Moorehead: Reparations for unpaid labor

[JemChi]

By Eric T. Campbell
The Michigan Citizen

Detroit — “The issue of reparations for the many years of unpaid labor really started right after slavery. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have all talked about the need for reparations.�

Worker’s World newspaper managing editor Monica Moorehead spoke in Detroit on Sat. Oct. 20 at the World Worker’s Forum on Second Avenue in favor of reparations for African Americans.

Moorehead talked about her recent participation in the Hurricane Katrina International Tribunal and the publication of Marxism, Reparations and the Black Freedom Struggle, which she edited.

According to Moorehead, the book evolved out of a 50-page pamphlet gathered last year in honor of Black History Month — a collection of articles on the issue of reparations to the Black community for the enduring legacy of slavery.

Born in Alabama during segregation, Moorehead is a national committee member of the Worker’s World Party and was the party’s presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. As a teen in Virginia, she helped distribute the Black Panther Party newspaper. She is a national coordinator for Millions for Mumia of the International Action Center — an anti-death penalty organization.

Looking at the struggle for racial and social justice through a broader scope is important to mounting an effective opposition, according to Moorehead. As a participant in the Hurricane Katrina International Tribunal, she was able to see the struggle here in the United States as analogous to those overseas.

“You get a glimpse of what the Iraqi people are going through,� Moorehead said, referring to certain sections of New Orleans. “These two wars are two sides of the same coin — that is, imperialism.�

She used the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe and the mass mobilization in support of the Jena Six as an example of events related by region and injustice.

“There’s a need to connect and generalize the struggles,� Moorehead said.

Moorehead’s involvement in the September 29th anti-war march in Washington D.C. was another opportunity to discuss the role of people of color in the Iraqi war. According to Moorehead, military recruitment of Black youth is down 60% in the U.S. since the war began.

In a phone interview with the Michigan Citizen, Moorehead described the importance of reparations as a prerequisite to winning real equality for Blacks in America.

“We should really view reparations as a political issue that has taken many forms throughout the many aspects of the ongoing struggle for the Black liberation struggle in this country,� Moorehead said. “It is a political issue that’s tied to so many aspects of institutionalized racism. That institutionalized racism comes from the legacy of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade—the fact that Black people had a very important role in building this country and were never compensated.�

She also spoke about campaigning in an environment hostile to third party candidates.

“We feel like it’s important to participate even though the elections may not solve anything,� Moorehead said, speaking about the Worker’s World position. “It’s important to speak to a broader audience.�

Like many third party participants, Mooorehead fails to see any real differences between the stances of prominent Democrats and Republicans on leading issues like the Iraqi War.

“They’re all saying, ‘stay the course’, and this is their view,� says Moorehead. “Clinton and Obama, none of them are talking about healthcare for everyone.�

The Worker’s World Party did show some support for Jesse Jackson’s presidential run in 1988, which was perceived as part of a protest movement and anti-racist in ideology, according to Moorehead.

“If we don’t recognize what has happened in the past, we can never rectify how to deal with it in present terms.�

N’COBRA’s “State of the Reparations Movement� will be held in Wash., DC on Oct. 26th and 27th.