“United Voices For Reparations”
a national campaign
Rationale
Since 2001 when 400+ reparations activists traveled to Durban, SA to collectively represent the voices of Africans here in the US and the Diaspora, a growing opportunity occurred in the mobilization towards reparations. These 400+ activists were made up of historians, political scientists, farmers, lawyers, writers, photographers, journalists, social workers, religious leaders, human rights leaders, civil rights leaders, and students
They called themselves “ The Durban 400”. They made history when they collectively pushed, caucused, deliberated and demand that the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (UN-WCAR) hear their voices. After all of their voices were heard, the UN-WCAR declared that the “ trans-atlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity, it always was and always will be”.
This declaration shook up and woke up the African world and made the European world huddle-up. The history that was made during that time in Durban , SA sparked the reparations movement beyond definition. This resulted in an increase in the voices in support of reparations, yet we are scattered, fractured, and remain divided. This is NCOBRA’s opportunity to galvanize these scattered voices into a force of public awareness around the possibilities of winning reparations for our people.
I. Beyond the rap, here is the plan of action:
- Pull organizations back together in roundtables, joint actions, think tanks.
- Research the new scholars and develop a directory or roster of their works.
- Appeal to churches using their history, ie Episcopal, Catholics., AME
- Re-discover the historic preservations in your local areas, because they have a significant historic value because of their relationship to the Africans.
- Re-connect with social justice actions with the understanding that most are focusing on our injuries and can help build a case for reparations.
- Stay in the media with our issues, injuries, and public hearing calendar.
- Use the public hearings as a way to push the issues, HR 40, and unite our voices to show ownership of the movement
- Cover the ground to tone up our door-to-door people skills, as well as, cyberspace savvy.
Note: Each one of these points has a work plan to support
II. Ain’t nothing wrong with preaching to the choir, they practice 2 or 3 times a week to sing in-sync on Sundays. Sometimes we as community organizers must re-tool to bring about fresh energy and to strengthen our people skills and street skills. We must represent ourselves by utilizing research and study not just rhetoric of persuasive influence.
- Human Rights/ Nationhood/ Peoplehood- The argument or the question
- Education- Show the disparities, ignorance, supporting HBCU’s
- Health- Rally with the current wave, tacking on our right to be relieved of PSTSS.
- Ending poverty- There can be no reparations with the existence of poverty; aligment with social justice groups to build institutions that restore our global trade base.
- Ending the criminalization to break up the pipeline to prisons from infancy to adulthood .
III. Resources:
- Build financial strength to LDREFF that will disperse funding to chapers for the unified action plans based on our injuries.
- Tap into the Congressional discretionary grants/funds that was offered by Rep. Conyers.