"Caribbean nations in payback campaign for slave trade "

[Belle]

Caribbean countries are calling upon former European colonisers to engage them in dialogue for reparation for centuries of slavery and genocide.

Members of Caricom, the organisation of Caribbean Community Countries, met in July to decide on plans to seek reparations which could include legal action against France, Britain and the Netherlands and a claim of up to £200 billion.

Previous claims for slavery reparations have been unsuccessful, but Caricom believes it can mount a credible case and Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, has contacted the British law firm, Leigh Day and Company about the matter.

Leigh Day and Company successfully sued the UK government this year on behalf of former members of the Kenyan Mau Mau resistance movement. Some 5,200 Mau Mau survivors were awarded US$21.5 billion in reparation for torture and other crimes they suffered at the hands of the British colonial authorities during their independence struggle in the 1950s and 1960s.

Previously, slavery claims by both African and Caribbean countries have fallen on deaf ears.

The former Haitian president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, was one of the first to make such an appeal in 2003 when he pursued a claim against Haiti’s former colonial master, France.

Aristide argued that France should repay, with interest, a Fr150m indemnity it had extracted from its colony in the 1850s after Haiti’s long and bloody emancipation struggle. Haiti continued to pay off this debt up until the early 20th century. Aristide argued that this sum was unjust and crippled the Haitian post independence economy. Aristide’s insistence that France repay to Haiti $21,685,135,571.48 was ignored and contributed to the demise of his administration.

An apology from Europe, combined with efforts to repay the damage caused by former colonisers, would certainly be a landmark victory. However, Caribbean leaders remain confident that they can make a strong case. In July 2013 it was unanimously agreed that Caricom, which represents 15 Caribbean member states, should lead the legal struggle.
Moral campaign

Caricom has stressed that legal action will be a last resort and is pursuing a moral campaign spearheaded by members of the Caribbean academic community. Central to this campaign will be Professor Hilary Beckles and Professor Verene Shepherd of the University of the West Indies.

Professor Beckles’s book, Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, is a centrepiece publication for the movement.

The First Regional Conference on Reparation in Kingston, St Vincent in September 2013 engaged many of the region’s prominent academics and political figures. Renowned Jamaican reggae artist, Bunny Wailer, also presented at the conference.

Bunny Wailer: stand up for your rights. Alfred Moya

National reparation commissions will be established in each of Caricom’s 15 member states to enlist mass support for the cause. Commissions will operate in solidarity with the Regional Ministerial Committee on Reparations, chaired by the Barbadian prime minister, Frendel Stuart. Plans to erect a memorial honouring victims of European enslavement are also on the drawing board.
Payback time

With regard to the form that reparation should take, no fixed position has yet been ascertained. Verene Shepherd has estimated that £200 billion would be an appropriate starting figure. This would be the modern equivalent of the £20m compensation received by British slave owners following the abolition of slavery in 1834.

This would not take into account the still considerable manifestations of wealth that enslavement generated for Europe. These include endowments to All Souls College, Oxford. It could be argued that Britain’s industrial revolution and the establishment of the Bank of London and Barclays Bank were also achieved through the huge wealth generated by the slave trade.

Bordeaux: built on the back of slavery. Eric-P

Similarly, the thriving port cities of La Rochelle and Bordeaux are linked to wealth Haiti was forced to produce for metropolitan France, while the origins of the sophisticated dykes and water systems in Holland can be traced back to wealth accumulated by the slavery business of the Dutch West India Company.

Campaigners are in agreement that reparation should target regional development. In particular, development will focus on transportation, renewable energy programs, education and health.

Whether Caricom’s call for reparation will prove to be a blessing or a curse remains a topic of international discussion. Sceptics warn that at best it will yield a hollow victory. Reparation demands may affect long-term relations and aid relationships between the Caribbean and Europe.

At this point Caricom must concentrate on winning the moral or legal battle for reparations. Relations between Europe and the Caribbean can be negotiated in the future.

http://theconversation.com/caribbean-nations-in-payback-campaign-for-slave-trade-18705

[Iniko Ujaama]

How Serious is the Caribbean Reparations Suit?

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Real reparations means nothing less than a revolution in global power.”

Twelve English-speaking Caribbean nations, plus Haiti and the South American country Surinam, are going to court demanding reparations from their former colonial masters for the crime of slavery. Great Britain, France and the Netherlands, all of [which] grew fat from generations of captured African labor, would be defendants in a trial before the International Court of Justice, the world body that adjudicates disputes between nations. The Black countries have hired the British law firm Leigh Day, which won a settlement for victims of British torture in Kenya. Judging by the way the lawyers tell it, this is going to be a very polite affair, in which the Caribbean countries will angle for some type of relatively modest money settlement.

By “relatively modest,” I mean that real reparations would be enough to forever sever the relationship of subservience of the former slave colonies to global systems of white supremacy and European rule. Real reparations means nothing less than a revolution in global power, because without such a revolution, those nations that became rich from slavery will maintain their position as overlords deep into the future. Ten or even fifty billion dollars in payments divvied up among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit will not change the basic master-slave relationship that has obtained since Europe embarked on world conquest, 500 years ago. Unless there is a fundamental political change within these Caribbean nations, such as occurred in Cuba, then any exchange of money will only reproduce the existing neocolonial relationships. If the leadership of Caribbean governments is incapable or unwilling to build new social relations at home, they cannot be expected to use reparations money to build true independence, internationally. I strongly suspect that what is really on the table is an “aid” package in “reparations” wrappings – which would be an insult to the ancestors and a deception of the living.

“A just settlement of the monstrous crime of slavery would up-end the current world order.”

Let me make this clear: The Europeans on both sides of the Atlantic owe their relative prosperity to the millions of enslaved Africans, and to other peoples whose lives, lands and cultures were stolen in order to build the global white empire. There is no question that the Debt must be paid if there is to be any semblance of justice in the world. But, no court sitting in The Hague, in the Netherlands, or anywhere else, is going to dispense justice on a global and historical scale. Justice means taking Europe and the United States off the throne that was built on the bones of slaves. A just settlement of the monstrous crime of slavery would up-end the current world order. Anything less is merely a pay-off to Black politicians to make the historic indictment go away.

So, I am for reparations, internationally and here in the United States. Most of the Caribbean leaders, on the other hand, are already allowing their British lawyer to telegraph that all they really want is a nice package of aid with a “reparations” bow tied around it. They signal an eagerness to settle, even before the proceedings begin.
However, something useful may come out of this. The Caribbean nations say they will conduct an intense study into the many ways that slavery has hindered their national development. This could be a very educational exercise for the people of these countries. They might learn something about the real workings of power, and use it to overthrow their useless leaders, and help start a world revolution - to bring real reparations.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/blackagendareport/id/2529589