Fight Back! News

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Twin Cities: Protest demands justice for Katrina survivors

By staff

Grim faced speakers. Bullhorn and signs

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 people demonstrated here at the Federal Building Sept. 15 to demand justice for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The protest was organized by the Welfare Rights Committee.

Tracy Furney of the Welfare Rights Committee put out the following demands: that government address the Katrina survivors’ needs for money, housing, food, clothes, health care, medicine and other resources; that the low income neighborhoods of the Gulf Coast be completely restored and rebuilt; that the low-income residents have the choice to return to their former neighborhoods; reparations for the Katrina survivors; an end to the racist and anti-poor policies of the Bush government; and that Bush and his incompetent cronies be held completely accountable for the consequences of their failure and betrayal of the people in the Gulf Coast.

Trishalla Bell, another WRC member, told of her experiences in Houston, Texas among the evacuees from New Orleans, where she was reporting for Fight Back! She slammed the inadequate relief operations.

Protest signs read, “Bush clowned, people drowned,” and “Katrina – act of nature, failure of government,” along with calls for reparations. There were many honks and thumbs up signs from passing motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists and city bus drivers.

The Welfare Rights Committee also raised more than $600 at the protest, to be distributed by their sister organization, the New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization.

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