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ETP’s Pipeline explodes in PA, No ETP Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana

Flames light up the sky early Sept. 10, 2018, after a gas line explosion in Center Township, Pennsylvania.

By Peyton Gill

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is responsible for a pipeline explosion in Pennsylvania that occurred early in the morning on September 10th, right outside Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission says it suspects the blast was caused by heavy rainfall, which they believe caused the pipeline to slip on the saturated ground, break, and then explode. The 24-inch diameter pipeline had gone into service just 7 days prior. Energy Transfer Partners is the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Bayou Bridge pipeline. Local authorities hadn’t been told ETP had begun using the pipeline to transport any gas or liquids because the pipeline had been behind schedule with construction problems. This explosion continues ETP’s horrible track record with explosions, sinkholes, spills, and leaks.

In the past 48 years, there have been 44 oil spills, each over 420,000 gallons, in U.S. waters. Over the past 30 years, at least 8,000 significant pipeline related incidents have occurred in the U.S. NOT counted in this total are 1,000’s of less significant pipeline-related incidents. We need to keep an eye on these pipeline projects because these big oil and gas companies are gradually connecting pipes across the states and spilling barrels of oil with no consequences

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Rise for St. James AKA Cancer Alley! Environmental Racism is Real, Y’all

By Peyton Gill

On September 8th, 120 people came out to support the residents of the Gordon Plaza neighborhood in their demand for a full, just relocation. A lot of powerful words that have been building up in the struggle were shared on the mic from residents and supporters. I talked to a mother who lived 3 houses over and she said, “No one ever really hangs outside their homes. I have to tell my daughter you can’t play in the grass.” Ms. Shannon spoke on the mic, “We want the same satisfaction that folks up in the Irish Channel and St. Charles are getting. We voted her (Mayor Cantrell) in just like they did.” Environmental Racism is a real thing y’all. Raise awareness! #GordonPlazaResidents.

Buses came around 11:30 am and we headed over to the rally in St. James Parish to support those residents who are stuck in between the Mississippi River and more than 4 dozen crude oil reservoirs with no path out in the case of an explosion and who live with fumes, chemicals, and smog that envelops their town. The bus ride was about an hour, provided with a delicious lunch prepared by Brother T! We arrived at a pavilion to rally with 100 or so of the local community members involved in the fight against the oil companies and the parish and state government officials who enable their abuses.

One resident told me they were really excited because this is the first time a group has come out to support and rally with ‘em. We marched up Burton Street, lined on one side with the homes of low-income Black families, predominantly elderly and many handicapped. On the left side of the street, across from their homes, huge oil storage tanks lined up on hundreds of acres, with plenty more coming in the future.

Travis, a resident down the way in Ascension Parish said, “At one time St. James was nothing but country area. You could have rolled around on the weekend in the sun with your windows down. And everybody liked to do that. But you can’t do that now, because St. James smells horrible, you know, you smell different chemicals everywhere. It’s like a big super EXXON.”

After the march, we went back to the pavilion for some more great food and speakers from 5th district HELP, Mount Triumph Baptist Church, The League of Better St. James, L’eau Est La Vie Camp, and individual residents spoke of the work that needs to be done and what has happened up until now. It was an overall great day with outstanding community involvement. But there is still work to be done because these people and families are still living on and in toxic environments. What can you do? Contact/email the mayor’s office to demand the residents of Gordon Plaza receive a fully funded relocation (504) 658-4900 & mayor@nola.gov. Contact 350 New Orleans and give support to 5th district HELP for St. James residents.

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Gordon Plaza Residents Rally

Travis London, a volunteer organizer with 350.org and a resident of St. James Parish, addresses rally at Gordon Plaza.

By Shera Phillips

On September 8, the residents of Gordon Plaza opened their arms at a rally organized by the People’s Assembly, and welcomed people to explore the nightmare that has been their reality for the past 22 years, the nightmare that has caused them physical, financial, emotional and spiritual pain. This nightmare, that outsiders were only able to catch a small glimpse of means life on land so toxic it has caused more death and disease than can be accounted for.

Upon arrival, a few things were alarming. This community is less than three blocks from a public school and college. To the average passerby, there is NO SEPARATION between toxic and “non-toxic” land. The neighborhood makes one feels transported back in time and the abandoned infrastructure reeks of devastation. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I noticed a stench in the air that made me think of the lives lost and the constant battle the residents of Gordon Plaza continue to fight to be recognized as human, deserving of a life free of the 150+ toxins that currently plague their existence.

It is not only imperative that the people of New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States and the world get involved in this fight, but it is especially important for people who live, play, work and study in this community where there is NO POSSIBLE WAY of containing its toxins. The 9th ward IS Gordon Plaza and the Residents NEED a FULLY FUNDED, IMMEDIATE RELOCATION. We are ALL affected. We MUST DEMAND our government’s accountability for their negligence! NOW AND ALWAYS! #WeAreGordonPlaza #BlackLivesMatter

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Gordon Plaza Healing Circle

By Antranette Scott

On September 9th, The Peoples’ Assembly, The Congo Square Preservation Society, and Wendi Moore-O’Neal of Jaliyah Consulting came together to have a Healing Circle for the Ancestors and living members of the Gordon Plaza Community in the historic Congo Square. The Healing Circle centered on honoring the residents of Gordon Plaza who have lost their lives during the struggle demanding fully funded relocation and lifting up the residents who continue in the struggle.

Rev. Denise Graves opened the Healing Circle with the pouring of Libations and grounding the space by acknowledging the past and calling forth the power of possibility of the future. We spoke the names of the residents who have died from a variety of illnesses, honoring their lives. Up next Angela Kinlaw conveyed the story of the residents of Gordon Plaza and shared that community healing and community struggle go hand in hand.

While we must focus on the personal work of healing trauma inflicted upon us, gaining and using tools that help us relate to each other in healthy ways, and combat the effects of white supremacy on ourselves; we must also not lose sight of the battle we wage collectively against the systems and symbols that uphold white supremacy, environmental racism, and economic injustice that. We must work on inner change and collective liberation at the same time. Both are necessary components for true transformative change of the world we live in.

Then Mama Aya Fiyah Mganga and Brotha Shack from True Love Movement lead a guided meditation for the visualization of life after the battle is won. Taking us to the moment when the Residents are living in their new homes after Relocation. Mama Fiyah implored us to engulf all of our senses in that reality, to manifest that future and hold it closely while the residents engage in the struggle for their lives. Brotha Shack also offered the residents access to mental, physical, and emotional health services through True Love Moment’s network of Black health professionals.

Mr. Jesse, a Gordon Plaza resident, gave a testimony on how he has been able to stay in this struggle for over 20 years, and why engaging in activist work is important for not only yourself, but your children and the community at large. Mr. Jesse also talked about taking dedicated time for yourself when you are tired and weary when it is necessary, but jumping back into the fight when you are able again. Wendi Moore O’Neal lead us all in song, calling us to fight for freedom with every breathe in our body. Closing out the Circle, Baba Luther of the Congo Square Preservation Society, called the drummers to play as folks were invited to learn an African dance of healing. Drumming and dancing continued until dusk.

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Gordon Plaza Residents Demand “Fully Funded Relocation Now!”

Support Gordon Plaza Residents in their Fight

By Sanashihla

On August 23 residents of Gordon Plaza and community supporters held a press conference in front of city hall to demand a meeting with Mayor Latoya Cantrell. At the press conference the residents put on display 15 jars full of toxic soil dug up from Gordon Plaza. On each jar was the name of a Gordon Plaza resident that has died from cancer. Residents have reached out to Cantrell through multiple channels, but have yet to receive a response.

The horrific environmental racism in New Orleans by publicly elected officials, and the legal system, leads to the increased demand for a fair and just relocation for the Residents of Gordon Plaza.

In 2018, the Residents of Gordon Plaza CURRENTLY live on some of the most toxic soil in all of the United States of America. They live on land that the federal government has designated as a Superfund site, with nearly 150 toxicities, many of which are cancer causing. It is egregious and shameful that at least 4 mayors and their administrations have allowed this issue to continue, as residents of New Orleans lose their lives, get diagnosed with illness, and suffer financially due to their homes no longer being worth even what they bought them for. The “Workers Voice” asked residents to share their stories. Here is part of the struggle of one of the residents:

“My name is Jessie Perkins. I became a homeowner in a Gordon Plaza sub division on top of landfill in March 1988. I lived 7 blocks away in the Desire housing project, and I thought I had an opportunity to move my mother out of the housing project and put her in a home that she can call her own, a safe clean environment. I found out shortly after moving in, a year or two, of exactly what I got myself into and I thought to myself this was supposed to be my American dream, but like all of us, in Gordon Plaza, our American dream turned into a nightmare.

“Also, as an employee of New Orleans sewerage water broad, I had the first hand opportunity to see during the excavations, the nasty stuff that was down under the surface. It was mind blowing! I was like what is this stuff? It was stuff that you can’t even identify with bottles, broken glass, car fenders. The ground was even smoldering in some cases, and I knew it wasn’t good.

“Eventually we learned that the land fill that I used to play on as a child, when I left home my mother didn’t know where I was going. I thought it was just a landfill okay? As a kid playing on it, I had no clue whatsoever that I was playing on top of the landfill that contain over about 149 contaminants that was cancer causing, carcinogens, okay, some pretty nasty stuff.

“Me being the type of person that I am, an avid runner, I try to eat well, I take care of myself. I became very concerned about what the stuff was, the impact that it could have on not only my health, but the health of my mother, my neighbors, my family that visited often. It became a really big concern of mine. It was at that point we knew that we were in trouble, but what could we do?

“We went forward with our lawsuit, thinking that we had people that was going to act in our best interest, and maybe in the beginning that’s what supposed to have happened, but things didn’t turn out very good. We won the law suit. However, the compensation we received was literally a slap in a face. It was something you could do nothing with, so I really feel what the city did was exploitation of people of my community. Essentially what they did was they hid behind the laws so they legally knew we won this lawsuit claiming diplomatic immunity, okay, so they legally knew we won. We won this lawsuit but morally, physically, and economically, they didn’t stand up and do the right thing so here we are stuck with this thing.”

This is a horrific case of environmental racism in New Orleans! So here is what YOU can do to support the Residents of Gordon Plaza in their demand for a fair and just relocation:

  • Join the FIGHT for a fair and just relocation for the residents of Gordon Plaza. Call Mayor LaToya Cantrell at (504) 658-4900 OR (504) 658-4945 to demand a fair and just relocation for the residents of Gordon Plaza E-mail Mayor LaToya Cantrell at mayor@nola.gov to demand a fair and just relocation for the residents of Gordon Plaza.
  • Follow The New Orleans Peoples Assembly Phase 2 on social media to stay up to date on actions pertaining to this issue.
  • Join the Residents of Gordon Plaza on Sunday, September 9th at 3:00pm for a Healing Circle in Congo Square to do at least three things: honor the lives lost due to toxicity at Gordon Plaza, support the residents in their demand for a fair and just relocation, and learn about the organizing efforts to fight for this issue to be resolved. Get actively involved!

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Katrina Anniversary: “If I Knew Then What I Know Now”

By Sally Jane Black

If I knew then what I know now…

Hurricane Katrina, the failure of the levees, the subsequent violence, negligence, and opportunism, all look different through class conscious eyes. What once looked like incompetence now looks like predation. What once looked like mistakes now look like intentional actions. What once looked like a lack of resources now is understood to have been an intentional allocation because of callous disregard for working class people. What once looked like racist bias now looks like white supremacist propaganda.

Seeing history repeat itself in Puerto Rico (most notably) only verifies the intentional nature of the “disaster capitalism” that comes after these storms. It’s a misleading phrase–this is just normal capitalism. It’s white supremacist. It’s patriarchal. the vast majority of the people affected by the storm were black, but the recovery money mostly came back to white neighborhoods. The media called black people looters and white people concerned parents. The police murdered and covered up the deaths of black residents. The disproportionate denial of resources to cis women, queer, and trans people led to disproportionate obstacles for us after the storm–many of them fatal. It’s capitalist. The working class bears the brunt of the exploitation and negligence.

Since the storm, everything has changed. The landlords and other parasites have raised housing prices alarmingly. The jobs are paying the same or barely more than they were 13 years ago. There are still people who yearn to come home but can’t; there are still 800 people without names, buried anonymously. Stories like the charity hospital being abandoned, despite being perfectly functional, in favor of an expensive new hospital that displaced hundreds of black residents are not uncommon. This has happened many times over.

13 years ago today, the vultures began circling. They have taken away everything they can from the working class people of New Orleans. They are attempting to make a playground for rich tourists, ignoring the fact that as they price the working class out, there will be no one to serve them. They have changed the landscape of the city, and while they would have been trying some version of this anyway, their callous disregard for the working class opened the door to this.

Meanwhile, the united states continues to fight wars around the world and spend trillions on weapons while levees, schools, and hospitals remain underfunded. The united states was at war in Afghanistan 13 years ago, too. The united states was occupying Iraq back then, too. In New Orleans, we’re still holding our breath every time a storm enters the Gulf.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have somehow been angrier, but I would have understood who was responsible, why no one was helping, why the pumps didn’t work and the levees failed, why the police committed murder instead of rescues, why charity was closed, why Gretna barred its doors, why the media seemed to demonize working class (especially black) New Orleanians, why it happened the way it happened. If I knew then what I know now, I would have known about who was fighting it, too. If I had known then what I know now, I would have still felt lost, trapped, grief-stricken, confused, but I would have known, too, that the source of our pain was not incompetence. I would have known who the enemy was, and I would have known I could fight. We can fight

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Offshore Oil and Gas Production Continues to Cause Devastating Damage in the Gulf South

In October, an underwater fractured pipe, owned by LLOG exploration company, released 672,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, 40 miles southeast of Venice Louisiana. This is the biggest spill in the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in 2010, spilling over 200 million gallons of oil, claiming eleven workers’ lives, and causing devastating effects to our ecosystem and coastal communities.

This most recent spill falls into a distinct category; it’s the first blowout in history to release oil in such deep waters, nearly a mile below the surface. Due to the depth of the spill, we won’t see the traditional shoreline effects that we’re used to. The true impact is occurring far under the sea, where it threatens fish, deep-sea corals, gelatinous zooplankton, and diverse communities of shrimp, crabs and other organisms.

The oil and gas industry has continuously been unwilling to address its environmental and community impacts in the Gulf South, not to mention its role in global climate change. The rate of marsh shoreline erosion increases with oiling and Louisiana’s wetlands are already disappearing at the alarming rate of a football field worth of land an hour. These wetlands are a crucial buffer zone protecting coastal communities from flooding and storms.

It’s time to move away from the dangerous, destructive oil industry to renewable energy sources that provide safe jobs for our communities.

L’eau Est La Vie camp is a floating pipeline resistance camp in Southern Louisiana. We fight in the bayous of Louisiana, Chata Houma Chittimacha Atakapaw territory, to stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, an Energy Transfer Partners project and the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Humma Ohoyo Holitopa

by Isabella Moraga-Ghazi

this land is not conquered or broken;
she is living, persisting, and thriving.
curse to the nay-sayers
for I talk to her everyday.
she dreams wildly.
so wildly, and so vividly that she sees her destruction and rebirth, emulating the resilience
of the phoenix, continuously stream in the consciousness she holds.
why do we stop her dreams?
dreams that are much more valid than me’s or you’s.
the ancestors sing through her.

in the moss, in the cypress.
in the pelicans, in the possums.
her song is quiet but strong.
if you listen closely, she says “yakoke” and “si vous plait”
to me and others like me.
but a vengeance she has.
a vengeance so strong it makes Katrina look weak.
a vengeance so strong it makes Andrew Jackson’s knees tremble.
a vengeance so strong it makes the BP oil spill look far from a disaster.
a vengeance so strong it makes Marie Laveau startled.
and that vengeance lives through me and others like me.
for the obligation we have bestowed on us is a tall order of demanding respect.
when it is quiet, tohbi ofi need be afraid.
for you shall know, that vengeance is no longer resting.
it is living, persisting, and thriving.
and it will not rest until she is doing the same.
“vee wan cee,” she says, “and do not betray me.”
she believes in us.
it is time we believe in us.
and it is time we believe in her.

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U.S. Withdraws from Paris Accord

By Joe Stern

To the scorn and anger of the world, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris accord, an already weak, non-binding “climate treaty” limiting greenhouse gas emissions. On the occasion of this action, Trump, citing the case of embattled coal miners, spoke as if the Paris accord threatened the livelihood of American workers. Trump claimed that compliance with the accord would result in “a massive redistribution of US wealth to other countries.”

However, despite his supposed defense for US workers, Trump’s policies will only intensify the war on the working class here and around the world. In the US, there are between 65 and 78,000 coal miners. On the other hand, more than 275,000 people are employed in the solar industry and 102,000 in wind. Trump would rather bemoan the plight of the coal miner than invest in alternative energy and spur real job growth. His actions only further reveal fossil fuel capital’s stranglehold on the US state.

Among the many giveaways to the fossil fuel capitalists, Trump proposes to drill for more oil in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Circle. He has approved continued construction of the Keystone Pipeline. He has instructed Interior Secretary Zinke to rescind, repeal or suspend rules that regulate oil and gas drilling in National Parks and Monuments. All the while, the White House budget proposes severe cuts in the funding of any protections meant to mitigate oil and gas companies’ impact on the environment, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ponchartrain, and estuaries throughout Southern wetlands.

There is, however, resistance to these destructive policies. A group representing at least 30 mayors, 3 governors, 80 universities, and 100 businesses will meet with the UN pledging to meet US greenhouse gas emissions targeted under the Paris Accord. Citing their governments’ violation of the Paris accord, groups worldwide have won legal victories in defense of their citizens’ rights to a hospitable environment.

Mass resistance must be initiated. Technology will not save us from catastrophic climate change nor will faith in divine intervention. The fossil fuel, military-industrial, and financial capitalists’ lust for profit will not cease. Only sustained, revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism worldwide can save us from the destructive effects of climate change. If we refuse this challenge we will join the 99.9% of the world’s species that have vanished from the earth. But if we find the courage and will to organize, resist and revolt, we have the world to win.

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Standing Rock

The Oceti Sakowin people of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota are battling a $3.8 billion oil pipeline development by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to protect their main water supply, the Missouri River, and to defend their sacred land. In the face of invasions, desecrations, and broken treaties, the occupation has united the largest coalition of Native tribes in decades. Over 200 different tribes, supported by thousands of protestors of all nationalities, have successfully stood their ground to protect aboriginal territory and halt construction.

The pipeline, which will slice through four states (North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois), transporting 570,000 barrels of crude oil a day, is not just a threat to the Oceti people’s way of life and their future generations, but is also a potential environmental catastrophe. In just the past 5 years, pipeline spills and ruptures have released about 7 million gallons of crude oil and killed a total of 80 people. One of the largest of those spills already happened in North Dakota in 2013, pouring 840,000 gallons of oil into a wheat field. Not only that, but as recently as September 5th, and as nearby as Barataria, Louisiana, 5,300 gallons of oil spilled into Barataria Bay from a damaged pipeline.

Standing Rock and other Native American reservations have, bit by bit, been shrinking since their formation in the 1860-1880s. In the 1950s, the same Army Corps of Engineers that now approves this latest invasion, built five dams on the Missouri which displaced multiple native villages.

The North Dakota government, on behalf of DAPL, has arrested over 40 people. A security group (G4S) hired by DAPL has unleashed dogs on peaceful, mostly Native American protesters. At least 6 people were bitten, including a child, and these thugs have also rained pepper spray down into the crowd. Despite these attacks, the thousands challenging this construction have, day after day, stood their ground and fought back.

The Obama administration, a strong supporter of the pipeline, has bowed to nationwide pressure and issued a temporary halt on its construction, so the struggle continues until construction is stopped permanently. The leaders of the Oceti people have been very clear that no matter what happens, the people are not backing down.