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From Nakba to New Orleans: Coming Home is Our Right

PROTEST CONDEMNS ISRAELI GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS

By C. T.

On May 15, Students and Workers Against Racism and Militarism (SWARM) held an action to commemorate Nakba. This action included speaking out against Zionist atrocities towards the Palestinian people, funded by U.S. tax dollar, and Trump’s decision to open the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, despite an international outcry. ‘Nakba’ in Arabic means ‘catastrophe’. It refers to the mass ethnic cleansing and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland on May 15, 1948. Similarly, Hurricane Katrina was both a “natural” catastrophe and an artificial one. Just like Palestine, New Orleans has been sold off piece by piece in the name of white supremacy and capitalism.

Palestinians have been demonized and pushed off their land for decades. Claiming it was for a safe haven for European Jews (remember the U.S. refused to allow Jewish refugees from Nazism into the U.S.) the real purpose was to set up a military outpost for Western war interests. Palestinians daily face home demolitions, Israeli terror and death. In only two days, 58 Palestinians were murdered and 2,700 injured by Zionist weapons that are bought and paid for by the US.

Similarly, post-Katrina, Black New Orleanians have been robbed of their land and right to return through the closure of public schools, public housing, and erasure of entire neighborhoods in the name of “progress” and “development”. Over 100,000 Black New Orleanians have yet to return home due to the “conservative recovery agenda”, started by George W. Bush, that makes money off of theft of land and denial of our human dignity. Palestinians and New Orleanians have a common enemy: rich white supremacists trying to profit off our misery. From Palestine to New Orleans our roots run deep and we will return!

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Community Solidarity Makes the Difference Rodneka Shelbia – Stood Up to Police Abuse

By Antranette Scott

I first met Rodneka Shelbia over a year ago at the Peoples’ Assembly Community Sing as she shared her song ‘Thankful’ with the group. As her voice rose, her hands clapped, and she expressed that every moment is something to be grateful for, I found myself nodding in agreement. Then she shared her story with us.

For coming to the aid of a young woman and infant who were being abused by an NOPD officer in the name of an unwarranted arrest, Rodneka was falsely accused of battery on a cop and resisting arrest. In her pleas with the cop to “be human”, Rodneka stood firm in her unwillingness to be desensitized to police brutality and injustice. Rodneka knew that she needed support and solidarity but was unsure of where to turn to for it. After the Sing, I introduced myself to Rodneka and invited her to the People’s Assembly weekly organizing meeting. I knew that the Peoples’ Assembly could offer on the ground support, magnify her story to our working-class community, and most importantly, provide comradeship and solidarity. When Rodneka joined the PA, the motion to stand with Rodneka’s fight for justice was overwhelming. With many other justice organizers, we created social media outreach for her upcoming court dates, formed community coalitions to get folks to fill the court room, and a variety of other tasks to get Rodneka’s story out to the working-class community.

We stood with Rodneka through a yearlong struggle of 12 court date postponements, subpoenas being served back and forth, change of legal representation, and a myriad of other obstacles. Rodneka was just as much a pillar of strength for the PA as we were for her. It was a symbiotic relationship that affirmed that only through collective strength is our liberation guaranteed. A few weeks ago, Rodneka closed that chapter of her life a free woman who has now welcomed her warrior daughter Iamme into this world, and I gained a beloved comrade and sister heart friend.

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Trump Kills Iran Nuclear Deal

U.S., Israel Stockpiling Nuclear Warheads

Hands Off Iran!

By Quest Riggs

In early May, the head of the US, our would-be emperor Trump, arrogantly declared he was “pulling out“ of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. The entire world agreed that Iran had completely adhered to the deal, but Trump ignore everyone. This was a move to crush the people of Iran and take over their country for U.S corporate interests.

Trump’s decision also, in violation of all international law, moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. These two actions were also similar because they were both aggressive “stand-alone” actions on the part of the US and Israel, and they were not even supported by their imperialist allies like France and Saudi Arabia.

Both decisions have been met with world outrage by those who see them for what they are – naked imperialist aggression at the expense of the Palestinians, Iranians and all people of the Middle East.

What was the Iran Nuclear Deal?
Iran has always denied having the ability or desire to start developing a nuclear weapons program. Nevertheless, the U.S. used Iran’s small nuclear energy program to start an aggressive sanctions and military campaign against it.

The agreement was that if Iran phased-out its nuclear energy program and allowed regular inspections by international organizations, then the imperialist countries would drop their harsh decades-long sanctions on Iran. Iran accepted the deal despite its obvious unfairness because sanctions have devastated their economy and society since their republic was started. International organizations have inspected Iran dozens of times and certified there is no nuclear weapons program.

What does it all mean?
The US breaking the nuclear deal should be seen as another event in a string of aggressive moves in the Middle East by imperialists that represent their desire for world domination. The U.S. ignores any respect for Iran’s sovereignty and independence and has been planning for decades to destroy the country.

It was the U.S which openly admitted it engineered a coup in Iran which overthrew a democratically elected government in 1953, bringing decades of brutal tyranny and oppression under the Shah (king). Now it wants to destroy the Iranian Islamic Republic and seize their resources.

Who is the real nuclear threat?
The US has 7,000 nuclear warheads and Israel has 80. This makes them the first and third largest nuclear powers. The US government has proven itself barbaric enough to use atomic weapons on people. In 1945, they dropped, not one, but two atomic bombs on Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They did this even though they knew the allies had already defeated imperial Japan, which was preparing to surrender. The monsters simply did it to send a message to the people of the world: don’t resist us or we can and will annihilate you. The people of Japan still wear the physical and emotional scars today.

There is no moral or security reason that the US and Israel should be dictating who can and can’t have nuclear weapons. Instead we, the people in the US, should join with the people of the world to demand that both countries suspend their nuclear programs. Our lives and the lives of people everywhere depend on it.

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Take ‘Em Down NOLA Takes on Mayor Cantrell’s Backwards Ways

By A Scribe Called Quess

After Take ‘Em Down NOLA’s groundbreaking summit last March, welcoming Take Em Down organizers from around the country and ending in the disruption of Mayor Landrieu’s book signing, the coalition celebrates the one-year anniversary of forcing the city to remove four monuments to white supremacy by continuing to charge unapologetically forward. This time, TEDN’s sights are set on mayor Latoya Cantrell. TEDN recently issued a letter and held a press conference calling Cantrell out for her latest flubs regarding white supremacist monuments.

It’s not the new mayor’s first time being on the wrong side of this issue. During the infamous monument hearings of 2015, the former City Councilwoman earned the nickname Latoya “Cant Tell” for refusing to pick a side as pro or anti-monument removal. She recently revisited her compromised stance by allowing leaders of the pro-monument movement to set up a committee to determine what to do with the four monuments removed last year. That committee included renowned racist Tulane professor Richard Marksbury, bigoted Monumental Task Committee president Pierre McGraw, and multi-millionaire Frank Stewart, who publicly faced off with Mitch Landrieu over the former mayor’s attempt to remove monuments.

TEDN’s letter informed mayor Cantrell that “we are very disappointed and angry that [she] would set up a secret working group to discuss the fate of these monuments, not meet in public.” On May 16, TEDN cofounder Malcolm Suber stated that “we are calling on Mayor Cantrell to get rid of that committee and to have a public forum where she discusses with the public what are her plans not only towards the removed statues, but what is her attitude toward our ordinance that mandates that the rest of these white supremacy monuments be removed from our city.”

Cantrell’s enlistment of these men to make decisions about the future of this city is reminiscent of the Yankee government that squashed the progress of Reconstruction after the Civil War by compromising with racist white militias that carried on the legacy of the Confederacy. By removing federal troops from the South in 1877, the US government allowed groups like the KKK to rise as monuments to white supremacy went up all over the South. Likewise, Cantrell has chosen to compromise with the present day losing defenders of white supremacy. And their ideas promise harm for the city’s future like their ancestors’ did for the city’s past. They proposed to put Robert E. Lee up in Greenwood Cemetery and make that place a landmark for Confederacy defenders nationwide. This would only turn New Orleans into a hub for the lowlife types that swarmed Charlottesville in August of last year, leaving Heather Heyer dead under the wheels of a racist’s car.

TEDN’s next step this summer to push the ordinance to remove all signs, symbols and statues to white supremacy will be a large public forum. Community members will be informed and speak their piece on next steps around dealing with the already removed monuments as well as the remaining symbols. Mayor Cantrell and other community politicians will be invited to this forum and thereby be forced to pick a side in the fight for racial and economic justice as opposed to hiding in back rooms making deals with the oppressive ruling class.

Take ‘Em Down NOLA invites everyone to come out and be heard and take a stance against the symbols that represent the system that continues to oppress working class Black, brown and white poor people in the city. If Cant Tell—ahem, Cantrell’s actions show nothing else, they show that she, like so many New Orleans mayors before her, will bow down to the money system of the ruling class rich white elite unless we the people force her to do otherwise. Take ‘Em Down NOLA encourages you to come out, be heard, and take part in shaping the future of this city to be free from the chains of its past.

Take Em Down NOLA’s next moves: Take Em Down NOLA Zine is looking for experienced educators, writers and copy editors interested in contributing to our first Zine. Email us at info@ takeemdownnola.org for more info.

In June, TEDN will hold a public forum to speak on the remaining monuments and our ordinance to remove ALL remaining symbols to white supremacy.

TEDN continues to support its comrades in other cities and states making major moves against white supremacy. To that end, shout out Take Em Down JAX, who completed 40- mile march against white supremacy in May. This is the largest march against white supremacy by a Take Em Down coalition and we are hugely inspired by their efforts!

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Peoples’ Assembly Women’s Dinner In Solidarity with Immigrants

By Shera Phillips

May 2nd was my second People’s Assembly Women’s Dinner. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I knew there would be women of different religious and cultural backgrounds speaking about their unique experience in the “Land of the Free and Brave”.

The evening was entitled Solidarity with Immigrant Women. The guests were from Central America, Haiti as well as a Muslim woman. Our sister from Central America allowedus, the audience members, to see a glimpse of what life was like for her as an undocumented woman. She explained that the act of merely paying a traffic ticket could mean the end of life as she knows it. I immediately could draw from my own experience as a brown woman in the U.S., but listening to her amplified my experience and overwhelmed me with emotion. I had never before heavily considered what being pulled over might mean for an immigrant. When I go to court, praying that my ticket will be thrown out, Maria is praying that she can pay hers and go home. I had never even thought about the variation of discrimination that immigrants have to endure here, being mistreated by employers and landlords, fearing to speak out about injustices because it could mean deportation, imprisonment or worse. This one conversation caused a change in perspective in which I was able to awaken to an entirely different existence, one that would cause fear to pulsate through the veins of any suspecting body.

Most people build a reality and only include in it things and people that correspond with it. Many of us rarely socialize with people who aren’t a part of our social and cultural existence. We live in a bubble, and our circle becomes a focus group that confirms and reaffirms variations of our own experience. We travel through life in this vortex, in which we are the center of the universe and anything that doesn’t conform to this matrix is unpleasant and therefore we defend our position or avoid anything outside of it. Just take a look at yourself and your friends. Are any of them from different countries or states, different social, religious, economic or racial backgrounds? If your answer is yes, congratulations. You are unlike a majority of the population. The People’s Assembly provides a safe space for people of different walks, to come, learn and work together towards liberation.

The Women’s Dinner is the first Wednesday of every month. Transportation, childcare and dinner are provided all by the men of People’s Assembly. Women are appreciated, celebrated, encouraged to relax and converse about the issues we experience, find resources, and learn how we can collectively combat our oppression.

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Jefferson Parish Residents Demand Justice for Black Youth Choked to Death

By Malcolm Suber

Hundreds of Jefferson Parish residents have poured into the streets demanding justice for 22-year old Keeven Robinson, who was choked to death by 4 Jefferson Parish Sheriff Office (JPSO) narcotics agents on May 10. Keeven Robinson died after he fled from detectives at a Shell gas station in the Shrewsbury neighborhood of unincorporated Jefferson Parish. At some point the four detectives caught up with him, choked him, put him in handcuffs, and he wound up dead. None of the detectives were wearing body cameras, so one can only  surmise what happened when the detectives caught up with him.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto immediately began an attempt to create a cover for his detectives by claiming that Keeven Robinson had asthma and that his death was probably due to his breathing problems and not any thing such as choking that his detectives had done in apprehending Robinson. The family and the Black community were in no mood to accept this rationale given the brutal history of JPSO deputies and the almost daily killing of Black victims by the police forces of the USA. Family and friends immediately organized a rally and vigil on Robinson’s block and demanded an independent investigation. This action forced the Jefferson Parish coroner to issue his findings on the cause of death. He ruled that Keeven Robinson’s death was a homicide caused as result of asphyxiation. In other words, he was choked to death, just as Eric Garner was. Reformist organizations such as the NAACP have been active in their role of containing the spontaneous resistance. They are advising the masses to be patient and let the so-called wheels of justice prevail. But the masses recognize that only militant struggle will get any measure of justice for Keeven Robinson. They have witnessed time and again cops being indicted, tried for murder, but still get off.

We in the New Orleans Workers Group urge on resistance to police murders while we also try to spread the understanding that these police murders of Black victims is part of capitalist rule. The police serve the rich exclusively and  attempt to keep the rest of us in our place. The entire justice system, including the  police, is organized to protect the state apparatus that serves the ruling class  alone. This scourge will only be ended when the workers organize a fight against the capitalist oppressors, become the rulers and control a state apparatus that will serve exclusively the interest of working people.

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Republicans and Clinton Got Millions From Gas and Oil Companies

Clinton received between $2.5 million and $3 million from major fossil fuel companies back when she was running for president in 2008 and during her time as head of the State Department, according to research conducted by International Business Times. IBT reported that Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil all contributed funds to Clinton’s campaign and super PAC during her 2008 presidential bid, just a year before she approved the 400-mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, for which those three companies had long been lobbying. All in all, Chevron has donated between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. ExxonMobil gave $2 million into the Clinton Foundation and nearly $17 million into another nonprofit group co-founded by Clinton since 2009. ConocoPhillips, which lobbied the State Department during every quarter of 2009, supported Clinton with donations of $10,000 and $25,000.

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Entergy Paid Actors to Support New Gas Plant

WHO ELSE DID THEY PAY?

COUNCIL SHOULD VOTE TO REPEAL THEIR CONSENT

The people of New Orleans East have worked hard to stop the building of a new gas plant in the East.Most folks feel the same way. We want nonpolluting, renewable energy.

Entergy will be raising our bills to pay for the plant. But the City Council including Mayor Cantrell voted for the plant anyway; only outgoing Councilwoman Susan Guidry voted no. The Lens has exposed that the orange shirts that you saw all over TV were paid actors hired to be a crowd in favor of the plant at the City Council hearing. In a practice called astroturfing, corporations hire companies that provide this service. Even as members of the East community — Black, white and Vietnamese — spoke and poured their hearts out, the vote still went to Entergy. Entergy doesn’t think we the people should have an opinion or offer it on the radio. After WBOK, the city’s Black radio station, had a discussion with plant opponents, Entergy cancelled a check they had written to the station. But Thomas Oliver of WBOK made it clear that the station is not for sale.

We think it goes deeper than that. We want to know all of contributions Entergy has made to any politicians, directly or through family and friends or super-Pac pals. Now that this horrific scam and suppression of working people’s voices has been exposed, the City Council should immediately repeal their vote. For more information go to No Gas Plant on Facebook.

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Hospitality Workers Committee Fights for Medical Coverage – Wins!

By Margaret Maloney

On May 15th, The New Orleans Hospitality Workers Committee shook up the Tourism & Marketing Board Corporation meeting. The Tourism & Marketing Board Corporation is an unelected board that gets over 140 million dollars of the tax payers money to play with. This money completely bypasses the general budget without the people’s consent. Several members of The New Orleans Hospitality Workers Committee gave statements demanding that
the Tourism Corporation return the people’s money by building a FREE FULL-SERVICE medical clinic for hospitality workers & paying ALL Laura’s medical bills. Laura, a career Hospitality worker, is critically ill  because of a lack of insurance. The committee demanded that the Tourism  Corporation give them an answer to their demands in ten days.

The NOHWC then opened a banner and chanted “Tax money for Worker’s needs, Not Tax Money For Corporate Greed!”. And “We are the Ones Who Make Your Profit, We are Dying When You Can Stop It”.

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Who Controls the Louisiana Government?

FAT CAT LA LEGISLATORS THREATEN TO EVICT 37,000 SENIORS, DISABLED FROM NURSING HOMES WHILE BIG CORPORATIONS WITHHELD  $15 BILLION IN TAXES SINCE 2011!

Pay Them $7.25 an hour, Cancel Sales Tax

Take Away Legislators’ Health Care, Pensions

4,760 Corporate Lobbyists,  Right Wing Groups in Louisiana Bankrolling Candidates & Writing Legislation.

A People’s Budget Commission Should Investigate Campaign “donations” (bribes) from these corporations

All we hear is that there is a whopping budget deficit and the only thing that can be done is to take away medical care, education, housing. In truth, it is only the working class and poor people paying all the taxes. According to a state study, the budget is being defrauded of $2 billion a year due to corporate exemptions, loopholes, and rebates. See this on who’s not paying taxes and which right wing billionaires are funding state legislators.

The majority of state legislators belong to:

ALEC: American Legislative Council.

This is made up of the biggest oil  companies, banks, military industries, and pharmaceutical companies. They give ALEC millions. They host lavish meetings with state legislators to tell them what laws to propose and how to vote. They write the legislation and word for word their puppets introduce it. Louisiana legislators are hosting the national ALEC Conference in New Orleans in August.

If you have $30,000, you can have dinner with them. Koch brothers: ultra-right wingers, major players in ALEC and other right-wing organizations. Made billions from oil and gas.

State Policy Network – similar to ALEC

What is their legislative agenda: To oppose equality for women, raising the minimum wage, environmental laws, and workers’ rights. They are anti-immigrant, homophobic, defend police killings and are rabidly pro-war. They are against Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Food Stamps and Housing Assistance. They are for mass incarceration in for profit jails. They believe only the very rich count.

GOVERNOR’S OFFICE REVEALS 7,000 CORPORATE TAX EXEMPTIONS COSTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS YEARLY

A few companies that get tax breaks are:

Exxon Mobil: $263 million
Valero Oil: $315 million
Cleco Oil: $180 million
Fracking companies: $1.2 billion
Walmart: $700,000 to build stores in prosperous neighborhoods fraudulently obtained money slated for poor neighborhoods
Cheniere Energy: $117 million

Property Tax Refund to Corporations: $427 million

The state paid out, in one year, $210 million more in tax credits and rebates than it has collected from corporate taxes. Former Secretary of Revenue,
Barfield, admitted that of 87 largest companies, only l/4 paid any taxes
while 96% were profitable.

Sources: The Advocate, Office of the Governor, Good Jobs First This does not include the millions in tax abatements given locally in New Orleans, especially to hotels, casinos, private medical facilities and more

UNITY IS NEEDED TO FIGHT BACK TOGETHER FOR ALL THE NEEDS OF LOUISIANA’S HARD-WORKING PEOPLE.

The legislature is supposed to protect the well being of the people of Louisiana. However, they are only looking out for their own bank accounts and the corporations who fund their campaigns. In exchange for campaign money (while “legal”, Workers Voice calls it bribes) they make sure the super wealthy and big corporations are piling up profit at the expense of the people. These greedy politicians are creating misery, suffering and death, while enjoying their mansions. There is not a shred of democracy in this. Just like the U.S. Congress, another millionaires club, they have declared war on the working-class people of this state by cutting the wealthy’s taxes and taking away money from food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, housing assistance and more.