[Nesayem]

Peace Kings and Queens. Some of the brother and sisters her in Cali have been organizing to provide clothing, food , and other needed items the people of New Orleans. Here's is some information about the Wal-Mart boycott
(which I hope we can all show our solidarity with) and other needed information about the Black Cross. I will be posting the Black Cross Campaign donation drop off sites in the Bay Area forum and in the LA forum.

The Blackout Boycott of Wal-Mart

by JR, POCC Minister of Info

Over the last month, the Prisoners of Conscience Committee initiated the Black Cross Campaign to aid and assist the refugees fleeing the Gulf States. Yes, I did use the word refugee, because I believe that these evacuees were fleeing a war, not just the 500-year war that we have been in since we were shipped to Amerikkka at the bottom of slaveships, but also the war that was initiated by the U.S. military blowing up the levees in New Orleans while the hurricane was passing through.

The POCC is not calling it Hurricane Katrina; we’re calling it Hurricane Amerikkka, since Amerikkka blew up the levee, Amerikka neglected saving people trapped in the floods and on rooftops, Amerikkka put “shoot to kill” orders on Black people looking for food, Amerikkka has refused to acknowledge and accept Fidel Castro’s offer to send over 1,500 doctors to the U.S. to aid Black people and it is Amerikkka who is planning to steal the land of Black landowners in New Orleans and whiten the city, among other things.


Sharon Chew and her twins from New Orleans were one of the families that got clothes and school supplies from the Black Cross Campaign last week.
Photo: JR
Recently the POCC butted heads with Wal-Mart, the largest company in the world, over donating to the Black Cross Campaign. Over the years, Wal-Mart has had a number of enemies who don’t agree with their business practices. Now the POCC and the Black community is gearing up for a Blackout Boycott of Wal-Mart, nationally and internationally.

I took this opportunity to talk to Jazzmine, a member of the POCC from LA, about the recent run-in with the corporate giant. Check her out …

JR: What is the Black Cross Campaign? And what are people doing in Los Angeles?

Jazz: Well, the Black Cross Campaign is a campaign started by the POCC in response to the neglect that went on in regards to the victims of Hurricane Katrina (aka Hurricane Amerikkka). It’s about us taking care of us, like only we know how to do.

They have huge amounts of support from all kinds of people in LA. We’ve set up a drop-off spot dead in the middle of the hood, and it’s been tons of love from all of the people out there. So people have been doing a lot in LA.

JR: Why is there a need for a Black Cross Campaign? Some people would say that they donated to the Red Cross …


POCC member Jazz is a key organizer with the Black Cross Campaign in Los Angeles. She is also heading up the POCC’s Boycott Wal-Mart campaign.

Jazz: It’s definitely a need for that alternative, because we all know that the Red Cross is really on some shady stuff and for the most part, the evacuees didn’t see any money. So it’s like, where is all of that money going?

So there is a need for a Black Cross Campaign because there needs to be some kind of balance to that. There has to be a place where the people who need help could go to and get the genuine and real help that they need and they don’t have to worry about being exploited.

JR: I know that the Anti-Wal-Mart Campaign is being organized. How did the Black Cross Campaign and Wal-Mart come head to head?

Jazz: Well, what happened with Wal-Mart was that one of the organizers that I am friends with in LA had worked out an agreement with a Wal-Mart associate that they were going to donate a certain amount of clothes. They had a huge backroom full of clothes (baby clothes, men and women’s underwear, bottles) and all kinds of stuff that were out of season, and they weren’t doing anything with. So we went up to Wal-Mart and we spoke to the department manager, and she ok’d for us to come and pick up the stuff the following Monday.

So JR (the minister of info of the POCC) went and got a U-Haul truck, and they were on their way to drive down when Wal-Mart cancelled. So it was real shady. And their reason for canceling was because they felt that donating to the POCC wouldn’t give them the proper credit that they felt needed to be awarded to them because they donated.

Because what is the point of doing it if ain’t nobody gonna know, you know what I’m saying? So they were on something like that. The day that it was supposed to go down, they ended up canceling. So that’s where the anti-Wal-Mart campaign comes from.

JR: So what are we asking people to do?

Jazz: Well we’re asking people to first off stop shopping at Wal-Mart. If you could get anything anywhere else, go there and get it. Avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible. Just do what you can do, and that’s not a lot. Because when it was time for them to really give and make a good honest contribution, they didn’t want to do it, so it’s really a small thing to do. Just stop shopping at Wal-Mart.