| [Activism] Katrina: Direct Action vs. Government Guns |
Click here to support the Common Ground Health Clinic (Black Panther Clinic)
Imagine
an alternative Hurricane Katrina scenario where progressives,
firefighters and nurses are in power. They can effectively respond to
disaster in ways that the US government cannot. While the natural
disaster might not have been avoided
, the humanitarian disaster could
have been largely prevented.
Firefighters are paid to be
trained, supplied, coordinated and ready to jump at moments' notice in
anticipation of possible disaster. We even pay
them to go to false
alarms, which are expensive.
Health care workers such as nurses
also spend most of their time taking care of simple and non-emergency
cases. Yet they are prepared to handle
critical emergencies, care for
their patients as human beings, and are health advocates - counselling
illness prevention.
It is progressives with their principles of
equality that work to eliminate poverty and racism as a structural
necessity that can prioritize people instead of inequality.
In
the dry Algiers section of New Orleans, community activist Malik Rahim
demanded opening empty schools, churches and centers to evacuees. His
mosque became a first aid clinic. Progressive organization Move On!
called for Americans to open up their houses to evacuees - a humane and
sensible option. Meanwhile the government housed military personnel in
luxury New Orleans hotels and spacious 'tent cities' with full
facilities. They and the Red Cross evacuated poor, homeless survivors
across the country and into crowded, dangerous, militarized shelters.
Crowded shelters spread more diseases than the natural disaster.
Despite
the need for a civil humanitarian response, the government's rescue
operation has been a massive show of security forces with New Orleans
resembling Baghdad. FEMA (The Federal Emergency Management
Association), folded into the post 9-11 super Department of Homeland
Security, disregarded concrete threats of natural disasters which was
its original mandate, concentrating on imagined terrorist threats.
To
understand the federal response to Katrina, you need to understand its
activity as a continuation of post 9/11 and the Iraq occupation: to
militarize and privatize; promote the menace of crime and terrorism;
intimidate the population while eviscerating social
services, minority
and worker rights.
Nevertheless, effective progressive
community-based responses have emerged. In the mostly poor black
community of Algiers New Orleans, a call-out from progressive community
organizers with Common Ground was met by volunteers providing relief
and home
repairs to survivors, and by action-medics who established a
free health clinic. Public health officials acknowledge that the clinic
now staffed by volunteer health professionals, has outperformed other
state and private clinics in the storm-battered region. Supported by a
variety of national progressive organizations, Common Ground is
building a nucleus of community-controlled social infrastructure that
is both efficient and essential. Meanwhile, as clinics and hospitals
run short-staffed or close for lack of staff, the Feds, echoing the
Louisiana government, are now telling volunteer health workers they are
no longer needed.
Government agencies and military units
organized for terrorism and combat have been ineffective, and scary for
the hurricane survivors. Security forces occupied New Orleans, sweeping
the streets with patrols - but the streets were not being swept of
fetid garbage. Humvees were brought in while garbage trucks were kept
out. They, the Red Cross, the media and the many charities treated the
majority black and survivors as charity problems or even domestic
criminal "insurgents" to be controlled, not people to be in solidarity
with. We have witnessed countless frightening examples of these
agencies dominated by middle class white managers treating poor
survivors with d...
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