report from Algiers, LA (New Orleans)

This is an interview Sept. 17, 2005 with Dr. Michael Kozart, a doctor with the Common Ground clinic in Algiers, LA(across the Mississippi river from downtown New Orleans). The interview is 27 minutes long and well worth listening to it in its entirety.
by indymedia Monday, Sep. 19, 2005. audio: MP3 at 24.9 mebibytes
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/5437.php
http://commongroundrelief.org

It's interesting to note that the organizing which is currently taking place on the ground in Algiers of Mutual Aid and Solidarity is strikingly similar to the grassroots organizing with Urban Land Committees that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks about Democracy Now! in his first interview in the United States -Monday, September 19.

I think it's also worth mentioning that many situations that Michael mentions (such as this community (in Algiers) of being underserved, of having a history of neglect and abandonment, the hungry dogs, chronic health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure) --are similar to those communities on indian reservations. It's important to remember this as we organize on the grassroots level long-term.
~dixie

Chavez's response to a question about grassroots organizing and people power: "But the grassroots and communities, their role is vital, and it’s more dynamic. It's very beautiful in the roles they have to play. Just to give you an idea of some of the experiences we have had in Venezuela. I leave for Venezuela this weekend. Next week we are going to have an event in Caracas with thousands of people who are part of the Urban Land Committee, the C.T.U. in Spanish. These committees of urban land are all over the country. They are in each neighborhood, poor neighborhood. You have a committee. The members of this committee should watch the whole neighborhood. And then they draft the map of the neighborhood. They go house by house, family by family and they assess all the problems. If they lack running water or if some of the houses are unstable and they could fall down. How many children they have. The schools. The health care system in the neighborhood and so on. So these are the urban land communities.

We also have the technical commissions of water. These technical commissions of water interact with the urban land committee. They take care of the water supply and also the sewage system. There are other technical groups to take care of energy supply, electricity supply especially. We have also the health committee. The rural land committees in the rural areas. We also have housing cooperatives. In large networks of grassroots organizations, as you know, in the constitution that we have drafted, in the government we foster these grassroots movements. Here we have been trying the democratic model. It is the revolutionary democracy. But it is not only a representative democracy. It is a participatory democracy and beyond that it is a fully and meaningful democracy. And Abraham Lincoln already said this: the government of the people, for the people and by the people. That what we say here is to transfer power to the people, especially the poorest of the poor. If you want to get rid of poverty, we need to empower the poor. Not to treat them like beggars. And this week we're going to give money, we’re going to give financial resources to these neighborhood committees, grassroots organizations, we’re going to give them technical resources, equipment, we are going to carry out the housing schemes, infrastructure schemes, water supply, electricity supply schemes. So this is a beautiful task we are conducting.

http://democracynow.org/


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