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<font face="arial" size=3><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>September 5, 2005, 3:30
p.m. CST<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>Press conference:
<br><br>
Tuesday, September 6, 2005<br><br>
4:00 p.m. CST outside the Reliance Center at Kirby and McNee<br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>
New Orleans Black Community Leaders Charge Racism in Government Neglect
of Hurricane Survivors<br><br>
</b><i>Press conference to announce plan to save lives and demand role in
rebuilding effort<br><br>
</i></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>HOUSTON – A national alliance
of black community leaders will announce the formation of a New Orleans
People’s Committee to demand a decision-making role in the short-term
care of hurricane survivors and long-term rebuilding of New Orleans.
<br><br>
<b>Community Labor United (CLU)</b>, a New
Orleans coalition of labor and community activists, has put out a call to
activists and organizations across the country to work on a “people’s
campaign” of community redevelopment. Organizing efforts will take
place across hundreds of temporary shelters.<br><br>
The population of New Orleans is 67 percent black and over 30 percent of
the population lives below the poverty line, reflecting the current
demographic of hurricane survivors displaced all over the South.<br><br>
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the White House,
and Governor Blanco attempt to regain the public’s trust by evading the
question of who’s to blame, a short and long-term plan for New Orleans
hurricane survivors has remained in a political vault of
silence.<br><br>
“This is plain, ugly, real racism,” states Curtis Muhammad, CLU
Organizing Director. “While some politicians and organizations
might skirt around the issue of race, we in New Orleans are not afraid to
call it what it is. The moral values of our government is to ‘shoot
to kill’ hungry, thirsty black hurricane survivors for trying to live
through the aftermath. This is not just immoral—this has turned a
natural disaster into a man-made disaster, fueled by racism.”<br><br>
Leaders of CLU, in alliance with nearly twenty other local organizations
and several national organizations will discuss their plan at a press
conference on <b>Tuesday, September 6, 2005, at 4:00 p.m. CST outside the
Reliance Center at Kirby and McNee</b>. The coalition will
announce:<br><br>
The formation of the New
Orleans People’s Committee composed of hurricane survivors from
each of the shelters, which will:<br><br>
1. Demand to
oversee FEMA, the Red Cross, and other organizations collecting resources
on behalf of the black community of New Orleans<br><br>
2. Demand
decision-making power in the long-term redevelopment of New
Orleans<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3>3.</font>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
Issue a national call
for volunteers to assist with housing, healthcare, education, and legal
matters for the duration of the displacement<br><br>
<br><br>
Tax-exempt donations for the People’s Committee and the national
coalition can be made out to: Young People’s Project, 440 N. Mills
St., Suite 200, Jackson, MS 39202 or visit
</font><a href="http://www.qecr.org/" eudora="autourl">
<font face="arial" size=3 color="#000099">www.qecr.org</a></font>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>.<br><br>
<br><br>
<i>Community Labor United is a coalition of progressive organizations in
New Orleans formed in 1998. Their mission is to build
organizational unity and support efforts that address poverty, racism,
and education. CLU organized in the areas hardest hit by the
hurricane.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><i> Curtis
Muhammad is a veteran Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
organizer and co-founder of CLU.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <b>For more
information, please contact:<br><br>
</b>Curtis Muhammad<br><br>
Community Labor United (CLU)<br><br>
muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net<br><br>
<br><br>
Becky Belcore<br><br>
Quality Education as a Civil Right Campaign, LaRICE volunteer<br><br>
bbelcore@hotmail.com<br><br>
<br><br>
<div align="center"><b><u>Displaced New Orleans Community Demands Action,
Accountability and <br><br>
Initiates A People’s Hurricane Fund<br><br>
</u></b></div>
Not until the fifth day of the federal government’s inept and
inadequate emergency response to the New Orleans’ disaster did George
Bush even acknowledge it was ‘unacceptable.’ ‘Unacceptable’ doesn’t begin
to describe the depth of the neglect, racism and classism shown to the
people of New Orleans. The government’s actions and inactions were
criminal. New Orleans, a city whose population is almost 70% percent
black, 40% illiterate, and many are poor, was left day after day to
drown, to starve and to die of disease and thirst. <br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> The people of New
Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this
country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief
funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants and
the wealthy white districts of New Orleans like the French Quarter and
the Garden District. We will not stand idly by while this disaster is
used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and
condos in a gentrified New Orleans.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> Community Labor
United (CLU), a coalition of the progressive organizations throughout New
Orleans, has brought community members together for eight years to
discuss socio-economic issues. We have been communicating with
people from The Quality Education as a Civil Right Campaign, the Algebra
Project, the Young People’s Project and the Louisiana Research Institute
for Community Empowerment. We are preparing a press release and
framing document that will be out as a draft later today for
comments.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> Here is what we
are calling for:<br><br>
· We are calling
for all New Orleanians remaining in the city to be evacuated immediately.
<br><br>
· We are calling
for information about where every evacuee was taken. We are calling for
black and progressive leadership to come together to meet in Baton Rouge
to initiate the formation of a Community Oversight Committee of evacuees
from all the sites. This committee will demand to oversee FEMA, the
Red Cross and other organizations collecting resources on behalf of our
people. <br><br>
· We are calling
for volunteers to enter the shelters where our people are and to assist
parents with housing, food, water, health care and access to aid.
<br><br>
· We are calling
for teachers and educators to carve out some time to come to evacuation
sites and teach our children. <br><br>
· We are calling
for city schools and universities near evacuation sites to open their
doors for our children to go to school. <br><br>
· We are calling
for health care workers and mental health workers to come to evacuation
sites to volunteer. <br><br>
· We are calling
for lawyers to investigate the wrongful death of those who died, to
protect the land of the displaced, to investigate whether the levies
broke due to natural and other related matters. <br><br>
· We are calling
for evacuees from our community to actively participate in the rebuilding
of New Orleans. <br><br>
· We are calling
for the addresses of all the relevant list serves and press contacts to
send our information.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>We are in the process
of setting up a central command post in Jackson, MS, where we will have
phone lines, fax, email and a web page to centralize information.
We will need volunteers to staff this office.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> We have set up a
People’s Hurricane Fund that will be directed and administered by New
Orleanian evacuees. The Young People’s Project, a 501(c)3
organization formed by graduates of the Algebra Project, has agreed to
accept donations on behalf of this fund. Donations can be mailed
to:<br><br>
<br><br>
The People’s Hurricane Fund c/o The Young People’s Project<br><br>
440 N. Mills St., Suite 200, Jackson, MS 39202<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> If you have
comments of how to proceed or need more information, please email them to
Curtis Muhammad
(</font>
<a href="http://by107fd.bay107.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53DA97-D54F-47C2-B98C-78C945ABF2C9&start=0&len=12915&src=&type=x&to=muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=0AB5B50F-2F08-4704-A9A3-036ADB48973E&a=d5e576b2238f40b15ba12f0944c414b28c3d1f2b91c9a14b5cdeedfb849ccfdb">
<font face="arial" size=3 color="#000099">muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net</a>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>) and Becky Belcore
(</font>
<a href="http://by107fd.bay107.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53DA97-D54F-47C2-B98C-78C945ABF2C9&start=0&len=12915&src=&type=x&to=bbelcore@hotmail.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=0AB5B50F-2F08-4704-A9A3-036ADB48973E&a=d5e576b2238f40b15ba12f0944c414b28c3d1f2b91c9a14b5cdeedfb849ccfdb">
<font face="arial" size=3 color="#000099">bbelcore@hotmail.com</a></font>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>).<br><br>
<br><br>
Thank you.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#003399">Becky Belcore <br>
Volunteer Organizer <br>
Louisiana Research Institute for Community Empowerment (LaRICE) <br>
<a href="mailto:bbelcore@hotmail.com">bbelcore@hotmail.com</a><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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