[News] SF Federal Building Fri 1pm- Stop Bulldozing 9th Ward in New Orleans!

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Please forward, call and COME!

Emergency Action!!! City of New Orleans is bulldozing people's homes 
in the 9th Ward in New Orleans!

Friday, January 6, 2006 at 1:00pm
Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco

Contacts:
Kali Aaron Williams, Malcolm X Grassroots Organization: (510) 593-3956
Lisa Milos, Bay to Gulf People's Pipeline: (415) 260-2565
CC Campbell-Rock, Hurricane Evacuees Council of the Bay Area: (925) 339-6435

Press Release

The city of New Orleans is attempting to destroy the homes of 
residents in the Lower 9th Ward. This is in spite of a temporary 
moratorium won by social justice groups against the city which blocks 
attempts to bulldoze the homes of Lower 9th Ward residents. The 
moratorium, which ends on January 6th, 2006, is being circumvented by 
the city through the unconstitutional use of eminent domain. Local 
residents are working alongside Common Ground Collective, and the 
People's Hurricane Relief Fund, a network of grass-roots 
organizations working for the rights of displaced and neglected 
victims of Hurricane Katrina, and are protesting the action and 
calling on citizens everywhere to get involved.

The people of San Francisco call on our government representatives to 
vehemently oppose and denounce this action by the City of New Orleans.

This action by the City of New Orleans sets a dangerous precedent for 
all low income communities of color across the country, especially 
for cities and regions that are prone to natural disasters, such as 
the San Francisco Bay Area.

Homeowners of the historically Black, working-class Lower Ninth Ward 
neighborhood have not been notified or consulted about the plans for 
their neighborhood, and the city has indicated it has no intention of 
contacting owners before demolition. "No one is asking the residents 
anything about reconstruction. We're being thrown to the side," said 
Vera McFadden, a Lower Ninth Ward tenant.

Common Ground and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund are currently 
fighting to have City, State, and Federal Government extend the same 
courtesy and aid to Ninth Ward residents that has been provided to 
property owners in the predominantly white St. Bernard's Parish. The 
residents of St.Bernard Parish (which is less than two miles away and 
damaged just as badly) are being afforded FEMA trailers and the 
freedom to decide what happens to their private property while the 
private properties of the predominantly black Lower 9th residents are 
being illegally bulldozed.

Social Justice and Peace organizations throughout the Bay Area 
denounce the destruction of the homes in this predominantly African 
American neighborhood in New Orleans.

As if it weren't enough that the local, state and federal governments 
abdicated their responsability of adequately funding and securing the 
levee system to prevent such a disaster in the first place, hundreds 
of thousands of evacuees remain stranded in the four corners of this 
country without the resources to return to defend their homes and belongings.

As if it weren't enough that the local, state and federal governments 
did not put into practice any semblance of a coordinated evacuation 
plan for the thousands of residents who had no independent means to 
evacuate prior to the disaster, thousands of evacuees will begin 
facing evictions from their hotels by February 7th.

As if these and countless other documented cases of human rights 
violations perpetrated against the people of New Orleans during and 
after the flooding, the City of New Orleans is using eminent domain 
to violate the civil and property rights of predominantly African 
American and low income residents.

The only way that low income communities of color throughout the Bay 
Area will feel secure that we will not share the same fate in the 
event of a disaster is if our elected representatives publically 
denounce these actions by the City of New Orleans, publically support 
the civil and property rights of the people of the Lower Ninth Ward 
and do everything within their power to stop this dangerous precedent 
from taking place.

For more information about Common Ground: 
<http://www.commongroundrelief.org/>www.commongroundrelief.org.
Phone: (504) 218-6613
For more information about Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund: 
<http://www.communitylaborunited.net/>www.communitylaborunited.net. 
Phone: (888) 310-7473


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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