Katrina survivors to meet in Jackson to demand justice

Survivors of Hurricane Katrina and their supporters will converge on Jackson, Miss., and New Orleans Dec. 8-10 to demand justice, rights and relief in the face of the federal and local governments’ continuing neglect and bungling.

A major problem the people face involves housing. After community and legal groups reacted sharply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s deadline for survivors to leave hotels across the country, FEMA extended the deadline to Jan. 7 in the 10 states with the most evacuees and Dec. 15 in all others.

Without any real plans from FEMA to relocate the displaced families and individuals, many are still wondering how they will survive. Many of the evacuees have found no housing yet and are still in hotels. They are left with the fewest options, according to housing officials and relief workers. If they did have relatives in the area, they are most likely unable to stay with them any longer.

In cities like Houston, where there are 19,000 evacuees, landlords report that they are hesitant to accept more tenants using FEMA-issued housing vouchers because past vouchers from FEMA have gone unpaid. FEMA has also announced that after Jan. 7, it will only pay for vouchers for three-month leases—something landlords are generally very hesitant to offer.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, problems continue to plague those who stayed or have returned. The Times-Picayune reported that “with sections of the electricity grid still in shambles and connections to power substations limited and tenuous, life in New Orleans at times seems more like life in Baghdad.” The newspaper suggested that engineers are waiting to rebuild wires and substations until “repopulation patterns and neighborhood power demands ... become clear.”

Call for conference

These and other problems facing the mostly African American people forced to leave New Orleans or attempting to rebuild their lives there will be discussed at the conference set for Dec. 8-10.

The call for the weekend reads in part: “On Dec. 8, 2005 through Dec. 10, 2005 ... we will gather for the National State of Emergency Conference in Jackson on the 8th and 9th of December. Sup porters and representatives and leaders from over 50 Black organizations, labor unions and their third world and anti-racist allies will meet in support and solidarity of the survivors [to] initiate an action plan to rescue the Black population and all oppressed populations from their dependency on racist and incompetent governments.

“Most importantly, the Katrina Survivors will gather at the same place and time to form a General Assembly to speak for themselves and to exercise their rights to self-determination. ...

“On Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005, which is International Human Rights Day, survivors and their supporters will march on New Orleans in support of all the survivors’ demands, in particular ... the right of survivors to return to the Gulf Coast.”

Objectives listed in the call for the weekend include:

* To demand the people’s right to return to New Orleans and to the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty

* To demand reparations for the governments’ criminal indifference, negligence, and malicious actions towards the Victims and Survivors, before, during, and after Katrina

* To demand, launch and/or continue investigations, lawsuits and prosecutions of governments, agencies and persons responsible for the human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed before, during and after Katrina

* To build a national united front in support and solidarity with the self determination and reparation demands of Katrina Survivors, and through this front to design and initiate a plan of action and institutions which will allow Black people to fortify themselves and serve their own needs in the face of future disasters which are either natural or by human hands

* To link today’s demands for reparations and self determination to the historical and future struggle of Black people and other oppressed populations for self determination and reparations.

For more information on the Dec. 8-10 events, call 1-888-310-PHRF (7473)
or 601-353-5566, or email [email protected].