Podcast Summary: Green & Red – "Hurricane Katrina, 20 Years Later and 'the long slow history of disaster…' w/ Scott Crow (G&R 413)"
Date: August 30, 2025
Hosts: Bob Buzzanco & Scott Parkin
Guest: Scott Crow

Episode Overview

This episode marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and brings together hosts Bob Buzzanco and Scott Parkin with returning guest Scott Crow, activist, author, and co-founder of the Common Ground Collective. The discussion centers on the catastrophic aftermath of Katrina, the failings of government and large nonprofits, the radical organizing and mutual aid efforts spearheaded by Common Ground, and the enduring lessons for grassroots and climate justice organizing. The conversation weaves together personal anecdotes, reflections on disaster response, critiques of institutional responses, and a call to embrace liberatory imagination and action.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Founding and Early Days of Common Ground Collective

• Scott Crow recounts the urgency and improvisation behind forming Common Ground:

  • Motivated by government inaction, Scott and others rushed to New Orleans to find friends and provide direct aid within days after Katrina (02:49–10:58).
  • They were inspired by principles of mutual aid, direct action, anarchism, and lessons from previous movements like the Black Panthers and the Zapatistas.
  • The situation on the ground was chaotic, with police and militia violence, widespread devastation, and immediate needs unmet.

  “There had been white militias driving around in Malik's neighborhood threatening to kill him... The police were killing people. There were dead bodies in the street that weren't drowned. They were full of bullet holes. So who killed them? ... It's chaos, it's a war scene, except that one side is basically unarmed and desperate.” —Scott Crow [07:13]

• Common Ground bridged existing activist networks:

  • Drew in street medics, legal teams, Food Not Bombs, and more (09:33).
  • Operated on solidarity-not-charity, aiming to foster autonomy over dependency.

2. Government & Institutional Failures vs. Grassroots Response

• Law enforcement prioritized property and control over people:

  • Police and National Guard were often violent and impeded grassroots relief (11:10–12:42).
  • Systematic racism exacerbated suffering, as highlighted in the Gretna bridge incident where police shot at Black evacuees.

  “They wanted to restore law and order. They were not there to help people... The police armed up against them and started shooting at people to stop them from coming in...” —Scott Crow [11:25]

• Big nonprofits were largely ineffective:

  • Organizations like the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity raised millions but did limited, narrowly focused work (13:32–15:13).
  • In contrast, Common Ground addressed multiple urgent needs simultaneously despite far less funding.

3. Navigating Race and Organizing in New Orleans

• Experiences and complexities of mostly white volunteers in a Black city:

  • The dynamic was “messy” and sometimes perpetuated racism, but other times involved deep solidarity (15:29–17:28).
  • “Lead by asking” became a principle: listen to residents about their needs rather than assume.

  “Sometimes we are...perpetuated the racism and sometimes we worked awesomely side by side... At the end of the day...two of our core tenets for us were solidarity, not charity... and to lead by asking. Don't assume that people need this...” —Scott Crow [15:29]

• Addressing systemic neglect:

  • Katrina revealed New Orleans' longstanding inequalities, treating it as a “banana plantation of a city” with entrenched racism and poverty.

4. Impact on Modern Organizing & Climate Justice

• Lasting influence of Common Ground:

  • Common Ground became a template for grassroots, non-profit-led disaster response (18:48–20:33).
  • Organizers who cut their teeth in New Orleans later played pivotal roles in Occupy, Standing Rock, and mutual aid responses to hurricanes, COVID-19, etc.
  • The approach moved beyond protest toward building alternative structures—even “dual power.”

  “It was beautiful and accidental to see it to start to happen... Showing up in Haiti, showing up in...Occupy Sandy happened... None of those things would have happened like they did if Common Ground hadn’t put the other pieces together.” —Scott Crow [18:48]

• The necessity and evolution of mutual aid:

  • Mutual aid is more than service work, it's a refusal and a starting point for deeper liberation.
  • Crow cautions about losing the “liberatory aspect” and urges keeping disruptive, visionary thinking at the center (20:33–23:04).

5. Reflections on The "Long, Slow History of Disaster"

• Disasters aren't only acute catastrophes—poverty and neglect are slow disasters:

  • The systemic marginalization of the poor, especially in the U.S., is a continual, less visible disaster (26:03–28:25).
  • Class analysis is crucial and often sidelined by current left politics.

  “The long slow history of disaster is often about class, which is never talked about anymore… Those are the long slow histories of disaster.” —Scott Crow [26:03]

6. Struggles and Tactics for Today

• Direct action, civil disobedience, and the limits of 'old' tactics:

  • Recognizing that neither elections nor courts will save us—organizers must embrace resistance AND building new systems (29:48–34:33).
  • Organizations must avoid institutionalizing at the expense of radicalism.

  “If we do not reimagine and start to imagine the worlds we want, we’re not going to get it. Because the Christian nationalists and tech bros...have visions for the future… We don’t have any of that imagination on the left.” —Scott Crow [29:48]

• Rural strategy and the crisis of imagination:

  • The left has all but abandoned rural America, leaving fertile ground for right-wing organizing (39:38–41:08).

  “Go into areas where those people are and make it relevant to them. Do this shit in areas where it's difficult. Not in the Bay Area where it's fun and easy... but fucking in the place where it's hard and dirty and they... You're an outsider until you fucking prove yourself to them.” —Scott Crow [39:38]

• Critique of liberal/progressive attitudes toward rural America and the perils of dismissiveness.

7. Emergency Hearts: The Individual Spark for Collective Action

• On the meaning of 'Emergency Hearts':

  • Crow explains it's the compassion that propels action in crisis, vital for catalyzing mutual aid and activism (41:43–43:11).

  “The emergency hearts is just an idea... when your heart kicks into action with a lot of passion and compassion to do something.” —Scott Crow [41:43]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Government Failure:
  “At the time when it happened, we couldn't believe that the government in the US would fail so hard. Maybe now we see it again and again, but at that time it had. It was one of the greatest failures of the government at all levels, city, county, state and federal.”
  —Scott Crow [06:59]

• On Police and Racism:
  “And just be to be clear too, they're going after black people. They're not going after the white people who are driving around with guns.”
  —Scott Crow [11:25]

• On Charity vs. Solidarity:
  “We're not treating it like charity. We're treating it... we're in this together as much as we can be.”
  —Scott Crow [15:29]

• On the Dangers of Institutionalization:
  “If organizations get established, they want to stay established, they want to keep getting funding so they get less radical as they go... I think we have to throw that shit out the door too.”
  —Scott Crow [33:56]

• On the Crisis of Left Imagination:
  “But we don’t have any of that imagination on the left. We have nothing. And that’s why we end up with milquetoast politicians... We're not ready to do what we think because there is no imagination.”
  —Scott Crow [29:48]

• On the Urgency of Today:
  “We're in the biggest political disaster in the United States since probably the Civil War.”
  —Scott Crow [20:33]

• Bob’s closing affirmation:
  “I think it's as good a response as I've ever had to something like that. We've read Chomsky, and you name it, everybody but the students just were captivated by that. And to a large degree, I think it's because they didn't understand you could do something like this in America, which is foreign to us, that people are out there in these situations, and they're taking kind of power and control into their own hands.”
  —Bob Buzzanco [43:37]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:49–10:58 — Scott Crow’s detailed account of the founding and first actions of Common Ground
• 11:10–12:42 — The true role of police and the state during disaster
• 13:32–15:13 — Critique of major nonprofits and contrasts with grassroots mutual aid
• 15:29–17:28 — Navigating race and solidarity in a crisis context
• 18:48–23:04 — Common Ground’s impact on later organizers and movements
• 26:03–28:25 — The "long, slow history of disaster" and why class analysis matters
• 29:48–34:33 — Direct action, dual power, and radical organizing lessons
• 39:38–41:08 — Rural organizing, abandonment by the left, and possibilities for radical projects
• 41:43–43:11 — The concept of "Emergency Hearts" and its significance in activism
• 43:37–44:31 — The power of example and inspiration for students and organizers

Final Thoughts & Call to Action

Scott Crow’s narrative is equal parts warning and inspiration: government and mainstream NGOs will fail society’s most vulnerable, but imaginative, liberatory organizing—rooted in solidarity, direct action, and mutual aid—cannot just meet needs, but transform lives and movements. The episode closes on a call to wrench open the possibilities of the future through imagination and bold action.

“If it's bad, then we... have to do nothing and hide our head in the sand or to stand up and fight. The future is wide open... We're standing on the edge of potential at every moment. So how’s it going to look for all of us?”
—Scott Crow [45:25]

For more:

• Scott Crow’s book: Black Flags and Windmills
• Forthcoming piece: Insurrectionary Utopias: Ideas Towards Liberatory Mutual Aid
• The Common Ground Collective and its legacy
• Podcast links and social media for further resources