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Category Archives: THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH

‘STOP THE MAANGAMIZI!’ 2017-2018 CAMPAIGN MESSAGE

Posted on July 3, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

 

 

This is a video recording filmed by ‘joanjoan.london’ who attended the 2017 Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March on the 1st August. She recently released this edited version of the closing speech made at Parliament Square which is still relevant to the various aspects of the year-round mobilising and organising that the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC) engages in and advocates in association with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee.

Posted in AEDRMC, AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (APPCITARJ), EVENTS/TRAINING, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS, PRIM, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2017 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, UBUNTUKGOTLA/PITGJ | Tagged 1st August, Afrikan Heritage, Afrikan Liberation, Afrikan Sovereignty, APPCITARJ, Black Radical Imagination, British Colonialism, British Government, Commission of Inquiry, Ecocide, Emancipation Day, Genocide, Grassroots Leadership, Grassroots lobbying, Hellacaust, International Social Movment for Afrikan Reparations, ISMAR-Building, Lobbying, Maangamizi, Marching, Movement-Building, Pan-Afrikanism, People Power, Peoples Tribunal, Reparations March, Reparatory Justice, Self-Repairs, SMWeCGEC, SMWeCGEC Petition, Social Movement, Stop the Maangamizi, U-PITGJ, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

2018 POPSAR @PARLIAMENT SQUARE

Posted on July 1, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

 

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“Debate is combat, but your weapons are words”

Melvin B. Tolson (Denzil Washington) in the ‘Great Debaters’

 

What is the POPSAR?

The People’s Open Parliamentary Session on Afrikan Reparations (POPSAR) at Parliament Square is a mass consciousness-raising forum for public debate and discourse on manifestations of the Maangamizi necessitating Afrikan Reparations which takes place as part of the programme of the annual 1st August, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March. It is a public forum where we rehearse our arguments in pursuit of the ‘battle of Ideas’ on obstacles to the realisation of holistic Reparatory Justice. The purpose of the POPSAR is to engage audiences in action-learning on participatory democratic parliamentary debate and the ‘battle of ideas’ on critical issues such as how to stop various manifestations of the Maangamizi as part of the process of effecting and securing Afrikan Reparatory Justice.

The POPSAR enables the constructive channelling of the ‘battle of ideas’ as an important ideological tool for ascertaining greater clarity as to strategy and tactics for effecting, securing and taking reparations. Within a space where a number of ideological positions struggle for supremacy – reflective of national, ethnic, class and gendered tensions within society – the ISMAR as a revolutionary international social movement cannot neglect the importance of winning hearts and minds and mobilising society around a common reparatory justice vision. Indeed this being one which succeeds in presenting a credible political, social and economic narrative around which the movement seeks to transform hearts and minds to support; which is in itself an alternative to that of the dominant white supremacy racist, capitalist class.

 

Motion to be debated:

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE REPARATIONS MARCH, AS A FORM OF REPARATORY JUSTICE STREET PROTEST, IS BEING MADE INADEQUATE DUE TO INACTIVITY BY THE MAJORITY OF ITS PARTICIPANTS IN TAKING STEPS TO ADVANCE THE CAMPAIGN FOR REPARATIONS BETWEEN THE ANNUAL MARCHES.

(The topic is deliberately framed in this way to elicit strong responses to rebut this proposition)

Invited guests will speak for 3 mins for/against.

This POPSAR topic should encourage and inspire intense debate, discussion and dialogue in the lead up to the 2018 March.

 

Rationale for this topic

Each year guidance as part of the mobilisation for and between the annual marches guidance is provided by the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) and its partner the ‘Stop the Maangamzi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC) on how the campaign for reparations can be advanced, the movement strengthened and suggestions are offered on how to take action. This ranges from ‘shutting down’ Maangamizi crime scenes to organising to bring about the reparatory justice changes one desires, to creatively using the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition to galvanise action to address various manifestations of the Maangamizi as the first step to repairing and redressing the harm (reparations) to lobbying elected officials to take specific actions towards the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Reparatory Justice (APPCITARJ).

It cannot be said that the organisers of the March in partnership with the SMWeCGEC have not in various ways outlined a plan for the types of action that people can be taking between the annual Marches. Even the flyers that were put out for the 2017 and 2018 Marches have indicated what steps people can be making. It is also recognised that these are not the only suggestions which have been made.

Nevertheless, the March as the most visible form of protest action in the annual calendar of events, activities and programmes of the UK contingent of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR), is under incredible scrutiny and critique from those who are opposed to marching. For example, from those who feel it is an inadequate tactic or futile endeavour, those who advocate that there are more effective tactics, those who feel that the March and its partner campaign, the SMWeCGEC lacks a ‘meet our demands or else component’ as well as various detractors and naysayers.

It has been argued that whilst a significant number of people attend the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March, these crowds are actually achieving very little in terms of furthering the campaign for reparations. The fervent political and cultural energy experienced by attendees on the ground is hugely disproportionate to the practical results of the March. The main critique of marching seems to be what happens after and between the Marches, the hodgepodge groups and individuals that participate do not necessarily have a commitment to engage in suggested follow-up action which is designed to help build the infrastructure for decision-making and for sustaining  momentum between the Marches. Likewise, little is being offered by way of alternatives which people are advocating will yield better results.

This year are throwing the challenge back to you the people to state your case as to what we can and should be doing to improve the March, or what we should be doing instead, hence the topic for the 2018 POPSAR.

 

What is debating?

Debating involves examining ideas and policies with the aim of persuading people of the validity or futility of the ideas, policies being debated. It allows debaters to: consider and counter different arguments on the nature of the problem or solution being debated; engage with opposing views and to speak strategically.


How do we debate?

In every POPSAR session there is a motion: a statement (the truth or falsehood of which is examined in the debate), idea or policy that is framed and debated with the prefix, ‘This Gathering…’.

There are two sides to the debate, the proposition which supports the motion and the opposition which opposes or challenges it.

 

How is the POPSAR debate structured?

# of people in the POPSAR: 6
# of people in a team: 3
# of teams in the debate: 2
Duration of the speeches: 3 mins

All each person has to do is stand up and deliver a short speech – perhaps two to four key points they think will convince people to agree with their side of the argument. The speakers will take it in turns – first a speaker from the proposing team (the people who agree with the motion), then the opposing team (the people who disagree with the motion). Each team will have two contributors and the third will do a summary – conclusion.

The first speaker – proposing

The first speaker of the first team will probably introduce what they are going to say, introduce what their team member is going to say, make their own arguments (including answering any questions) and sum up.

If you were proposing (agreeing with) the motion above, as the first speaker you might:

1. Introduce what you are going to say
I am going to discuss …

2. Introduce what your colleague is going to say
My colleague will talk about …

3. Make your own arguments
The speaker will then go on to make these arguments. During this period, the other side will also have a chance to ask up to 2 questions:

Asking a question

At this point, someone from the other side might try to ask a question (we call this offering a ‘point of information’).

If the Speaker allows them to the debater might get to offer a reply

4. Summing up
After the debaters have presented all their arguments and allowed any questions, the next step is to sum up their proposing case – during this bit, the other side aren’t allowed to ask questions:

“So, in conclusion – While my colleague will continue the case by emphasising …., the points I have already made clearly illustrate why this Gathering should vote in favour of the motion…”

The first speaker – opposing

The first speaker against the motion will now start their speech, perhaps by going through the following process:

1. Introduce what they are going to say
“I am going to set out the case against the motion, with my key arguments being:..”

2. Introduce what your colleague is going to say
“My colleague will say…”

3. Respond to first speaker’s arguments
“However, before progressing to my main arguments I would like to take issue with some of the comments made by the first speaker for the proposition. They said that…”

4. Summing up
The first speaker for the opposition then needs to sum up their case.

Second/third speakers

The second/third speaker of the proposition team will now introduce what they are going to say, reflect on what their team member has said, make their own arguments (including answering any questions and responding to what the other team has said) and sum up. Again, the opposition team will do the same.

Although a debate is about making good arguments, it is also about showing you have listened to the other side, understood their arguments, and are willing to challenge them directly.

Floor debate

Once all three speakers for both teams have delivered their speeches, there is a debate from ‘the Gathering’ – this means anyone in the audience can ask a question or make a short speech in favour of one of the sides of the motion.

This part of the debate will last no longer than ten minutes.

Reply speeches

After the floor debate, one speaker from each team gets three minutes to sum up their overall position at the end of the debate. This will include their own arguments and counters to the argument of the other side – and should leave the audience in no doubt as to who is offering the winning side of the case.
After the debate the public gathering decides who was most convincing. Allow for 2-4 points of information from the audience.

What makes a good POPSAR debater?

The audience are invited to judge the debaters on the basis of:

Content: What debaters say and the arguments and examples they use.

Style: How debaters express themselves and the language and voice they use.

Strategy: How well debaters engage with the topic, speak to the motion, respond to other people’s arguments and structure what they say.

 

malcolm

 

Our people have made the mistake of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods, or tactics, or strategy.

Malcolm X

 

Questions to consider

1. Is the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March (‘The Reparations March’) nothing more than a group of attention seeking people with vague and conflicting messages and objectives on reparations parading through the streets of London begging and complaining?

2. Is the March achieving it’s aims?

3. Is the March succeeding in getting people politically mobilised to hold the British state accountable for its role in the Maangamizi?

4. What factors can increase success in implementation of the aims of the March?

5. What can we as stakeholders do to increase the numbers, diversity of constituencies of Afrikan heritage communities involved in planning, mobilising towards and participating in the March.

6. What work are you doing to help steer the energy galvanised by the March in the direction of political and policy change towards reparatory justice?

7. What role can and should allies play in mobilising for and between the Marches?

8. For those that still say that marching and petitioning, which actually cost us very little risk or harm in Britain today, achieve are a waste of time; what else is it you are prepared to do which you feel will bring about a more favourable response from the British state to our Afrikan Reparatory Justice demands?

9. What other initiatives or activities or protest actions are taking place that will be far more effective in holding the British state and other perpetrators of the Maangamizi to account?

10. What will make the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations actually move?

11. What are the methods that will effectively secure and win people of Afrikan heritage reparatory justice?

12. What have you been doing to promote the March or indeed what you may see as more effective alternatives to it?

 

 

Guidance on taking action previously put out

Call to Participate in the 2016 Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR4ObeZ2QiE

Reparations March 2017: invitation to participate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U6qzMmtvO8

Reparations March 2017: call to action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as8OjyFrh44

Reparations March 2017: call to mobilise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pubRIzHplnk

SMWeCGEC Petition Update featuring video of AEDRMC Co-Chair Jendayi Serwah ‘Power is only going to respond to power’

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-maangamizi-we-charge-genocide-ecocide/u/20457629

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-maangamizi-we-charge-genocide-ecocide/u/21147298

https://stopthemaangamizi.com/2017/08/23/response-from-the-foreign-commonwealth-office-to-the-2017-smwecgec-petition/

Requoting from the 24th August SMWeCGEC Petition Update dated 24th August 2017

Increasingly it is becoming clearer that the British Government will only begin to listen to our Afrikan Reparatory Justice demands, including the demands of the SMWeCGEC when the advocacy, encouragement and support by our Afrikan Heritage Communities in Europe is given to the efforts of our Afrikan Communities of Resistance in Afrika, the Caribbean, other parts of Abya Yala, (the so-called Americas), as well as in Europe to shutting down extractive industries and other foreign corporate crime scenes of the Maangamizi. This is something we stated in the letter to the Prime Minister accompanying the 2017 hand-in of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition. It follows that the plunder of our community resources is still continuing to enrich white power in Britain and European domains of global apartheid across the world. We therefore need to seriously revisit some of the strategies and tactics with which our revered Ancestors fought successful liberation struggles; gaining some concessions that resulted in the official discontinuation of the British Empire, even from inside the brains and belly of the beast of the said Empire!

In fact, it is by pursuing strategies and tactics in Britain that advocated for, encouraged and supported actions of Afrikan people to make the British and other European Empires in Afrika, the Caribbean, Abya Yala as well as Asia ungovernable, which compelled changes in the British Empire, resulting in the proclamations of independence of our current nations states in Afrika and the Caribbean. A similar outcome and impact can be brought about again in our lifetime with the shutting down of Maangamizi crimes scenes in Afrika, the Caribbean, other parts of Abya Yala and Europe.

For those that still say they are not for petitioning or Marching, which actually cost us very little risk or harm in Britain today, what else is it you are prepared to do which you feel will bring about a more favourable response from the British state to our Afrikan Reparatory Justice demands?

The honestly critical discussion and reasoning that should flow from these perspectives of ours in the SMWeCGEC is something that we urge is carried out in Afrikan Heritage Communities not only in the UK, but throughout Europe, Afrika, Abya Yala and other parts of the world. We further urge that this is also done against the background of the historical legacies and the contemporary manifestations of the still ongoing Maangamizi as outlined in the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition.

 

‘Take Action’ tab on the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ website
https://stopthemaangamizi.com/take-action/

After 4 years of marching what has been achieved?
https://stopthemaangamizi.com/2017/08/07/after-4-years-of-marching-what-has-been-achieved/

After the 2017 Reparations March: what next?
https://stopthemaangamizi.com/2017/08/05/after-the-reparations-march-what-next/

 

2017 POPSAR Topic

‘Black on Black Violence’: Why are we not doing enough to stop this manifestation of the Maangamizi?

Debating the motion: This gathering believes that we as Afrikan Heritage Communities are not doing what is necessary to stop this manifestation of the Maangamizi.

Please note: The topic was deliberately framed in this way to elicit strong responses to rebut this proposition.

Rationale for this topic

Micro-sites inter-personal violence between persons of Afrikan heritage communities, are not isolated manifestations. Instead, they are extensions of macro-state processes of violence. In other words, we must read inter-personal violence against men, women, children and young people of Afrikan heritage as part of the continuum of the state’s racialized, gendered, sexualized violence against Afrikan heritage communities. This is about showing the state’s complicity in ongoing intra-community violence which is in itself a ground for reparatory justice for those living today.

 

For further info about the 2018 Reparations March see here.

 

Posted in AEDRMC, AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, EVENTS/TRAINING, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, REPARATIONS, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, Uncategorized | Tagged Afrika, British Empire, Debate, Debating, Genocide, Geopolitics, Lobbying, People Power, POPSAR, Social Movement | Leave a comment

REPARATIONS MARCH 2018 PROMOTIONAL INFO

Gallery | Posted on July 1, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

2018 PROMOTIONAL FLYER







 

2018 PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS

 

Call to action video:

 

 

Rationale for why we march video

 

Link to jingles for radio

Posted in AEDRMC, AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (APPCITARJ), EVENTS/TRAINING, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, POPSAR, PRIM, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, UBUNTUKGOTLA/PITGJ | Tagged 1st August, Afrikan Heritage, Afrikan Liberation, APPCITARJ, Black Radical Imagination, British Colonialism, British Government, Cognitive Justice, Commission of Inquiry, Ecocide, Grassroots Leadership, Grassroots lobbying, Hellacaust, International Social Movment for Afrikan Reparations, ISMAR-Building, Maangamizi, Marching, Pan-Afrikanism, People Power, Peoples Tribunal, Reparations March, Repatriation, Self-Repairs, Social Movement, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

USAFRICOM: GLOBALISING PAN-AFRIKAN MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE FROM GHANA TODAY

Posted on April 21, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI


This is a recording from the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum (PASCF) workshop – USAFRICOM: GLOBALISING PAN-AFRIKAN RESISTANCE FROM GHANA TODAY” with Kofi Mawuli Klu, Co-Vice Chairperson of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC) which took place on 13th April in London.

An outcome of this workshop was that a demonstration was organised by Ghana Action for Pan-Afrikan Resistance (GAPAR) to take place today, 21st April at the London School of Economics were President Nana Akufo-Addo of the Republic of Ghana is a keynote speaker at the 5th Annual ‘LSE Africa Summit’.

 

 

 

The synopsis for the workshop is as follows:

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, defined neocolonialism as “the last stage of imperialism” – understanding this as a violation of Afrikan sovereignty as Afrikan states are independent in name only and imperialism/white supremacy manipulates economic and political control, through globalization, capitalism and cultural expansionism. So, in effect foreign interests, are what dictate everything.

In ‘USAFRICOM: GLOBALISING PAN-AFRIKAN RESISTANCE FROM GHANA TODAY’ esteemed scholar-activist Kofi Mawuli Klu looks at the wider historical trajectory of neo-colonial relations between Ghana and the USA/white supremacy in view of their expanding and unrestricted access to a host of Ghanaian facilities, recently agreed by Ghana’s Cabinet.

The emphasis of Bro Kofi’s presentation is to facilitate public discussion on the 5th April 2018 joint statement issued by the Global Afrikan People’s Parliament (GAPP) and the Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC) entitled “Opposing the USAFRICOM Base of Maangamizi in Ghana: Globalising Pan-Afrikan Resistance for Reparatory Justice is the Way to Victory”. Kofi explains the strategy and tactics being pursued by some of the Freedomfighting forces still upholding the teachings of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah in trying to steer the growing Resistance to the USA-Ghana Deal on Strengthening the Militarisation of Neocolonialism in West Afrika towards the goals of Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice.

He highlights the necessity of better meeting the challenge in and beyond Britain today of utilising Internationalist Solidarity mobilisation for such Resistance in Afrika for its best purpose of reclaiming authentic Pan-Afrikanism as an intellectually sharpening practical weapon for globally advancing emancipatory struggle towards what GAPP envisions as the Maatubuntuman achievement of the total liberation, unification and self-determined progress of Afrikan people all over the World.

 

PRESENTER: Bro Kofi Mawuli Klu is Chief Executive Commissioner of PANAFRIINDABA, a grassroots Pan-Afrikan Community Advocacy, Research and Think Tank based in London, UK and Accra, Ghana. He is also co-Vice Chair, Pan-Afrikan Reparation Coalition in Europe (PARCOE) in London and Joint Co-ordinator of the Global Justice Forum based in London as well as Co-Vice Chair of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC). Bro Kofi runs his own Law-Related Educational Services Agency, UEQUIPOISE. His scholarly activism has and continue to make a significant contribution within institutions of education in and outside of the United Kingdom [various courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and Groundings on Afrika and Pan-Afrikanism] and serves Afrikan students/communities as a conscientising tool for grassroots resistance and social change.

 

 

 

 

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH | Tagged AFRICOM, Afrikan Heritage, Afrikan Liberation, Afrikan Sovereignty, GAPP, Geopolitics, Ghana, Global Afrikan People's Parliament, Grassroots Leadership, Hellacaust, International Social Movment for Afrikan Reparations, ISMAR, ISMAR-Building, Maangamizi, Marching, Movement-Building, Neocolonialism, Pan-Afrikan Revolution, People Power, Reparatory Justice, Social Movement, USAFRICOM, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

IS LABOUR NOW LISTENING TO AFRIKAN VOICES?

Posted on April 13, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

bernie grant collage 2

 

Greetings Supporters of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign (SMWeCGEC)

Following the 13th April 2018 news report on the front page of the Times Newspaper: ‘PM should apologise to ex-colonies says Labour’, it would appear as if the Labour Party is now taking steps towards listening to Afrikan voices for reparatory justice. It is only now since the passing of the late Bernie Grant MP that Labour is thinking of hearing Afrikan voices like his on our intergenerational struggle for reparatory justice.

Within 24 hours of the 11 April 2018 letter from Esther Stanford-Xosei being sent to Heidi Alexander MP and also made available to the office of the Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP, leader of the Labour Party, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, advocates in the House Magazine that Prime Minister Theresa May should use the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to apologise for the UK’s historic wrongs. Emily Thornberry also states that, if Labour form the next government in Britain, they will ensure that promoting and engaging with the Commonwealth is one of their top foreign policy priorities. In Esther Stanford-Xosei’s letter to Heidi Alexander she states:

“The fact that BREXIT is making it necessary for the UK Government to seek to strengthen its Commonwealth links in the aftermath of the BREXIT vote raises questions pertinent to Afrikan Reparatory Justice. Among such questions, for example, is the one about what type of relationship is Britain seeking to strengthen with Afrikan and Caribbean countries of the Commonwealth when the existing relationship is not only a product of the crimes of the past, but also fortifies present wrongs of the Maangamizi? So much is this the reality, that in the opinion of the constituencies of the ISMAR to which I belong, this relationship can only be transformed to ensure justice for all, by measures of reparations that will enable Afrikans and people of Afrikan heritage to equitably participate in re-ordering the war-begotten, unequal and unfair system of international relations that continues to be imposed, with manly Euro-American imperial might, upon the globe today.”

It would appear that Emily Thornberry is in her article also providing an answer to the above question that has been posed, in various arenas, by SMWeCGEC and some other formations of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) when she states:

“…we see our Commonwealth cousins [not] just as potential trading partners, but [because] we see them as full and equal partners in all of the challenges faced by the world and by each of our nations, from climate change and terrorism to the fight for gender equality.”

We in the SMWeCGEC are of the view that the above comment on behalf of the Labour Party demonstrates that they can be influenced to advance steps towards better listening to the case being made for holistic reparations by authentic Afrikan Heritage Community voices in and beyond the UK who are involved in building the ISMAR. However, this realisation should, under no circumstances. make campaigners for Afrikan reparations lower our guard about critically engaging with the Labour Party and the wider Labour Movement on what repairs ought to mean, so as to enable us make gains of true reparatory justice.

That is why we should be mindful and seek to ensure that the Labour Party is not made, by ‘BAME’ gate-keeping apparatchiks and other sections still clinging to its old ways of misusing the bureaucratic party machinery, to distort the legitimate measures of redress that oppressed communities influence it to address by revising them, sometimes even to the point of outright deformation; so that at the stages of policy-formulation and implementation, they become mere white-washing tokenistic gimmicks which tinker Afriphobically with vital concerns of particularly Afrikan Heritage Communities; thereby robbing us of the agency that is vitally necessary for us to do for ourselves the true reparatory justice we are seeking.

So let us keep knocking at the door of publicly elected officials as those seeking such offices will come knocking on our doors in the coming weeks soliciting our votes. We must ensure that we use our votes wisely to make candidates we may be inclined to vote for support our Afrikan Heritage Communities strategic interests and concerns; top-most on the agenda should be their support for Afrikan Reparatory Justice and their concrete action on the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Postcard demands.

 

In Service

‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign International Steering Committee Spearhead Team (ISC-SMWeCGEC)

 

 

 

 

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (APPCITARJ), INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, Uncategorized | Tagged Afrika, Afrikan Heritage Communities, Afrikan Vote, Afriphobia, AHC-NSD, Apartheid, Apology of Substance, BAME, BAME Labour, Bernie Grant, BlackVotingCanonFodderNoMore!, British Colonialism, British Empire, British Government, CHOGM 2018, Commonwealth, Ecocide, Genocide, Geopolitics, Grassroots lobbying, Houses of Parliament, ISMAR, ISMAR-Building, Labour Movement, Labour Party, Lobbying, Nothing About Us Without Us!, People Power, PRIM, REPARATIONS, Social Movement, Tax Fraud | Leave a comment

OUR REPARATORY JUSTICE CHALLENGE TO LABOUR: TACKLE YOUR OWN MAANGAMIZI COMPLICITY!

Posted on April 13, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

“The future will have no pity for those men and women who possess the exceptional privilege to speak the words of truth, instead have taken refuge in an attitude of cold complicity and mute indifference.“

Revised quote from Frantz Fanon, ‘Toward the African Revolution: Political Essays’, 1994

 

Greetings Supporters of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC)

 

The letter below is the latest in the ongoing correspondence between Esther Stanford-Xosei and MP, Heidi Alexander, on issues to do with the SMWeCGEC and the campaign’s work for reparatory justice:

ESTHER STANFORD-XOSEI LETTER TO HEIDI ALEXANDER MP RE RESPONSE FROM FCO MINISTER LORD AHMAD

The letter from Esther Stanford-Xosei deals with the response from Foreign & Commonwealth Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN, Lord Ahmad to the 2017 ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and its accompanying correspondence.

The exchanges so far show that as much as sections of the Labour Movement are becoming more interested in communications with certain constituencies of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR), there is a greater need to ensure that the Labour Party is challenged to develop a correct way of dealing with the issues raised in the correspondence and our Afrikan Heritage Communities in consonance with the ethics of reparatory justice. This must also be done in such a way that recognises Afrikan people’s human and people’s right to Substantive Afrikan Heritage Community Representation.

What this means is that Labour Party is being challenged by SMWeCGEC and other Afrikan Reparations campaigners to engage in ‘institutional self-repairs’ in the ways it deals with Afrikan Heritage Communities and our autonomous community organisations as well as the issues that concern us. Only by doing so, will it become a worthy stakeholder with locus standi in Afrikan Heritage Community reparatory justice engagements.

In livicated Service!

Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign International Steering Committee Spearhead Team (ISC-SMWeCGEC)

 

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (APPCITARJ), INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH | Tagged Afrikan Heritage, Afrikan Heritage Communities, Afrikan Liberation, APPCITARJ, Battle of Ideas, Black Radical Imagination, BlackVotingCanonFodderNoMore!, British Colonialism, British Government, Cognitive Justice, Commission of Inquiry, Counterinsurgency, Ecocide, GAPP, Genocide, Global Afrikan People's Parliament, Global Apartheid, Grassroots Leadership, Grassroots lobbying, Hellacaust, Houses of Parliament, INOSAAR, International Social Movment for Afrikan Reparations, ISMAR-Building, Labour Movement, Labour Party, Lobbying, Maangamizi, Movement-Building, Neocolonialism, NothingAboutUsWithoutUs!, Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice, Pan-Afrikanism, People Power, Reparations March, Reparatory Justice, Self-Repairs, SMWeCGE Petition, Social Movement, Stop the Maangamizi, Substantive Afrikan Representation, Tax Fraud, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

OPPOSING THE USAFRICOM BASE OF MAANGAMIZI IN GHANA: GLOBALISING PAN-AFRIKAN RESISTANCE FOR REPARATORY JUSTICE IS THE WAY TO VICTORY!

Posted on April 5, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI
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If we do not unite and combine our military resources for common defence, our individual [African] States, out of a sense of insecurity, may be drawn into making defence pacts with foreign powers which may endanger the security of us all”.

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, ‘Africa Must Unite’ (1963)

 

 

We in the Global Afrikan Peoples Parliament (GAPP), in partnership with the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/ Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC), join the progressive forces of Freedom, Justice and Peace, in the once proudly inspiring Black Star nation-state founded by Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, in expressing their outrage and vehement opposition to the shocking endorsement by the Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his so-called New Patriotic Party (NPP) majority in Parliament, of the completely unjustifiable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defence cooperation between the Republic of Ghana and the United States of America on March 8, 2018. It is unimaginable that, 61 years after the declaration of Ghana’s independence, the very Euro-Amerikkkan imperialist superpower of the West, whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) masterminded the violent February 1966 coup d’état which shattered the Pan-Afrikan Liberation dreams and efforts of Ghana’s first visionary head of state, is now supposed to be the country’s key security ally. For the sake of the serious lessons that must be critically learnt by us all, we must not lose sight of the fact that this current Akuffo-Addo-approved MOU is supposed to be the enhancement of two previous agreements that were signed with the USA without public discussion, scrutiny and parliamentary endorsement in Ghana in 1998 and 2015 by the preceding governments of President Jerry John Rawlings and President John Dramani Mahama respectively.

We therefore urge you to keep up your resistance as you did with the 2008 attempts to establish an AFRICOM military base in Ghana until this manifestation of the Maangamizi (Afrikan Hellacaust of chattel colonial and neo-colonial forms of enslavement) is stopped. For, contrary to assertions that the USA Government is not establishing an American military base, the agreement indicates that the USA Armed Forces will have the use of a designated area in Ghana to set up their own camp inaccessible to anyone else, in other words a ‘base’ by another name. The presence of this enduring base will increase the militarisation of the state and society leading to increased hostilities directed against the people of Ghana for being in cohoots with the US Empire in committing crimes against Humanity.

Just like in 1844 when Fante Chiefs were outmanoeuvred into signing an agreement on behalf of the Gold Coast with the British colonisers, similarly today, we have a Government and its majority in parliament surrendering the sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity of the people of Ghana, undermining their national interests and security. However, as in the past the people of Ghana at no time have ceded their sovereignty, which is what makes this agreement so injurious to the interests of Ghanaians; the implications of such will be felt for generations to come. The agreement had been drafted in a manner which does not state a termination point. Article 6 of the MOU states that: “Buildings constructed by United States forces shall ….be used by United States forces until no longer needed by United States forces”. If read literally, this agreement will in actuality bind all successive governments in Ghana.

Furthermore, regarding the settlement of disputes between the parties, article 18 stipulates that: “Any dispute regarding the application, implementation, or interpretation of this Agreement, or its Implementing Arrangements…shall not be referred to any national or international court, tribunal, or similar body, or to any third party for settlement, unless otherwise mutually agreed”. Rather, the agreement reinforces USA military immunity from international law and imposes Euro-Amerikkkan law on the people and Government of Ghana in the settlement of claims arising out of the operations of the base, including death, destruction of property or injury. It is likely that such arrangements will increase covert military and security operations both in Ghana and across Afrika.

We support you, the progressive forces of Ghana, in seeking to ensure that all your combined efforts to stop this manifestation of the Maangamizi succeed in making such affronts to Ghana’s sovereignty and the Pan-Afrikan dignity of Ghanaians to not occur again. Such resistance must keep us firmly on the path of Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice through first and foremost arresting these continued violations of Ghanaian sovereignty and self-determined nationhood. Given the increasing expansion of neo-colonial tentacles of revanchist coloniality by Euro-Amerikkkan imperialism throughout the Continent of domestically and externally re-colonised Afrika, it is vital to recognise the need to accelerate the building of Maatubuntujamaas – Afrikan Heritage Communities for National Self-Determination (AHC-NSDs) in the Diaspora to connect with their equivalent Sankofahomes on the Continent to achieve Maatubuntuman (Pan-Afrikan Union of Communities). Clearly, the Afrika that currently exists is being sold out by one neo-colonial government after another. It follows that organising to actualize Maatubuntuman, a globally superpowerful participatory democratic anti-imperialist polity of Maat which practices Ubuntu in relation to her people and all of humanity and the cosmos rooted in the indigenous nation-building practices of Afrika and her people, is the only force which can make the global apartheid racist agenda and structures of recolonization by White Supremacy ungovernable.

Unlike in the past when Founding father of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, called for unified armed forces (an Afrikan High Command), and a common Afrikan foreign policy, we have a situation where the current Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul is seeking to hoodwink the people of Ghana into accepting overt military domination; arguing that the USA Government has such defence cooperation agreements “in over 50 countries”. However, what Nitiwul and the misruling so-called New Patriotic Party (NPP) of President Akufo-Addo are refusing to admit to the people of Ghana is that these arrangements are part of what Chalmers Johnson in his 2004 book, ‘The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic’, called an “empire of bases” which advance US geopolitical interests, not those of so-called host countries.

In this regard, we echo the sentiments of the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases, which held its inaugural event January 12-14, 2018 at the University of Baltimore in Maryland, in the USA where it operates; we reiterate to you what they expressed in their Unity Statement: “U.S. foreign military bases are the principal instruments of imperial global domination and environmental damage through wars of aggression and occupation, and that the closure of U.S. foreign military bases is one of the first necessary steps toward a just, peaceful and sustainable World.” It is indeed alarming that the United States maintains the highest number of military bases outside its territory, estimated at almost 1000 (95% of all foreign military bases in the World).

The ‘No Foreign Military Bases’ Coalition further asserts that: “These bases are centres of aggressive military actions, threats of political and economic expansion, sabotage and espionage, and crimes against local populations. In addition, these military bases are the largest users of fossil fuel in the world, heavily contributing to environmental degradation”. We concur with the coalition’s assertion that US foreign military bases represent the interests of the “dominant financial, political, and military interests of the ruling elite” and agree with their conclusion that: “Whether invited in or not by domestic interests that have agreed to be junior partners, no country, no peoples, no government, can claim to be able to make decisions totally in the interest of their people, with foreign troops on their soil representing interests antagonistic to the national purpose”.

This is the time for the Pan-Afrikan essence of our Reparatory Justice struggles all over the world to take concrete shape by working in cooperation with all Freedomfighting peoples around the World in order to galvanise the Internationalist Solidarity of allies of Afrikan people at home and abroad, to reinvigorate the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and to win the hearts, minds and spirits of Peoples of Conscience for a just World of Peace for all. This is one of the surest ways to ensure that Imperialism in all its forms and guises is exposed, effectively counteracted and completely eradicated throughout the World.

Accordingly, we identify with all the modes of legitimate Resistance being adopted in multifarious opposition to this disgraceful deal of treasonable sell-out to the USA not only by various organisations, networks and campaigns in and outside the homeland of founding father Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, but also by the conscientious chiefs and other true leaders of the indigenous communities that make up the authentic Afrikan polity of Ghana and who are upholding her independent Afrikan Personality in all its sovereignty, dignity and integrity. We support the calls from all the progressive forces of Civil Society, admirably including various youth, student, women and labour groupings, that are being echoed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority in the Ghanaian Parliament, and even some voices of sanity in the NPP, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the agreement, pending the holding of broad consultations and a thorough national discussion involving all relevant stakeholders. May we emphasize the salient point that our GAPP and all others involved in the SMWeCGEC and their affinity organisations, networks and campaigns all over the World see such stakeholders as including those Afrikans abroad who lay claim to Global Pan-Afrikan citizenship and who are, in this United Nations International ‘Decade for People of African Descent’ (UN-IDPAD), asserting their ‘Right to Afrika’.

We are in consultations with Ghanaian progressive forces at home and abroad engaged in planning appropriate Global Actions of Internationalist Solidarity with Ghana Against Foreign Military Occupation. In this connection, we urge all those in Ghana to glocally face up, with enlightening global broad-mindedness, to the seriousness of the very dangerous geopolitical intrigue-weaving, malevolence and War-games which this agreement is drawing them into to descend further into the abyss of the World military-industrial-prison complex of the USA. This MOU will only worsen your Maangamizi plight of Neocolonialism by the Global Apartheid way of White Supremacy racist Recolonization by opening you up to suffer more crimes of Genocide and Ecocide. The narrow-mindedness of parochial obscurantism will not do in successfully rallying to defeat the war-mongering reactionary forces of USAFRICOM that very well master anti-people games of divide and misrule. That is why the necessity cannot be overstated now for United Front-building among all progressive forces unflinchingly committed to defending Sovereignty, eschewing sectarianism, ethnocentrism, egocentrism and similar vices, advancing together in Principled Unity to champion human, peoples’ and Mother Earth rights, while firmly upholding uncompromising Anti-Imperialism, Self-Determination, National Liberation, Social Justice, Participatory Democracy and holistic Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice. That is why, now more than ever before, is the time to seize in globalising Pan-Afrikan Resistance for Reparatory Justice forward ever onward to total victory!

GAPP Leadership Facilitation Team in association with the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC) Spearhead Team of  the SMWeCGEC International Steering Committee (ISC-SMWCGEC)

05/04/18


Endorse this statement

If you are willing to endorse this statement please contact the Global Afrikan Peoples Parliament (GAPP) by emailing your name, organisation and position (if relevant) to globalappuk@gmail.com. You can also private message us on FB https://www.facebook.com/globalappuk/.

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH | Tagged Afrikan Liberation, Afrikan Sovereignty, AHD-NSD, CIA, Counterinsurgency, Ecocide, Euro-Amerikkkan Imperialism, GAFRIC, Genocide, Global Apartheid, Grassroots Leadership, Hellacaust, IDPAD, ISMAR-Building, Maangamizi, Maatubuntujamaas, MAATUBUNTUMAN, MAATUBUNTUMANDLA, Movement-Building, Neocolonialism, Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice, Pan-Afrikan Revolution, Pan-Afrikanism, People Power, Recolonisation, REPARATIONS, Right to Afrika, Sankofahomes, Self-Repairs, Stop the Maangamizi, UN-IDPAD, USAFRICOM, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TO ADDRESS THE MAANGAMIZI

Posted on March 4, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

 

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Greetings Supporter/s of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign (SMWeCGEC)

Now that you have signed the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition, do you want to take action to get redress for the Maangamizi (Afrikan ‘Hellacaust’ of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial forms of enslavement) as it affects you, your family and community?

Here is an example of how you can do so; please see the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Postcard template below, which we urge you to send to your MP.  You can find out details about your MP here.

We also attach a template letter which has been revised to include reference to the issue of ‘compensation to enslavers tax fraud’ which is the subject of a separate but connected ‘Refund Our Taxes To Compensate Enslavers!’ petition. You can print off and sign the following letter here: SMWeCGEC Template Letter to MP- Elected Official. The letter is also drafted in such a way that you can send to any publicly elected official, not just MPs.

 

The postcard and letter are tools aimed at enabling you to better lobby and engage with establishment decision-makers about including Maangamizi impact issues as they affect you, your family and community in the constituency representational work and local, national and international policy-making they prioritise.

Please keep us updated in the SMWeCGEC about any progress you make as we are beginning to map which MPs are responding positively to the campaign aims, our contacts can be found here.  This is very important because the experience we have so far is that MPs want to know who else is being lobbied and taking action on the campaign demands contained in the postcard and/or letter. It is essential for us to have this data and info about which individuals and groups are making what approaches to which publicly elected officials and in which geographical areas across the UK.

Check out this guidance on lobbying MPs and other elected officials.

You can also read this ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Postcard advocacy case-study.

See here for other ways that you can take action.

We look forward to hearing from you about any progress you make or any barriers you may encounter! We are developing a page to identify Maangamizi desecrators and deniers so are interested to know if you encounter any public officials that can be characterised as such.

 

In Service

‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign (SMWeCGEC) Spearhead Team

 

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (APPCITARJ), INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2017 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, UBUNTUKGOTLA/PITGJ | Tagged Afrikan Heritage, Afrikan Liberation, APPCITARJ, British Colonialism, British Government, Commission of Inquiry, Ecocide, Genocide, Grassroots Leadership, Hellacaust, International Social Movment for Afrikan Reparations, ISMAR, Maangamizi, Movement-Building, People Power, Reparations March, Reparatory Justice, Social Movement, Stop the Maangamizi, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, Tax Fraud, U-PITGJ, We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! | Leave a comment

MAANGAMIZI DEBT TRAP MUST NOT SILENCE ISAAC ADONGO IN GHANA!

Posted on February 4, 2018 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

ISACC ADONGO
We of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC), acting upon the initiative and prompting of the All-Afrikan Networking Community Link for International Development (AANCLID) and those working together with it in the Global Preparatory Committee for the All-Afrikan People’s Consultative Congress on Debt and Development (GPC-AAPCCODD), deem it necessary to add our voices of support, encouragement and dynamic push forward to our Afrikan Compatriot Isaac Adongo, the brilliantly outspoken Pro-Good Governance Bolgatanga Central Member of Parliament in Ghana today.

We stand together with all progressive forces in and beyond Ghana in resolving to stand unshakeably by Isaac Adongo against all reactionary detractors scheming to shove him off course in his highly impressive endeavours of genuinely patriotic defence of our Afrikan human, people’s and Mother Earth rights by championing in particular the fight for Economic and Social Justice as vital to advancing Afrika towards the real participatory democratic achievement of total emancipation.

As a Pan-Afrikan Reparatory Justice force campaigning against manifestations of the Maangamizi such as Debt Bondage, we of the SMWeCGEC urge that the sinister attempts to misuse the pernicious Debt Trap into which most innocent peoples all over the World are being enticed, humiliated and even enslaved by unscrupulously greedy banks and other criminally voracious financial corporate vampires and state agencies such as the notorious Bretton Woods institutions of Euro-Amerikkkan Imperialism to discredit, harass and deter genuine patriotic champions of Afrikan progress like Isaac Adongo must be thoroughly exposed, fiercely resisted and vigilantly counteracted without any fear or compromise whatsoever. For, only by so bravely doing can we effectively develop the kind of true Participatory Democracy that will enable us to properly educate, mobilise and rally the overwhelming masses of our Afrikan people at home and abroad to unify in stopping the Maangamizi by our own grassroots-driven People’s Power and secure the total emancipation that will deliver to us the Maatubuntuman vision of true Pan-Afrikan Reparations for Global Justice envisaged by the heroic likes of the Founder of modern Ghana Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah!

Forward ever onward in Resistance against Debt Bondage to our Pan-Afrikan Rendezvous of Global Justice Victory!

SMWeCGEC International Steering Committee Spearhead Action Team
London, United Kingdom.

1st February 2018

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, AFRIKAN RESISTANCE, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, MAANGAMIZI RESISTORS, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, SMWeCGEC, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, Uncategorized | Tagged Debt Bondage, Ghana, Global Apartheid, Movement-Building, Neocolonialism, Pan-Afrikanism, People Power, REPARATIONS, Repudiate the Debt!, Social Movement | Leave a comment

UBUNTUKGOTLA – PEOPLES INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ)

Posted on January 31, 2016 by STOP THE MAANGAMIZI

This article was revised on 29/06/18

Kofi Mawuli Klu 2222 (2)

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“The use of law as one of the most important instruments of our Afrikan struggle for reparations, indeed the need to locate our claim to restitution for the damages caused by gross violations of Afrikan sovereignty must raise immediately for us the essential questions of whose Framework, whose Law and whose Justice“

Kofi Mawuli Klu ‘Charting an Afrikan self-Determined Path of Legal Struggle for Reparations’, A draft paper for presentation to the 11th December 1993 Birmingham Working Conference of the Africa Reparations Movement, UK, 1993

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In the above paper, presented at the African Reparations Movement conference launch in the early 1990’s as a contribution to reparations-movement-building and movement-lawyering, jurisconsult Kofi Mawuli Klu advocates the need for Afrikan people to chart our own self-determined path of legal struggle to enforce and secure reparations. However, this requires decolonisation and repair of the law, legal system and processes. Ahead of his time, Klu asserted the self-rehabilitation and healing in a Fanonian sense that comes about through Afrikans exercising agency in the shaping, making and implementation of international law. This model has subsequently been referred to as international law from below by various legal scholars. Klu affirms seven principles which should be followed in charting an Afrikan self-determined path of legal struggle for reparations. These include:

  1. Demystification of the law.
  2. Developing legal creativity and creativity in applying what has been referred to as the ‘legal imagination‘.
  3. Afrikan popular democratic involvement in the law-making process.
  4. Recognition of the criminal injustice of enslavement, colonisation and neo-colonisation from the perspective of the legal consciousness of Afrikan people.*
  5. Judging the crimes and wrongs of enslavement in accordance with Afrikan law.
  6. Promoting mass adjudication of the Afrikan and other indigenous peoples cases for reparations through grassroots benches of an International Peoples Tribunal on Crimes Against Humanity.
  7. Developing international legal strategies on the formulation and prosecution of the Afrikan case for reparations.

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*Legal Consciousness is the sum of views and ideas expressing the attitude of a group or people toward law, legality, and justice and their concept of what is lawful and unlawful. Legal Consciousness therefore traces the ways in which law is experienced and interpreted by specific individuals and groups as they engage, avoid, or resist the law and legal meanings. Legal consciousness also entails the process by which a group or people concretize their political goals and demands and the means by which they try to give them universal force in the form of laws and policy. It follows that legal consciousness is a form of social consciousness and closely related to political consciousness.

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Building on this unrivaled foresight, the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide‘ Petition concludes by stating that it “will also galvanise grassroots work towards establishing glocal sittings of the Ubuntukgotla -Peoples International Tribunal for Global Justice (Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ) as part of a series of actions which will put a full stop, by way of holistic and transformative reparations, to all acts of Genocide/Ecocide against Afrikan people.”

What is an International Peoples’ Tribunal?

An international peoples tribunal is a process initiated by communities and/or civil society groupings which seeks to establish whether a state, international organisation, corporation, or less frequently specified individuals have committed breaches of international law or of another body of law or norms, (such as national law, Afrikan law, indigenous law of peoples’ law); which involves the presentation of evidence and arguments to a body of  people deemed competent to adjudicate on relevant issues in the best interests of the communities themselves, nations or humanity as whole. In light of documentary  and other forms of evidence presented to  tribunal members in formal proceedings, it presents a reasoned set of findings based on an evaluation of such evidence and they can also pass judgements. There is however considerable variation in  in the emphasis and practice of such tribunals which are also described in various terms such as a people’s tribunal, people’s hearing, or  tribunal of conscience.

Seizing back Afrikan people’s power to define, make, shape and advocate for legal strategies and processes in our own best interests and in accordance with Afrikan forms of law and jurisprudence, the term Ubuntukgotla has been chosen to give culturally competent expression to the increasingly popular notion of an international people’s tribunal.

The Ubuntukgotla–PITGJ is a court of peoples humanity interconnectedness. The term is comprised of the Afrikan terms ubuntu and kgotla. A Kgotla is a Tswana traditional institution of participatory democracy, i.e. peoples assembly or court in Botswana which has a number of functions including:

(1) enabling public debate and consultation on policy and legislation;

(2) being a judicial institution in which cases are heard providing access to justice;

(3) soliciting views from the community on government actions and decisions or those of any other interest group; and

(4) facilitating the means to come to an agreement or key issues pertaining to the health and well-being of the community.

The term ubuntu which translates as: “I am because of who we are” is a concept from the Southern Afrikan region which means literally “human-ness”, and is often understood to mean”humanity towards others”. It is also considered, in a more philosophical sense, to mean “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. In Southern Afrika, ubuntu has come to be used as a term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism or Hunhuism propagated in the re-Afrikanisation process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Ubuntukgotla–PITGJ is being developed as a site of an activist ‘doing of law’ which also includes knowledge-production and praxis on making, enforcing and implementing just law. Although like other peoples tribunals, it may be perceived as a deviant or even illegitimate ‘institution’ within the institutional landscape of dominant forms of law.

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Civil society (peoples’) tribunals initiated by citizens of conscience and oppressed groups have emerged to fill the normative vacuum created by the gap between the ideals, of justice and access to justice.  In this regard, people’s tribunals are seen as more effectively responding to the failures, exclusions and mendacity of existing domestic and international state and state sponsored institutions apparatuses to provide effective redress for human, peoples and Mother Earth right violations and atrocities committed, despite having formal power and jurisdiction to do so. They do so by: asserting the rights of peoples (and people) to articulate law that is not dependent on endorsements by states for its legitimacy; as well as utilising, interpreting and developing international and other forms of law.

People’s tribunals can critique the content of existing international law where such law perpetuates oppressive power relations. Oftentimes, peoples’ tribunals have resulted in a greater democratisation of international law-making from below and provided additional accountability mechanisms for the exercise of and abuses/misuse of power by states and international organisations. They have been used by many different peoples and special interest groups.

For example, in 1993 the indigenous people of Hawaii developed the Ka Ho‘okolokolonui Kānaka Maoli-Peoples’ International Tribunal Hawai‘i in which the United States and the state of Hawai‘i were put on trial for crimes against the original people of Hawai‘i, the Kānaka Maoli. A video has been made of this tribunal which we recommend you view. It can be found here.

The Ka Ho‘okolokolonui Kānaka Maoli Tribunal features a panel of international judges that was convened to hear the charges, which included genocide, ethnocide, the taking of their sovereign government and the destruction of their environment. The Tribunal judges and prosecutor/advocates came from Japan, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Jordan, Korea, Afrika, the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Cree, Cherokee, Shawnee and Creek nations. It traveled to five islands to see and hear firsthand the words and personal experiences of witnesses, many of whom faced arrest and eviction from native lands. At the end of ten days, the Tribunal called upon the United States and the world to recognise the fact that Hawaian sovereignty has never been extinguished. It also called for the restoration and return of all lands to which Kānaka Maoli have a claim.

Peoples’ tribunals are formed to take up a variety of cases that may fall under the following, sometimes overlapping, categories:

  • Violations by the state of the rights of citizens or residents of that state, including violations of the rights of peoples within that state;
  • Claims of the denial of the right to self-determination;
  • The treatment by regions or groups of states of particular groups of people;
  • Historical injustices such as conquest, enslavement, colonisation and other thematic issues;
  • The role of international organisations, especially international financial institutions, in the regulation of the international and national economic and social systems;
  • The interaction between state law and the violations of the rights of persons by ‘private’ individuals (including corporations) and the responsibility of business, especially transnational corporations, in the violations of human rights.

In most cases, peoples’ tribunals arraign individual states, international organisations, corporations or  combination of these. In some cases peoples’ tribunals ‘put on trial’ named individuals.

See ‘Peoples International Tribunals and International Law‘, edited by Andrew Byrnes, and Gabrielle Simm, Cambridge University Press, (2018) pp. 16-17 for more info.

How will the Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ operate?

As a people’s tribunal, the Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ derives its power from the voices of Afrikan heritage community victims and survivors, and also those of national and international civil societies with relevant knowledge and expertise to establishing and providing evidence on the concrete manifestations of the Maangamizi including the genocide of Afrikan heritage communities. The Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ will have the format of a formal human rights court,however, it is not a criminal court in the sense that individual persons are indicted. In the first instance, the prosecutors will indict the state and institutions of the UK, based on the proofs presented of responsibility for the widespread and systematic crimes against humanity committed in the current phase of the Maangamizi. It is expected that, as support for and the influence of the U-PITGJ grows, it will be also be able to build the capacity to address other instances of genocidal crimes that have been perpetrated on other peoples who have experienced European settler colonialism, conquest and invasion. This is why it is important to recognise the interconnections between the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) and the Peoples Reparations International Movement (PRIM).

The proof presented will consist of documents, audiovisual materials, statements of witnesses and other recognised legal means. The power of the Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ will be to examine the evidence, develop an accurate historical and scientific record and apply principles of international law to the facts as found. It is expected that the chosen judges will produce a verdict based on the material presented and call upon the Government of the UK to realise that so far they have failed to take legal and moral responsibility for the victims. This verdict can also be used as a basis for an United Nations resolution and other actions on these crimes.

How can the Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ contribute to Afrikan people’s empowerment and healing?

  1. By taking as its primary source the voices, experiences, aspirations, demands and visions for reparatory social change of the peoples’ and communities of the violated themselves, from which all other specialist support groups – lawyers, the media, politicians, institutionalised academics, economists, and others – may build upon by utilising their specialist languages for resistance in diverse sites of public judgement.
  2. Through establishing informal but public and ‘judicial’ processes to deal with atrocities committed by States resulting in the moral power and authority of informal quasi judicial processes.
  3. Through giving effect to Afrikan peoples’ voices of judgement, developing and disseminating the often silenced articulations of Afrikan people’s legality as part of a legal strategy of resistance whose contribution is to advance, through the specific language of law, the broader struggles against the violence of the Maangamizi today.

Volunteer researchers required to contribute to a people’s history-making process of securing reparatory justice!

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If you are a law or politics student or have other relevant skills and experience and you are interested in using your knowledge and skills to support Afrikan people’s struggle for holistic redress and secure Afrikan Reparatory Justice, you can become a volunteer researcher. We are looking for volunteer researchers who would like to join the SMWeCGEC research team in preparations for establishing the APPCITARJ and the Ubuntukgotla-PITGJ.

If you would like to get involved, please contact: Afrikan Reparations Transnational Community of Practice (ARTCoP) on artcop.edu@gmail.com or PARCOE on info@parcoe.com or 07751143043.

Support from movement lawyers is also welcome!

If you are a social justice advocate, legal practitioner or cause lawyer and would like to offer pro-bono advice or support to this community-led initiative; are willing to build equitable relationships with people and organisations challenging historical and contemporary injustice; and are prepared to respect the approach of social justice/community lawyering,*please also get in touch as above.

*Community lawyering has many variants: collaborative lawyering, community, lay lawyering, cause lawyering, social justice lawyering, political lawyering, critical lawyering, rebellious lawyering, movement-lawyering etc. The common thread among them is that the clients, not the lawyers, play a central role in resolving the issues that have an impact on their opportunities to succeed. It is: lawyering that is community-located, community-collaborative, community-directed and based on the collaboration of lawyers, clients and communities in which they live; and transforming law and lawyering to address the inequalities experienced by subordinated and underserved groups. The legal system in the UK and other Westernised countries is very individualistic. It tends to atomise and depoliticise disputes, which work against a community organising model. Furthermore, the facilitation of individual rights has not benefited the long-term needs of communities, especially impoverished communities, especially where such impoverishment is as a result of intergenerational injustice. The Sargent Shriver National Centre on Poverty Law (USA) defines “community lawyering” as a “process through which advocates contribute their legal knowledge and skills to support initiatives that are identified by the community and enhance the community’s power.”

Similar to the different schools of thought in community organising, community lawyering has many different strains. However, what sets lawyers who adopt community lawyering apart from each other boils down to their answers to the following three questions: Who do you work with? What do you do for them? And how do you work together? Similar to community organising, the answers to these questions vary depending on the political orientation of the lawyer and the theory of social change they ascribe to. By combining legal recourse and community organising, it is possible to utilise “community lawyering” as a social change strategy.” This approach engages lawyers who are prepared to de-emphasise litigation as the primary tool for advancing social justice. Instead, community lawyering encourages such lawyers, in collaboration with communities, their groups, activists and organisers, to critically and creatively examine non-traditional forms of advocacy such as facilitative leadership, institution-building, community organising, collective action and other grassroots actions including strategic litigation, media events, community education workshops and public demonstrations. This is done as a way of addressing the legal and non-legal problems of their clients.

Community lawyering can also be described as a more participatory process that fosters collaboration between lawyers and their community (group) clients, rather than fostering—if not perpetuating—the dependency that most clients have on their lawyers to solve their legal problems in a conventional lawyer-client relationship. 
The role of a “community lawyer” entails working in partnership with one’s community clients and utilises multiple forms of advocacy, to address their individual as well as systemic problems. Community lawyering practitioners recognise that their clients are partners—not just in name—but in leadership, control and decision-making. Through collaboration, lawyers can support Afrikan Heritage Community groups in building their own resources and community capacities to advance their own interests in effecting and securing reparatory justice in a self-determined and self-directed manner.

Another critical component of community lawyering is creating race-conscious cultural competence—a set of beliefs, values, and skills built into a structure that enables one to negotiate cross-cultural situations in a manner that does not force one to assimilate to the other. The goal of race-conscious community lawyering is to support lasting structural and systemic changes that will bring about holistic reparatory justice for racialised groups.

Movement-lawyering is a specific form of community lawyering but the lawyers work in collaboration with grassroots movements. This lawyering recognises that community members and organisers have expertise that should be valued. In fact, movement lawyers should also be engaged in a process of political study and growth collectively with movement-organisers that are aligned with particular community struggles. Here are some tips for lawyers that are aligned with movements and are particularly relevant to how lawyers can best support communities, their activists and organisers who are engaged in reparatory justice struggles as part of the ISMAR.

Posted in AFRIKAN HELLACAUST, INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRIKAN REPARATIONS, ISMAR, MAANGAMIZI RESISTANCE, PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS, PRIM, REPARATIONS, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI CAMPAIGN, STOP THE MAANGAMIZI PETITION, THE 2018 AFRIKAN EMANCIPATION DAY REPARATIONS MARCH, UBUNTUKGOTLA/PITGJ | Tagged Afrika, Afrikan law, Apartheid, British Empire, Cause Lawyering, Ecocide, Epistemic Justice, Extra-Legal Activism, Genocide, Geopolitics, Global Justice, Ho‘okolokolonui Kānaka Maoli, International Law, International Law From Below, ISMAR, Kgotla, Law & Power, Law From Below, Legal Consciousness, Legal Imagination, Modern Day Slavery, Movement Intellectuals, Movement Lawyering, Neocolonialism, Pan-Afrikan Reparations 4 Global Justice, People Power, Peoples Law, Peoples Tribunal, Repairing the Law, REPARATIONS, Reparatory Justice, Resisting Unjust Law, Social Justice Lawyering | Leave a comment

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