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‘21st century slave ship’

Published Sep 19, 2005 10:16 PM

Sept. 11—We were invited by the Millions More Movement, by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, as Million Worker March Movement representatives to be part of a delegation that went to Houston. First, there was a visit to the George R. Brown Convention Center and then we took part in a Town Hall meeting. Texas has become the “home” to over 250,000 displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.


Chris Silvera, Maria Farrakhan
(Louis Farrakhan’s daughter),
and Clarence Thomas in Houston,
Sept. 11.
Photo: Nation of Islam

The delegation also included Minister Farrakhan along with his Chief of Staff Leonard Farrakhan Muhammad; Min i ster Robert Muhammad, Southwest regional representative of the Nation of Islam; Ben Chavis, CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network; Willie F. Wilson, executive director of the Millions More March; economist and syndicated columnist Julianne Malveaux and Dr. Barbara Wil liamson-Skinner, national MMM conveners; Malik Zulu Shabazz, New Black Panther Party leader and MMM convener; Bob Law from the New York local organizing committee and Jim Jones, Hip-Hop artist.

We visited the George R. Brown Con ven tion Center in Houston where thousands of Gulf Coast evacuees, survivors and victims and internally displaced people were being warehoused.

The first thought that struck us was how much security there was at this facility that really prevents the public from being able to interact with those individuals who have been displaced. It would make sense for people in the community to be able to have access to those individuals around issues of providing them with housing, job prospects, to help contact individuals for them and bring them things they need.


Katrina survivors at
Houston’s Convention
Center, Sept. 11.
Photo: Chris Silvera

But instead, the evacuees are locked down.

Although they can leave to go outside, it’s not that easy. Security was really, really heavy.

Our delegation was confronted by someone who called himself the head of the security force. He had no badge and no uniform. He didn’t even seem to know what the Nation of Islam was and he wasn’t ever aware of the discussions that went on between his superiors and the NOI, which is what he should have done first. There was no mistaking that we were an official group.

He was acting like a cowboy with an “I’m in charge here! You have to leave!” attitude.

The important thing was that his demeanor exemplified a hostile attitude which was inappropriate relative to those individuals placed in that facility.

The predominant group in the convention were Black folks. The whites were a very minute minority. And there was not a commensurate number of Blacks that were part of the support group, either. So we had the feeling that Black folks were being treated as though they were foreigners in their own country.

‘21st-century slave ship’

We did not visit the Astrodome, but we were told that it’s like Motel 6 and the convention center is like the Hilton Hotel in terms of the quality of life there. If they’re saying it’s a better situation at the convention center then that convention center is nothing more than a slave ship for the 21st century on land.

People have no privacy. They’re not being treated with dignity. People can’t come in and out of there without going through security measures like you were going through a prison. But with all that security, there are reports of people being abused.

One of the things that people were trying to do is to carry on their lives with some degree of normalcy. One woman was braid ing the hair of another woman and of a child so that they could keep their appearance up.

We actually spoke to people who had missing children. One woman had lost two small children, 5 years and 4 years old. For people going through such deep-seated trauma, you want to put them in the best situation.

Everyone we talked to was from New Orleans and 70% of the New Orleans population was Black. What happened to the other 30 percent? We asked, “Where is the white population from New Orleans?” The Black people answered, “They’re in the hotels.”

We met people, talked to them about what they’re feeling; we exchanged phone numbers and took pictures. One guy, Elwyn P. Hunter, said, “I am a union carpenter”. Not just a carpenter, a union carpenter. So he recognizes that associating with a union gives him a level of stature.

People were very excited and very happy that Minister Farrakhan was there. He was hugging people. Men, women and children embraced him. They were inspired by him being there.

People were very critical of FEMA. Mosque 45 is run ning a clinic in Houston a couple of days a week that doesn’t cost anything. So part of the problem that we saw there as we looked around was that below the radar, Black-led charity organizations are not being given adequate access to large resources. All the monies are going to the Red Cross. And all the people who have access to the inner cities are not receiving any help from all those millions of dollars that have been received.

‘A wake-up call for Black America’

A national town hall meeting at the Power Center in Houston followed the visit to the convention center. About 700 to 1,000 people came. Erykah Badu, the hip-hop artist, was there and spoke. Evacuees from the convention center were taken to the meeting by bus, too.

The town hall meeting was dedicated to the hurricane victims who spoke, without anyone telling them how much time they could talk during the first 2 hours and 45 minutes. Town hall gatherings are usually forums where talking heads come to pontificate. This particular town hall gathering departed from the typical format where for the first time people had the chance to collectively share their experiences and ordeals before the world.

People stepped up to the microphone to tell their stories; some shouted in anger about how they were neglected by authorities as they tried to escape to safety. Others cried as they described their fear and frustration about having lost everything, going days without food and water and some even contemplating suicide.

Annette Addison, an evacuee quoted in the Houston Chronicle, said, “I feel a release just to be heard.” She described how after the hurricane she and her sister waved and hollered for helicopters to rescue them but they “went on about their business.” The Coast Guard wasn’t rescuing them. Neighbors were. Another victim stated, “How can Bush take my tax dollars, send them to Iraq and not help us in New Orleans?”

Addison was struggling to get assistance to feed and clothe her four children and two nieces. She said she received a debit card from the Red Cross about five days ago, but the money has yet to show up in her account.

She’s staying with her aunt, Maxine Jackson, a Houston resident who has taken 48 evacuees, some of them relatives, into her home.

Another highlight was the testimony from people describing the help that they received from a New Black Panther Party member who waded in the toxic waters and rescued them.

There was also a sense of hope expressed by some of the speakers including Farrakhan that despite the neglect from governmental agencies, material things are replaceable and that this experience can be used to come together to build a movement to deal with racism, class divisions and poverty in the U.S.

As a matter of fact, there is a sentiment among the Millions More March leadership that the devastation and catastrophe will create an environment to bring various organizations together in building a national movement.

The bridges are going to be built among people who didn’t connect before, out of necessity, out of opportunity. In all crises like this there’s always opportunity to build.

Minister Farrakhan rose to speak prior to his departure. One of the things that struck us was how humble he was in deferring to the survivors’ need to speak first.

He described the response by the federal government, state and local officials as “a severe crime.” After survivors across the board openly criticized the role of the Red Cross, Minister Farrakhan called for the accounting of funds to the Red Cross. He’s said that Black leaders must demand that they open the books to show us where the money is going regarding the Gulf Coast survivors.

The Red Cross is not about to go into the ’hood—you need people who have been working in the ’hood since the so-called “good times” because that’s who has the credibility. They are not receiving any help from the federal government, Red Cross, or FEMA.

If $10 billion was sent to the region, then why is everyone not in a hotel? That money should also be going to families who have adopted families made homeless by the hurricane and government neglect. These are people from the working class and can hardly make ends meet with their own existing families.

There is certainly a sentiment of how the Black community is going to have to be able to step forward and address many of these issues. We can’t expect the Red Cross or FEMA to do that because not only are they corporatized, they are controlled by the government and are not sensitive to African-American culture, traditions and customs.

After his presentation, Farrakhan asked for permission to leave early in order to meet with survivors in other parts of the Gulf Coast region.

We’ve got a plan!

One of the most important accomplishments of our visit was that the Million Worker March Movement came up with a list of demands for the Gulf Coast survivors along with Saladin Muhammad’s Sept. 5 statement on “Hurricane Katrina: The Black Nation’s 9/11!”(see www.workers.org/2005/us/hurricane-0922/).

Some of the demands being proposed by the MWMM include:

* An immediate freeze and moratorium on awarding of all contracts until survivors of the Gulf Coast have input in those decisions.

* All people especially those from New Orleans have the right to return to the Gulf Coast Region.

* Extended unemployment and emergency financial relief based on a living wage until people are returned to their homes and jobs.

* Employ the survivors at a living wage as required by the Davis-Bacon Act (1931) to work on clean-up and reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, with the right to organize unions.

* Issue a massive bankruptcy executive order for Gulf Coast survivors forgiving all debts of property lost or destroyed by the disaster.

* Immediately allow other countries to provide aid to the survivors where needed.

The MWMM has presented this list of priorities to Congressional Black Caucus member Barbara Lee at her Northern California office on Sept. 14.

This disaster must not be turned into an excuse for urban removal. We demand that there be affordable housing commensurate with the loss, of equal value. People should be paying whatever rent they were paying before.

Hurricane Katrina forces us to deal with the whole question of self-determination and how national oppression pertains to the whole question of the class struggle. Because it’s very clear from the images of what was seen on television in the aftermath that Black people are economically exploited and politically oppressed, that we lack access to organizations to be able to care for us because we’re dependent on the government to do every damn thing.

Labor must be at the table!

Organized labor has been silent on all of this. They have not been saying “This is an outrage!” They’re not calling on their elected officials that they’ve endorsed to say, “This is an attack on labor!”

Once again it is absolutely clear from the manner in which labor has responded, in terms of the officialdom of labor, that they’re primarily concerned with business unionism and not with how trade unions should be fighting for economic and social justice on behalf of the entire working class. That’s the failure.

There were discussions today involving the NOI leadership and MWMM leadership regarding having Gulf Coast survivors speak at the Oct. 15 MMM rally and making it an event that launches a united front movement dealing with the hurricane crisis and beyond.

The Million Worker March calls for labor to be at the table with the community, with the survivors. As African- American trade unionists who organized the MWM we understand that labor needs to be part of the struggle of that legacy of fighting for economic and social justice for the working class.

Clarence Thomas is an executive board member of the Inter na tional Long shore Workers Union Local 10, co-chair of the Million Worker March Move ment, and executive committee member of the Alameda County Central Labor Council. Chris Silvera is secretary-treasurer of Teamster Local 808, chairman of the Teamster National Black Caucus, and a Million Worker March Movement Eastern Regional co-convener.