Agenda item

Motion received:

 

 Atonement and Reparation for Bristol’s role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) 

 

Differences in power manifest in asymmetrical access – a privilege which continues to run along racial lines. To re-imagine race equality, we have to be mindful of the past and how inequalities continue to manifest. We should reflect on how racial inequalities are embedded in the current economic system. Afrikan heritage people and communities systematically have poorer economic outcomes. Unless these systemic failures and their drivers and sources are identified and addressed, we are in danger of replicating them in any attempt to design a fair and resilient economy.

 

Historical attempts to disenfranchise these communities have resulted in the disproportionate health, economic and policing impacts experienced today. Alternative solutions and spaces are therefore needed, spaces which do not seek to privilege certain groups over others but seek to centre these voices, change the template, and create alternative solutions and spaces for Afrikan heritage people to thrive.

 

‘Reparations’ is a legal term defined by the UN which calls for ‘holistic repair’. Our city and our country need a ‘process of repair’ to re-examine the reality and impact of Afrikan enslavement and its ongoing impact on communities today. As outlined by the UN, reparations should be holistic and can include many initiatives including public apologies, social justice initiatives, education, cultural projects, commemorative ceremonies and affirmative action. Nobody has the answers as to exactly what reparations should look like – that’s why what we are calling for is a process of repair which hears from many of the voices in our communities that have been impacted and are often not heard.

 

Full Council notes: 

 

1.     The racial wealth divide is an economic archaeological marker rooted in the multigenerational history of the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA). To repair this division and to address the uncomfortable truth that lighter skin did (and continues to) confer greater advantage, reparations for this legacy must be part of the equation. The historical legacy of centuries of enslavement is fundamentally at the core of current poverty amongst people of Afrikan descent and this legacy has been left untreated.

 

2.     Reparative justice is about far more than money and is an acknowledgement of a crime against humanity. It is a recognition that no crime against humanity can occur with impunity. Reparations programs for victims of human rights violations are intended to bring justice to the victims. They are distinct from development, reconstruction, and victim assistance programs because they are a legal entitlement. They signal recognition that a human rights violation occurred and that victims were harmed and are therefore entitled to redress.

 

3.     Bristol played a major role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) which saw over 15 million Afrikans forcibly trafficked to the Caribbean and America with many thousands losing their lives during the crossing from Africa to the Americas on ships registered in Bristol. A significant amount of the institutional and corporate wealth of our city was founded through this atrocious episode in our collective history. ‘By the latter half of the century, Bristol’s position had been overtaken by Liverpool. But even as late as 1789, the trade to Africa and the West Indies was estimated to have comprised over 80 per cent of the total value of Bristol’s trade abroad.’(1) 

 

4.     Around 2 million people of Afrikan descent live in the United Kingdom itself, including an estimated 30,000 plus in Bristol which includes a high percentage of Afrikan Caribbean descendants. (2)  

 

5.     Racism and racial hierarchy continue to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice, such as class and sexism.

 

6.     While Bristol City Council is regarded as a leading council on tackling racial injustice and delivering social justice, Bristol as a city is only recently, and slowly, coming to terms with its role in the TTEA. Efforts need to be made to expedite the atonement process, and work needs to be done to achieve holistic reparations for the TTEA

 

7.     Bristol City Council have taken major strides forward in understanding, facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA and racial hierarchy throughout the city. This progress is being made through educating people in Bristol on Afrikan Caribbean and Black history, through the One Bristol Curriculum and the recently-established History Commission.

 

8.     The History Commission will assess the legacy of the TTEA in Bristol, and will identify institutions that benefitted from it with a view to help foster a broader understanding of their role in the TTEA, so they can work towards atonement and reparations for Afrikan Heritage Communities (ACH).

 

Since 2016 Bristol City Council has gone further than any previous administrations in developing an understanding of and facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA, Race and Racial hierarchy both within the Council itself and the wider city. From:

 

·       Public recognition of institutional racism, to the

·       Establishment of the Commission on Race Equality and the Legacy Steering Group

·       Publication of the UK’s first citywide Equality Charter

·       Delivery of the multi-award winning Stepping Up Leadership Programme

·       Recruitment of Black and Asian Magistrates

·       Implementation of Ban the Box

·       Pioneering work on Migrant and Refugees including the Global Compact on Migration,

·       The Transforming Race and Equality Report - A review of Council processes including HR recruitment by David Weaver which has resulted in the

·       Refreshment of BCC’s Equality and Inclusion Policy and strategy in the context of recent global and local events e.g. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter movement

·       Introduction of new FGM guidelines in response to community concerns leading to a drop in referrals.

·       Securing £500,000 of funding for a new HIV/Sexual Health Project for people of Afrikan Caribbean heritage

·       Delivery of two major conferences on Race and the City and Race Discrimination and Housing

 

9.     The aforementioned policies were all implemented alongside the Council’s work to tackle hunger and poverty, ensure economic development strategies have inclusion at their core, and its leadership on Climate, Ecology and the Sustainable Development Goals that has ensured it pursues a just transition.

 

10.  In 1833 the British Government used £20 million to compensate enslavers, the debt for which was not paid off until 2015. Formerly enslaved persons received no compensation. (3) 

 

11.  ‘The United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the ‘Right to A Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’ provides a framework for the reparatory justice system including, among other measures: an investigation of the facts, an official acknowledgment, and apology, a receipt of answers; an opportunity for victims to speak in a public forum about his/her experiences and to be actively involved the reparatory justice process.? 

 

12.  The various  efforts made by community activists and movements including?the Afrikan Connexions Consortium, Afrikan Voices Forum, the Council’s Legacy Steering Committee, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR), the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Reparations Committee, the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign, the Global Afrikan People's Parliament (GAPP), The Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee; and many others who have been working for many years to raise awareness of the lasting impact of enslavement. 

 

13.  That in 1993 Bernie Grant, MP tabled Early Day Motion (EDM) #1987 in the House of Commons welcoming the Abuja Proclamation after the first Pan-African Conference on Reparations sponsored by the Organisation of African Unity urging all countries who were enriched by enslavement and colonisation to review the case for reparations for “Africa and to Africans in the Diaspora”.

14.  Since 2015, the Stop the Maangamizi Campaign (The Maangamizi is the Afrikan Hellacaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial forms of enslavement) in association with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee have been organising the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March. The campaign presents the Stop the Maangamizi Petition to the Office of the UK Prime Minister annually calling for the establishment an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.

15.  Collaborative working between Green Party members, Green Party politicians and campaigners leading to further cross party working, enabled reparations motions similar to this one being passed in Lambeth and Islington in the summer of 2020.

16.  The Green Party passed a reparations motion at their Autumn conference in 2020 with 95% support by members.

 

 

Full Council believes:? 

 

1.     It must be a priority for Bristol to actively acknowledge this history and actively seek to bring about reconciliation and reparations by lending and leading its voice as an institution towards remedial holistic reparations and action towards the legacies that continue to plague contemporary life for descendants of the Afrikan Caribbean enslaved. The continuation of harm and discrimination manifests itself in but is not limited to:

·       over representation in the mental health system,

·       discrimination within the criminal justice system,

·       poverty and disadvantage.   

 

2.     The International Decade for People of Afrikan Descent, proclaimed by UN General Assembly?resolution 68/237?and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of Afrikan descent and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development.?Such a process is long overdue in Bristol. 

3.     Reparations are necessary for achieving social justice, as racism and racial hierarchy continues to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice such as class and sexism. 

 

Full Council resolves:? 

? 

To call on Councillors, the Mayor or the Chief Executive as appropriate to: 

? 

1.     Write to the Speakers of both Houses of the UK Parliament, Chair of the Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, and Chair of the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee to express Bristol City Council’s view that they should consider establishing, and seeking UK Government support for, an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. The purpose of this unprecedented commission would be to work on the scope of how reparations may be delivered and may also include for example raising concerns about how tax payers were until 2015 paying back compensation paid to enslavers.(4)

 

2.     Support Afrikan Heritage Community (AHC) organisations in Bristol to galvanise support for the emerging Bristol AHC led 'Reparations Plan' from, and in collaboration with, wider stakeholders including institutions, city strategic leaders, corporate leaders, key strategic programmes/initiatives and cross-party politicians.

 

3.     Implement Community Wealth Creation strategies that support and encourage community wealth building to produce more sustainable equitable growth whilst alleviating systemic poverty. The social economy, civil society and community wealth are the key to fair employment and equitable growth. The community wealth building model of economic development is emerging in our cities and communities offering real, on-the-ground solutions to localities and regions battered by successive waves of extraction, disinvestment, displacement, and disempowerment. If the source of racial injustice in the twenty-first century is the economic injustice or domination of the global economy established in the seventeenth century, then a more just economy is the only way to sustainably achieve racial justice.

 

4.     Recognise that reparative justice should be driven by Afrikan Heritage Communities experiences, voices and perspectives to ensure that advocacy messages not only reflect but also respond to the real needs of the community in order to recognise inequalities.

 

 

 

Joint Motion by the Green Party and Labour Party

Motion to be moved by: Cllr Cleo Lake?/ Cllr Asher Craig

? 

Date of submission:  15^th February 2021

 

 

 

Footnotes 

 

1.     https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/stories/bristol-transatlantic-slave-trade/  

    

2.     Estimates based on most recent census (2011) 

 

3.     A petition gaining 10,000 signatures expresses the disgust at this fact, which many people, not just those of Afrikan Caribbean heritage, find completely abhorrent: https://www.change.org/p/refund-our-taxes-paid-to-compensate-enslavers 
 

4.     The terms of reference for this commission of inquiry should focus on the need to inform the public of the nature of colonialism and enslavement, as well as its long-term consequences including present-day impacts upon both individuals and communities. The Commission’s work should be of a participatory nature, calling for submissions from all those with knowledge of the nature and impacts of colonialism and slavery.  

 

This will aim to include, but not be limited to, testimony from: individuals, organisations, academics, communities, and nations. Affected communities and individuals must have their own voice, agency, and self-determined solutions in effecting reparatory justice and steps must be taken to facilitate their participation in any reparatory process in which the United Kingdom is engaged. 

 

Ultimately the goal is to secure holistic reparations - including but not limited to financial compensation - as defined by the UN’s ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines’. These include mechanisms for restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees for non-repetition. See notes below. 

 

Notes: 

? 

·       Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law: OHCHR | Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation (see in particular IX. Reparation for harm suffered point 19. Restitution)   

 

·       Legacies of British Slave-ownership - UCL: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/    

 

·       Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation – UN Office of the High Commissioner: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/remedyandreparation.aspx  

 

·       Stop the Maangamizi Campaign: https://stopthemaangamizi.com/ 

 

Councillor Lake moved the following motion:

 

Atonement and Reparation for Bristol’s role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) 

 

Differences in power manifest in asymmetrical access – a privilege which continues to run along racial lines. To re-imagine race equality, we have to be mindful of the past and how inequalities continue to manifest. We should reflect on how racial inequalities are embedded in the current economic system. Afrikan heritage people and communities systematically have poorer economic outcomes. Unless these systemic failures and their drivers and sources are identified and addressed, we are in danger of replicating them in any attempt to design a fair and resilient economy.

 

Historical attempts to disenfranchise these communities have resulted in the disproportionate health, economic and policing impacts experienced today. Alternative solutions and spaces are therefore needed, spaces which do not seek to privilege certain groups over others but seek to centre these voices, change the template, and create alternative solutions and spaces for Afrikan heritage people to thrive.

 

‘Reparations’ is a legal term defined by the UN which calls for ‘holistic repair’. Our city and our country need a ‘process of repair’ to re-examine the reality and impact of Afrikan enslavement and its ongoing impact on communities today. As outlined by the UN, reparations should be holistic and can include many initiatives including public apologies, social justice initiatives, education, cultural projects, commemorative ceremonies and affirmative action. Nobody has the answers as to exactly what reparations should look like – that’s why what we are calling for is a processof repair which hears from many of the voices in our communities that have been impacted and are often not heard.

 

Full Council notes: 

 

1.       The racial wealth divide is an economic archaeological marker rooted in the multigenerational history of the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA). To repair this division and to address the uncomfortable truth that lighter skin did (and continues to) confer greater advantage, reparations for this legacy must be part of the equation. The historical legacy of centuries of enslavement is fundamentally at the core of current poverty amongst people of Afrikan descent and this legacy has been left untreated.

 

2.       Reparative justice is about far more than money and is an acknowledgement of a crime against humanity. It is a recognition that no crime against humanity can occur with impunity. Reparations programs for victims of human rights violations are intended to bring justice to the victims. They are distinct from development, reconstruction, and victim assistance programs because they are a legal entitlement. They signal recognition that a human rights violation occurred and that victims were harmed and are therefore entitled to redress.

 

3.       Bristol played a major role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) which saw over 15 million Afrikans forcibly trafficked to the Caribbean and America with many thousands losing their lives during the crossing from Africa to the Americas on ships registered in Bristol. A significant amount of the institutional and corporate wealth of our city was founded through this atrocious episode in our collective history. ‘By the latter half of the century, Bristol’s position had been overtaken by Liverpool. But even as late as 1789, the trade to Africa and the West Indies was estimated to have comprised over 80 per cent of the total value of Bristol’s trade abroad.’(1) 

 

4.       Around 2 million people of Afrikan descent live in the United Kingdom itself, including an estimated 30,000 plus in Bristol which includes a high percentage of Afrikan Caribbean descendants. (2)  

 

5.       Racism and racial hierarchy continue to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice, such as class and sexism.

 

6.       While Bristol City Council is regarded as a leading council on tackling racial injustice and delivering social justice, Bristol as a city is only recently, and slowly, coming to terms with its role in the TTEA. Efforts need to be made to expedite the atonement process, and work needs to be done to achieve holistic reparations for the TTEA

 

7.       Bristol City Council have taken major strides forward in understanding, facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA and racial hierarchy throughout the city. This progress is being made through educating people in Bristol on Afrikan Caribbean and Black history, through the One Bristol Curriculum and the recently-established History Commission.

 

8.       The History Commission will assess the legacy of the TTEA in Bristol, and will identify institutions that benefitted from it with a view to help foster a broader understanding of their role in the TTEA, so they can work towards atonement and reparations for Afrikan Heritage Communities (ACH).

 

Since 2016 Bristol City Council has gone further than any previous administrations in developing an understanding of and facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA, Race and Racial hierarchy both within the Council itself and the wider city. From:

 

·         Public recognition of institutional racism, to the

·         Establishment of the Commission on Race Equality and the Legacy Steering Group

·         Publication of the UK’s first citywide Equality Charter

·         Delivery of the multi-award winning Stepping Up Leadership Programme

·         Recruitment of Black and Asian Magistrates

·         Implementation of Ban the Box

·         Pioneering work on Migrant and Refugees including the Global Compact on Migration,

·         The Transforming Race and Equality Report - A review of Council processes including HR recruitment by David Weaver which has resulted in the

·         Refreshment of BCC’s Equality and Inclusion Policy and strategy in the context of recent global and local events e.g. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter movement

·         Introduction of new FGM guidelines in response to community concerns leading to a drop in referrals.

·         Securing £500,000 of funding for a new HIV/Sexual Health Project for people of Afrikan Caribbean heritage

·         Delivery of two major conferences on Race and the City and Race Discrimination and Housing

 

9.       The aforementioned policies were all implemented alongside the Council’s work to tackle hunger and poverty, ensure economic development strategies have inclusion at their core, and its leadership on Climate, Ecology and the Sustainable Development Goals that has ensured it pursues a just transition.

 

10.   In 1833 the British Government used £20 million to compensate enslavers, the debt for which was not paid off until 2015. Formerly enslaved persons received no compensation. (3) 

 

11.   ‘The United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the ‘Right to A Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’ provides a framework for the reparatory justice system including, among other measures: an investigation of the facts, an official acknowledgment, and apology, a receipt of answers; an opportunity for victims to speak in a public forum about his/her experiences and to be actively involved the reparatory justice process.? 

 

12.   The various  efforts made by community activists and movements including?the Afrikan Connexions Consortium, Afrikan Voices Forum, the Council’s Legacy Steering Committee, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR), the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Reparations Committee, the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign, the Global Afrikan People's Parliament (GAPP), The Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee; and many others who have been working for many years to raise awareness of the lasting impact of enslavement. 

 

13.   That in 1993 Bernie Grant, MP tabled Early Day Motion (EDM) #1987 in the House of Commons welcoming the Abuja Proclamation after the first Pan-African Conference on Reparations sponsored by the Organisation of African Unity urging all countries who were enriched by enslavement and colonisation to review the case for reparations for “Africa and to Africans in the Diaspora”.

14.   Since 2015, the Stop the Maangamizi Campaign (The Maangamizi is the Afrikan Hellacaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial forms of enslavement) in association with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee have been organising the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March. The campaign presents the Stop the Maangamizi Petition to the Office of the UK Prime Minister annually calling for the establishment an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.

15.   Collaborative working between Green Party members, Green Party politicians and campaigners leading to further cross party working, enabled reparations motions similar to this one being passed in Lambeth and Islington in the summer of 2020.

16.   The Green Party passed a reparations motion at their Autumn conference in 2020 with 95% support by members.

 

 

Full Council believes:? 

 

1.       It must be a priority for Bristol to actively acknowledge this history and actively seek to bring about reconciliation and reparations by lending and leading its voice as an institution towards remedial holistic reparations and action towards the legacies that continue to plague contemporary life for descendants of the Afrikan Caribbean enslaved. The continuation of harm and discrimination manifests itself in but is not limited to:

·         over representation in the mental health system,

·         discrimination within the criminal justice system,

·         poverty and disadvantage.   

 

2.       The International Decade for People of Afrikan Descent, proclaimed by UN General Assembly?resolution 68/237?and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of Afrikan descent and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development.?Such a process is long overdue in Bristol. 

3.       Reparations are necessary for achieving social justice, as racism and racial hierarchy continues to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice such as class and sexism. 

 

Full Council resolves:? 

? 

To call on councillors, the Mayor or other appropriate council agency to: 

? 

1.       Write to the Speakers of both Houses of the UK Parliament, Chair of the Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, and Chair of the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee to express Bristol City Council’s view that they should consider establishing, and seeking UK Government support for, an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. The purpose of this unprecedented commission would be to work on the scope of how reparations may be delivered and may also include for example raising concerns about how tax payers were until 2015 paying back compensation paid to enslavers.(4)

 

2.       Support Afrikan Heritage Community (AHC) organisations in Bristol to galvanise support for the emerging Bristol AHC led 'Reparations Plan' from, and in collaboration with, wider stakeholders including institutions, city strategic leaders, corporate leaders, key strategic programmes/initiatives and cross-party politicians.

 

3.       Implement Community Wealth Creation strategies that support and encourage community wealth building to produce more sustainable equitable growth whilst alleviating systemic poverty. The social economy, civil society and community wealth are the key to fair employment and equitable growth. The community wealth building model of economic development is emerging in our cities and communities offering real, on-the-ground solutions to localities and regions battered by successive waves of extraction, disinvestment, displacement, and disempowerment. If the source of racial injustice in the twenty-first century is the economic injustice or domination of the global economy established in the seventeenth century, then a more just economy is the only way to sustainably achieve racial justice.

 

4.       Recognise that reparative justice should be driven by Afrikan Heritage Communities experiences, voices and perspectives to ensure that advocacy messages not only reflect but also respond to the real needs of the community in order to recognise inequalities.

 

Footnotes 

 

1.       https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/stories/bristol-transatlantic-slave-trade/  

    

2.       Estimates based on most recent census (2011) 

 

3.       A petition gaining 10,000 signatures expresses the disgust at this fact, which many people, not just those of Afrikan Caribbean heritage, find completely abhorrent: https://www.change.org/p/refund-our-taxes-paid-to-compensate-enslavers 
 

4.       The terms of reference for this commission of inquiry should focus on the need to inform the public of the nature of colonialism and enslavement, as well as its long-term consequences including present-day impacts upon both individuals and communities. The Commission’s work should be of a participatory nature, calling for submissions from all those with knowledge of the nature and impacts of colonialism and slavery.  

 

This will aim to include, but not be limited to, testimony from: individuals, organisations, academics, communities, and nations. Affected communities and individuals must have their own voice, agency, and self-determined solutions in effecting reparatory justice and steps must be taken to facilitate their participation in any reparatory process in which the United Kingdom is engaged. 

 

Ultimately the goal is to secure holistic reparations - including but not limited to financial compensation - as defined by the UN’s ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines’. These include mechanisms for restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees for non-repetition. See notes below. 

 

Notes: 

? 

·         Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law: OHCHR | Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation (see in particular IX. Reparation for harm suffered point 19. Restitution)   

 

·         Legacies of British Slave-ownership - UCL: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/    

 

·         Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation – UN Office of the High Commissioner: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/remedyandreparation.aspx  

 

·         Stop the Maangamizi Campaign: https://stopthemaangamizi.com/ 

 

 

 

 

 

The motion was seconded by Councillor Craig.

 

There was a debate, following which the Lord Mayor invited Mayor Rees to speak.

 

Councillors Craig and Lake the summed up as mover and seconder of the motion.

 

Upon being put to the vote, the original motion was CARRIED (47 For, 12 against with no absentions) and it was

 

RESOLVED:

 

Differences in power manifest in asymmetrical access – a privilege which continues to run along racial lines. To re-imagine race equality, we have to be mindful of the past and how inequalities continue to manifest. We should reflect on how racial inequalities are embedded in the current economic system. Afrikan heritage people and communities systematically have poorer economic outcomes. Unless these systemic failures and their drivers and sources are identified and addressed, we are in danger of replicating them in any attempt to design a fair and resilient economy.

 

Historical attempts to disenfranchise these communities have resulted in the disproportionate health, economic and policing impacts experienced today. Alternative solutions and spaces are therefore needed, spaces which do not seek to privilege certain groups over others but seek to centre these voices, change the template, and create alternative solutions and spaces for Afrikan heritage people to thrive.

 

‘Reparations’ is a legal term defined by the UN which calls for ‘holistic repair’. Our city and our country need a ‘process of repair’ to re-examine the reality and impact of Afrikan enslavement and its ongoing impact on communities today. As outlined by the UN, reparations should be holistic and can include many initiatives including public apologies, social justice initiatives, education, cultural projects, commemorative ceremonies and affirmative action. Nobody has the answers as to exactly what reparations should look like – that’s why what we are calling for is a process of repair which hears from many of the voices in our communities that have been impacted and are often not heard.

 

Full Council notes: 

 

17.   The racial wealth divide is an economic archaeological marker rooted in the multigenerational history of the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA). To repair this division and to address the uncomfortable truth that lighter skin did (and continues to) confer greater advantage, reparations for this legacy must be part of the equation. The historical legacy of centuries of enslavement is fundamentally at the core of current poverty amongst people of Afrikan descent and this legacy has been left untreated.

 

18.   Reparative justice is about far more than money and is an acknowledgement of a crime against humanity. It is a recognition that no crime against humanity can occur with impunity. Reparations programs for victims of human rights violations are intended to bring justice to the victims. They are distinct from development, reconstruction, and victim assistance programs because they are a legal entitlement. They signal recognition that a human rights violation occurred and that victims were harmed and are therefore entitled to redress.

 

19.   Bristol played a major role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) which saw over 15 million Afrikans forcibly trafficked to the Caribbean and America with many thousands losing their lives during the crossing from Africa to the Americas on ships registered in Bristol. A significant amount of the institutional and corporate wealth of our city was founded through this atrocious episode in our collective history. ‘By the latter half of the century, Bristol’s position had been overtaken by Liverpool. But even as late as 1789, the trade to Africa and the West Indies was estimated to have comprised over 80 per cent of the total value of Bristol’s trade abroad.’(1) 

 

20.   Around 2 million people of Afrikan descent live in the United Kingdom itself, including an estimated 30,000 plus in Bristol which includes a high percentage of Afrikan Caribbean descendants. (2)  

 

21.   Racism and racial hierarchy continue to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice, such as class and sexism.

 

22.   While Bristol City Council is regarded as a leading council on tackling racial injustice and delivering social justice, Bristol as a city is only recently, and slowly, coming to terms with its role in the TTEA. Efforts need to be made to expedite the atonement process, and work needs to be done to achieve holistic reparations for the TTEA

 

23.   Bristol City Council have taken major strides forward in understanding, facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA and racial hierarchy throughout the city. This progress is being made through educating people in Bristol on Afrikan Caribbean and Black history, through the One Bristol Curriculum and the recently-established History Commission.

 

24.   The History Commission will assess the legacy of the TTEA in Bristol, and will identify institutions that benefitted from it with a view to help foster a broader understanding of their role in the TTEA, so they can work towards atonement and reparations for Afrikan Heritage Communities (ACH).

 

Since 2016 Bristol City Council has gone further than any previous administrations in developing an understanding of and facing up to and addressing the legacies of the TTEA, Race and Racial hierarchy both within the Council itself and the wider city. From:

 

·         Public recognition of institutional racism, to the

·         Establishment of the Commission on Race Equality and the Legacy Steering Group

·         Publication of the UK’s first citywide Equality Charter

·         Delivery of the multi-award winning Stepping Up Leadership Programme

·         Recruitment of Black and Asian Magistrates

·         Implementation of Ban the Box

·         Pioneering work on Migrant and Refugees including the Global Compact on Migration,

·         The Transforming Race and Equality Report - A review of Council processes including HR recruitment by David Weaver which has resulted in the

·         Refreshment of BCC’s Equality and Inclusion Policy and strategy in the context of recent global and local events e.g. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter movement

·         Introduction of new FGM guidelines in response to community concerns leading to a drop in referrals.

·         Securing £500,000 of funding for a new HIV/Sexual Health Project for people of Afrikan Caribbean heritage

·         Delivery of two major conferences on Race and the City and Race Discrimination and Housing

 

25.   The aforementioned policies were all implemented alongside the Council’s work to tackle hunger and poverty, ensure economic development strategies have inclusion at their core, and its leadership on Climate, Ecology and the Sustainable Development Goals that has ensured it pursues a just transition.

 

26.   In 1833 the British Government used £20 million to compensate enslavers, the debt for which was not paid off until 2015. Formerly enslaved persons received no compensation. (3) 

 

27.   ‘The United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the ‘Right to A Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’ provides a framework for the reparatory justice system including, among other measures: an investigation of the facts, an official acknowledgment, and apology, a receipt of answers; an opportunity for victims to speak in a public forum about his/her experiences and to be actively involved the reparatory justice process.? 

 

28.   The various  efforts made by community activists and movements including?the Afrikan Connexions Consortium, Afrikan Voices Forum, the Council’s Legacy Steering Committee, the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR), the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Reparations Committee, the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign, the Global Afrikan People's Parliament (GAPP), The Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee; and many others who have been working for many years to raise awareness of the lasting impact of enslavement. 

 

29.   That in 1993 Bernie Grant, MP tabled Early Day Motion (EDM) #1987 in the House of Commons welcoming the Abuja Proclamation after the first Pan-African Conference on Reparations sponsored by the Organisation of African Unity urging all countries who were enriched by enslavement and colonisation to review the case for reparations for “Africa and to Africans in the Diaspora”.

30.   Since 2015, the Stop the Maangamizi Campaign (The Maangamizi is the Afrikan Hellacaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial forms of enslavement) in association with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee have been organising the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March. The campaign presents the Stop the Maangamizi Petition to the Office of the UK Prime Minister annually calling for the establishment an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.

31.   Collaborative working between Green Party members, Green Party politicians and campaigners leading to further cross party working, enabled reparations motions similar to this one being passed in Lambeth and Islington in the summer of 2020.

32.   The Green Party passed a reparations motion at their Autumn conference in 2020 with 95% support by members.

 

 

Full Council believes:? 

 

4.       It must be a priority for Bristol to actively acknowledge this history and actively seek to bring about reconciliation and reparations by lending and leading its voice as an institution towards remedial holistic reparations and action towards the legacies that continue to plague contemporary life for descendants of the Afrikan Caribbean enslaved. The continuation of harm and discrimination manifests itself in but is not limited to:

·         over representation in the mental health system,

·         discrimination within the criminal justice system,

·         poverty and disadvantage.   

 

5.       The International Decade for People of Afrikan Descent, proclaimed by UN General Assembly?resolution 68/237?and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of Afrikan descent and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development.?Such a process is long overdue in Bristol. 

6.       Reparations are necessary for achieving social justice, as racism and racial hierarchy continues to be a key driver of the divisions that have undermined the efforts to identify the common cause and build the united voice against other drivers of social hierarchy and injustice such as class and sexism. 

 

Full Council resolves:? 

? 

To call on councillors, the Mayor or other appropriate council agency to: 

? 

5.       Write to the Speakers of both Houses of the UK Parliament, Chair of the Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, and Chair of the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee to express Bristol City Council’s view that they should consider establishing, and seeking UK Government support for, an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. The purpose of this unprecedented commission would be to work on the scope of how reparations may be delivered and may also include for example raising concerns about how tax payers were until 2015 paying back compensation paid to enslavers.(4)

 

6.       Support Afrikan Heritage Community (AHC) organisations in Bristol to galvanise support for the emerging Bristol AHC led 'Reparations Plan' from, and in collaboration with, wider stakeholders including institutions, city strategic leaders, corporate leaders, key strategic programmes/initiatives and cross-party politicians.

 

7.       Implement Community Wealth Creation strategies that support and encourage community wealth building to produce more sustainable equitable growth whilst alleviating systemic poverty. The social economy, civil society and community wealth are the key to fair employment and equitable growth. The community wealth building model of economic development is emerging in our cities and communities offering real, on-the-ground solutions to localities and regions battered by successive waves of extraction, disinvestment, displacement, and disempowerment. If the source of racial injustice in the twenty-first century is the economic injustice or domination of the global economy established in the seventeenth century, then a more just economy is the only way to sustainably achieve racial justice.

 

8.       Recognise that reparative justice should be driven by Afrikan Heritage Communities experiences, voices and perspectives to ensure that advocacy messages not only reflect but also respond to the real needs of the community in order to recognise inequalities.