street musicians – Workers Voice

On Friday, September 27, dozens of hospitality workers and supporters gathered in Congo Square for a Workers Unity Rally called by the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance. Organizers stressed the urgent need for workers to resist police and ICE terror in the workplace. Speakers included Eugene Grant of the Slow Rollas Brass Band who spoke on behalf of street musicians who have been targeted for harassment by the police who take their orders from gentrifiers and real estate developers. From Congo Square demonstrators marched through the French Quarter, calling on their fellow workers to come together to fend off cops and ICE agents who are attacking workers on behalf of greedy, racist bosses. Demonstrators chanted “Lift the wages, no more cages!” Grant summed up the attitude of the marching workers best, chanting “We gotta fight to get it!”

By Meg Maloney

On Sunday, July 21, musicians, hospitality workers, and community members rallied together in outrage after local musician Eugene Grant, who plays with the Slow Rollas Brass Band, was pinned to the ground and arrested. The arrest came after the owner of Frenchmen Art and Books called the cops because the band was playing outside their store. Grant and his family are calling for musicians to have the freedom to play music in the streets without being forced to pay permits to the city. Musicians should be able to play in the street without fear of police violence. The city should be paying local musicians to play in the street because they help bring in billions of dollars to the city. The Hospitality Workers Alliance stands in solidarity with musicians in their fight. Without musicians and hospitality workers, there would be no tourism in New Orleans. We must come together and organize for our long overdue rights! The time is now!

Workers Voice Socialist Movement

We are workers, employed and unemployed, youth, students, and seniors. We are multi-racial and multi-national and organize for the unity of the working class. We are funded by and for workers, for the liberation of all workers and oppressed people.

We organize for jobs and higher wages, against racism, women’s, and LGBTQ oppression, and for solidarity with immigrants. We organize for community schools, lower rents, and food on our tables. We organize for workers’ power so that everything will one day be removed from the capitalists’ private ownership.

We oppose the Pentagon, which is looting our tax dollars and handing them over to war-profiteering private companies, while social programs are gutted. We oppose war for empire which is pursued only to lower our wages and plunder the world’s resources while destroying the environment. We reject the monopoly media who feed us lie after lie.

The labor of workers produces enormous wealth here in Louisiana, the U.S. and the world– so much wealth that everyone could have housing, meaningful jobs, education, healthcare, and genuine equality. But this wealth is stolen and privately owned by the capitalist class for their greed and profit. We believe that we, the workers of the world, can unite in revolution to overcome capitalism and build a better world.

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Tag: street musicians

Stop Police Harassment of New Orleans Musicians