Fighting the Theft of New Orleans The Rhythm of Resistance

I wrote a brief intro to this (excellent) article but it turned out quite long so im going to paste it below the article. I can't help relating New Orleans back to regenicide in Hackney East London, something I'm more familiar with. The scale is different of course, but the common features striking: state-corporate deployed emergency as tool for mass expropriation of poor (black) people; primitive accumulation (of former public property) on an industrial scale; (one-way) consultation at gunpoint; liquidity and displacement; and finally a reflux of real resistance against the tidal wave of gentrification and fictitious capital.B

http://www.blackcommentator.com/167/167_cover_fighting_no_theft_pf.htmlTheBlackC om m e n t a t o rIssue 167 - January 19, 2006

Cover StoryFighting the Theft of New Orleans The Rhythm ofResistanceby BC Publishers Glen Ford and Peter Gamble

"I don't think it's right that you take ourproperties. Over my dead body. I didn't die withKatrina." - Lower 9th Ward resident Caroline Parker.

"Joe Canizaro, I don't know you, but I hate you. I'mgoing to suit up like I'm going to Iraq and fightthis." -Â New Orleans East resident Harvey Bender,referring to the author of the city commission's"rebuilding" plan.

The overwhelmingly Black New Orleans diaspora isreturning in large numbers to resist relentlessefforts to bully and bulldoze them out of the city'sfuture. "Struggle on the ground has intensifiedenormously. A number of groups are in motion, movingagainst the mayor's commission," said MtanguliziSanyika, spokesman for the African American LeadershipProject (AALP). "Increasing numbers of people arecoming back into the city. You can feel the politicalrhythm."

Mayor Ray Nagin's commission has presented residentsof flood-battered, mostly African Americanneighborhoods with a Catch-22, carefully crafted topreclude New Orleans from ever again becoming the morethan two-thirds Black city it was before HurricaneKatrina breached the levees. Authored by Nagin crony,real estate development mogul and George Bushfundraiser Joseph Canizaro, the plan would impose afour-month moratorium on building in devastatedneighborhoods like the lower Ninth Ward and NewOrleans East. During that period, the neighborhoodswould be required to come up with a plan to show howthey would become "viable" by reaching an undefined"critical mass" of residents.

But the moratorium, itself, discourages people fromrebuilding their neighborhoods - just as it isintended to do - thus creating a fait accompli:residents will be hard pressed to prove that a"critical mass" of habitation can be achieved.

"It's circular reasoning," said the AALP's Sanyika.They talk about "some level of neighborhood viability,but no one knows what that means. What constitutesviable plans? What kinds of neighborhoods are viable?Everywhere you turn people are trying to rebuild, butthere is this constraint."

The commission is empowered only to makerecommendations, but with the help of corporate media,pretends their plan is set in stone. "They keeppushing their recommendations as though they are thegospel truth," said Sanyika, who along with tens ofthousands of other evacuees has been dispersed toHouston, five hours away. "There is confusion as toall of these recommendations, issued as if they arepolicy. The Times-Picayune contributes to thatconfusion. None of this is a given."

Activists believe the way to play this situation isfor residents to forge ahead on their own. "Trying tofigure out the logic of that illogical proposal is awasted effort - all you're going to do is wind upgoing in circles," said Sanyika. He emphasizes thatthe commission's recommendations are not binding onanyone - certainly not on the majority Black citycouncil, which claims authority in city planningmatters. They're not buying the nonsense. "The citycouncil has rejected it. Nagin says ‘ignore it.' Ithink it's dead in the water," said Sanyika.

The city council has attempted to block Nagin'scollaboration with corporate developers - a hallmarkof his tenure - voting to give itself authority overwhere to place FEMA trailers. (Only about 5,000 of aprojected 25,000 trailers arrived, say communityactivists.) Nagin vetoed the bill, but the counciloverrode him. The council has also endorsed equitabledevelopment of neighborhoods, rather than shrinkingthe city. "We [the African American LeadershipProject] are developing a resolution to that effect,"said Sanyika. Odds are that it will pass - but thequestion is, who wields power in post-Katrina NewOrleans, where only one-third of the city's previouspopulation of nearly half a million has returned?

It is in this context that one must view Mayor Nagin'sstatement to a mostly Black crowd gathered at CityHall for a Martin Luther King Day march, on Monday: "Idon't care what people will say - uptown, or whereverthey are. At the end of the day, this city will bechocolate…. This city will be a majority AfricanAmerican city. It's the way God wants it to be. Youcan't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't beNew Orleans."

Ray Nagin is probably the most disoriented person inthe country, these days - the fruit of his ownvenality, sleeziness, and opportunism. A corporateexecutive, sports entrepreneur and nominal Democrat,he contributed to the Bush campaign in 2000 (Democratsdubbed him "Ray Reagan") and endorsed a Republicancandidate for governor in 2003 (see BC November 20,2003). Now he doesn't have a clue as to where thepower lies or where his base is centered. "Nagin isplaying a game, trying to have it both ways," says theAALP's Sanyika - but his options are shrinking as fastas the city envisioned by his buddy, Joe Canizaro,with whom he habitually worked hand in hand, but whomhe now tells Blacks to "ignore."

Who's in charge in New Orleans?

Canizaro is clearly the center of gravity on the"mayor's" commission which, although integrated, isessentially a corporate concoction. The commission'sslogan, "Bring New Orleans Back," is a euphemism forbringing the city "back" to the days before Black ruleby erecting multiple barriers to the return of Blackresidents. Of course, even when Black mayors holdtitular office in New Orleans, Canizaro's crowd runsthe show. His bio, posted on the commission's website,shows Canizaro to be the major domo of the city's realestate, development, banking, and pro-businesspolitical machinations. Canizaro is also a Trustee andformer Chairman of the Urban Land Institute, theplanning outfit that is determined to turn Blackneighborhoods into swamp.

Since shortly after New Years, the commission has beenfeverishly working to appear to be an empoweredgovernmental entity, tasking subcommittees to presentreports and recommendations several days a week onGovernment Effectiveness, Education, Health and SocialServices, Culture, and Infrastructure. What Black NewOrleans had been waiting for was presentation of theUrban Planning Committee Final Report, Wednesday,January 11. An overflow crowd at the Sheraton Hotelhissed Mayor Nagin and booed the hated Canizaro.Others cursed and vowed that they would be exiled onlyover their dead bodies.

"Four Months to Decide" read the headline of theTimes-Picayune, on the day of the official unveilingof the commission's recommendations, a blueprint forthe displacement of hundreds of thousands. In thepacked hotel spaces, residents alternated between rageand deep anxiety at the ultimatum. "I don't think fouror five months is close to enough time given all wewould need to do," said Robyn Braggs. "Families withschool-age children won't be able to even return to dothe work necessary until this summer."

Cities with 25,000 or more displaced New Orleansresidents include Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis,and Baton Rouge. Others are scattered to the fourwinds. Their children will be enrolled in far-flungschools until the June deadline.

Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, currentlypresident of the National Urban League, called thecommission's scheme a "massive red-lining plan wrappedaround a giant land grab." With the situation souncertain, and time so short, homeowners will havedifficulty settling with their insurance companies intime. Said Morial:"It's cruel to bar people from rebuilding. Tellingpeople they can't rebuild for four months istantamount to saying they can't ever come back. It'stelling people who have lost almost everything thatwe're going to take the last vestige of what theyown."

And what about renters, who made up well over half ofresidents? Such people have no place in George Bush's"ownership society" - especially if they are Black.Bush put his smirking stamp of approval on thecorporate plan during an oblivious visit to NewOrleans, last week. "It may be hard for you to see,but from when I first came here to today, New Orleansis reminding me of the city I used to visit."

Apparently, the president doesn't read newspapersbecause he is blind - except to the cravings of hisclass. Bush's Gulf Opportunity Zone Act providesbillions in tax dodges for (big) business, while thethreatened permanent depopulation of Black New Orleanswould eliminate the possibility of return for thenearly 8,000 (small) Black businesses that served theneighborhoods.

Self-styled Black capitalists take note: this is thenature of the beast. Bush fronts for a class for whichKatrina is not a catastrophe, but an opportunity. Theybelieve devoutly in "creative chaos" - the oftenviolent destruction of the old, so that new profitscan be squeezed from the rubble. Through theirCatch-22 ultimatums, they are deliberately inflictingadditional "creative chaos" on the displaced people ofNew Orleans. The fact that the victims are mostlyBlack, makes it all the easier. Or so they assume.

The Resistance

Grassroots community groups, along with platoons ofnon-native volunteers, are refusing to acquiesce tothe greatest attempted urban theft in Americanhistory. At a conference organized by MtanguliziSanyika's African American Leadership Project andaffiliated organizations, progressive urban plannersexplored ways to make the new New Orleans a betterplace for the people who live there, rather than forravenous corporations and new populations. The expertsincluded Dr. Ed Blakely, of the University of Sydney,Australia; MIT's Dr. Phil Thompson, housing aide toformer New York Mayor David Dinkins; and AbdulRasheed, who helped rebuild the flood ravaged Blacktown of Princeville, North Carolina after a hurricanein the Nineties.

The coalition also held a Town Hall meeting attendedby leaders of 15 national organizations, including Dr.Ron Daniel's Institute of the Black World, Nation ofIslam leader Louis Farrakhan, and movers and shakersfrom the Progressive Baptist Convention and theNational Baptist Convention USA. National co-sponsorsincluded the Hip Hop Caucus, Black Voices for Peace,the Black Family Summit of the Millions More Movement,and the National Black Environmental Justice Network(NBEJN).

(Dr. Robert Bullard, of the NBEJN-affiliatedEnvironmental Justice Resource Center at Clark-AtlantaUniversity, has published the grim but very usefulreport: "A Twenty-Point Plan to Destroy Black NewOrleans.")

Neighborhood groups are mobilizing to confront theracist/corporate onslaught. "Every other day somemajor event is happening," said Sanyika. Variousgroups held marches during MLK weekend, carrying signssuch as "We're Back," "Stop Displacement," and"Rebuild With People."

On February 7th, a National Mobilization ofprogressive forces will descend on the U.S. Capitol inWashington to pressure Congress to halt the juggernautof expulsion and give substance to the people's Rightto Return. Although there are literally thousands oflarge and small Katrina-related projects operatingthroughout the nation, many of the New Orleansorganizers are handicapped by the fact of their owndisplacement. A great moral and political challengepresents itself to Black and progressive America: Willthey rise to the occasion in the face of a real,imminent, well-defined crisis - as opposed to thegeneral conditions addressed by the Million Man andMillions More rallies? February 7th will be a test ofBlack political resolve and cohesion. And there willbe many more.

Meanwhile, New Orleans in some ways resembles apoignant scene from bygone wars, when lists of thedead were published on public walls. The "Red DangerList" is posted in local papers, designatingproperties that are "in imminent danger of collapse"and, therefore, subject to demolition without theconsent of the owners. To date, over 5,000 buildingshave been red tagged.

The "Flood Map" is a kind of municipal schematic of acemetery, delineating the parts of the city that willbe caused to die. Residents on the wrong side of thelines will be unable to get flood insurance, whichcertainly means no meaningful investment can occur inthose areas. The map was last published in 1984, andis now being updated.

You can be sure that Black folks are not in charge ofthe mapping.

Katrina has shown us many things. One, is thehollowness of the purely electoral Black strategy (andits cousin, lobbying) that followed the shutdown ofmass movements after the death of Martin Luther King,Jr. It is a great irony that, while we rant at FEMA'sinability (or unwillingness) to respond to the Katrinacrisis, Black America finds itself desperatelysearching for the "people power" tools to effectivelycounter the post-Katrina aggression.

The citizens of New Orleans are paying the cost forthe mistakes of the late Sixties and early Seventies,when aspiring electoral and corporate officeholdersconvinced Black folks that mass movements were nolonger necessary. Progress would trickle down from thenewly acquired heights. Popular political capitalcould be wisely invested in the few, the upwardlymobile.

What we got was chicken-with-his-head-cut-off RayNagin and his many counterparts in plush officesacross Black America. We must invent Black Power allover again, under changed conditions. New Orleans inits present state is the worst possible place to start- but that's where we're at.

BC Publishers Glen Ford and Peter Gamble are writing abook to be titled, Barack Obama and the Crisis inBlack Leadership.

Mtangulizi Sanyika, of the African American LeadershipProject, can be contacted at Wazuri@aol.com.

--Some comments

this is an excellent article and seems to capture all the moments ofcontemporary regenicide as played out on the grandest/ most abject scalein New Orleans, right down to the 'creative' use of chaos and emergency to produce capitalist 'opportunity' ie mega-theft. (will Newer Orleans betwinned with Lagos? what will Koolhaas learn from the organised resistance of decanted blacks against forced deshantification?)

on the other hand, great developments in 'bringing the (gulf) war home'are documented here, with those whom the war has been brought home toelecting in turn to bring it home to those that homed in on their homes.

the ground rent scam this fightback opposes shows just how much Katrinaand after is turning into the paradigmatic exercise in death by (liquid)'regeneration'. corporate servant ray nagin places a 'moratorium' onrebuilding (as elsewhere states allow working class homes to rot unlessthey are transferred into private ownership) in order to force the 'correct' - most corporate-friendly - choice when the popular consultation('only 4 months to decide!') takes place. while the people wait to return to and/or rebuild their homes, the speculators que up to suck in the taxbreaks/flow of subsidy for buildings which are primarily concretisedspeculative abstractions not homes or necessary infrastructure.

it's obviously a bit dubious to overstretch the resemblances, but i can't help feeling it's all uncannily like a macro-version of the logic of yeold hackney siege/sell-offs/caff occupation (cf Mute articles: Run Eli Run! - Notes on the Hackney Siege, Fear Death by Water, The Re-Occupation) - not to mention the thames gateway floodplain swelling on the horizon: there is not only a zone of (economic) exception (tax breaks for developers and a moratorium on development for black businesses), but the aim is the same as it wasregarding poor eli and other more legit black small businessmen of Hackney (eg Spirit...) - permanent displacement, reposession of property, etc.

Whereas classically capital squeezed workers out of the process ofproduction in the pursuit of expanded accumulation by deployment of moreefficient technology, now it squeezes them out of their homes to free upmore property for (ultimately unproductive, fictitious) capitalisation.the cannibalistic rapine of redevelopment has never been so blatant withthe inhabitants forcibly restrained from restoring the use-values of theirhomes. they are simply a surplus population in the US's post-industrialeconomy and are being asked to vote themselves out to make way for amassive new city of debt-backed consumption and financial services. withthe US housing bubble showing all signs of deflating (softly or sharply,depending which analysts you read), the liquidity-activated turbines ofthis 'economic motor' (ie apartments, stadiums for keeping refugees in,etc) may not even perform the usual task of expanding claims onunvalorisable, over-valued, value.

unlike the hackney siege, in this case, however, the collective eli isorganised and may be more effective in resisting the onrush of liquidity:'I'm going to suit up like I'm going to Iraq and fight this.' It soundslike the pro and anti-multiculturalist forces are converging around theconcrete demand for return to their homes and against demolition. this isan odd or unpromising coalition but according to the article at least isbeing stretched into more attractive forms by the sudden urgent need forself-organisation - 'people power' > electoralism and faith in trickledown from new black elites etc. this article seems to suggest that thecurrent 'representatives'/ points of aggregation of the black community -baptist and muslim, black nationalist, million men marchers etc - couldhave their game raised by the situation, though the could equally be saidto be smothering the germs of a wider revolt? clearly the authors of thepiece want to intervene to burst the illusions of the post-black powerperiod and make the petrified conditions dance by playing them old soulmusic.

The conclusion seems especially helpful in spelling out the possibilitythat the present time represents not just the crisis and re-iteration ofmulticulturalism but the moment at which all its ugly assumptions andpreconditions are becoming intolerably clear - hence a new opportunity formoving beyond the sclerosis of the post-60s cooptation of black radicalisminto a buppy version of american dream:

"The citizens of New Orleans are paying the cost forthe mistakes of the late Sixties and early Seventies,when aspiring electoral and corporate officeholdersconvinced Black folks that mass movements were nolonger necessary. Progress would trickle down from thenewly acquired heights. Popular political capitalcould be wisely invested in the few, the upwardlymobile.

"What we got was chicken-with-his-head-cut-off RayNagin and his many counterparts in plush officesacross Black America. We must invent Black Power allover again, under changed conditions. New Orleans inits present state is the worst possible place to start- but that's where we're at."