Katrina & Rita survivors vow to return

Survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rallied at Harlem’s Thurgood Marshall Academy along with their supporters on Oct. 13. Close to a hundred people attended the conference organized by the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors (NYSCKRS).

Longtime activists, including trade unionists, joined together with students from Sarah Lawrence College, Beacon High School and members of the Nu Phi Beta Sorority at Briarcliffe College. Many of these youths had already gone down to New Orleans to help clean up people’s homes.

At the top of the agenda was the right of survivors to return to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Shelley Innis of the Thurgood Marshall Academy and New Orleans survivor Ivey Parker welcomed people.

Featured were film clips and reports from the International Tribunal in New Orleans, which began its deliberations on Aug. 29, the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. A panel of judges from around the world found George Bush guilty of letting Black and poor people drown and starve. Detailed reports from the Tribunal were given by Parker, Christine Gavin-Lathan and Kali Akuno.

A group of Thurgood Marshall students belonging to BOND (Brothers On a New Direction) told of their trip to New Orleans and the horrible conditions they witnessed.

NYSCKRS organizer Johnnie Stevens brought greetings from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. A leader of the American Indian Movement, Peltier has spent nearly 30 years in jail serving a life term on frame-up charges. Stevens announced that the political prisoner, an acclaimed artist, was working in his cell on a collage about the hurricane survivors.

Stevens described how people from the Gulf Coast were being deliberately dispersed across the country and often put in racist neighborhoods, as he witnessed on the outskirts of Buffalo. He stressed the importance of organizing regional assemblies of survivors. Just like in a football game, Bush is running out the clock to keep the survivors from coming back to the Gulf Coast.

Activists added their own accounts about African Americans being stopped from returning to the political and cultural capital that gave jazz to the world. Nacala Jendayi of the Caribbean Cultural Center moderated.

Tiffany Gardner of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative compared the hurricanes with the tsunami that hit several Asian countries. Survivors have had to fight to get justice after both disasters. Tsunami survivors have protested the treatment of the hundreds of thousands driven out of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Immigrants on the Gulf Coast working in dangerous jobs at low wages were described by AFSCME DC 37 activist Brenda Walker as “the new slaves.” She defended their right to a job and demanded jobs for survivors, too.

Rev. Malika Whitney told how the public school system in New Orleans was being destroyed. The plan to tear down public housing there was exposed by Derek Norvell. He vividly described how residents were driven out at gunpoint and now can’t even retrieve their family pictures.

International solidarity was talked about and exemplified by Marcio Peeter, who came from Bahia, Brazil, and volunteered to help people in New Orleans. Peeter led the crowd in rhythmic clapping and astonished everybody with his African drumming.

A hat was passed around to raise gas money for a couple returning to Mobile, Ala., the first city flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

NYSCKRS organizer Brenda Stokely worked tirelessly to build this conference and helped keep it running smoothly. Ideas and plans were brought up at its six different workshops.

People from many unions and organizations attended this Harlem event, including AFSCME DC 37, Local 1199, People’s Organization for Progress, May 1st Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Million Worker March, Millions More Movement, International Action Center, Troops Out Now Coalition and Workers World Party.

Everyone was determined to confront Bush and the capitalist establishment across the country that keeps people from returning to their homes.

Donations to the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors can be made at www.NYKatrinaRita.org.