On Sept. 29, Baltimore activists joined the Emergency Week of Actions for Haitian Refugees by staging a protest at City Hall. Russell McClain from the Peoples Power Assembly facilitated the rally. Rev. Annie Chambers opened up with a powerful and rousing message in opposition to the Biden administration’s racist deportations.  

Dr. “Doc” Cheatham, who represents the Henson Neighborhood Association in police victim Freddie Gray’s community, presented the group’s demands. Next, Bill Goodin from BlackMen Unifying BlackMen and Leon Purnell, director of the Eastside Men and Families Center, pointed out the disparity in the treatment of Black immigrants. 

Union activist Sharon Black, who traveled to Haiti, explained why the movement demands reparations for the Haitian people. Then came Dick Ochs from Baltimore Peace Action, who spoke against U.S. military intervention.   

Socialist Unity Party representative Andre Powell and Joyce Butler of Peoples Power Assembly and Prisoners Solidarity Committee concluded the rally with rousing chants.

What became a “people’s assembly,” representing both West and East Baltimore, called for the mayor and City Council to pass a resolution welcoming Haitian refugees, condemning the racist violence by the Border Patrol, and denouncing Biden’s deportations and plans to imprison refugees at Guantanamo.  

Everyone exclaimed, “We the people of Baltimore welcome Haitian people to our city.”

https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesPowerAssembly/videos/445295163585396

On Sept. 26, several revolutionary and progressive organizations came together for a day of action in downtown New Orleans. Organizers were responding to the horrible conditions affecting working class and oppressed communities following Hurricane Ida, as well as the capitalist-made crises that preceded it. 

All the organizations raised demands and outlined visions for a broad, mass fightback, based on non-sectarian cooperation and unity through struggle.

Cancel the rents 

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) – Central Gulf Coast started things off at City Hall with a Cancel the Rents rally, as part of a national campaign. The campaigners are calling for an immediate cancellation of rent debts and an indefinite eviction moratorium. 

A PSL organizer said that, while doing aid work in southeast Louisiana, “We were struck by the compounding crises. The Supreme Court had just thrown out the eviction moratorium. … Just a few weeks ago Louisiana was the COVID epicenter of the entire world. And now people are trying to survive in the aftermath of a hurricane with no power, some with no water, and some in 100-degree weather. 

“When we were in LaPlace, we noticed that the local police were patrolling the streets, not to help people, but to protect property, looking for looters.”

Hold Entergy accountable — make FEMA pay

The March for Real Hurricane Relief kicked off at City Hall after the Cancel the Rents rally. Sponsoring organizations included Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) – New Orleans, New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly, New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance, Unión Migrante, Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition, New Orleans Mutual Aid Society and the Socialist Unity Party.

The march went from City Hall to the Civil District Court Building (where evictions happen) to the Federal Building. 

At City Hall, Serena Sojic-Borne with FRSO said: “We need public-run utilities. That means the government manages the power grid. But more importantly, we need a people’s board that oversees the government running the power grid!”

In front of the civil court building, Daiquiri Jones represented the Renters Rights Assembly, stating: “In that climate [of COVID-19 and other crises] it’s unconscionable that they’re opening eviction court and prioritizing the interests of a few people. We still don’t have adequate assistance for the people who are actually paying the property taxes [renters], the people who are going to work every day—they’re the ones supporting the city. … The idea that the burden is on the people who work the most, and support the city the most, is unconscionable. 

“We have reasonable demands. We want $500 million in rental assistance to southeast Louisiana. We want eviction court to stay closed until all rental assistance is distributed to the people, not just writing the landlord a check.”

On the street, organizers building toward an Ida Survivor Town Hall event distributed a flyer calling for a movement where survivors can “propose demands for consideration, to debate these proposals and to vote on whether a proposed demand is to be part of the collective voice,” citing the historical lessons of Hurricane Katrina, and the folly of “throwing ourselves at the mercy of politicians, bureaucrats and disaster capitalists.” They can be reached at howellnow1958 [at] gmail [dot] com.

The crowd chanted as they began to march, “All the money for the people!” 

There was no plan

At the Hale Boggs Federal Building, a speaker with Unión Migrante said: “We are indignant at the injustice of being totally exploited as immigrants. We’re not eligible for support from FEMA and so many government programs because of being undocumented. Our neighborhoods are the last to have their trash picked up, and the mayor is not doing a very good job as mayor. 

“She didn’t have an evacuation plan or anything when the hurricane came. We as Unión Migrante made a video informing the community what to do when a hurricane came and then when the hurricane came around, nothing was actually orchestrated. And the mayor just says, ‘save yourselves, whoever can get out.’ But there was no plan for how to actually implement that.”

A Unión Migrante sign read, “We built this city! We deserve hurricane relief too!”, referring to the fact that immigrants did so much of the rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina. 

Jackie of the New Orleans Mutual Aid Society explained that, although Ida hit and caused an emergency, “what all the mutual aid groups in New Orleans are responding to is the emergency that preceded the emergency, which is that people don’t have what they need. We’re trying to meet those needs, but we can’t do it because the need is too great.” 

They elaborated that the problem is the historical effects of capitalism and oppressions like racism, which have made communities vulnerable.

Echoing Jackie’s words, David Brazil with Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition said that the disaster of the storm “took place within the larger disaster, which is capitalism, and the larger disaster, which is white supremacy. 

“The real source of wealth in society is workers. All the money that FEMA has is workers’ tax money. It’s our money! And as soon as we need it, it should be coming back to us.

“It’s great that people have come together, but we cannot fill the gap by asking community members to step in where social services should exist,” Brazil said. “We need to get together as a community — and this rally is a great example of what it looks like when working class people from many different backgrounds and regions get together to make common cause. 

“We have to struggle together. These people aren’t coming to save us. There is no plan. Rather, we saw the plan. The plan is abandonment. It’s ‘good luck’! That’s the plan. And we’re going to continue seeing climate disasters, and disasters like this pandemic. So we as working people have to get it together to begin to build the alternatives now, because the government is not going to do it for us. 

“I am so grateful to FRSO for organizing this, for keeping the working class and class struggle at the center of this, for naming and denouncing capitalism, because we have to fight this thing or it’s going to kill us all!” 

Continuous protests shook the length and breadth of mountainous Nepal in September as the U.S. pushed again to chain this Asian country of 28 million people to its anti-China alliance through the Millenium Challenge Compact (MCC).

The U.S. claims that the MCC’s $500 million grant agreement is merely a generous gift to help improve the country’s infrastructure, with no strings attached. But that story has been shot full of holes by anti-imperialist forces leading the protests.

They point out that the George W. Bush administration set up the MCC to promote “free market economies” and further Washington’s geopolitical goals. Since then, numerous statements by both Democratic and Republican administration representatives in international forums have demonstrated that the MCC is viewed as a component of the U.S. Asian-Pacific “pivot” and the New Cold War against China.

Nepal’s government signed the MCC agreement in 2017, but the country’s parliament has not taken the necessary steps to enact it so far because of mass opposition. 

A big push to have Nepal enact the MCC was made in early 2020, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s visit to neighboring India, where the U.S. inked a $3 billion weapons deal with the far-right Modi government to threaten China. Protests erupted across Nepal against the MCC and Indian territorial aggression, including a thousands-strong march to the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Kathmandu.

Now, a new U.S. administration is pushing the same anti-China agenda. The arm-twisting is intensifying again with MCC Vice President Fatima Sumar’s mid-September visit, which included closed-door meetings with government officials and opposition leaders and thinly veiled threats.

The Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) has been leading protests in many cities, towns and villages against the MCC. Struggle-La Lucha spoke with educator and NWPP leader Surendra Raj Gosai, who has been traveling the country to participate in protests and public meetings.

“The U.S. MCC delegation headed by Fatima Sumar called upon the prime minister, ex-prime ministers and other leaders of ruling parties,” Gosai told SLL. “The NWPP and a few other organisations have organized protests against the U.S. interference. Her visit intensified the protests. 

“Everybody is raising a general question: ‘If it’s a grant, why is the U.S. trying to impose it?’ The ruling parties, under heavy U.S. pressure, are trying to forward the agreement in the parliament and amend it. But, the Nepalese people have continuously disagreed and are in the streets.”

Gosai said: “The NWPP defines MCC as a neocolonial tool. That’s why the U.S. is pushing it. Also, U.S. imperialism wants a new war in Asia, as Europe cannot bear any new war after the two world wars.”

Farmers’ organizations condemn MCC

The MCC is supposed to be independent of institutions like the State Department and U.S. Aid for International Development. But the selection process and program administration are overseen by right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Freedom House and the Brookings Institution, which loyally serve U.S. imperialism, and its criteria are largely based on countries accepting market-driven economies, austerity budgets and cooperation with the U.S. military.

On Sept. 8, six peasant farmers’ organizations issued a joint statement condemning the MCC and demanding its rejection: “The project is designed to be above Nepal’s laws and constitution and in a way that is a gross insult to Nepal, and its financial accounts cannot be audited by the Government of Nepal and the Office of the Auditor General. 

“If there is corruption in it, the Commission for Control of Abuse of Authority of Nepal cannot take any action. Provision has been made to prevent any official or person involved in this project from being tried for committing any heinous crime in accordance with the laws of Nepal. 

“In the same way, MCA will contract out all the construction works of the agreement itself, retaining all the rights in the project area. The agreement clearly states that MCC (USA) will have full ownership of all the land and underground of the project area during the agreement period and all the valuables and raw materials obtained during the construction and all the intellectual property [that] will be established. 

“The possibility of bringing U.S. troops into the country in the name of project security and conducting operations against Nepali communists and allied China cannot be ruled out. … The MCC agreement, which has many controversial issues, is against Nepal’s nationhood and the sovereignty of the Nepali people.”

On Feb. 28, 2020, the government of Sri Lanka rejected an MCC agreement on the recommendation of an expert panel, which said it would damage the country’s sovereignty and was incompatible with the constitution.

The Nepali people likewise feel that the MCC is an attack on their sovereignty and a step toward establishing a U.S. military presence in their country. Nepal only deposed the monarchy and established a parliamentary republic in 2008 after decades of struggle, including a communist-led guerrilla movement. The masses have made it clear that becoming an appendage of U.S. imperialism is something they will not accept.