Reparations

New Jersey’s Legislature Stalled Reparations Inquiry For Years

August 12, 2024 Kimberly Izar, Next City. Strategize! New Jersey (NJ), Reparations, Slavery, Systemic Racism

Shortly after the Ku Klux Klan marched through Newark, New Jersey, in the 1920s, large areas of the city and surrounding communities were redlined by the federal government as investment risks because Black people lived there. The discriminatory practice of redlining locked generations of Black families out of equitable access to jobs, housing, schools, and other wealth-building resources. Redlining built on the legacy of slavery and has since evolved into modern-day segregation, where racially diverse and low-income communities continue to have limited access to economic and public health opportunities.

World Court Opinion On Illegal Israeli Occupation Gives Tools To End Genocide

July 30, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Apartheid, BDS Movement, Illegal Settlements, Israeli Occupation, Reparations, World Court

On July 18, 2024, the World Court (aka the International Court of Justice) issued an advisory opinion that found Israel to be an illegal occupation of Palestine and that the settlements must be dismantled, Palestinians must be allowed to return to their homes and they must be paid reparations. International human rights lawyer Francis Boyle talks to Clearing the FOG about how the court's opinion came about, what it means and how it can be used by activists in their communities to end the genocide in Palestine. Boyle explains why now is the time to escalate our actions and end the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.

New Bill In Honduras Seeks To Rectify 1980s Human Rights Violations

June 3, 2024 Michael Fox, Resumen English. Create! History, Honduras, Human Rights, Reparations, State Violence

In Honduras, family members of the victims of state violence in the 1980s have been marching for 40 years to demand justice for the disappearance and death of their loved ones. Now, there’s a chance they may see reparations. An unprecedented bill that would provide compensation for the family members of the victims is working its way through Congress. In June 1981, Bertha Oliva was three months pregnant and had only been married for four months when she witnessed the kidnapping of her husband by the country’s death squad. “I was there when they took him away from me,” she said, adding, “I am a witness to the brutality. I am a survivor of that moment.”

Constant Killing

May 28, 2024 Nick Turse TomDispatch.com. Educate! Civilian Deaths, History, Pentagon, Reparations, US Imperialism

There are constants in this world — occurrences you can count on. Sunrises and sunsets. The tides. That, day by day, people will be born and others will die. Some of them will die in peace, but others, of course, in violence and agony. For hundreds of years, the U.S. military has been killing people. It’s been a constant of our history. Another constant has been American military personnel killing civilians, whether Native Americans, Filipinos, Nicaraguans, Haitians, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, and on and on. And there’s something else that’s gone along with those killings: a lack of accountability for them.

The Axis Of Resistance: Like Seeds In The Soil

March 12, 2024 Hanna Eid, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Axis of Resistance, Gaza, Hezbollah, Infrastructure, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Reparations

While many articles written on Al Mayadeen and other platforms have exposed and highlighted the brutality of the Zionist occupiers and their American masters, I want to take this opportunity to expose the humanity and fraternal conduct of members of the Axis of Resistance throughout the history of this network of organizations seeking to liberate West Asia. It came to me to write this as I read Aurelie Daher’s masterful history book: Hezbollah: Mobilisation and Power. In this book, Daher shows that the first steps of resistance in Lebanon were not conducting military operations against the Zionists, but building bonds with the masses.

North Carolina Anti-DEI Law Casts Pall Over Asheville Reparations Plan

November 6, 2023 Brentin Mock, Bloomberg.com. Resist! Asheville, Black America, North Carolina, Reparations

Roughly 200 people gathered at the University of North Carolina at Asheville recently to discuss the city's commitment to local reparations. It was the first summit of its kind and an important step in Asheville's plan to compensate Black residents for decades of structural racism. As the city ramps up its reparations effort, the state of North Carolina is moving in a reverse direction, with state legislation seeking to limit discussions about racism, especially in government and academia. A new law passed in June forbids any employee of the North Carolina state government – which includes the University of North Carolina system – from discussing racism-related concepts, particularly in hiring practices.

How Cities Are Experimenting With Reparations In Urban Policy

October 9, 2023 Nik Heynen and Nikki Luke, Next City. Create! City Planning, Community Solar, Land trusts, Racism, Reparations

Even as politicians work to reenact Jim Crow-era silences about how white supremacy has shaped America, reparations are on the table as they have never been before. After an upswell of grassroots organizing in 2020, we’re seeing a new level of recognition that descendants of enslaved people, whose labor was stolen, are owed a debt. While that organizing has fueled a collective understanding of the need for repair, progress has been bogged down by the weight of that debt and questions about how such debts can be repaid. These questions have been taken up across the country, from the California Reparations Task Force to the cities of Boston, Evanston, Kansas City, Knoxville and St. Louis, among others.

A Call To White People: Join The ‘Reparations Contingent’ At The Black People’s March On The White House

September 15, 2023 Uhuru Solidarity Movement. Resist! Black Liberation, Reparations, Solidarity, State Repression, Uhuru Solidarity Movement

On Saturday, November 4, 2023 the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold its 15th annual Black People’s March on the White House raising the demand, “Drop the Charges Against the Uhuru 3!” The Uhuru Solidarity Movement calls on every white person who believes in reparations and justice for African people to get to Washington DC by bus, plane or car and march in the “Reparations Contingent” at this history-making mobilization! Co-sponsored by the Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition, the March is rapidly gaining momentum with a wide range of forces uniting under the leadership of the emerging anti-colonial free speech movement.

‘Under No Circumstances’ Will US Pay Poor Nations For Climate Damages

July 17, 2023 Kenny Stancil, Commondreams. Educate! Biden administration, climate crisis, COP 27, Reparations

John Kerry, U.S. President Joe Biden's climate envoy, made clear at a congressional hearing Thursday that Washington has no intention of compensating impoverished countries for destruction wrought by the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency despite playing an outsized role in creating it and continuing to accelerate it. During the United Nations COP27 summit held last year in Egypt, delegates agreed to establish a "loss and damage" fund through which rich nations can provide poor ones with financial resources to help cover the escalating costs of extreme weather disasters, which are growing in frequency and intensity due to unmitigated greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution.

What To The Exploited Working Class And Poor In A Capitalist Dictatorship Is The Fourth Of July?

July 5, 2023 Jacqueline Luqman, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Fourth of July, History, Reparations, Slavery, Worker Rights and Jobs

Here’s a little Fourth of July Critical Race and Labor History for you: On July 2, 1777 , Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery when it ratified its first constitution and became a sovereign country, a status it maintained until its admittance to the union in 1791 as the 14th state in the United States. However, Harvey Amani Whitfield , author of The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810, writes that slavery in Vermont was gradually phased out over a period of multiple decades. Additionally, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) staff write in “Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery ” that even though “Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut abolitionists achieved laudable goals, each state created legal strictures making it difficult for ‘free’ blacks to find work, own property or even remain in the state” and that Vermont’s 1777 constitution’s “wording was vague enough to let Vermont’s already-established slavery practices continue.”

US Legally Owes Reparations To Nicaragua; Refuses To Honor Ruling

June 30, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! CIA, Contras, History, International Court of Justice (ICJ), Nicaragua, Reparations, United Nations, US Imperialism

The International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled in 1986 that the US government had violated international law in its attacks on Nicaragua and that it owed the Central American nation reparations. June 27, 2023 was the 37th anniversary of this ruling, and Washington still to this day refuses to pay Nicaragua the money that it legally owes it. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the judicial arm of the United Nations. (It is not to be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is independent of the UN. The ICJ was founded in 1945, in order to settle disputes between states; whereas the ICC was only formed in 2002, in order to prosecute individuals.)

Fossil Fuel Companies Owe $5.4 Trillion In Reparations, Study Says

May 24, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environmental Destruction, Oil and Gas, Reparations

The biggest fossil fuel companies in the world owe at least $209 billion in yearly climate reparations to communities that suffered the brunt of the calamities caused by the climate crisis, a new study has concluded. While substantial, the researchers consider theirs to be a conservative cost estimate, as it did not put a price tag on the loss of lives or income, additional wellbeing considerations or extinction of species and other types of biodiversity depletion not reflected in gross domestic product calculations, reported The Guardian. The study said the 21 biggest polluters have collectively caused $5.4 trillion in sea level rise, drought, wildfires, glacial melt and other climate-related disasters.

Chris Hedges: Harriet Tubman And The Battle For America’s Symbols

May 14, 2023 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report History, Monuments, Reparations, Slavery, White Supremacy

The debate over America’s symbols and monuments has sharpened with the growing mass movement for racial justice in the past decade. The lionization of slave-owners and genocidaires has been pointed out by many as in contradiction to the ideals of democracy and racial justice so often touted as national core values. In the midst of this debate, the decision by the US Treasury to place Harriet Tubman alongside Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill starting in 2030 has incited controversy. Howard University professor of political science Clarence Lusane joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the Harriet Tubman dollar bill, and the stakes of the debate over national symbols in righting the historical wrongs of slavery and white supremacy.

San Francisco Considers $5 Million Reparations Payouts

March 16, 2023 Janie Har, Portside. Create! Black America, California, Reparations, San Francisco

San Francisco, California - These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee tasked with the thorny question of how to atone for centuries of slavery and systemic racism. And the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing the report for the first time Tuesday voiced enthusiastic support for the ideas listed, with some saying money should not stop the city from doing the right thing. Several supervisors said they were surprised to hear pushback from politically liberal San Franciscans apparently unaware that the legacy of slavery and racist policies continues to keep Black Americans on the bottom rungs of health, education and economic prosperity, and overrepresented in prisons and homeless populations.

Five Principles For Making State And Local Reparations Plans Reparative

February 20, 2023 Kyle K. Moore, Economic Policy Institute. Create! Black America, Class Struggle, Reparations, Systemic Racism

We are still living in the aftermath of 2020’s overlapping crises of racial injustice, our nation’s polycrisis. Between the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensuing economic recession, and the public police murder of George Floyd, we saw a harsh truth about the structure of American political economy: White supremacy has shaped our institutions such that their outcome is consistent Black precarity and premature death. This confluence of tragedies brought awareness of the Black American condition to a new generation. It also reinvigorated interest among academics and policymakers to finally do something about the problem of racial disparities (though activists and community organizers largely never lost interest in this).

«1 2 3 4 5 6 »

Daily movement news and resources