Sunrise New Orleans Brings Climate Strike to City Hall

Dec. 6: Jesse Perkins, a resident of Gordon Plaza, addresses students participating in a Climate Strike organized by Sunrise New Orleans. Students demanded that the city fully fund the relocation of all residents of Gordon Plaza, a housing development built on toxic soil.

By Nath Clarke

On December 6, 2019, 200 people gathered at City Hall for a Climate Strike organized by Sunrise New Orleans. They demanded that Mayor Latoya Cantrell and the City Council:

Champion the Green New Deal
Fully fund the relocation of Gordon Plaza residents
Stop the construction of the fracked gas plant in New Orleans East
Commit to 100% renewable energy

Students of all ages spoke on the urgency of organizing in the face of the current climate crisis. Reverend Gregory Manning, a pastor at the Broadmoor Community Church, talked about environmental racism—and how people of color often are on the front lines of the fight against coastal erosion. Jesse Perkins (pictured at right), a resident of Gordon Plaza who’s been leading their fight for fully funded relocation spoke as well. Gordon Plaza is a Black, working-class neighborhood in the Upper Ninth Ward built on a Superfund site. For over 30 years, the residents have been organizing for the right to live on soil that won’t kill them.

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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