Hungry Blues

It seems that even though Homeland Security has said companies do not have to verify the immigration status of their workers in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the workers themselves are still subject to harassment and detention by immigration officials (via Facing South).

NEW ORLEANS - Agents detained about 100 illegal immigrants working for a Halliburton subcontractor hired to do Hurricane Katrina recovery work, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office said Thursday.

The workers were involved in setting up a tent city at a Navy base outside New Orleans when they were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Wednesday, Landrieu's office said.

Halliburton and other companies are free to exploit and abuse migrant workers and are not accountable to labor and immigration law. Meanwhile, the Federal government deploys Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to harass and detain undocumented workers. In turn, the migrant workers are made to feel even more vulnerable and are further at the mercy of the companies who hire them.

Remember what Lerone Bennet, Jr. said about the purposes of racist ideology in colonial America?

[T]he leading groups in the colonies made it a matter of public policy to destroy the solidarity of the laborers. Laws were passed requiring different groups to keep to themselves, and the seeds of dissension were artfully and systematically sown.

Facing South's Chris Kromm elaborates on how the "leading groups" are pursuing the same ends today, and he adds some important context about the predominantly Honduran population in the migrant labor force.

Ever since the gold rush of Katrina contracts -- and the suspension of laws guaranteeing the usual pay rates for rebuilding work -- the Gulf Coast has become an "immigration magnet," escalating tension between some locals (both black and white) and immigrant newcomers. Not helping matters have been reports of the Red Cross kicking out "Hispanic-looking" people at shelters, and Mayor Ray Nagin telling a crowd, "How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?"

How about a little context:

Many Hondurans came to the New Orleans area after Hurricane Mitch tore through their homeland in 1998, devastating the already poverty-stricken country. Few funds were available for aid and rebuilding, and corrupt officials siphoned off much of the foreign financial help. Many parts of the capitol Tegucigalpa still stand in ruins seven years later.

Hurricane Katrina was an all-too-familiar experience for those who were already refugees. About 150,000 Hondurans were among an estimated 300,000 immigrants living in the areas hit by the storm. And in a country far wealthier than their homeland, many found their access to aid and support was not much different.

And of course, a leading reason Honduras was so ill-equipped to handle Hurricane Mitch was because of a devastating U.S.-backed war and dictatorship in the country, including death squads -- a 1994 human rights report still couldn't find 179 "disappeared" citizens -- aggressively promoted by President Bush's choice for U.N. embassador and embassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.

So really, we've come full circle.

Update: Fixed first link and clarified its wording.

One of Spencer Overton's colleagues, Professor Nate Persily, has first hand info on how FEMA is refusing to give Louisiana the names and current addresses of the evacuees—info the state needs in order to make sure they receive absentee ballots (via Professor Kim).

Professor Persily writes:

"A lawyer working with the Louisiana Governor's office has asked me what remedy the state may have against FEMA for their refusal to release the names and new temporary addresses of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. In particular, the Governor wants to make sure they receive absentee ballots for the February elections. FEMA has cited privacy concerns to justify their refusal to release the names and addresses. For some reason, it also appears that FEMA is unwilling to mail or forward the absentee ballot request forms or ballots itself (thereby not having to release the names) and the post office does not have forwarding addresses for most evacuees, so the state cannot simply mail the forms to the old addresses and have them forwarded. Assume that a FOIA request will prove unsuccessful and that individual evacuees on their own initiative could request and receive absentee ballots.

However, the question is: Are there other constitutional or federal statutory claims that the state could make to compel the release of such a list?"

(Whole thing.)

On Thursday night, I volunteered in a project to identify prisoners who had been in Orleans Parish Prison before Hurricane Katrina and were then evacuated to a federal penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. Angela Wessels, an attorney in Boston, who works for the Southern Center for Human Rights (based in Atlanta), is doing an amazing job overseeing the process of gathering volunteers—mostly local law students and her friends—to slog through the roughly 8,500 names on the "Hurricane Katrina Master Listing" and create a database of the inmates who were evacuated to Coleman.

OPP is the facility that includes Templeman III, the unit that was abandoned by prison guards with prisoners locked inside, while flood waters rose to chest level. For four days prisoners were trapped inside without food or drinking water. Orleans Parish Prison is both a jail where arrestees are kept pre-trial and a prison where sentenced convicts reside.*

Phyllis Mann explains:

There are lawyers all over the state, criminal defense lawyers, who are going to all of these facilities. There are 35 facilities that we are aware of all over the State of Louisiana, where over 8,500 people from Orleans jails were evacuated. And we're literally having to go in and meet with these people one by one to figure out when they got arrested, why they were in jail, whether they have been convicted or whether they were waiting for trial, whether it was a misdemeanor or a felony.

I understand that the computers from the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office were retrieved from Orleans on Friday, and their information technology people have been working to try to get as much information off of those computers as possible. And eventually what will happen is they're going to start matching the information they can recover from those computers to the information that we have been getting by going in and interviewing these people one by one, so that we can figure out where they're supposed to be. I would say a good half of them are not supposed to be in jail at all. They have served whatever sentence they had received and should be released. But until we can figure that out, they're sitting there. (Emphasis added.)

While there is small number of local New Orleans attorneys doing the herculean work of identifying and visiting individually every OPP prisoner evacuated to other facilities in Louisiana, there hasn't been adequate information for anyone to address the situations of the prisoners who were evacuated out of state.

Of the approximately 8,500 prisoners who were in OPP, about 900 were sent to Coleman Penitentiary. Working with the Master Listing and a very recently obtained list of the names of prisoners who had been evacuated to Coleman, volunteers have been identifying the inmates in Coleman who should have an arraignment, bond hearing, access to a lawyer, be in rehab or work-release programs, or have past or imminent release dates. Last Wednesday and Thursday nights, rooms full of volunteers entered the data on these inmates into spreadsheets to create a database of the prisoners in Coleman whom attorneys could help in an immediate way. This was the work that I was doing on Thursday. Once this new database is complete, attorneys who can go to Coleman Penitentiary will have the information they need about who is there and whom they can help.

At one point, while I was going through my hunk of pages from the Katrina Master Listing, there was something odd. I noticed that for one of the prisoners I was entering into the spreadsheet the booking date was later than his sentencing date, which didn't make sense to me. I asked Angela about it. She explained the funny dates mean the inmate had completed a sentence at another prison and was transported to Orleans Parish Prison just prior to his release. Now instead of being on queue to re-enter civilian life, this person has been shipped to a federal penitentiary in Florida, without access to an attorney or the ability to communicate with anyone to tell them where he is or even just to let family members know he is alive. And that's just one story out of roughly 900 that there are to be told about the Orleans Parish Prisoners who were evacuated to Coleman Penitentiary in Florida.

~

*Previously I confessed some confusion about whether OPP only functioned as a jail or if it functioned both as a jail and as a prison. Based on my work Thursday night, it is evident that the latter is indeed the case.

UPDATE, 10/24: Now that I have her permission to include it, I've added Angela Wessel's name. Adding her name to the sentence in the first paragraph forced me to remove the mention of my having met Angela through the Prison Policy Initiative.

Also see: More On The Coleman 900

Dana and Karen Kletter, Your Mother Wants To Know

Howe Gelb, Living In A Waterfall

Elliott Smith, I Me Mine (Atlanta, GA 8May00- electric)

Elvis Costello, The Big LIght

Louis Armstrong, Home

Bourbon Princess, Jerkoff

Frankie Newton, The Brittwood Stomp (I'm A Ding Dong Daddy)

The Album Leaf, Streamside

Sunlight, Adrian Belew

Ella Fitzgerald, St. Louis Blues (live, Ella In Rome)

The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition (PHRF) announces the opening of two Communication/Relief Centers!

Jackson, MS Communication Center

253 Pine Hollow Circle

Jackson, MS 39212

601.371.4792

New Orleans, LA Communication/Relief Centers

Mail (which must be the size of an UPS or Fedex Envelope) can be sent to:

Mayaba Liebenthal

1000 Bourbon Street

New Orleans, LA 70116

Call for Volunteers: We need volunteers immediately, particularly people of color, to come down to New Orleans to help us set up the Communication/Relief Centers. The initial work will involve cleaning the spaces so they are available for the community and cleaning the surrounding neighborhoods. If you are available, please email us at volunteer@communitylaborunited.net.

Call for Supplies: To provide adequate relief for folks in New Orleans, the Communication/Relief Center needs the below listed items. If you are able to donate any of these things, you can mail them to Jackson and they will be transported to New Orleans. If you want to donate money to purchase some of these items, you can make the donation to the Vanguard Public Foundation and earmark the donation for certain supplies. Donation information can be found on the website.

Read the rest for a detailed list of material items that they need.

Just a few minutes after I posted Slave Wages, Clayton Cubitt posted The Soul Of The City.

Clayton's post is a poem made of words and a photograph.

What can I say?

Go see for yourself.

Last week, Jeanne said,

Poor people can't get back to their lives on a promise of a job and a home. They need a guarantee and help getting back.

Today, she's got some of the reasons why. On the one hand she's found a rare instance of a local, NOLA company that got a contract to provide electricians for reconstruction work. The company, Knight Enterprises, hired local workers and paid union wages—and then lost the contract to other companies paying less and offering no benefits. The locals were replaced by out-of-state workers and were left with nowhere to go.

An electrician and foreman with Knight Enterprises cried as he recounted how his team of workers were kicked out of government tents by an out-of-state firm and forced to sleep in their cars.

What's worse, the local work force is competing with migrant Latino labor, mainly from Honduras and Mexico. The suspension of Davis Bacon that made Knight Enterprises unable to compete in the current market also turns undocumented workers into slave labor and leaves them vulnerable to physical abuse.

Housing for workers often lacks running water and contractors have failed to provide food, training and wage rates as promised, James Hale, vice president with the Laborers' International Union of North America, told a policy conference of opposition Democrats in the US Senate.

In one case, workers had not been paid for three weeks and at another site there were allegations that security guards were mistreating laborers, said Hale, who supported his allegations with photographs.

Once again, the post-Katrina landscape exposes and magnifies the injustices that were already there. The working conditions, described above, are not unique to migrant reconstruction workers in NOLA. And while we demonize and racially profile Latino workers, we also know that we need 'em and we need 'em bad:

Recognizing the demand for migrant labor, and to help speed reconstruction in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security temporarily suspended rules mandating employers to prove that workers they hire are citizens or have a legal right to work in the United States.

That's the same Dept. of Homeland Security whose Michael Chertoff was quoted today saying we need more jails for undocumented workers (via TalkLeft):

"Today, a non-Mexican illegal immigrant caught trying to enter the United States across the southwest border has an 80 percent chance of being released immediately because we lack the holding facilities," he added.

"Through a comprehensive approach, we are moving to end this 'catch and release' style of border enforcement by reengineering our detention and removal process."

We let the undocumented workers in or we "enforce" the law, as it suits the needs of the industries that exploit them. Either way, it's just another way that the US upholds the institution of slavery.

Many people have the mistaken impression that slavery was outlawed or abolished in the United States after the Civil War by the passage of the 13th Amendment. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The 13th Amendment reads, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The effect of the 13th Amendment was not to abolish slavery, but to limit it to those who had been convicted of crimes.

This reality was made apparent following the Civil War when large numbers of newly freed black slaves found themselves "duly convicted" of crimes and thrown in state prisons where, once again, they labored without pay. This led the Virginia Supreme Court to remark in an 1871 case, Ruffin v. Commonwealth, that prisoners were "slaves of the state." Little has changed since then, except the states are less honest about their slaveholding practices. . . .

Until [the 1980s], most prisons produced goods for their own use or for sale to other state agencies, license plates being the most famous example. But in a 1986 study, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called for transforming prisons into "factories with fences." In essence, the report argued that prisons should once again become not only self-sustaining, but profit-producing entities requiring minimal financial input from the state. . . .

The slavery context and the history of racist ideology as a tool for upholding the economic conditions of slavery should be kept well in mind when we read how exploitation of migrant Latino workers demonizes local Hondurans in NOLA.

Local Hondurans, who comprise the city's largest Latino population, report being the object of the anger from blacks and whites, who fear losing their livelihoods to low-wage Latino workers. Zapotec-speaking Oaxacan Indians walk the streets of New Orleans and elsewhere throughout Louisiana and Mississippi after being threatened with deportation and kicked off local military bases, where they worked for local contractors without getting paid.

Latinos in the Gulf region are being racially profiled by local and federal authorities, says Victoria Cintra of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, one of the only organizations addressing Latino immigrant concerns in the region. Cintra believes the Bush administration's suspension of the Davis Bacon Act, which requires payment of prevailing wages, along with its temporary removal of documentation requirements on I-9 forms has strained race relations by lowering wages and fostering competition between groups.

Lerone Bennett, Jr. explains:

In order to preserve domestic tranquillity, the leading groups in the colonies made it a matter of public policy to destroy the solidarity of the laborers. Laws were passed requiring different groups to keep to themselves, and the seeds of dissension were artfully and systematically sown. Indians were offered bounties for betraying black runaways; blacks were given minor rewards for fighting Indians; and poor whites were used as fodder in the disciplining of both reds and blacks.

Malik Rahim gets the last word (transcribed from this):

The explosion that hit New Orleans wasn't no dynamite. It was something far worse than dynamite—or atomic bomb. It was greed, corruption and neglect. The neglect was they didn't care because Louisiana is a old Southern state and it's still ran by old Southern money. And one thing they was never able to forget is that they allowed that the major city in the South to become a city that is controlled by Blacks. And the effort has always been since Dutch Morial the first black mayor took office was how can they get this city back. And they have tried everything...

I added Operation Eden to the NOLA section in the sidebar a few days ago but I should really call your attention to it because it is an amazing and important blog. I learned about it from pastordan in the comments at Body and Soul.

Operation Eden is by Clayton James Cubitt, who is a commercial photographer, based in Brooklyn but originally from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Since early September, he has been in NOLA and around the Gulf Coast taking incredible pictures of people and places and writing strong accounts of what he sees and about what has been happening to his mother and younger brother, who were living in the region and lost their home.

The latest post is about Pearlington, MS, another of the many devastated communities that have been abandoned by the US government.

Here's the message he wrote just before departing to find his family.

My mom grew up poorer than poor in New Orleans, in a shotgun shack on McKain Street, with nine people living in three rooms. Christmas was Toys for Tots, dental care was having their teeth removed at Charity Hospital. Through it all they stuck together, and slowly over the course of years managed to work for a slightly better life, even if it was still below the poverty line, or the very shaky bottom rung of middle class. My mom raised me and my little brother alone, working three jobs, and I promised myself I'd take care of her when I could. This March I was finally able to make good on that promise, when I used my life savings to buy her a humble trailer she had fallen in love with in Mississippi, and gave it to her for my birthday. It was the first thing she'd ever owned, aside from junker cars. She named her humble trailer "Eden", and was as happy as I've ever seen her, which is pretty damn happy.

Then Katrina came. Now she's lost it all. The trailer, nestled between Bay St. Louis, MS and Slidell, LA, was submerged under over twenty feet of water when the storm surge came ashore. Thankfully, my mom and little brother were in a shelter in Kiln, and true to form, having volunteered in battered women's shelters and homeless shelters hew whole adult life, my mom spent the four days she was in the hurricane shelter helping the elderly and sick. Yes, I'm saying my mom is a redneck Mother Theresa (in fact, Theresa's her Confirmation name). Anyway, "Eden" has four feet of muck and dead shrimp and carp from Pearl River in it, and it's molding and ruined. My mom's now homeless, squatting in an evacuated home in Slidell. All she's got is the clothing on her back, and a few family photos she managed to grab. My little brother, 13, has nothing for school, and no medication for his asthma.

I'm going down tomorrow to pick her and my little brother up, to bring supplies, and to survey the damage. The rest of my family didn't fare much better. My aunt's home was destroyed, as was my cousin's apartment. So many memories lost, they had so little, and now they have nothing. And my family's just one of thousands just as bad off, if not worse. At least they have their lives.

Anyway, I'm the lucky one, having gotten out of Southern poverty years ago, and now it's all on my shoulders to help them rebuild. It will be a tough job, but I'm tough, and my people are tough. We know now, as always before, we can't count on the government to come to our rescue, or show care, so it's all just friends and family taking care of this business of rebuilding. And we're all friends and family now.

I thank you so much for the love and support, and I swear, when we rebuild my mom's Eden she's going to invite everybody down for a Cajun crawfish boil! It won't be fancy, but it will be fun, and good times will roll again.

-Clayton Cubitt, 9/7/2005

Some other posts you might want to read:

•Charity Hospital

•Katrina Hero

•The Contents Of My Mom's Life

•You Are On Your Own

•A Homecoming

The movie opened last week in select theaters (none yet in MA, I'm annoyed to see). I assume that readers of this blog will be inclined to see the film, but let me still urge you to see the movie while it is in theaters. It is important to support the film and make sure it does well while it is in theaters. Below are communications from the filmmaker, Keith Beauchamp, which I received a couple of weeks ago but neglected to post at the time.

Dear Friends,

 

The Time has come!  “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till “will finally be making its theatrical debut on October 14, 2005.  I would like to thank you all for your support during this 10 year journey and ask that we all continue to ‘keep our eyes on the prize’ until justice prevails in the most influential case.  In the midst of the reopening of the Till Case last year and now Hurricane Katrina, going to theaters to support this film is more important than ever.

 

If you ever wondered how you can become involve or what you can do to support me and the Emmett Till Case, here’s your opportunity to become a part of the movement for change.

 

• Support this film in theaters; take the whole family or make this your first stop before you and the girls or boys go out to the club.
• Send this email to everyone you know.

 

Finally, we often wonder why films of this nature never get produced or even showcased in theaters. In order for the doors to begin to open for these types of films, this generation must take a stand and support our films!  In the spirit of the late Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley and the legacy of her son, Emmett Louis Till, I thank you all.

 

Respectfully,

 

Keith A. Beauchamp

Founder/Director Till Freedom Come Productions, LLC 

 

------------------------------------------------

 

‘EMMETT TILL’ PROCEEDS TO BE DONATED TO

HURRICANE RELIEF ORGS

 

OCTOBER 14TH EXPANSION OF ACCLAIMED FILM ANNOUNCED


New York – Sept. 27th, 2005 -- THINKFilm and Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp have agreed to allocate a portion of the box office revenue of Beauchamp’s groundbreaking film, THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL, to the immediate needs of the New Orleans relief effort.  Beauchamp, a Baton Rouge native, was recently recognized by Southern University at New Orleans, the New Orleans City Council and Mayor Ray Nagin on March 17th, 2005.  Since the catastrophe in Louisiana earlier this month, Beauchamp’s mother, Ceola J. Beauchamp, and the Baton Rouge Delta Sigma Theta Chapters have set up distribution points to provide, clothing, food and other amenities. Select proceeds from the October 14th national expansion, which includes Chicago (Till’s hometown), Washington DC, Atlanta, Memphis, and the Boroughs of New York City will be provided to the Baton Rouge Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a faith based organization headquartered in New Orleans, LA.

 

“My mother always instilled in me the importance of helping those who cannot help themselves, just as in the Emmett Till case; Emmett could not speak for himself, and he was denied justice. I felt it was my obligation as a young person in this country to make sure that this case was reopened. The Creator has now directed me once again to do all that I can for those in need. Just as the covers of racism were pulled from the face of Emmett Till, it has now been pulled from the city of New Orleans.”

 

In conjunction with the October 14th rollout, THINKFilm is working with Consultant Rodney Sampson to oversee and execute the grassroots marketing campaign for the faith- based and community organizations.  “THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL serves as a major link between past injustices and current opportunities for creating legitimate dialogue and resolve between the races in America,” says Sampson.  “To that end, the recent decision by THINKFilm and Keith to donate a portion of the theatrical proceeds to Katrina relief is not just honorable, but strategic and divine.  Our timing is impeccable.”

 

Beauchamp’s Award-winning documentary, THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL, is a culmination of a 10-year effort to uncover the details behind the nightmarish murder story and has led to a national effort to re-open the case and investigate new evidence and witnesses to the murder. The film opened exclusively in New York City in August to rave reviews including New York Magazine which called the film "The most important documentary of the year and an essential tale of what it means to be an American." 

THINKFilm won its first Best Documentary Academy Award with last year's BORN INTO BROTHELS and also received nominations for THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL and SPELLBOUND. The company has qualified THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL for Academy Award consideration this year. 

For locations and times click on the sites below:

www.emmetttillstory.com

www.thinkfilmcompany.com+

Abstract Concept
High levels of incarceration concentrated in impoverished communities have a destabilizing effect on community life, so that the most basic underpinnings of informal social control are damaged. This, in turn, reproduces the very dynamics that sustain crime.

(William Raspberry, quoting Todd Clear (via Racism Ain't Over))

Concrete Example
The greatest economic drain to the African American and poor community is not buying food. It's court costs. See a mother whose son is just arrested for a $5 bag of weed. Now all of a sudden she's got to mortgage her house to get him out and pay some little shyster lawyer that know that this is his first offense and he gonna get probation. But he won't tell her that. He make her believe that her child gonna wind up in the penitentiary for life. And we live in a city that will spend $90,000 to keep a child in detention—per year—and won't spend $90,000 on the community...

(Malik Rahim, transcribed from his talk about Common Ground and NOLA)

Almost ten days ago, Common Ground posted three audio files of Rahim and Crow talking about the founding of the Common Ground Collective, what it has faced so far, and what it plans for the future. For those unfamiliar, Common Ground "is a local, community-run organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support to New Orleans communities that have been historically neglected and underserved."

I loaded the three mp3s on my iPod and listened (not to worry, through my car stereo) as I drove around on my errands and to and from work yesterday. Maybe not the wisest decision, since I was alternately banging my fist on the dashboard and crying a good bit of the time. But I got all the way through the talk, and I'm really glad I did. If you want to understand what it has been like on the ground, since the early days of the flooding, and if you want to understand more about the history of criminal neglect of low-income people and African Americans that contextualizes what we are seeing now—then you must listen to Crow and Rahim.

Scott Crow is a community organizer from Texas who has been involved in the National Coalition to Free the Angola 3. In Part 1 (14:55), he tells his story of going to New Orleans with a friend, in the first days of the flooding, to try to rescue Robert "King" Wilkerson, one of the Angola 3 who was finally released after thirty-one years of wrongful imprisonment—almost twenty-nine of which were in solitary confinement. Crow's story is harrowing and moving and reveals a great deal about what was actually happening in that first week after Katrina. Through his amazing efforts to save Wilkerson, which were ultimately successful, Crow met up with Malik Rahim and began working with him to bring free medical care and food and other relief to the storm victims in NOLA and its environs.

Malik Rahim was a member of the Black Panther Party in NOLA in the 1970s. He lived in the Bay Area for a while, but several years ago, he returned to NOLA and to his work there as a community organizer and activist. From early on in the disaster, Rahim has been outspoken about the criminal neglect and the racism and contempt for the poor that have compounded the disaster beyond all imagination. In Part 2 (37:23), he speaks at length about conditions on the ground in NOLA from the earliest days of the flooding, and he provides essential background information about the criminal justice system, poverty, racism, and the white power structure in New Orleans. Someone who is a fast typist should transcribe this one, so Rahim's background information and analysis can get wider circulation.

In Part 3 (17:20), Scott Crow talks about the mission, vision and strategy of Common Ground. Crow emphasizes the point that he and others, who are outside, white activists, are there not to "help" Black and poor people but to support the work that local members of the community are doing with resources that may not be immediately available to them.

While the Red Cross and FEMA vacillate between concerted neglect and appalling incompetence, Common Ground delivers effective aid to thousands of people affected by the storm. In some cases, Common Ground has been the first respondents hurricane victims have seen. In the particularly appalling case of the Native American community in the city of Dulac in Terribone Parish, when Common Ground showed up at the end of September, after Rita, they were bringing the first (and only) aid to an area completely devastated by flooding. If you want to be sure your money or your supplies or your volunteer hours go directly towards aiding the people of New Orleans, I recommend giving to Common Ground.

For more information about Common Ground, read the Collective's blog, as well as the blogs by Common Ground volunteers, Real Reports and Bay To Gulf People's Pipeline.

An unexpected consequence of DeLay's indictment is that the Republican Study Committee may now barrel on ahead, unobstructed (via Dispatches from the Trenches), with its plans to use Katrina "relief" and "reconstruction" as opportunities to finish shredding the safety net.

House Republican leaders have moved from balking at big cuts in Medicaid and other programs to embracing them, driven by pent-up anger from fiscal conservatives concerned about runaway spending and the leadership’s own weakening hold on power.

Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts to pay for the soaring cost of hurricane relief.

DeLay told a packed room of reporters on Sept. 13 that 11 years of Republican rule had already pared down the federal budget “pretty good.” If lawmakers had suggestions for cuts, DeLay said he would listen, but he was not offering anything up.

But faced with a revolt among many conservatives sharply critical of him for resisting spending cuts, DeLay three weeks later told a closed meeting of the House Republican Conference, “I failed you,” according to a number of House members and GOP aides. Then, in a nod to the most hard-core conservatives, DeLay volunteered, “You guys filled a void in the leadership.”

The abrupt shift reflects a changed political dynamic in the House in which a faction of fiscal conservatives — known as the Republican Study Committee, or RSC — has gained the upper hand because of DeLay’s criminal indictment in Texas, widespread criticism of the Republicans’ handling of Hurricane Katrina, and uncertainty over the future of the leadership, according to lawmakers and aides.

Now, cutting the budget — which only months ago seemed far from possible — is at the center of the agenda in the House. “No one wants to have an argument with friends, but that argument facilitated the debate that led to the package [of cuts] that [House Speaker J. Dennis] Hastert has now put out there,” said Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), chairman of the RSC and a leading proponent of cuts to offset new government spending. (emphasis added)

The bitter irony, of course, is that it looks like we are getting the exact opposite of the now fleeting hope that Katrina would force issues of race and poverty back onto the front burner of national policy. While the hateful and opportunistic Republicans deserve nothing but contempt, I am more angry with Democrats and so-called progressives. Chris Kromm sums up the failure of the left quite succinctly:

Katrina put issues of race and class on the national radar in a way that won't be repeated for a very long time. But the opportunity to discuss and act on these issues -- progressive issues -- is being largely squandered.

Let's be clear: If progressives fail to seize this opportunity, what will suffer are not only the people of the Gulf Coast, now at the mercy of real estate speculators, energy developers, far-right ideologues, and other nefarious interests. We will also lose a once-in-a-decade chance to resurrect the progressive agenda on a national scale.

This is our moment. Endlessly speculating about DeLay's indictments or the Plame investigation may be fun. But the Gulf debacle is something progressives can do something about, now, that has the potential to permanently shift the debate about fundamental inequalities in our society.

Progressives need to step up to the plate, and 1) support the fight for a democratic, just and sustainable rebuilding in the Gulf, and 2) work tirelessly and with laser focus to return issues of poverty and inequality to the top of the national agenda.

The thousand people who died and hundreds of thousands who have suffered in Katrina's wake deserve nothing less.

Though I have not ever really considered myself a Democrat, I have continued to register as a Democrat year after year, out of habit, if for no other reason than to vote in the primaries. I don't know if I will be able to stomach it the next time around.

Via Common Ground:

Having evacuated for Hurricane Katrina, tenants who are now returning to the Forest Park Apartments in Algiers are finding their apartments locked, the owner unwilling to accept rent payments, and a mandatory eviction (supposedly temporary while repairs are made) on October 17th. Residents have been given no alternative housing option. Common Ground has been helping these tenants in their struggle against the illegal actions of their landlord.

Audio interview [Thurs Oct 13, 2005] with Charlestine Jones, one of the tenants of Forest Park Apartments

Click on the thumbnail, above right, (via NOLA Indymedia), to see Ms. Jones' eviction notice. Forest Park is a public housing development in the Algiers section of New Orleans, a few miles south east of Common Ground, which is up on Algiers Point. According to Ms. Jones in the audio interview, above, the Forest Park Apartments management are handing eviction notices to residents who return and telling them to present the notices to FEMA in order to receive help with housing. In turn, FEMA is telling the evicted Forest Park residents that there is nothing that can be done about their housing situation.

(In the map, above right, Common Ground is at the red marker and the Forrest Park Apartments are at the green marker.)

Many of the neighborhoods in the West Bank area, south of the Mississippi River, did not flood. Ms. Jones and others report that the Forest Park Apartments are in reasonably good condition, post-Katrina, and are mostly habitable—despite the assertions of the management handing out eviction notices under the pretense of needing to perform repairs. Ms. Jones reports that there are roughly fifty residents in the apartment complex which has the capacity to house over 200.

Ms. Jones speaks of a press conference that was held on Friday, Oct 14. All residents were told they would be forcibly removed from their apartments by Saturday, Oct 15. I have not yet found any reports of the press conference or of what occurred on Saturday.

Below are some pictures of the apartments posted to NOLA Indymedia.

When Forrest Park residents return home, they are supposed to report to the housing development office first, where they receive verbal or written eviction notices.

The grounds outside the apartments are not much affected by the ravages of Katrina and Rita.

This shot of a Forest Park apartment interior shows ceilings and walls free of the mold that makes areas that were flooded uninhabitable even when building structures are intact.

As Ms. Jones reports, above, some residents have returned to find their apartments padlocked. To retrieve their belongings, residents have had to kick down the doors of their own apartments.

Yesterday evening I was one of the co-hosts of a reception for the Prison Policy Initiative. It was a great event with Executive Director Peter Wagner speaking alongside Joseph "Jazz" Hayden and Mark Dubnoff.

Wagner spoke about his innovative work on census policy and felony disenfranchisement. Hayden spoke about his 15 years of work to overturn felony disenfranchisement laws. Dubnoff spoke about being pro bono counsel in Simmons v. Galvin—the case challenging the constitutional amendment adopted by Massachusetts in 2000 to deprive convicted felons of their right to vote.

For the last two years, PPI was sustained by Executive Director Peter Wagner's Soros Fellowship. When the fellowship ran out last spring, Wagner just kept working on his projects, unpaid, but also set himself the task of finding a fiscal sponsor that could accept donations for PPI once it incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Both Hayden and Dubnoff testified to the fact that a wide range of people who work on prisoners' issues have come to rely on the work that PPI does. Hayden traveled from New York City in order to support the cause.

PPI is now a 501c3, and Wagner has found a fiscal sponsor, so you can support the cause, too, by making a tax-deductible donation here.

(Image via Prison Policy Initiative.)