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Callaloo 29.4 (2007) 1063-1067

John O'Neal
with Charles Henry Rowell

ROWELL: You're working for the People's Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) and Oversight Committee. What do you do for the organization? What does that organization attempt to do?

O'NEAL: Simply stated, PHRF attempts to organize the people who were affected by the disaster. It assists them in becoming advocates for their own interests.

We are trying to build a broad coalition of people and organizations that supports grassroots people who advocate in their own interests. Right now, there are literally dozens of organizations working on hurricane relief efforts of one sort or another but none will really be successful until we find ways to coordinate those efforts so ordinary people can face the hostile interests supported by big business effectively. Our main goal at PHRF is to build that collaboration both locally and nationally. We are working to aggregate the efforts of the people who strive for justice.

The local, state, and national government failed the people. The public agencies designed to deal with these problems just didn't work. We're trying to help build capacity among grass roots people to speak truth to power.

ROWELL: What do you mean when you say you want to assist the people worst affected by the hurricane?

O'NEAL: We are talking about the images we saw on TV and in the news. We are talking about prisoners, trustees—men working for the Sheriff. They enjoy getting these little gigs, because they take them out of prisons for a few hours in the daytime. They end up with all kinds of errands to do for their fellow prisoners: "I'm gonna get my cousin to give you some money. Bring that money back, and you can have $10 of it." "Be careful now. Don let 'em catch ya." The cousin will drop the $50 on the street or somewhere like that and the prisoner will pick it up as they're cleaning up. We're talking about the mass of poor black people who were the ones left stranded. Why we choose to give it a euphemistic expression is problematic to me. I'm in favor of being more direct, because they're the ones whose voices don't find their way into the regular channels by law. [End Page 1063]

ROWELL: Are you also trying to help those New Orleans people who, as a result of the hurricane, are in places such as Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, and many other cities, towns, and rural communities?

O'NEAL: Yes. The most potent weapons that oppressed and exploited can have are knowledge of the nature of their problems and organization that enables them to act in their own interest. We have someone working in Houston to build an organization of survivors. Others are working in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Jackson, MI and Memphis, TN. We have support committees in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. So we have people working together all over the place. But then, too, so do many other organizations. The real challenge is how to coordinate our efforts by building a broad united front among oppressed and exploited people and those who would support their fight for justice? How do they work together for the common good?

ROWELL: You and your family left New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. When you returned, what did you first see?

O'NEAL: The first time we returned, the curfew was still in effect. My wife and I had driven back from Atlanta that night. I knew the National Guard was in town, so I went around thinking I'd come a way they wouldn't be guarding, but they were everywhere— young men with guns standing there like an army of occupation. It was about three in the morning. They held us at the Parish line. They woke us about six and told us that we could enter the city. Coming from Uptown along River Road, we got to...

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