Twenty-five years ago, the December 12th Movement and the National Black United Front (NBUF), organized a delegation of 400 Black people - the Durban 400 - to travel to the World Conference to actively participate in the conference.
Holding events on 8/29 is a call to action by the December 12th Movement (D12) that will redirect the global conversation on reparations towards the material conditions of Black people in the United States.
The events provide an opportunity for a new generation of Black folk to get involved with reparations by learning about the 2001 World Conference, and the Durban Declaration Programme of Action (DDPA). It's a chance to learn about what happened at the Durban conference where slavery and the Transatlantic slave trade was declared a crime against humanity and should always have been so.
8/29 will serve as a reminder of the victory earned at the 2001 in Durban that laid the foundation to internationalizing the reparations movement on the world stage.
Background
In 2001, Durban, South Africa became the flashpoint as the respective struggles and movements of African, Latino, Asian and Indigenous peoples against racism, coalesced.
Their lived and historical experiences with racism helped to inform their goal of crafting a plan, a framework to address the multiple areas negatively impacted by racism.
Bonded together by the legacies of racism, slavery, apartheid and colonialism, they stepped to the world stage placing the developed and rich nations of the Western world under scrutiny before the international community. The nations of the global North were confronted with demands from Africans and people of African descent from across the world.
They came to Durban to change the narrative. To reject the notion about forgetting the past. To expose the linkage of their poverty and economic disparities to their respective colonial histories. To make the argument that their respective underdevelopment is rooted in slavery and colonialism. They came to highlight the widening gaps between the developing and developed nations from a criminal past that profited from free slave labor and genocide.
The document to come out of the 2001 Durban Conference, the Durban Declaration Programme of Action or the DDPA is the first of its kind to address the issue of racism and racial discrimination in a concrete manner. The DDPA has the framework for a detailed action-oriented plan for actors in the international community to confront the issue in a tangible way. A wide range of areas affected by systemic racism experienced by Africans, people of African descent along with people of Asian descent and Indigenous peoples, are covered in the DDPA.
Attorney Roger Wareham, December 12th Movement explained, “The Durban Conference and the DDPA set the foundation for the current reparations' movement in the US and around the world. The DDPA is almost unknown in the US because since 2001, the US government has done everything in its power to disappear it...”
Along with promoting the access to basic social services, including primary education, basic health care and adequate housing, the DDPA calls for states to, “...adopt or strengthen, as appropriate, national programmes for eradicating poverty” and “...to take steps to ensure equal access to comprehensive, quality health care affordable for all, including primary health care for medically underserved people…”.
In addition to addressing poverty and health care, the DDPA also includes actions for the international community to implement in areas such as the protection of worker rights, policing, racial profiling, and mass incarceration. The DDPA also includes electoral politics, particularly citing the role of elected officials and political parties as legislators.
8/29
The 8/29 events and beyond will draw attention towards the crime that took place - American chattel slavery. To shed light on the conspiracy, on the extensive collaboration needed to build the American political economy that enabled their role in the global capitalist economy. To remind folks that slavery was the economic roots to the American political economy.
The events will feature discussions and presentations about the material conditions that Black people are experiencing today while amplifying the current organizing and education work taking place on a local level by local reparations organizations, task forces and commissions.
For several days leading up to and after 8/29, several cities will commemorate the 25th anniversary with different events such as rallies, teach-ins, webinars and film screenings. New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington D.C, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta and London will host events to draw attention to the historic 2001 conference.
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