Excerpts from José’s talk.  Video by Tyler Norman

JTA joined the Week of Action held in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  José Bravo was invited to speak at two events in New Orleans:  the Monarch Forum hosted by our friends at Taproot Earth, and a panel titled “Disaster Capitalism and Just Recovery: Building Power for the Next 20 Years,” organized by the Labor Network for Sustainability.  Witnessing the profound struggles of the poorest New Orleanians and the significant demographic changes in the city since that historic flood was a powerful way to understand very unjust transitions.

The Just Recovery discussion was held at the community center in the historic Treme neighborhood.  Grace Lomba of the United Teachers of New Orleans spoke about the quintessential example of disaster capitalism, the post-Katrina dismantling of New Orlean’s public school system and the breaking of the teachers’ union, formerly the largest and strongest in the state of Louisiana.  Shera Phillips of Step Up Louisiana further elaborated the ongoing challenges faced by Black New Orleanians, many of whom lost their homes and have never been able to return because they have not been supported in any way.  Devan Cheaves of Central Florida Jobs with Justice showed how similar tactics of opportunistic displacement and disempowerment have been happening throughout the Gulf Coast region.  Dave Campbell of United Steelworkers Local 675 (and a JTA board member!) spoke about ways that unions can contribute to just recovery and grassroots relief efforts.  Lastly, José spoke about the overall vision of just transition, including both what we must stand against and what we must fight for.

José pointed out how false solutions confuse politicians and the public into thinking that there are simplistic techno-fixes to systemic problems:

[Industries are saying,] “Let’s go back to incinerating materials that are toxic,” in incinerators that are in – whose backyards? – our backyards.  So everybody that doesn’t know about it says, “Oh, yeah, that’s a good thing.  You can take the bad stuff and convert it into energy, and we can keep on using energy at the level that we’re doing now.”  Nobody’s talking about the reduction of the use of energy.  Everybody’s talking about the future of energy being more and more and more, without paying attention to how that’s going to be produced.

He also decried the pushing of burdens onto those least responsible for climate change and environmental destruction:

It’s very important to understand that we’re being sold a bill of goods.  [Elites are saying,] “Let’s try that, and let’s try this, as long as I get to keep three cars and a big-ass house, and get to use all the energy I can.”  And then the Global North needs the Global South to bail them out.  Mainstream green groups are saying, “Let’s go to the Amazon.  Let’s take over all kinds of forests and kick Indigenous People out of their land so that we can sequester carbon for the North.”  That’s called a land grab.  That’s part of what we call environmental colonialism, which is the same thing that was happening 500 years ago. 

He stated clearly that grassroots community organizers are those who have the real solutions:

The solution has to come from you all, because you’re the ones that are able to say what you want in your communities, what that system needs to look like and who needs to run it.  

And he concluded with some pragmatic recommendations about moving forward, building power and possibilities for a just transition:

We’re asking labor right now to think outside the box, too.  In collective bargaining contracts, we want the companies to commit to putting money aside now for a just transition.  And if you’re going to look for just transition money, [the politicians] have to be redirecting some of the billions of dollars of subsidies that these companies get.  That’s our money.  And at the same time, if [the companies] are going to put money forth, it has to be from profits.  Because if it’s not from profits, it’ll raise the price of products, and then everybody’s going to turn against you because they’re paying more for something.  

And it wasn’t just a one-way lecture.  Almost everyone present engaged in a lively discussion, and all left feeling inspired.  We will share the full video after improving the audio quality.  Videos from the Monarch Forum will be available from Taproot Earth very soon.

For now, check out our blog post linking Labor Day and the Hurricane Katrina commemoration, and reflect on José’s concluding statement from his Monarch Forum address:

Down with disaster capitalism, up with community- and worker-driven resistance and real solutions!