By Lamont Muhammad
UNITED NATIONS (FinalCall.com) – The December 12th Movement’s International Association Against Torture (IAAT) and the National Black United Front (NBUF) teamed up to call community organizers, local elected officials, African ambassadors and the “best and brightest” among good people to the second historic Millions for Reparations rally across from the visitors entrance here September 13.
Hundreds of people held a torrential downpour at bay to rally here on the world’s stage to draw attention to the fact that Europeans owe Africans, especially the former slaves, and to perform a healing exercise for a people who have been robbed of land, wealth, history and therefore, semblances of sanity, organizers said.
The event was the third in a process towards reparations, organizers said, that began with a conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. A second meeting was called last year at this nation’s Capitol. Attorney Roger Wareham, International Secretary-General of IAAT, told The Final Call before this event that the meeting was called to this international stage because the institution of slavery was an “international action that requires an international response.” He said December 12th started the reparations push at the UN in1992.
“We drew a line in the sand on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity, reparations and the economic basis of racism. It was approved by the UN in 1997,” he said.
“We are here today from all over the U.S. to continue the motion to impact the UN deliberations to continue to raise up the international Pan-African demand for reparations,” said Dr. Conrad Worrill, national chairman of the National Black United Front (NBUF), standing before a contingent of NBUF organizers coming off a bus.
“If the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery and colonialism were crimes against humanity, it suggests the criminals need to be taken to court,” he said, describing the world court as the planners ultimate goal to hold America and others accountable.
The rally’s program amounted to a public counseling session in which representatives of different national voices formed a chorus of guidance for victims of slavery and of condemnation for those who profited from slavery.
Viola Plummer of December 12th, one of the moderators, described how White people have systematically destabilized our families.
Radio talk show host Bob Law, the other moderator, described the criminals as a people who never play on level ground. “They are not smarter. É You would have to be a fool, after 400 years of slave labor on lands given freely, to not be rich.” They benefit because all of the resources are reserved for one group, he said, in a pitch to help folks see the need for redress.
“The significance of reparations for Black African people is of utmost importance and, obviously, it is an uphill road because as Dr. Joy Degree Leary says we are all in dire need of psychological or psychiatric treatment because of post-slavery trauma,” said Carol Taylor, a longtime activist. She called the rally counseling for a wounded people.
Min. Akbar Muhammad, the International Representative of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, explained to the crowd that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad started rallying our people for reparations in 1961 with “What the Muslims Believe” and “What the Muslims Want” on the back page of the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper. He stressed the need for fighting in a continuum, citing the inter-generational struggle for reparations that the Japanese maintained for their internment in America during WWII. He also warned the many organizational representatives to be aware that the enemy uses money to foment strife and division.
Min. Akbar encouraged the listeners to form reparation committees in their churches, mosques and community organizations to teach and spread the word that reparations are due Black people.
Omowale Clay of December 12th hit the same note: “The strategic question of reparations is to mobilize our people. The conscious among us in the Black liberation movement have a responsibility to take the dialogue from our inner circle to the masses on the street.”
On the international level, he said globalization, a buzz word for international greed, cuts two ways. “Globalization oppresses the masses of people, but globalization is also a tactic we can use to utilize people who have been oppressed around the world to push for our demands.”
Other participants included Min. Kevin Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 7, Elombe Brath of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Louis Rivera, City Councilman Charles Barron, Jacqueline Pitts, Al Patilla, Michael Hooper, Attorney Lionel Jean Baptist, African ambassadors from Zimbabwe and Ghana.