Open Letter: Demand for Relief to Evacuees of Hurricane Laura

An Open Letter to Governor John Bel Edwards & State Representatives

Governor John Bel Edwards
Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder
Senate President Page Cortez
Senator John Kennedy
Senator Bill Cassidy

Dear Governor Edwards, Speaker of the House Schexnayder, Senate President Cortez, Senator Kennedy, Senator Cassidy:

The Louisiana Movement for Workers Councils condemns members of the Louisiana State Legislature and U.S. Congress who, at this moment of crisis, are playing political games. The special session is clearly more about expanding your power and privileges than it is about expanding the unemployment fund or providing genuine hurricane relief to the tens of thousands of Louisianans adversely affected by Hurricane Laura.

You continue to ignore dire conditions of Hurricane Laura evacuees who need urgent assistance with income, housing, jobs, mortgages, transportation, and food. The only relief that has come through was announced for the sake of a photo op. Most aid has been delayed or bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. Thousands have still not received SNAP, unemployment, housing alternatives, or cash income.

While you are renewing or issuing new tax exemptions to profitable corporations and wealthy individuals, the working people of the affected parishes—on whose backs this state runs —have been left in the dust.

We call for representatives of the Workforce Commission, SNAP, FEMA, and HUD to station on-the-ground personnel and equipment. Representatives of these agencies must undo the bureaucratic holdups by ensuring that: (1) FEMA pay out emergency money every day, all day; (2) families have homes to stay in temporarily or permanently; (3) a housing repair fund is provided for the thousands without insurance (because you have allowed insurance rates in Louisiana to become the most unaffordable in the country); (4) children have computers and reliable internet to attend classes.

Every day we are reminded that the rich are getting richer while you ignore the workers’ needs in favor of your own narrow interests. Hurricane Laura has scattered people, leaving thousands desperate. But folks are organizing. Your inaction and callous disregard will be remembered.

Sincerely,

Louisiana Movement for Workers Councils

Workers Voice Socialist Movement

We are workers, employed and unemployed, youth, students, and seniors. We are multi-racial and multi-national and organize for the unity of the working class. We are funded by and for workers, for the liberation of all workers and oppressed people.

We organize for jobs and higher wages, against racism, women’s, and LGBTQ oppression, and for solidarity with immigrants. We organize for community schools, lower rents, and food on our tables. We organize for workers’ power so that everything will one day be removed from the capitalists’ private ownership.

We oppose the Pentagon, which is looting our tax dollars and handing them over to war-profiteering private companies, while social programs are gutted. We oppose war for empire which is pursued only to lower our wages and plunder the world’s resources while destroying the environment. We reject the monopoly media who feed us lie after lie.

The labor of workers produces enormous wealth here in Louisiana, the U.S. and the world– so much wealth that everyone could have housing, meaningful jobs, education, healthcare, and genuine equality. But this wealth is stolen and privately owned by the capitalist class for their greed and profit. We believe that we, the workers of the world, can unite in revolution to overcome capitalism and build a better world.

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