The Shock Doctrine in Action in New Orleans

Readers of The Shock Doctrine know that one of the most shameless examples of disaster capitalism has been the attempt to exploit the disastrous flooding of New Orleans to close down that city's public housing projects, some of the only affordable units in the city. Most of the buildings sustained minimal flood damage, but they happen to occupy valuable land that make for perfect condo developments and hotels.

The final showdown over New Orleans public housing is playing out in dramatic fashion right now. The conflict is a classic example of the "triple shock" formula at the core of the doctrine.

- First came the shock of the original disaster: the flood and the traumatic evacuation.

- Next came the "economic shock therapy": using the window of opportunity opened up by the first shock to push through a rapid-fire attack on the city's public services and spaces, most notably it's homes, schools and hospitals.

-Now we see that as residents of New Orleans try to resist these attacks, they are being met with a third shock: the shock of the police baton and the Taser gun, used on the bodies of protestors outside New Orleans City Hall yesterday.

Democracy Now! has been covering this fight all week, with amazing reports from filmmakers Jacquie Soohen and Rick Rowley (Rick was arrested in the crackdown). Watch residents react to the bulldozing of their homes here.

And footage from yesterday's police crackdown and Tasering of protestors inside and outside city hall here.

That last segment contains a terrific interview with Kali Akuno, executive director of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund. Akuno puts the demolitions in the big picture, telling Amy Goodman:

This is just one particular piece of this whole program. Public hospitals are also being shut down and set to be demolished and destroyed in New Orleans. And they've systematically dismantled the public education system and beginning demolition on many of the schools in New Orleans--that's on the agenda right now--and trying to totally turn that system over to a charter and a voucher system, to privatize and just really go forward with a major experiment, which was initially laid out by the Heritage Foundation and other neoconservative think tanks shortly after the storm. So this is just really the fulfillment of this program.

Akuno is referring to the Heritage Foundation's infamous post-Katrina meeting with the Republican Study Group in which participants laid out their plans to turn New Orleans into a Petri dish for every policy they can't ram through without a disaster. Read the minutes on my website:.

For more context, here are couple of related excerpts from The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism:

The news racing around the shelter [in Baton Rouge] that day was that Richard Baker, a prominent Republican Congressman from this city, had told a group of lobbyists, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." Joseph Canizaro, one of New Orleans' wealthiest developers, had just expressed a similar sentiment: "I think we have a clean sheet to start again. And with that clean sheet we have some very big opportunities." All that week the Louisiana State Legislature in Baton Rouge had been crawling with corporate lobbyists helping to lock in those big opportunities: lower taxes, fewer regulations, cheaper workers and a "smaller, safer city"--which in practice meant plans to level the public housing projects and replace them with condos. Hearing all the talk of "fresh starts" and "clean sheets," you could almost forget the toxic stew of rubble, chemical outflows and human remains just a few miles down the highway.

Over at the shelter, Jamar Perry, a young resident of New Orleans, could think of nothing else. "I really don't see it as cleaning up the city. What I see is that a lot of people got killed uptown. People who shouldn't have died."

He was speaking quietly, but an older man in line in front of us in the food line overheard and whipped around. "What is wrong with these people in Baton Rouge? This isn't an opportunity. It's a goddamned tragedy. Are they blind?"

A mother with two kids chimed in. "No, they're not blind, they're evil. They see just fine."

...

At first I thought the Green Zone phenomenon was unique to the war in Iraq. Now, after years spent in other disaster zones, I realize that the Green Zone emerges everywhere that the disaster capitalism complex descends, with the same stark partitions between the included and the excluded, the protected and the damned.

It happened in New Orleans. After the flood, an already divided city turned into a battleground between gated green zones and raging red zones--the result not of water damage but of the "free-market solutions" embraced by the president. The Bush administration refused to allow emergency funds to pay public sector salaries, and the City of New Orleans, which lost its tax base, had to fire three thousand workers in the months after Katrina. Among them were sixteen of the city's planning staff--with shades of "de Baathification," laid off at the precise moment when New Orleans was in desperate need of planners. Instead, millions of public dollars went to outside consultants, many of whom were powerful real estate developers. And of course thousands of teachers were also fired, paving the way for the conversion of dozens of public schools into charter schools, just as Friedman had called for.

Almost two years after the storm, Charity Hospital was still closed. The court system was barely functioning, and the privatized electricity company, Entergy, had failed to get the whole city back online. After threatening to raise rates dramatically, the company managed to extract a controversial $200 million bailout from the federal government. The public transit system was gutted and lost almost half its workers. The vast majority of publicly owned housing projects stood boarded up and empty, with five thousand units slotted for demolition by the federal housing authority. Much as the tourism lobby in Asia had longed to be rid of the beachfront fishing villages, New Orleans' powerful tourism lobby had been eyeing the housing projects, several of them on prime land close to the French Quarter, the city's tourism magnet.

Endesha Juakali helped set up a protest camp outside one of the boarded-up projects, St. Bernard Public Housing, explaining that "they've had an agenda for St. Bernard a long time, but as long as people lived here, they couldn't do it. So they used the disaster as a way of cleansing the neighbourhood when the neighbourhood is weakest. ... This is a great location for bigger houses and condos. The only problem is you got all these poor black people sitting on it!"

Amid the schools, the homes, the hospitals, the transit system and the lack of clean water in many parts of town, New Orleans' public sphere was not being rebuilt, it was being erased, with the storm used as the excuse. At an earlier stage of capitalist "creative destruction," large swaths of the United States lost their manufacturing bases and degenerated into rust belts of shuttered factories and neglected neighbourhoods. Post-Katrina New Orleans may be providing the first Western-world image of a new kind of wasted urban landscape: the mould belt, destroyed by the deadly combination of weathered public infrastructure and extreme weather.

Since the publication of The Shock Doctrine, my research team has been putting dozens of original source documents online for readers to explore subjects in greater depth. The resource page on New Orleans has some real gems.

Comments

[callmeishmael]

I just spent 2 weeks in New Orleans video taping interviews with local residents, activists and homeless people, after reading Bill Quigley's column on the subject:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/03/5568

First is a question that, even if rhetorical, is critical to understanding the housing crisis in New Orleans—Who owned the property before Katrina and who will own it after the proposed demolition?

Is this ethnic cleansing in the Homeland?

What about the right of return http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return for internally displaced persons?

Why is perfectly good, beautifully designed and structurally sound housing that was unscathed by Katrina being demolished when there are tens of thousands displaced?

Why have residents been barred from returning by physical obstructions placed at great expense by the city over windows and doors that were unbroken by the storm?

Why are there 240 homeless people living in tents across the street from City Hall? Where are these people supposed to go?

Why aren't all the homeless from the park considered homeless?

Why is prime real estate only blocks from the French Quarter being transferred into private hands?

What does the mayor have planned for the over 200,000 residents who are still displaced? How will demolishing 83% of available housing and replacing it with only 10% of that capacity help the displaced return?

Are allegations of cronyism and conflict of interest for HUD Secretary, Alphonzo Jackson justified?

Is a city council that was elected with over 200,000 of its constituents strewn about the country worthy of the charge of deciding the fate of low income housing?

Here is a link that shows the kind of "impartiality" of the current city council: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btC4Uz1YL1A

Look at these photos taken last week at the Lafitte Housing project:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21292300@N07/2114310850/in/set-72157603466618996

As Americans we watched the treatment the poor received before, during and after Katrina with horror. They were abandoned once already. If ever they needed America to watch their back, they damn sure need it now.

[mckinley]

This is what happens when a Born Again Christian becomes president. Merry Christmas.

[bighat]

I had not realized President Bush has become so powerful. Between the comments on Huffington Post and USA today Bush has revoked the constitution and has become not only king but has added emperor and dictator to his resume. Bush did it so smoothly that it has not even made headlines in the national media. But I have learned by reading these same comments that the national media is all owned by neocons. Even NBC that was going to hire Rosie O'Donnell as unbiased news anchor. Bush has been able to do anything from whipping up a hurricane to parting the Red Sea. I heard Superman is even envious of the power of W.

[H8FascistCons]

A mini shock doctrine no one talks about is the unbelievable and deliberate witholding of water for five full days from our own American citizens at the superdome, by the Fascist criminal republicans. A very sad, sad series of tragic events perpetrated on our own beloved country which I will never forget, as long as I can draw a breath and vote...

[knerd]

Naomi, thanks and kudos for the "Shock Doctrine." I am doing my part to make it a viable frame through which to take a breath, see and understand these larger forces and patterns which must always be recognized and resisted. Let's hope it spreads like an epidemic of sanity. The more we know the better off we are.

ATTENTION! MAJOR QUIBBLE AHEAD:
In your HuffPost entry, I read:
"... most notably it's homes, schools and hospitals." I am wondering if the apostrophe was a proofreading error or are you yet another unwitting victim of "Apostrophe Abuse"?

[Viper]

I agree about disaster capitalism. I agree that the BUSH admin and the neo conservatives would like to make N.O. whiter and for the rich, except for the low income subserviant workers they can smuggle in from Mexico to work in their Kitchens and clean their rooms, vut theirgrass and wash their cars.

However the Mega Housing projects turned into warehousing of the poor, ghettos and generally very segregated. It was a well meaning social program that created more harm than good. Its not the right answer.

Small dispersed projects or even requiring in private projects a certain amount of low income housing and of course tax credits for low income housing are all in play and have been for several decades , better for the poor and better society.

I defy any of you protesting their destruction ( and that has occured in Cities all over the country and under black mayors) to visit these ghettos and spend two months living in one and then think they should stay!

The City now hashalf its population, so expect hospitals and schools not to be rebuilt in areas which nolonger have a local popuation. Yes it may be a chicken and egg situation.

So while disaster capitalism is unfortunately at work in N.O. as in Iraq and after 911 in the U.S..... Losing 50 year od Ghetto structures and not repairing schools andhopsitals that are not needed due to half the population missing at this time.. is not so bad.

Regards


Regards

[islandboy]

Sorry folks....if you had never seen NOLa or Gulfport before Katrina hit,you missed it. I loved them both. Now its all gone.The funk of NOLa has been pushed into a giant pile of trash and hauled away,well some of it.It will all be replaced with a plastic glittery fake shrine to the former.No more late nite pool halls with gumbo,no more soul.Gone.All will be replaced with gimicky tourist traps,condos and coffee shops that suck.Any traces of its former self will be sanitized and patented , and yours to see for 7.50.Just don't cross the line , cause they have already rebuilt the county jail.

[kay]

The data on vouchers contradicts the talking points. The data on charter schools contradicts the talking points.

We have plenty of data on both vouchers and charter schools. This experiment has been ongoing for the last 15 years.

Why doesn't the data buttress the conservative case for privatization of public schools?

Why are we pretending that the results aren't in?

Published: July 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 14 — The Education Department reported on Friday that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private school counterparts fared better.

The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores in 2003 from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools, found that fourth graders attending public school did significantly better in math than comparable fourth graders in private schools. Additionally, it found that students in conservative Christian schools lagged significantly behind their counterparts in public schools on eighth-grade math.

The study, carrying the imprimatur of the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Education Department, was contracted to the Educational Testing Service and delivered to the department last year.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Here's a great idea for those of you who are totally against any form of social help for the general populace: we eliminate all taxes, we allow everyone to keep what they earn and do with it what they want. If I wash windows for $8 an hour and I work 50 hours a week I keep $400 to do with as I see fit. That way the poor will stand a chance of survival at least. Let's see how far the wealthy get without a defense department and how great the businesses will do without subsidies. I know that I can make it without help, I've done it all my life without exception. Can the wealthy? No. They would be the first ones to cry. Don't need a structured government that give a society its strength? Try it.

[kingcityguru]

Anyone who has spent any time in N.O will tell you that it was a City plagued by incompetence and corruption -- both of which were encouraged by raced-based voting and pandering.

If you want to rebuild N.O. cut the subsidies and hand-outs and make it a tax-free zone for business and then step back as it revitalizes.

[Nezua]

well, we can tell by how much insane reaction you get that you are surely on to something.

thanks for preaching and teaching this line of thought, ms klein. its brilliant stuff, and we need to be able to see this disgusting creeping fascist transformation of our nation for what it is.

on so many levels. its really something.

[WASanford]

Thank you Naomi for your book, your comments in "The Nation," and here.
I don't think that the real estate in New Orleans is the only thing that's being stolen, not by a long shot! It's not incidental that tearing down public subsidized housing also creates a desperate and exploitable population. The rich, no matter how much wealth they have, are always immensly happy with the notion they can have their lawns mowed by workers earning $0.50 an hour. Oh, and don't look them in their faces or you'll be fired! They want to take the value out of hard work even as they expound its virtues, to their own advantage, of course.
Is this the world we want to live in, Where carpetbaggers follow every storm or earthquake? If it isn't, then we'd better begin recognizing these crooks and thugs for who they really are!
On scientific theory: A valid theory is "falsable!" That means that if the theory doesn't work out, its proponents admit it and go on to another hypothess. A good sounding idea that garners little more than excuses is an ideology. The Chicago gang can call their idea a "theory" all they want. But it isn't! It's an ideology, and little more than an excuse for theivery!

[bighat]

Biggest bunch of whiners that I have ever read. Just bashing the government. Just what has the government done for you lately. Anybody come up to you and say I am from the government and I am here to help you. Government tries to give away money and most of it seems to wind up with the con artists. For those of you that are deeply concerned use your influence. Could Ms Huffington get some celebrities to go to N.O. The writers are on strike. Celebs are not working. Send Geo Clooney to N.O. How many would pay big bucks just to see him and pay more to eat with him and still more for him to take off his shirt and knock in a nail. Where are the rock stars. Why are there no concerts in Louisiana. Raising money in other places may help N.O. but not as much as people actually seeing the damage mother nature has wrought. The U.S. has more professional fund raisers than the rest of the world combined. Where are they? Does anybody know a contractor? Is America's best foot busing in professional protesters? Get a grip. Things will not go well until someone of stature decides to take the bull by the horns and throw him. We need to find a man/woman who could throw the Olympics and make a profit by doing it. It's sad to think the best effort America can produce is to whine, complain and write books and magazine articles that complain more. Pick up a hammer and some nails or a trash bag. Leave your protest sign at home.

[londubh]

The NRA crowd got a rude awakening in the aftermath of Katrina. Many a law abiding citizens had their guns confiscated by local law enforcement. Some did get theirs back but those in New Orleans still haven't and probably won't. Hopefully the NRA membership will wake up and throw their lot in with the liberals and progressives. It would certainly make strange bedfellows.

[bighat]

Where are the Presidential Candidates. Is there no soapbox in New Orleans. I heard Edwards might have mentioned N.O. but that is not the same as being in New Orleans. Where are the entertainers and their cash? Superstars are not really helping if they are only purchasing prime property in the French Quarter