National Call From Grass Roots New Orleans Activists:
Convergence on New Orleans
MLK Day (2006)
March to Rebuild the Gulfcoast and the World
Local social justice activists, some of whom have the spent decades on the front lines in New Orleans fighting for economic justice and social equality, are working to build the Martin Luther King Day March (2006) to Rebuild the Gulf Coast and the World. Many of us are currently involved in ongoing struggles in the Greater New Orleans area to stop unfair evictions,reopen public housing, schools, and secure alternative housing for storm victims. We all recognize that it will take a national movement to stop the post-Katrina offensive against affordable housing, public healthcare, public education and police repression now besieging our community. But we also realize that this struggle must incorporate the people of New Orleans here and currently in exile. Join us in helping build not just a march, but a mass movement for justice!
Bring All New Orleans Back, Not Just The Rich!
The Martin Luther King Day March To Rebuild The Gulf Coast And The World!
You are invited to help build the Martin Luther King Day March To Rebuild the Gulf Coast and the World. The purpose of this march is to unite all who are ready to stand up for a post-Katrina Gulf Coast to Demand:
* No to ethnic and class cleansing-a pro-worker and African-American
friendly environment, affordable public and private housing, universal
healthcare, a mass public works rebuilding program that pays a living wage, an end to police brutality in our community, occupation of new Orleans.
* We call for financing this through, one, taxing the oil companies---$1 tax for every $1 price increase since the run up the Iraq war. Two, immediate withdrawal from Iraq-money to rebuild the U.S,, no money to destroy Iraq.
The utter failure of all levels of government to look after the most basic needs of the working class and the African-Americans of Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina demonstrates that we must organize ourselves in a mass movement to defend our interests. Then we shall truly overcome!
Martin Luther King Day March To Rebuild The Gulf Coast And The World.
January 16, 2005.
New Orleans, Louisiana.
Time And Place To Be Announced.
Sponsored by: C3, the Forest Park Tenants Association, Hands Off Iberville
Coalition, CAWI (Baton Rouge), NO-HEAT, & the Workers Democracy Network.
(504) 587-0080.
Join us in helping build a post-Katrina Gulf Coast that says no to
neoliberalism and militarism.
Time and Place of Meetings:
2pm Sundays at 1322 Teche St. in the Algiers Section of New Orleans.
(NO-HEAT)
7 pm Thursdays at St Jude Community Center, New Orleans. (C3/Hands Off
Iberville).
REBUILDING THE GULF COAST WITH JUSTICE MEANS:
Replenishing the region's depleted stock of affordable public and private housing.
1. Immediately impose a three year moratorium on evictions.
2. Establish, effective immediately, rent control that limits rent hikes to no more than the ongoing rate of inflation.
3. Restore the number of habitable public housing units in New Orleans to its 1995 level of 14,000 units.
4. Reopen Iberville and all other habitable public housing in New Orleans
and throughout the region immediately.
Rebuilding and strengthening the region's devastated public healthcare
system.
1. Revive and reopen Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
2. Extend Medicaid coverage to all who are currently uninsured.
3. Stop official harassment of free clinics established in post-Katrina New
Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf Coast area.
Stopping the drive to privatize the region's public education.
1. Restore local control of the New Orleans public education system.
2. Scrap the effort to transform the lion's share of New Orleans's public schools into magnet schools.
3. Institute a 40% pay raise for all public school teachers and
educational staff.
Ending the occupations of Iraq and New Orleans now.
1. U.S. troops out of Iraq now !
2. End the military occupation of New Orleans immediately.
3. Establish citizen Cop Watch groups to monitor police conduct.
Instituting a mass public works program to rebuild the Gulf Coast that pays a living wage
1. A federally funded public works program that employs 500,000 workers, at living wage, to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.
2. An affirmative action program guaranteeing that victims of Katrina are well represented in the public works program.
Establishing natural and man made barriers that truly protect the Gulf Coast from the ravages of major hurricanes.
1. Replace the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet with wetlands.
2. Install Category V levies to protect the residents of the Gulf Coast.
3. Allot $15 billion in federal funds to restore the coastal wetlands of the Gulf Coast.
