Katrina survivors speak out

As part of the week-long Encampment in front of the Capitol building, a lively political discussion on the current situation for Katrina and Rita survivors as well as immigrant workers in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast took place Sept. 27.

Ivey Parker, Christine Gavin-Lathan and Brenda Stokely of the New York Solidarity Committee for Katrina/Rita Survivors. WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

The meeting was organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition.

The meeting took place in a large tent and featured Katrina survivors Ivey Parker and Christine Gavin-Lathan, Brenda Stokely from the New York Solidarity Committee for Katrina/Rita Survivors, and Teresa Gutierrez from the May 1st Immigrant Rights Coalition. Monica Moorehead from the International Action Center chaired the meeting.

A video, “Welcome to New Orleans” directed by Rasmus Helm, was shown. Filmed in New Orleans in 2005, days after Hurricane Katrina, the film showed Malik Rahim, co-founder of the New Orleans-based Common Ground Collective, helping to organize relief and medical care for the survivors and talking of his history in the Black Panther Party, of being in prison and of organizing ex-offenders.

The documentary also shows racist white vigilantes, including a firefighter, brandishing their weapons and using catch phrases such as “We shot ‘em” and “In this neighborhood we take care of our own” in reference to targeting mainly Black men.

Parker, a native of New Orleans now living in New York, spoke on how she had to wait three months for a doctor’s appointment. Charity, a public hospital, was closed down although it was not physically damaged by the hurricane. Parker mentioned how private hospitals are too expensive for the poor, who have no resources to deal with depression—now rampant there.

Parker commented, “The federal government wants to tear down the projects. Projects need pools, recreation areas, not to be torn down. People who own homes get just a fraction of the money needed for repairs. Rents have gone up. The ‘Road Home’ program is a failure.”

Christine Gavin-Lathan of Gulfport, Miss., who also resides in New York now, attended the International Tribunal on Katrina and Rita in New Orleans in August. People came from all over the world to serve as judges and to hear testimony of people impacted by the disasters. She pointed out how unionized teachers in New Orleans were replaced with inexperienced, often unlicensed teachers for charter schools. Lathan said that there should be attention focused on the devastation that still affects Mississippi.

Brenda Stokely remarked that much of the money that was earmarked for Gulf Coast reconstruction has been diverted into gambling casinos.

The lower Ninth Ward, where Black people had lived in their own homes for generations, now looks like a big empty field. While Bush plans to bulldoze public housing in New Orleans, any new buildings that go up cannot be constructed with equal quality. Public housing tenants are organizing to save their homes.

Stokely said that mental health facilities are virtually nonexistent in New Orleans. There are an estimated 122 psychiatric beds left in the whole city.

Teresa Gutierrez spoke on her humanitarian trip to New Orleans with activist Johnnie Stevens right after Hurricane Katrina, in August 2005. They were unable to deliver water and other supplies to people in New Orleans because the area was militarily occupied. The police turned them away.

In Houston they saw many broken-down cars on the road and refugees from the storm searching for loved ones. But on May 1, 2006, a million people marched for immigrant rights.

Gutierrez stated, “Black and Brown must work together. Let’s raise Katrina at every immigrant rights event and immigrant rights at every Katrina event. These struggles and the anti-war struggle must be linked. The Sept. 29 demo welcomes Katrina survivors and immigrants.”

Kali Akuno, a leader of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund in New Orleans, attended this meeting and made remarks.