Five years ago a 175-mile-per-hour hurricane hit New Orleans killing 2,000 poor people and destroying $80 billion of property. Labors Militant Voice and the Campaign for Renters Rights sent Jeremy Prickett down to Louisiana to help tenants self-organize against perhaps the biggest wave of forced evictions in US history.
Below is an entry from his blog account of his stay in New Orleans, others can still be found at www.bringdownbush.org
“The life is hard here.”
November 1st, 2005 New Orleans, LA
The residents holding out at Louisbourg Square are a tough bunch. They have been under so much pressure they are starting to suffer physically. Immediately after the big confrontation last Tuesday, Bertha was visibly affected. She was throwing up the next day. That was also the day her notice of eviction was served and the sheriff covering his badge paid her a visit that night. I took a medic from the Common Ground clinic at 2:00 am when she was vomiting all night.
I was taking photos this morning of undamaged apartments and barricaded parking lots with the cars of residents trapped inside. I had my first confrontation with the contractor today. I was talking to Elaine when he came up and told her to move her car out of the her spot so he could work there, otherwise he’d block it in. We made ourselves clear and he called the property manager. She didn’t want to bother dealing with us and backed down.
Elaine had stepped on a nail the day before and was going to get a tetanus shot. I took her down to the clinic in Algiers for a free one. I had an idea. The hearing is tomorrow and we are having a support rally at the court. All the remaining tenants will be there and we expect the media. The clinic staff agreed to send a nurse to the rally and give free tetanus shots.
Sonia called me. She was very sick too. She has a history of bronchitis and was not well at all. I drove back to get her and take her to the clinic. She opened up to me.
“The life here is hard. The life in this country for poor people is very hard.” Sonia then began telling me how happy she was that we were helping her especially with the doctor.
“When I first came to this country I thought it would be free and happy. It is only happy for the rich people. When I first came here I hurt my foot working as a cleaner. I went to three clinics they did help. They said to not work. I had to work. I had five small children to feed. The foot turned black. They had to cut it off, amputate it.
“I left Guatemala because of the political situation. My children found 12 dead bodies with this (genitals) cut off and put in mouth. They said it was guerillas, but I think it was the army.
“We came here and the life is so hard, always something bad happening. They talk about terrorists. They are the terrorists. Taking our homes is terrorism.”
Jeremy
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