From South Africa to Louisiana, Mossville to New Orleans
By Sanashihla
Saturday, October 19, Residents of Mossville, LA, and Gordon Plaza, New Orleans, LA, had an opportunity to learn about each others struggles against the environmental racism that the capitalist system uses to divide, exploit and extract the labor, resources, and land of workers. This exchange occurred during a documentary screening of Mossville: When Great Trees Fall in New Orleans.
Mossville is a small Black community on the outskirts of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish. The residents have been fighting against SASOL, a billion-dollar industrial chemical company.
SASOL got its start in South Africa. Rather than the people of South Africa benefiting from the abundance of resources that the land offers, the country has been a haven for white supremacist capitalists who exploit and pollute with complete disregard for the harm done to the Black indigenous people of the land.
A report about the harm done in South Africa, “Burning Coal,” stated that, “Under colonialism and apartheid, black South Africans were deliberately put in the way of pollution: at work and at home, as is evident in the experiences of both workers in the dirty industrial area of Ferrobank, South Africa and residents next to it in Ackerville, South Africa.” This is the same approach that capitalist chemical industries take right here in the state of Louisiana.
Despite SASOL forcing a $21.2-billion-dollar expansion upon the people, they only offered Mossville residents crumbs to move. Residents were forced to leave their “paid off” homes to incur debt in the process of finding another place to live. Some residents were even left homeless because of the ever-increasing cost of homes.
Residents are fighting illnesses, having been subjected to extreme pollution from the 14 petrochemical plants surrounding them already.
New Orleans is facing its own case of environmental racism. New Orleans East faces a $700 million polluting gas plant, and in the Upper 9th Ward Desire Neighborhood, the City of New Orleans built homes in Gordon Plaza on the Agriculture Street Landfill.
Mr. Jesse, a resident of Gordon Plaza, let the audience know about the residents’ fight for fully funded relocation. He explained that according to the Tumor Registry Report, the Gordon Plaza neighborhood— New Orleans’ own Cancer Alley— has the second highest cancer rate in Louisiana.
Residents are fighting for a long overdue fully funded relocation and cannot afford to be compensated with crumbs. The residents have put their working-class life savings into their homes; they bought into the so-called American Dream only for it to become a horrific nightmare.
From Gordon Plaza and Death Alley to South Africa, communities around the world are teaching each other about their struggles and learning we must band together to fight the common enemy of the capitalist class that exploits and oppresses workers and residents wherever they rule. We must say NO MORE!
Residents are asking for your help by telling everyone you know about this injustice. They invite you to hit the streets with them. You can call Mayor LaToya Cantrell at (504) 658-4900 and (504) 658-4945. You can email her at mayor@nola.gov to express support for the residents’ demands and REMIND the mayor that when she was running for office, she PLEDGED to use the city’s resources to ensure the residents of New Orleans would live in a safe and healthy environment. Now is the time!