[O29] National Campaign to Demand Justice for Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Wed Sep 14 12:03:22 PDT 2005

 <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/> Troops Out Now Coalition

Donate <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html>  to help build a
movement to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina 

In this email:

1) Report from National Emergency Strategy Meeting
2) Proposal for National Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors
& Their Communities
3) Call for a Nationwide Strike Against Poverty, Racism, and War -
Dec. 1-3

  _____  

Report from  Emergency Strategy Meeting

On September 10, activists from all over the U.S. assembled at the New
School University's Lang Center for an Emergency Strategy Meeting to
discuss the criminal negligence of the Bush Administration before,
during, and after the impact of Hurricane Katrina and to plan a
national campaign in solidarity with the people of the affected
region.

Kicking off the discussion was a report and video footage from Teresa
Gutierrez, who had just returned from a Troops Out Now Coalition
fact-finding visit to the region.   Other speakers included Brenda
Stokely of the Million Workers March Movement, Nellie Bailey of the
Harlem Tenants Council, Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition,
LeiLani Dowell of FIST (Fight Imperialism - Stand Together), and Sara
Flounders of the International Action Center.

The recurring theme of the presentations and of the discussion that
followed was the importance of demonstrating solidarity with the
survivors of Hurricane Katrina and of exposing the racism and greed
that are behind the loss of life in New Orleans and surrounding
regions.

Two concrete proposals coming out of this meeting were:  a proposal
for a National Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors & Their
Communities and a Call for a Nationwide Strike Against Poverty,
Racism, and War on December 1-3.  Details of both proposals are
included below:

  _____  

Based on discussion at a Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) Strategy
Meeting held in NYC on Sept. 10 of over 100 activists from around the
country: - We call upon the antiwar movement to support and embrace
this proposal, and to make it central to the program at the anti-war
march in Washington DC on September 24th.  

A Proposal to Establish an

International Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors &  Their
Communities

The network's initial focus will be the following demands:

Stop the execution of Frances Newton  

The scheduled execution of sister Frances Newton on Sept 14 must be
stopped.  The systemic racist injustice in the so-called criminal
justice system, that overpopulates death row with poor Black people,
is part of the same racism behind the government's criminal behavior
regarding Katrina. For the State of Texas to execute Frances Newton
(making her the first Black women to be executed in Texas since 1853)
in the wake of Katrina would be like throwing salt into the fresh
wounds suffered by Black people, and an affront to freedom loving
people everywhere.  The execution is an outrage that we must not allow
to happen.  

Stop the Real Looters

Freeze the awarding Of Katrina reconstruction contracts By FEMA Until
the local community organizations, leaders, activists, and trade
unionists have made public their ideas and plans. Local people must
control the $52 billion reconstruction fund for New Orleans & the Gulf
Coast, Not Halliburton and President Bush's rich friends. Pres. Bush
and Congress has given FEMA a $52 billion check for Katrina
reconstruction, but this check is not being handed to the people who
have lost everything - the Black community, the poor, and the hundreds
of thousands of workers that have lost jobs because of Katrina.  Right
now, the White House's rich friends are sitting around a table
dividing up the loot.  This money most go to the people who need it to
create living wage jobs and housing. The people of the Gulf Coast must
have the decisive say over the allocation of all government
reconstruction funds.

End the military occupation of New Orleans - No Forced Evacuations 

Let human rights observers into New Orleans.  Human rights observers,
independent of military, federal, state or local governments and law
enforcement agencies, must be allowed in to New Orleans and all of the
areas in the Gulf Coast affected by Katrina, and under military
occupation, to monitor the conduct of military and police personal,
and document conditions in occupied areas.

The Right of return 

All of the people who have been forced from their cities and towns
must be assured of the right to return to their communities.  Katrina
must not be turned into an excuse for ethic cleansing and
gentrification.

Accept the 1,100 Medical Doctors that Cuba has offered, and free
resources that Venezuela has offered

Pay the prevailing wage 

Congress and the president must rescind the waiver of the Davis-Bacon
Act, which bars federal contracts to businesses that do not pay the
prevailing wage to workers.  No contractor should be allowed to
proceed with any work until they have publicly stated that they will
pay prevailing wages in their industry.  

Extended unemployment benefits, back pay, and a guarantyeed job for
all workers displaced by Katrina

The Establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the
U.S. Government's response to Katrina

Money for Katrina Recovery & Human Needs - Not War!   Bring the Troops
Home Now!  

The Katrina Solidarity Network will aggressively solicit all activists
and progressive organizations committed to working in a united front,
and who understand the necessity to take direction from the activists
in the Gulf Coast.  The network's goals, demands and activities will
be modified and expanded in conjunction with its consultation with
community and labor activist in the Gulf Coast.  The Solidarity
Network will be announced at September 12 National Day Of Outrage
events across the country.

  _____  

We Must Turn Our Outrage Over Katrina into a Movement 

On the 50th Anniversary of Dec. 1, 1955, the day in Montgomery Alabama
that Rosa Parks sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement -- 

A Call for

A Nationwide Strike Against Poverty, Racism, & War
Thursday, December 1

No School * No Shopping * No Work

Continued Protests and Teach-Ins throught Dec. 2 and 3
Mass March on Wall St. in NYC

Justice for the People of New Orleans & the Gulf States

A Job at a Living Wage is a Human Right

Bring the Troops Home Now

Healthcare, Housing, and Education -- Not War and Occupation 

The Outrage in New Orleans is a clarion call to the antiwar movement
and the grassroots: 

The time has arrived to take our struggle to a higher level. Let us
work together and organize a Nationwide Strike against Poverty, Racism
and War on Dec. 1, 2005, the 50th anniversary of the day that Rosa
Parks helped launch the modern civil rights movement - no work,
school, or shopping - continued protest through Dec.2 and 3 - and a
Mass March on Wall Street in New York City.  It is time for the people
to demonstrate that they can stop business as usual coast-to-coast
when justice requires the people to do so. 

We owe it to the victims of Katrina, to poor and working people, to
the world and to ourselves to find the way to help turn the outrage
over Katrina into a mass grassroots movement for social justice, the
likes of which this country has not seen for some time. Moreover, it
is vitally necessary, and much more possible now, to forge real unity
on a phenomenal scale between the movement against the war and the
movements of African Americans, people of color, and poor and working
people in a struggle for economic, social and political rights.

The war and occupation of Iraq and the Katrina outrage have
demonstrated to the world the urgent necessity for fundamental change
and a movement that is big enough and determined enough to achieve the
goal. Katrina has exposed the ugly truths about class and race,
poverty, war and militarism. Our solidarity with demands of the
survivors of Katrina must evolve from empathy, charity and symbolism
to a mighty social force to be reckoned with. Key to this mighty
potential will be the forging of a strong alliance with activists and
leaders within the African American community in the Gulf States,
taking direction from them regarding the kind of solidarity that they
need and the demands they are making. Our demand to end the war in
Iraq and to bring the troops home now must be backed up by the kind of
mass tactics that signal that we mean business. 

Fifty years ago, Black people in Montgomery, Alabama were forced by
law to sit in the back of public buses, and give their seats to any
white person who demanded it. When Rosa Parks, a garment worker and
civil rights activist, refused to give up her seat to a white man, she
sparked the Montgomery bus boycott against segregation on public
buses, one of the most successful and truly mass boycotts in history.
The Montgomery bus boycott also introduced to the world a young
reverend named Martin Luther King Jr., who became the boycott's
principal public leader. 

A Dec. 1 Strike Working Committee was set up at a Sept. 10 Natl.
Strategy Meeting of the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) attended by
more than 100 activists. The working committee will develop outreach
and building plans for the Dec. 1 strike.

Dec. 1 Nationwide strike against poverty, racism and war -- Initiating
Organizations: Troops Out Now Coalition, Million Worker March
Movement, Teamsters National Black Caucus, Michigan Emergency
Committee Against War & Injustice.

  _____  

Donate <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html>  to help build a
movement to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina 

Troops  <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/> Out Now Coalition
-- 

*******************************************

International Action Center

Boston:

617-522-6626

iacboston at iacboston.org

http://www.iacboston.org <http://www.iacboston.org/> 

National Office:

212-633-6646

http://www.iacenter.org <http://www.iacenter.org/>  

Troops Out Now Coalition

http://troopsoutnow.org <http://troopsoutnow.org/>  
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