place and time to form a General Assembly to speak and to exercise their rights to self-determination.

Survivors have raised the demands for immediate jobs, education, housing, clothing and food. Survivors have made the demand to place the control and direction of Gulf Coast reconstruction in their hands. Survivors demand opportunity to exercise the right to return to the Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty. Survivors have demanded a complete investigation into and prosecution of all government agencies for crimes against humanity and human rights violations.

LOCATION OF EVENTS

On December 8, 2005, 7pm-11pm the youth will speak out on Katrina at the Business School of Jackson State University at 1300 Lynch Street, Jackson, MS , Room 134.

On December 9, 2005, 9am-6pm in the State of Emergency Conference the survivors will tell their stories and conference participants will organize for action in support of Katrina Survivors demands and to build a front which will confront and combat the abusive human rights violations of the American Government and its friends. The survivors will also meet during this time period to form their assembly and to elect their officers.

The General Assembly and the Conference will take place at Anderson United Methodist Church, located in Jackson, MS at 6205 Hanging Moss Road, off I-220.

On Friday evening December 9, 2005, 8pm-11pm there will be a cultural program and rally at a location to be announced in Jackson, MS.

On Saturday, December 10, 2005 which is International Human Rights Day. The survivors and their supporters (all of us) will march on New Orleans in support of all the survivors demands and in particular in support of the right of the survivors to return to the Gulf Coast.

OBJECTIVES

The Objectives of the December 8-10, 2005 Assembly/Conference and the Demonstration are as follows:

1. To build a Hurricane Katrina Survivors General Assembly which will speak for the Gulf Coast Survivors and which will demand and exercise the peoples right to self determination in New Orleans and other effected gulf coast areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

2. To demand the people's right to return to New Orleans and to the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty.

3. To demand reparations for the governments' criminal indifference, negligence, and malicious actions towards the Victims and Survivors, before, during and after Katrina.

4. To demand, launch and/or continue investigations, law suits and prosecutions of governments, agencies and persons responsible for the human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed before, during and after Katrina.

5. To build a national united front in support and solidarity with the self determination and reparation demands of Katrina Survivors, and through this front to design and initiate a plan of action and institutions which will allow black people to fortify themselves and serve their own needs in the face of future disasters which are either natural or by human hands.

6. To link today's demands for reparations and self determination to the historical and future struggle of black people and other oppressed populations for self determination and reparations.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For further information call 1-888-310-PHRF(7473), or call 601-353-5566, or email outrage2action@yahoo.com