Caricom reparation movement incites action in the US

Apr 27, 2014 News

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A prominent American Congressman is taking cue from the active movements of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as they seek reparations from former slave owning European countries. The Democrat John Conyers, will be reintroducing legislation in the United States Congress for moves to be made to study reparations for African Americans in that country.

According to a report from Chicago USA, the lawmaker recently told a gathering at the “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement” conference at the Chicago State University that, “It is the most important piece of legislation I have ever introduced, and I will re-introduce HR40 in the 113th Congress.” Conyers, who is also Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the actions of Caricom countries in demanding reparations from Europe over slavery will revitalize the movement in the United States.
“I think it is going to be a springboard for reparations,” he said, as Caricom countries say they were prepared to go as far as the Hague-headquartered World Court on the issue, the Chicago report stated. The Congressman first introduced the measure, titled “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act,” in 1989 during the 101st Congress. The Bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where he is the ranking member.
The eight-page legislation, which was co-introduced by US Congressman Bobby Scott, said four million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865. The Bill claimed that the US government sanctioned slavery from 1789 through 1865, enabling it to flourish.
Conyers is looking forward to holding hearings in Washington about reparations for African Americans, adding that “If the Republican Congress blocks the hearings, I will hold them throughout the country.”
Present at the Conference was Caribbean point man, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, who told the conference that the British Government paid the slaveholders 40 percent of the empire’s national expenditures, which was £20 million and now estimated at US$200 billion. Sir Hilary, a professor of economic history and author of Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, delivered the keynote address in the absence of St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the Caricom Chairman, who was unable to attend the event.
Sir Hilary gave his audience a history lesson about slavery in the Caribbean that observers say would never be taught in US classrooms or appear on movie screens.
He said British slave ships transported 3.3 million Africans to the plantations in the New World, where slaves were worked to death as a form of genocide.
St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ambassador to the United Nations, I Rhonda King, who also addressed the conference, noted Gonsalves’ insistence that “we must continue to advocate for reparations in all international forums, that it must be a centerpiece of our region’s foreign and domestic policies”.
The event was organised by the New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) in collaboration with the US Centre for Inner-City Studies and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.
The Caribbean has been moving vigorously towards its June approach to European nations.
Sir Beckles, who chairs the reparations task force, is charged with framing 10 demands. He had told media workers that plans are to set out areas of dialogue with former slave-trading nations which include the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
While finance is on the agenda to compensate African descendants of those who faced hundreds of years of slavery, Professor Beckles is adamant that the greatest concern is, “justice for the people who continue to suffer harm at so many levels of social life.”
The London law firm Leigh Day has already been secured by the Caribbean conglomerate and will be making the first official approach to Europe come June. Although the hope is that the nations will be open to talks of reparations, Carciom is prepared to take the matter to the highest forum, the World Court.
International news agencies have stated that nations such as the UK have turned their heads against the idea, counteracting that it is more important to deal with modern day slavery rather than dwelling in the past.  The UK has noted that while it accepts the jurisdiction of the World Court, it will only be in cases relating to disputes arising since 1974 and those that do not involve Commonwealth or former Commonwealth countries.
These restrictions the (UK) Foreign Office believes prevent claims dating back to the 17th century from Commonwealth countries making progress through the court.
Caricom’s lawyers maintain, however, that the 1974 limit does not apply since “the current consequences” of race discrimination, resulting from slave trade in the past, still exist today. Sweden is the only country so far that has hinted their willingness to engage Caricom.

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