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Industrial Tax Exemptions Steal From Poor to Give to Rich

By Adam Pedesclaux

Disgustingly, many large corporations in Louisiana pay less in taxes than many working people thanks to the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP), which robs residents of millions of dollars of tax revenue every year. Worse, we workers bear the costs of the damages to our environment that many of these companies are responsible for.

ITEP has existed since 1936, and yet since 1995 alone, companies have been exempted from over $20 billion in taxes—all while virtually every service for the welfare of people has been slashed.

Responding to public outrage over this policy, in 2016 Gov. Edwards announced changes to ITEP through an executive order that allowed local governing bodies (like school boards) to weigh in on the decision to allow multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies to skip out on taxes or not.

Previously, these decisions were made solely by the undemocratically appointed members of the Board of Commerce and Industry. Members of this board include politicians as well the heads of banking, real estate, and oil and gas corporations.

Edwards’ 2016 reform should have been step one in stopping parasitic companies from stealing much needed resources from the people of Louisiana. Instead the corporate bosses have convinced their puppet Edwards to take a step back.

On February 24, the Board of Commerce and Industry adopted changes proposed by Edwards that would allow companies to appeal the denial of a tax exemption by a body such as a school board. This will enable the company to essentially override the input of the public. This comes after teachers’ unions and the community in East Baton Rouge organized to get ExxonMobil to withdraw a request for their annual $6.5 million tax break last year. The bosses do not want to repeat this.

We cannot afford to allow petrochemical and oil and gas companies to make Louisiana their dumping ground while they suck billions in profits out of the state every year! Louisiana companies should pay their taxes and stop stealing money from the hard working people of this state because our roads need fixing, schools need to be in the power of the public (not corporate/business entities), and residents need to be made whole for the damages that these companies have done their communities. We can start with the residents of Gordon Plaza who are demanding a fully funded relocation from the industrial dump site on which their homes are built!

We must fight against these thieving criminals that bribe the Louisiana government to cheat us out of a decent living. The government ought to be run in the interest of the majority of the people—in other words, workers. We, the workers who make all industry run, have to fight for our due.

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New Orleans Workers Must Stand with Firefighters’ Union

10 Reasons to Support  New Orleans Firefighters

  1. Mayor Cantrell threatens firefighters lives and our safety by refusing to hire more firefighters. Cantrell’s attacks on the firefighters are a disgrace.
  2. An attack on the firefighters is an attack on all parish workers.
  3. Mayor Cantrell gives away millions in tax exemptions to corporations and real estate developers but denies funds to firefighters, youth, and other essential services. Every year the city gives $180 million in stolen tourism tax dollars to big corporations for their private profit.
  4. The union is calling for more firefighters: in the last ten years, staffing has decreased by 25% while the number of calls they have to answer has gone up 150%. NOFD cannot attract or retain firefighters with wages starting at $11/hr and meager retirement benefits.
  5. Firefighters are being forced into brutal overtime at a moment’s notice. Many firefighters are working 96 hours a week.
  6. Because of low pay, many firefighters have to work two jobs to support their families.
  7. Firefighters’ families are suffering from forced overtime. They cannot plan childcare or appointments at schools and doctors.
  8. Our neighborhoods are not safe when firefighters are overworked and understaffed.
  9. The union is fighting for our neighborhoods to be protected.
  10. The union is calling for an immediate end to unsafe, less effective two person crews on firetrucks. Two person crews pose a lethal hazard to firefighters.
Feb. 17: New Orleans Workers Group joins firefighters union at a Press Conference at City Park.

By refusing to reform brutal overtime rules, raise wages, or hire more firefighters, Mayor Cantrell is jeopardizing the safety of the firefighters and the residents of our city. But New Orleans firefighters are fighting back.

Because the firefighters union (IAFF Local 632) is making their grievances known, the mayor and the fire chief have attacked them for being “bullies.” The mayor has got it twisted; she’s the one putting the firefighters and residents’ lives at risk by working firefighters to the bone.

Residents should stand on the side of the firefighters because this is a fight for our safety too!

Take action:

The New Orleans Workers Group will be distributing flyers and talking with residents to rally support for the firefighters’ struggle. To get involved, contact us at  nolaworkersgroup@gmail.com or by phone at 504-900-6748.

Go to the firefighters’ union website and follow links to their social media accounts, such as Facebook, and like the page for updates. Show up for press conferences and other actions called by the union.

Call or email Cantrell’s office and tell her to accept the union’s demands (ph. 504-658-4900, mayor@nola.gov).

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Cancel All U.S. Sanctions!

The U.S. imposes sanctions on more than 39 countries, restricting access to healthcare for 1/3 of the world’s population. The coronavirus makes it clear: these inhumane sanctions endanger the whole world.

U.S. sanctions have significantly hampered Iran’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, limiting access to medical supplies, test kits and information about the virus.

In Venezuela and People’s Korea, sanctions have killed thousands of people, primarily from lack of access to basic medicines.

Cancel all U.S. sanctions NOW!

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New Orleans Workers Group Makes Demands for Coronavirus Fight

Protect Workers, Not Profits!

As the case of China has shown, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak requires extraordinary measures to contain its spread and its potentially lethal effects. Quarantines and potentially widespread closures of schools and businesses may be necessary. Infected people will need to be able to self-isolate without fear of going hungry, missing rent, or losing their jobs. Extra precautions will need to be taken to protect healthcare workers. The production and universal distribution of medical gear and personal protective equipment (PPE) will need to be ramped up and hoarding and price gouging strictly prohibited. In other words, to stop the spread of an epidemic requires economic planning and cooperation that protects the health of the whole social body, not just the rich. The New Orleans Workers Group makes the following demands:

  • All costs for COVID-19 treatment and containment should be born by the government including reimbursement for lost wages. No worker should risk spreading the virus for lack of income.
  • Childcare should be universally available to parents in the event of school closures.
  • Tests should be free for all residents and administered at conveniently located test centers throughout the country.
  • Price controls should be put into effect to shield workers from the disruptive effects that the virus has had on the global economy.
  • Workers’ 401(k)s should be protected from devaluation in stock prices. A moratorium should go into effect immediately.
  • Manufacturing of medical gear and PPE should be ordered to meet need without regard to private profits.
  • A system for free food distribution to quarantined areas and self-isolated households should be put into effect
  • Every resident is entitled to these protections to income, health, etc. regardless of citizenship status.
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Coronavirus Fight Requires International Solidarity

By Ashlee Pintos

The current conditions for workers in the United States leave us extremely vulnerable to sickness and disease. With the lack of comprehensive, if any, healthcare, no guarantee of paid sick days, and demanding daily responsibilities on top of low wages, it is no wonder the majority of us are terrified of contracting an illness as unknown as the new coronavirus. While we have real, valid reasons to be concerned about the spread of any life-threatening virus, we should not allow our vulnerability to be weaponized into racism or paranoia.

The truth is that the United States government will use anything that they can to divide us. The latest coronavirus (COVID-19) is no exception. COVID-19 starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, dry cough and in more extreme cases, shortness of breath. COVID-19 is a mutation of one of many existing coronaviruses. The majority of the population has already experienced a different strain of coronavirus which usually produces symptoms similar to the common cold.

Since the virus first appeared in China, it has spread to over 60 countries and killed over 3,000 people. While this number is seemingly high, context matters. Just this season alone, the flu has killed 10,000 people in the United States. While the capitalist owned media run to fan the flames of anti-Chinese sentiment, they have done very little to provide U.S. residents with scientific information and tools to prevent the common flu, which has killed as many as 60,000 people in recent seasons.

While China built a hospital in 10 days to address the threat that the coronavirus poses to its residents, Trump initially claimed that the outbreak was a “hoax.” Meanwhile Trump is pushing for massive cuts to Medicaid which will leave millions more without health insurance. Because the Chinese government has undertaken extraordinary steps to contain the spread of the virus within their country, the number of new cases outside of China now exceeds the number of new cases within, which are on the decline, according to the World Health Organization. This means that it is now the duty of other governments to cooperate in order to prevent a large-scale global outbreak. Socialist Cuba shows the way forward: while the U.S. did not offer China assistance, Cuban medical teams traveled to China. Cuba has produced antivirals that were used to treat people infected with the coronavirus and they are actively working to develop a vaccine.

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Trump’s Storm Troopers Target Immigrants

In cities across the U.S. people have democratically decided to show solidarity to migrants and immigrants. These sanctuary cities have directed the police not to check immigration status, to racially profile undocumented workers, or to call in ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) to imprison our brothers and sisters in detention camps. New Orleans is one of several so-called sanctuary cities.

The ultra-racist Trump, just like the Louisiana legislature, refuses to accept any local decisions to raise wages, get sick pay, or deny corporate tax exemptions and more. Both rule solely to provide millionaires and billionaires with profits at the expense of the entire working class.

These anti-working class, racist politicians want to bring U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Units into sanctuary cities, armed to the teeth to arrest immigrants. These units are like the storm troopers of the Nazis. If they are allowed into our city, they will not stop with immigrants: the militarization and super weaponry will be used against the entire working class.

Anti-immigrant Attorney General Landry Has Got to Go!

Like Trump, Louisiana Attorney General Landry has been one of the loudest and ugliest voices in Louisiana against undocumented immigrants and migrants. This vicious racist and anti-immigrant millionaire opposed raising the minimum wage and initiated a lawsuit to stop Medicaid expansion and to destroy beneficial features of the Affordable Care Act. His lawsuit, which threatens the lives of 700,000 adults and children, was never decided by the workers of Louisiana.

Landry wants to divide workers by pitting citizens against immigrants. In 2017 he led a group of Attorneys General who threatened to sue Trump if he did not cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which protects 800,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation. Yet when it comes to making profits, Landry is only too happy to exploit migrant workers as part of a “guest” worker contract that his business rigged in order to get skilled and unskilled labor for cheaper than he could get it locally.

Guest workers work under conditions of semi-slavery. This program requires workers to sign contracts stating they will not complain or organize, or they will be deported immediately. Many “guest” workers are forced to live in horrid conditions, and their pay is deducted for food and housing. There is no path to citizenship. The racist-in-chief Trump has overseen an expansion in guest worker programs. There are more short-term migrant farm-workers being exploited as “guest” workers than ever before.

This goes to the very core of why the capitalists, and their media, are beating the message that we should blame immigrants rather than the super-rich. The purpose of the anti-worker, anti-immigrant and migrant hatred is to divide us while they laugh all the way to the bank. They want to lower the wages and benefits of all workers.

We need to tear down the prisons which make Louisiana the world’s prison capital for citizens and immigrants alike. Private prisons for profit, eight of them, are now operating to cage immigrants and take their children away.
All workers should reject the storm troopers and view an attack on immigrants as an attack on all workers. ICE and storm troopers out of New Orleans or anywhere! An injury to one is an injury to all!