A People's Mic: New Orleans
By Sophie Kunen
A People's Mic: New OrleansMar 12, 2020
Daniel Denvir & Thea Riofrancos at Octavia Books
Two of DSA's most prominent members and leading voices in the democratic socialist movement visit New Orleans for a dual book tour stop at Octavia Books. Daniel Denvir, host of The Dig, discusses his new book All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It and Thea Riofrancos, member of DSA's Ecosocialist Steering Committee, discusses her co-authored book A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal. Nikki Thanos from the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice moderates.
The Sunrise Movement: On the Road to a Green New Deal
In 2018, the world’s top scientists warned we have only 12 years to transform our economy to “avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown” within our lifetimes. Together with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Sunrise Movement brought a plan to Congress that matches the urgency and scale of the crisis. Now, the Road to the Green New Deal is their biggest project yet. Tens of thousands of people are gathering in nearly every state to hear how the Green New Deal would improve their community and get the tools and resources to pressure their policymakers to get behind it.
On Tuesday, May 7, 2019, the National Road to a Green New Deal Tour is stopping in New Orleans to catalyze “Gulf South for a Green New Deal" -- an organized formation of local people and groups coming together to support existing work across our region, uplift Gulf South community leaders, and connect the Gulf South to a national movement towards racial, economic, and climate justice.
In this episode -- recorded live on May 3, 2019 -- I speak with Kendall Dix (Healthy Gulf), Jeremy Ornstein (Sunrise National), and Eliana Wasserman (Housing Nola) about what they promise to be "an evening of ritual, short films, music, discussion, imagination and real conversation: about the ecological crisis we collectively face here in the Gulf South and what we must do to confront it."
Gulf South for a Green New Deal:
- Date: Tuesday May 7th, 2019
- Time: 6-9pm
- Location: Mahalia Jackson Theatre, 1419 Basin St, New Orleans, LA 70116
- Registration: encouraged but not required. All welcome and no one turned away at the door. Bring a friend!
The National Road to a Green New Deal Tour is organized by the Sunrise Movement, and the Flagship New Orleans tour stop is anchored locally by the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy. The recording of Jeremy Ornstein speaking was produced by NowThis News.
WTUL News & Views 91.5fm
#NoGasPlant (aka Entergy New Orleans is Corrupt AF)
Local environmental activists and residents have been fighting against Entergy and the company's plan to build a natural gas-powered power plant in New Orleans East for the past three years. Shortly after the City Council approved the plant in March 2017, just weeks before the current Council was inaugurated, investigators revealed that Entergy had been paying actors to fill seats at public meetings and voice fake support for the plant -- an illegal practice known as "astroturfing".
On Wednesday, January 23, the new City Council will consider a resolution to "rescind and repeal" the previous Council's approval of the plant. But activists say we don't just need a revote; we need the entire process to be reopened and it needs to be fair and informed from the start.
Renate Heurich (350 New Orleans), Happy Johnson (resident and activist), and Mark Nguyen (VAYLA) joined me in the studio to discuss the plant, the various scandals surrounding it, and how our new Council has a chance to do the right thing.
Thank you Renate, Happy, and Mark for you work and for joining me on the show. And thanks to the entire Energy Futures Coalition for protecting our environment, our health, and our democracy: No Gas Plant, 350 New Orleans, VAYLA New Orleans, Alliance for Affordable Energy, New Orleans Office Sierra Club, and Justice and Beyond NOLA
LEARN MORE:
www.nogasplant.com/
www.facebook.com/nogasplant/
SIGN THE PETITON:
actionnetwork.org/…/no-gas-power-p…nt-in-new-orlea…
COME TO THE MEETING:
www.facebook.com/events/387527075334447/
www.facebook.com/events/2249530471996881/
CONTACT YOUR COUNCIL REPS:
council.nola.gov/councilmembers/
#NewOrleans #EnvironmentalJustice #Entergy #Astroturfing #WTUL #WTULNews #EPNO #NoGasPlant
Short-Term Rentals, Gentrification & the Displacement of the Working Class
Short-term rentals are corroding the city's affordable housing stock. The Residents for Ethical and Sustainable Tourism (REST) ordinance would help combat short-term rentals and preserve an adequate supply of affordable housing for the city's long-term residents.
The New Orleans City Council is moving to vote on new regulations for short-term rentals this Thursday, January 10 @ 10AM. We’ve heard that some Council members, despite campaign promises, are withdrawing support for two of the most important components of the Residents for Ethical and Sustainable Tourism (REST) ordinance: the affordable housing and homestead exemption requirements.
CALL the Council and/or ATTEND the meeting on Thursday. Tell them that new regulations for short-term rentals must include:
1. Affordable Housing Requirements: a 1-for-1 affordable housing match for commercial STR permits.
2. Homestead Exemption Requirements: the host must live in the residence; no more whole-home STRs.
LEARN MORE about short-term rentals, the REST Ordinance, and what affordable housing advocates and residents are saying, listen to my latest show on the People’s Public Comment on Short-Term Rentals—an action held on Thursday, December 20, after STRs were removed from the Council’s agenda.
Speakers:
1. Breonne DeDecker, Executive Director, Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative
2. Cashuana Hill, Executive Director, GNO Fair Housing Action Center
3. Jay Banks, City Councilmember (District B)
4. Kristen Palmer, City Councilmember (District C)
5. Sam King, Social Worker, NO High School
6. Sue Mobley, Colloqate Design
7. Victor Pizarro, Service Industry Worker and Long-term Rental Property Owner
8. Erica Zucker, Policy Advocate, Workplace Justice Project
9. Kelsey Brooks, Educator and Artist
10. Toya, Organizer, Stand with Dignity
11. Renard Bridgewater, Community Engagement Coordinator, Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MaCCNO)
12. Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger, First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
13. Jonah, Service Industry Worker
"Give Me a Brake (Light)!" w/ New Orleans DSA
Broken taillights are one of the most common reasons police pull drivers over. These minor traffic offenses not only come with hefty fines that effectively criminalize poverty, but -- particularly for drivers of color -- they can lead to search, seizure, arrest, and even death at the hands of a police officer (as we saw with Philando Castille in 2016).
After a member was pulled over twice in one night for a broken brake light in 2017, the New Orleans chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) held their first “Gimme a Brake (Light)!” clinic, where volunteers spent the day fixing people’s brake lights for free--a small but significant act of mutual aid and protection against the capitalist police state.
The success of their monthly clinic has inspired at least 45 other DSA chapters in the US to hold their own brake light repair clinics, providing safe spaces for communities across the country to openly discuss the current state of our police and criminal justice systems--and how a better world is possible.
In this interview, I speak with two DSA New Orleans members who help organize the clinic each month through the organization's Direct Service Committee: Cate Root and Andrew Zachary White.
The clinics are held once a month from 11AM - 4PM at Kruttschnitt Place in the 7th Ward (the small triangular park at the corner of N. Dorgenois and Bayou Rd).
To learn more about the clinic, when and where the next one will be held, or how you can get involved, check out their website (www.dsaneworleans.org/events) or shoot them an email (directservice@dsaneworleans.org).
The Debt Collective: How to Organize a Debt Strike
"If you owe the bank $100,000, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank $100 million, you own the bank." Together, we own the bank.
Thomas Gokey and Dawn Lueck of The Debt Collective talk to Sophie about how, through collective financial disobedience, we have the power to renegotiate and resist unjust debts.
YOU ARE NOT A LOAN
debtcollective.org
@debtcollective
@0debtzone
@strikedebt
Medicare for All and Nothing Less! w/ Michael Lighty
New Orleans DSA hosts Michael Lighty, long-time single-payer champion and Sanders Institute Fellow, as he travels the country rallying support for Medicare for All. Speakers include Frances Gill (New Orleans DSA Healthcare for All Committee Co-Chair), Jamila Webb (Birthmark Doula Collective), and a representative from 504HealthNet and Luke's House.
Healthcare is a basic need. Basic needs should be human rights. Human rights should not be commodified. Join the fight for #M4A at dsausa.org.
Rise for Cancer Alley & Gordan Plaza (w/ Angela Kinlaw & Renate Heurich)
Racism, poverty, and environmental pollution are inextricably linked along Louisiana's so-called "Petrochemical Corridor". Known to locals as "Cancer Alley", this 90-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is home to more than 100 petrochemical plants -- but it's also home to a brewing climate justice movement. From Gordon Plaza, a housing development built on top of a toxic landfill in the Upper 9th Ward, to St. James Parish, home to the terminal end of the yet-to-be-completed Bayou Bridge Pipeline, hear how residents are fighting back with Angela Kinlaw from The New Orleans People's Assembly and Renate Heurich from 350 New Orleans.
MORE INFO:
Rise for Cancer Alley (FB Event) https://www.facebook.com/events/461144237684993/
The New Orleans Peoples' Assembly
http://peoplesassemblyneworleans.org/
350 New Orleans
https://350neworleans.org/
No Bayou Bridge Pipeline
http://nobbp.org/