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Article from "A Katrina Reader: Readings by and for Anti-Racist Educators and Organizors
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and New Orleans? Are Katrina Survivors Part of Bush's "Axis of Evil"
Table of Contents Section:
Organization: 
Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition
Date Published: 
02/01/2007
Link: 
http://www.peopleshurricane.org/storage/documents/Bush%20Visit%20Press%20Stateme...


People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and

Oversight Coalition (PHRF)


1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2

New Orleans, LA 70116

Telephone: 504 301 0215



Press Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information Contact:

March 1, 2007

Kali Akuno, PHRF Director 504.301.0215

Monifa Bandele, Change the Game 917.407.3018


Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and New Orleans?

Are Katrina Survivors a Part of Bush’s “Axis of Evil”

 

The Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund demands an end to the war in Iraq and that those funds be redirected to rebuild New Orleans and to provide relief to hurricane survivors. The Bush administration uses billions of US tax dollars per month to propagate war against the people of Iraq, and to violate the human rights of third world people from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay. These crimes do not halt at the US border. George Bush is also responsible for human rights crimes in New Orleans before, during and after the Katrina catastrophe. Those crimes include wrongful imprisonment, racial discrimination, neglect resulting in death, and the separation of children from families –which all constitute crimes against humanity under civil and human rights law.


The exodus of some 800,000 people from the flood-ravaged Gulf Coast represents the largest forced displacement of Black people in the U.S. since Reconstruction. Some 15 months after Katrina struck, the estimated population of New Orleans is 210,000 – down from 484,000 before August 29, 2006—when 327,000 or 67.9% were African American. Today, estimates of the Black population of New Orleans range between 73,000 and 89,000, between 35% and 42% of the total. Some 203,300 Black people from New Orleans are still displaced in Texas and 59% of them live in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, thousands of units of undamaged public housing units remain locked since the storm.


The primary obstacle to poor Black people returning home is the deliberate failure of government and corporate developers to repair and replenish New Orleans’ housing stock. The people of New Orleans have a right to return. That right is being violated both physically and economically.


Bush is not welcomed in New Orleans until he does right by the people from New Orleans to Iraq.

  • End the war in Iraq

  • Redirect funds to rebuild decent affordable housing New Orleans

  • Compensate all victims of Katrina for their losses

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