Thank you for your e-mail, and congratulations for your Collective's
success in bringing together concerned people, via the London Reparations
March, to the Seat of British Government. And, thanks, too, to the Rastafari
Movement, friends and allies, for reaffirming our Afrikan call for
Reparations Now!
It is inconceivable that in the 21st Century, with the existence of a
global culture of paying reparations to people wronged by others, the
Afrikan people are made exceptions to this rule, and so finding it necessary
to march for our reparations. Even when the wrongs for which we demand
redress, the Institution of Chattel Slavery built on our Afrikan backs,
perpetrated and perpetuated over many centuries against us, and made
generations of profits and great wealth for individuals, companies and
nations. The institution of Chattel slavery tantamount to the most horrific,
lasting and consistent mass destructions in volume of a people ever in world
history.
These horrific acts against the 'African Black savages', enhanced and
perfected by a people who claimed to be the guardian and practitioners of
renaissance high arts and cultures, pious theologies and accountable to a
merciful Deity, leaders of civilised behaviours, liberal democracy and the
makers and up-holders of the rule of law. And yet none of these high
principles and practises then and now was and is adequate to persuade them
and their current posterity, as individuals, institutions and nations, to
recognise the importance, moral imperative and necessity to beg forgiveness
and offer proper and commensurate reparations to the Afrikan people. Those
at home and those abroad, who suffered and still bearing the consequences of
their ancestors' trauma over the many centuries of barbarity perpetrated
against them.
The refusal by those who are still benefiting, by heritage and otherwise,
from Afrikans, the innocents, sufferings, and who are claiming to be
civilised and leaders of civilised values, the obvious question is, "what
are civilised values today?"
Respect Rastafari and to those who stood shoulder to shoulder with you, on
the streets of London, the historical Imperial Capital, whose Parliament
endorsed chattel slavery. To its redemption, encouraged by the British
Judiciary, Lord Mansfield's Somerset v Stewart (1772) judgement and the
various people of good-will, campaigning for change under the broad
anti-slavery banner, Parliament's historic decisions in 1807 and 1833,
outlawed and abolished slavery. Those were great and redeeming acts by the
British Parliament. That Great and Noble Institution needs to take the next
logical step and legislate for the payment of reparations to Afrikans who
are demanding their rights. A Big Debt is still outstanding.
Editorial Collective
Self-Help News –"Giving Voice to the Voiceless"
Photos at: https://www.flickr.com/search/?tags=inapp
From: PASCF [mailto:afrikansociety@aol.com]
Sent: 04 August 2014 11:24
Subject: Who owes reparations? Please circulate widely
PASCF Statement on Reparations Owed
Following the historic London Reparations March from Brixton to 10 Downing
Street organised by the Rastafari Movement in Britain on 1st August 2014,
the PASCF issues the following statement – they all owe us:
The Capitalists, the Working Class and the Trade Union Movement all owe
Reparations to Afrikan People
The enslavement of Afrikan people created unprecedented levels of wealth
for the imperialists who controlled the slavery system. As part of their
agenda of stealing other peoples' wealth they managed to usurp Afrikan
people's labour without having to pay. The imperialists then used the
massive quantities of wealth that they accumulated from slavery as capital
to invest. These investments were the cause of many new beginnings
including: a proliferation in the development of technological inventions in
Europe; the creation of factories in Europe; the development of mass
production in Europe; the development of industrialisation in Europe; the
birth of capitalism as a social, political and economic system; the birth of
the capitalist phase of world history; and the birth of modern racism.
These changes also meant that the newly created mass producing factories of
Europe needed labour in order to operate effectively. This new need was
hindered by the fact that the labour of European peasants was tied to the
land in a form of bondage called serfdom. The requirements imposed by the
newly emerging capitalist system meant that the European peasants had to be
released from serfdom by their Lords and Masters. Their release was one of
the essential ingredients that brought capitalism into existence. It was the
release of European peasants from serfdom that gave birth to the European
working class (i.e. proletariat). The European working class was created by
the new capitalist elite for its own diabolical purposes. The European
working class was also born out of the terrible suffering of enslaved
Afrikan people.
The European working class was created precisely so that the capitalists
could exploit them as a means of making profits. In order to resist this
exploitation the working class was forced to organise for self defence.
Trade unions are the result of the European working class' organised
struggle against capitalism - the same capitalist system that was created by
and profited from anti-Afrikan slavery.
Trade Unions which were the European working class' legitimate response to
capitalist exploitation have at their root the terrible suffering of
enslaved Afrikan people. The outcome of this process is that European
working class suffer capitalist oppression on the basis of class; Afrikan
people suffer double oppression – class and race; and Afrikan women suffer
triple oppression – class, race and gender.
In short, if there was no slavery there would be no capitalism. If there
was no capitalism there would be no working class. If there was no working
class there would be no Trade Union Movement. Capitalism, the working class
and Trade Unions all owe their existence to the enslavement of Afrikan
people. They are all indebted to and owe reparations to Afrikan people,
from whose genocidal scale suffering (i.e. exploitation and oppression) they
arose.
