A poignant march around the locked down St. Bernard development led by the traditional brass band with the people singing, “I need my home! Don’t take my housing!” and chanting, “No demolitions!” was broken up by the NOPD arresting nationally renowned housing and human rights advocates Cheri Honkala of Philadelphia and Willie J.R. Fleming of Chicago as well as a reporter. Watch the action at http://youtube.com/watch?v=9GPjNhVUzqk. Photo: Laura Ayers

Mr. Kälin, who is in town at the invitation of several civil society organizations, met with public officials and civil society organizations in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14 and will be touring the Gulf Coast and Houston and talking with internally displaced survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as well as human rights monitors.

"From New Orleans to Cabrini Green to Indonesia to Zimbabwe, displaced poor people are seeing the wholesale destruction of our communities and violation of our human rights. Attacks on poor people and people of color everywhere need to be documented, exposed and fought. The struggle for the right of return and against the demolition of viable public housing in New Orleans in the midst of a housing crisis of unknown proportions is one of the most pressing human rights struggles in the country right now," says Mr. Fleming.

Mr. Fleming's accompaniment and documentation of Mr. Kälin's visit is part of ongoing support by members of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign for the struggle by Gulf Coast residents and displaced people everywhere for the right to return and the right to housing and healthcare, subjects which will be the focus of the Campaign's Human Rights Tribunal and massive poor people's "March for Our Lives" at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, in early September. Mr. Fleming will use the opportunity of Mr. Kälin's visit to build momentum in the South for the March for Our Lives, where there will be substantial representation of the Gulf Coast communities affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

For more information, call Willie J.R. Fleming at (312) 735-6894 or email Shamako at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Shamako writes: "The decision to demolish the St. Bernard projects and the subsequent silencing and oppression of residents and supporters simply echo what Kamikaze once said after returning home from Europe and subsequently being banned for comments he'd made about Bush: ‘There really is no free speech.' Please support J.R., the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the right to housing."

The right of return

This excerpt from "First came Katrina, then came HUD: Activists battle to save New Orleans public housing" by Lewis Wallace, posted at www.inthesetimes.com/article/3504/first_came_katrina_then_came_hud/, describes the Dec. 15 New Orleans police attack on J.R. Fleming.

Public housing in New Orleans was nearly 100 percent Black at the time of the storm in 2005.

"They want to rid this city of Black folks," said Malcolm Suber, a long-time local activist and one of the founders of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund. "We have livable spaces across the street from here and people can't live in them."

Suber spoke at a Dec. 15 demonstration outside St. Bernard, where about 100 people celebrated with food, music, dancing and speeches following a Dec. 14 state court order that forced City Council to take an active stance on the demolitions before HUD could proceed with its plans.

Kali Akuno, 35, the national organizer for the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and one of the coordinators of the Coalition to Stop the Demolitions, said he believes the privatization of the city is a result of national right-wing efforts to privatize social services.

"HUD is destroying the material basis for the right of return," says Akuno, who sees St. Bernard as the epicenter of New Orleans' housing struggle.

Akuno says St. Bernard could house some of the tens of thousands of people receiving eviction notices from FEMA trailers, or used as transitional housing for the growing homeless population.

Shortly after Akuno and others spoke at the Dec. 15 demonstration, police had a skirmish with protesters, arresting activist Cheri Honkala for allegedly "impersonating an officer." Honkala says she stepped out into the street to try to prevent a passing car from striking protesters.

When Chicago-based activist Willie J.R. Fleming challenged Honkala's arrest, he says police cuffed him and threw him against a car. One cameraman, Richard Rowley of New York-based Big Noise Films, filmed Fleming's arrest.

Fleming, who is a director at the Chicago Coalition to Protect Public Housing, traveled with eight resident organizers from Cabrini Green housing projects in Chicago, where residents have been fighting demolitions since the late ‘90s.

Tag it:

?