Friday, September 09, 2005

NEW ORLEANS: A CALL TO RESIST!



Note: "New Orleans: A Call to Resist!" was initiated by Carl Dix. For a complete list of signatories, please write to < atimetoresist@hotmail.com >.
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New Orleans: A Time to Resist! P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York NY 10002
Telephone: 866-482-2539 * Email: atimetoresist@hotmail.com


September 9, 2005

Dear Friend,

We are writing to ask you to add your name to the signatories of the statement below and circulate it to others and encourage them to sign and circulate it.

The actions and inactions of the Bush regime have been criminal. They are responsible for the many lives that have been lost and the suffering that 100,000's of people have been subjected to in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. To add insult to injury, the very officials whose actions put peoples' lives at risk
demonized people as "looters" and "thugs" when they took it upon themselves to get the food, water and medicine they needed to survive. People are rightly angry at all this.

Think of the difference it will make if thousands of people who have histories of fighting against the oppression of Black people and other injustices people have been forced to endure here in the US and around the world join together to condemn the criminal actions of Bush & Co. And if they're joined by many other people who burn with hatred at the actions of the Bush regime.

So sign this statement. And get it to others and encourage them to sign it, circulate it more broadly and promote it in any and every way they can. Many, many people in the devastated areas are still at risk. One of the things they need is broad condemnation and massive resistance to the crimes of Bush & Co.

Signed:

Carl Dix, National Spokesperson, Revolutionary Communist Party
New York, New York

Nicholas Heyward Sr., Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Foundation
Father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. -- killed by NYPD, September 1994
Brooklyn, New York

Yuri Kochiyama, Long Time Political and Social Activist
Oakland, California

Rev. Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church*
New York, New York

Efia Nwangaza, Nat'l Co-Chairperson of the Jericho Movement to Free U.S. Political Prisoners
Greenville, South Carolina

Juanita Young, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality (New York Committee)*
Mother of Malcolm Ferguson -- killed by NYPD, March 2000
Bronx, New York

* for identification purposes only.
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NEW ORLEANS: A CALL TO RESIST!


The actions of the Bush regime in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast amount to mass murder, whether by incompetence or design. This is an urgent situation, calling out for urgent action.

We remind all people that this regime illegitimately came to power in the first place through the disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Black voters. We remind all people that this regime contains highly placed officials and
influential supporters with histories and viewpoints that are not only racist, but in some cases downright genocidal.

What happened in New Orleans indeed calls into question the whole history and nature of America and the national debate on this needs to rage. At the same time, New Orleans is also an extreme example of what the Bush regime in particular has meant for the masses of Black people in this country. None of this can be tolerated any longer. There can not be three more years of what happened in New Orleans.
There cannot be one more day. WE CANNOT WAIT!

The initiative of ordinary people in rescuing and supporting people at risk has been heroic. The outpouring of support from all walks of life shows where people?s hearts are. But we also need, very badly, RESISTANCE.

Therefore, we call on people to mount a massive movement to politically drive out the illegitimate Bush regime. We call on people everywhere to bring this demand out wherever you go, to build and support all actions aiming to do this, and in this way to not only defend the people from even worse horrors but to begin to build a movement that can change the course of history.

At the same time, we call on all people to support and mount actions around the following demands on the government in the current crisis:
1) Intensify the rescue operations. Stop the repression of those volunteers who are attempting to rescue people.
2) Immediate and safe evacuation for all who want it. Provide support for all those wishing to remain in New Orleans. Stop the forced dispersal of people from the New Orleans area and provide assistance to people who wish to return.
3) Stop the killing and shooting of people attempting to meet their basic needs. Stop the demonization of Black people as "looters." Stop the aggressive actions of the National Guard and Police. NOW. And an immediate apology from Bush for
his "zero tolerance for 'looters'" remark which lent force to all this repression.
4) Stop the censorship of the people of the affected areas. Bring out the full truth of what is happening, what did happen and how this came to be. And hold those responsible for this criminally accountable.
5) Immediately end the racist slander coming out from politicians and the media.

-end-

____ Add my name to "New Orleans: A Time to Resist!"

____ Contact me immediately, I can help get this initiative out there.

Name ______________________________ Address ____________________________
City ________________________________ State _______________
Zip ____________
Email _______________________________ Phone/Fax __________________________

New Orleans: A Time to Resist! P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York NY 10002
Telephone: 866-482-2539 * Email: atimetoresist@hotmail.com

* * *
The initial signers of this statement are:
Carl Dix, Nat'l Spokesperson,Revolutionary Communist Party; Robin D.G. Kelley, Columbia University; Yuri Kochiyama, long-time political activist; Rev. Dr. Earl Kooperkamp, Pastor, St. Mary's Episcopal Church; Father Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes Church*; Efia Nwangaza, Nat'l Co-Chairperson of the Jericho Movement to Free U.S. Political Prisoners; Rev. George W. Webber, Professor Emeritus, New York
Theological Seminary*, Cornel West, Princeton University; Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson, killed by NYPD; Nicholas Heyward Sr, father of Nicholas Heyward Jr, killed by NYPD; Rev. Luis Barrios, St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

From Slave Ships to the Superdome in New Orleans


Revolution #13, September 4, 2005, posted at revcom.us

New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. People trapped amidst squalor and chaos in the official shelters. People facing death from starvation and disease on the streets.

Most of the people trapped in the misery and chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast were Black. When people took what they needed to survive, they were condemned as animals and dangerous criminal gangs by the authorities. What were they supposed to do -- just die quietly?

This is what the authorities must have thought. In a hundred thousand ways Katrina laid bare the unequal and oppressive relations Black people are forced to endure under this system.

Why are the two major oil pipelines running out of the New Orleans Gulf area called the Plantation line and the Colonial line? This underscores the reality confronting Black people in this country. Black people remain concentrated on the bottom rungs of this society. This is the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow segregation and continuing oppression of Black people as a people. The sight of thousands of Black people packed into sports arenas brought back haunting visions of the holds of the slave ships which forcibly dragged millions of Africans to the shores of the New World in chains.

But the masses weren't going out like that. They defiantly went into the streets to see to their survival. Some organized efforts to meet not just their own needs but the needs of groups of people trapped in the mass shelters like the New Orleans Convention Center.

The New York Times reported that: "On Friday morning, some young men broke into the kitchen of the Marriott Hotel, across the street from the center, fixed a gigantic batch of scrambled eggs, grits and bacon and served it to storm victims." A retired teacher at the Convention Center praised these youth as "Robin Hoods" -- bringing food to the people.

It is especially outrageous to watch federal and state officials threaten people who were put in this desperate situation by government inaction with imprisonment and even death. The Governor of Louisiana said, "I have one message for these hoodlums. These troops (being sent into New Orleans) know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary." The Mississippi State Police Chief promised to deal ruthlessly with any looters. This is Mississippi, where the police used to arrest people and hold them for the KKK to lynch—where sheriffs and judges and preachers would often join lynch mobs in carrying out murderous deeds. And this is New Orleans, where a person's racial ancestry was calculated down to great-great-great grandparents. Being found to be even 1/32nd Black would subject someone to a life as a second class citizen.

George Bush said there should be zero tolerance for any lawbreaking. What about zero tolerance for a system that has not and cannot end the oppression of Black people? Or a system that now threatens people facing starvation and disease with official violence for trying to feed themselves and others? These rulers have shown what they and their system are capable of in how they dealt with this hurricane. As long as power is left in the hands of these capitalist exploiters, we’ll continue to see the kind of suffering seen in New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It's Way Past Time To Throw Off the Chains of Oppression and Get With the Emancipators of Humanity!