The first issue of our new publication on Louisiana issues and campaigns!

Please enjoy the first issue of Red Delta, the new publication of New Orleans DSA. We will be covering local and statewide issues, campaigns, and other topics of interest to our members and supporters across Louisiana.

We're always looking for feedback and ideas for future articles. Email [email protected] to make a pitch!


** Margee Green Makes Ballot
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By Scott A.
Louisiana will officially have a DSA member on the statewide ballot on Oct. 12.

Marguerite “Margee” Green has qualified for the race for Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. She aims to unseat incumbent Mike Strain on a platform that will elevate all Louisianans, and she’ll need volunteers to do it.

Green, the executive director of local nonprofit SPROUT NOLA, said a win would mean a complete shift in how the Department of Agriculture and Forestry operates.

“It would be a worker-first mentality in a state-level position,” she said. “We see industry-first leaders in these roles. We see people prioritizing financial gain of corporations.” Green’s policies would aid every worker in the value chain of agriculture: from the small farmers to the pickers to the sorters.

What would be on Green’s to-do list in her first 100 days? Working on legalizing adult access to recreational marijuana and limiting pollution from farming runoff.

An Ambitious Agenda
As Ag Commissioner, Green would have a hand in regulating and promoting new crops, and she would advocate strongly for one of those crops to be cannabis.

“We’re missing out on a new crop that could expand our tax base and keep Louisiana competitive,” Green said.

Legalizing marijuana should also include expungement of criminal convictions for cannabis, Green said, ending an injustice that has derailed the lives of many Louisianans.

Green would also target runoff from farms that threatens Louisiana’s waterways. Fertilizer runoff from farms can contaminate drinking water, foul rivers and create algal blooms.

Louisiana is already at the forefront of the climate crisis as rising temperatures are ruining the predictable patterns of rainfall and replacing them with cycles of disastrous droughts and floods. Green wants the state to play a large role in combating the effects of global warming.
Read more ([link removed])
HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Volunteer on Margee Green’s site ([link removed])

Donate to her campaign ([link removed])

Join #green4agriculture in the Slack


** An Interview with
Pepper Bowen Roussel
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By Noah T.
Pepper Bowen Roussel is a food, water and environmental attorney running for State Representative of District 91 in New Orleans. The election is Oct. 12. Roussel did not seek or receive the endorsement of the DSA, but will speak to the chapter at the General Meeting on Aug. 19. To find out more about her campaign, visit her site vote4pepper.com. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

So how did you get to this day, to where you are now?
So I had not planned on running. I know and have known for a while that most of our legislature is going to be term-limited and so they'll be aging out this go-around, and I expected that since there are some really crucial issues coming up, that somebody would have stepped up long before me who would be addressing them and nobody had. The sun has set on waiting for somebody to step forward and do the things that I want to see done.

So do you have a couple of big priorities if you got elected as far as food and water in New Orleans go?
So many things! The biggest thing for me is really getting people a space where they don't just have “access” to things because even if I live across the street from the Whole Foods and I can't afford to buy anything in it, I have access. Growing becomes a very nuanced conversation because the whole idea around community gardens means that the community has to buy into it, and if the community is not ready or willing to support it then it fails, as I'm sure you've seen around town, lots of community gardens have just died because people don't have the time or don't have the interest. What I think would be really awesome would be to increase the opportunities in ways that are just a little bit off the beaten path in order to get people with money in their pocket so they can purchase this food.

Royce Duplessis was trying to change the [state] constitution so that we would no longer have preemption at a state level, where we could not set a living wage at a municipal level, and that did not work last session. I would really love to partner with Royce and maybe see if we could expand that a little bit more so that we could actually have a living wage.


Read more ([link removed])


** JANE PLACE FIGHTS MOUNTING HOUSING CRISIS
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By Scott A.

$100 late rent fees. Evictions without warning. Refusing to fix collapsed ceilings.

These are merely a few of the myriad abuses New Orleans DSA member Breonne D. has seen in her time as an organizer with Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative.

For over 10 years, Jane Place has fought the deluge of gentrification, rent hikes, and landlord abuse in one of the most hostile regulatory environments in the nation. Their goal: decommodification of housing. Their method: community land trusts and expanded housing rights.

A New Theory of Housing
Jane Place began in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A group of activists, artists and agitators sought to influence the city’s development to make it a more just and inclusive place. Recovery planning had begun to privilege homeowners over renters in a classist and racist trajectory, Breonne said.

The Jane Place Initiative aimed to give refuge to families pushed out by opportunistic capitalists. It assembled a land portfolio to build a power base allowing Mid-City residents — mostly renters — to remain amid a push by the powerful to transform the neighborhood into a majority-homeowner area.

This land forms the basis for Jane Place’s community land trust, Breonne said. Jane Place develops property and rents it at affordable rates to lower-income families.

In the long run, Jane Place hopes to sell property to residents at affordable rates and retain ownership of the land the property resides. Then, the trust can protect the neighborhood in a number of ways, including placing restrictions on property sales, prioritizing low-income families as renters, and capping rental increase levels.
Read more ([link removed])
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Attend a Court Watch training. Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for info.
Attend the next meeting of the Renters Rights Assembly the first Thursdays of the month, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at 2533 Columbus St.


** Baton Rouge DSA Joins Fight for Justice
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By Scott A.

Baton Rouge is a city under siege.

Whether it’s tax policy that throws away public resources, a carceral system that steals years of labor from citizens or demagogues aiming to divide with extremist right-wing rhetoric, the residents of the state capital face a constant barrage of reactionary politics.

In that environment, a new DSA chapter is working to bring socialist ideas to the fore.

“We’re people doing what we can to change Baton Rouge for the better and promote a vision of politics that you just don’t get anywhere else,” said Billy S., treasurer and former co-chair of the Baton Rouge DSA.

The chapter, born out of a reading group in 2017, engages in a mix of mutual aid, direct action and canvassing to further that vision.

The canvassing program will be familiar to New Orleans DSA members. The state has highly gerrymandered districts that aim to concentrate minority votes in one district and deny disadvantaged groups representation. Because of that, Baton Rouge shares Rep. Cedric Richmond with New Orleans.

That means the DSA chapters in both cities have been able to coordinate a petition campaign for Medicare for All, with Baton Rouge contributing dozens of signatures to the effort.

The group also mobilizes to feed the hungry with Famine is the Enemy, and coordinated with LSU’s YDSA to counter events by TPUSA, a group that sponsors ultra-conservative speakers on campuses in the hopes of generating publicity for their causes.

Baton Rouge DSA’s growth comes amid a campaign by capitalists to raid the public coffers and imprison the working class, Billy said.
Read more ([link removed])


** For more info, check out our calendar ([link removed])
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* Aug. 30: Health Justice Now! – Tim Faust Book Tour
* Sept. 4: Canvass for Green for Ag & Forestry
* Sept. 10: Medicare for All Canvass
* Sept. 13: New Member Potluck
* Sept. 16: Medicare for All Canvass

Want to help Red Delta?
Email [email protected]!
We need writers and story ideas!
Become a DSA Member ([link removed])
Donate to DSA New Orleans ([link removed])

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