I
will scatter them, and then I will gather them: Deuteronomy 4:27; 28:64; 32:26;
Isaiah 11:12;
Jeremiah
23:8 / Read about the African Slave
Trade in Deuteronomy 28th Chapter.
REPARATIONS NOW IN
OUR LIFETIME!
N
E W S L E T T E R…….#17
JUNE 2001
“Take
direct action against the U.S. government!” Dr. Robert Brock
*********
GIVE
POWER AND MEANING TO
THE
REPARATIONS MASS MOVEMENT
GIVE
OF YOURSELF!
Note
from the REPNOW Newsletter Editor:
I am so heartened and inspired at the onward thrust
and motivation generated to make Reparations for Descendants of Slaves the
objective of this new century. And
it appears that more and more Black TOP Brass are getting involved every
day. Let’s continue to press onward
and upward and maintain our course of action.
How does the saying go? “There is something for everyone!” Well, in this case, there is
something for everyone to do (ALWAYS), if it is only to set up a
Reparations Awareness Station in your Community. If you have access to a computer and can
go online, establish E-mail listings for Black Businesses, Black magazines
and newspapers, Black Reporters working with White Newspapers, Black Colleges
and Universities (which is what I’m looking for), Black Internet Groups, such as
Black Voices, Black World, and Black Churches, and Black entertainers, sports
stars, TV personalities, etc., etc. in order to keep a line of
communication open to Black Peoples, especially the grassroots involving
REPARATIONS IN OUR LIFETIME for Descendants of Slaves. We have to reach EVERYONE because
we are in this cause TOGETHER!
The main ideal that we must keep in mind is that
“SOLIDARITY” in our efforts to acquire Reparations is key to our success in this
fight for a DEBT that is long, ever so long overdue. And any
single individual or organization that thinks this debt will be paid without a
concerted effort on the parts of the majority of Black Folks is deluding
him/themselves, and know little about the achievements of the Civil Rights
Movement that was only successful because it was supported and sustained by
thousands of determined Black Folks on a Mission to make their objective a
reality.
Without Reparations, our very lives and our future
are at stake. And if these monies
are not acquired, so that we can better ourselves, then we are destined to
forever be under the control of our Captors, Descendants of Slave
Masters, to reside in impoverishment, live by their inferior standards,
abide by their educational system, be harbored in their prisons, and be subject
to their so-called justice system.
We need to honestly consider whether we want determination for our lives
and for our progeny to remain in the hands of the White
Powers-that-be. If not, then we must work quickly,
ever so swiftly TOGETHER to reach the United States Government to let
Congress and the Senate know and realize that either we get Reparations or
else… We survived the
atrocities against us in our fight for Civil Rights, and we will survive the
atrocities that we will face in our fight for Reparations.
WE WILL BE HEARD, WE WILL GET OUR APOLOGY,
REPARATIONS WILL BE ADDRESSED, AND DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES WILL BE COMPENSATED FOR
FORCED MIGRATION, ETHNIC CLEANSING, AND FOR THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT WE HAVE
ENDURED SINCE THE FIRST DAY THAT THE WHITE MAN LEARNED THAT HE COULD RAPE AFRICA
AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE BLACK PEOPLES ON THIS CONTINENT!!!
We all know history. It was the Boston Tea Party, the
American Revolution, the need for representation, and the POWER OF
DETERMINATION that established the United States of America, albeit at the
Black Man’s expense, but it happened.
At present it’s time for Our
INDEPENDENCE AND OUR SELF DETERMINATION TO COME TO FRUITION!!! IT IS TIME FOR US TO EXPERIENCE FREEDOM
AND ASSURED LIBERTY THAT WE HAVE NEVER KNOWN AS SLAVES OR EVEN AS DESCENDANTS OF
SLAVES!
Now, it’s our turn to fight for JUSTICE and DIGNITY
and end the pain and suffering that we have endured since being forcibly
migrated to the Americas and to Europe in shackles to make another people
wealthy off the blood, sweat, and misery of Black folks. We have
been without empowerment and Human Rights for long enough. If we don’t rise up and go for THE
PRIZE, i.e., combat racism, our way, then WE’LL NEVER GET
THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE THE FRUITS OF THIS “PRIZE”!!! Who better knows the needs of
the Black Man than we? We
have waited long enough for justice served, now let us all speak out and be
heard and fight for Reparations with a UNITED FRONT until we get it.
White Folks have got to know that we are serious
about our future, and this is the year to make it known to them in plain and
simple language that they can understand:
“WE WANT REPARATIONS FOR BEING FORCED TO MIGRATE TO
THIS COUNTRY AND ALL WHITE SOCIETIES AND FOR THE ETHNIC CLEANSING AND PAIN AND
SUFFERING WE HAVE ENDURED SINCE BEING BROUGHT TO THE LANDS OF OUR CAPTORS. WE WANT REPARATIONS SO THAT WE CAN
MOVE ON AND START OUR OWN COMMUNITIES IN FRIENDLY COUNTRIES, OR REMAIN IN WHITE
SOCIETIES AND ESTABLISH COMMUNITIES COMPARABLE TO THOSE OUR U.S. TAX DOLLARS
BUILD IN ISRAEL.”
[And that speaks volumes!!! I wish
you could see these settlements.
Then you’d know what I’m ranting about and wonder how in the World we
could have permitted this to happen being Descendants of Slaves who deserve
these financial considerations and residential areas so much more. Wake up, Black Folks! We are a People with a dire need to
re-educate our youth (They are our future!). And we have permitted them to live
in the ghetto and under White supervision for long enough. We have got to eliminate this ghetto
life, impoverishment, and the bad elements that come with it, or let it continue
to destroy us as it does day by day!]
Now, is also the time for us to appeal
to ALL African countries to
permit us to speak out at the UNITED NATIONS, so that we can air our concerns to
ALL White Societies that benefited from the enslavement of Blacks out of Africa,
as well as the rape of Africa to settle their debt of Reparations for the
heinous, barbaric, and cruel Human Rights crimes committed against Black
humanity. And at the same time, Black Congressional Representatives should be
holding a filibuster (I haven’t forgotten) in order to send a dire message to
White Folks that WE MEAN BUSINESS!!!
Our Black Congressional Representation has become a
joke! Enough awready –
ENOUGH!! Wake up, you people in
politics and smell the coffee! Our
people are falling by the wayside right before your very eyes and while
YOU sit in Congress wooing lame and good for nothing Presidents!!! At this point we Black Folks need
more than potted plants. We need
people in office who are ready to be a voice for us and speak out for our
concerns EVERY SINGLE DAY and especially for REPARATIONS FOR DESCENDANTS
OF SLAVES until this much needed debt is paid for the destruction of our
forbears and for our struggles to survive in inhumane despair and degradation.
***
Work with me, work with others, but let’s all work
TOGETHER for the betterment of Blacks all over the World. Either we attain this goal and be
successful and prosperous Black Peoples, or we can continue on the destructive
paths headed for the demise of Black Peoples that Descendants of the Slave
Masters have paved for us.
Many, many thanks to everyone making an
effort to do their part and/or work with others for Reparations.
Don’t forget to send me
FEEDBACK regarding your
meetings, Conferences, dialogues, and debates, so that everyone can be informed
of the progress of Reparations’ activities and affairs.
By the way, make it your business to attend as many
Reparations Conferences as possible in order to be in the know, learn new ideas,
network, and pass the word along:
REPARATIONS NOW IN OUR LIFETIME!
Just one more thing, kindly realize that
this is OUR “Reparations” Newsletter. As much as I’d like to publish all the
articles that come my way regarding the injustices we face in White Societies,
please know that I just can’t. I
must dedicate this Newsletter to the “Reparations” Fight for Descendants of
Slaves and our Liberation.
Thank you for your support in this regard.
Tziona
Yisrael, Editor
REPARATIONS
NOW IN OUR LIFETIME Newsletter
www.thelawkeepers.org
(Click on
“Repnow”)
***
If anyone has a list of E-mail
addresses of University and College Black Student Unions, please advise: Afraqueen@AOL.COM.
*********
REPARATIONS DEBATE
KCLS TV in Los Angeles will host a Reparations
Debate on Wednesday, May 30th at 8pm on its program "Connections.”
Appearing on the program will be Senior Ambassador Raushana Karriem, of
the National Commission For Reparations and David Horowitz an anti
reparations activist.
In Los Angeles the program will appear on channel 58
and in Long Beach it will appear on Channel 31. Check with the station and give them your cable
provider and they will be able to tell you your particular
channel.
rkarriem@webtv.net (Raushana
Karriem)
*********
Stay strong in the struggle; we will win!
Dejoser
*********
THE
REPARATIONS EDUCATION AND MOBILIZATION CONFERENCE
AGENDA
FOR JUNE 29/30, 2001
All who are
ready and willing to work in a national and international campaign to educate
our Sisters and Brothers about the necessity of Black Reparations are urged to
come and help initiate this historic education and mobilization
campaign. This has been
pulled together by the New York Metro Chapter of the Black Radical Congress, New
York/N’COBRA, Africa Action, students from Brown University, Brooklyn and Medgar
Evers Colleges and the City College's Black Studies Dept. and IRADAC along with
a host of other folks still coming into the organizing
mix.
Below is “The Call” for everyone to feel free to help
get the word out about Reparations for Descendants of Slaves! If you are in the New York City area, please help
volunteer for different tasks at hand in preparation for this conference, as
well as on Friday and Saturday of June 29/30, 2001.
In
Struggle,
Sam Anderson
The
Call…
People of African descent are determined now more
than ever not to begin a new Millennium with the UNRESOLVED issue of
compensation for past and present crimes against our
Humanity.
This current
Reparations upsurge is grounded on the historic reality that our Ancestors
suffered the greatest crimes against humanity:
Centuries of brutal captivity not even a pig had to
endure. Centuries of a middle
passage experience far beyond ones worse nightmare. Centuries of being deliberately
worked to death without pay. Centuries of thousands of daily rapes of our
African Sisters. Centuries of knowing your children would automatically be born
enslaved and put to work at three years old. This immoral and evil system still
prospers today from peoples of African descent being exploited, dehumanized and
demonized based on this legacy of slavery and the ongoing plundering of
Africa.
All this and more resulted in the rulers of Europe and
their ruling European descendants in the Americas becoming increasingly rich and
powerful on a global scale.
It Is The Black Fool Who Says I
Have Lost Nothing In Afrika!!
Much love to the Afrikan
nation.
Hoteph
Osiris Akkebala
Chief Elder
(p.a.i.'n)
***
Never before has there been such powerful motion
around the demand for reparations for past and present inhumane acts against
people of African Descent. Today, in every part of
the world, people are talking about and mobilizing around the right of our
Sisters and Brothers... the right of you and I... to fight for
Reparations.
This historic and global groundswell of support for
Black Reparations is causing fear and reaction within the ranks of the ruling
white supremacists. They clearly understand
the power of the Reparations Movement to transform the world's uneven social and
economic relations into a more equitable distribution of wealth founded on the
blood, sweat and tears of our African Ancestors. They have
tried all of their international arm-twisting tactics short of use of arms to
"persuade" the African Ministries and other nations of Asia, the Caribbean and
Latin America to leave the issue of Reparations alone at the upcoming UN World
Conference Against Racism. Their desperate acts
have only resulted in a stronger unification of peoples of color to be resolute
and stand strong for Black Reparations.
We have also experienced these very same ruling white
supremacists sicking their racist rightwing hounds upon the Reparations Movement
through college campus newspaper ads, TV talkshows, and various kinds of
so-called "debates." Their hopes were to kill
the Reparations Movement. But, just as in the international arena, their
attempts to crush our Movement for just compensation has only resulted in
positively promoting our righteous cause. These very
same evil forces have also witnessed - much to their fear and frustration - a
growing awareness among tens of thousands of our Latino and Latina Brothers and
Sisters of their African roots and its historic meaning within the newly
revitalized Global African Reparations Movement.
This puts us at a most critical
stage:
There is a dire need to educate and mobilize our
Sisters and Brothers about joining the battle for Reparations at this most
pivotal moment.
This is why we, who have signed on as cosponsors, are
calling for a working conference on Reparations Mobilization for June 29 and 30, 2001
at City College of New York Aranow Theater, 136th St. & Convent Ave. Harlem,
NY. We are united and committed to building the structure that can help us
educate and mobilize millions of our Sisters and Brothers across the US and the
African Diaspora about how they can join in contributing to the realization of
Black Reparations.
Our Ancestors will not rest until we - Africans of
the New Millennium - achieve Reparations. Our Descendants will not forgive us if
we do not fight the Good Fight for Reparations.
Join us
at this historic conference on June 29-30. 2001!
To preregister call:
Brother Muntu
Matsimela 212-785-1024
...or
Brother Sam
Anderson at 718. 270. 6287 or
E-mail us at
<ebontek@earthlink.net
***
We have gotten, so far, great responses, both in
terms of folks helping to spread the word and those committed to
attend.
We are in need of travel money and/or frequent flyer bonuses to help get our
Continental and Diasporic Reparations Activists here. So, any help on this end
is greatly appreciated!
FOR MORE DETAILS Call:
Muntu Matsimela: 212- 785-1027 or
Sam Anderson: 718-270-6287
For
the Conference Planning Committee,
Sam
Anderson
Please see the complete agenda for THE
REPARATIONS EDUCATION AND MOBILIZATION CONFERENCE under “Mark Your
Calendar of Events.”
Contributed by o_akkebala@msn.com
and Rhazard988@AOL.COM
*********
WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM
(WCAR)
THIS IS A PRESS
RELEASE/STATEMENT FROM THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS (BRC)…
For Immediate
Release
May 7, 2001
Contact:
Humberto Brown,
hbrown@downstate.edu
Horace G. Campbell,
hgcc@twcny.rr.com
Jean Carey Bond,
jeancb@worldnet.att.net
STATEMENT ON THE WORLD CONFERENCE
AGAINST RACISM (WCAR)
Contents:
1. Taking it to the
UN
2. Why the World Conference
Against Racism Matters
3. Preparing for the WCAR:
What Happened in Santiago?
4. Overture to Durban: The
Struggle in Geneva
5. The NGO
Forum
6. Support the
WCAR
7. Beyond the WCAR:
Imperatives for Justice
8. Resources and Additional
Information
Taking it to the
UN
From the very inception of the United Nations, Black
people have regarded that international body as an important forum in which to
amplify our voices and focus public attention on the conditions of our
existence. In 1951, political activist William L. Patterson and
artist/activist Paul Robeson delivered a Civil Rights Congress petition to the
then three-year-old UN, entitled We Charge Genocide. This historic
document accused the United States government of pursuing policies aimed at the
destruction of the African American people. In October 2000, a delegation of
civil rights leaders, led by Gay J. McDougall, director of the International
Human Rights Law Group, presented a "call to action" to the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Mary Robinson, exhorting her agency to address the racial
discrimination that pervades the U.S. criminal justice system -- from racial
profiling to the application of the death penalty. Stated the delegation: "Our political
leaders speak loudly about human rights abuses in the rest of the world. They
should start by ... eliminating racial discrimination at home -- and the world
should hold them accountable." This special appeal was occasioned by the
approach of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), which will take
place August 31, to September 7, in Durban, South
Africa.
The WCAR is the third UN conference on
racism, coming toward the end of the
last of three decades designated by the UN "to Combat Racism and Racial
Discrimination" -- 1993 to 2003. During this period, we have seen the fall of
apartheid in South Africa, U.S. ratification of the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, creation of a "Special
Rapporteur" at the UN to address racism and various forms of intolerance. We
have seen international legal protections of human rights
expand.
What we have not seen is any significant decline in
the scourge of racism and its corrosive effects on the lives of millions of
people of color around the world,
nor any pronounced slippage in xenophobia, nor any reduction in heterosexual
hatred of other sexual orientations, nor any abatement of religious intolerance.
So what is new about another world conference on racism? What is the point?
Why the World Conference Against
Racism Matters
The Black Radical Congress strongly supports the
WCAR, and we are appalled by the general lack of support it has
received. If this is the first time
you are hearing about the conference, one reason is that in contrast to the much
publicized UN women's conference held in Beijing, China some years ago, U.S.
media have hardly taken note of the WCAR.
The U.S. government, which gave $6 million to support the Women's
conference, has committed little to the support of this conference. And thus
far, support from the foundation community, except from the Ford Foundation, is
sharply below the levels of support commanded by the women's
conference.
The Black Radical Congress believes that
notwithstanding the limitations of what can be accomplished within a UN context,
the WCAR offers a valuable opportunity for peoples of African descent and
other aggrieved peoples to spotlight their age-old grievances on a world stage,
before a world audience.
We are well aware that the fundamental changes we
seek in economic, political and social structures cannot be forged in the
hallowed halls of the United Nations. UN mandates cannot break the punishing
grip of globalized capitalism on the lives of working people; or reorder the
budgetary priorities of the U.S. government to fund more schools and fewer
jails; or rescue the 3,700-plus people on death row in the U.S., more than half
of whom are African American, Latino, Native American and Asian; or return to
the Black people of Colombia the lands taken from them in the name of a bogus
war on drugs; or arrest the multiple plagues -- medical, social, economic --
that afflict humanity.
We believe, however, that it is wise
for Black people in the U.S. and throughout our Diaspora to work this moment for
all it is worth.
It is important to reiterate the international
standards and principles that have been established for the just treatment of
human beings, even as those standards and principles continue to be ignored
and flouted.
It is important to expose the ongoing failure of the
U.S. to comply with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination, which it ratified in 1994. The world must know that the United States
remains one of the planet's leading sites of human rights abuse. A Human
Rights Watch investigation has documented that the U.S. is a country whose
government maintains, throughout a vast network of prisons filled
disproportionately with people of color, an environment that not only sanctions
but encourages rape and various sadistic abuses of male and female prisoners'
rights. It is a country where the inherent barbarism of the death penalty is
compounded by that penalty being applied in a proven racially discriminatory
manner. These conditions exist
in a country that claims to be the world headquarters of
"civilization."
It is important for people of African descent to
interact and network with each other and with other peoples of color in the same
place at the same time -- even a short time -- and work collectively on the same
project.
It is important to wring from the governments that
comprise the United Nations consortium -- even if only symbolically -- a
commitment to engage the worldwide fight against racism and all varieties of
discrimination. That is an important goal, even as we must press our primary
struggle, the struggle on the ground, for justice and democracy in our home
societies.
Preparing for the WCAR: What
Happened in Santiago?
Leading up to the Durban event, several
pre-conference planning meetings have taken place around the world. The mandate
for these meetings was to produce regional draft documents describing the
historical and contemporary forms of racism, discrimination and/or intolerance
experienced by peoples of the various regions. Those drafts were then given to a
special committee charged with merging them into a single draft "declaration and
programme of action of the World Conference."
The one and only pre-conference gathering devoted to
peoples of the Americas occurred in Santiago, Chile, in December 2000. Present
at the Santiago meeting were representatives of "non-governmental organizations
(NGOs)" accredited to participate in the proceedings in Durban, along with
government delegations, including that of the United States. The Black
Radical Congress was represented by Humberto R. Brown, the BRC's International
Secretary and a member of the United New York BRC
local.
Linda Burnham, from California's Bay Area BRC local
also attended. In the course of deliberations at the meeting, a separate
"Declaration of African Descendants" was produced
(<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brc-discuss/message/1907 or
<http://mail-archive.com/brc-discuss@lists.tao.ca/msg00946.html), as well as
a declaration of "Principles/Commitments on Race and Poverty" by an NGO
Roundtable on Race and Poverty
(<http://www.hri.ca/racism/Submitted/Author/racepovworking.htm or
<http://www.udayton.edu/~race/06internat/hrights/PrepCom09.htm), sponsored by
the International Human Rights Law Group. The Black Radical Congress endorses
both documents in their entirety.
African-descended peoples and indigenous Native
peoples fought hard to ensure that the draft document from the Americas would
include sections devoted specifically to their experiences. And
African-descended peoples, in particular, fought for the draft to clearly
endorse the concept of reparations as an appropriate remedy for the ravages of
slavery and colonial domination we have endured. It is noteworthy that the U.S.
government delegation was the principal opponent of both objectives:
including a separate section on people of African descent, and endorsement of
reparations -- which the delegation claimed had been paid in the U.S., in
effect, by the implementation of affirmative action policies! But despite
its obstructive role, the U.S. delegation was overruled. In the end,
satisfactory, inclusive language was agreed upon -- satisfactory, within the
constraints imposed by UN procedures -- for releasing a "Regional Conference of
the Americas Draft Declaration and Plan of Action." The special committee then
went to work on the merger of all regional drafts into one draft document, which
was unveiled in Geneva in March.
The result of the special committee's work, completed
two weeks after the Santiago meeting, was greeted with outrage in Geneva.
Virtually all of the language hard fought-for in Santiago was nowhere to be
found in the merged document, and
although a separate section on indigenous Native peoples was included, there
was no African descent section and no reference to reparations. Indeed,
in the 31-page draft, the words "people of African descent" appeared only
twice. NGO representatives from other regions, especially Asia, were
similarly dissatisfied, so much so that the decision was made to reject the
draft declaration and require the writing committee to produce a re-draft -- a
new merged draft declaration. In order for the special writing committee to
present the new draft for discussion, an extra pre-conference meeting took place
in Geneva on May 7 to 11. A
final and extremely important pre-conference event will take place in Geneva at
the end of May.
Overture to Durban: The Struggle
in Geneva
In many ways, the final pre-conference meeting has an
importance almost equal to that of the conference itself. This is the gathering at which will
be determined the main structure and language of the declaration that the WCAR
will release at the end of its proceedings in Durban.
Consistent with the collective will of the African
diaspora, the Black Radical Congress will work in Geneva to ensure that the
essence of the document crafted at the meeting of the Americas in Santiago, over
the U.S. delegation's objections, is reflected in the final draft declaration of
the WCAR.
We will insist on the international community's
formal recognition of the fact that for centuries, up to and including the
present, peoples of African descent have experienced structural and
institutional forms of racism and racial discrimination that have impacted
severely on the material conditions of our lives, and on all aspects of our
humanity. Stemming from the brutal exploitation of our bodies under slavery
and colonialism, Black people throughout the American hemisphere and in Africa
continue to experience disproportionate rates of poverty, unemployment and
underemployment; excessive incarceration and state terrorism; inadequate
education and health services; expropriation of our lands, and numerous other
life-threatening economic, political and social
disadvantages.
We will insist that the international community
recognize the different, disproportionate and multiple ways in which women of
African descent are burdened by the legacies of past abuse -- including combined
sexist and racist economic and social policies, discriminatory cultural and
sexual mores and other forms of discrimination specific to their female
identity.
We will not only defend and promote reparations as a
concept for compensating the unpaid Black labor that literally built the
infrastructures and wealth of most of the developed modern
world. We will also insist on
concrete thinking about the creation of mechanisms designed to support Black
people's contemporary uphill struggle to recover from the past's
devastation.
We will press for acknowledgment of globalized
capitalism's bitter fruit: its de
facto new enslavement and re-enslavement of millions around the world –
including millions of children -- who must toil long hours for unlivable wages,
with little or no access to adequate health care, education or hope for a better
life; its facilitation of new forms of racism and discrimination; its threat to
the natural environment, and to the material, social and spiritual environments
of many peoples and their cultures.
We will work with other groups to produce a separate
NGO "Declaration and Program of Action of the World Conference," based on a
bottom-up people's agenda for waging the fight against racism, racial
discrimination and economic oppression.
We will press for the United Nations to establish,
within the offices of its High Commission on Human Rights, a mechanism for
conducting research, specifically, on the racism and discrimination experienced
by the African-descended peoples of the Americas. The research would be aimed at
developing and proposing specific remedies.
Unfortunately thus far, the U.S. government has
refused to acknowledge that slavery, colonialism and their legacy have
constricted African-descended peoples' development, at the same time as the
economies of certain nation states are still being oiled by huge profits from
the enslavement and colonial subjugation of millions. This denial of history, past and present, places the
government totally at odds with the realities of Black people and threatens to
de-legitimatize any claim it might make to represent the will of African
American citizens and other Blacks in the U.S. Should it prove necessary to
expose in a world forum the failure of the U.S. government to embrace and
represent the interests of ALL of its people, the Black Radical Congress is
prepared to do so.
The
NGO Forum
The WCAR is in two parts. An NGO Forum begins just
before, and slightly overlaps with, the second part of the conference, which is
the official governmental part. The dates of the NGO Forum are August 28 to
September 1.
The forum is important for two reasons: First, it is
the main showcase for NGOs' priorities and work, at which organizations may
present papers and conduct workshops, as well as offer artistic, musical or
theatrical presentations.
Exhibition space for graphic displays is also available. All
presentations and exhibitions must be in line with the themes and objectives of
the WCAR. The slogan adopted for the WCAR is "United to Combat Racism: Equality,
Justice, Dignity." Also adopted were five broad themes, which can be read at
the Forum's web site <http://www.racism.org.za. Submissions and proposals
should be forwarded to <moshe@wcar.sangoco.org.za. The program of the NGO
Forum will appear on its web site as it takes shape.
Second, the forum provides a valuable opportunity for
NGO representatives from all over the world to network, exchange information,
and establish contacts and mechanisms for coordinating various aspects of their
future work. Indeed, lifelong
friendships and working relationships can spring from the Forum's intense social
interactions, causing many past participants to observe that the Forum is "where
the action is." It is also true that what happens at the Forum -- the
discussions and debates, the alliances formed, the resolutions passed -- can
significantly influence the behavior of government delegations in the official
section of the conference.
Support the
WCAR
The Black Radical Congress urges all U.S.
organizations devoted to the interests and needs of people of color and
immigrants to actively support the WCAR. That means: Mobilize.
* If your
organization is able to send representatives to the conference, apply
immediately for accreditation (see the resource list at the end of this
statement).
* Use the resources listed at the end of this
statement to gain updated information about the WCAR, and use that information
to reach out to your immediate constituents and beyond -- grass roots
organizations, the faith community, etc.
* Use your organization's web site as a means of
passing along information.
* Use your contacts, both within and outside
government, to put pressure on the U.S. government: Demand that its emissaries to the WCAR respect Black
people and our concerns.
Finally, since not all organizations who wish to be
represented at the WCAR will be able to send people to Durban, a significant way
to support the conference is to coalesce with other NGOs on planning related
events in the U.S. (The networks and
contacts you build in that process will have long-term usefulness.) An
excellent focus option for support work on the local level is the International
Day of Action Against Racism, which has been proposed for August 31, 2001.
Stay tuned to BRC online sources, and other online resources, for details on
this proposed worldwide action.
Beyond the WCAR: Imperatives for
Justice
The World
Conference Against Racism is occurring as dawn still breaks on the 21st Century,
in a world rife with new forms of exploitation, wealth concentration and deadly
intra-group strife. Since birth, the United Nations has been severely limited by
many factors in its ability to prevent or successfully mediate conflicts among
nations and peoples, and in its ability to protect groups from inhumane,
discriminatory and intolerant treatment. Not least of those limitations has been
its subservience to the domestic and geopolitical concerns of its principal
benefactors, the governments of the developed capitalist
nations.
Notwithstanding its limitations, the UN has real
value, uses and potential. The world
is a better place for the advances in international human rights law that the
UN's existence has facilitated, including the Race Convention and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. And we have
previously cited the value of the forum it provides.
But if the big question is who will the UN serve in
this new century, the earliest sign of an answer is not encouraging:
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has initiated a "Global Compact," whereby UN
agencies are urged to "partner" with the corporation of their choice from a list
of 50 entities that includes Shell, Nike and Novartis. Shell is well known for
environmental destruction and complicity in human rights abuses, such as
Nigeria's execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Nike is known for sweatshops, and Novartis
is working overtime to force-feed consumers genetically-engineered
foods. We salute those human rights,
labor rights and environmental justice activists who are focusing their work on
the goal of a corporate-free UN and democratic control over
corporations.
Confronted with the UN's choice, at this stage, not
to have its initiatives reflect the spirit of the Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, but instead to have them interface with the Covenant's
antithesis -- the agenda of globalized corporate capitalism -- alerts us, again,
to the work remaining to be done in the street. Accordingly, the Black
Radical Congress will continue, as part of a broad-based collective, to pursue a
number of important goals that are essential to justice,
worldwide.
First, the Black Radical Congress seeks the
cancellation of African debt, and of all debt incurred by underdeveloped nations
due to the oppressive policies of European and North American-controlled lending
agencies. In the case of Africa,
debt cancellation is a critical first step toward compensating African peoples
for the ruinous exploitation and pillage of their continent that, over
centuries, are wholly implicated in reducing them to the status of
debtors.
As a related action, we advocate the establishment of
an international reparations agency, with branches in selected
nations. This agency would
administer the dispensation of funds -- provided by the European and North
American powers -- for the development of African-descended peoples in Africa
and throughout the American hemisphere. These funds would be earmarked to
bolster development in the areas of child and adult education, women's
development, health care, mental health, AIDS prevention, literacy, housing,
legal services, art and cultural institutions, land reclamation and
environmental clean-up and maintenance, among other possible
areas.
We will continue our active role in putting
international pressure on governments, in Southern Africa and elsewhere, to
cease state persecution of gay and lesbian people and replace that persecution
with policies and laws protective of same gender loving people's human and civil
rights.
In the United States, we will continue our role in
demanding that government repair the gaping holes torn in the welfare safety net
by "reform" policies that, disproportionately, worsen the impoverishment of
Black women -- who are extraordinarily over-represented in urban homeless
populations.
We seek immediate abolition of the death penalty,
which is yet another aspect of the living legacy of
slavery.
We will press forward and intensify our national
campaign to: criminalize police brutality under federal law; limit incarceration
to violent criminals and establish rehabilitative alternatives for non-violent
criminals; shift public funds from expansion of the prison-industrial complex to
complete refurbishment of the nation's public school system, and to resist
efforts to privatize our public schools.
As we write, an uneasy and deceptive calm is settling
upon the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where in the past few weeks our brothers and
sisters rose up in righteous anger over the police murder of Timothy
Thomas. Nineteen-years-old and
unarmed, Thomas became the 16th Black male gunned down by the Cincinnati police
since 1995. Long-standing grievances between the Black population and the
governing structures of that city mirror the state of relations that prevail in
most U.S. cities between people of color and the authorities. Only the names, and the faces and the
incidental details differ. We know that in all the "theaters" of U.S. urban
struggle, uprisings eventually subside and calm returns. What the various powers-that-be seem
not to understand is: Until there is true justice, there will be no real
peace.
In times like these, it may appear that the United
Nations and its conferences are entirely irrelevant to the long-term process of
uprising, struggle, sacrifice, advocacy, political negotiation and will that is
necessary to remedy such grave human rights violations as exist in
Cincinnati. But in fact, bearing
witness before a small and getting smaller world is part of the process. Let all
of us who can, go to Durban. We must tell the world what we have seen, what we
know, and how we are determined to win the fight for
change.
--
RESOURCES
Accreditation
Your organization may apply for accreditation to
participate in all proceedings of the World Conference Against Racism by
obtaining an application from:
Sandra Aragon-Parriaux
Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights
United Nations, Room PW-RS 181
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
saragon.hchr@unog.ch
Web Sites:
United Nations (UN)
http://www.un.org/WCAR/
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights
(UNHCHR)
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/
World Conference Against Racism NGO Forum (WCAR
NGO)
http://www.racism.org.za
Human Rights Internet (HRI)
http://www.hri.ca/racism/
Internet Centre Anti-Racism Europe
(ICARE)
http://www.icare.to/worldcon.html
AntiRacismNet (Project Change and
IGC)
http://www.ngoworldconference.org
Applied Research Center (ARC)
http://www.arc.org/trji/
South African NGO Coalition
(SANGOCO)
http://www.sangoco.org.za/wcar/
International Possibilities Unlimited
(IPU)
http://www.ipunlimited.org/WCAR/wcar.html
International Human Rights Law Group
(IHRLG)
http://www.hrlawgroup.org/notflashed.html
Global Afro-Latino and Caribbean Initiative
(GALCI)
http://www.caribectr.org/GALCI.html
Black Radical Congress (BRC)
http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
CERD
Information
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD)
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cerd.htm
United States report to the United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD)
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/cerd_report/cerd_index.html
A response to the United States CERD
report
http://www.arc.org/downloads/trji010417.pdf
Other Information:
Declaration of African
Descendants
Preparatory Meeting for the
Americas
December 5-7, 2000
Santiago, Chile
http://www.udayton.edu/~race/06internat/afrodesc00.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brc-discuss/message/1907
http://mail-archive.com/brc-discuss@lists.tao.ca/msg00946.html
Principles/Commitments on Race and
Poverty
NGO Roundtable on Race and Poverty
Preparatory Meeting for the
Americas
December 3-7, 2000
Santiago, Chile
http://www.ngoworldconference.org/ngocc_attach1.htm#6
http://www.hri.ca/racism/Submitted/Author/racepovworking.htm
http://www.udayton.edu/~race/06internat/hrights/PrepCom09.htm
Upcoming
Events
May 21-June 1,
2001
Second PrepCom for
WCAR
Geneva, Switzerland
August 28-September 1, 2001
NGO Forum
Durban, South Africa
August 31, 2001
International Day of Action Against
Racism
Durban, South Africa
August 31-September 7, 2001
World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance
Durban, South Africa
Conference
Slogan
"United to Combat Racism: Equality, Justice, Dignity"
Conference
Themes
1. Sources, causes, forms and contemporary
manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
2. Victims of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance.
3. Measures of prevention, education and protection
aimed at the eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance at national, regional and international
levels.
4. Provision of effective remedies, recourse, redress
and other [compensatory] measures, at national, regional and international
levels.
5. Strategies to achieve full and effective equality,
including international co-operation and enhancement of the UN and other
international mechanisms in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and related intolerance, including follow-up
procedures.
*The word "compensatory" in theme #4 is in square
brackets because there was no general agreement for including the
term.
Stated Conference
Objectives
* To review progress made in the fight against
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
* To consider ways and means to ensure the
application of existing standards and the implementation of existing instruments
to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
* To increase the level of awareness about the
scourge of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
* To formulate recommendations on ways to increase
the effectiveness of activities and mechanisms of the United Nations through
programmes aimed at combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance.
* To review the political, historical, economic,
social, cultural and other related factors leading to racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
* To draw up concrete recommendations for ensuring
that the United Nations has the financial and other necessary resources for its
actions to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance.
Black Radical Congress National
Office
Columbia University Station
P.O. Box 250791
New York, NY 10025-1509
Phone: (212) 969-0348
Email: blackradicals@yahoo.com
Web: http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
***
UPDATE MAY 25, 2001 ON
WCAR
PREPCOM IN
GENEVA
HISTORIC
FOURTH DAY AT 2ND PREPCOM FOR UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST
RACISM
African
Descended NGOs Unite to Form The World Council of NGOs for Africans and African
Descendants
Because of a
national holiday in Switzerland, business at the United Nations World Conference
on Racism 2nd PrepCom was suspended.
It was
decided yesterday however that all Africans and African Descended People should
gather at the World Council of Churches headquarters in Geneva to discuss common
issues that affect us all.
I have used
the term "historic" to describe only two meetings in my life, but today in
Geneva nearly 200 NGOs met representing African and African Descendant
Non-Government Organizations --- a group for which our ancestors dreamed
of. Never before have Africans from
*grassroots* organizations from across the world united to form a group that
would press three issues that unify Africans on a global level:
1) the
global demand for designating the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism
crimes against humanity,
2) reparations and compensatory measures
for Africans and African Descended people and
3) the economic roots of
racism.
The
World Council of NGOs for Africans and African Descendants was a cross section
of African people from Brazil, the United States, France, South Africa, Canada,
Nigeria, Columbia, Australia, Puerto Rico and dozens of other
nations.
The
languages of those who had enslaved and colonized African people --- French,
English, Spanish and Portuguese --- were no barriers to a meeting that lasted
nearly three hours with perfect harmony of expression and unity on the issue of
the slave trade, reparations and the economic roots of racism. Interpreters in the four major languages
made sure that all of us understood everything that was said throughout the
meeting.
Persons in
the Maafa* spoke on issues related to the commonality of struggle and pain
inflicted upon African people since enslavement on a global
level. What was historic about the meeting is
that, building on the pan-African Conferences, this meeting was the first world
meeting of groups dealing with racism and its deadly spawn --- sexism
against Black women, the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa, the prison
industrial complex which is growing rapidly and imprisoning African men and
women on *all* continents, globalization and inferior educational opportunities
for Africans. Physicians, educators, psychologists,
nurses, attorneys, AIDS workers, community organizers, business people,
ministers and laypeople, and so many others saw the commonality of crises facing
African people and the goals they all share in obtaining relief from white
supremacy.
We are in
the process of compiling a list of all groups represented at this historic
meeting and will share it with you within two weeks of this report. It is agreed that the three issues
listed above should form the core of any discussions we have when dealing with
the global problem of white supremacy. The organization itself should be
considered one of the most if not *the* most important development arising from
the meetings leading up to Durban.
Its formation will have four immediate results:
- Places NGOs in a stronger bargaining
position with their respective governments
2. Strengthens the global pursuit of
reparations and compensatory measures for Africans and persons of
African descent
3. Creates a global network of African
professionals and non-professionals in the Maafa that can mobilize on a host of
issues affecting African people
4. Creates a
global network for developing counter racism/white supremacy strategies beyond
the UN World Conference Against Racism in August
Peace,
Raymond
A. Winbush, Ph.D.
Director,
Race Relations Institute
Benjamin
Hooks Professor of Social Justice
Fisk
University
Nashville,
TN 37208
615-329-8575
- phone
615-329-8806
- fax
www.fiskrri.org
- website
[ALL
I CAN SAY IS HALLELUYAH!!! – REPNOW Editor]
*Maafa
- (pronounced Ma-AH- fa) is a Kiswahili word meaning "disaster" or "terrible
occurrence".
Maafa
is meant to
describe over five hundred years of warfare and genocide that African people
have experienced under the names of slavery and colonialism and their continued
impact on African people throughout the world.
The word is a development of the African cultural mind and therefore holds more
weight and significance than terms that have been used to describe this event in
the past. Until now words such as "Diaspora" and "holocaust" had been
appropriated from outside the culture and therefore could not embody the
spiritual and psychological potency of the African reality. The term was first
popularized by the author Marimba Ani in her book entitled "_Yurugu: An
African Centered Critique on European Cultural Thought And
Behavior."_
(1994) Africa World Press.
Contributed
by ebontek@earthlink.net (Sam Anderson)
*********
Reparations
The Internal and External View
May 15, 2001
African
Americans are becoming increasingly engaged in an effort to obtain reparations
for slavery. Reparations arguments from the internal view have been eloquently
presented, but this internal view is only half of a picture in the political
sense. There is an external view of the African American reparations movement
that is the key to the progress and eventual success of the movement.
For about a
decade, African American human rights issues have been presented at the United
Nations. As the head of an
organization in consultative status with the U.N., I have fortunately been able
to be present at every intervention of African American leader Silis Muhammad.
In May of 1998, Muhammad intervened before human rights experts and member
states at the working group level in Geneva, Switzerland. It was at this expert
working group level that we were made aware of the external view of African
Americans. Initially, it was a shocking awareness, because it differed so
greatly from the internal view.
Internally,
African Americans have always "felt" themselves to be a specific people because
of a centuries long shared experience of slavery, oppression and discrimination.
This internal feeling of "otherness" is valid. For example, the call for
reparation is based upon self-identification as a damaged group or people.
And yet, at the U.N. in 1998, we found out that African Americans are not
recognized as a specific group or people under human rights law. In fact,
the lingering effects of slavery on African Americans are not recognized at all.
During
slavery, enslaved Africans were forced to give up their languages, and
consequently their culture and religion died with the 'mother tongue'. Also,
enslaved Africans experienced forced breeding, and consequently their
descendants were no longer a part of one or another identifiable tribe or
people. Lost from ancestral
identity, these descendants had nothing but the shared experience of slavery
within which to establish an identity.
The United
Nations legally protects the identity and human rights of minority groups and
peoples based upon certain factors. These factors are the group's common
language, culture and religion. Muhammad recognized that this identification
leaves out African Americans, as their language, culture and religion have been
destroyed along with their identity.
Although
African Americans "feel" they are a people based upon the slavery experience, in
reality they are left out of the protection of human rights law. At that 1998 working group meeting, Muhammad asked
the experts how they were going to fulfill the U.N. promise of human rights for
everyone, everywhere, since African Americans are left out!
Although they did not respond with an answer immediately, much has happened in the years since he asked the question. An expert opinion has been written that discusses "ethn