Major Reparations Conference Set for Chicago April 19 by Frederick H. Lowe

April 6, 2014

Major Reparations Conference Set for  Chicago April 19
Meeting scheduled after Caribbean nations indicated they may sue European countries for trans-Atlantic slave trade; Sweden open to negotiations
By Frederick H. Lowe

conyers
U. S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has been invited to speak


Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, will deliver the keynote address at a one-day conference in Chicago that is being held in the wake of 14 Caribbean nations demanding reparations and an apology from European countries for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Prime Minister Gonsalves said reparations represent the last stage of colonialism and the first step of social and economic development for Caribbean countries, the site of a large number of slave revolts.

The conference, which will be held at 2:00 p. m. April 19th at Chicago State University, is designed to spark the long-dormant reparations movement in the United States, Don Rojas, a conference spokesperson, tells The NorthStar News & Analysis. The event, which is called "Revitalizing the Reparations Movement,” is free, and it is expected to attract more than 500 people, Rojas said.

"Our ancestors will be pleased that the reparations movement is being re-energized from the Caribbean Islands," said Dr. Conrad Worrill, director and professor of Northeastern Illinois University Center for Inner City Studies, and one of the event's organizers.
 

The reparations represent the last stage of colonialism and the first step of social and economic development for the Caribbean countries.

In addition to Prime Minister Gonslaves, a leading voice demanding that European colonial powers pay reparations to Caribbean and South American countries, conference officials also invited U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.), co-sponsor of  HR-40, the Reparations Study Bill.

HR-40, which was introduced during the 111th Congress in 2009, would establish a commission to study slavery from 1619 to 1865 and its impact on African Americans living today.

Although most Americans associate reparations with blacks, after the Civil War, the federal government paid reparations to white slave owners for the loss of their slaves, who were considered property, Dr. Lewis Gordon, a professor of Philosophy, Africana Studies, and Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut.

“Reparations are recompense for loss of property,” Prof. Gordon said. “The trick is that black people couldn’t own property; they were considered property.”

4 Million Enslaved In The U.S.
The legislation found that approximately 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the period from 1619 to 1865 in the United States and colonies that became the United States.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade began around 1450 in Spain and Portugal and later involved Caribbean countries.The Caribbean was the site of numerous slave revolts, work slowdowns and sabotage of plantation operations.

In addition, Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Chicago-based of Nation of Islam, is scheduled to speak.

After the Civil War, the federal government paid reparations to white slave owners for the loss of their slaves, who were considered property.
A similar conference was held in Chicago in 2011, but the upcoming event follows a notice by the Caribbean Community Secretariat that it will present a plan to Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Portugal seeking reparations and repatriation to Africa. The Caribbean Community Secretariat is comprised of 15 Caribbean nations, joined in a common market.

Martyn Day, a London-based attorney for the Caribbean organization that goes by the acronym CARICOM, said a lawsuit has not yet been filed.

CARICOM member states are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Monterrat, whose foreign affairs are governed by Britain, is not participating with the other CARICOM members, Rojas said.

"A claim is due to be presented to western governments reasonably shortly. It will only be if they refuse to listen to the claim or give it short shift that a legal case will be brought," Day, senior partner of Leigh Day solicitors, wrote in an email to The NorthStar News & Analysis.

Sweden is open to negotiations
Sweden has indicated that it wants to enter discussions with CARICOM. Claes Hammar, Sweden’s ambassador to the Caribbean, told The Local, an English-language newspaper “that Sweden is open to looking at possibilities for compensating countries in the region.” Sweden owned St. Barth’s, a colony in the Caribbean, between 1784 and 1878.

France and Britain see no need for negotiations, Rojas said. Spain, Portgual and The Netherlands have not responded, he added.

According to a news release issued by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, the lawsuit will be filed in the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Plan focuses on development, health issues, culture and literacy
10-Point Plan
CARICOM, which has offices in Georgetown, Guyana, has put together a 10-point reparations action plan.
The plan calls for:
1. Formal apology;
2. Repatriation;
3. Indigenous peoples development program;
4. Development of cultural institutions;
5. Addressing public health issues;
6. Illiteracy eradication;
7. African knowledge program
8. Psychological rehabilitation;
9. Technology transfer. The Caribbean was denied participation in Europe's industrial process.
10. Debt cancellation

Caribbean leaders met March 10th and 11th in St. Vincent and decided on the plan. Rojas concludes, “No matter what the outcome, this will be one of the biggest stories for black folks in the Caribbean, the United States and Africa  for a very long time.”