Activists plan 9/11 Katrina protest

Miriam Raftery
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Activists are organizing plans for Katrina survivors to march in Washington D.C. on and plan to stage an act of civil disobedience by building an encampment on the Washington D.C. mall on Sept. 11, RAW STORY has learned. The encampment would serve as a center for Katrina activism.

Two websites have been established to support the cause: www.campkatrina.org and www.bushville.org. In the past day, unique hits on Bushville.org have risen from 239 to 3,562, organizers said.

The term "Bushville" was inspired by encampments of homeless people dubbed "Hoovervilles" that sprang up following the Great Depression.

"This site [was] created as an act of spontaneous outrage," the websites read, adding that they were created as, "an act of love and hope for all humans killed or endangered by Bush's gross dereliction." Establishing camps in Washington D.C. will keep America's attention on the "criminal negligence of Bush," the sites asserts.

"I felt that Bush was going to use 9/11 to blindfold us [with]the flag," the activist who posited the Katrina encampment concept, told RAW STORY. He asked that his named not be published. He draws parallels to the Bonus Army, an assembly of 20,000 World War II veterans, families and other groups that demonstrated in Washington D.C. during spring and summer of 1932.

If an encampment is held on 9/11, it would pose a striking juxtaposition to the Freedom March planned by the Pentagon to commemorate the terrorist attacks. Initially, only a handful of hurricane survivors may be bold enough to pitch tents on the Washington D.C. mall. But ultimately, the activist hopes to see thousands of Katrina survivors on Bush's doorstep-remaining through the Congressional investigations into Katrina.

"They will camp in the seat of power and media to demand truth and action," the activist predicted, "for as long as it takes."

MoveOn.org led a group of over 400 protesters, including a dozen survivors of Hurricane Katrina, in a Washington D.C. march that ended in front of the White House on Thursday, Sept. 8.

"We really sent a message that this administration needs to focus on helping people, not blaming local officials," said Tom Matzzie, Washington director for MoveOn.org PAC.

Signs read "Shame," "Help Hurricane Victims," and "Where Does The Buck Stop?"

"It is inhumane to have treated citizens of the United States like we were treated," said Michelle Augillard, an evacuee from New Orleans who was working on her Masters degree at the University of New Orleans before the hurricane submerged 80 percent of the city. She is now staying with a friend in Houston.

Christine Mayfield, a teacher and mother of three from New Orleans, also spoke. "The President of the United States and his appointees let us down," she said, adding that she doesn't know where her students are and is concerned over their safety.

Taking a cue from anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, MoveOn.org organized the rally to request a meeting with President George W. Bush. Evacuees told Bush to stop blaming local officials, saying budget cuts and indifference by his administration fueled the disaster along the Gulf Coast. They asked why federal funds for levee maintenance were slashed by 40 percent during the Bush administration.

MoveOn also sought to hand-deliver thousands of petition signatures to the White House after the rally. "President Bush should stop blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina and get to work helping them," the petition read.

Delivery was unsuccessful.

Vowing to make it "easy and simple" for hurricane victims to receive government aid, the President just signed a bill to provide an additional $51.8 billion for hurricane relief, over and above $10.5 billion in emergency relief previously approved by Congress.

Bush has also announced plans to lead an investigation into governmental responses following Hurricane Katrina, which has left a million people homeless. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, have died as a result of the hurricane and bureaucratic delays that held up the evacuation of people and delivery of life-saving supplies. "We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD (weapon of mass destruction) attack or another major storm," the President stated in announcing his investigation.

Republicans in Congress plan a separate investigation, but Democrats have voiced concerns that the GOP aims to whitewash mistakes made by the Bush administration. Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who urged the President to fire FEMA director Michael Brown, called the President "oblivious, in denial, dangerous."

MoveOn is mounting a national campaign calling for an independent commission with subpoena authority to investigate the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

"It is now obvious that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is a national scandal that requires a proper investigation. But Republicans in Congress have proposed an investigation that would be run by them," an e-mail to MoveOn members dated September 9th reads. "Democrats are insisting on an independent commission with its own independent investigators and subpoena authority-modeled after the 9/11 Commission." MoveOn is urging the public to write letters to editors in support of an independent investigation.