hello world
received this katrina call to action over the black radical congress list
dont know who sponsoring organization is, an email address but no link - unfortunate
the presentation is not as sophisticated as i would prefer it be
and no attendant website further indication of perhaps not ready for primetime activism
which is really unfortunate cause struggle in the 21st century got to be primetime
needs editing too but im gon to put it up as i received it
had i been asked i would have suggested changing the tone of it also
something a little less predictable (thereby less dismissible)
folk hear that same old rhetoric it goes in one ear and out the other
unless you already a true believer
and i would have dumped the repeated attempts to link katrina to reparations
(i had hoped we were going to let reparations slide for awhile - i had hoped
katrina would make it clear to black activists that it is a new day (hell its a new
century) - and that oldtime gimme gimme needs to be left behind w/the dodo bird -
notice how they mention self determination almost everytime they mention reparations,
cause they know thats where the hole in the wall - ohwell im not going to worry
about it, strategically speaking reparations is a dead end street and eventually we gon come
to the end of that road - and i do make a distinction between reparations
for slavery and the government helping its citizens after a natural disaster - thats
what i expect of any government - calling that reparations instead of disaster aid
confuses the issue and makes it less likely - clumsy rhetoric points is all that is)
but i have to give credit where credit is due (the folk in the arena
always get some slack, i depend on that myself) - they trying to bust the move
and i love them for it
eventually they will get around to asking me about them archaic strategies
what i wish this crowd would do instead is get busy
get up in there and start rebuilding them blocks one by one
just get busy, imtalking strongbusy, then get folk to get and keep necessary funding going
if folk were in there habitat of humanity style, just building with whatever they
got the world would get behind that with the necessary funding and expertise
im talking dahomeyan dopkwe, im talking collective work,
one of the black nationalist verities
im not down, im in my own struggle, but the new orleans folk need to be
throwing down with the fuck this attitude, with the no god we aint accepting this
attitude, we gon raise these barns together one by one until we done attitude -
forget waiting for the federal government to save us - legbas beard, if this dont
convince us to move on what will
obviously not the whole answer, im talking about the limbo folk in
cause im feeling that spiritual pain, my hoodoo feelers been twitching bad
other issues like making sure it doesnt happen again (wetlands & levees)
and better prep for when it does
and other such have to constitute a comprehensive approach but i need to
get folk into hearth and home, either in new orleans or elsewhere, and i for
one am not willing to give up new orleans, not new orleans, one of the
afrospiritual and artistic centers of the americas, of the world, no, not new orleans
in the meantime i am relieved to see the activist community busting a move
of any sort
cause the condition of the katrina survivors getting worse off every day
i know some of them and they are caught in this catch 22
neworleans wont let them back in their homes/neighborhoods
they getting mortgage and eviction threats
insurance company balking for one friend cause they say his 9th ward house
isnt really totally destroyed just almost destroyed and therefore not eligible
and fema help is just a frustrating joke
for folk scattered across the country and living in shelters, hotelrooms and
with tired of it all family
folk really depressed, both katrinafolk and their hosts
and there seems to be no end in sight
because the bush administration and fema not even trying to help
beyond a politically motivated minimum they just dont care
about them people and their indifference becomes more glaring every day
the anger that attended the original tragedy continues to grow
and bush just a fiddling
folk gon have to take matters into their own hands
this march is just the beginning - that anger reaching critical mass
i was reading where fema feared riots in mississippi
the possibility of civil disorder is still there
mark my words
(unless of course they listen to me and use that energy
to get to building - ima go ahead and put this commentary
on some venues but i dont expect its gon do the do - none
of the others have - dont know why i still hit it, just dont know
no other way to be - in my deepest soul i believe in the
power of the word)
rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong
--------------------------------
THE CALL!
FROM OUTRAGE TO ACTION !!!
**********************************************
STATE OF EMERGENCY CONFERENCE AND SURVIVORS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JACKSON, MS
DECEMBER 8, 9, 2005
**************************
MARCH ON NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 10, 2005
“DEMAND THE RIGHT TO RETURN”
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 and
representatives and leaders from over 50 black organizations, and labor unions
and their third world and anti-racists allies will meet in support and
solidarity of the survivors 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 for themselves and
to exercise their rights to self determination.
Survivors have raised the demands are 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 demand ed 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 from 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 racist and abusive human rights violations of the
American Government and its friends.
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 from 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.
THE BACKGROUND
On August 29, 2005 Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with the full
force of a category 5 hurricane. Within hours flood waters would rush 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 would find and swallow up the city’s
blackest and poorest communities. Indeed many reported hearing explosions
before seeing the advancing waters. This has left some to conclude that the
floods invaded some black communities and missed some white ones not by chance
but by design.
For many there was a memory of 1927 when white business owners busted
the levee in black areas in order to guide the water away from their
businesses and affluent communities. This history supported the belief that
Katrina flood waters found their way to the jet black ninth ward and East New
Orleans by design.
Within days after Katrina struck, dead bodies, mostly black bodies,
floated through the streets, as ambulances and helicopters rushed passed black
and poor victims toward white and affluent communities, leaving the
economially less advantaged and the black to fend for themselves.
The situation would produce countless acts of heroism and courage as
men, women and children would reach out to each other and save the lives of
family, friends and strangers as government agencies and the red cross either
rushed to the aid of the affluent and the white or dilly dallied as the
devastation and disaster mushroomed. The survivors would seek refuge in the
New Orleans Super Dome and at the Civic Center as they would gather and then
wait for buses which took three, four and often five and 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 would turn away, ignore or fail to show the peoples act
of courage and heroism and become preoccupied with what they termed acts of
thugs. 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 T.V. from a few stores.
To the major media blacks seeking and finding food from abandoned stores were
looters, while whites doing the same were identified as having found food.
The Governor of Louisiana would call 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 on other exaggerated charges.
When the buses finally arrived, blacks and much of the poor were taken
to so called shelters and placed in concentration camp like conditions at gun
point. 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 criminal
indifference and mistreatment by the U. S. Government, FEMA, the Red Cross,
State Governments, Local Governments and others towards the survivors and
victims of hurricane Katrina became and still becomes more and more apparent.
The outrageousness of the behavior of these Governments and agencies
becomes 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 and nowhere have the American governments given adequate help or
shown genuine concern. Survivors seeking help have been shuffled from the Red
Cross, to FEMA, to insurance companies and back to the Red Cross again without
and have received little relief and full recovery is nowhere in sight. The
insurance companies refuse to pay for homes lost, FEMA pays too little, too
slow. Large numbers of Red Cross workers are racist, often 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, and well over 1,000 families of Katrina and the
government’s brutal neglect 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.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For further information call 1-888-310-PHRF(7473), or call 601-353-5566, or
email outrage2action@yahoo.com
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