LETTER TO ‘THE VOICE’ NEWSPAPER

Dated 24th November 2017

London: A delegation hands in ‘Stop The Maangamizi’ Petition at Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street on 1st August to counter Afrikan Holocaust (Maangamizi) denial and demand holistic reparatory justice for the Afrikan Holocaust.

Dear George Ruddock, Editor & Leah Sinclair, Online Editor of The Voice Newspaper

I was interested to read ‘The Voice’ online article published on 19th November 2017: ‘Parliament urged to examine reparations’ and the report back on the Global Afrikan Congress UK lobby written by Vic Motune.

It would be good if your journalists researched to verify the sources of ideas and initiatives that they report on. You ought to have known that the concepts and its practical translation into campaigning for the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice (APPCITARJ) originated from, and have been publicly pursued by, the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign.

The ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ Campaign is the official campaign partner to the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparation March Committee (AEDRMC) which organises the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March on the 1st August each year. This is one of the main demands we have recurrently been putting before the entire British state in our annual 1st August reparations marches. Even a cursory reader of the letters that accompany the ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ Petition, which is presented each year to the UK Prime Minister at No 10 Downing Street as one of the activities of the reparations march, would know this.

GACuk, which has always participated in these marches over the years, is therefore being dishonest in not acknowledging the originators of the APPCITARJ as is the ethical requirement for borrowing other people’s ideas.

We hope your diligent research and professional media following of the activities of the International Social Movement for Afrikans (ISMAR) in the UK, which include the co-organsers and supporters of the annual reparations march and its demands, which include embracing the APPCITARJ, will be more accurately reported on in your future coverage of these matters.

We recommend that you study and possibly do a write up on the report of the recent international dialogue with UK reparations activists and representatives from the National Council on Reparation in Jamaica which took place on 14th November 2017.

It would be good if one of your journalists wrote about some of the recent updates in the ISMAR in the UK, or I could help by writing one; even doing so jointly with one of your journalists.

We in the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign are very much interested in the ‘Voice’ maintaining its reputation as a credible media institution and ‘Britain’s top Black Newspaper’ and would like to contribute to making it remain so.

Sincerely

Esther Stanford-Xosei

Coordinator-General, ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign

Spokesperson, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC)