| WASHINGTON - September 26 - In response to the ground swell among community activists and concerned citizens from the evacuated areas in Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina, PHRF and the NLG made requests pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) and the Louisiana Open Records Act to locate the names, residence, and current contact information for those persons evacuated from the State of Louisiana during and after Katrina. PHRF and the NLG requested the following information: 1) the identity and location of each individual evacuated from the State of Louisiana from August 26, 2005 through the present as a result of Hurricane Katrina; 2) identification, information, and whereabouts of each individual from the State of Louisiana who FEMA has provided emergency assistance to as a result of Hurricane Katrina; and 3) the identity and location of each organizational entity, in any State, to which FEMA has provided emergency assistance of goods or financial resources toward provision of shelter, immediate and temporary/long-term, and other services to persons evacuated from any place in the State of Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina so that all of those directly affected and displaced have the opportunity to include their voices in the rebuilding of their communities.
"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 the rebuilding of casinos, hotels, chemical plants, and 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." -Statement of the Displaced New Orleans Community, Community Labor United, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition.
The FOIA requests were served upon the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security. PHRF and NLG plan to disseminate this information in order to ensure transparency from FEMA and other major organizations raising funds and resources in the name of hurricane relief. This information will also be used to facilitate the return of hurricane survivors, and ensure local, grassroots leadership and participation in every phase of rebuilding.
Organizing nationally, the PHRF is committed to supporting the leadership and oversight by evacuees in all aspects of the rebuilding process including family reunification, legal and health support, education and delivery of urgently needed supplies. The NLG is part of this national demand for the community-based reconstruction of New Orleans.
“We are dedicated to being an integral part of the return to the way the Gulf Coast can be, not what it was, or what large corporations would have. The Gulf Coast should be built with the people, and for the people, not on top of us.” -National Lawyers Guild.
Several of the groups that make up the growing PHRF come out of Community Labor United (“CLU”). Formed in 1998, CLU is a coalition of progressive organizations based in New Orleans, whose mission is to build organizational unity and support efforts that address poverty, racism, and education. CLU focused their organizing and collaborative action efforts in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, comprises over 6,000 members and activists in the service of the people. Its national office is headquartered in New York and it has chapters in nearly every state, as well as over 100 law school chapters
Community Labor United (CLU), New Orleans
Partial List of Participating Organizations:
ACORN New Orleans
Agenda For Children
Ashé Cultural Center
Christian Unity Baptist Church
Committee for the Support of the Angola 3
Crescent City Peace Alliance
Critical Resistance
Dillard University (Faculty and Staff from various Departments) Deep South Center for Environmental Justice Frederick A. Douglass Community Coalition Friends and Family of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children Green Party New Orleans Guardians of the Flame (A Mardi Gras Indian Club) INCITE! New Orleans Chapter Junebug Productions (A theater company) Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana Information Works ((A Research and Data organization) Louisiana Research Institute for Community Empowerment (LaRICE) NAACP New Orleans Chapter The Nation of Islam New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization Pax Christi Parents For Educational Justice People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond Plessy Park Project Students at the Center Teens With Attitude Tulane University Faculty and Staff of Deep South Humanities Program UNITE Local 652 United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT) UrbanHeart (An after School Program for Frederick Douglass feeder schools) Xavier University (Faculty and Staff from of Social Sciences Departments)
###
|
Printer Friendly Version
E-Mail This Article
