Troops Out Now Coalition <http://www.troopsoutnow.org>
*Donate <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html> to help build a
movement to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina *
*In this email:*
*1) Report from National Emergency Strategy Meeting
2) Proposal for National Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors &
Their Communities
3) Call for a Nationwide Strike Against Poverty, Racism, and War - Dec. 1-3*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report from Emergency Strategy Meeting
On September 10, activists from all over the U.S. assembled at the New
School University's Lang Center for an Emergency Strategy Meeting to
discuss the criminal negligence of the Bush Administration before,
during, and after the impact of Hurricane Katrina and to plan a national
campaign in solidarity with the people of the affected region.
Kicking off the discussion was a report and video footage from Teresa
Gutierrez, who had just returned from a Troops Out Now Coalition
fact-finding visit to the region. Other speakers included Brenda Stokely
of the Million Workers March Movement, Nellie Bailey of the Harlem
Tenants Council, Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition, LeiLani
Dowell of FIST (Fight Imperialism - Stand Together), and Sara Flounders
of the International Action Center.
The recurring theme of the presentations and of the discussion that
followed was the importance of demonstrating solidarity with the
survivors of Hurricane Katrina and of exposing the racism and greed that
are behind the loss of life in New Orleans and surrounding regions.
Two concrete proposals coming out of this meeting were: a proposal for a
National Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors & Their
Communities and a Call for a Nationwide Strike Against Poverty, Racism,
and War on December 1-3. * Details of both proposals are included below:*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Based on discussion at a Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) Strategy
Meeting held in NYC on Sept. 10 of over 100 activists from around the
country: - We call upon the antiwar movement to support and embrace this
proposal, and to make it central to the program at the anti-war march in
Washington DC on September 24th. /
*/A Proposal to Establish an/*
*
International Network of Solidarity with Katrina Survivors & Their
Communities*
/*The network's initial focus will be the following demands:*/
**
*Stop the execution of Frances Newton *
The scheduled execution of sister Frances Newton on Sept 14 must be
stopped. The systemic racist injustice in the so-called criminal justice
system, that overpopulates death row with poor Black people, is part of
the same racism behind the government’s criminal behavior regarding
Katrina. For the State of Texas to execute Frances Newton (making her
the first Black women to be executed in Texas since 1853) in the wake of
Katrina would be like throwing salt into the fresh wounds suffered by
Black people, and an affront to freedom loving people everywhere. The
execution is an outrage that we must not allow to happen.
*Stop the Real Looters*
Freeze the awarding Of Katrina reconstruction contracts By FEMA *Until
the local community organizations, leaders, activists, and trade
unionists have made public their ideas and plans*. Local people must
control the* $52 billion reconstruction fund for New Orleans & the Gulf
Coast, Not Halliburton and President Bush’s rich friends.* Pres. Bush
and Congress have given FEMA a $52 billion check for Katrina
reconstruction, but this check is not being handed to the people who
have lost everything - the Black community, the poor, and the hundreds
of thousands of workers that have lost jobs because of Katrina. Right
now, the White House’s rich friends are sitting around a table dividing
up the loot. This money most go to the people who need it to create
living wage jobs and housing. The people of the Gulf Coast must have the
decisive say over the allocation of all government reconstruction funds.
*End the military occupation of New Orleans - No Forced Evacuations*
*Let human rights observers into New Orleans.* Human rights observers,
independent of military, federal, state or local governments and law
enforcement agencies, must be allowed in to New Orleans and all of the
areas in the Gulf Coast affected by Katrina, and under military
occupation, to monitor the conduct of military and police personal, and
document conditions in occupied areas.
*
The Right of return*
All of the people who have been forced from their cities and towns must
be assured of the right to return to their communities. Katrina must not
be turned into an excuse for ethic cleansing and gentrification.
*Accept the 1,100 Medical Doctors that Cuba has offered, and free
resources that Venezuela has offered*
*Pay the prevailing wage *
Congress and the president must rescind the waiver of the Davis-Bacon
Act, which bars federal contracts to businesses that do not pay the
prevailing wage to workers. No contractor should be allowed to proceed
with any work until they have publicly stated that they will pay
prevailing wages in their industry.
*Extended unemployment benefits, back pay, and a guaranteed job for all
workers displaced by Katrina*
*The Establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the
U.S. Government's response to Katrina*
*Money for Katrina Recovery & Human Needs - Not War! Bring the Troops
Home Now! *
The Katrina Solidarity Network will aggressively solicit all activists
and progressive organizations committed to working in a united front,
and who understand the necessity to take direction from the activists in
the Gulf Coast. The network’s goals, demands and activities will be
modified and expanded in conjunction with its consultation with
community and labor activist in the Gulf Coast. The Solidarity Network
will be announced at *September 12 National Day Of Outrage *events
across the country.*
*
* *
*
*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*
We Must Turn Our Outrage Over Katrina into a Movement *
On the 50th Anniversary of Dec. 1, 1955, the day in Montgomery Alabama
that Rosa Parks sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement --
/A Call for/
*A Nationwide Strike Against Poverty, Racism, & War*
*Thursday, December 1*
*No School * No Shopping * No Work*
*
Continued Protests and Teach-Ins throught Dec. 2 and 3
Mass March on Wall St. in NYC*
*
Justice for the People of New Orleans & the Gulf States
A Job at a Living Wage is a Human Right
Bring the Troops Home Now
Healthcare, Housing, and Education -- Not War and Occupation *
*The Outrage in New Orleans is a clarion call to the antiwar movement
and the grassroots:
The time has arrived to take our struggle to a higher level.* Let us
work together and organize a *Nationwide Strike against Poverty, Racism
and War on Dec. 1, 2005,* the 50th anniversary of the day that Rosa
Parks helped launch the modern civil rights movement – no work, school,
or shopping – continued protest through Dec.2 and 3 – and a Mass March
on Wall Street in New York City. It is time for the people to
demonstrate that they can stop business as usual coast-to-coast when
justice requires the people to do so.
We owe it to the victims of Katrina, to poor and working people, to the
world and to ourselves to find the way to help turn the outrage over
Katrina into a mass grassroots movement for social justice, the likes of
which this country has not seen for some time. Moreover, it is vitally
necessary, and much more possible now, to forge real unity on a
phenomenal scale between the movement against the war and the movements
of African Americans, people of color, and poor and working people in a
struggle for economic, social and political rights.
*
The war and occupation of Iraq and the Katrina outrage have demonstrated
to the world the urgent necessity for fundamental change and a movement
that is big enough and determined enough to achieve the goal.* Katrina
has exposed the ugly truths about class and race, poverty, war and
militarism. Our solidarity with demands of the survivors of Katrina must
evolve from empathy, charity and symbolism to a mighty social force to
be reckoned with. Key to this mighty potential will be the forging of a
strong alliance with activists and leaders within the African American
community in the Gulf States, taking direction from them regarding the
kind of solidarity that they need and the demands they are making. Our
demand to end the war in Iraq and to bring the troops home now must be
backed up by the kind of mass tactics that signal that we mean business.
Fifty years ago, Black people in Montgomery, Alabama were forced by law
to sit in the back of public buses, and give their seats to any white
person who demanded it. When Rosa Parks, a garment worker and civil
rights activist, refused to give up her seat to a white man, she sparked
the Montgomery bus boycott against segregation on public buses, one of
the most successful and truly mass boycotts in history. The Montgomery
bus boycott also introduced to the world a young reverend named Martin
Luther King Jr., who became the boycott’s principal public leader.
*A Dec. 1 Strike Working Committee was set up at a Sept. 10 Natl.
Strategy Meeting of the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) attended by more
than 100 activists. The working committee will develop outreach and
building plans for the Dec. 1 strike.*
/Dec. 1 Nationwide strike against poverty, racism and war -- Initiating
Organizations: Troops Out Now Coalition, Million Worker March Movement,
Teamsters National Black Caucus, Michigan Emergency Committee Against
War & Injustice./
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Donate <http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html> to help build a
movement to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina
Troops Out Now Coalition <http://www.troopsoutnow.org>
*
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