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Migrant, Citizen Worker Solidarity is Key

By A New Orleans Resident

The collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans is a clear example of how the blood and sweat of workers are exploited only to make the rich even richer. Because rich bosses hire workers, exploit their labor, and show time and time again that they do not value us, worker solidarity is more critical than ever for the well-being and safety of the working class.

Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma is one of five workers who rightly filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the physical wounds suffered during the building collapse. The workers are taking a stand because they know that the building collapsed as a result of materials that were inadequate and supports too thin and insufficient for the building.

After filing the lawsuit and speaking to the media about the experience, Ramirez Palma was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), preventing him from telling his firsthand experience, preventing him from fighting for his rights, and preventing him from accessing much needed medical attention for the injuries he suffered.

The capitalist system which exploits the labor of workers for the benefit of the rich does NOT care if the labor is provided by Black workers, poor white workers, or migrant workers.

Mourn for the Dead, Organize for the Living: Construction unions, migrants’ supporters gather to honor Hard Rock workers. The Oct. 17 vigil was organized by the Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council. These unions should p[ledge to open organizing campaigns in every construction site and open their doors to all workers, including migrants.
The capitalist system uses racism, documented vs undocumented, or gender-based discrimination to create roadblocks to worker unity. In the end, these forms of divisiveness only end up hurting workers. When we come together and turn our attention to those who exploit us, then and only then, will workers win what is rightfully ours.

It’s intolerable that in pursuit of tourist dollars in the city of New Orleans, which already brings in the most tourist dollars in the world, the rich business owners are putting workers, residents, and tourists in harm’s way by cutting corners. They are putting the safety of the workers and the general public at risk.

Migrant workers (and all other workers) gave labor, blood, sweat and tears to rebuild this city, so we must stand together when workers need to speak up, rise up, and fight for rights and safety. This is our duty!

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Hard Rock Hotel: The Real Story

What You Won’t Read in The Advocate or City Hall’s Press Releases

By Gavrielle Gemma

Without even knowing the technical specifics of the collapse, it’s obvious that capitalist greed, faulty construction and engineering, and city complicity are to blame.

City approves crooked developer, extra height
Company gave campaign $$$ to politicians
In 2011 the City Council approved a waiver for extra building height. They authorized a crooked developer, Kailas, to manage the project although this company was criminally guilty of robbing Road Home funds after Katrina.

While only one family member was jailed, the judge in his sentencing said that he was taking the fall for the whole family. This company, Kailas, and the building company they contracted, Citadel Builders, both donated thousands of dollars to Mayor Cantrell’s campaign.

Though one building inspector has been indicted and two more have been suspended, the full details of the unfolding scandal involving the New Orleans Department of Safety and Permits remain closed to the public. There is suspicion of widespread payoffs.

Citadel Builders was cited by the State of Louisiana for 11 safety construction violations in 2018 alone. They do not make public the nature of these violations. Still the building proceeded.

Workers in shut down area must get emergency pay
Lawsuits are already being filed by workers who were in the building and workers in the surrounding area who are losing income. The city is demanding the developer reimburse the city $400,000 for police and fire, etc. but is ignoring the daily crisis hundreds of other workers are now experiencing. The mayor should issue an executive order to pay these workers from a city fund that should be made immediately available to all those out of work. The city can sue the developer for compensation. Unemployment insurance will not cover many hard-hit workers or be enough to survive on in the coming months.

Independent investigation needed
An independent investigation must be conducted with the involvement of Hard Rock workers, construction unions and community leaders. We cannot depend on the city, inspectors or developers to fully disclose reasons for this extraordinary event.

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Convention Center Rip-Off of Public funds for Private Profit Ramps Up

Where’s the Money for Our Kids?

A gang of thieves—aka private developers—are celebrating in their St. Charles mansions over their latest scheme to rip off public funds and tax money. The Convention Center, with the blessing of their bought-off state and city politicians, will build a huge hotel with $114 million of public funds and millions more in property tax exemptions (Bureau of Governmental Research).

The policy of allowing private hospitality capitalists to profit from public funds, tax exemptions and the wholesale theft of tax dollars is outrageous. Only 3% of the city budget goes to families and children while the rich steal $160 million. It shows that the government is solidly in the pockets of the rich.
Just one example is the Convention Center hiring of State Rep. Walter Leger III as vice president for Strategic Affairs. While in office, Leger sponsored legislation to enable public funding for the Convention Center hotel. A high paid position is his reward. If that ain’t corrupt, what is?

DECEPTIVE “FAIR SHARE” IS A NET LOSS FOR RESIDENTS
While Mayor Cantrell boasts of getting a “fair share deal” with a return of some city taxes to the Sewerage & Water Board, most residents don’t know that she agreed to legislation which included public funds for the hotel.

The total tourist tax dollars bypassing the city budget and going into private profiteers’ bank accounts was $180 million a year. Now “only” $160 million in taxes are being funneled to these private interests. To offset the money that the hospitality capitalists “lost,” legislation was passed that grants them even more money by way of new taxes. They also scored whopping tax exemptions for themselves. The net result of this “fair share” is that the people are getting less, the tax dollars are still stolen and the Convention Center is getting even more money.

Knowing this deal is unpopular, Mayor Cantrell is now criticizing what she agreed to. Convention Center President and General Manager Michael J. Sawaya said, “the mayor, when we agreed to the PILOT [payments in lieu of taxes] and agreed to give her $28 million, she agreed to support the hotel project,” he said. “She committed to it in front of the governor, in front of all of us.”

So, who is really running the city— the mayor or the mainly conservative, white, super-rich capitalists pulling the strings? We need to build up the independent power of the working class to fight this theft and have money for our kids.

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Jail Corporate Drug Dealers

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

In 1952 Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler purchased Purdue Frederick, which would become Purdue Pharma later in the 1950s. Purdue Pharma is largely responsible for the opioid crisis, as it’s so lovingly called. Despite arguing that they were passive board members who only approved routine management requests and had no involvement in the production or marketing of opiods, the Sacklers are criminals and should be treated as such.

In the 1980s, it was a war on drugs declared by Ronald and Nancy Reagan. A War On Drugs: a machine, a fan to disperse the funk of the loads of dope they were pumping into black communities. Back then the drug addicts were portrayed as criminals and crack heads. These days we see the media give a more sympathetic gaze to addicts, fueled by billion dollar pushers in luxury suits.

The behemoth pharmaceutical company have been forced to pay fines to over 2,000 plaintiffs, including almost two dozen US states who believe that drugs like OxyContin were deliberately pushed, knowing full well how addictive they are. The fines, however, represent a tiny fraction of what the Sacklers make off their drug-dealing empire. They have been found guilty in civil court, but where are the criminal charges? They should face jail time.

Men like Alton Sterling have lost their lives for selling single cigarettes and DVDs. Every day in America Black men are viewed as criminal for being inside their homes or on the way to their jobs. The Sacklers are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Where are the criminal charges? The military with its pollution, the banks robbing us eyes wide shut… where are the criminal charges? Demonstrations have been held in protest.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James said that she has requested records from 33 financial institutions. However, $1 billion in wire transfers to Swiss bank accounts were revealed in records from just one institution. Reports have been made that the U.S. Justice Department is involved in separate talks with Purdue Pharma. Negotiations involve possible civil penalties tied to federal probes of OxyContin sales, but could also include criminal charges using statutes normally used to prosecute drug dealers. This is a call to not only hold these criminals accountable for the mass homicide they commit, but a call to release the millions suffering in US prisons for being poor. Criminalize the billionaires!

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Supreme Court Will Not Stop LGBTQ Struggle

By Sally Jane Black

Nearly a year ago, a leaked memo revealed that the Trump administration was trying to reinterpret Title VII in order to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people. The flimsy policy that included LGBTQ people under “sex” in Title VII (the law that protects against job discrimination on basis of gender, race, etc.) was established under the Obama administration as an effort to buy LGBTQ votes without effecting any change. With no real protections in place, it has taken almost no effort for the current administration to reverse almost every gain LGBTQ people have made.

The unelected, notoriously bigoted Supreme Court will be deciding on three cases this October that will determine whether this legalization of discrimination will be upheld, endangering millions of people’s jobs, insurance, and well being. Trump’s Department of “Justice” has aggressively fought for the reinterpretation, often using the argument of “religious freedom” to mask their dangerous homophobia and transphobia.

“RELIGIOUS FREEDOM”
The use of “religious freedom” as justification for these policies is not an attempt to protect anyone but to divide the working class against LGBTQ people. The capitalist class knows that if they claim that this is a matter of religion, LGBTQ people and allies will blame religion for these attacks instead of the real enemy: the rich, powerful capitalists that benefit from our oppression. Meanwhile, the capitalists are pandering to workers who are religious, hoping to incite them against the cause for LGBTQ equality.

RISE IN VIOLENCE
It is no coincidence that Louisiana candidates for governor are insulting trans people in campaign ads, or that celebrities like Drew Brees are avoiding consequences for working with anti-LGBTQ hate groups like Focus on the Family; the capitalist class is funding the complete reversal of every right won by LGBTQ people. This has also served as an open call to violence against queer and trans people. Hate crimes are at a record high. So far this year, 20 trans people—almost all black trans women—have been murdered, including one killed in an ICE concentration camp. As with every marginalized group, when our rights are under attack, our safety is threatened as well.

SECOND CLASS CITIZENS
The past year has seen attacks on LGBTQ people on every front: housing, healthcare, emergency shelter, education, and more. The attack on Title VII is at the heart of this. Allowing job discrimination against queer and trans people would effectively cut us off from everything needed to survive. By legalizing job discrimination and ramping up anti-queer and anti-trans bigotry, the ruling class is making sure that unemployment remains high enough to weaken the working class.

FIGHTING BACK
Resistance is growing. Although the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement has been co-opted by corporate interests and nonprofits, in June people around the country honored the 50th anniversary of Stonewall with militant, anti-corporate, anti-cop actions at Pride events, often opposing the nonprofit boards that erased the militant politics of the original Pride marches. LGBTQ people have won victories for trans healthcare in Wisconsin, and an immigrant trans woman, Alejandra Barrera, has won her freedom from an ICE concentration camp. In September, activists in New Orleans held a march protesting the anti-trans Crimes Against Nature in Solicitation law during the corporate-funded Southern Decadence.

LGBTQ people should be protected against discrimination and violence, not forced to be second class citizens. Only militant action will win us our rights and protect us from these attacks. We must resist every attempt by the capitalist class to divide us against one another. It is only through unity and working class solidarity that we will liberate ourselves from the oppressive rule of the capitalists.

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Not One Dime, Not One U.S. Soldier to Defend Saudi/U.S. Oil Monarchy

Trump and Mohammad bin Salman celebrate $12.5 billion in U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi monarchy, a long-time ally to the United States under both Republican and Democratic administrations, is a fascist monarchy which is thoroughly based on extreme inherited privilege, racism, and hatred of women and LGBTQ people. The monarchy denies all rights to workers and is based on system of servitude and slavery. They are the gatekeepers and beneficiaries of the criminal oil monopolies that want to rule and destroy the Earth for profit.

The U.S. government does not represent the workers of the U.S. It is a sales agency for military profiteers and other capitalist criminals. The military corporations are private companies that are strangling the economy and looting the federal budget. Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia to close a deal for more weapons.

The U.S.-Saudi alliance is bathed in the blood of the Yemeni people, of the Yemeni children who have been slaughtered and starved by Saudi use of U.S. Weapons.

The US and Saudi monarchy claim that Iran is to blame for the bombing of oil facilities. The Trump administration on behalf of Exxon and BP is sending more weapons and troops. But this is no different than sending troops to support Hitler. The U.S.-Saudi alliance is bathed in the blood of the Yemeni people, of the Yemeni children who have been slaughtered and starved by Saudi use of U.S. Weapons.

The Yemeni people have a right to fight back just as all workers and oppressed people have the right to fight back to defend our rights and our futures. We need to stand together against those who are occupying and colonizing, from the rain forests of Brazil to the mines of Afghanistan, from the gates of the UAW strike against GM to the demand for homes in South Africa and New Orleans.

No More Blood for Oil!

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No More Tax Exemptions for Real Estate Developers

Renters have nothing to gain from another handout to developers. A tenants’ union is the way forward.

By Joseph Rosen

Most households in New Orleans are spending more than half of their income in rent. Across the city, the rate of evictions is on the rise. In response, politicians are selling us ‘solutions’ to the housing crisis that are devised by the very people at the root of the problem. Various schemes to ‘reinvest’ in neighborhoods or to provide ‘affordable housing’ all amount to the same thing: handouts to the rich who are intent on pushing out working class, mainly Black New Orleanians.

One scheme—so called “opportunity zones”—has proven to be an enormous windfall for rich investors and real estate developers. This tax loophole was put into effect as part of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich. Landlord-in-chief Trump who inherited his real estate fortune from his redlining KKK father designated more than 8,000 census tracts across the country as “opportunity zones,” including 25 in Orleans Parish. These cover the Treme, Gentilly, 7th Ward, Gert Town, Algiers, Central City, Magnolia and more—all areas targeted for gentrification.

By stashing money in so called “Opportunity Zone Funds” rich people can skip out on taxes that would otherwise be applied to the profits that they get from their various enterprises. Workers in New Orleans have to pay a 9.45% tax on the purchase of a hot meal while real estate investors can pay as little as a 0% tax on the purchase of an apartment building—all in order to supposedly “spur investment” in areas “of greatest need.” This giveaway has resulted in a massive land grab. Real estate holdings have been consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer landlords. The New Orleans Redevelopment Fund is an “opportunity zone” tax shelter worth $30,000,000.

Vote no to Constitutional Amendment 4
Big property developers have devised yet another scheme deceptively claiming it will help with affordable housing. An amendment to the Louisiana state constitution would give the city the authority to waive property taxes for investments in “affordable housing” units, exempting properties up to 15 residential units. This amendment does not even specify how the term “affordable housing” would be applied. The city is already rewarding developers of high-end condos with millions in tax exemptions for making as few as 1 out of every 20 units “affordable housing.” Worse, this giveaway increases gentrification by raising rents in the neighborhoods where these expensive new condos are built, forcing more workers out.

To live, workers need to be paid more. To make higher profits, bosses need to pay less. The bosses have the money, the workers have the numbers. The solution makes itself apparent. The same applies to renters. Renters need a real tenants’ movement that can organize for rent control, tenants’ rights and an end to mass evictions.

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Stand With Dignity Demands City “Stop the Shakedown!”

Sept. 25: Malcolm Suber and members of Stand with Dignity speak outside City Hall .

On September 25, Stand with Dignity and community organizers showed up to City Hall to demand that the City of New Orleans stop its shakedown of working-class, majority Black residents. They called for immediate relief from the fines and fees that have targeted poor, working residents while the rich get off with tax exemptions galore. Since 2002, more than 56,000 warrants have been issued for municipal and traffic offenses. These fines, fees, and warrants are traps for cash-poor residents. Community organizers demanded that the City stop sentencing its residents to debt slavery. Stand with Dignity puts it plainly: “Being poor or jobless is not a crime.” STOP THE SHAKEDOWN!

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Haitians Rise Up Against U.S.-Puppet Government


Haitians continue to fill the streets in the hundreds of thousands to demand an end to the criminal U.S.-backed government of President Jovenel Moïse. Moïse has tried to rob the Haitian masses on the command of U.S. capitalists and international banks. The Haitian people have risen up to show that they won’t take it any more. The days of the ruling regime are numbered.

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Venezuelans Say #NoMoreTrump


On September 7 thousands of Venezuelan workers, peasants, and students participated in the Great International Anti-imperialist March in Caracas. There it was announced that the International #NoMoreTrump Campaign had collected 13,287,742 signatures against the coercive measures, financial blockade and economic terrorism imposed by the U.S. government of Donald Trump. The working masses of Venezuelans ask for the solidarity of workers around the world to demand an end to the cruel U.S. embargo, an end to the gangster Trump regime, and an end to U.S. imperialist bullying.