MALIK RAHIM IS RUNNING FOR MAYOR

Malik Rahim is a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans. For decades he has worked as an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San Francisco. He recently ran for New Orleans City Council on the Green Party ticket. He is the Executive Director of the Common Ground Collective which was formed in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to provide immediate aid and long-term solidarity along the Gulf Coast.

Last week Rahim joined in a march across the Crescent City Connection Bridge in a protest over the barring of Katrina victims from entering Gretna on the other side of the Mississippi River. The city narrowly escaped a full-scale race war, the activist told marchers. “Martial law was imposed only on Black people. It was ‘shoot to kill.” Writes the San Francisco Bay View, "The anger in his voice belied his calm telling of the racist and immoral act of Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr., who ordered deputies armed with guns and police dogs to stop Blacks fleeing from the hurricane from entering his predominately white town, population 17,000, in Jefferson Parish."

Now Rahim is running for mayor of New Orleans. The primary there is next February.

“I’m running for mayor to make sure that what transpired during this hurricane doesn’t happen again and to make sure that New Orleanians play a part in the rebuilding process,” Rahim explained to the Bay View.

“I’m running against the slave syndicate,” Rahim adds. Card-carrying members of this group include both Black and white elected officials and capitalists who regularly exploit the poor while enriching themselves, he says.

“If we see exploitation, racism and corruption, we are going to shut them down. I don’t care if they’re Nagin cronies or Morial cronies,” says Rahim, who equates the office holders and their administrations with “house negroes” on the plantations during America’s slavery period.

“The only way the slave syndicate is going to end is when people get up the courage to expose this injustice.”

Rahim says, “There was no reason for anyone to leave New Orleans. Marrero, Algiers and Bridge City were not flooded. We didn’t have to send people out of this state. Why didn’t the governor come down here and force Jefferson Parish to shelter New Orleans residents?” Rahim adds.

He says people stood outside the Superdome for five hours because everyone had to be searched. “If you searched everyone, how can you say a group of armed thugs were running through the Superdome raping and stealing? But they (media) always characterize us like that; especially Black males."

“Texas made out like a bandit. It pitted one group of poor people against another. So now, Texans who were waiting for government assistance are complaining about what their state is doing for the evacuees, but the state is getting paid for what it is doing for both groups."

“That’s why I’m running against the ‘plantation syndicate,’” says Rahim of the racists with power who couldn’t care less about what happens to people of color.

Protecting New Orleanians from future hurricanes is not rocket science, according to Rahim, who says rebuilding New Orleans without restoring the wetlands first is crazy. “Why not just spend the $14 billion to restore the wetlands? It’s crazy to talk about rebuilding an area that will remain vulnerable until you restore the wetlands. We spend more money to build a tunnel under Boston than to save our entire wetlands."

The levees should be rebuilt to withstand a Category 5 hurricane like Katrina, instead of the pre-Katrina Category 3 levees that congressional Republicans want. Houses should be re-built 12 feet off the ground, he adds.

Recently during an interview on Democracy Now Rahim was asked what he would have done differently than the current mayor.

“I would have commandeered everything, Greyhound buses, Amtrak trains, school buses, public service buses and had them all filled with people getting them out of harm's way. That was the very first thing I would have done. Secondly, I would have asked for volunteers. Volunteers of people that lived in the community and that know the community that didn't need a map to find out where such and such is -- street exists. And had them come back in here. I would have had my police force to commandeer every boat that was available. Because everybody knew the flooding was going to happen. You know, to make sure that people would have been getting out. I wouldn't have left it on the faith-based community. I would have made sure that everybody would have had a means that wanted to leave, or they had the means to leave.” He added, “There's no way in the world I would have put people in that Superdome. Everybody knew that that Superdome was nothing but a death trap. Because if we would have gotten 30 feet of water, how are you going to survive in that Superdome? I mean, everybody knew this. And then when you start hearing the horror stories, last year we had test run. A hurricane came, but at the last minute, it veered off. So, we had a test run. Everybody knew what needed to be in place, and it seemed like -- he still got caught unprepared with his pants down.”

In the same interview Rahim had more advice as to what the mayor could have done. He said, “The very first thing he should have done is made sure that one, that the medical assistance he knew it was going to be needed was made available. He should have had that in place. He should have had food in place. He should have had water in place. He should have had ice in place. He should have had generators in place. That's something that the city could have done. Even if they had to commandeer them from these stores. You know, you have backup generators in every one of these high rise buildings. What's in them? People not living in them? So, why couldn't he take them? Or he could put people in them. You know, he didn't do either. You know? It's all about property. Everything is about property. I tell you what, look at Cuba. Any time a hurricane -- when that -- when Hugo was passing through Cuba, and it was about to hit Havana, Cuba -- the Cuban government came through there and took everybody out of Havana. I mean, everybody was safe.”

Common Ground, which Rahim helped to build, is in fact a testament to what a determined people can accomplish.

Common Ground Collective is a local, community-run organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support to New Orleans communities that have been historically neglected and underserved. Common Ground's teams of volunteers include: medical and health providers, aid workers, community organizers, legal representatives and people from all over with broad skills from all walks of life. Common Ground’s mission is to provide short term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region, and long term support in rebuilding the communities affected in New Orleans.

Today the Common Ground Collective and the Common Ground Health Clinic operate 12 hours daily, seven days a week. More than 300 volunteers have served New Orleanians with compassion and dignity through the collective. They have tarped roofs, cut down and removed trees and debris and created a brain trust for future action.

Additionally, more than 100 medical doctors and professionals have treated at least 3,600 people at the Common Ground Health Clinic located in Algiers at 331 Atlantic Ave. All services are free.

The collective’s volunteers have come from 40 states across America, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and France, and from various career paths. From doctors, lawyers and engineers to environmental scientists, they have come to donate their time, resources, money and services.

Part of what Rahim has learned from the collective, he says, is “Not all blacks are for us and not all whites are against us. People call me an Uncle Tom for working with whites, but I’d rather be an Uncle Tom than an old Black militant who is talking loud and doing nothing."

“When I got death threats for speaking out against injustice, two white men sat on my porch with shotguns to protect me. And three white medics walked the public housing developments to see if anyone needed medical services.” Sources: San Francisco Bay View, Democracy Now, Common Ground Collective