New Orleans activist runs for City Council

Malcolm Suber, a founder and leader of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund in New Orleans, announced his candidacy for an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council on Sept. 6. The election takes place on Oct. 20.

Suber has been in the forefront of exposing the racist criminal neglect by local, state and federal governmental officials shown toward the majority Black population during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Suber is a Katrina survivor.

Suber and the PHRF have also promoted Black-Brown unity in New Orleans, where there have been attempts by white-dominated corporate interests to drive a superficial wedge between Katrina survivors and immigrant workers.

Suber’s campaign will be representing the Reconstruction Party, founded in New Orleans Sept. 2. The following information on Suber’s candidacy comes from www.malcolmforcitycouncil.com. Suber’s campaign supporters include former Georgia U.S.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Hip Hop artist and actor Mos Def.

Malcolm Suber speaking at a forum in New York’s New School, October 2005. WW photo: G. Dunkel

Our people’s campaign focuses on building a reconstruction movement for the right of our people to return back home. We’ve witnessed the failure of federal, state and local officials to do anything to get people back home.

The program of the local white ruling class is clear; they want to change the demographics of this city, without the presence of Black people. Our people have the right to decide what we want our community to look like when it’s rebuilt. We won’t allow the land-grabbers of Black people’s land, the gentrifiers, to chase out those who really built this city.

If we want real justice and equity we’ll have to do it ourselves. Certainly the Democratic politicians, the same old folks, aren’t going to do it. The two big capitalist parties, Democrats and the Republicans, make empty promises to the people; they only give awards to those who are politically connected. In the past two years, what they did for Katrina Survivors adds up to almost nothing.

It’s going to take a fight on the streets to get people home. We have to seize this opportunity to try and put one of our own in this seat. In the least, we will succeed in raising the proper issues that people have on their minds.

We have a government not of, by, and for the people, but of, by and for the rich. We really believe that working people deserve better than what they are given in this society.

We believe that the Reconstruction Movement needs a Reconstruction Party. This party is being founded in New Orleans to refocus priorities locally and nationally on human needs and a just society. Locally, the focus of the “Reconstruction Party” is a full and just reconstruction of our city and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and levee failures, with the full involvement of those whose lives have been damaged by these disasters. We need a party of our own that can advance our program and our interests.

The six-point platform for the recovery of New Orleanians is genuine democracy for the majority; housing; health care; jobs and living wage; education; and full and just reconstruction.