Report to Communist Party USA National Board, Nov. 10, 2005

Two months after our nations worst disaster on the Gulf Coast hundreds of thousands are still displaced and homeless. Neighborhoods in New Orleans look like a Hollywood set from Mad Max, a post-nuclear movie or The Day After. Soulless, ghost town, abandoned New Orleans because of its size and pre-storm conditions of inequality and mass poverty faces the worst effects of post-hurricane period. But there are many surrounding parishes and towns which host communities practically abandoned by the federal government.

I spent a day and a half in New Orleans and a day in Baton Rouge, mainly covering the Rebuild Louisiana rally, which was sponsored by the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Unite Here, Laborers, NAACP, ACORN and Rainbow-PUSH (which opened a new office in NOLA). So these are impressions based on what I saw, the interviews I conducted, and what information I gathered from local radio, newspapers and TV.

Nothing could have prepared me for the devastation. To stand in the middle of a huge boulevard and look at abandoned businesses, buses and cars for miles, to walk through the 9th Ward neighborhood – block after block – and hear the flapping wings of birds, the creak of a door being blown open by the wind, the squeaking of a swing, distant voices of a cleaning crew or family coming back to go through their house. The silence was deafening, unnerving. No kids. No cars. Just silence.

Mounds of garbage and refrigerators sit in front of many houses. Individual contractors and crews are being retained to clean out houses, help repair roofs. But there is no rebuilding in any massive numbers. One block there was a Corp of Engineers group and a Massachusetts contractor putting on blue roofs on two houses on the whole block. Some houses wont get one because they are condemned.

Corporate scavengers

Its an unprecedented crisis. Like vultures looking for easy pickings, aggressive and connected corporations, construction, real estate and religious interests swarm around. Scientologists handed out booklets. There is no overall public plan to rebuild yet. There is no regional or statewide cooperation. Each family, each parish, New Orleans is on its own figuring this stuff out.

I saw many trains pulling liquid tankers running through the city. So the refineries or petro-chemical industry is going. The scene reminded me of a developing country – where the corporations are stripping it of its natural resources while the surrounding area lays in waste and poverty.

Budget crises abound. New Orleans laid off 7,000 of its workers. The state of Louisiana is looking at a $1 billion budget deficit and will certainly have to cut services and jobs. The federal government has offered loans, not grants to this area. One bill that would have compelled the federal government to pay for 100 percent of Medicaid costs to the affected areas, instead of the 70 percent it now pays, was defeated this week 48-51. Health care for survivors is a nightmare and another example of dog eat dog capitalism and the crisis in health care system faced by millions.

Housing crisis

On the radio commercials abound, especially from corporations like Home Depot, about the need for workers. There are seemingly many jobs in the area. Wages – thats another thing. Davis-Bacon was a big victory. But the struggle for a living wage is still unfolding struggle.

Jobs abound, but housing is in short supply and high demand. And if ever you want a real life study of free market capitalism – the housing market in New Orleans provides a raw view. Gov. Blancos two-month moratorium on evictions expired without extension. And the next day sheriffs had hundreds of eviction notices to post. Apartments in livable neighborhoods that once went for $600 are now going for $2,000-$3,000 a month. No one dares step on the rights of the landlord to do what they will with their property. Consequently, employers rent the apartments and squeeze in as many workers as possible – charging them all rent – or employers have begun to build tent cities and trailer parks for their workers – also charging rent. So you have little company towns springing up in abandoned shopping malls, and other open spaces.

The infamous FEMA trailers are moving at a snails pace. Some have FEMA vouchers and have reported difficulty of landlords taking them in surrounding areas of Houston and other receiving cities. Consequently you still have people living in hotels. Baton Rouge Holiday Inn was full of evacuees. Young boys played football in the parking lot. FEMA is planning to evict up to 57,000 evacuees still in hotels on Dec. 1.

Transportation

The crisis of housing creates a crisis of transportation. Traffic jams extend for miles on the 70-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and NOLA. An hour and a half drive turns into a 2-3 hour drive. Or people live even further from their job. I heard one story of a mom living with her disabled child in Houma some 3 hours away. Cant get to her job in NOLA at UPS.

The schools are a big area of struggle. Most are not open. They were in crisis before the storm. Open and good schools are necessary to bring back families to NOLA. But now the whole debate revolves around privatization schemes, massive charter schools or a state takeover.

One mom I talked to spends her whole day driving her kids back and forth to school in a nearby parish and between the pickups she waits for actuaries to call on the insurance or FEMA.

Most people in NOLA now are insurance actuaries, government employees – various agencies – HUD, FEMA, etc, law enforcement, Red Cross, construction. Insurance companies – Allstate was often mentioned – are dragging their feet in paying out to their customers with flood insurance, making it difficult if not impossible for individual homeowners and small businesses to rebuild.

Levees

The levees are also a major area of concern and struggle. First the investigation into why they failed is pointing to shoddy construction, corruption and lack of cooperation between government agencies – local, state and federal, which is a big issue for any infrastructure problem. There is an investigation going on and a possible lawsuit on their failure.

Then there is the struggle to rebuild the levees to withstand a category 5 hurricane, which is what local officials are pushing for but again the federal government is shaking its head.

There is not a public plan to rebuild, but there certainly is a corporate and right-wing plan. From not rebuilding the city to changing the majority African American character of NOLA to a resort casino area on the Gulf the corporate, Bush agenda has the upper hand right now in the area.

ACORN has a No Bulldozing campaign in the 9th ward – the hardest hit by the floods, poorest and predominantly African American area – also with a high level of home ownership. This neighborhood will certainly be a central focus of the rebuilding struggle.

Voting rights

The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people – mainly Black – has a huge impact on voting rights. Many are concerned with Karl Rove and the ultra-right remaking the political map of south Louisiana, which is predominantly Democratic. There was supposed to be a NOLA mayoral race in a few months. The struggle to ensure access to voting is underway and will be a factor in the 2006 elections.

Unity of the working class and allies

Racism and division pushed by the corporate and right wing interests abound and come in many forms. Neglecting NOLA is one form. Pitting workers and people – such as immigrant workers from Mexico and Central America with African American workers is another.

Before the storm estimates put the number of Latino immigrants around 135,000. Asian – Vietnamese families also settled in the area – among the fishing/shrimping community. Reports of contractors bringing in busloads of immigrants from Mexico and Central America – some with guest worker status, some undocumented – has made the news and grapevine causing tensions. Resentment is being fueled at the immigrant workers as job takers. Many in labor and community organizations are well aware of the explosive possibility in this ruling class pushed division and are taking steps to unify all people. At the Baton Rouge rally there were several speeches that did this, but more needs to be done.

Unions and allies

Like the residents themselves, organizations in New Orleans, including the unions, are recovering right now. Many are trying to locate their members to offer them services and some funds. Having your members and their families separated and spread out all over the country like this makes organizing very difficult. Some offices and paperwork was destroyed in the floods. But the forces that came together for the Baton Rouge rally are at the core of what can drive this rebuilding effort forward.

Legislation

A patchwork of legislation is in Congress. The most comprehensive bill was introduced a week ago by all the House members of the Congressional Black Caucus. We should organize visits to our Congressional representatives to get them to sign on to the CBCs The Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Reclamation, Restoration, Reconstruction and Reunion Act of 2005 (HR 4197). It will provide for the recovery of the Gulf Coast region and for the reunion of families. Among the bills provisions are a 9/11-style victims fund and funding for education, housing, health care. It also guarantees voting rights for all evacuees, upholds Davis-Bacon wage protection and affirmative action, and demands a plan to eradicate poverty in the United States within 10 years.

The most comprehensive bill in the Senate that I know of is the Rebuild with Respect Act (S 1925), introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), S1925 would prioritize Gulf Coast families in job hiring to rebuild the area, address the racial inequalities in hiring and small business contracting, protect the health and safety of workers, and extend unemployment insurance benefits.

I hope the new Southern field organizers are able to visit every six to eight weeks or so. The PWW will keep up its weekly coverage of the fightback and do on the spot reporting every two months. There are CPUSA members and PWW readers we can meet with and help hook up with the main forces struggle for a just rebuilding and recovery effort.

Legislative alerts on Katrina-related bills would be very helpful for a national fight back. Thats how many of our members and fellow activists can plug into the solidarity and rebuilding efforts.

If the party could developing a public works jobs program – what would that look like – that would make a contribution and should be considered.

For more information on the fight back:

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