You bailed out the banks, now bail out the workers 100%!
By Alex Quintero
The natural disaster that struck Baton Rouge was a flashback of the cataclysmic events of Hurricane Katrina, and in much of the same way the government has reacted with little to no disaster relief at all.
The U.S. Spent close to $16 trillion of public money to bail out the banks in the 2008 market crash. One trillion dollars a year goes to our military budget profiting those in the business of making war. But when it comes to bailing out the people of Louisiana, especially in the Black community, FEMA gives very little. This was the case in New Orleans and now our sisters and brothers of the working class in many parishes in Louisiana are devastated.
110,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Almost all applied for FEMA. But FEMA only gives a $33,000 max grant (and usually much less) if the victim can provide paperwork that may have been lost in the floods, Only 12% had flood insurance because these areas were not known to flood before. Also, many people have already been denied, especially in the African American neighborhoods in Baton Rouge.
There has also been a loss of job income, businesses destroyed, and cars demolished. Immediate unemployment assistance is needed.
Disaster capitalists like contractors are “hiring” undocumented workers so they can under-pay or con them out of pay altogether. Meanwhile, thousands of workers are now out of jobs. There even was a fatal bus crash of an unlicensed immigrant driver as its consequence. While the driver was jailed, we say jail the contractor.
This is why workers need to be for legalizing immigrants so these workers, who are only trying to feed their families, cannot be taken advantage of and there is no incentive not to hire all workers where there is high unemployment like in the Black community. Louisiana legislators should call an emergency session to cut corporate tax breaks and help the flood victims.
