Forwarded from Bob Brown (WCAR)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Media Statement

by Bob Brown, Director Kwame Ture Work-Study Institute and Library

Pretoria, South Africa
5 September 2001

Much has been said over the past few days, weeks and months about the
United States and Israeli government's threats to pull out of the 3rd UN
World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban. Good bye, and good riddance!

Two UN World Conferences Against Racism have convened without the United
States and Israeli government's presence. This one too shall continue to
meet, and we pray that it will declare the Trans- Atlantic slave trade,
slavery and colonialism crimes against humanity, with no statues of
limitation, and in so doing, make a meaningful and lasting impact on the
world-wide struggle against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance, including caste-based discrimination.

Perhaps here, we should remind the United States and Israeli governments,
the United Nations and ourselves, that it is the people, through the
leadership of their popular and revolutionary movements and organizations
who make history, not the governments of the world, not the United Nations,
and not even the Non-governmental Organizations. The struggle therefore
continues and intensifies!

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery and Colonialism

Much has been said over the past few days, weeks, months and years about
the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery, colonialism and apartheid, crimes
against humanity; whether acknowledged as so by the United Nations or not.
Permit us here to prove that they were and remain Pan-African and
International in their scope and impact.

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade began in Africa, not in the America's as so
many forces incorrectly proclaim. According to the UNESCO Slave Trade
Project, the Museum of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Harvard Database
on Slave Voyages, between 28 and 42 million African people were captured
and enslaved between 1441 and 1888. Fourteen to twenty-one million
Africans, one half of all captives, two women to every man, were enslaved
in Africa. Four to six million Africans, 40% of all captives and slaves,
were murdered or died along the entire "way of death" which included the
wars of conquest in the interior of Africa, the forced march to the sea,
the period of incarceration in the forts and castles along the coasts, and
during the Middle Passage. Ten to fifteen million of these African slaves,
two men for every woman, were landed alive in the Americas.

Portugal and Brazil, Great Britain and France kidnapped, transported and
sold more than 9,643,600 or 87.4% of the landed African slaves. They were
responsible for the death of 3,857,440 additional African slaves. Holland,
Spain, the United States, Canada and Denmark, Scandinavia and Germany
kidnapped, transported and sold more than 1,418,900 or 21% of the landed
African slaves. They are collectively responsible for the death of 567,560
additional African slaves. The Vatican sanctioned, legalized and benefited
from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery and colonialism as well. The
records exist, and the facts speak for themselves!

For over 400 years, for more than twenty generations, Western Europe and
their colonies in the Americas invaded, pillaged, raped and destroyed
countless African villages, societies and civilizations in at least eight
major regions of Africa, including: Senegambia, Sierra Leone, the Windward
and Gold Coasts, the Bight of Benin, the Bight of Biafra, West Central
Africa and South East Africa. For more than 400 years, for more than twenty
generations, Western Europe and their colonies in the Americas murdered and
raped, kidnapped and enslaved tens of millions of African people in Africa,
and transported them to, murdered and enslaved them in at least 15 major
areas in the Americas.

Without the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery, the European
colonization of Africa and the Western Hemisphere would have been
difficult, if not impossible. Colonialism, settler-colonialism,
neo-colonialism and apartheid, crimes against humanity, existed for an
additional 100 years after the formal end of slavery in Africa and the
African Diaspora, and continue to exist in Africa and the African Diaspora
today, albeit in contemporary manifestations and forms.

All moral and reasonable women and men must acknowledge that these crimes
against humanity have no statue of limitations. All moral and reasonable
women and men must admit that these crimes against humanity have had and
continue to have a tremendous impact, (economic, social and political) on
Africa, the African Diaspora and the world. All women and men of morality
and reason must therefore accept that reparations is the order of the day!

On Reparations, the Debt and Aid

We have demonstrated the Pan-African and International scope and impact of
the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery, colonialism, settler-colonialism,
neo-colonialism and apartheid, crimes against humanity. It goes without
question therefore, that reparations must be even more Pan-African and
International in its scope and impact.

There is no part of Africa or the African Diaspora that has not been
impacted by the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery, colonialism,
settler-colonialism, neo-colonialism and apartheid, crimes against
humanity; and therefore every part of Africa and the African Diaspora is
owed and should demand reparations. There is no part of Western Europe and
the Americas that has not participated in, or benefited from these crimes
against humanity; and therefore every country, corporation and
non-governmental organization in Western Europe and the Americas owes and
must be required to pay reparations, according to their particular
circumstances and conditions.

Permit us to suggest, that if the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery,
colonialism, settler-colonialism, neo-colonialism and apartheid are crimes
against humanity, then the racist accumulation of power, of capital, of
wealth, and of debt that these crimes have created should be redistributed
and liquidated respectively. We say to Africa, the African Diaspora and the
world, without hesitation or compromise, that the slave, colonial and
apartheid debt can not, should not and must not be paid. We also say to
Africa, the African Diaspora and the world, that the power, the capital,
and the wealth of Western Europe and the Americas, which was built and is
being maintained on the blood and sweat of African, Indigenous and other
Oppressed Peoples must and will be redistributed, and used to repair,
rehabilitate and redeem our peoples, our societies and our nations.

We therefore demand the outright and unconditional conciliation of the
debt, and we demand reparations, not welfare, not affirmative action, and
not handouts or aid. We demand and reaffirm our uncompromising intent to
reclaim our land, and our material and immaterial resources!

With reparations, African people can and will solve all of the problems
that confront Africa and the African Diaspora! With reparations, African
People, the world over, can and will make our contribution towards world
humanity, and ensure that these and other crimes against humanity will
never be committed again.

Zionism is Racism and Apartheid, A Crime Against Humanity

We have heard and read much since our arrival in Azania, about Dr. King's
1967 statement on zionism and anti-semitism. Permit us here to remind
zionism and ourselves of two of Dr. King's other statements.

Dr. King said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dr.
King also said, on April 4, 1967, one year and four days before he was
murdered by the United States government, that "there comes a time, when
silence becomes betrayal, of the very principles in which one believes." Dr
King said, in this speech, that he had agonized for more than two years
over his silence with respect to the war in Vietnam, and that his
principles compelled him to speak against that war, and to condemn the
United States government as "the greatest purveyor of violence" that the
world had ever seen.

Permit us to suggest here, that injustice against Palestinian and Muslim
peoples in Palestine and the Middle East, is a threat to justice
everywhere. Permit us also to suggest here, that if Dr. King were alive
today, his principles would compel him to speak out against the war in
Palestine and the Middle East, and to condemn the Israeli and United States
governments as the greatest purveyors of violence in the world today. If
Dr. King failed do so, he would be guilty of betraying the principles that
he believed in, and therefore cease to have any moral or political relevance.

Thank you!


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org