Posted on

Prisons Send Families into Debt

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Prisons cost the federal government billions of dollars to keep approximately 2.3 million people behind bars each year. The City of New Orleans currently dedicates 63% of its $721 million dollar budget to jails, police, and other reactive measures. The “City of Yes” says no to returning stolen tax dollars to working families by continuously dedicating only 1% of the budget to job development and 3% to children and families. Families around the country spend thousands of dollars each year just to keep in contact with dear ones who have been placed in prisons. They send money to incarcerated loved ones and incur debt to pay for emails, phone calls, food, and personal hygiene items.

Research done by a collaborative, participatory research project with 20 community-based organizations across the country like the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design shows some hard hitting facts about how America’s punitive jail system is deeply impacting families as much as the incarcerated.

One report states, “The high cost of maintaining contact with incarcerated family members led more than one in three families (34%) into debt to pay for phone calls and visits alone. Family members who were not able to talk or visit with their loved ones regularly were much more likely to report experiencing negative health impacts related to a family member’s incarceration.” If we want to support building whole communities, we must examine what punitive systems like this really achieve. Who do they benefit? The rich ruling class is waging war on working people and the poor. We must call for an end to the prison industrial complex and support building communities where families can be healed. We must fight for the right to self-determination for all people.

Posted on

Free Prisoners in Louisiana!

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Recently re-elected Governor John Bel Edwards spent a year boasting that Louisiana had lost its title as the highest incarcerated state in the U.S. Information released by the Vera Institute of Justice in April called that statement into question, concluding that Louisiana still had the top incarceration rate in the country at the end of 2018, five months after the governor announced that the state had lost that title to Oklahoma.

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The vast majority of the millions in prison should be released tomorrow with access to homes, jobs, and support to get on their feet. They need to be reunited with their families and communities.

In November, Oklahoma ordered the largest mass commutation in United States history. This release was made possible by an overwhelming popular vote in a state-wide referendum which reduced many charges to misdemeanors instead of felonies. Despite the vote, it took three years for the state politicians to respect the results and pass a bill for commutation, keeping some prisoners years longer. At least 462 non-violent inmates were released. A total of 527 inmates had their sentences commuted, but 65 of them have detainers and will be released later.

“Had these inmates served their full uncommuted sentence, it could have cost the State of Oklahoma approximately $11.9 million for continued incarceration based upon the average costs,” the Pardon and Parole Board said. Oklahoma also provided inmates with opportunities to acquire a state ID before being released. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections held its first “transition fairs” for inmates at 28 facilities across the state, the Pardon and Parole Board said. This type of programming is a first step towards rehabilitation as opposed to a completely punitive system.

Rally at New Orleans Criminal District Court.

Louisiana must start decarcerating human beings who are being jailed for minor drug offenses that the rich are now profiting from. We can take the lead and say: No more cash bail! No more private detention centers! Free mothers to go home to their children! Free all prisoners of a punitive, racially and economically unjust criminal system!

Posted on

Women Lead The Struggle

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Since the start of capitalism, women have led the struggle against it. Women have set the foundation to transcend dismal conditions, doing the invisible work of educating workers to organize unions and birthing the next generation of fighters. In New Orleans so many boast of our first elected female Black mayor. She ran on a platform to support fully funded relocation for Gordon Plaza residents, hold the Sewerage and Water Board accountable, and improve the infrastructure. But are we better off as women in this city? Cantrell only allocated $120,000 to healthcare initiatives for hospitality workers in 2019, while tax revenue from the hospitality industry is about $200 million. Only $1.5 million out of $709 million city budget goes to early childhood education.

In New Orleans, the hospitality industry generates $8.7 billion per year, according to a report commissioned by the city in 2018. Hospitality workers are the lowest paid workers in the city, and 57% are women. Hospitality workers in New Orleans make an average of $22,069 annually, including tips, while qualifying income for Medicaid is cut off at $16,764. Infant care in Louisiana costs almost as much as in-state tuition for 4-year public college.
Louisiana has the 7th highest rate of imprisoned women in the world and 80 percent of women in Louisiana jails are mothers. Most are the primary caretakers of their children. We see the federal and state budget mirror this misogyny. They prioritize jails and reactionary tactics and declare war on Black people and women. With women being paid less and disproportionately jailed with no money for healthcare and education, we must stop to analyze this issue.

We must remember that the rich ruling class will never allow the powerful work force to vote away their wealth. We must recognize the contradictions that exist around us and educate ourselves to organize and fight back. Move away from reform and concessions and establish self-determination. Break the illusions of “that’s just how it is” we so easily consume from media and society. The Center for American Progress reports, “Women, on average nationally, fare the best in Maryland and the worst in Louisiana. Over 22 percent of women in Louisiana are in poverty, compared to 11 percent of women in Maryland.” Louisiana has the worst in pay inequity between men and women in America. In Louisiana 35% of employed women work in low or minimum-wage jobs and poverty rates for single-mother families with children is 15% higher in New Orleans (56%) than in the United States (41%).

New Orleans Peoples Assembly meets every first Wednesday to break bread with working women in the city. Join us to celebrate our contributions to this city through the work that drives us. Join us to intentionally discuss the ways our solidarity will empower us to reclaim our stolen tax dollars and declare as one, “NO MORE.” We have the power to organize ourselves.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

Spend Money on Youth, Not New NOPD Headquarters

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

The NOPD is pushing the city council for a new headquarters that would cost taxpayers $37 million. With the budget already choked, Mayor Cantrell names her top four priorities as: “Public Safety as a Matter of Public Health, Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Quality of Life Initiatives”. Claiming public health and safety as a top priority is pure hypocrisy, given the fact that Cantrell still has not drawn up an actionable plan to provide the residents of Gordon Plaza with a fully funded relocation. The police building located at 715 S Broad Avenue is old, but at least it’s not lethal.

In the Upper Ninth Ward, residents of Gordon Plaza live amidst toxic carcinogens as they fight for a fully funded relocation that is long overdue. For nearly three decades, residents have continued to file lawsuits and demand that elected officials be held accountable for selling them property on a toxic waste landfill. And to think that the NOPD, which regularly terrorizes black and brown people in the streets, is demanding that the city fund new headquarters! “We know we need a new building, and we need it fast,” said NOPD Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly in a budget meeting with city planning officials. “It’s basically time to consider looking at a new headquarters instead of spending the resources to repair a dilapidated building.”

The new building would have to be built on an alternate site so that the current headquarters can continue to operate during construction. Construction will likely cost an average of $350 per square foot. The money for the new headquarters is stolen money. This money belongs to the workers, who generate the revenue for the city budget. Currently, 63% of the budget goes towards cops, jails and reactive programs, while only 3% is invested in children and families and 1% in job development. We cannot stand by and watch those in power continue to repress workers and people of color. No more fully funded luxury office buildings while hospitality workers fight for a living wage!

No more high-tech police facilities while working parents drown in debt over childcare and transportation! The city of New Orleans belongs to us, the workers. We need affordable healthcare, childcare, and reliable public transport. Not a new police building!

Posted on

Free Mama Glo!

Gloria Jean Williams, mother of five, has spent 48 years behind bars. Her pardon hearing takes place on July 22, 2019.

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Gloria Jean Williams, affectionately known as “Mama Glo,” is Louisiana’s longest serving incarcerated woman prisoner. On May 12, 2019, a clemency campaign was launched to get her released. Postcards have been sent to Gov. Edwards requesting that he use his ability to free this woman from Louisiana’s prison industrial complex.

After 48 years behind bars, Gloria has a pardon hearing, which will take place on July 22, 2019, at 8 am. The request is to give her credit for the time she has served and allow her to return to her family.

“Mama Glo is a confident spirit who uses her wisdom of dealing with a life sentence to encourage other women to not give up,” says Fox Rich, a formerly incarcerated woman who is leading Mama Glo’s clemency campaign. “I know the power of clemency to restore a family. When our system fails us, [actions like] clemency give the system an opportunity to correct its own wrongs.” Fox and her husband Rob, along with Fox Rich Ministries, have been doing the much needed footwork around getting the community both informed and involved in this matter.

Mama Glo left five children orphaned when she was taken into police custody. For almost five decades her children have had to live life without their mother who has nurtured and mentored countless women while incarcerated. There is a record of someone else confessing to the crime for which Mama Glo was jailed. Still, she is in chains. Free Mama Glo and all prisoners who have fallen victim to capitalism’s choking grip via the prison industrial complex.

Posted on

What happens to parents when schools decide to close with a few hours’ notice?

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

How do single parents finagle their schedules for work, other siblings, and transportation with eight hours’ notice of need for childcare? We are all familiar with these situations. Bad weather reports ensue, and you get a call from the school: canceled. Even if you do not have children, this concerns you.

Imagine the stress a single mother who already has what has been normalized as the regular daily burdens of life on her shoulders. Working a second shift at home, attempting to nurture children, and heaven forbid she prioritize her own needs for a moment. I also keep in mind the fathers who are nurturing children alone. Not every individual has a community of loved ones or elders to look to for support. The stress any parent feels to place their child in a space that they will be safe, respected, and looked after properly is exponential in an unplanned situation. What is the solution? If working people got the $180 million dollars a year in tax dollars currently stolen by unelected tourism commissions, there could be a plethora of options. There could be fully funded, 24-hour, clean, safe, healthy childcare for working parents. These spaces could also provide early childcare, special needs services, and artistic enrichment to nurture whole children. There could be spaces for young people to feel whole and develop a voice.

We must prioritize our children. Another suggestion is creating a budget that allows every worker paid sick leave, maternity leave, and vacation time. In this scenario the stress can be significantly alleviated with a simple phone call to the boss. These options are not utopian; the money is there for working-class people to take back. We must organize ourselves and demand that the money be returned immediately and that it’s that way for every yearly budget. If you are interested in organizing, check out nohwa.org or peoplesassemblyneworleans.org

Posted on

City Spends Millions on Mardi Gras, But Tourism Taxes Don’t Go to the City

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

In a March 8, 2019 press release, two days after Fat Tuesday, Mayor Cantell expressed deep gratitude to all the departments whose efforts contributed to a successful Carnival 2019. The city spent millions to mobilize the “New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans Fire Department, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, Department of Health, Department of Public Works, Department of Sanitation, Department of Property Management, Parking Enforcement, Parks and Parkways, Orleans Parish Communication District, and the New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.”

Aside from whatever enjoyment the people get out off Mardi Gras, its purpose is to bring in millions in profit for the tourist industry, which pays for none of these services. The press release magnifies the fact that the city is subsidizing multiple private industries without concern for the needs of the working class residents of New Orleans. I recognize that the mobilization of these resources is needed to ensure safety for the influx of tourists and New Orleans residents. But the contradiction is that many of these resources are denied to the residents who live and work here every day. In the case of hospitality workers and service industry employees, our work generates the bulk of the revenue that they, in private board rooms, allocate as they see fit—usually away from black, brown, low income spaces.

$180 million in hotel taxes go to private non-elected commissions to boost the profits of private companies.  It does not go into the budget.   Meanwhile we have no money for infrastructure and early childhood education. This $180 million dollars worth of stolen taxes could be allocated for childcare for service industry workers during Mardi Gras while schools are closed.  This money could be used to provide healthcare, maternity leave, and pensions to service industry and hospitality workers.  This is not money that we need to letter write and ask for politely. This money belongs to the working class and has been stolen. We Demand that it be returned and used to elevate the humanity of workers locally. Doing so can only further illuminate and strengthen the city.  The time is now to educate ourselves on the things we want to see changed. Agitate others to view the contradictions that exist. Then organize for revolution. The time for change is now and can begin with you, now.

Posted on

Free Pregnant Incarcerated Women

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

As I started to research this piece, my intention was to shine a light on the grossly egregious health care female inmates in Louisiana receive, specifically in Orleans or Jefferson Parish. From an initial Google search of ‘women giving birth in jail cells,’ I literally got back 6,750,000 results. Women in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Denver, Texas, Australia, and all over this Earth are mistreated and ignored in prison systems. Human, procedural, and systemic failings have combined to create serious and avoidable risks to both mothers and babies.

In many of these cases, women pleaded and stated the pains and issues they were having to several deputies and nursing staff. In a world where movements like Black Lives Matter are countered by legislation like Blue Lives Matter, it is clear the police don’t care about Black lives or women’s lives.

There are situations like the case of Jefferson Parish resident Tiffini Woodward. She cried out during childbirth and was ignored. At 22 years old she gave birth to her son in a metal toilet, alone. She is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit naming both Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and its private health contractor Correct Health Jefferson.

Any woman who has given birth knows what a spiritual time it is. How emotionally draining it is for weeks and sometimes months after. To imagine being in that situation alone and purposefully isolated and denied help is horrifying to me.

There are currently no state or federal laws limiting the restrictive housing of pregnant prisoners, according to a review by the National Women’s Law Center. Twenty-two states either explicitly allow the use of leg irons or waist chains on pregnant inmates or have no policy on them at all. Forty-three states do not require medical examinations as part of prenatal care, and 48 states do not offer pregnant prisoners screening for HIV.

We call for the release of these women and for them to be provided with all the financial and housing support that they and their children need.

Posted on

How Do You Know You Are Revolutionary?

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

I have read articles, books, essays, viewed documentaries and engaged in conversation with like-minded comrades after clocking out from a job that does not engage your spirit, yet fuels your fight after remembering the words and work past organizers have left. The groundwork set, contemporary nonconformist thinkers have the task of answering the question. Am I revolutionary? Can I call myself a revolutionary? How would one know? Who sets the bar? What tangible fruit must be borne unto us to be deemed as such? Revolutionary.

Fred Hampton says, “That the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx and Lenin and Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung, and anybody else who ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that a revolution is a class struggle.” Fighting against classism requires trusting relationships with a foundation in integrity among the working class. Revolutions are given torque by focusing on labor and the impact stopping, or removing, said labor for any period of time can cause. Do you have worker allies?

I am aware of what capitalism truly means in this country and understand the implications of the American economic system and the impact it has globally on millions of people’s quality of life. Then I get frustrated enough to talk to someone else about it and realize they are frustrated too.  Angela Davis states, “We must understand that we must completely revolutionize the entire fabric of society… Overturn the current economic structure… Destroy the political apparatus.” The paradigm shift can be put into play when visualizations of what a different working system can look and feel like become a working plan. Plans become actions, and the organized actions of many working-class individuals conceive revolution. A very small percentage of the population should not be dictating to the majority working class what the wages are and how much paid time off they get. Do you understand capitalism?

Style of language and display of action must change. Not telling you what to do. Not condescending others who are in different stages of their journey. But Audre Lorde speaks to us saying, “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors’ tactics, the oppressors’ relationships.” There is a focus to call the mind’s eye to be still. To recognize in oneself, first, the remnants of patriarchy, capitalism, and fascism that stick behind and attempt to fester.  Psychological, emotional, spiritual development is happening constantly. Introspection, constructive analysis of behaviors can allow us to form trusting relationships with ourselves. To know that personal intentions are pure and grounded. Have you had a talk with self today?

After all the work must go on. The revolution will not be stopped. Cannot stop. Are you willing to fight? Fighting not your thing? Know there is a space for every revolutionary in the revolution. Make no mistake in consuming this point. Whatever you do, whichever passion drives you the hardest, makes your heart race; be driven by it. Decide once and for all if you will allow silence to suffocate you. Or choose life. The life you can create with alliances. I have decided there is no choice. I have decided there is NO alternative option. Once you’ve decided the task now is to go. Do. Take action. Educate yourself. Align with individuals. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays at 1418 North Claiborne, New Orleans LA you can find organizers at the table taking action in the city of New Orleans. Come join us, your voice is valid, and we welcome all revolutionaries. Are you ready to work?