Reparations rally declares:
'They owe us'
By Monica Moorehead
New York City
Hundreds of activists, predominantly Black,
from New York, along with out-of-town delegations from as far
away as Milwaukee and Atlanta, converged on the United Nations
Sept. 13. They rallied at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza to demand
reparations from the U.S. government and transnational
corporations for a debt accrued from the legacy of the
trans-Atlantic slave trade.
At the five-hour rally, speakers explained how banks and
corporations such as First Boston Fleet, Aetna, Chase and
others made billions of dollars in profits off the blood and
sweat of free African labor without paying any kind of
restitution to former slaves and their ancestors after the
Civil War.
Therefore, these activists said, "They owe us." And "Black
power" was heard throughout the rally.
Class-action lawsuits have been filed in a number of civil
courts from New York to California seeking billions of dollars
in reparations. The money would go to help establish a
collective fund to be used to provide long denied rights of
health care and educational opportunities to millions of
African Americans.
The rally was chaired by Bob Law, a radio personality, and
Viola Plummer, a leader of the December 12 Movement, which
co-sponsored the rally. Other speakers included Dr. Conrad
Worrill, chairperson of the National Black United Front;
Jacqueline Pitts, a Far Rockaway elected official; the Rev.
Herbert Daugh try, national pastor of House of the Lord
Churches; Larry Holmes, co-director of Inter national Action
Center and an International ANSWER coalition spokes person; Al
Patilla, representative of Natio nal Coalition of Blacks for
Reparations in Amer ica; and spoken word artists Tylibah
Washington, Louis Reyes Rivera and Welfare Poets.
Reprinted from the Sept. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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