North American regional Pan African meeting in Brooklyn

Over 250 participants from Africa and Global African Family met for the first phase of the 8th Pan African Congress held in Accra, Ghana, in March 2015. It was agreed before the meeting that the Accra meeting would be the first phase because many Pan Africanists from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could not attend that meeting because of the Ebola pandemic. In fact, the Ebola pandemic exposed one of the realities of the current state of the Pan African movement in so far as issues such as HIV AIDS, Ebola and other viruses force the question of Pan Africanism beyond preoccupation with leaders and states to the very question of the survival of African peoples in all parts of the planet. From North America we understand that from the time of enslavement, there has always been experimentation with black bodies. This paradigm shift in how Pan Africanists view the world is an essential aspect of progressive Pan Africanism for the 21st century.

It was agreed before the Accra meeting and affirmed by the resolutions of that gathering that the second phase of the 8th Pan African Congress will be held by May 2016. In pursuit of the goal to mobilize for the second phase, the leaders of Kenya called the first regional meeting for East Africa in Nairobi. However, at this meeting the goals of progressive Pan Africanism were undermined when the leaders turned the Pan African meeting into discussions about sugar deals. Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri Museveni had forgotten the close relationships between the production of sugar and the dehumanization of African workers who were enslaved on plantations.

The focus of the North American preparatory meeting is to explore ideas on how to provide a platform for a revitalized progressive direction for the Pan African Movement in the 21st century. The outcomes of the deliberation at the preparatory meeting will inform the position that will be presented by the North American Delegation at the second phase of the Pan African Congress in 2016.

The Pan African Movement is at a crossroads. In the North American region African descendants are faced with increased militarization at home and abroad. From the outset the anti-­‐imperialist, anti-­‐colonialist and pro people position has always been articulated by the Progressive Pan Africanists on the West Bank of the Atlantic Ocean (that area of the large members of the Global African Family).

Now, however, many from the ruling elites in Africa have served as allies of US militarism and have been silent on the massive police brutality against Africans in the USA. Those African elites look to the USA for “investments” and are complicit in the spread of wars and destruction as in Libya and Somalia. Our goal in this preparatory meeting is to reaffirm the necessity for the progressive forces in Africa at all levels to link up with the progressive forces in the Global African Family in all of the regions outside of Africa.

The African Union signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pan African Movement because they recognized its capacity to carry along the grand Pan African project of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.

Unfortunately, in some areas the Pan African Movement at present is compromised by ideologies – it’s statist, anti-­women, homophobic, and anti-­workers. Agenda 2063 is weakened considerably by the almost complete exclusion of the African descendants. This Agenda is supposed to be inclusive, but the only reference to the overseas Africans is on the question of remittance bonds. In this way, the framers of Agenda 2063 do not see the African descendants and their future as part of the future of Africa. This is indeed the betrayal of the principles of Pan Africanism.

From the outset, the cardinal principle of Pan Africanism was that the African in one part of the world is responsible for the well being of other African in every part of the globe. This spirit of Pan Africanism guided the solidarity and support of Africans from the time of the Haitian Revolution of 1791 to the fight against apartheid. This document Agenda 2063 turns its back on the history of Pan Africanism and plans on the basis of the Berlinist states that at present cannot survive the next phase of the global financial crisis

What is revealing is the fact that the General Assembly of the United Nations last year recognized the next ten years as the African descendants’ decade. What would have been more rewarding for the AU would be the link up of the first ten year planning with that planning of the General Assembly of the United Nations to recognize the place of the African descendants and work to end racism internationally.

It is on the terrain of the struggles against racism, xenophobia and intolerance where the AU can join with the initiatives of the UN and African descendants to fight for reparative justice. The Caribbean Commission on Reparations has gone a long way to develop a ten point program on Reparations. In April 2015, there was the formation of the North American Reparations Commission. Reparative Justice is central to the healing process for Africa and the Global African Family
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From the Durban Declaration of 2001 it was generally agreed that slavery constituted a crime against humanity.

We at the North American wing of the movement fight for all Black lives, workers’ rights, women’s right, LGBT rights, environmental rights, and the rights of all African descendent people within and outside the continent – beyond the co-opted notion of the Pan Africanism of remittances. We support the role of the Pan African Women’s Liberation Organization (PAWLO) and will devote time to ensuring that its goals and objectives remain an intrinsic part of the Pan African Movement.

That’s why we’re calling on the Global African Family to support the progressive agenda for 2063. This branch of the movement is also working to enrich the struggles embedded in the United Nations’ African Descendants Decade and in the struggles for reparative justice.

The North American preparatory meeting will deliberate on issues affecting the lives and welfare of the African descended people, including: reparations, the rights of all African descended peoples, economic exploitation, environmental degradation, access to proper healthcare, and resources that ensure the quality of life (such as housing, education, and infrastructure).

All African descendants who subscribe to a progressive future for African peoples are welcome to take part in this important deliberation.

Date: October 30th-­‐31st, 2015
Venue: Founders Auditorium, Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225
Time: 8AM – 5PM
Contact: [email][email protected]