REPARATIONS
NOW!
Abbreviated Report from the International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S.
Edited by Omali Yeshitela
©1983 Burning Spear Publications
Reparations Now! Abbreviated Report of the International
Tribunal On Reparations For Black People In The U.S. may
be re-printed in whole or in part or used in other ways to
forward the anti-imperialist struggle with permission from
the:
African People's Socialist Party 7622 MacArthur Boulevard Oakland, California 94605
Typeset, Layout and Design by Burning Spear Typesetting Center
Contents
1.  Introduction
2.  U.S. Found Guilty of Crimes Against Africans in the U.S.
3.  Opening Statement
4.  Indictment of U.S. Imperialism
5.  Oppression of Blacks In Prison
6.  The Role of the White Population
7.  A Black Mother On Housing Conditions
8.  Explanation of the Judges Ruling
9.  Summation of The World Tribunal
10.  African People's Socialist Party General Program
11.  About the African People's Socialist Party and the African National Reparations Organization
12.  Also Available From Burning Spear Publications
i. 1.
29.
41.
63. 83. 95.
101. 107. 121.
137. 141.
Introduction
On November 13, 1982, a two day World Tribunal On Reparations for Black People in the U.S. was held in New York City. The full significance of that Tribunal will ultimately be summed up in history by the process of black struggle which continues to unfold and which will itself be influenced by the Tribunal: such struggle as that which will be gen­erated by the demand for reparations being generalized within the oppressed and colonized African community in the U.S.; such struggle as that which will be influenced by the development and leadership of the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO) founded on the two days immediately following the World Tribunal, and such struggle as that which will occur under the leadership of the African People's Socialist Party, the advance forces of the colonized African working class in the U.S.
However, while we must leave much to history's judge­ment as to the full significance of the World Tribunal, there are some things which we can say today, such a short time after the occurrence of the World Tribunal.
One thing the World Tribunal did do was to establish a process wherein the issue of the oppression of African peo­ple in the U.S. will have to be taken seriously again by the international community. It is hard to believe that within the short period of ten or eleven years the plight and just cause of the domestically colonized African community in the U.S. has receded from the active consciousness of the peoples in the world.
It was not so long ago that the heroic cause of our people was recognized worldwide, that the courage of our militants and revolutionaries was world renown. Because of their pro­minent roles in providing leadership for our people against our most formidable enemy and oppressor, Malcolm X., Dr.
Martin Luther King, the leadership of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Black Pan­ther Party traveled the world with other great international figures who sought the end of human oppression and the creation of just social systems.
These were the heady days of world-wide mobiliza­tion—the days of Che, Ho Chi Minn, Mao and the Cultural Revolution. These were the days of the Tupamaros, of Cabral, of Black Power and Black Panthers.
Much has changed since that time. One of the most significant things to happen was the brutal suppression of our movement, such vicious military suppression as that which evinced the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark and tens of members of the Black Panther Party, along with those from less influ­ential organizations throughout the U.S. This suppression resulted in forced exile for many and frame-ups and imprisonment for many more. Today, it may be argued, that more of our militants and revolutionaries languish behind prison walls than among us within the colonized African communities of the U.S.
Geronimo Pratt, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Albert Washington, Dhoruba Moore, Anthony LaBorde, James York, Bernice Jones, etc., etc., are no longer on the streets of the U.S. Assata Shakur, free only because of a daring prison escape, is hunted like an animal throughout the U.S. by offi­cers of the U.S. colonialist State who surely intend to end her life as they have attempted to do in the past.
Subsequent to this brutal attack on our movement and its leaders, the U.S. government has worked diligently to convince the world community of its changed character as it relates to black people, a changed character which the U.S. government alleges has resulted in the "Americaniza­tion" of its African population which has now achieved its basic aspirations. To do so was not as difficult as some might think. As a result of the terror and carnage strewn throughout our oppressed, colonized communities, resulting
in the imprisonment and murder of our leaders and the des­truction of our militant organizations, our people were tem­porarily "pacified," their voices stilled and the U.S. govern­ment and the international community were relieved of the terrible din caused by 40 million African people who were demanding Bread, Peace and Black Power.
And, if the quiet which now prevailed within our com­munities was not enough to convince the peoples of the world that black people had become finally free and no longer needed to rise up in opposition to the U.S. govern­ment, several other ploys succeeded in quelling any suspi­cions. One ploy was dependent on the election of James Earl Carter as U.S. president in 1976. Carter's election was one which saw more than 90 percent of the black vote go to a plantation owner from the deep South which was the im­mediate origin of the black movement so recently crushed by the U.S. government. Was this not evidence of a recon­ciliation between the interests of the black population and the U.S. government? If not, Carter's selection of Andrew Young as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations surely served the purpose. Thus, the world community was misled as were our own nearly leaderless people.
But no longer! The World Tribunal not only exposes to the international community that the oppression of African people is alive and well in the U.S., it also exposes the fact that our oppression has existed along one long continuum, that there has never been any cessation of our oppression.
This is one significance of the World Tribunal, but not the only one. Another significance of the World Tribunal was the process it initiated in summing up our history of oppression and struggle for African people ourselves who are the victims of our oppression. Now, the victims of U.S. terror within and without its borders can be better armed in our attempts to overthrow this terror.
This pamphlet represents only a tiny portion of the testimony and documentation presented at the World Tribu­nal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. The entire
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Tribunal proceedings will be published in the immediate near future. However, even this inadequate representation of the World Tribunal should serve to alert the reader to the historical significance of the World Tribunal. The prece­dents provided by the Tribunal will have an impact on peo­ple's struggles for years to come: for the first time in its history the U.S. government has been put on trial for its crimes against black people by black people ourselves. Moreover, the World Tribunal On Reparations for Black Peo­ple in the U.S. established precedents in international law which has previously been treated as the sole property of those with the benefit of State power.
Finally, the World Tribunal took the concept of law and raised it as having significance for those other than the pro­pertied class. The Tribunal smashed the bourgeois concept of "one justice for all peoples and classes" and raised the truth that the justice of the oppressed will result in the destruction of the justice of the oppressor, a justice which legitimizes oppression. The World Tribunal occurred as an initiative of the African People's Socialist Party, an organization of black workers by ideology and actual com­position. Therefore, we can correctly say that the World Tribunal was an initiative of the African working class itself. The fact that 94 percent of the African population of the U.S. belongs to the black working class, whose heroism has only been recently forgotten, will soon provide the most magnifi­cent testimony of the significance of the World Tribunal On Reparations for Black People in the U.S. throughout the streets of this United States of America whose very wealth and very existence has come at the expense of the life, lib­erty, and well-being of millions of African people.
The Burning Spear newspaper, December 1982
U.S. Found Guilty of Crimes Against Africans in the U.S.
The People's Advocate read through the charges one by one and asked the Panel of International Judges for their ver­dict. A silence fell over the hall. "Charge number one: Is the United States guilty of genocide against African people in the U.S. as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide?" "Guilty, by unanimous vote."
"Charge number two: Is the United States guilty of violation of the United Nations Charter as it relates to its (the U.S.) treatment of Africans in the United States?" "Guilty, by unanimous vote."
"Charge number three: Is the United States guilty of violation of the spirit and intent of the International Conven­tion on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimina­tion?" "Guilty, by unanimous vote."
"Charge number four: Is the United States guilty of violation of the spirit and intent of the International Bill of Human Rights?" "Guilty, by unanimous vote."
The audience made up largely of African people broke out in spontaneous and sustained applause, probably the first time a guilty verdict in a legal proceeding inside the U.S. had been greeted with joy by African people in the last 400 years. After being restored to order, the court proceeded with the judgement of the panel on punishment and/or recti­fication:
"1. Are African people in the U.S. due reparations from the U.S. government? (This had been estimated in the course
1
Omali Yeshitela, January 1983
.•
of the Tribunal as $4.1 trillion in stolen labor alone, with damages to be determined later.)" "Yes, by unanimous vote."
"2. Should imprisoned black revolutionaries be granted political prisoner and prisoner-of-war status based on the Geneva Convention and other United Nations determina­tions?" "Yes, by unanimous vote."
"3. Does the U.S. treatment of Africans in the U.S. repre­sent a serious enough breach of the United Nations Human Rights Charter to justify eviction of the U.S. from the United Nations?" "Yes, by unanimous vote."
"4. Does the testimony and documentation presented at the Tribunal justify the establishment of a permanent international body to monitor U.S. treatment of African peo­ple in the U.S.?" "Yes, by unanimous vote."
Again applause swept the auditorium, along with a feel­ing of satisfaction at the collective achievement that had been reached in proving beyond a doubt the just case of African people for reparations, of anger at the endless tales of suffering and injustice that had been related in the past 2 days of testimony, and of strong determination to take the judgement of the Tribunal out into the world, to build a peo­ple's struggle that will make the conclusions recognized as law, as the fair judgement of history and of the people of the world.
The International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. was a precedent setting and mobilizing legal hearing, the first time in history that the U.S. govern­ment has been formally put on trial for crimes against black people in the U.S. This Tribunal was conducted with the utmost seriousness, adhering to the rules of evidence to support the charges that the U.S. had violated international law. Many of these laws, such as the International Conven­tion on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, have never been ratified by the U.S. Senate precisely because the U.S. government fears it will be brought before a world court to answer for its treatment of
African people and Native peoples in the U.S. The task of the hearings, then, has been to amass evidence while at the same time pressing for the U.S. to be called to accountability for its historic crimes, and fighting for the right of African people, who do not possess state power, to have a hearing before international panels on human rights. This is the work that Malcolm X was just beginning to bring to fruition when he was assassinated to silence his leading voice.
The Tribunal had been in the building stages for the past year, as the African People's Socialist Party estab­lished committees across the U.S. to build awareness of the upcoming Tribunal, to gather thousands of Reparations Claims by individual Africans to be presented at the Tribunal, to assemble evidence and international support for the Tribunal. Participants from these committees arrived from Seattle, Maryland, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Oakland, St. Petersburg, and New York, while other commit­tees who intended to come ended up unable to for logistical reasons, including people from Miami, Chicago, and Mem­phis. The breadth of African organizations and other colo­nized peoples who endorsed the Tribunal was truly inspira­tional and showed the great support which the reparations demand can win. And participation in the Tribunal itself was equally as broad. Queen Mother Moore, of the Association of Ethiopian Women and an activist in the struggle for reparations since her days working in the Garvey Move­ment, sat in the front row of the auditorium with a number of her associates from across the U.S. during the entire two days of hearings. Members of the National Black United Front, Black Vets for Social Justice, Grand Jury Project and many other community groups fighting for African freedom were in attendance, along with unaffiliated Africans and some progressive North Americans.
Notably absent were the white ideological imperialists and professors of revolution who clog up so many progres­sive events, for this was a Tribunal established by African people on our own terms.
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But working class and struggling African people predominated. On the first day, over 200 people signed in, not as many as hoped for, but representing a strong cross section of our people. Coverage from the African media, from the Amsterdam News to the APSP's The Burning Spear, helped to amplify the impact of the Tribunal.
The International Panel of Judges, as well as the Inter­national Observers, were primarily African people, reflec­ting the solid international solidarity which Garvey first mobilized with the slogan, "Africa for Africans, Those at Home and Those Abroad." Among the Observers was Kaseam Ashbourne of the Black American Law Students Association, Ike M'Foli of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, a representative of the Universal Negro Improve­ment Association (Garveyites), and Sue Velez who works with the solidarity movement with Chile. As for the Interna­tional Judges, two of them had travelled considerable distances, and faced harassment and repression from the U.S. repressive forces for their work on the Tribunal—the im­portant figure in the African struggle in the Caribbean, Piankhy Ladepoo Salankey, Chairman of the National United Movement of Barbados, and the representative of the revolutionary Senegalese community in exile in France, Samba Mbuub; in addition, a representative of the Con­golese National Liberation Front which is waging armed struggle against the puppet Mobutu regime, Serge Mukendi was in attendance as a judge, along with a representative of North American progressive people, Rick Ayers, the Chair­man of the Committee in Solidarity with African Inde­pendence. Two other African representatives who were eager to attend as judges, Rosie Douglas, Secretary General of the United Labor Party of Dominica, and M.W.K. Chiume, Chairman of the Congress for the Second Republic of Malawi, were prevented from entering the U.S. by visa denial in the first case and by economic constraints of the travel from Africa in the second.
Unfortunately, it was never possible to get a firm
commitment for a representative judge from Native People in the U.S. or from Colombia, and the promised participation by a representative of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the New York Casa El Salvador Farabundo Marti fell through in the last days. The importance of international participa­tion and international solidarity from these and other peo­ples struggling against U.S. imperialism must be won, as African people have always demonstrated a high degree of internationalism and sacrifice in the common struggle against imperialism. These and other international allies of our struggle will have an opportunity to come forward to participate in future Tribunals which our people will sponsor.
With all of these different peoples present, as well as the range of activists and witnesses to genocide from the African community who brought forth testimony, truly the Black Liberation Movement was fully represented at the International Tribunal. And while our movement has many different tendencies and contending strategies, something profound occurred over the two days of the Tribunal. As the testimony was unravelled, as the depths of the crimes of U.S. imperialism were laid before those assembled, the con­tinual focus provided by the People's Advocate, APSP Chair­man Omali Yeshitela, brought forth again and again that the anti-colonial struggle of African people, the struggle that targets the U.S. government as our enemy and unites with the anti-colonial struggles around the world, the demand for Reparations Now, is the unifying, mobilizing, and militant cry which will put our movement back on the offensive. The Tribunal built unity in our movement, not a liberal unity based on nothing but accommodation and passivity, but a unity borne out of a common focus and a growing commitment to join together to boldly advance our struggle against the U.S. government.
The Tribunal was opened on Saturday, November 13, with a procession of the Judges and opening remarks by People's Advocate Omali Yeshitela. He explained that the Tribunal would be held under international law, that the
4
International Panel of Judges had a legal responsibility to weigh the evidence in coming to their verdict, and that African people do have a right to call such a Tribunal. Even though we do not have state power,, we are a people who have been wronged and have a right to petition for redress, as well as to struggle for state power in order to achieve that redress.
Following this, the first witness was called in order to establish that a crime has been committed by showing that African people were in a positive state of existence before the kidnapping of African people which began in the 15th century. Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Chairman of the Black Studies Department of the City University of New York, spoke for an hour and a half, giving the greatest detailed account of African history that could be condensed into that time period. He defied the question raised by the patronizing academics of the West as to whether Africans had made any contribution to civilization by asserting that, "Civiliza­tion itself is African." The very beginnings of human pre-his-tory, as well as the proto-historical period in which social organization and production were begun and the classical period in which the basic sciences and humanities were developed, were all African. What bare civilization that did exist in Europe was all derivitive from Africa in the Ancient era and in subsequent historical periods.
Dr. Jeffries drew out in great detail the seven periods of African history, and described the techniques used by the Europeans, first the Portuguese and Spanish, later the English, to assault and bleed the African continent. He points out how Europe in the 15th Century, being "land poor, resource poor, and people poor" pursued piracy and theft from other peoples as the primary way of moving beyond subsistence economy, and found the richest civilization in Africa. Unable to penetrate the strong societies on the Continent, they settled on the beaches and began a process of kidnapping individuals which eventually weakened and subjugated the whole Continent. In 1482 the Portuguese
6
established their first slave military fort on the coast of Ghana at Elmina of St. George. One of the builders of this fort was Christopher Columbus. Over the next decades, Portugal set up 50 fortified ports and castles on the coast of Ghana alone. The slave trade was the basis for the establishment of a world economy and provided the basic capital for the industrialization of Europe and later the U.S.
After documenting the four hundred years of degrada­tion and exploitation at the hands of the Europeans, Dr. Jef­fries concluded by describing the years from 1900 to today as the period of the African Renaissance and Revolution, in which African people on the Continent and around the world have moved to seize back our destinies and our resources. Following his presentation, Dr. Jeffries followed the Tribunal format by answering questions from the People's Advocate and the Panel of Judges which would explain areas needing fuller detail for the judges' deliberations.
Following a lunch recess and press conference, the Tribunal resumed with the Statement of Charges/Indictment of the U.S. Government. At this time, People's Advocate Omali Yeshitela reviewed the pertinent international law, law which was designed to prevent the barbarity of genocide and colonialism, law which underscored the justice of our struggle for liberation. He read the law which had been provided in the Judges' packets and the press packets: The International Bill of Human Rights (which in­cludes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Inter­national Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Charter of the United Nations, the Statute of the Interna­tional Court of Justice, and the Foreign Relations Law of the U.S.
Anticipating the testimony that was to follow, the Peo­ple's Advocate summed up in broad strokes the case
against the U.S. government. Wherever there are African people in the U.S., there is forced sterilization, high infant death rates, disproportionate imprisonment, police terror, subhuman housing. These are just some of the conditions that make up the conditions of domestic colonization which Africans suffer in the U.S. This oppression is historic, as is the struggle against such conditions. And clearly the pres­ent condition of African people has a direct relation to the loss of self-determination, as the conditions of African peo­ple today have their origin in the trade in African flesh.
Following the statement of charges was supposed to be testimony from SNCC founder Ella Baker on the Southern Struggle for Democratic Rights. Unfortunately, the comrade was not able to attend because of heath reasons, so she sent her greetings and solidarity.
The next witness was Gwen Wilson of the National Black United Front who put forth evidence on the case of Eddie Carthan, the progressive black mayor of Tchula, Mississippi. Eddie Carthan was elected in 1977 because of strong black community support, and immediately began to defy the white power structure by refusing a $10,000 bribe and working to save the city medical clinic which was being cut back. When Carthan tried to fire racist police chief Clark, the rightists on the city council decreased his pay to $60 a month and began setting him up for legal charges. First they charged him with assaulting the police chief, and later began trying to connect him with any robbery or killing that occurred in Tchula. Because of national and interna­tional support, Mayor Carthan was acquitted of the recent murder charges, but is still in prison over the alleged assault. The National Black United Front representative ex­plained that the organization is involved in struggles for the rights of black people all over the U.S. She pointed out that the attack on Eddie Carthan is part of a political repression seeking to destroy meager black gains of the Civil Rights Movement, just as the Black Reconstruction gains were smashed after the Civil War. Any illusion of gradual pro-
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gress for Africans in the U.S. is refuted by the statistics on black education, employment, pay, imprisonment, and by such stories as that of Mayor Eddie Carthan of Tchula,
Following Sister Wilson, Professor Del Hunter of Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York,
came forth to give testimony on the struggle for African education. Professor Hunter had worked as an assistant dean for a year, but was removed when he came down on the side of the African students who were fighting over the last year to remove a reactionary black petty bourgeois president and establish a progressive administration. Medgar Evers College represents the typical type of educa­tional institution reserved for African students. Located in the heart of Brownsville in Brooklyn, the college is under­funded and allows no control by the immediate African com­munity.
Professor Hunter pointed out that it is always necessary for an oppressive ruling class to control knowledge and values. The purpose of universities is first the discovery, production, and distribution of knowledge and, second, to reproduce a class of people with respon­sibility to see that knowledge is passed on. When Africans were first brought to the new world, we were not allowed to read or study or develop the arts. With the end of chattel slavery, the ruling class came up with the strategy of creating the "negro" out of Africans in an attempt to inter­nalize our subjugated status. The U.S. ruling class has set up a black petty bourgeois class of intellectuals and mediocre schools like Medgar Evers College so that African students are not engaged in institutions that discover and produce knowledge related to our needs. Instead we are re­quired to simply repeat the point of view and values handed down by the dominant North American powers. Although African students won some Black Studies departments dur­ing the Black Power wars of the 1960's, they have been under-financed and undermined so that black people still do
■\
not have our own institutions, have not been able to redefine our mission. It will require a revolution of all U.S. society before Africans can get a real education, and part of the struggle for revolution is African people creating our own base of knowledge.
During questioning by the People's Advocate and the Judges, Professor Hunter reviewed the role of the black church, the struggle by the oppressors to suppress African heritage and cosmology, and stated that black intellectuals can and must make a contribution to the struggle of African people in the U.S. for nationality.
Next to testify was the honorable Job Mashiriki, Chair­man of the Black Veterans for Social Justice. Comrade Mashiriki spoke representing the thousands of Africans who have been sent to wars by the U.S. ruling class since the War for Independence against Britain, who have been promised their freedom on each occasion, and have only suffered the highest casualties, lowest benefits, and con­stant armed harassment. He opened his remarks thus:
Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to be among such a noble and august body. We know that you have travel­led far and inconvenienced yourself to be present here on this historic occasion, to give our organization and our people an opportunity to vent our long-standing grievances against this government. We hope our short testimony will contribute to your inevitable conclusion that the U.S. government is guilty of mass genocide and degradation against Africans here in America.
Our organization has known this fact for centu­ries. History has taught us. Historically, black people have always fought for this country inside and outside of the military. The economic wealth and development of this country was built on the backs of black slave labor. All persons who enjoy the fruits of so-called democracy today enjoy it at the expense of black blood, sweat, tears, and lives.
As an organization of black veterans from World War II to the Vietnam War, who fought in these wars, our motto is, "Blacks fight no one else's war no more." We have adopted this motto because of our experience in this country. However, this motto doesn't exclude us from fighting our own war, I want to be clear on that, such as in Azania, Namibia, Mississippi, or New York. In the course of reviewing the criminal history of the U.S. government's treatment of Africans in the U.S. military, Comrade Mashiriki brought out many profound facts to underline his argument. For instance, while black Gl's suf­fered disproportionate casualties in Vietnam because the officers placed us in the line of withering fire, Vietnam veterans face the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. for that age group, and African veterans have the highest rate among these; the military gave 257,000 "Less Than Honorable" Discharges to Vietnam vets in order to punish the defiant or strong and deny them all veteran benefits; of these, 3/4 are black and Latin. Africans have always had to fight on two fronts, overseas and in the U.S., as the suppres­sion of African soldiers in Brownsville, Texas testifies to; in fact, prior to World War I, more black people had been killed by the KKK than in U.S. wars. Many statistics are hard to un­cover, and in fact members of Black Veterans for Social Justice were barred from the Pentagon when they went there seeking statistics on black casualties, tours of duty, and discharges. Finally, in response to questions, Comrade Mashiriki pointed out that Africans in the military have always provided the backbone of resistance to imperialist military ventures, and gave real heart of the slogan "Hell No, We Won't Go!"
The next witness was African Revolutionary Health Activist Ebun Adelona. Sister Adelona pointed out forcefully the ways health is too often neglected or looked at from a narrow perspective. She stated:
We are involved in the struggle for the health of
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the people, and we see the struggle for health as one of the most basic and fundamental, because if you do not have a people that are healthy, you do not have a peo­ple that can engage in any kind of struggle in any of the areas that we struggle in. We cannot wage a liberation struggle without a people that are healthy; you cannot wage an armed struggle if you are not able to take care of the health of the people; you cannot in any way move forward if you are not dealing with health.
Comrade Adelona proceeded to bring forth the most extensive documentation on the health status of African people in New York and throughout the U.S. in order to demonstrate further our right to reparations. She pointed out that for African women negative pregnancy outcomes are highest and infant mortality rates are at least 36 percent higher than whites. In many cases, African activists have had to carry out independent research, block by block studies, to uncover the causes of African health oppression. Often such studies reveal the relations between health status and the environment. For instance, studies on the high asthma rates for African children suggest an associa­tion with the high incidence of roaches in apartments rented to Africans, and an allergic reaction to roach drop­pings in the children. Studies of people who freeze to death in the winter require extensive work since the Department of Health of New York masks such tragedies by listing the cause of death as "heart failure."
She testified abo'ut the ways that the multi-billion dollar health industry and the government are conspiring to pro­vide less services to Africans while concentrating on the lucrative white middle class market, thus pushing the African population below the survival level, meaning genocide. For instance, bankruptcies of hospitals are the result of government pulling back funding sources. Of the 48 hospitals closing nationally this year, 39 served a predominantly black population. Of the $10.7 billion spent in
New York City for medical facilities in 1980, more than 50 percent went to support a little string of hospitals in the wealthy East Side. In Manhattan, the city closed Sydenham Hospital in Harlem because it was allegedly operating at a deficit. You don't hear the term "deficit" in relation to the mammoth police department budget.
Comrade Adelona pointed out the ways struggle to save Sydenham Hospital had documented the state's com­plicity in genocide. This and other hospital closings mean death for African people, pave the way for gentrification of African neighborhoods by killing off the inhabitants, and create a captive population which must act at the will of the government planners. African people are in struggle to get decent health care for our people while breaking from the ideological definitions of health processes which have evolved by capitalism in the pursuit of profit. Much more documentation was provided in written form, including the important areas of mental health, sterilization, and abortion rights.
Unfortunately, Dr. John Boiling, Director of the Man-dala Center and member of the Association off Black Psychiatrists, was forced to leave for other commitments when the Tribunal testimony was running late. Unable to testify, Dr. Boiling submitted his testimony (in writing) on the effects of oppression in the U.S. on African psychology.
The last witness to appear before the International Tri­bunal on Saturday was Mafundi Lake, one of the founders of the heroic Inmates for Action in Atmore and Holman prisons in Alabama and a long-time African prison resister. Brother Mafundi came forward and remarked that this was the first time he had been before a judge when he wasn't on trial himself. He then proceeded to recount, through personal experience, the damning proof that prison functions as a form of genocide, that it, serves the same function as those terroristic slave-drivers known as "nigger breakers" because they were assigned the responsibility of breaking the will and resistance of Africans who would not submit to
12
slavery.
He exposed the ways the prisons of Alabama, and in the rest of the U.S., use terroristic violence and isolation to break the spirit. Mafundi himself served 13 years of a 13 year sentence for a 38 dollar robbery he did not commit.
In all, he showed how the prisons represent extensive behavior modification centers based on crude techniques of reward and punishment.
Comrade Mafundi also brought out the ways Africans have managed to fight back. In Atmore, the African prison­ers formed Inmates for Action (IFA), which was both a military resistance formation committed to establishing conditions in which Africans could survive—by threatening and taking retaliatory measures against guards and white lackeys—as well as being a political and cultural formation which would raise the consciousness and sense of purpose among African prisoners.
IFA proved to be the strongest prison formation in the South, and organized work stoppages as well as ending the degrading "yessuh...nossuh" stance that African prisoners had been forced to take with the guards. Finally, with the overall decline of the Black Power Movement in the 70's because of government military assault, the prison author­ities were able to break down IFA. They transferred leaders like Mafundi out of the prison, and brutally murdered many others, such as Frank X Moore. Those who took up the struggle in Atmore and Holman, however, have not been en­tirely wiped out and the struggling African people keep com­ing back. Although prison leaves physical and mental scars on all Africans who have been subjected to it, it also educates our people to the terms and the seriousness of the struggle.
International Judge Samba Mbuub asked Mafundi about the use of prisoners as involuntary laborers. Mafundi pointed out that Atmore prison, for example, is a multi-million dollar agricultural industry, producing all types of farm products which are marketed by capitalist businesses,
even though the prisoners get to eat none of the fresh food oduced. Kaseam Ashbourne of BALSA asked if Mafundi tried to organize in his more recent period in prison and if he found some of the brothers to be unreachable. Comrade Mafundi, a true organizer and people's leader, said he never found anyone who was unreachable. He pointed out the fact that the movement is in a weakened state today, but there is always another battle to take on, and structures to rebuild and strengthen. During his entire testimony, you could hear a pin drop in the auditorium, so dramatic and moving was his story. When finished, the audience gave him the tribute of sustained applause, and he left the witness stand to handshakes from those present.
If one day had condensed so many aspects of our peo­ple's oppression and exposed so many aspects of our strug­gle for liberation, from health care to the prison system to the military to the schools, it was simply evidentiary over-kill to conduct an entire second day of hearings and testimony. In fact, however, many days could be conducted of this Tribunal, and it could be convened in every black communi­ty in the country and have lines of our people waiting eager­ly to present testimony.
The second day of testimony at the International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S. opened with an explanation by the People's Advocate, APSP Chair­man Omali Yeshitela, of the Historical Brief which was be­ing presented to the International Judges. This Historical Brief, 58 pages long, was prepared under the leadership of the African People's Socialist Party to summarize extensive research on the history of stolen labor and wealth from African people in the past 400 years. The brief looks at three historical periods: Chattel Slavery from 1619 to 1865, Southern peasant labor from 1865 to 1945, and urbanization and proletarianization of the African domestic colony from 1945 to today. This research explained in great detail how the primitive accumulation of capitalism was carried out on the backs of African people and the colonization of Africans
14
in the U.S. provided the basic wealth of capitalism in every period of history, and in fact the amount of wealth extracted from Africans has increased over the centuries. This research has proved that, even by conservative estimates, African people are owed $4.1 trillion (that's $4100 billion) by the U.S. government for stolen labor alone.
Following the Historical Brief, Kwame Brathwaite of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition and the African Jazz Art Studio (AJAZ) came forward to present testimony on the theft of African culture. Brother Brathwaite reviewed the capital offenses that were committed by the Europeans in kidnaping African people. He pointed out that the kidnapers did not just take laborers, but also scientists, teachers, and peoples' healers and leaders. In other words, they stole the culture by attempting to destroy it in Africa and outlawing the practice of African culture in the Americas. In addition, African cultural expressions such as jazz, blues, and other [ forms have been taken over by white capitalists, and even black practitioners are dependent on white promoters, club owners, and record companies to make a living today. Moreover, these capitalists set the terms for the type of culture that comes out, supressing such rhythm and blues songs as "Unity," "Wake Up Everybody," and "Don't Call Me Brother" while promoting contentless words like "I Love Music." He called for Africans to seize back our culture and develop self sufficiency so that we can build our own national identity and struggle.
The next witness called was Penny Hess of the Com­mittee in Solidarity with African Independence, a North American (white) woman who was called to give testimony on the political stand of the white working class and the potential for internationalist solidarity between African and North American people. She gave testimony on her work over the last 6 years in campaigns led by the African People's Socialist Party which called for solidarity and sup­port from the North American population, including the African National Prison Organization Solidarity Committee
and the Dessie Woods Support Committee, as well as solidarity work for the International Reparations Tribunal.
She brought out the basic truth that African people are colonized inside the U.S. and therefore provide a buffer for the North American working class, since the brunt of the attacks and exploitation from the U.S. government is aimed at the African community. For this reason, there is no pro­gressive movement possible in the U.S. without solidarity with the struggle of Africans for independence. In order to go beyond a cynical bargain with the capitalist class for the division of colonial spoils, North American workers must have the courage to build strong solidarity with the African people's demand for reparations. In giving thorough testi­mony on the real class interest of North American workers for revolution and the reactionary choices that have so often been taken by North Americans because of the material benefits they derive from colonialism, Comrade Hess strongly exposed the international importance of the African anti-colonial struggle.
While the African struggle for independence has so often been betrayed by North Americans, sometimes especially those who profess to come forward to give solidarity to our struggle, the honest and courageous testimony of Penny Hess was a welcome expression of soli­darity. She was questioned at length by the international judges to learn of the kinds of U.S. State attacks the solidar­ity movement has suffered, the efforts that are being made to win North Americans to solidarity, the way the solidarity committee takes on the political expose7 of the so-called multi-nationalist leftist organizations, and how reactionary movements in the white community are being countered.
The next witness was Afeni Shakur, a former member of the Black Panther Party in New York who was jailed and tried in the COINTELPRO-led Panther 21 case in 1969-1971. She is working now in the Grand Jury Project to counter U.S. State attacks on the African struggle. After pointing out that she was testifying not as an expert but as a victim of COIN-
16
TELPRO, Sister Afeni proceeded to give the most detailed account of the functioning of the U.S. government's repressive apparatus against the Black Liberation Struggle. She exposed that the COINTEL Program of the FBI is a military operation with specific functions, goals, and objec­tives—to neutralize a hostile people's movement. Because of the mass resistance of black people in the U.S., the U.S. government has murdered thousands of our youth and attacked our community which resulted in such changing statistics as the fact that the New York prison population was 30 per cent African in 1956 and is 80 percent African today. In struggling to free such political prisoners and Prisoners of War as Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, Safiya Bukari, Dhoruba Moore, Herman Bell, Nuh Washington, and Anthony Bottoms, the black movement has been trying for a long time to gain international support and awareness. The only international examination we have been able to get was from Amnesty International which issued the "Proposal for a Commission of Inquiry into the Effects of Domestic Intelligence Actions on Criminal Trials within the United States."
Comrade Afeni brought out information about some of the most notorious traitors and informers our movement has had to deal with. For example, Gene Roberts was a New York and Federal government informer when he worked with Malcolm X, even acting as his body guard and pretending to give Malcolm mouth-to-mouth resusitation at the Audubon Ballroom when he was assassinated in 1965. Roberts then went on to infiltrate the Black Panthers, using his creden­tials as a trusted security cadre for Malcolm X, and set up the arrest of the Panther 21. Likewise, the security cadre in the Chicago Panthers who set up the murder of Fred Hamp­ton and Mark Clark was a pig named O'Neill who supple­mented his informers pay with armed robberies he was never prosecuted for. When asked by Ladepoo Salankey of Barbados how she suggested we keep informers out of our organizations, Sister Afeni replied:
I can't give the last word, I can only give this word. But it is really my opinion that in reality this is not something that can be prevented; that in the history of any people's liberation movement, I do not believe any­one has been able to eliminate this possibility. By the revelation of these things, people are made to be more careful. But my whole point about the case of Gene Roberts is that I'm not sure how much more careful anybody could have been around that particular per­son. And that to me is really a great example of how, even though most people should remember how para­noid the Panthers were—people would be searched before they could come in and when someone would be speaking there would be people here on all sides. But in fact what I have found to be true is that there is no way to prevent infiltration. What we have to have as our priority is first of all we have got to know that we are fighting a just war; we have got to know that our struggle is just; we have got to personally and in­dividually be moral people. We can't be corrupt, you know, because it's in the areas of corruption that we are most vulnerable. It is in our areas of weakness where we have vices that we are most apt to be cor­rupted and thereby subverted. So for each one of us that is serious, we just really have to be a moral people. Not that we should not be concerned about agents, you know, but I know for me I'm sure that I come across agents every day of my life, and the only defense that I have is that I have made up my mind that I'm going to fight this until it's over and nobody's going to intim­idate me and get me off my point. After extensive further testimony, covering the current grand jury investigating the Brinks expropriation of last year and the attacks on such freedom fighters as Sekou Odinga, Sister Afeni entertained more questions. International Observer Ike Mfoli of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania asked about the Panther community programs. He said:
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It is clear the methods used here are the same as in South Africa, with the goal of the total physical liquida­tion of the movement. These are not short term, they are long term goals. Therefore we should also accept that our struggle is a long and protracted and arduous one. I would like to ask what happened to the Black Panther Party programs that built the mass movement, programs which were also adopted by the Black Con­sciousness Movement in Africa and which today gives a mass base and ongoing strength to the struggle.
He described how the dual power institutions of the African population in Azania were inspired by the Black Power movement in the U.S. and the Panther Breakfast for Children program, medical clinics, etc. and these dual power institutions allowed the African struggle to maintain continuity, to produce new leaders when Steve Biko and others were murdered.
Sister Afeni responded that "it is one of the sorrows of my life that we lost these programs. We don't do it enough and as forcefully as we should." She explained how the African revolution requires both a strong community institu­tional base and the capacity to defend it. The Black Panther Party was overwhelmed by a massive military assault, but the black movement continues to build all levels of the struggle.
Following a break for lunch, People's Advocate Omali Yeshitela called the court to session and welcomed form­ally Queen Mother Moore and put into evidence the repara­tions claim which African people had made in 1962 against the U.S. government. Then Akil Al-Jundi, an Attica Brother who was involved in the rebellion of 1971 at Attica Prison in New York and continues working today in the fight for black freedom was called to the witness stand. Comrade Akil greeted the Tribunal on behalf of the 61 revolutionaries who were tried for the Attica rebellion, and the 43 who were murdered by the military assault ordered by New York gov­ernor Nelson Rockefeller on September 13, 1971. He put
20
forth for a matter of record the names of comrades killed at Attica and the cause of death as reported by the McCabe Commission, such dear and brave heroes as William Allen, L.D. Barkley, John Barnes, Alan Durham, William Fuller, Melvin Gray, Tommy Hicks, Immanual Johnson, Lorenzo McNeil, Ramon Rivera, Santiago Santos, and Rafael Vas-
ques.
Brother Akil Al-Jundi revealed that the widows of the
prison guards killed in the military assault on Attica recently won reparations of $1.6 million dollars from the State because they proved that excessive force had been used in taking the prison. He said that the families of the Attica vic­tims are pursuing a $2.8 billion civil suit against the Rockefeller estate because of the wrongful deaths which have already been established by the white guards' fam­ilies. Akil presented a copy of this suit to the International Body to be entered into the documentation to be taken before the world in African peoples' struggle for reparations. Comrade Akil testified that the Africans held in prisons in the U.S. stand in strong solidarity with the African and other colonized people in the world such as the revolu­tionary African people of Grenada, and that we join the peo­ple of the world in saying we will no longer be a colony. He concluded:
I want to say to the Chairman Omali Yeshitela, to the International Observers, to the International Jurists. We thank you for allowing us to be part of this Tribunal seeking reparations. The Germans have had to pay reparations to the Jews because of their dastardly acts against those people. The Japanese, raised the same question here in the United States of America seeking reparations from this government. No one, no one on the face of the planet earth has borne witness to the dastardly acts, the brutalizing acts, the hatred, the levels of racism, you can go from A to Z, no one has borne witness to it such as the African people who happen to occupy this part of the planet Earth, in
the United States of America. So if anyone on the face of the planet Earth has the right to seek reparations, then you know that we definitely should be on the top of the list. And so to those persons who assume responsibility to formulate the teach-ins that were be­ing held throughout the United States, to raise the issue again in this part of the century, because we are at the end of the 20th Century, and Sister Afeni spoke of her young son and daughter whom I have the honor to know, we want them to know that the issue of repa­rations is a valid issue within the struggle for our liberation. So whenever there's a call around the issue of reparations, there's a need for all of us to be as sup­portive as we can, for us to try to bring our friends, peo­ple from our work place, our families, to an event such as this because it has historical significance. Yes, the auditorium is not filled up with 50,000 people, but each of us represents 50,000 people and more. So it's not al­ways the quantity that determines the significance or the tenability of what people are attempting to do, it has to do with the quality, with the efforts that are put forth by the people that assume the responsibility to do that.
Brother Akil Al-Jundi was questioned by the Inter-] national Judges on the Attica rebellion and the police] attacks.
The Tribunal then moved on to testimony from commit­tees, individuals, and organizations concerning the struggle for reparations and the evidence of the need for reparations from their communities. Makil Shakur from the San Fran­cisco Committee to Build the Reparations Tribunal testified on the case of African children who were brutally murdered by a self-styled preacher who was outraged at the rejection he received from the African community. Malik also testi­fied on the continuing struggles in Hunter's Point and other! neighborhoods of African people for survival and liberation.
Then Lester Lewis, from the Caribbean People's Organiza­tion in London testified on the struggle of Africans in Britain and the Caribbean against imperialism, and revealed the feading impact that the African struggle in the U.S. has on Africans all over the world. Lewis pledged to carry out his duty to expand African Internationalism and the struggle for reparations.
Next, Shatahete of the St. Petersburg Committee to Build the Black Reparations Tribunal testified on the history of police attacks on African people in that part of Florida, such as the murder of Willie James Daniels in 1978 and the murder of Willie Grey in March of 1982. Wayman Earls from the Seattle Reparations Tribunal Committee testified on the conditions of Africans in the Northwest and refuted the myth that that region of the country is cleaner, safer, or less colonialist than the rest of the country; in proportion to the African population, Washington has more Africans in prison than the Eastern and Southern states. The bourgeoisie of Seattle is struggling to move Africans out of the Central Area in order to build white middle class housing; Comrade Wayman Earls also testified as to police murders such as Larry Ward, police harassment such as the arrest of Alice Smith, and the astronomical unemployment rate of Africans in Seattle.
Oronde Takuma, from the New York Reparations Tribunal Committee, testified on the work of the New York committee to gather evidence concerning the case of Africans for reparations, including three particular pro­grams which were held: black workers, black political prisoners and prisoners of war, and the special oppression of African women. Comrade Oronde Takuma entered stat­istics and evidence on police terror and murders of African people in the New York region.
From the Oakland, California, Reparations Tribunal Committee, two people gave testimony. Calvin Evans testified on the case of the police murder of young Melvin Black in March of 1979, as well as other incidents of police
22
harassment. Feazzar brought forth testimony from the African women struggling for reparations in the Oakland committee, on the incidents of police terror, medical terror, and attacks on their survival; this included testimony from Dessie Woods on her imprisonment for defending herself and a companion against rape and murder at the hands of a cracker reactionary, Ronnie Home, in Georgia.
Next, Sister Akila Akuoko from the National Committee to Free Yusef Alhakk testified on the courageous struggle of this leading revolutionary of the Buffalo nationalist community who has been given 12 years on a framed charge of robbery in 1977. Because of the pressing time problems, the International Judges then retired to consider their ver­dict while further testimony was put forth from African peo­ple who have a claim for reparations, as well as thousands of filled out reparations claims certificates being submitted.
When the International Judges met in private, they had an opportunity, with the Observers present, to review the evidence and discuss the basis on which they would be making a judgement on the U.S. government. The Judges discussed the United Nations, the fact that the pressure of the masses of the world is required to make that body take any positive stands, and the reactionary role the U.S. had played in all international affairs, including trying to block any meaningful human rights action while pretending to be the world champion of human rights. The International Judges returned and let the People's Advocate re