PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

remix- malik rahiem interview, common grounds collect
by vincent / blast furnace radio Thursday, Jul. 06, 2006 at 11:19 PM
eirene@telerama.com

great interview redone

audio link: MP3 at 13.6 mebibytes

From Pittsburgh to New Orleans: Common Ground Collective
Submitted by jenka on Thu, 2006-04-20 12:50. Articles by Volunteers
by Vincent Scotti Eirene /

The light from the fire did not seem to pierce the darkness around
us. No matter where you sat, the smoke drifted straight towards your
eyes. My new-found comrades were drinking what they called flood water
booze". It was presented to me as being a necessary ritual after a day of
hurricane clean-up. Yes, you would have to search through abandoned
homes, but what a prize People were thrusting these nameless mold and
dirt-encrusted bottles in my face and offering me their newly found stash.
I do not drink --nor should I, so I faked it.

There was a sense of peace in the midst of this post-apocalyptic
scenario, as people loaded pieces of what used to be their homes on the
fire. It was very late when the party was over and it was time to make it
back to St. Mary of the Angels Primary school, abandoned after Hurricane
Katrina and the scene of a dramatic rescue; and now our home away from
home. The school houses hundreds of volunteers gutting area homes seven
days a week. Eight months ago, it took 16 days for rescue helicopters to
notice over one hundred people waving there arms and holding up signs,
while standing on the roof as the water levels rose and neighbours watched
each other die, praying for help. ...As we slowly walked back, the
"war-zone" landscape became acute --metal and wood and dirt in an
upheaval, forming twisted sculptures. One of my fellow volunteers, and a
bonafide local --Eli was talking about the trouble he was having with FEMA
as we passed through a never-ending corridor of utterly destroyed houses.
When we finally arrived back at St. Mary's, the only sound was that of the
diesel generators droning away, bringing the barest of lighting to our
base of operation. The hallway was lit just enough for me to find my way
back to what was once a classroom, and now a mass bedroom. I quietly
crawled into my bottom bunk, and quickly fell asleep. This was my first
night in what used to be the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. I was a guest of
the Common Ground Collective.

Ashish Mitra and I have been running the Second Mile Light Hauling
and Handyman Service or, should I say, it has been running us. Odd jobs
--moving furniture, cleaning out basements and taking junk to the dump.
The work is hard, but being outside and searching for the perfect vegan
breakfast makes it worthwhile. More importantly, being self-employed is
the springboard for freedom to act. Since Hurricane Katrina, I have heard
talk of MaliK Rahim, former Black Panther and Common Grounds Collective
co-founder. I wanted to meet him and get the story on the Collective's
extensive relief operation. It was time to return to New Orleans. I
would be capturing audio and Ashish would be taking photographs.
This is my third trip to New Orleans. Not to be forgotten, in just over two
monthes, hurricane season will descend upon the Gulf Coast once again...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CURRENT COMMON GROUNDS COLLECTIVE RELIEF PROGRAMS:

Distribution of Food and Supplies: There are still very few open stores in
the greater New Orleans area.

Upper Ninth Ward Distribution Center: Here Common Ground gets all of it's
donated goods and facilitates distribution to their various relief sites
throughout the city while also making direct distribution of goods to
residents.

Free Medical Clinic: Community-controlled, locally employed, primary care
health clinic is based In Algiers

Emergency Repair: Ensuring access to housing remains a critical need and
volunteers are working around the clock to assist residents in making
their damaged homes livable and safe to occupy.

Mold Abatement and Construction Trades Training: Common Grounds is
preparing a mold abatement and construction training program for returning
residents.

Legal Support: There have been literally thousands of incidents of police
brutality and abuse since the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast.

Communications/Information Services: Common Grounds hosts Radio Uprising,
which provides information, interviews with residents, tapes of national
radio shows, as well as a range of music, including live performances to
the residents of New Orleans.

Lower Ninth Ward Cleanup and Advocacy: Damage in the Ninth Ward is most
severe and clean-up the slowest because of the proximity to the broken
levee. Common Grounds has established the Blue House of Relief (recently
featured on a CNN field piece covering the on-going relief effort).

Advocacy: Advocacy work focuses on supporting residents' demands to return
and for the immediate restoration of municipal services (trash removal,
electricity and plumbing) to habitable parts of the Ninth Ward.

Women's Center: It is one of the only womens' spaces open in the city that
is a safe space, full of resources and room for emergency housing.

Meg Perry Community Garden and Bioremediation Project: Food security and
access to good fresh produce is vital to the health of residents and
returning evacuees. Working in partnership with Parkway Partners, Common
Grounds volunteers have cleaned up 3 community gardens and have
established a model self-sustainable gardenscape outside of the Art Egg,
formerly an artists gallery and studio space that is also being rebuilt to
adhere to existing Green Building codes and standards.

Common Grounds Kids and Community Project: Common Grounds intends to
provide spaces, which are an alternative to the decimated and inoperative
public school system, where children feel supported and respected, and are
helped to learn in the ways that work best for them.

Possible Future Projects include: worker cooperatives, land trusts,
community service exchanges/alternative currencies, and codified,
self-administered community disaster response plans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The grocery list of projects listed above is too much for anyone
to comprehend. What is more amazing is that this marching army of
volunteers is thriving without the aid of corporate or government funding.
It has emerged since last September, less than eight months ago.
Throughout the hero-shy anarchist community, the name of Malik Rahim, a
former Black Panther, has come up over and over again. My curiosity was
piqued, so I made my way to the Common Grounds Collective Relief
Operations press conference. We had arrived a bit early, and were
dismayed at the lack of turnout from the press. Nevertheless, up to the
stage lumbered a large old man with graying dreadlocks. I introduced
myself and asked if I could interview him after the press conference. He
threw back his head and laughed and said why not now? As I set up my
equipment we talked, like old friends, having much in common from our
varied experiences from the Sixties. But more importantly we were still
active almost forty years later. Too many bridges have been burned,
selling out was not an option. Malik was original equipment --he was for
real-- and as I realized this, I relaxed and a wonderful conversation
flowered amidst the rubble...

interview audio is stored at the below URL#
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/23516.php

I asked Malik if Common Ground emerged due to Hurricane Katrina?

"Yes, Common Ground came out of Hurricane Katrina. Scott Crow and
I founded Common Ground on September 5, 2005. So what you have seen has
happened since Sept. 5. At the time, at our kitchen table Sharon Johnson,
my partner, had thirty dollars and I had twenty, and with that fifty
dollars we started Common Ground. Then we started contacting activist
people we knew on the phone and over the Internet. I even called other
people to contact activist people I did not know. Through that chain and
the wonderful efforts of Scott and Brandon Darby, we went from four people
to twenty. Then one day, I was walking my dog and as I was coming home, I
said to myself, "what in the world is going on_, there were sixty people
standing on my porch. Ever since then we have grown, since September 2005,
we have had well over seven to eight thousand volunteers."

"During spring break we have had over 2,700 volunteers... that
have gutted out over three hundred and fifty houses, that are now ready to
be rebuilt. ...It will take 10 to 12 years to rebuild New Orleans. But it
must be rebuilt, in every aspect, by the people of peace and justice. We
have done what the government refuses to do and is not capable of doing.
The work of Common Ground has done more for race relations, local black
and white people standing together rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward of New
Orleans."

The five days flew by, and Ashish and I were taken to every
project of the Common Grounds Collective. Felipe Chavez, an amazing
friend from the Rainbow Tribe who is presently running the kitchen for the
Common Ground volunteers was our guide. Because of the extensive
devastation, even propane had to be brought in for the kitchen. Felipe
had suffered a heart attack this last winter while working in New Orleans.
In all that Felipe showed us, Ashish and I hope to put together a slide
show and Powerpoint presentation, so as to raise a little awareness and
money for the work of a community that has stood up to the bulldozers of
opportunistic developers and have begun to rebuild the community of the
Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. This September I hope to be part of an
independent journalist delegation to New Orleans for the first anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina.

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