[cure-news] Greens back lawsuit seeking restitution

[Ida Hakim]

Greens back lawsuit seeking restitution from financial firms that profited
from slavery

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party candidates and leaders announced their
support for a law suit that would hold Brown Brothers Harriman, a major 
U.S.
financial institution, liable for its involvement in the slave trade.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a Chicago federal courthouse began to
hear the case (Farmer-Paellmann, et al. v. Brown and Williamson, on 
September 27.  
The suit was filed by descendents of African American slaves whose labor
contributed to Brown Brothers Harriman profits.

"Financial companies like Brown Brothers Harriman, Aetna, Bank of America,
and JP Morgan Chase established themselves by exploiting stolen labor," 
said
Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Advisory Neighborhood Commission candidate in the
District of Columbia and Black Caucus Representative in the Green Party's
National Committee.  "They made millions by investing in the slave trade,
often after the slave trade was outlawed, as collateral on loans, through
insurance policies on slaves, and through investment in plantations and
merchants who relied on the unpaid work of slaves.  Since the 
descendents of
owners and investors in such firms continue to reap the rewards of
historical slave labor, it's only fair that the descendents of slaves
themselves share in the profits."

In its national platform, the Green Party endorses the payment of
reparations for the descendents of slaves
<http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#999024>.

Greens have also urged reparations from real estate companies and from the
U.S. government for African Americans who lost their homes or were denied
housing because of racially based redlining by the Federal Housing
Administration, which occurred throughout the U.S. in the mid 20th 
century.  
The effects of redlining persist today in the disproportionate lack of
African American home ownership and financial equity.

"We're witnessing a similar pattern today in New Orleans, as developers,
real estate firms, and other corporations and their investors profit from
the displacement of thousands of residents from their homes after Hurricane
Katrina," said Joyce Robinson-Paul, DC Statehood Green Party candidate for
U.S. Senator.

"Most of the displaced are African American and poor, and many are elderly
or families with children.  The privileging of corporate profits over 
racial
justice remains one of the residual effects of American apartheid."