All out to D.C. Aug. 17!
Labor, community leaders back reparations fight
On July 27 nearly 100 people, including union members and
leaders, community activists and elected officials, came to the
Unity United Baptist Church in Baltimore to attend the first
public meeting of Labor for Reparations. The meeting was held
to rally labor support for the national march for reparations
to take place in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 17. Below are
excerpts from some of the talks at the meeting:
Andre Powell,
AFSCME Local 112 and All People's Congress
Labor creates all wealth. Unpaid slave labor is the
foundation of wealth in the U.S. today. It is absolutely the
right thing that we in the labor movement should raise our
voices to demand reparations now.
Rev. Kwame Oobayomi,
Baltimore City Council and Unity United Baptist Church
Many of you are aware how corporate elites have been able to
manage their money and increase it exponentially while those in
the labor pool are not allowed to profit from their own labor.
Though the names have changed, the relationships established by
the transatlantic slave trade are alive and well in Corporate
America and the system of capitalism and globalization that we
are struggling with today.
Eartha Harris,
Baltimore Local Organizing Committee
The call for reparations is not new. It has been around for
generations. Our committee was formed to organize for the
Million Man March, and now we are meeting every week and
working to build for the Aug. 17 march here in Baltimore. But
we know that the work will not end with the march and rally. It
is after the rally that the work will really begin.
Fred Mason,
president, Maryland-D.C. AFL-CIO
An injury to one is an injury to all. Realizing the truth
embodied in that slogan is part of the unfinished business of
the American labor movement. For every dollar the average white
male worker earns, the average Black male worker earns 70
cents. This is a challenge that must be taken on if there is
really going to be a new labor movement, a united labor
movement.
Sharon Ceci,
UFCW activist and All People's Congress
In the 19th century the nascent labor movement failed to
challenge slavery. As a result the vast majority of poor
whites, who were themselves despised by the plantation owners,
were duped and used and the industrial workers found their
labor cheapened by slavery. History is now giving us a second
chance, and it comes on the wings of the reparations movement.
There is no way we can achieve the unity needed to fight the
coming battles unless we fight racism.
Rev. Graylan Haglar,
Plymouth Congregational Church, Washington, D.C.
Theologian Walter Brugelman said, "Justice is determining
what belongs to whom and returning it." I live in D.C. and when
I look at the White House, built by slave labor, I look at the
Capitol, built by slave labor, I look at the city streets and
City Hall, built by slave labor, I want to be treated and I
want my foreparents to be treated and I want those who come
after me to be treated fairly. That means being given an
investment in the labor that we have given.
Larry Holmes,
International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)
It is the legacy of slavery that underlies the social
problems that plague Black people today. Why is it that
unemployment is so high in our community? Why is it that Black
people are five times more likely to end up in jail and 10
times more likely to end up in the electric chair or having a
needle punched in their arm to poison them to death? That's all
about slavery and about reparations. Don't let anyone tell you
that reparations is outrageous. Slavery was outrageous, the
Middle Passage was outrageous, kidnapping people by the
millions and bringing them here was outrageous! Poverty is
outrageous, war is outrageous, capitalism is outrageous!
Oscar Gamboa,
from Colombia
In my country we speak Spanish, and here you speak English,
but our ancestors were brought from the same continent--Africa.
Your slavery was our slavery, and your reparations will be our
reparations. There are 11 million African people in
Colombia--one-third of the population--and we suffer from the
worst of the violence that you hear about. I and other African
Colombians will be with you Aug. 17.
Omawale Clay,
December 12 Movement, Durban 400 and Millions for
Reparations
They say it's confusing to trace who owes what to whom.
Doris Duke never picked any tobacco; her family's wealth came
from tobacco picked by Black people. But they have no problem
at all figuring out how to pass along that wealth inside the
Duke family. Reparations must be tied to the criminality that
built capitalism. The call for reparations is not divisive, it
brings clarity. Most white folks can't pay Black folks
reparations because most white folks are poor. It is the rich
that owe us.
--Compiled by Bill Cecil
Reprinted from the Aug. 15, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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