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…….#18

 

JULY  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:

 

No one would have guessed that the Reparations Movement would have progressed so swiftly and effectively as it has these past eighteen months.  And thanks are due to the efforts of the activists, organizations, and even individuals with solid commitments to end the suppression, degradation, and affliction of Black Humanity all over this World. 

 

All of you who are making the effort to keep the focus on Reparations for Descendants of Slaves, Black empowerment, Self Determination, and true freedom to pursue happiness, please know that YOU ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.  Stay strong and courageous, as these are virtues much needed in fighting this battle for the long awaited justice that has eluded us for far too long.   The sooner we acquire Reparations is the sooner we can begin to mend from being subjects of White dominated societies that purposely sustain inequalities and unfair rule over Black Peoples.  It would appear that a great many of us have had enough of suppression, oppression, and racism and watching our Black Brothers and Sisters’ pain and suffering in controlled ghetto communities replete with bad elements that foster and perpetuate the rise and fall of “monsters” created by a system that keeps Blacks impoverished, uneducated, on drugs, Blacks killing Blacks, and in deep despair while Whites distinctly prosper and continue to excel and progress while leaving Blacks in great tribulations!!!

 

I understand it has been suggested that Blacks must learn to promote the use of “conflict resolution.”  I’m not sure of the intention behind this notion, but let me give you my concept of “conflict resolution.”  The “conflict” is that Blacks out of Africa were “forced” into Slavery and barbarically and mercilessly abused, beaten, and categorized with animals and, as a result became the “have nots” of White dominated societies unto this day.   The “resolution” is that justice must be served in the form of Reparations payments for the crime of forced migration and ethnic cleansing, so that we can move on and heal ourselves and rise above the ubiquitous race hatred and prejudice we face on this globe.   Please, don’t let us buy into any new programs and/or efforts that might “seem” worthwhile and “look good on paper,” but in fact can be of no benefit to us whatsoever.    We cannot continue to be duped into proposals that waste our time, hurt our cause, and prolong our endeavors.  After all these years of untold suffering, we are supposed to be the wiser now! 

 

We can no longer trust or expect the descendants of the Slave Masters, who have the same mentality of their forebears, to be responsible for eliminating racism from this society.  There are no positive or productive programs in place that suggest that racism and prejudice will ever be eradicated in these United States.  And by some Whites validating the fact that racism in fact exists has nothing to do with eliminating it.  Actually, we can cite a myriad of thriving instances that prove the United States has a propensity to treat Blacks unfairly, with disdain, and with prejudice.   Consider one of the latest outrages regarding the COINTELPRO misfortune for Blacks and Native Americans.  If that’s not enough to demonstrate how much the White powers-that-be are against Black involvement in politics for minority advancement, nothing will.  I ask you to consider the other covert instances of racist acts against Blacks that are in play of which we are not aware.    What else will we discover to prove the existence of full-blown racism and race hatred of Blacks in this country?  What will it take for us to realize that the US Constitution, even with its Amendments, was written only with Whites in mind, and wasn’t even a consideration for Slaves or their Descendants?  And what more do we need to see done to Black Folks before we realize that we are not supposed to enjoy fundamental freedoms don’t care how many of us are Congressional Representatives?

 

The race hatred and racism against Blacks is too ingrained in the hearts of most Whites and too systemic in the social and political systems and programs to hope that these maladies will ever be eliminated in this country or in any White dominated countries.   And whatever we do, don’t buy into what’s called “sensitivity training” for White Folks.  How can a semester or even a decade of drilling the need for compassion for the underprivileged change the mindset of racist men and women and their children?  Isn’t this also what the Civil Rights groups attempted to do in the 60’s with “Non-violence?”  What did it all prove?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and that was over forty years ago!  Those who are racist want no more to do with learning about how to treat Blacks and other people of color than with wanting to learn about equal opportunities and justice for all. 

 

It’s no accident that all Black countries are underdeveloped or, in the case of South Africa, economically controlled by Whites to make the Blacks second-class citizens.  It’s no accident that Blacks and other people of color make up the poor and the destitute in these United States and the World.   Think about it!   This is a World for the survival of the fittest Whites – not Blacks, as wealthy Blacks are no more in control than are ghetto Blacks.  What can Oprah, Cosby, or any of the wealthy Black celebrities do for Black Folks other than assist in the Reparations Movement.  We have congressional representatives who can’t make it to first base with Congressman Conyer’s H.R. 40.  That speaks volumes about how much control Blacks have in government or in any matters that affect our lives.  And you can bet that the powers-that-be choose to keep it that way.

 

Even Affirmative Action was schemed to work against us, and those who actually prospered from this arrangement to correct past injustices against Blacks were White Women.  Hence, Affirmative Action panned out not to be the “tool” necessary to improve conditions for Blacks who live in the White society.  But we don’t hear any outcry from these White Women about how unfairly the program worked for Blacks, do we?  Not in another hundred years will the White-powers-that-be succumb to and live up to the motto: “Justice for All” in these United States or in this present World System.   Hence, we must demand Reparations for the atrocities of the Slave Trade – AND WE MUST BE FIRM AND ADAMANT ABOUT IT!   The leaders of the countries that participated in human bondage and our continued pain and suffering must be held accountable, and that’s all there is to it!

 

Let’s learn from our mistakes.  Let’s not permit those in power to establish any more useless plans for Blacks that are without substance and that negatively affect us and the lives of our children.  We don’t need any more false senses of justice.  Our objective is to acquire Reparations for the insane TransAtlantic Slave Trade, so let’s stick to that goal until it is won.  And when our Representatives for Reparations go to Durban, South Africa for the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), at all costs it is imperative that they be relentless in keeping the focus on OUR demand for Reparations.  This “Debt” is long overdue and must be paid, and we cannot allow Whites to continue to pass the buck and not be responsible for their crimes against us.   If we are not given an opportunity to speak on this issue in Durban, South Africa, then we will be faced with the racism and discrimination for which we go to WCAR to eliminate.   You can be sure that the powers-that-be will be out in mass to sabotage our every effort to put and keep Reparations and Racism against Blacks on the table.   We all know this, therefore, Representatives of Descendants of Slaves, be prepared, have a plan of action, and make those of us who can’t attend proud of your efforts.

 

It is imperative that we acquire Reparations and use these monies to establish admirable and worthwhile Communities/Settlements (comparable to those the US tax dollar builds in Israel), educational systems, quality health care, farms, and small businesses, be they in the United States, in friendly countries, or in Africa.  Only WE have the ability to change what Whites think about Blacks. 

 

BLACKS ARE NOT INFERIOR TO WHITES!  And it’s absolute nonsense to believe that we need their expertise to survive in this World.  There is no question that in this World, we will have to work WITH THEM but NOT UNDER THEM.   Just take a look at the scholarship and fascinating proposals that surface in the issues of this REPNOW Newsletter. 

 

***

If the powers-that-be do not demonstrate that we deserve justice in the form of Reparations for the atrocities of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, then after the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, our next trip has got to be to a Belgian court to sue the United States and all countries that took part in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.  

 

For those of you who are not aware of this being a possibility, please know that Belgium has a unique 1993 law that allows the Belgian court to try people, regardless of their nationality, for genocide and other crimes against humanity.  As many as 100 million Blacks lost their lives enroute to Slave Ships, on the Middle Passage, and in the countries where they were forced to serve as Slaves.   Countries responsible for these deaths and that prospered from those Slaves who survived the degradation and humiliation of the voyage and enslavement must pay for their crimes.  The atrocities and injustices that our forbears endured and that we continue to endure cannot be dismissed.  Let the White society know that we are not going to shut up until they put up Reparations! 

 

JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED!  And if descendants of the Slave Masters yet enjoy the benefits from the free labor of those who were enslaved, then our job is to do what White Jews continue to do which is go after the descendants of the guilty parties!  It wouldn’t be difficult at all to list the companies/businesses that existed during the days of Slavery and prove their involvement in this institution of Slavery.  If we are going to fight this battle, we must fight on ALL FRONTS!  We must use every weapon at our disposal, therefore, let’s also present our case to the United Nations (the international community) to tell the WHOLE SORDID TRUTH about forced migration and ethnic cleansing, racism, and all that this has entailed, and then let’s take our case to all the Courts – every last one of them!  By all means necessary, WE HAVE GOT TO MAKE OUR CASE AND BE COMPENSATED FOR THE DISPLACEMENT AND CRUEL ENSLAVEMENT OF OUR FOREBEARS, FOR LOSS OF OUR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY, AND FOR BEING LEFT PEONS IN THIS WORLD. 

 

Those of us who wish to leave the United States or other European countries have got to be given the right to relocate to countries of our choosing and with Reparations, or we are still captives of the countries responsible for stealing us out of Africa.  And those who wish to remain in the lands of our captors must be given an opportunity to enjoy an equal distribution of wealth and empowerment and pursue a genuine happiness.  Slim chance, I hate to tell you, but if Blacks remain in lands where our forebears were enslaved, you may as well be prepared to continue an even greater fight to be accepted in the countries built by Slave labor.  

 

Finally, I have to admire Mawusi’s (Rhazard) desires to establish a 55th State in Africa for Descendants of Slaves to build a Nation of which Blacks can be proud.  Don’t frown on his efforts, as they make a lot of sense.  His desires have fascinating merit that can prove to be exactly what is needed to rise above the frustrations, humiliations, and indignities Blacks face in White Societies.  Give Mawusi a chance and lend your expertise to his plans.   By the way, if riots are taking place all over this World, DO NOT rule out this also happening in the United States.   With police brutality and murder of Blacks, racial profiling, and increasing knowledge of more and more acts of atrocities  and injustices committed against African Americans, this place is fast becoming a ticking time bomb that can go off at any time and in any place.   Also take to heart what is being said about the need for a Missile Defense Program.  If the US has a need to worry about being attacked, then Blacks should have a need to leave this horrible place.  Therefore, Descendants of Slaves desperately need a State in Africa that’s stable and safe for Blacks to start anew, but this time with the use of the Black “mind,” for assured prosperity and progress for the benefit of all Black Peoples and for the World.  Somebody has got to end the pollution and the destruction of people, animals, and living matter on this Earth.  We may as well set the stage and the example, as no one else is doing it!

 

*********

 

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 OURReparations” 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.

 

*********

 

THE MORAL AND LEGAL BASIS FOR REPARATIONS

The Black World Today

June 19, 2001

 

Declaring the Slave Trade a Crime Against Humanity:

 

In September of this year in Durban, South Africa, the United Nations will hold what could be one of the most momentous events of the 21st century, the World Conference on Racism. Thousands of people from around the world are expected to attend a conference, which will address one of the most malignant maladies to plague the darker peoples of the world historically - racism and white supremacy.

 

People of African descent and other people of color from the developing world are anxious to discuss the past and present effects of the castigation and oppression of groups of people on the basis of skin color. As might be expected, the United States and many of the nations of Europe are casting a leery eye towards the conference for fear that the issue of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the demand for "restitution" will become a dominant theme of the proceedings. Indeed, the United States is taking extraordinary steps to prevent the slave trade and the question of reparations from appearing on the agenda at all.

 

This is proving to be a difficult task. Spearheaded by veteran human rights activists and organizers from the December 12th Movement and the National Black United Front, a formidable coalition of organizations is mounting a determined effort not only to ensure that the slave trade and restitution are on the agenda, but in a bold and visionary move, these organizations are pressing for the introduction and passage of a resolution at the World Conference on Racism that would declare the Trans-Atlantic slave trade a "crime against humanity."

 

The prospects that such a resolution will pass is causing grave trepidations in the United States and among the circle of nations which are culpable in the most horrendous holocaust in human history. Without question, the passage of this resolution will provide an unassailable moral foundation for the call for reparations. Equally important, this resolution will also provide legal undergirding for the demand for reparations in international law since there is no statute of limitations on crimes against humanity. Hence, the argument that the slave trade was a long time ago and therefore should not be subject to litigation or other forms of redress will be severely undermined.

 

There should be no question about the veracity of the claim that the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity. By some estimates more than 100 million Africans lost their lives during the holocaust of enslavement. Beyond the unthinkable loss of life however, in "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," Walter Rodney documents the devastating effects of the slave trade on African people in terms of the disruption and destruction of families, communities and nations, the distortion of social, economic and political relations and the loss of "development opportunity."

 

The economies of Europe and America developed off the free labor of enslaved Africans while the continent of Africa was pillaged, ravished and underdeveloped. Rodney recounts that whole industries and cities were born and flourished as a consequence of the involvement of Britain and France in the enslaving and trafficking of Africans. Concurring with Rodney, Eric Williams in "Capitalism and Slavery" documents how the fruits of the lucrative Triangular Trade made huge fortunes for Europeans in the Caribbean and North America, particularly New England. An entire continent was demonized, demoralized, devastated and hurled backward in history by the holocaust of enslavement.

 

Once in this hemisphere, enslaved Africans destined for North America were subjected to a slave breaking process which not only involved raw naked terror and intimidation but cultural aggression, the calculated attempt to dehumanize and de-Africanize the African. Malcolm X once said that of all the crimes committed by Europeans against Africans, the greatest crime was to take away our names.  By that assertion Malcolm meant the effort to destroy our culture.

 

Our ancestors were forbidden to speak in their native tongue, to practice indigenous religions or to play African musical instruments. In addition, our ancestors were taught that their African heritage tainted them and that their color was a "badge of degradation." Any White person, no matter what their status or station in life was to be respected and obeyed at all times. And, as chattels, property, our ancestors could be sold and traded at will with no obligation to keep families together. There should be no question but that the slave trade was a crime against humanity. Slave labor made America prosperous while destroying and stagnating the lives of the captive sons and daughters of Africa in this country; a crime compounded by the fact that we were eventually "emancipated" without compensation, no forty acres and mule, no property or capital in a growing capitalist economy, whose explosive growth was directly attributable to the free labor of our ancestors.

 

Europe and America know that they owe African people a debt too enormous to be calculated. But like cowards, they continue to refuse to take responsibility for their dastardly deeds. And, they will continue to refuse to acknowledge their crimes until the victims of the holocaust of enslavement unite and fight to compel the perpetrators to confess, apologize and make suitable compensation.

 

It is for this reason that African people, other historically oppressed people and our allies must transform the World Conference on Racism into a forum for discussing the greatest crime against humanity in history. In so doing, we will build momentum for the just and righteous demand for reparations for Africans in America and the world!

 

Contributed by:

ronmae@aol.com (Ron Daniels)

rdaniel@ccr-ny.org, ronmae@aol.com

worker-brc-news@lists.tao.ca

brc-news@lists.tao.ca

 

http://www.tbwt.com/content/article.asp?articleid=911

 

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*********

 

TOWARDS A CAMPAIGN TO WIN REPARATIONS

 

June 27, 2001

 

Despite enormous obstacles, the quest by Africans in America to win reparations is gaining momentum. With the World Conference Against Racism set to convene in Durban South Africa in September a massive international effort is underway to declare the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade a crime against humanity. The discussions being generated about the Conference and the struggle to pass such a resolution is enhancing support for reparations among Africans in America.

 

A recent poll revealed that 84% of Black people in this country now support the concept of reparations - a dramatic revelation in the face of the fact that for many years large numbers of Black folk expressed skepticism about the feasibility of obtaining reparations. In another dramatic development, for the first time a mainstream newspaper, the Philadelphia Enquirer recently endorsed the concept of reparations, devoting two full page editorials to an examination of the merits of the claim and demand for reparations by Blacks in America.

 

As I stated in another column on this subject, much of the credit for the surge in interest and support for reparations is attributable to the relentless crusade of the late Queen Mother Moore and the persistent work of the National Coalition for Reparations for Blacks in America (N'COBRA) with veteran activists like Dorothy Benton Lewis, Hannibal Afrik, Imari Obadele, Chokwe Lumumba, Johnita Scott Obadele, Adjoa Aiyetoro, Nkecki Tiafa, Reparations Ray, Dr. Conrad Worrill and the late Dr. Charshee McIntyre to mention just a few who have labored in the vineyard on this crucial issue for decades.

 

The December 12th Movement under the able leadership of Viola Plummer, Roger Wareham and Omawale Clay has also played an invaluable role in pressing the issue of reparations in various international forums. The reparations movement is also indebted to Congressman John Conyers for his steadfast willingness to introduce HR-40, the reparations study bill, in the Congress of the United States year after year as a focal point of education and organizing. The collective work of these valiant freedom fighters and others is bearing fruit as new actors and organizations have come onto the stage to broaden and deepen the support for reparations among its most critical constituency - Africans in America!

 

Now what is required is not only a united front effort for reparations (as I argued in a recent column) but a well planned massive national/international campaign to win reparations - a campaign that will feature litigation, education, organizing and direct action. Muntu Matsimela, a longtime proponent of reparations and a member of the Black Radical Congress, has been lobbying for such an approach for some time now. Concurring with Muntu, in my view it is time to raise the money to establish a national office and to hire a full time professional staff to conduct a campaign for reparations in the same way we would approach a political campaign - with defined goals and objectives, well thought out strategy and tactics, coherent themes and messages, targeted constituencies, informative literature, buttons, banners, bumper stickers, etc.

 

The Black community and the nation at large need to be on fire with the discussion about the righteous demand for reparations. Black journalists, talk show hosts, disc jockeys and hip hop artists must be enlisted to help popularize reparations as a priority concern in Black America. Black churches need to be mobilized and organized in the same way they were around the Free South Africa campaign (remember those bold Free South Africa signs and banners that Black churches displayed outside their sanctuaries). Black fraternities, sororities, the Masons, Eastern Stars, Elks, Knights of Pythias and the Shriners need to be talking about and acting on reparations as a priority issue on their agenda. Black labor organizations and the mainline civil rights organizations need to step to the task with a vigor never seen before. Reparations must become an issue that massive numbers of Africans in America are increasingly willing to fight for in the courtroom, the legislative chambers and in the streets.

 

We have had A Million-Man March, a Million Women's March and a Million Family March. What about a March of Millions for Reparations as a culmination of a series of direct actions at the local, state and national level? What about an economic sanctions campaign targeted specifically at those corporations that have been identified as having been directly involved in and/or in complicity with the slave trade and slavery in this country? What if Africans in America withheld patronage during the critical X-Mas season?

 

All of these ideas may work or none of them may work. My point is that the struggle for reparations has reached a critical stage where a united front vehicle is needed to raise the necessary resources to fund a national office and staff to mount a bold, broad based, innovative, multifaceted, massive and sustained professional campaign to win reparations. The need for a united front and a campaign to win reparations is certainly one of the ideas that will be discussed at the State of the Black World Conference in Atlanta this Fall. There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

 

The time for reparations is at hand!

 

By Ron Daniels <ronmae@aol.com>

The Black World Today

 

http://www.tbwt.com/content/article.asp?articleid=965

 

Contributed by brc-reparations@yahoogroups.com

 

*********

 

REPARATIONS  REDOUBT

 

The reparations question will not go away. Black congressional leaders are criticizing the Bush administration for not taking a larger role in the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, which will take up the question of reparations.

 

A group of black lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran, has announced plans to sue large corporations they claim have benefited from slavery, as well as the federal government.  And on college campuses across America, David Horowitz has caused a ruckus by publishing or vainly attempting to publish in college newspapers an advertisement listing 10 reasons to oppose reparations.

 

The idea will not die because many parts of the black community are sunk in what Professor James McWhorter calls the "cult of victimology." But the truth is that family structure is a far better predictor of success in America today than race, or the condition of servitude of one´s ancestors.

 

Black intact families enjoy incomes and standards of living indistinguishable from whites. But only 30 percent of black children are born to married couples today. Is this family disintegration itself a legacy of slavery? Doubtful. As economist Walter Williams writes, "In 1880, in Philadelphia, two-parent family structure was: black, 75.2 percent; Irish, 82.2 percent; German, 84.5 percent; native white American, 73.1 percent."

 

Slavery was a crime and a sin. The Founders knew it. Thomas Jefferson said, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

 

But no one alive today was ever a slave or the son of slaves; neither is anyone alive today a slaveowner or son of a slaveowner. The intervening generations have swelled the population with immigrants, so that a majority of whites living in America today have no ancestors who lived in America at the time of slavery. Only one-third of the citizens of the Confederacy (and, believe it or not, 12,000 free Southern blacks) owned slaves.

 

If we were to attempt to categorize Americans as oppressors or victims based on their skin color, we will sink into an impossible morass. Millions of Americans are of mixed racial ancestry many due to the widespread practice of slaveowners raping or taking slaves as unofficial concubines, but many others the product of mixed marriages in the generations since. How should these people be counted? And what about those, like Tiger Woods, who have four or five races in their family tree? Shall they pay with one hand and receive with the other?

 

Just since the 1950s, American taxpayers have spent, according to Mr. Williams´ calculations, roughly $6.1 trillion on the war on poverty, education, housing and medical care all aimed mostly at relieving the poverty and hopelessness so prevalent in the black slums. Since the 1960s, the U.S. government and virtually the entire private sector has maintained a system of racial preferences and reduced standards in employment and education aimed at eradicating the "legacy of slavery."

 

But of course, that legacy has not prevented blacks from excelling in sports, entertainment and music. Eighty percent of blacks are now in the middle and upper classes. Surely the idea of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan receiving reparations checks must give pause.

 

To end slavery, the United States undertook the greatest and most devastating war of our history.  More Americans were killed in the Civil War than in all of the rest of the wars we´ve fought put together. Those 620,000 dead represent the ultimate reparation for slavery. Abraham Lincoln saw it in those terms. In his Second Inaugural Address, he said:  "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this great scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman´s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.´ "

 

Just one month later, Lincoln paid for those sentiments with his own life.

 

Human history is sadly littered with crimes and cruelty. But historical crimes cannot be avenged. Many black criminals have blighted the lives of other Americans. Is it justice to make other blacks pay reparations to other whites for that?  Of course not. Only the actual criminal can be punished and only the actual victim can be compensated. Anything else is dangerous nonsense.

 

By Mona Charen

CREATORS SYNDICATE

 

(http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010625-74135562.htm)

 

Contributed by AlArkam@webtv.net

 

***

 

As-Salaam-Alaikum,

 

This Washington Times article is a shameful attempt to cast doubts about the Reparations Movement.  The author makes no mention of the fact that the U.S. government presently practices ethnocide and forced assimilation upon 40 million African-Americans.  Nor does the author mention the legal battle now raging inside the United Nations to achieve restitution and restoration for our people.  Since 1998 the Honorable Silis Muhammad has repeatedly testified before diverse U.N. bodies in Geneva, Switzerland concerning the lingering effects of plantation slavery, U.S. violation of U.N. covenants, and the fact we as a people must be restored to our original language and culture.  

 

To learn more about this battle, please visit www.afre-ngo.org and contribute to the Reparations War Chest.

 

As-Salaam-Alaikum,

Minister Malik Al-Arkam

 

[Black Slaves were first used throughout the Thirteen Colonies and were then supplied to so-called Southern gentlemen – also known as Slave Masters.  And let’s not forget that the North also reaped benefits from this heinous Slavery.  People should realize that many European countries participated in the TrasnsAtlantic Slave Trade, and those who indulged in Slavery in their mother countries emigrated to the United States and most perpetuated the crime.  But we don’t hear about these culprits, as they are assumed to be innocent in this matter.   However, the United States is guilty as sin, all because this atrocity took place on US soil and with the US government stamp of approval. 

 

And don’t believe the hype that $ 6 trillion were spent on welfare mothers who were politely placed in welfare projects.  We aren’t stupid!!!  Just as the Pentagon wastes $ 700 of taxpayer’s money for a hammer, obviously these trillions of dollars went into the pockets of the White Folks on the watch.   If Blacks had this kind of money, they wouldn’t be living in rat-infested projects or in slums.  Please know that Black “criminals” are victims of this unjust society of “Privileged Haves.”   Good try, Ms. Charen, but your article with its weak analogy doesn’t fly – not even with Blacks of minimal intelligence.   T.Y., Editor]

*********

 

A WISE LIBERATION MOVEMENT USES

BROAD RANGE OF TACTICS

 

Successful liberation movements have always employed a broad range of tactics to achieve their goals: educational campaigns, political campaigns and cultural campaigns.  They also typically operate effectively at several different levels at the same time: the grass-roots level, the national level and the international level.  Today the Movement to obtain Reparations for all African-Americans shows the potential of developing into the most successful liberation movement which has ever sought justice for the long-oppressed Black masses, whose ancestors were brought to America in chains in 1555. 

 

The focus of this Movement has been educating and mobilizing our people throughout the length and breadth of the USA, and more recently throughout the Americas. In preparatory conferences leading up to the World Conference Against Racism, we have seen African-Americans from the United States linking hands and mapping strategies with African-Americans from Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.  We have also witnessed African-American leaders delivering oral and written interventions before diverse United Nations bodies, including the Working Group On Minorities and the Human Rights Commission.  These interventions have exposed the diverse ways in which the U.S. government has practiced genocide, ethnocide and forced assimilation upon our people--while pretending to be keenly interested in improving race relations.  In his April 12th 2001 intervention in the Geneva, Mr. Silis Muhammad asked that the U.N. place a Reparations Sanction upon the U.S. government.  On May 3rd 2001, the U.N. voted the USA off the Human Rights Commission.

 

The strongest aspect of the battle for Reparations emphasizes that this is a struggle for the Restoration of a people who were robbed of their mother tongue, original religion and original culture.  In other words, Reparations concerns far more than mere money.  We are demanding justice in the broadest sense from the U.S. government.  We want both the U.S. government and U.N. to acknowledge our collective political identity and the need for Reparations to be defined by the African-American victims, not by the oppressor.

 

In truth, we need our own government and economy on some of this Earth that we can call our own.  We also want membership in the United Nations.

 

While we are focusing on educating and mobilizing our people, we should never overlook the many tactics which our adversaries have historically employed to side-track and destroy genuine liberation movements.  The government of President George Bush is keenly aware and deeply afraid of the growing momentum of the Reparations Movement and its appeal to African-Americans of diverse classes and persuasions. Many white media have failed to even mention once the critical interventions which have been going on inside the United Nations since 1998.  Others have suggested that maybe Blacks can receive restitution in the form of educational "benefits" and "health care" benefits to be determined by Caucasian America.  However, a growing number of our people do acknowledge that this would be a far cry from real justice, namely full-strength Reparations and self-determination.

 

As the legal and spiritual war for justice unfolds on diverse levels, our people should not hesitate to expose the U.S. government, private corporations and the wicked mass media (e.g. ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and many others) who have been systematically hiding the scope of the Reparations Movement for years.  African-Americans are well within our rights to insist that all media comprehensively cover our liberation movement and to legally chastise those who fail to do so.

 

Peace Be Unto The Righteous,

Minister Malik Al-Arkam

Boston Representative of the

Honorable Silis Muhammad

www.afre-ngo.org

 

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NATIONAL BLACK UNITED FRONT (NBUF)

REPARATIONS, AND BLOCK-BY-BLOCK ORGANIZING

 

The National Black United Front (NBUF) is preparing for the Twenty-second Annual National Convention to be held in San Francisco, California from July 12-15, 2001. Since the launching of the NBUF Genocide Campaign in October of 1996, NBUF has become one of the leading organizations in the reparations movement, working closely with the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N`COBRA), in the United States and throughout the African World Community.

 

NBUF’s work in the Reparations Movement has intensified through our alliance with the December 12th Movement in organizing to participate in the upcoming United Nations World Conference Against Racism that will be held August 31 – September 1, 2001 in Durban, South Africa.

 

Over the past two years, the December 12th Movement, with the support of NBUF, has effectively made public, throughout the world, the African Group Resolution that takes the position that the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery was a Crime Against Humanity, and the Economic Roots of Racism should be examined. In this context, we take the position that African people are owed reparations throughout the world.

 

Currently, the December 12th Movement and NBUF, along with African Governments, Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), the African and African Descendents Caucus, are fighting for the above positions to be included in the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) Durban Declaration. Obviously, led by the United States, the European Union is opposed to the inclusion of these positions in the Durban Declaration. They don’t want to admit that the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery was a Crime and that African people are owed reparations.

 

Our voices have been made loud and clear as we continue our organizing work to participate in the WCAR. In this regard, the theme of this year’s NBUF Convention is:

 

Reparations: The Key to the African Struggle— Building a Black Mass Movement through Block-By-Block Organizing.

 

The central focus of this convention is to address the growing organizing taking place in this country, and worldwide, around the various demands and strategies in the worldwide African Reparations Movement. To facilitate organization of our people, a primary concern of this conference is the concept of "Block-By-Block Organizing."

 

The growing demand for reparations relates to the continued governmental and corporate racist policies providing a rationale for the increased demand for reparations, above and beyond slavery and the slave trade, and what happened to African people before the Civil War. Therefore, in line with our theme, the convention will address issues and strategies for organizing our people around the case for reparations as a means of addressing the larger issue of mobilizing our people for the liberation of African people worldwide.

 

Time has a way of moving forward and it’s hard to believe that NBUF has been in existence twenty–two years. It is a remarkable achievement that a Black Movement organization made up of committed volunteers, with limited resources, has survived and continues to grow and develop.

 

NBUF grew out of the spirit of the 1960’s and 70’s when African people in this country were aggressively organizing around numerous issues. The activism of the Civil Rights Movement and its challenges against legal segregation was a spark that set off the mass motion of African people in America.

 

Over this twenty-two year period, NBUF has organized around the following principles:

 

          To struggle for self determination, liberation, and power for Black People in the United States.

 

          To work in common struggle with African liberation movements and African people throughout the world.

 

          To build a politically conscious, unified, committed, and effective Black mass movement.

 

          To struggle to eliminate racism (including Zionism and Apartheid), sexism (the oppression, exploitation, and inequality of women), monopoly capitalism, colonialism, and neo–colonialism, imperialism, and national oppression.

 

          To maintain strict political and financial independence of the National Black United Front.

 

          To build unity and common struggle with oppressed peoples in the United States and throughout the world, as long as the best interests of people of African descent are not contradicted or compromised.

 

          To continue to struggle to maximize the unity of the Black Liberation Movement and of people of African descent; to eliminate internal violence, character assassination, and self-destruction; to establish a viable process to arbitrate all major conflicts within the Black Liberation Movement and the African community.

 

          To continue the political/cultural revolution to create a new vision and value system and a new man, woman, and child based on the common struggle around the needs of the African majority.

 

 

NBUF believes that in order for Black people in America to become free, liberated, and independent, we must be organized. Therefore, we believe all Black people should join an organization that is working in the interest of our people. We believe that the National Black United Front is such an organization and we urge you to join us and participate in our Twenty–second National Convention.

 

Conrad Worrill

National Chairman

National Black United Front (NBUF)

 

Contributed by amcgee@well.com (Art McGee)

 

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REPARATIONS  FOR  WHAT?

 

News Report from AFRE, June 2001

 

May has been a month of real progress in the reparations movement.  Clearly the movement has reached the point where a new question is emerging.  The question is not reparations yes or no.  Yes is the answer, and the world now knows it.  The new question is... reparations for what?

 

Four notable things occurred during the month: 1) The Reparations Mobilization Campaign announced that it is organizing a seminar.  Reparations seminars are not new, but this one is unusual in that it seeks to be inclusive of leadership voices that have previously been excluded.  It appears that the organizers are sincerely working to raise the standard of reparations seminars.  2) Mr. Randall Robinson, author of The Debt, was uplifted on television at the Essence Image Awards ceremony for his reparations advocacy.  This step taken by Essence Magazine tells white America that all levels of Black society are behind reparations.  3) Dr. Ray Winbush of Fisk University reported that a number of organizations of African Americans from the Diaspora gathered themselves into the World Council of Churches headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and in their meeting they all agreed that reparations are due.  The organizations were in Geneva to attend the 2nd preparatory meeting for the World Conference Against Racism.  4) One week earlier Mr. Silis Muhammad was at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland representing African Americans from the U.S. at the invitation of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities.  At this special informal session, which was the first UN forum for African Americans in history, the UN experts helped Black leaders from the Americas Region begin to understand their position.

 

The reparations movement is maturing, and as it does, the more refined question of reparations "for what" emerges.  Most people, including white Americans, believe that reparations are for the horrors of the slave trade, for the free labor of slavery, for the degradation of segregation, the lynchings, the racial discrimination, and the many other injustices surrounding the ongoing Black holocaust.  When reparation is demanded for these things, ample moral argument is established.  Most advocates stand on the moral platform.

 

In an effort to create a legal argument, a number of reparations organizations have directed their minds toward the UN World Conference Against Racism.  They reason that if the trans-Atlantic slave trade is declared a crime against humanity, the way will be opened for the moral arguments to become legal arguments for reparations.  It is agreed that such a declaration would bring about numerous claims for damage, especially against governments that have ratified the International Covenant on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.  (The U.S. Government has never ratified it.)  Those who are watching the World Conference know that there is great fighting over declaring the trans-Atlantic slave a crime against humanity.  Although many predict that the final documents will not grant such recognition, the results will not be known until September.

 

Another answer to the question of reparations "for what" does provide a legal argument for the restoration of human rights and reparations.  This is the argument that the Working Group on Minorities responded to four years ago when it was brought by Mr. Muhammad.  He argued that international law protects the rights of minorities to their language, culture and religion, i.e., their collective identity.  The identity of African Americans was destroyed with the destruction of the 'mother tongue' and through forced mixed breeding.  As a result, African Americans do not enjoy collective human rights.  This makes the damage to African Americans current, affecting all, and ongoing.  It is the duty and obligation of the United Nations to grant human rights to everyone, everywhere, and the experts of the Working Group on Minorities know this.  It is their profession, and their belief, and they are obliged to take a stand on behalf of African Americans.  This they did in May of 2001.

 

Readers may be asking themselves, how does it benefit African Americans to have their collective political identity restored as a part of reparations?  When African Americans are internationally recognized, and their human rights as a group are restored, depending upon the will of the people, different levels of self determination can be negotiated with the U.S. Government. Under UN protection and with assistance, this can be accomplished peacefully, without the fear of reprisal, forcible separation or secession.  African Americans have a human right to live according to their own collective will, and this human right must be established for reparations to accomplish what reparations should accomplish.

 

The reparations "for what" question comes into its clearest perspective when viewed from the future.  One hundred years from now the descendants of today's African Americans will look back.  Will they be able to know themselves as a distinct human family among the many families of the earth?  Today's reparations movement decides that question.

 

In this time of reparations progress, there is great danger that the U.S. Government will manipulate, co-opt and redirect the reparations movement, so that the highest potential of the movement will be lost.  African Americans are risen as a new people, in possession of the most profound knowledge that can be gained from living life: the knowledge of the victory of the human spirit over the greatest possible adversity.  This knowledge is precious to life itself.  As a part of their reparations, African Americans must demand recognition of themselves collectively.  They must gain an internationally recognized political identity and the power over their own future that goes with such recognition.

 

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We hope you feel the desire to support the work of AFRE.  Since we do not

receive corporate or government funding, we must depend upon the

contributions of the public.  In the month of June we are in urgent need of

travel funds.  Instruction on how to contribute can be found at www.afre-ngo.org.

 

Contributed by Hakimida@a... [mailto:Hakimida@a...]

 

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Stay strong in the struggle; we will win!

 

Dejoser

 

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FEEDBACK ON

THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS (CBC) MEETING

ON THE DURBAN CONFERENCE

Tuesday, June 19, 2001

 

 

Opening Remarks

CBC Task Force - World Conference Against Racism Task Force

Tuesday June 19, 2001

Washington, D.C.

 

Welcome, and let the spirit of Juneteenth pervade our discussions here today.

 

I am pleased to introduce my colleagues who are with us this morning. More will come throughout the morning.

 

The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) to be held in late August this year in Durban, South Africa is an important world event. It seeks to focus world attention on examining the causes of racism as well as providing an opportunity for nations to formulate practical measures to prevent, and where possible, to eradicate racism and other discriminatory practices.

 

What could be more important than for the family of nations to come together as one and to seek to end racism in the world today.

 

The United States should fulfill its leadership position as a major world power and attend the conference. We should send a delegation consisting of highly respected and extremely capable individuals who hold high aspirations and deep convictions on ending the scourge of racism in the world today.

 

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) can play a critical role in ensuring that this current administration fully appreciates the importance of this World Conference to people of color in this country. The members of the CBC all represent districts affected by poverty and race hatred, stricken with over crowding, violence and all the other familiar ills of modern black urban life.

 

To our nations great shame it has had much experience with racism. That experience spans almost every generation of our nation’s history - from the early years of slavery during the establishment of our nation, through the apartheid practices of the southern US states and finally through the Federal Government’s physical destruction of the black political movement here in this country during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

 

But our nation’s journey with racism will not end until it faces the truth of its past.  By drawing upon our nation’s history and forging with it a willingness to confront these horrible truths, our delegation should be able to make substantive contributions to the World Conference forums examining the causes of racism, as well as, help formulate strategies to end racism in the world today.

 

I wish to briefly address two important issues which I think should feature as center points in our discussion today:

 

  1. The American Slave Trade
  2. The destruction of the black political movement here in the US in the 1960’s and the 1970’s under the Federal Government’s COINTELPRO Program.

 

From 1490 until about 1870 one of the most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures arose, a result of which 30-60 million black men, women and children were enslaved in Africa and carried packed in ships wearing leg irons, in foul over crowded conditions and transported to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines or as servants in fine houses. Tragically, many tens of millions of them did not survive the journey and died en route during the Middle Passage from disease, cruel treatment and the rigors of sea travel.

 

Slavery stretched several hundred years, involved every maritime European nation, every Atlantic-facing African people (and some others), and every country of the Americas. On any view, this Slave Trade must rank as one of the greatest crimes of all time.