Univerisal Human Rights: Public challenges Impending New Orleans Elections & Human Rights : NOLA Indymedia

On Saturday, April 1 2006, several thousand people marched across the Mississippi River Bridge from the Convention Center in New Orleans to Gretna, Louisiana to protest human rights abuses that occurred following hurricane Katrina and the upcoming mayoral elections on April 22.

When some people tried to cross the Mississippi river bridge, the "Crescent City Connection", while fleeing the city and the rising floodwaters immediately following hurricane Katrina last September, they were turned back at gunpoint by police from the city of Gretna.

Protestors not only marched symbolically on this bridge but also protested the upcoming elections for New Orleans mayor. With less than half the city returned, and most of the residents relocated to new addresses, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)and other national and local civil rights advocates called for the post-ponement of the elections until equal access to the candidates, information about the election, and actual voting places can be guaranteed to all residents. In particular, voting rights advocates pointed to satellite voting opportunities given in the United States by the government to Iraqi and Bosnian citizens that are being denied to tens of thousands of displaced residents of New Orleans. Many protestors compared the expense and burden on poor and predominantly African-American residents to travel back to New Orleans just to vote for mayor to the poll taxes and Jim Crow laws that historically prevented African-American peoples from representation in electoral politics in the Southern United States.

The NAACP has set up a hotline for New Orleans voters:
The number is 1-866-Our-Vote (1-866-687-8683). Pass it on.

This past weekend's protest in New Orleans coincided with some of the largest protests in U.S. history. In other cities around the United States, hundreds of thousands of protestors also marched against anti-immigration legislation and immigrant worker policies. To look more at both these protests and larger movements in relationship to universal human rights and equal representation, see today's Democracy Now! show at:
http://democracynow.org/streampage.pl

To see more video for a Free New Orleans and Peace On Earth, go to:
http://www.post-katrinapopulistfunk.blogspot.com
http://www.notvcollective.org

For a higher resolution format, please contact: mblack@notvcollective