Category: Uncategorized

Protest the crimes of British Petroleum and the painfully slow and woefully inadequate response by both BP and the US Government

From the People’s Gulf Emergency Summit Saturday in New Orleans, we found out that the Deepwater Horizon Unified Response Command Center has moved to New Orleans, near the infamous Superdome where many poor and black people were forced to evacuate to after Hurricane Katrina.

We will be delivering provisional demands. Come out to show your opposition to the destruction of the Gulf.

When: Monday, June 21

Time: Noon to two

Where: 1250 Poydras St (Eni Petroleum)

Bring: your signs, bullhorns, and energy.

(There may be opportunity for Civil Resistance)

for more information: 504 644 7214 gulfemergencysummit (at) gmail. Thanks to Cindy Sheehan for design.

1) Stop oil drilling in the gulf, full compensation, retraining and new employment, including public works, for all affected

2) The government and entire oil industry must allocate all necessary resources to stop and clean up the spill, prevent oil from hitting shore, protect wildlife, treat injured wildlife, and repair all devastation. Full support, including by compensation, must be given to peoples’ efforts on all these fronts and to save the Gulf.

3) No punishment to those taking independent initiative; no gag orders on people hired, contracted, or who volunteer; those responsible for this crime against the environment and the people should be prosecuted.

4) Full mobilization of scientists and engineers. Release scientific and technical data to the public; no more lying and covering up. Immediately end use of dispersants; full, open scientific evaluation of nature and impact of dispersants. Fund all necessary scientific and medical research.

5) Full compensation for all losing livelihood and income from the disaster.

6) Provide necessary medical services to those suffering health effects of the spill. Protect the health of and provide necessary equipment for everyone involved in clean up operations. Full disclosure of medical and scientific studies about the effects of the oil disaster.

New Orleans, La. C3/Hands Off Iberville and other New Orleans Community groups will hold a press conference on June 29 at 5:30 PM in front of the Housing Authority of New Orleans headquarters to demand the federal government create a massive federal public works program to address the current housing, jobs, and Gulf oil spill crises. We will then attend HANO’s public hearing on their 2010-2011 annual plan and deliver this message to the federal-government controlled agency.

Instead of cutbacks planned by HANO, and other city, state, and federal agencies and officials across the country, we need an expansion of government services to meet unmet and pressing human needs. This initiative can be financed by immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and closing foreign military bases, ending and forcing repayment of bank and other corporate bailouts, and taxing the wealthy.

New Orleans remains devastated 5 years after Hurricane Katrina. Affordable housing remains scarce, with the city having the nation’s highest percentage of renters–41%–paying at last half their wages in rent and utilities. Homelessness has quadrupled, per capita, since Katrina, while over 34,000 families are on waiting lists for public housing and section 8 vouchers–and thousands more would sign up if HANO reopened the waiting lists! Charity hospital, the major provider of health care pre-Katrina, remains closed–not because of a “natural” disaster, but rather due to the very human, and intentional actions taken by Governors Blanco, and now Jindal, to kill public health care.

New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast are now being hit with the oil drilling disaster that is putting thousands more of people out of work and destroying communities and the environment. These city and regional disasters are on top of the worst economic depression since the 1930s facing the entire country, with over 20% of the workforce either unemployed or underemployed.

How are governments from the national to local level responding to these multiple crises? With more cuts to social services, further privatizations, while the wars and bailouts of the wealthy, and their corporations, continue. HANO’s proposed cutbacks for fiscal year 2010-2011 are representative of the austerity measures being taken by Republicans and Democratic Party-controlled legislatures, administrations, and agencies across the country. HANO executive director David Gilmore, who has played a major role in public housing demolition and privatization across the country over the last generation, is continuing that legacy in New Orleans. The 2010-2011 agency plan he crafted, in collaboration with the Obama administration, includes:

• Demolition of all 127 apartments at the Florida development, and no plans to rebuild. Before its redevelopment, pre-Katrina, Florida had 734 units (see p. 33, HANO Annual Plan, 2010-11)
• Demolition of approximately 500 scattered site apartments (of a total of over 700), with no plans to rebuild. HANO is working with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to decide their “best use”–i.e. handing over highly valued real estate parcels to developers (see pp. 34-43; 63, Attachment K, p,.10; HANO Annual Plan, 2010-11 ).
• Privatization and demolition at Iberville. HANO plans to apply for a HOPE VI grant to “redevelop” the Iberville project into a “mixed income” development. As happened at St. Thomas, “redevelopment” and “mixed income” are code words for drastically reducing the current stock of approximately 850 public housing apartments, resulting in further displacement, hardship, and reduction in affordable housing (see p. 30, HANO Annual Plan 2010-11 )

Is there an alternative to the austerity and further misery planned by HANO and other levels of government? Do we have to sit idly by while BP destroys the Gulf and the government subordinates itself to these corporate criminals, relegated to providing security and public relations services? The success of US’s public works program shows there is an alternative: 75 years ago the Civil Works Administration, in four and a half months built or repaired 33,850 public building, carried out 3,220 flood control projects, built from scratch 1,000 airports and 3,700 playgrounds. Within the first week of its operation, it employed 1.1 million workers and employment peaked at 4.2 million. The total cost of the project was $30 billion in 2006 dollars.

In 6 years the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built 116,000 bridges, 5,600 new schools, 30,000 new public buildings, financed thousands of public murals, put on thousands of plays and concerts, paid for local histories and employed nearly eight million people –in a country with less than half our present population.

We can, and must, do it again.

New Orleans Community Groups Demand Federal Government Create Massive Public Works Program to Address Housing, Jobs, and Gulf Spill Crises.

No to Austerity. Public Works to Stop the Spill, Clean up the Gulf, and Rebuild America and World.

Press Conference: Tuesday, June 29, 5:30 PM at the HANO office, 4100 Touro St., New Orleans

For more information, contact Jay Arena at 504-520-9521

By Nick Braune

Each year billions of dollars are ripped off from workers, through all sorts of little scams. It is very common apparently, when workers leave a job, for their employers to “forget” to pay for the last week or so of work. And employers scam billions of dollars annually by underpaying overtime hours. Whether lots of money is involved or not so much, it is still a fairness issue, and wage theft hurts the wage-earners, their dependents and the community. Checking online, I found several organizations fighting against wage theft nationally; it is a huge problem.

One new attorney working on this issue is in the Rio Grande Valley. I met him at the groundbreaking for the new South Texas Civil Rights Project (STCRP) office planned in Alamo. (Their current offices are getting too crowded at Cesar Chavez Road and Business 83.) The lawyer is Elliott Tucker, and he recently joined STCRP after graduating from Georgetown University and spending a year or so with another non-profit organization. I asked for an interview.

Braune: When I spoke to you at the groundbreaking, I was interested in your project and have since looked online and found that this is not a small issue at all. Could you please tell the readers a bit about what you are doing.

Tucker: I am the employment justice attorney for the South Texas Civil Rights Project, where my job is to find both legal and non-legal solutions to the rampant problem of wage theft in the Valley. In Hidalgo County and Cameron County, we offer monthly legal clinics for victims of wage theft. At these clinics we give a brief presentation on labor law, conduct a legal intake, and then provide legal orientation to the appropriate non-profit or government agency.

I am working closely with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, LUPE, and the Start Center. For instance, in close coordination with LUPE, I have developed a Justice of the Peace workshop which empowers workers to file their own small claims lawsuits. The goal of this project is to both empower workers through civic participation and also ensure that all victims of wage theft have legal redress.

Braune: What are the most common offenses you are expecting to find?

Tucker: Two patterns are perhaps the most common. Simply stringing along the workers, telling them it will be another week or so before they will be paid…

Braune: …a little later and a little later….

Tucker: Yes, and the second most common one is just as simple, paying the workers less than minimum wage.

Greed and ignorance are the driving force behind wage thefts. The range of excuses for non-payment runs the gamut from “But I didn’t get paid either” to “You didn’t do a good job.” However, under federal and state law, an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay. No excuses.

More disturbingly, in the Valley confused individuals feel that just because a worker does not have a social security number, they can pay that worker whatever they want. Oftentimes these individuals feel they are doing the worker a favor and get offended when the reality of the law comes barking. However, state and national law set the wage rate for all human beings, regardless of immigration status.

Another common problem is willful ignorance. Many reputable businesses hire an under-capitalized subcontractor to do the recruiting, supervision, and (scant) payment of workers who have questionable immigration status. It’s an assumed win-win for the business because they get labor on the cheap and they think they can plead ignorance. However, state and national law was drafted with this trick in mind, and workers can often demand wages from both entities as “joint employers.”

Braune: Do undocumented workers hesitate to come forward with complaints?

Tucker: Yes, but they should have far less fear. Although some build up unnecessary worries in their minds, there are a good number of protections in place if they do come forward.

Braune: What further developments do you envision? — Lawsuits? New state laws?

Tucker: My first goal is to educate low wage workers in the Valley about their rights, so all workers know the basic minimum wage and, if violated, know they have legal recourse regardless of their immigration status. Education is the key. However, education cannot open the eyes of the willfully blind, so I do anticipate lawsuits being necessary in the cases of extreme and systemic abuse.

As far as new state laws go, given the current political climate in Texas, I am not optimistic about new laws to address wage theft. Unless there is a fundamental shift in the political winds in Austin, I view my project as focusing primarily on education and litigation, not pushing legislative reform.

[This article also appeared June 23, 2010 in the Mid-Valley Town Crier]

By Greg Moses

When the President stood at the beach on Grand Isle, Louisiana on Friday May 28 did it look like a major invasion was coming? Was the readiness of the President’s forces in full array?

By Tuesday, June 1, the front-line sea battle between the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama will stretch about 270 miles. The invasion has been in the making for about forty days, and the President of the United States declares that he has been briefed on its progress daily.

If the President had just spent forty days preparing for a sea invasion that was projected to hit between Boston and Washington, DC what would you expect to see along that shoreline behind the President’s back? 300 men with rakes?

Elizabeth Cook, writing for New Orleans IndyMedia, calls this a constitutional crisis, and so it is. Even the level-headed David Gergen recognizes that the oil spill on the Gulf Coast raises the most fundamental question of social contract. The preamble to the Constitution declares that it shall provide for “the common defense.” So where is the common defense of the Gulf Coast?

It is time for the Commander in Chief to tell the whole truth about the oil spill invasion. It is time for him to show us a map of the NOAA oil spill forecast and tell us exactly who is doing what and where.

Common sense suggests that two hundred miles of floating booms should have been deployed to stop the oil at the surface and that massive resources in skimming technologies should have been applied. Where is the boom line? Where are the skimmers? We deserve a detailed action map linked to the White House website. We deserve to see a timeline of what has been ordered when.

Military history instructs us that new wars demand innovations of tactics and materiel. What are the innovations of this war? What new equipment is being deployed?

Communities across the United States participate in networks of civil defense and national guard. There are at least 15 million people unemployed. The Gulf Coast is full of people who would drop everything if they were needed to lend a hand. Who will be mobilized? What can be done with civilian boats and volunteers?

The President has promised “cleanup.” Okay. There will come a time for that. Meanwhile we want to know this week what is being done to turn back and contain that oil spill–using everything at the President’s command.

By Greg Moses

NewOrleans IndyMedia / Houston IndyMedia /

If Americans want to visualize victory over the oil spill invasion that threatens our beloved Gulf of Mexico, then we should call for a federalized war of skimmers and booms.

We should not be timid about it. We should visualize a series of booms in concentric rings that contain the spill, with skimmers at work within each ring, sucking up the oil. Industry websites claim that extracted oil can then be mixed with chemicals and reused for fuel.

The effort might also be helped by supertankers “that come in empty, with the huge valves and huge pumps that they have to suck the oil off the surface of the sea so it stops drifting into the wetlands”, says former president of Shell Oil John Hofmeister in a recent interview with the BBC.

As part of this winnable war, dispersants must be stopped.

Our winning hope for this war is nicely exemplified by the Coast Guard Cutter Walnut, which just left Hawaii for her 6,000-mile journey to the Gulf.

“The Walnut is 225-feet long, has a crew of about 50 people, and boasts state-of-the-art communications equipment and oil skimming capabilities,” reports Minna Sugimoto for Hawaii News Now. “Designed after the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, the Walnut comes equipped with a boom and pump oil collection system.”

“The skimmer sucks the oil in and pumps it into a bladder,” says Jeffrey Randall, U.S. Coast Guard commanding officer. “That bladder is then filled up, transferred to another vessel that takes it away.”

“Coast Guard officials say the crew goes through annual spill response training, but this will be the first time it’ll actually put oil in the equipment,” Sugimoto reports.

As early as April 29 the Los Angeles Times was reporting the Navy’s mobilization of booms and skimmers and the “opening (of) two of its bases in Mississippi and Florida as staging areas.” WLOX- Biloxi reporter Steve Phillips filed an eyewitness account of the activity from the Gulfport Seabee base.

 Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy is commander of the US Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) which includes the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). Within these commands we find initial offerings of equipment, expertise, and training that will be required to defend the Gulf of Mexico against the oil spill invasion.

“A team of NAVSEA professionals are working around the clock to protect the sensitive coast lined with oil booms and perform open-ocean skimming at the source,” says Vice Adm. McCoy at a web page posted by the Naval News Service (NNS).

“NAVSEA’s Chief Engineer for Underwater Salvage (Capt. Patrick Keenan) has been an integral member of BP’s Engineering Command Cell that has assembled the best and brightest minds from around the world to try to stop the leak,” said Vice Adm. McCoy.

“With a single phone call from the U.S. Coast Guard, 66,000 feet of open ocean boom and nine self-contained skimming systems, and the professionals to install and operate them, were dispatched (representing the initial shipment). That’s your Navy — a 24-hour Navy, incredibly ready and trained to respond to a wide variety of national taskings,” boasts Vice Adm. McCoy.

While the Coast Guard and Navy probably do not have enough booms and skimmers on hand to supply the war for the salvation of the Gulf Coast, they do appear to have sufficient knowledge to gather and organize the inventories and people needed. Surely there are enough booms and skimmers in the world that can be air-transported quickly and organized effectively.

Meanwhile, activists and biologists are converging on a consensus that toxic dispersants must be stopped.

“The use of dispersants is a crime on top of a crime, sanctioned by a federal agency, Lisa Jackson, and the EPA,” writes Elizabeth Cook at New Orleans IndyMedia.“It is the rape of the Gulf of Mexico, its sea creatures, and the people who depend on this ecosystem for a living.“

“Diluting the evidence, this (dispersant) solution was designed only for public relations, even as it made the situation much worse,” argues Linh Dinh at CounterPunch. “Imagine Agent Orange in the water. Thousands of people are already sick, with millions more to come.”

With enough booms to contain the spill, and enough skimmers to extract the oil from the water, there would appear to be no need to add the risk of toxic dispersants to the already toxic spill.

When on Sunday’s “State of the Nation” program, CNN’s Candy Crowley asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen to describe the military response to the Gulf oil spill, the answer she got was a textbook case of incoherence.

Within the space of 141 words the Chair of the Joint Chiefs zig-zagged between “a support role” that simply responded to BP requests on the one hand to “doing everything we can. . . with every capability that we have” on the other. His confusing ambivalence was perhaps best expressed in the sentence: “And as best I’ve been able to understand, the technical lead for this in our country really is the industry.”

While it may be true that the deep-water attempt to stop the oil spill belongs primarily to industry engineers (although, along with Dr. John, we may protest why this has to be the case) there is ample evidence that the military is perfectly qualified to take command of pollution control.

Remember Dunkirk or the Berlin Airlift? There are times in military history when impossible missions have been accomplished through mobilized determination. We should not give up hope that the war to the save the Gulf of Mexico can go down in history as one of those remarkable efforts.

<pEditor’s Note: thanks to Elizabeth Cook of New Orleans IndyMedia for help with research and issue development.