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…….#25

 

MARCH / APRIL  2002

 

 

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WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS, AND WE OWE IT TO OUR CHILDREN TO ESTABLISH AND DEMAND BETTER LIVES FOR THEM AND FOR OURSELVES! 

 

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GIVE POWER AND MEANING TO

THE REPARATIONS MASS MOVEMENT - GIVE OF YOURSELF!

 

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“Take direct action against the U.S. government!”  Dr. Robert Brock

 

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Note from the REPNOW Newsletter Editor:

 

With the Reparations Movement back on track and in full swing since the 9/11 Attack, we should all know that many people have jumped on the Reparations BANDWAGON and have submitted lawsuits to boot.  All I can say is that it’s about time!  The more attention given to this our cause, the more this U.S. government and other countries that were involved in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade will realize that WE ARE VERY SERIOUS!  And I hope that we will all support any and everyone for their efforts, as this DEBT is long overdue.  When the Bush Administration walked out of the World Conference Against Racism, it should have been smacked with a back-hand lick at every turn so as to know that not under any circumstances are we going to relent until this Debt is paid and until Blacks can begin again to be re-established with notable dignity be it in Africa, friendly countries, or in the countries that took us captive.   Make UNITY AND SOLIDARITY FOR REPARATIONS THE STAY OF EACH AND EVERY DAY!  Let’s not skip a beat in this “Our” fight for the Debt due to our forebears who were enslaved under the most inhumane bondage ever recorded and due to us, their descendants, as well for our pain, suffering, forced migration, ethnic cleansing, acute misery and endless sorrows!  The inequality that Descendants of Slaves experience in the countries that took our forebears captive is degrading and humiliating and purposed to emphasize the superiority of the White Society. 

 

And since 9/11, we cannot permit the powers-that-be to deceive us into thinking that there is justice, patriotism, and unity in the United States’ fight against this “War Against TERROR.”  We continue to fight against Police Terror and the terrors of RACISM and DISCRIMINATION, and especially INEQUALITY in the Black Ghettoes and the Rural South.  We have our own TERRORISMS TO FIGHT right in the Good Ol’ U.S. of A and the government refuses to help us.

 

I was surprised to learn about people, mostly Whites, lining up for blocks to see the “Ground Zero Site” in Manhattan where once stood the Twin Towers.  If people want to see real amazing destruction where human beings are living, amazingly, in dilapidation and destitution in run-down houses and sleeping on garbage-strewn streets, then people should line up to visit any one of the major cities to where the poor have no choice but to exist.   Let them visit a ghetto school and compare it to one in a White School District where little White children lack nothing.  And then while they are in line waiting their turn to see this devastation that Blacks have lived in since being brought to these shores, let someone ask:  where is this respect for “Human Dignity” and “Human Rights” of which the United Nations and President Bush speak?  Hmmm…Speaking of the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan is a native of Ghana, but he is oblivious to the anguish and torment of any Blacks anywhere on this planet.   I can’t figure it out! 

 

Another situation that seems quite ironic is that the United States is seeking the death penalty for those involved in the 9/11 attack, but prior to that brazenly walked out of the World Conference Against Racism rather than speak out against the constant Israeli terrorist attacks and destruction of Palestinian territories.  As well, obviously the last thing the United States wanted to discuss at WCAR was its hand in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade and payment of Reparations for this merciless and barbaric crime against Black Humanity and for the RACISM and INJUSTICE Blacks continue to face in this country called “America the Beautiful.”   But the U.S. wants justice served for 9/11.  Now, ain’t that somethin’.  We, Descendants of Slaves, fightin’ for JUSTICE SERVED, too, but we are not looking to send anyone to the death chambers.   We just want what’s due us – JUSTICE in the form of Reparations and Freedom for those of us who wish to leave the lands that took us captive.

 

“The U.S. Walk Out” of the WCAR, whether people accept the timing or not, resulted in the 9/11 attack that then caused the U.S to call for a World Coalition to fight Terror.  Do realize that this was at a time when the United States was an isolationist.  How quickly the U.S. can change, and no one can beat the turn around that this country made after this attack.  The U.S. appeal (or rather “demand” to those receiving U.S. tax dollars) went out to every single nation on this planet to help it fight Terror, and stated something to the effect that:  “IF YOU ARE NOT WITH US, THEN YOU ARE AGAINST US!”  It seemingly pays to have the funds to manipulate nations – hmmm our money, nonetheless.

 

One White European young adult asked Secretary of State Colin Powell while addressing an MTV presentation, how it felt to represent the “Satan of all policies.”  I nearly fell off my seat.  Had this young adult been a Muslim, I wouldn’t have given it much thought, but she was a full-blooded-blond European, which says quite a lot about what these Whites think about the United States - which ain’t much.

 

Maybe the U.S. will pay Reparations just so that we will keep our mouths shut about the newly coined phrase:  “Satan of all policies.”  Hey, I’ll buy that, but first, SHOW ME THE MONEY!  Until then, Descendants of Slaves must get on the horn and speak out, and get involved in every way possible in order that Reparations for Descendants of Slaves not be forgotten but be paid IN OUR LIFETIME.  And don’t let the Blacks in government and other strategic positions forget this, either!

 

Since the Bush Administration would not listen to us at WCAR, let’s make them hear us loud and clear in the media, the courts, and in government.  If only the Black Caucus would institute a Filibuster for Reparations, the length of our fight would be cut in half.  What has this Caucus (that is supposed to represent Black People) got to lose.

 

Below is the WebSite to the REPARATIONS CENTRAL that truly provides links to the “Best” information on organizations involved in the Reparations Movement.  If you are one of the “Best,” and you don’t see the name of your organization list at this WebSite, then I would suggest that you contact President Carey and find out why not.

 

Gregory Carey, President

REPARATIONS CENTRAL

P.O. Box 84551

Seattle, WA 98124

greg@carey.net

http:/www.reparationscentral.com

 

We provide links to the best information about the Reparations movement.

 

So, says President Carey:  The Struggle Continues, and if you care to make a tax-deductible contribution to Reparations Central, please send it to the information listed above.

 

Again, let’s try to support ALL in this our fight for Reparations by giving of yourself!

 

Tziona Yisrael, Editor

REPARATIONS NOW IN OUR LIFETIME Newsletter

www.thelawkeepers.org

(Click on “Repnow”)

 

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FARMER-PAELLMAN NOT AFRAID OF HUGE CORPORATIONS

February 21, 2002

Deadria Farmer-Paellmann has spent five years digging for evidence that ties Corporate America to pre-Civil War slavery. She confronted Aetna in 2000.

NEW YORK — Her husband, who's German and white, didn't believe her. So they played a game.

They'd go to a store and each make a purchase with a credit card. Inevitably, she had to produce a picture ID and give her address; he was rung up, no questions asked.

"Sometimes I tell (sales clerks), 'Hey, slavery's over. Black people have money now,' " says Deadria Farmer-Paellmann.

Slavery is anything but over for Farmer-Paellmann, 36, a researcher and mother of one. For five years, she has spent hours online and in archives hunting evidence that ties Corporate America to pre-Civil War slavery.

Various documents link modern companies to antebellum slavery. Reporter James Cox takes a look at the evidence and the companies' responses.

·  Activists challenge corporations that they say are tied to slavery

Despite having no outside financial backing, she rocked the insurance industry in 2000 by confronting Aetna with evidence it had insured the lives of slaves for slaveholders. That prompted California to require other insurers to search archives for slave policies.

Aetna issued a public apology in March 2000.

Farmer-Paellmann says she has identified about 60 companies that profited from slavery. She says she has taken her findings to nine — banks, insurers and a textile maker — and one estate. So far, none has made a public apology or agreed to her suggestion to put together a reparations plan.

If corporations with slaves in their past ever do pay reparations, Farmer-Paellmann can take much credit, says Charles Ogletree, the Harvard law professor heading a group looking to file reparations lawsuits.  "The idea of corporate involvement has always been raised in the reparations movement," he says. "But I don't think anybody has been as conscientious or as thorough as Deadria.  She is the key factor in making these (legal) claims come to life."

Farmer-Paellmann says slavery lives on, its legacy seen in everything from housing discrimination to racial profiling to police brutality. The quest for compensation and an apology "torments a lot of African-Americans. And it's not because of the money. Our ancestors were kidnapped, whipped, tortured, forced to breed."

She was intrigued by the idea of a national apology and federal restitution for descendants of slaves. She got a law degree just so she could learn legal theories and prepare a reparations case that would be persuasive in court.

But in 1997, she decided the American public wasn't ready for a national reparations bill, and there were too many legal obstacles in suing the government. So she shifted her focus.

"I don't think people are very sympathetic toward multibillion-dollar corporations that profited from slavery," she says.  "People don't put up a wall when you talk about reparations from companies."

Farmer-Paellmann is negotiating with law firms and may file lawsuits separate from those brought by Ogletree's team. She hopes to pick a firm that could represent her as a plaintiff, bring her on to help with research or both.

The Aetna case brought her notoriety and credibility among the lawyers, academics and civil rights activists pursuing the reparations idea. Law firms that had been cool to her idea of class-action lawsuits suddenly showed interest.

None of it appears to have lessened the sting she felt as a little girl growing up in the predominantly white Bensonhurst neighborhood of Queens in the '70s and '80s.

"Sometimes racism is subtle," she says. "But when someone throws a crate at you and calls you 'nigger,' there's not much doubt."

Even now, she says, there are daily slights. The extra ID check at the store. The way restaurants direct her to a back table. They are part of what fuels her belief that slavery is part of the present.

"We're still living with the vestiges of slavery," she says. "Most black folks, unless they're living in la-la land, could tell you about an incident every day of their lives."

 

By James Cox & Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

 

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FIRMS OWN DAILIES THAT WERE VITAL TO SLAVE ECONOMY

 

Various documents link modern companies to antebellum slavery. Reporter James Cox takes a look at the evidence and the companies' responses.

 

Activists challenge corporations that they say are tied to slavery

Many of the USA's largest newspaper companies own dailies that were vital to the slave economy. Antebellum-era newspapers ran ads that promised reward money for the capture of escaped slaves, offered slaves for sale or sought slaves for purchase.

"Cash for Negroes" proclaimed an 1856 ad in The Sun, today The Baltimore Sun, owned by Tribune Co.

"Stop the Runaway" urged an 1849 ad in The Georgia Telegraph, today Knight Ridder's The Macon Telegraph.

Similar ads were carried by The Memphis Daily Appeal, forerunner of E.W. Scripps' The Commercial Appeal; in The Daily Dispatch, which became Media General's Richmond Times-Dispatch; in The Daily Picayune, today The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, owned by Advance Publications.

Gannett, publisher of USA TODAY, also owns newspapers that carried slave ads. Among them: The Montgomery Daily Advertiser, now The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser; and The Louisville Daily Journal, today The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Freddie Parker, chairman of the North Carolina Central University history department, says newspapers were a key marketplace for buyers and sellers of slaves and were strong voices in support of slavery.

The Hartford Courant, a Tribune newspaper, acknowledged in 2000 that it had run such ads. It apologized for "any involvement by our predecessors at The Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings. "

Knight Ridder declined to comment on slave ads in its Macon newspaper. Advance Publications referred calls to Ashton Phelps, publisher of New Orleans' Times-Picayune. He refused to comment.

In a statement, Tribune calls slave ads in the Hartford Courant and Baltimore's The Sun "regrettable." It says its flagship Chicago Tribune fought to end slavery, adding that the Hartford and Baltimore newspapers have more recently "worked diligently for civil rights and human dignity."

Media General acknowledges its Richmond newspaper ran slave ads. But "we did not own the Richmond Times-Dispatch at the time these activities occurred. It makes it very difficult to discuss decisions that were made by people who were not involved in anything related to Media General," spokeswoman Lou Anne Nabhan says.

Scripps says only that it came to own many of its current newspapers "beyond the period in question."

In a statement, Gannett says it didn't own newspapers during the slave era. It says shareholders shouldn't be responsible — "morally or financially" — for what was published then. "Reparations and apologies present overwhelming practical — and logical — problems. The better course is to focus on understanding the lasting effects of slavery and racism on our society. Gannett is justifiably proud of its record in this regard."

 

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SUIT SEEKS BILLIONS IN SLAVE REPARATIONS

 

March 26, 2002

 

Farmer-Paellmann: "These are corporations that benefitted from stealing people."

 

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Attorneys for a former law student, who discovered evidence linking U.S. corporations to the slave trade, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday that could seek billions of dollars in reparations for the descendants of slaves in America.

 

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn names FleetBoston Financial, the railroad firm CSX and the Aetna insurance company, and promises to name up to 100 additional corporations at a later date.

 

It accuses the companies of conspiracy, human rights violations, unjust enrichment from their corporate predecessors' roles in the slave trade and conversion of the value of the slaves' labor into their profits.

 

"These are corporations that benefited from stealing people, from stealing labor, from forced breeding, from torture, from committing numerous horrendous acts, and there's no reason why they should be able to hold onto assets they acquired through such horrendous acts," said Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, the main plaintiff in the lawsuit.

 

Farmer-Paellmann said she learned of Aetna's role in insuring slaves in legal classes, and then asked Aetna for old policies documenting the practice, which Aetna provided to her.

 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 35 million African-Americans. It seeks financial payments for the value of "stolen" labor and unjust enrichment and calls for the companies to give up "illicit profits." The plaintiffs are also seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

 

The lawsuit does not seek a specific dollar amount, but estimates slaves performed as much as $40 million worth of unpaid labor between 1790 and 1860. The current value of that labor could be as high as $1.4 trillion

 

The lawsuit alleges that Aetna's corporate predecessor "insured human slave owners against the loss of their human chattel."

 

In response, Aetna released a statement saying, "We do not believe a court would permit a lawsuit over events which -- however regrettable -- occurred hundreds of years ago. These issues in no way reflect Aetna today."

 

The lawsuit notes that FleetBoston is a successor to Providence Bank, which it says was founded by Rhode Island slave trader John Brown. FleetBoston had no immediate comment on the suit.

 

The suit alleges that CSX, based in Richmond, Virginia, is a successor to numerous railroads that were built or run, at least in part, by slave labor.

 

In a statement, CSX said the suit is "wholly without merit and should be dismissed. The claimants named CSX because slave labor was used to construct portions of some U.S. rail lines under the political and legal system in place more than a century before CSX was formed in 1980."

 

Slave reparations have been a controversial issue. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted last month found a wide difference of opinion on the issue between black and white respondents.

 

Nine out of 10 white respondents said the government should not make cash payments to slave descendants while 6 percent said it should.

 

Among black respondents, 55 percent said the government should make cash payments and 37 percent said it should not.

 

The poll surveyed 1,001 adults -- 820 of them white and 146 black -- February 8-10. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 9 percentage points for black respondents and plus or minus 4 percent points for white respondents. The percentages differ because of the difference in the number of people surveyed.

 

The same people were asked if corporations that made profits from slavery should apologize to African-Americans. Among blacks, 68 percent said they should while 23 percent said they should not. Among whites, 32 percent said they should and 62 percent said they should not.

 

Three-fourths of black respondents said the companies should set up scholarship funds for descendants of slaves and 20 percent said they should not. Among white respondents, 35 percent of respondents said they favored the scholarship funds while 61 percent said they were opposed.

 

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LAWSUITS SEEK REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY

The Associated Press
 

March 27, 2002

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman whose ancestors were slaves sued three companies for allegedly profiting from slavery for nearly two centuries -- a long-simmering concept that could pick up steam if more blacks are allowed to join the lawsuits.

 

Plaintiffs' lawyers said the lawsuits were the first to seek slavery reparations from private companies. They were filed against the Aetna insurance company, the FleetBoston financial services group and railroad giant CSX on behalf of the 35 million American descendants of African slaves.

 

At a news conference announcing the lawsuits Tuesday, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann said she spent five years researching the topic after writing on her law school application that her dream was to build the case that would win slavery reparations.

 

She said she became interested in the quest as she listened to her grandparents, including descriptions of her great-great-grandmother's escape from a rice plantation on the eve of the Civil War, when she stole a boat and ran away, surviving two weeks in swamps. Farmer-Paellmann graduated from law school in 2000.

 

``My grandfather always talked about the 40 acres and a mule we were promised and never given,'' said Farmer-Paellmann, who was the only plaintiff identified in the lawsuits.

 

The three suits, which seek unspecified damages, claimed that as many as 1,000 unidentified corporations may have benefited from slavery between 1619 and 1865. The lawsuits seek class-action status and could be expanded to include more companies.

 

Lawyer Ed Fagan said a series of Holocaust lawsuits he helped settle for $8 billion had blazed the legal trail for the slavery action by setting a precedent in making banks and insurance companies pay damage to victims.

 

Any damages won from the lawsuit would be put into a fund to improve health, education and housing opportunities for blacks, said attorney Roger Wareham, one of a group of lawyers who prepared the lawsuits.

 

``This is not about individuals receiving checks in their mailbox,'' Wareham said.

 

The lawsuits say slavery is a wound that fails to heal, condemning blacks in America to more poverty, unemployment, poor education and clashes with the justice system than other Americans. ``They lag behind whites according to every social yardstick: literacy, life expectancy, income and education,'' the lawsuits say. ``They are more likely to be murdered and less likely to have a father at home.''

 

In a statement, Aetna said: ``We do not believe a court would permit a lawsuit over events which -- however regrettable -- occurred hundreds of years ago. These issues in no way reflect Aetna today.''

CSX said the lawsuits had no merit and should be dismissed.

 

``Slavery was a tragic chapter in our nation's history,'' the company said in a statement. ``It is a history shared by every American, and its impacts cannot be attributed to any single company or industry.''

 

Fleet spokesman James Mahoney said the company had not seen the lawsuits and had no comment.

 

CSX said it was named as a defendant because slave labor was used to construct portions of some U.S. rail lines ``under the political and legal system in place more than a century before CSX was formed in 1980.''

 

Farmer-Paellmann said Aetna, in particular, was cooperative in her research, but that changed when she started speaking publicly about planned litigation. Company documents showed one-third of Aetna's first 1,000 policies were written on the lives of slaves, she said.

 

Farmer-Paellmann said the filing was victory enough for one day.

 

``I feel confident that something good will come of all of this,'' she said.

 

Enslavement of Africans in America began in the 1600s. It was not officially abolished in the United States until the 13th amendment was ratified, in 1865.

 

Reparation supporters point to recent cases where groups have been compensated in cash for historic indignities and harm.

 

A letter of formal apology and $20,000 were given by the U.S. government to each Japanese-American held in internment camps during World War II.

 

And in October 2000, Austria established a $380 million fund to compensate tens of thousands of Nazi-era slave laborers who were born in six eastern European countries.

 

But reparation opponents argue that victims in the Nazi and Japanese-American cases were directly harmed while many generations separate enslaved blacks and their modern-day descendants.

 

In addition, those opposed to reparations say it isn't fair for taxpayers and corporations who never owned slaves to be burdened with possible multibillion-dollar settlements.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Slave-Reparations.html?ex=1018252873&ei=1&en=1fc160ffa3e552f5

 

Submitted by [BRC-REP]

From: pka@cwjamaica.com

Reply-To: IRSGroup@yahoogroups.com

 

***

REPARATIONS SOLIDARITY FROM JAMAICA

 

March 28, 2002

 

Greetings All!

 

This lawsuit is wonderful because of the international attention it has brought to the issue of Reparations. America has several legal suits on Reparations upcoming, including one to the government which our IRSGroup member Professor Charles Ogletree is involved.  Clearly the walls of Jericho will not fall down unless there is a great deal of SHOUTING from all sides. We are pleased therefore with Mrs. Farmer Paellman's action and wish her every strength and success.

 

There are parallels in this case, which we in Jamaica may wish to emulate, but mostly I think we need to watch it develop while we develop our own case or cases specifically relevant to our Caribbean and Jamaican situation. The suit by Jamaica's Miguel Lorne against the Queen of England is another legal case which bears watching and there are others emanating from the Jamaican Rastafari community which are also pending.

 

Let us follow and give all support by writing letters to the newspapers, speaking on radio and in our communities in support of this case.

 

ONE LOVE

Makeda

 

Submitted by brc-reparations@yahoogroups.com

 

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INCUMBENT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND CANDIDATES MUST BE CHALLENGED ON THEIR

COMMITMENTS TOWARDS SELF-DETERMINATION

AND REPARATIONS…

 

There is much work to do to build our movement for Reparations and lay claim to our Victory, in the coming weeks and months. On our present agenda are the congressional elections in every district.  All incumbent members of the House of Representatives and candidates, and indeed, persons running for any elective office, must be challenged on their commitment and past practice towards Self-Determination and Reparations for Afrikan people.  No one should get a pass.  Those on the east coast can join N’COBRA and other organizations for our A Year of Black Presence (AYBP) kick-off event in Philadelphia, this coming Friday, 1 March, 7 pm, at the Mother Bethel AME Church.  The church is located at 419 S. 6th Street, in Philly.  Our AYBP Campaign aims to mobilize thousands upon thousands of our people across this land to daily go to Capitol Hill in the upcoming congress to jointly raise the demand for Reparations.  The goal is a hearing and then passage of H.R. 40, The Commission to Study Reparations PROPOSALS Act, sponsored by Elder Congressman John Conyers of Michigan.  More AYBP are being planned for other areas in the near future.

 

Your organization or temple still has until 31 March (New Afrikan Nation Day) to nominate a representative for election to the NCOBRA-led Congress of Economic Development Commissioners (EDC).  Phase one of the EDC elections was held in 6239 (1999) in a number of cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, and other areas.  The tasks of our elected EDCs are to: 1) help raise public awareness of the Reparations movement; 2) solicit mass input and compile responses to N’COBRAs initial downpayment demands; and, 3) begin planning with our broader community how Reparations should be used to best heal our people.  This years elections will take place Friday through Sunday, 26-28 April. To get additional information and forms contact the EDC Election Project, chaired by Sister Johnita Scott, at P.O. Box 75437, Baton Rouge, LA 70874; or by email at 105216.150@compuserve.com

 

On 4 April, N’COBRAs youth and student leaders are once again organizing a Walk-Out Against Government Murder WALK-ON FOR REPARATIONS, in honor of DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.  Last year, activists held actions on campuses and in communities from Houston to Atlanta to New York to Oakland and numerous areas in-between.  Contact Sister Taiwo Kugichagulia-Seitu at taiwoks@hotmail.com for help in organizing your action.

 

Speaking of young leaders, all roads lead to Detroit, where the new Mayor is 30 year-old Brother Kwame Kilpatrick. From 21-23 June, N’COBRA will hold its 13th Annual Convention and a National Reparations and Leadership Summit.  WE also are readying to file our class-action lawsuit for Reparations as soon as WE collectively raise the funds to sustain the mighty challenge in our oppressors courts.  More exciting events are also being confirmed. So make your plans to attend.  Of course, WE will use the opportunity to build momentum for the African Union founding in South Afrika in July; the African and African Descendants Caucus Gathering in Barbados come August; and the Millions for Reparations March on MARCUS GARVEY DAY (17 August), in Washington.

 

Sisters and Brothers, WE invite your participation in this movement.  No doubt about it.  WE are growing larger and, potentially, more powerful with each day.  Let us get democratically organized.  May WE all do our part to make this, and everyday, a Reparations Awareness-Action-and-Unity Day, especially, most especially, among the people closest to our circles.  Ase`.  Amen.

 

Hotep, Love and Continued Blessings,

 

Brother Jahahara

 

Brother Jahahara Alkebulan-Maat is the National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations (N’COBRA), and the editor of REPARATIONS, NOW: Justice! Self-Determination! Healing!  Reach him at NuAfrikan@aol.com or NCOBRAnyc@aol.com

 

*********

 

March 26, 2002

 

REPARATIONS SOUGHT FROM U.S. FIRMS FOR SLAVERY

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three large U.S. companies were named in a lawsuit on Tuesday filed on behalf of black Americans descended from slaves, the first-ever class action seeking reparations from firms for profiting from slavery.

 

Both Aetna and CSX said slavery was a regrettable chapter in U.S. history but the events in question occurred so long ago that a courtroom was not the proper venue to decide on reparations.

 

Plaintiff attorneys said 12 other companies would be getting letters in the coming days requesting a dialogue on a settlement. The other companies were not named.

 

The suit said yet-to-be-named corporate defendants from the industrial, manufacturing, financial and other sectors would be named in subsequent actions once they were identified.

 

The complaint did not contain a monetary damage figure, but did estimate the current value of slaves' unpaid labor as $1.4 trillion. The gross domestic product of the United States at the end of 2001 was $10.25 trillion.

 

Aetna Inc., CSX Corp., and FleetBoston Financial Corp. were named in the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court by 36-year-old black activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann in the latest step by some blacks to get compensation for what their ancestors suffered as slaves.

 

"The practice of slavery constituted an 'immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans' life, liberty, African citizenship rights, cultural heritage' and it further deprived them of the fruits of their own labor," the 21-page suit said.

 

BANK CONNECTION TO SLAVERY

 

"This is a case about wealth built on the back and from the sweat of African slaves," said plaintiff attorney Roger Wareham at a news conference. "We expect those companies that are targeted to stand up."

 

Advocates of reparations for slavery argue that the descendants of slaves are still being hurt economically and sociologically by their ancestors' bondage. Those who argue against compensation say, among other things, that it happened so long ago that reparations would be punishing people who had nothing to do with the practice of slavery.

 

According to the lawsuit, FleetBoston is the successor to Providence Bank, which was founded by Rhode Island businessman John Brown. Brown owned ships that embarked on several slaving voyages and the suit says FleetBoston lent substantial sums to Brown, thus financing and profiting from Brown's slave trade.

 

FleetBoston also collected customs fees due from ships transporting slaves, thus further profiting, the suit said.

 

FleetBoston did not return a call seeking comment.

 

The suit alleges Aetna's predecessor actually insured slaveholders against the loss of their human chattel. Aetna knew the horrors of slave life as is evident in a rider through which the company declined to make payments on slaves who were lynched, worked to death, or committed suicide.

 

Aetna, the No. 1 U.S. life and health insurer, said in early March it was considering making an unprecedented public apology and restitution payment over profits it made from insuring slaves in America 150 years ago.

 

COURTROOM 'WRONG SETTING'

 

On Tuesday, an Aetna spokesman said: "We have not been served with a lawsuit. We do not believe a court would permit a lawsuit over events which, however regrettable, occurred hundreds of years ago."

 

CSX is a successor in interest to numerous predecessor railroad lines that were constructed or run, at least in part, by slave labor, according to the suit.

 

CSX said in a statement that while slavery was a tragic chapter in U.S. history, the lawsuit was wholly without merit.

 

"The claimants named CSX because slave labor was used to construct portions of some U.S. rail lines under the political and legal system in place more than a century before CSX was formed in 1980," the company said. "The courtrooms are the wrong setting for this issue."

 

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, the appointment of an independent historic commission, restitution of the descendants' slave labor, disgorgement of illicit profits and compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

 

According to the suit, over eight million Africans and their descendants were enslaved from 1619 to 1865, many brought to the Americas to work as slaves on tobacco farms, cotton and sugar plantations.

 

The complaint said the exact number of plaintiff class members was not yet known but it estimated the class included millions of slave descendants.

 

In afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading, Aetna shares were up 44 cents at $37.78, CSX shares were up 66 cents at 37.55, and FleetBoston shares were up 24 cents at $35.38.

 

By Christian Wiessner

 

WWW.MAWASI.COM  -  AFROCENTRIC.INFO

 

Submitted by JELPO@AOL.COM

 

***

DOES FLEET BANK OF BOSTON (AND OTHERS)

OWE REPARATIONS?

 

February 22, 2002

 

FleetBoston Financial Corp. will be one of the first targets of a group that wants apologies and financial reparations from companies with historical ties to the pre-Civil War slave trade.

 

``The critical thing for people to understand is that we are trying to tell the story of what happened with (slavery),'' Alexander Pires, a Washington lawyer working on a lawsuit against Fleet and other companies, said yesterday.

 

Fleet, he said, is part of the story because of its connection to John Brown, an 18th century Rhode Island merchant, slave trader and namesake of Brown University.

 

Brown was part of a group that chartered Providence Bank, one of the early predecessors of what is now Fleet. Fleet yesterday downplayed that historic connection.

 

``The bank was one of hundreds that created Fleet,'' said Fleet spokesman James Mahoney. ``The link between Fleet and Brown is extremely remote.''

 

He declined further comment.

 

Pires could not specify the connection between Fleet's past and slavery, other than that Brown was a known slave trader.

 

``The critical thing for people to understand is that we are trying to tell the story of what happened with (slavery),'' Alexander Pires, a Washington lawyer working on a lawsuit against Fleet and other companies, said yesterday.

 

Fleet, he said, is part of the story because of its connection to John Brown, an 18th century Rhode Island merchant, slave trader and namesake of Brown University.

 

Brown was part of a group that chartered Providence Bank, one of the early predecessors of what is now Fleet. Fleet yesterday downplayed that historic connection.

 

``The bank was one of hundreds that created Fleet,'' said Fleet spokesman James Mahoney. ``The link between Fleet and Brown is extremely remote.''

 

He declined further comment.

 

Pires could not specify the connection between Fleet's past and slavery, other than that Brown was a known slave trader.

 

Other companies identified by the Reparations Coordinating Committee as historically tied to slavery are Aetna Inc., New York Life Insurance Co., American International Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Among the reparations group are prominent Harvard professors Charles Ogletree and Cornel West.

 

Dozens more are expected eventually to be targeted by the group as research continues on combinations that have occurred over the centuries.

 

For Fleet, the story stretches back to 1791, when Brown and others founded Providence Bank.

 

The bank retained its identity until 1954, when it was bought by Industrial National Bank. As Industrial National grew, it became Fleet Financial Group in 1982.

 

Fleet bought BankBoston in 1999, creating FleetBoston Financial.

 

The slavery reparations movement seeks everything from apologies to financial payments for descendants of slaves.

 

Critics say it is unfair to exact money from people and firms today for slavery, which ended with the Civil War 137 years ago.

 

Pires, who won a $1 billion settlement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for discrimination against black farmers, would not say when he expects to bring a case to court.

 

He said the lawyers working on it - including Johnnie Cochran, of O.J.  Simpson case fame - have met regularly, but haven't decided which court to go to with the case.

 

``Just say that a couple of hundred years ago, blacks were in charge, and they went over to Ireland or Italy and said, `Hey, this looks like a cheap labor source,' and hauled 5 million people back to build Boston and Rhode Island and New England,'' said Pires, who was raised in Easton. ``Now, today, people in Boston would want the story told the way it really happened.''

 

The Boston Herald

www.businesstoday.com/business/business/flee02222002.htm

 

Submitted by brc-reparations@yahoogroups.com

 

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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Fifty-eighth session

Item 14 (b) of the provisional agenda



SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS:

MINORITIES

Written statement* submitted by All For Reparation and Emancipation (AFRE),
a non-governmental organization on the Roster




The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[14 January 2002]


1. The United Nations has not, as yet, recognized us: we who are the African American peoples or nations in North, Central and South America and the Diaspora. Four hundred years of plantation slavery and its lingering effects have left us deprived of and denied our mother tongue and thus outside a definite place within the UN system. For the past six years, on behalf of the African American people in the United States, Mr. Silis Muhammad has traveled to the UN at Geneva to deliver numerous prayers for recognition and restoration. He has asked that the UN to find or make a category in which we, the African American, will fit; for at present, we have no collective human rights.


2. In the Americas Region and throughout the Diaspora we, who are the descendants of slaves, are filled with dissatisfaction, and many of us do not know its source. The African American people in the United States are perhaps the first to recognize the source of our pain and the gravity of our situation. We know that we have been forcibly cut off, severed from our original identity: our mother tongue, religion and culture: those very things that give life to peoples. We have been as "dead" for 400 years. Today we are experiencing, in reality, the process of ethnogenesis: a word that describes the coming to life again of a people who have been scattered, forcibly cut off, severed; now seemingly assimilated, within the country of our domicile.


3. We have cried out in many ways over many years for the restoration of our dignity as a people. Yet the U.S. Government and other nations commit, daily, the international wrongful act of denying our existence while claiming respect for human rights. It is our desire to reconstitute ourselves and reconstruct our lost ties, with UN assistance. It is also our desire to receive reparations from the U.S. Government for the ongoing loss of our mother tongue and our internationally recognized political identity.


4. We recognize that the United Nations has made some attempts to assist us. In 1997 the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights passed a resolution, #E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/1997/5, in which the Sub-Commission called upon the Working Group on Minorities to consider how the Sub-Commission in its future work might usefully address the continuing legal, political and economic legacies of the African slave trade, as experienced by Black communities throughout the Americas. In 1998 the Sub-Commission again passed a resolution, #E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/1998/24, in which the Sub-Commission urged the Working Group on Minorities to include on its agenda an item on issues related to the legacies of the slave trade on the Black communities throughout the Americas.


5. The Working Group on Minorities is aware that we, the African American people, do not fit into a category within the UN system due to the immoral slavery and its illegal lingering effects: especially the deliberate acts of the U.S. Government. In 1998 the Working Group assigned Mr. Jose Bengoa to write a working pa