WE NEED TO RESTORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
As a worker in capitalist New Orleans you have a right to pay taxes, labor for the bosses’ profit, and create a booming tourist economy by your work. You can vote for candidates who are bought by big business and who will continue to make things worse.
But when we want a higher minimum wage, equal pay for women, reproductive freedom, jobs not jail, sick pay, rent control and the right to decide what to do with $200 million in tourist taxes we are told, “Oh, no! You have no voice, no vote, no say!” These critical issues in our lives are taken over by the state legislature. Our city officials could stand up to them but they have failed to take up the battle. New Orleans, a tourist jewel with major economic clout, ought to be able to stand up for itself. When we voted to raise the minimum wage, Baton Rouge said no. Our city government shrugged and just said oh well. They could have called us out to an enormous rally to put our foot down.
Even some good-hearted liberals tell us oh well, we can’t do anything, it’s just the way it is. But that is a lie. Appeals to morals or children’s needs fall on deaf ears. Unjust laws are made to be broken. We need to mobilize our power. That’s history, that’s always been the way that change finally comes about.
RICH ARE ARROGANT AND FEEL THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO ROB US
WE NEED TO FREE OUR MINDS TO GET OUR RIGHTS
Racist segregation laws (Jim Crow) were not defeated by good, moral arguments. They were defeated by mass, sustained civil disobedience and action. Only then did the laws change. The laws were passed by right wing legislators and courts who expected Jim Crow laws to be eternal. It was only because they were afraid of our power that they eventually changed the laws. A Trump type government in France just had to back down on their attack on the workers in the face of massive, militant workers’ street actions.
While city officials brag about New Orleans’ post – Katrina recovery with its new high-tech industries and its influx of majority white professionals taking the best jobs, and its luxury condos, the working class of New Orleans is left behind. They want the food and the music and they want us to be their servants. As neighborhoods fall to the rich, as rents soar, as utilities, cable and food prices go up, our wages do not. New Orleans has the second largest income inequality between Black and white in the U.S.
WHAT’S GOOD FOR NEW ORLEANS WORKERS IS GOOD FOR ALL LOUISIANA WORKERS
If New Orleans workers win, all workers in Louisiana win. A rising tide lifts all boats. If we win higher pay and other issues, workers across the state would benefit and it would aid their struggle for the same things.
We can get there by recognizing that the class interests of the workers and the capitalist rulers are opposed. We can get there by joining the struggle to organize the sleeping giant – the working class and oppressed.