This little booklet on the “reparations movement” was
originally produced by the New Panther Vanguard Movement for publication
during Black History Month - February 1996; the first printing
was in October 1997. This booklet was originally dedicated
to the descendants of African slaves living in America,
whose “free labor” [both slave, unpaid and under-paid] helped
to create the foundation upon which the wealth of the United States
of America is based. The original purpose of this booklet was
to present a concise and accessible summary of the historical
and economic research on the so-called “peculiar” American institutions:
i.e., the African Slave Trade, African-American Slavery, and Racial
Discrimination in the United States of America. Throughout this
booklet references are frequently made to other publications,
in which the facts and theories put forth here can be further
researched; and we encourage you to do so.
However, since the initial printing of this booklet there has
been a growing awareness of the issue of reparations, globally;
of particular significance is the increasing consciousness among
Africans on the Continent and Indigenous people in the Americas
about “debt relief” and the reclaiming of their “stolen land,”
wealth, culture, and identities.
As we enter the year 2001, the issue of “reparations”
among African-Americans is being increasingly publicized and
talked about among wide sectors of the African-American population
- from elected officials in local city government to state legislatures,
and from the United States Congress to “nationally-known leaders”
like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. In marketing his
recent book, The Debt, Randall Robinson [Executive Director
of TransAfrica] has reached into the consciousness of thousands,
maybe even millions, of African-Americans and whites, who heretofore
would have thought that the idea of reparations was either idealist,
unrealistic, or even “too militant.”
Further developments on the “African-Americans reparations
front” include new initiatives directed through the legal system
of the good old USA, by a group of well-known, and wealthy,
African-American lawyers, including Johnnie L. Cockran, who
have publicly stated their intentions to file a “class-action-like”
lawsuit demanding reparations and restitution for the “legacies
of slavery.” Also, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations
in America (NCOBRA) has been preparing a “reparations lawsuit”
for the past few years. Another legal challenge is being discussed
and planned by the New Panther Vanguard Movement to address
the issue of reparations from the perspective of the long-standing,
and universally-recognized, issue of the “denial of self-determination”
to Africans living in America.
There have also been, and continue to be, significant efforts
to establish a case for African reparations/restitution in the
international arena, including the World Court and within the
United Nations. Moreover, the Vanguard is initiating a “global
dialogue” on the issue of reparations/restitution for the “Genocidal
Crimes” of the African Slave Trade and the “Genocidal Conquest”
of the Indigenous people and their land by the Euro-American
nations. It has to be crystal clear [to those who want to see]
that the “unnatural” but nonetheless crushing poverty existing
on the Continent of Africa, in South and Central America, and
in the Caribbean islands [populated mostly by descendants of
African slaves] can only be eliminated by a “massive” transference
of “stolen wealth” back to its “rightful owners.”
Last but not least, there is also a fairly recent emergence
of a few, but hopefully a growing number of, groups composed
of the “descendants of white Euro-Americans” who are publicly
organizing support for the issue of reparations among white
Americans and others of European descent.
This revised edition of our initial booklet includes a focus
on why we believe a winning strategy in a campaign for reparations
for African-Americans should, and must, also include the demand
for the payment of reparations/restitution to Africans and Indigenous
people.
WHY PAYMENT OF REPARATIONS IS A JUST AND REASONABLE DEMAND?
In this new Millennium, the global economic disparities between
the living standards of white [Euro-American] people,
on the one hand, and Black people and other people of color,
on the other hand, are nothing new. These material differences
in living conditions have existed for centuries; the reasons
why, nonetheless, cannot be attributed to a “lack of morality”
or “lack of work ethic” or other such nonsense. Hopefully, after
reading this booklet it should become crystal clear that the
present political and economic conditions are simply the result
of the capitalist enslavement of Africans and the White European
colonialist conquest of the world. This historical reality cannot
be expected to fade away with the passage of time; nor can the
passage of civil and human rights legislation reverse these
past injustices.
As we approach the end of this first year of this New Millennium,
it is apparent that the “struggle for reparations,” initiated
and led by people of color, and particularly by Africans living
in America and on the African Continent, is the “cutting edge
issue” of our times. In reality, this issue, and this issue
alone, promises to be the “spark” that truly “set the prairie
on fire.” No longer can the Powers-That-Be ignore the obscene
difference in the “quality of life” for people of color, and
particularly that of Africans on the Continent, and the masses
of Indigenous people in the Americas.
It is our undying hope, and the primary objective of the New
Panther Vanguard Movement, to be able to continue supporting,
giving direction and organizational expression to, this “new”
but historically significant issue. In this regard, during the
past four years the Vanguard’s organizational focus on
the “issue of reparations” has been broadened, deepened, and
we hope strengthened, with our international [or more accurately
our “intercommunal”] perspective and organizing approach.
