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Parading in Inequality

By Enigma E

Mardi Gras is a Billion-dollar busine$$, but who’s benefiting from it? It’s not the Flambeaux walkers, High school marching bands or Black Mardi Gras Indians. Nor is it any of the working class people that are the lifeblood of the city and the creators of the unique culture that makes New Orleans so desirable. The people that make the big $$ during MG are the big hotel chains, advertisement industry, beer/liquor companies and police/security forces. Progress has been made in the sense we’ve went from Quadroon balls to the modern-day festiveness, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I must say that this Mardi Gras season I really learned a lot. It was my first go around marching with my high school’s band & performance groups. The volume of lucid drunken people that’s out in the streets of New Orleans is crazy. I always knew it was bad, but once you out hitting ‘dem streets with yo Squad and all eyes on y’all, then you really feel and take on that “Us against the world” mentality. People tell ‘ya all kind of dumb reckless shit as you diligently pace that pavement, you gotta put in your head that they just full of that liquid courage and don’t respond to the bullshit they say.

There were people that would try and cut through the band, just for their own childish giggles, there were people that would throw those dam beads and trinkets over our heads, which a few hit us, and I would then have to restrain myself from going after them as I saw our students upset by this buffoonery. There is a lot of overt racism during Mardi Gras as well, such as the Krewe of Chaos having anti-Black Lives Matter floats, Endymion handing out sambo dolls to Black kids, and Rex masking in their Klanish masks, robes and horses.

There is a lot of drunken white privilege out there too. The people entertaining and cleaning was Black & Latino, while majority of the people reveling in the festivities was white. This was especially evident as we went into the Convention Center after the Bacchus parade, for their grandiose ball. It costs thousands of dollars to ride on the floats and thousands of dollars to be a tourist down here during MG.

I did love seeing my beautiful Black folk out there and getting some daps & hugs from them. I’m just glad I was able to be out there, because I mean it when I say the Assata Shakur chant and the part about “It is OUR duty to love & protect each other”. The students work hard at their craft and I felt proud to make sure nothing happened to any of them as we marched in them streets.

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Teachers and Staff Across the Country Prove that Getting Organized and Going on Strike Works!

Business as usual in this country has been disrupted as a historic teacher strike wave has spread from West Virginia to Oklahoma. Teachers have gone on strike (all in supposedly-conservative states).

Teachers demonstrate in W. Virginia
It began in West Virginia on February 22, after Governor Justice signed legislation giving teachers a 2% pay increase. Teachers knew that this was inadequate to cover living costs and did not address other concerns, such as the long-time, intentional underfunding of public schools. With the support of parents and students, teachers and school staff shut down schools in all 55 counties for nine days. The teachers reached an agreement with the state, resulting in a 5% raise for all state workers and a freeze on raising health insurance costs.

Similar strikes have occurred in Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado. In most of these states, it is “illegal” for public sector workers to go on strike. These teachers, are setting an incredible example of courage and determination. All workers—the poor, the oppressed, the unemployed, and imprisoned—can learn from this struggle. When the people get organized and act in unison, major change is possible.

The Latest on Oklahoma
The Oklahoma strike ended on April 11, after nearly two weeks. Oklahoma has been undergoing a crisis of education, as teachers have left the state in recent years due to low wages and underfunded schools where students have been forced to use battered, outdated textbooks and only attend school four days out of the week. The strike has forced the state legislature to raise oil taxes, bringing in $450 million for education. On average, teachers will receive a raise of $6,100 per year as a result of the new funding.

Teachers in Louisiana resist, too
Educators, school staff, students and families face terrible conditions in Louisiana–both in New Orleans and throughout the state. In January, Deyshia Hargrave, a middle school teacher in Vermillion Parish, made national news.
Hargrave stood up at a school board meeting and asked about teacher salaries, saying “I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise. It’s a slap in the face to all the teachers, cafeteria workers, or any other support staff we have. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have…We’re doing the work. The students are doing the work. At the top, that’s not where kids learn. It’s in the classroom.”

As a result, Hargrave was handcuffed and removed. Hargrave was not charged, and because of her courage, she received massive support online. A mass rally of educators and supporters was also held in Abbeville. Hargrave was one of the main speakers.

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Hospitality Workers Commitee Demands Health Insurance, Clinic, Livable Scheduling and Sick Pay

The New Orleans Hospitality Workers Committee met with a fellow worker named Laura, a mother, and a long-time, hospitality worker. At age 43, Laura hasn’t had insurance for about 2 years. Why? She couldn’t afford it. This year, she finally went to the hospital to find that she had a severe heart infection that must have been brewing for 5 months to a year, and what happened? She almost got kicked out of the hospital! By action on behalf of community members and doctors such as Mark-Alain Dery, she was able to stay. However, Laura’s life is in critical condition, and should she survive, she or her family will likely face medical debt. Her case is an example for thousands of workers and their families every year. Is this acceptable?

The New Orleans Hospitality Workers Committee thinks not. We know that the Tourism Marketing Corporation has the capacity to pay for Laura’s insurance, as well as all the hospitality workers of New Orleans. With over $140 Million per year, it is entirely possible that the city provides workers with a full service medical clinic. We, the workers must stand up together, with our families and communities, against the rich making decisions at the expense of our lives! We can no longer work day-in and day-out with a smile on our face while corporations and politicians steal our money.

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See Me

By Imanee Magee

Some say the blacker the berry,
the sweeter the juice.
Well from a cop’s point of view
I’m a dangerous hue.
This black skin that I’m in is a sin to
these blue men
Hiding fear of our unity behind the
law of impunity
The TV sees me as a flea to society-
Civil rights crippled with my brittle
grip on these skittles,
Black dung slung in the rung of mass
incarceration,
5 years young amongst the sun and
he’s stung in the lung- “Hold my tongue?”
I’m done.
This target branded on my back
Burns like the bullet shot through my
soul for being Black.
With my people under attack,
how can I not fear for my soul?
I can barely be whole trying to fit in
massa’s mold
The end is coming near.
I can hear it, ringing through these
streets
Cries from mamas burying their
babies under bed sheets,
Juries freeing killers playing dress up
as police,
Brothers not coming home, what do I
even tell my niece?
What must I do for you to see my
humanity?
Must i bleed, must i plead, must i
concede?

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Army Corps of Engineers, S&WB Destroying Florida Ave. 9th Ward Neighborhood

By a Gallier St. Resident

New Orleanians who live in the upper ninth in the Florida neighborhood are seeing our homes destroyed due to the arrogance of the city, Sewerage and Water Board and the Army Corps of Engineers. They are jointly in charge of the Southeast Louisiana (SELA) drainage project which will cost over $300 million on Florida Avenue Canal. It began several years ago and was scheduled to finish this year, but its now extended to 2020 so the cost will rise as well.

Every day 50 giant trucks speed down our streets, shaking our entire homes starting as early as 6:30 am. We have cracked walls and foundations, pipes not aligned and many breaks in water lines to the road caused by these trucks.
One neighbor, A. Collins, said “why was our street designated a main truck route? We were not notified, and it seems no one is willing to help us or inform us what is going on.”

Now they have closed off Louisa street, which is the main road connecting our neighborhood to the Chef Menteur shopping areas, forcing us to go a long distance out of our way. No notice was given that the street would be closed or for how long. Even before it was closed the street from Law to the canal was pitted with craters.

Neighbors who live on Law, Louisa, Gallier and other streets have been complaining for years. We have filed for compensation but are told that will only happen after the project is completed. And it will be subject to inspections by the same agency that is causing the problem!

For six months Gallier St. neighbors demanded a meeting to discuss ways the problems could be solved. After months of stalling, officials finally came to a local meeting and tried to give us a Power-Point on the project. They refused to have a one-on-one discussion with the community. 40 neighbors attended and poured their hearts out about the destruction of our homes, disruption to our lives, destruction of our vehicles and health issues caused by the project.

DUST EVERYWHERE
Every day our homes and vehicles are coated with dust as the streets have crumbled. They have laid down a product that when dry gives off tons of dust whenever a truck comes by. Many residents are experiencing health issues as a result. Gallier street is no longer a real road but more like a dirt road.

COUNCILMAN BROUSSARD IGNORES US TOO – DOES NOTHING
37 emails to Councilman Broussard were ignored. Finally, Broussard wrote to advise us to contact the same agencies we were complaining to him about. He has never come to the area or met with the residents.

Boh Brothers and high-paid consultants and politicians are getting rich off this project. They would never treat the French Quarter or mansion littered St. Charles this way.

WILL WE STILL HAVE HOMES? WHO WILL FIX THEM?
This is proof that working-class residents and especially predominantly Black communities must get organized to militantly challenge the powers that care nothing for us. To protect ourselves, we should put these agencies under the direct control of the people.

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Louisiana House of Representatives Moves to Criminalize Water-Protectors

By Meg Maloney

The fight against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline intensifies in Louisiana. The Indigenous-led L’eau Est La Vie (Water Is Life) camp, located in the swamps of Houma, Chitimacha, and Chata Territory, have been peacefully protesting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline for several months now. Community leaders have been organizing to spread awareness on the high-risk project, which puts 700 bodies of water in danger, including our precious Atchafalaya basin, the last growing delta in the state.

Big Oil is trembling in fear of the people organizing to fight back against companies who continue to make messes in our communities. From this fear has stemmed the bill HB727, which passed the Louisiana House of Representatives in April Next it will go to the Senate. Then it will land on our governor’s desk. If passed this bill could land water-protectors in jail for up to 25 years, and a year for even “conspiring” to protest pipelines.

Knowing how quickly our elected officials fall in line behind corporate sponsors, this bill is very worrying. The HB727 bill is meant to hyper-criminalize water-protectors, fisherfolk, environmentalists, journalists, justice organizers & anyone who wishes to exercise their First Amendment rights in relation to defending their lands and waters.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the organization guilty of writing the HB727 bill. ALEC is an organization that has over 300 corporate sponsors, including Walmart, the Koch brothers, AT&T, and Exxon Mobil. ALEC uses their corporate contributions to draft legislation that legislators across the country take back to their states and introduce as their own “reform” ideas. ALEC is known for promoting privatization and corporate interests in every sphere, including education, healthcare, the environment, voting rights, etc.

If the HB727 bill is passed our tax dollars will be used to protect private companies who are destroying our waterways, wetlands, and crawfish habitats. Our wetlands are vital in protecting us from storm waters, and we’re losing a football field worth of land every hour. Protecting waterways and wetlands should go without saying in South Louisiana. We should be focused on restoring them, because our culture and livelihood depends on it. Both Democrats and Republicans have supported the HB727 bill. It is not an issue of party; it’s an issue of whose pockets are getting filled by big oil.

Cherri Foytlin, an indigenous community organizer at the L’eau Est La Vie camp, says they’re not backing down. That if the people can’t put their bodies on the line to protect the water, on the route of the pipeline, they will bring the fight to the offices of all our corrupt politicians. Our officials can stand on the opposing side of the people, but when organized & united the peoples power will always win. The question is how far our corrupt politicians are willing to take it.

If you wish to support the work against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, visit nobbp.org. Donate, sign up for camp, and help spread awareness in your community. Call your representatives and say no to bill HB727.

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We Need Socialism!

By Gregory William

Deep poverty is on the rise. The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world. Every year, police kill nearly 1,000 people, mostly people of color. Sexual harassment in the workplace is commonplace. Both Democrats and Republicans slash every program benefiting working people, while wasting our money on war. We are hit by one economic crisis after another.

We know things don’t have to be this way. We can fundamentally change society by overthrowing capitalism and building socialism. These problems do not come out of nowhere: They are byproducts of capitalism.

But what’s the basic difference between capitalism and socialism? Does it make sense to have a society where there are a handful of mega-wealthy billionaires, and the majority of people are just scraping by? Couldn’t we workers run the society without bosses, and make decisions that benefit the majority? Do we really have a “democracy” or do the rich just buy the policies they want?

We Need Socialism!
Under socialism, ordinary working people like us run the institutions of the society, including the government. Major property (like factories, infrastructure, and hospitals) are owned collectively by the people. There are no billionaires hoarding all the wealth and running things for their benefit alone. When workers make revolution, all of this becomes possible. We wouldn’t have high rents. We could make sure that health care, education, childcare, and housing are guaranteed free human rights! This is not simply a pipe dream. At one point or another in the past century, working people from Russia, to China, to Cuba have taken power, and proved that things can be different.

New Orleans, Cuba, and Hurricanes
In 2018, in socialist Cuba, people are in fact guaranteed to have access to health care, education, childcare, and housing. Cuba is a “poor” country compared to the United States, but there are no homeless encampments like we have here. LGBTQ rights are enshrined in the law. Cuba’s infant mortality rate is lower than ours. All of this is well-documented by trusted global institutions like the World Health Organization. But I want to focus on the issue of hurricane response. The difference between the United States and Cuba couldn’t be more extreme, and it shows the superiority of socialism over capitalism in a way that is important for us in Louisiana. It is a matter of life and death.

All of us are familiar with the failure of the government to respond to hurricanes Katrina and Rita and Maria. Over 1,400 people died during these storms, and millions more were displaced throughout the Gulf Coast. In the aftermath, the city, state, and federal governments colluded with corporations to turn New Orleans into an experiment in the most mercenary forms of contemporary capitalism: public housing demolished, Charity Hospital closed, and public education destroyed. Puerto Rico still has not fully restored electricity, jobs and income

In Cuba, on the other hand, the whole society is mobilized to deal with hurricanes, and the aftermath is about recovery, not greed. Hurricane preparedness drills take place regularly everywhere. The focus is on risk-reduction with an integrated response from local fire departments, health, transportation, and other public services. Before storms occur, government officials, police, and military personnel help people move their personal property to safer locations. The government also guarantees replacement of all lost property.

Cuba has a fraction of the wealth and resources of the United States and is directly in the path of many storms. Almost no one in Cuba dies as a result of tropical storms and hurricanes, gets evicted, or loses pay. The past 17 major hurricanes to hit Cuba only resulted in 35 deaths. When Katrina hit Cuba, only two people died.

The socialist organization of society allows for the possibility of tackling major problems. The Cubans decided to take on the problem of storm preparedness, which is essential for the island. Such a massive reorganization is impossible in the U.S., where people are intentionally isolated from one another and the motives of the ruling class are based in profits. It is socialism which gives to people the means to bring about progressive change.

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Take Back Pride

Two years ago, local LGBTQ organization BreakOUT! pulled out of the local Pride parade. After the Pulse nightclub shooting, the New Orleans Pride organization decided to increase police presence at the parade, and the organizers at BreakOUT!, led by LGBTQ youth of color, felt unsafe with more NOPD officers at the parade. Instead of providing security, they posed a direct threat to many BreakOUT! members who had been subject to harassment and abuse by NOPD. Despite this notable act of defiance, Pride continues to ignore the needs and history of local working class queer and trans people, especially LGBTQ people of color.

New Orleans Pride this year has the theme of “300 Years of Diversity,” tapping into the attention focused on the tricentennial to cash in. They have chosen the CEO of the New Orleans Tourism Board as their Grand Marshal, and they boast of many corporate sponsors, including Walgreens and General Electric (GE). As in past years, the parade will feature NOPD and members of the US military.

Though “efforts” have been made within NOPD to “address” accusations of anti-LGBTQ violence, no real changes have come. Though the US military boasts of its inclusion of gay soldiers, it continues to cause the oppression of LGBTQ communities around the world as they bomb countries in Africa and the Middle East and prop up right-wing governments that target LGBTQ people. Corporations like GE profit off of the military industrial complex while using their allegedly enlightened hiring practices to distract from the exploitation of working class LGBTQ people. While New Orleans Pride brings in money to the tourism capitalists, the rest of us struggle to get by because we have no money for health insurance, can’t get jobs, and don’t have access to basic needs.

Pride was born out of struggle: out of resistance against police brutality and solidarity with oppressed people around the world. For 300 years, white supremacy has defined New Orleans. Colonial violence and slavery denied queer and trans lives among the indigenous and enslaved people here, and violence against LGBTQ Americans has disproportionately affected people of color in New Orleans and around the country. “300 Years of Diversity” is an insult to those who resisted this oppression.

We are organizing to continue the struggle against homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and racism present in New Orleans. All working class LGBTQ people are welcome to join us in making sure our voices are heard and the original spirit of Pride is honored in this city. For more information on this new Pride Committee, contact us at: queerworkersnola@gmail.com.

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Stonewall: A Turning Point in LGBTQ Struggle

On June 28, 1969, a battle broke out.

The police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York, and the queer and trans people there and in the neighborhood fought back. The raid began as many others had, with the police separating people in the bar, focusing their abuse on those who least conformed to their ideas of gender. The resistance was immediate, but as the night continued it grew.

At the height of the resistance, the police had to barricade themselves inside the bar they had come to raid, taking a hostage and trying to turn a fire-hose on the crowd. The crowd responded with bricks and fire until more cops arrived. By the second day of the battle, the LGBTQ people of New York were joined by allies, including local political and anti-war organizers, and groups of trans and queer people fought police in the streets. Days of tension followed, until a third and final day of violence brought an end to the Stonewall Riots.

For decades, LGBTQ struggle in the United States had been building, but Stonewall served as a turning point and the birth of new movements. Inspired by working class and anti-colonial struggles around the world (especially Vietnam, China, and Algeria) and the civil rights struggle in the United States, the LGBTQ community in America formed the Gay Liberation Front within a week of Stonewall. The modern gay rights struggle was born in opposition to the most violent oppression.

POLICE RAIDS
The police raids at Stonewall were not unique. Being gay was a crime in almost every state, and in most places anyone caught wearing less than three pieces of clothing that “matched” the gender they were assigned at birth could be arrested. In 1966, a similar riot broke out in California as black drag queens and trans women fought back against raids. Across the United States, LGBTQ people arrested in the raids of their bars (often the only safe spaces they had) were subjected to sexual assault, police brutality, and public humiliation as they were exposed by the local papers. Many lost their jobs and their families. Many lost their lives.

NEW ORLEANS CONNECTION
According to many accounts, a New Orleans-born woman, Storme Delarverie, threw the first punch at Stonewall. As the police dragged her away, she is reported to have called to the crowd to fight back. In other accounts, a “butch, black lesbian” unidentified by name not only threw the first punch, but fought her way back to the bar three times before being captured, inspiring the crowd to begin throwing bricks and trash at the police. A working class woman, Delarverie was known to others in the neighborhood as a protector of their streets.

WORKERS & OPPRESSED PEOPLE FIGHT BACK
Most of those who fought at Stonewall were not activists or community leaders at the time. They were working class queer and trans people, most of them black or LatinX. Many were homeless youth that lived nearby. They had been assaulted and harassed by the police. Future leaders in the LGBTQ struggle like Miss Major, Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera were all part of the fight.

It was a response not just to oppression of LGBTQ people, but to racist violence as well, as the people most targeted in the raids were the black and LatinX people.

PRIDE
Many radical queer and trans organizations were born in the wake of Stonewall. The GLF, Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), and more formed. People around the country–and the world–were inspired to begin fighting back.

Militant actions were the heart of these early resistance organizations, and people of all ages, races, and genders were welcome in most. They were working class groups that fought not just homophobia and transphobia, but racism, imperialism, and capitalism.

Modern Pride celebrations, sponsored by corporations, overwhelmingly white, with police and military featured prominently in their parades, have strayed from the original spirit of queer resistance. As rights won in struggle are reversed by the courts and law-makers, there is an urgent need for LGBTQ resistance, inspired by the revolutionaries of Stonewall.

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The Next Five Targets for Take ‘Em Down NOLA

E.D. WHITE
As a Supreme Court Justice, White ruled with the majority in Plessy vs. Ferguson, legalizing the Jim Crow system. He was a member of the Crescent City White League, which murdered Black and white police officers in an attempted coup. He was a former Confederate soldier and segregationist.

ANDREW JACKSON
A genocidal, lying racist who owned 150 people as slaves, Andrew Jackson betrayed the enslaved people to whom he promised freedom after the Battle of New Orleans. He led military forces against the “Negro Fort” in Florida where 270 Black people were murdered in 1816. He authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which caused the ethnic cleansing and forced migration of 60,000 Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and other indigenous nations.

MCDONOUGH
The famed plantation owner whose name is on many local schools, McDonough’s statue in Lafayette Square serves as a monument to a man who owned slaves, fought to protect slavery, and wrote that slavery was good for African people. The money he donated to public education created the first separate and unequal schools in New Orleans.

BIENVILLE
Credited with founding New Orleans, Bienville brought the first enslaved people to the city in 1708. He used enslaved and convict labor to build the settlement after it was established in 1718 and stole millions of acres of land from Choctaw, Chickasaw, Chitimatcha, Natchez and other indigenous nations for France. He expelled Jews from the colony and restricted the rights and freedom of African people in Louisiana through the Code Noir colonial laws.

HENRY CLAY
A statue of South Carolina slave-owner Henry Clay stands in Lafayette Square, honoring a man who was responsible for the Missouri Compromise that upheld slavery until the Civil War.