GAC - Bridgetown Protocol - Reparations Working Group Report



		THE BRIDGETOWN PROTOCOL HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS Back to Working Group Reports PART III - WORKING GROUP REPORTS REPARATIONS WORKING GROUP REPORT Co-chairpersons: Roger Wareham and Raymond Winbush Rapporteur: Ahmad Daniels INTRODUCTION PRIORITY AREAS CURRENT PROGRAMS RECOMMENDATIONS STRATEGIES BARRIERS INTRODUCTION The fertile ground for nourishing the Reparations movement came during the early 1990s when several organizations successfully lobbied the United Nations to hold a World Conference Against Racism. These groups followed in the tradition of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and W. E. B. Du Bois who saw that the challenges facing the global Afrikan community must be addressed in the international arena. The 2001 World Conference Against Racism held in Durban South Afrika presented a forum for the world to understand the crimes against humanity committed against Afrikans. The three central organizing themes of Afrikan people present at the conference were: 1. Declaration of the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a crime against humanity 2. Reparations for people on the Afrikan continent and in the Diaspora. 3. The economic basis for racism The United Nations World Conference Against Racism Declaration and Program of Action emerging from the historic conference states in Paragraph 13 that: “We acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, were appalling tragedies in the history of humanity not only because of their abhorrent barbarism but also in terms of their magnitude, organized nature and especially their negation of the essence of the victims, and further acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade were a crime against humanity and should always have been so, especially the transatlantic slave trade…” The Bridgetown Reparations Working Group therefore declares Reparations as a fundamental priority in recognizing the continuing impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Afrikan people throughout the world. It is clear that the payment of Reparations is not only a common occurrence, but is firmly rooted in international law. Reparations is a necessary first step in repairing and healing the appalling damage done to Afrika and its descendants by Europe and the United States because it was fundamental to the development of their economic ascendancy in the world and instrumental to the underdevelopment of Afrika. PRIORITY AREAS A. Maintain an international campaign of legal action against all nations that participated and benefited from the Transatlantic Slave Trade B. Develop education and communication strategies including multimedia campaigns C. Mobilize, educate and organize the global Afrikan community to achieve Reparations that include restitution, and to understand our need to be educated by these communities. Our goal is to bring to justice the criminals responsible for the Maafa (Great Suffering), which is the loss of countless lives, families, cultures, histories and identities as well as theft of land, resources, labour and human possibilities which continues up to the present D. Grant to all Afrikans in the Diaspora the immediate and unfettered right to return to any Afrikan state to claim their ancestral citizenship rights E. Establish Afrikan centred approaches to education CURRENT PROGRAMS · Legal actions are now being executed throughout the world · Repatriation programs have been established in Afrika · Education and communication materials are currently being produced and distributed, e.g. Internet, video, books, CDs, etc. · Several reparation organizations exist throughout the world RECOMMENDATIONS INTERNATIONAL FRONT OF AFRIKANS FOR REPARATIONS (IFAR) REPARATIONS: The process of self-repair, healing and restoring of a people injured because of their group identity, and the violation of their fundamental human rights by individuals, corporations, religious and other institutions, governments and other entities. Those groups that have been injured have the right to obtain from individuals, corporations, religious and other institutions, governments, and other entities responsible for the injuries, whatever they determine is necessary to repair and heal themselves. PURPOSE: To mobilize, educate, and organize the global Afrikan community to achieve Reparations, which includes restitution. Our responsibility to ensure Afrikans receive justice for the Maafa (Great Suffering), which is the loss of countless lives, families, cultures, histories, self-identity, theft of land, labour and resources, and human possibilities that continues up to present day. IFAR’S FIRST INITATIVE Campaign for the immediate return of Reparations money paid to France by Haiti, following her successful revolution and independence from France. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVELOPING IFAR IFAR Definition: IFAR shall be an international front of Afrikan organizations working to obtain Reparations for Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants. IFAR Principles of Unity: We will respect the autonomy of each other’s organizations and philosophies and operate as a united front across our difference. We will operate in unity without uniformity. The central principles upon which we unify and agree are: 1. Our primary goal is to achieve Reparations, which includes restitution, for Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants. 2. The Transatlantic Slave Trade was not trade, but was, in fact, a Maafa, which is the loss of countless lives, families, cultures, histories and self-identity; theft of land, resources and human possibilities. The Maafa was morally wrong and constitutes a crime against humanity; 3. Afrikans on the continent of Afrika are due Reparations, which includes restitution, for the atrocities suffered at the hands of Europeans, i.e. pre-colonialism, colonialism and post-colonialism. 4. Members of IFAR (organizations and individuals) will operate in unity and not accommodate conflicts. Functioning as a united front is critical to maintaining a unified public posture regarding Reparations. 5. In instances where there may be differences of opinion, members will emphasize their commitment to Reparations, to minimize attempts to divide and neutralize the effectiveness of the united front. 6. IFAR member organizations may decide not to recognize those who fail to abide by the aforementioned principles of unity. Everyone is encouraged to support the work of IFAR and the International Reparations Movement in ways most suitable for them, whether inside or outside the body. IFAR Declaration: We believe that IFAR provides an opportunity to address all issues impacting on Afrikan people by: 1. Creating a path for self, family, and community development and liberation; 2. Providing compensation for Afrikan people locally, nationally and internationally; 3. Allowing Afrikan people to achieve parity economically, socially, and culturally. Restitution will only assist in our recovery and building process. The struggle for Reparations is a sacred responsibility that must be assumed by all Afrikans; 4. Providing a cause strong enough to unite Afrikan people across socio-economic, education and geographic barriers; 5. Recognizing the loss of countless Afrikan lives and the lingering effects of the losses experienced during the Maafa, and enabling the healing, repairing and restoration of Afrikan people; 6. Providing an opportunity to expose the perpetrator of the Maafa, and the perpetrator’s responsibility in creating our past and current conditions; educating Afrikan people by creating opportunities for dialogue locally, nationally, and internationally, that thoroughly examines our collective oppression (and mistakes); and 7. Fostering the development of a mass movement. Mass participation is essential to achieving Reparations (repairing) and Restitution (compensation). INTERNAL REPARATIONS REPORT Point #1: Holistic Afrikan Centred Approach to Education a. Community-based (children and adults) supplementary schools b. Accessible to prison populations (male and female) c. New paradigm to understand ourselves. The importance of healing; To replace Euro-centric treatment and measures with Afrikan centred measures and values Point #2: Recommended Time Frame a. The response to the above shall be specific and appropriate to each country b. Each country will designate a working group to actualize these two points c. Report back to central group six months after the conference and every six months thereafter Point #3: Assessment of Damage Identify mental, physical and spiritual damage done to Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants including past and current injustices caused by the Transatlantic slave trade MEDIA AND EDUCATION A. Create a 64-page fact booklet 1. Draft complete English version by December 1, 2002 2. Final English version and distribution by February 1, 2003 3. Complete translated versions of booklet by March, 2003 B. Complete process of establishing international website: www.GlobalAfrikanReparations.org C. Examine existing CDs and create new CDs D. Form video committee to interview and collect data for education on Reparations E. Create comic books/children books F. Stage “Artists for Reparations” concerts in the form of music, dance, spoken word, etc. G. Reparations Literacy campaign REPATRIATION Whereas no descendant of enslaved Afrikans ever gave up their rights to their land and citizenship, we demand that the African Union uphold the agreed upon objectives of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to “…enhance the total emancipation and integration of all Afrikans, and the free movement of persons and families.” To amend one of the recommendations of the Declaration of the First Pan Afrikan Conference on Reparations for Afrikan Enslavement, Colonization and Neo-Colonization, sponsored by the OAU, and held in Abuja, Nigeria, 27-29 April 1993: “Exhort all Afrikan states to grant entrance as a right to all persons of Afrikan descent to obtain residence in Afrikan states (if there is no disqualifying element on those claiming the right to return to his/her ancestral home, Afrika)”. This sentence should be replaced with the following: To grant all Afrikans in the Diaspora the immediate and unfettered right to return to any Afrikan state to claim their ancestral citizenship rights. STRATEGIES Develop information/orientation package that provides returnees with practical information about needed skills and lessons learned in buying land, understanding culture, language and traditions for reintegration into the Afrikan society to which they return. Hold a Reparations and repatriation conference by 2004 to determine the level of interest, to assess needs and to provide skills-building workshops. INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN The Conference, acknowledging the international nature of the Maafa, including the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Slavery and Colonialism, from its inception and throughout its duration, launches an international campaign to demand Reparations from the perpetrators of history’s greatest crime against humanity. While acknowledging that the criminal conspirators encompassed all of Western Europe and its settler colonies in the Americas and the Pacific, this Campaign will begin by focusing on the following five countries: · France – for the Reparations which France demanded of Haiti and received in the 19th century; · United Kingdom – for its leading role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery and the global expansion of an empire upon which “the sun never sets”; · Germany – for the genocide against the Herero people of Namibia; · Belgium – for the massacre of 10,000,000 Congolese during the reign of King Leopold and its role in the assassination of the first Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba; · United States of America – for its leading role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery; and · The Netherlands – for its cruel and oppressive role in slave trade, slavery, colonialism, massacres and genocide in Netherlands Antilles and former Dutch colonies This campaign will begin immediately and will include, but not be limited to, the following strategies and tactics: SPECIFIC OUTCOMES France to repay the millions of francs in Reparations it extorted from Haiti for enslaved Afrikans having dared: 1) to defeat Napoleon Bonaparte; 2) to free themselves; and 3) to declare Haiti as the first independent Black Republic in the Western Hemisphere. Germany to be prosecuted and provide Reparations for its genocide against the Herero people of Namibia. Belgium to be prosecuted for and provide Reparations to the Congo for its massacre of 10,000,000 Congolese at the beginning of the 20th century and for its leading role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Great Britain to be prosecuted and provide Reparations to the descendants of the Afrikans it enslaved and to the Commonwealth countries which were its former colonies. United States of America to be prosecuted and provide Reparations to the descendants of the Afrikans it enslaved and for the vestiges of that slave trade. The Netherlands to be prosecuted and provide Reparations (to be deposited into a Reparations Fund) to all descendants of the victims and survivors of Dutch slave trade, slavery and colonialism. If any of these countries refuse to be accountable for their crimes against humanity, there will be a campaign to bring them before the appropriate international body. GENERAL STRATEGIES · Establish a research component to gather information on the role of these countries and their companies in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. · Identify and target companies for selected product boycotts · Coordinate programs, marches and demonstrations · Consolidate communications network to organize activities in various countries · Establish website and e-mail communication · Initiate education campaign · Lobby for legislation demanding governments to cut off trade relations with these countries and selected business entities · Mark International Day of Solidarity, focusing on atrocities committed in and by targeted countries, e.g., anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, January 16. · Celebrate August 17th, the birthday of Marcus Garvey as the International Day for Reparations · Develop International Reparations Calendar · Form networks with NGOs in targeted countries BARRIERS BARRIERS TO RECOMMENDATIONS MADE · White Supremacy · Language · Culture and religious divisions · Lack of finance, access to information, resources, military and economic clout · Lack of commitment and consistency by Afrikan people · Media manipulations · Organized opposition by governments, Afrikan and non-Afrikan · Legal barriers · Post traumatic slave syndrome, i.e. after-effects from slavery and colonialism · Lack of community capacity STEPS TO OVERCOME BARRIERS · Support monthly financial donations by faith communities for support of Reparations · Facilitate Pro bono work by all Afrikans involved in Reparations · Create an international fund for support of Reparations · Strengthen direct trade and travel between Afrika and the Diaspora · Enlist support of Afrikan artists, sports figures and celebrities for financial and ideological support of Reparations · Insert ourselves in every international process, i.e. pertaining to Afrikan development · Support reparation legislation · Enlist support of established organizations to support and mentor grassroots organizations to achieve reparation mobilizing objectives · Employ sanctions against companies that benefit from trade in our communities but do not contribute back to our communities Back to Working Group Reports _________________________________ Please direct questions or comments to website@globalafrikancongress.com Copyright © Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants World Conference Against Racism 2003. 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