BLACK IS BACK COALITION: COVID-19 DEMANDS

/BIBC COVID-19 DEMANDS

 

 

Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations

COVID-19 COALITION DEMANDS 

Whereas colonial governments have never met the needs of African people anywhere in the world; whereas the very basis of this brutal, capitalist system of exploitation was built on the backs of African people; whereas this modern day, for-profit medical system was founded upon experimenting on African people, a practice that continues even today; and whereas disaster capitalism has emerged as another genocidal scheme to permanently displace our community; the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is calling on African and all oppressed people to unite with the following demands: 

1) We demand an end to all U.S. sanctions! Sanctions are economic and biological warfare that impede countries from getting various and often lifesaving needed necessities. We condemn the U.S. using COVID-19 as a weapon to enhance the sanctions used to further cripple other countries.

Moreover, sanctions also prevent the necessary exchange of information and ideas beneficial to all people. We demand an end to the Cuban embargo that prevents access to the information that Cuba is providing to the world, concerning its development of antiviral medications. This includes Interferon Alpha 2 B, which is proving to be quite effective in healing and preventing the spread of COVID-19.

2) We demand free and accessible testing for everyone. This includes necessary free transportation to testing sites.

3) We demand free health care for those who test positive. 

4) We demand testing for all people without regard for legal status or police intervention, including checks for warrants. We demand that each state and municipality make this information publicly known in an effort to encourage all those who need to be tested to come forth without fear of reprisals.

5) We demand immediate and permanent housing for the homeless and that their health and nutritional needs be immediately met. We demand that all state officials publish protocols for the systems they have in place to ensure that people who are living on the streets are provided with nurture and care. We also demand to know the protocols in place for ensuring proper sanitation of current shelters and for ensuring that social distancing practices are in place.

6) We demand that the federal government and all state governments list on their websites their plans for how they will ensure the wellbeing of  incarcerated people, help to guarantee that their health needs are met, that they are living under sanitary conditions, and that the potential for contracting or spreading COVID-19 or any disease is minimized or eliminated. Healthcare is an inalienable right for all and we demand that access to all medications and nutritional treatments, including vitamin supplementation, etc. be made available to those who are incarcerated.

7) We demand that clemency power be used to release the most vulnerable who are behind bars, including older people, pregnant women, people with serious illnesses, and people with compromised immune systems. The best methods for preventing the spread of disease inside a prison involves releasing people to the care of their families and loved ones.

8) We demand an end to forced slave labor of incarcerated people and decry exploiting them in any way. We denounce New York’s Governor Cuomo forced labor program, requiring prison inmates to manufacture hand sanitizers for Corcraft, a company which makes at least $50 million a year, yet only pay incarcerated people between between 16 – 65 cents an hour! This is modern day slavery and must end.

9) We demand an end to all ICE deportations.

10) We demand a moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions and that the government assumes responsibility for all mortgage and rent payments, which must be waived, not deferred, during the pandemic!

11) We demand the suspension of the shutting off of all utilities, including electric, gas, telephone, internet, etc. for non-payment during this pandemic.

12) We demand that all private and public businesses that remain open and operational during the COVID-19 pandemic develop and make public to all employees, a standard protocol in order to protect the health and well being of workers, their families and communities.

13) We demand that the government provide paid sick leave and financial assistance for all who have not been able to work as a result of businesses being forced to shut down due to emergency restrictions.  

14) We demand financial assistance for all small businesses that have been forced to close and or that have lost money due to their businesses being negatively impacted by the pandemic. This includes financial support for people who are self-employed.  

 

 

References

African Americans Disproportionately Represented in Studies that Don’t Require Informed Consent

https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/01/african-americans-clinical-trials/

 

American Medicine Was Built on the Backs of Slaves

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/06/04/american-medicine-was-built-on-the-backs-of-slaves-and-it-still-affects-how-doctors-treat-patients-today/

 

Unethical Clinical Trials in Africa

https://www.wemos.nl/en/unethical-clinical-trials-in-africa-2/

 

 

Despite US Blockade, Cuban Pharmacy Introducing Much Needed COVID-19 Medicines

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/despite-u-s-blockade-cuban-pharma-industry-producing-needed-covid-19-medicines/

Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2b Successful in Treating COVID-19

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cubas-Interferon-Alpha-2B-Successful-in-Treating-COVID-19-20200317-0015.html.

 

How NY Prison Slave Labor Powers a $50 MM Dollar Manufacturing Enterprise

https://gothamist.com/news/how-ny-prison-slave-labor-powers-a-50-million-manufacturing-enterprise.

 

Cuomo Says New York Prisoners Will Make 100,000 Gallons of Hand Sanitizer to Combat Corona Virus

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-aint-no-free-lunch-but-there-is-free-of-charge-hand-sanitizer-in-new-york-state-courtesy-of-inmates-2020-03-09

NEW AFRIKAN NATION DAY (2020)

Universal Periodic Review of the United States (3rd Round): Statement on Reparations for Slavery — REPARATIONS AND BLACK SELF-DETERMINATION

This is the official statement that was delivered on February 27, 2020. In attendance were embassy representatives from over fifteen (15) nations. Universal Periodic Review of the United States (3rd Round) Statement on Reparations for Slavery February 27, 2020, Washington DC Good afternoon, Most Honorable International Representatives: My name is Khalid […]

via Universal Periodic Review of the United States (3rd Round): Statement on Reparations for Slavery — REPARATIONS AND BLACK SELF-DETERMINATION

Black Is Back Coalition: Electoral Campaign School (2020)

http://blackisbackcoalition.org/the-ballot-and-the-bullet-electoral-school-putting-black-self-determination-on-the-ballot-black-is-back-coalition-for-social-justice-peace-and-reparations-april-10-12-2020-s/

REGISTRATION FOR THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN SCHOOL

States Scramble To Prepare Ahead Of Food Stamps Rule Change — Black America Web

CHICAGO (AP) — Having food stamps offers Richard Butler a stability he’s rarely known in his 25 years. He was in state custody at age 2, spent his teen years at a Chicago boys’ home and jail for burglary, and has since struggled to find a permanent home. The $194 deposited monthly on his benefits…

via States Scramble To Prepare Ahead Of Food Stamps Rule Change — Black America Web

Little Known Black History Fact: Lorraine Hansberry — Black America Web

Now that we’re celebrating Women’s History Month the accomplishments of women are in the forefront. Lorraine Hansberry was a history-making playwright and author who became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Hansberry’s most famous work, “A Raisin In The Sun” remains one of the best known plays ever written by…

via Little Known Black History Fact: Lorraine Hansberry — Black America Web

Media Advisory: Pittsburgh Group travels to Washington, D.C. to Make an Appeal for Human Rights

Media Advisory

February 25, 2020

Pittsburgh Youth and Community Leaders Travel to Washington DC to Make an “Appeal to the World” for Human Rights

Contacts:

Jackie Smith, Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance 412.689.8637

Veronica Jenkins, Casa San Jose, 412.452.5144

Youth leaders in Casa San Jose, working as part of the Pittsburgh Universal Periodic Review task force,* travel to Washington DC on February 27th to make an “appeal to the world” for human rights. Joining counterparts from around the country, local delegates will encourage foreign ambassadors to support recommendations for improving human rights conditions. The initiative is part of the United Nations assessment of the U.S. human rights record, the “Universal Periodic Review.”

This trip bears echoes of 1947, when U.S. civil rights movement leaders brought an “Appeal to the World.” They argued that “No nation is so great that the world can afford to let it continue to be deliberately unjust, cruel and unfair toward its own citizens.”

At a time when political leaders claim to be “making America great again,” we are watching human rights conditions in our country worsen, as those at the highest levels of government show blatant disregard for the rule of law. But the rise of right-wing hate movements and anti-immigrant sentiment, the loss of affordable housing, the failure of governments to confront racial and gender discrimination and to devote resources to basic human needs are not just local problems. They require global solutions. So Pittsburgh is joining other cities in appealing to the world community for help.

Ben Gutschow, youth leader in Casa san Jose, was a driving force behind this effort to bring Pittsburgh and youth voices directly to international leaders: “Youth in our community face harassment at school for the color of their skin and citizenship status, while also living in constant fear of ICE taking away parents and friends. We shouldn’t have to stay afraid to stay safe… The only ICE we should be worried about is the ice that is melting.” Ben’s motivation also reflects today’s young people’s concerns for our environment: He points out, “Climate change not only contributes to the inequality in our cities, but it is also pushing people to cross borders. 36% of the global population lives in water scarce regions; by 2030, this water crisis will displace as many as 700 million people. It is about time that the youth get a say. After all, we are the ones to inherit this earth and these issues.”

While climate change drives more of the world’s people from their homes, urban development policies are driving a global housing crisis that is felt acutely in Pittsburgh. The city has a deficit of more than 20,000 affordable housing units, with vulnerable groups, such as single mothers, children, disabled and LGBT residents suffering the most. Black Americans have been particularly hard-hit by rising housing costs, and in Pittsburgh, Black residents are being forced from the city at a rate of as many as 5 per day.

Delegates will be bringing stories of how well public policies are reflecting the commitment of local governments to implementing U.S. human rights obligations. Pittsburghers for Public Transit will help bring accounts from transit riders on the impacts of transit cuts on low income people and people of color. On average, nearly half of all transit riders in cities are completely transit-dependent, yet more than 52 cities across the country suffer from major transit deserts that leave riders cut off from access to food, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Also represented will be accounts of women and mothers in our region, whose experiences shaped the Gender Equity Commissions damning report, “Pittsburgh’s Inequality across Gender and Race”.

Organizer Khalid Raheem, of the Peoples Campaign for Reparations and Black Self-Determination, will be urging international officials to push the United States government to take meaningful action to support reparations for slavery. He hopes such international recognition in the UN report to the United States can help encourage more Americans to learn about the international discussions around reparations and to think more deeply about how this conversation applies in the United States.

Pittsburgh delegates will join activists from Jackson Mississippi, New York, Atlanta, and other communities, and they’ll address representatives of governments involved in the UN human rights review of the United States, including Camaroon, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Namibia, Uganda, and others. They will provide some of the “human stories” behind the coalition’s report to the United Nations, “Racial Inequity at the Core of Human Rights Challenges in Pittsburgh.”

They’ll be asking international officials to bring our recommendations into the United Nations review of U.S. human rights practices. The UN report will be used by other governments and by communities to help make human rights a more central focus on national as well as state and local public policy. Local activists are preparing a regional human rights assessment targeting city and county officials, and plan to present this in May, when the United States appears in Geneva for its third Universal Periodic Review.

***************

For more information about this national human rights campaign, see:

Bringing human rights home: new strategies for local organizing By: Jackie Smith & Joshua Cooper, Open Global Rights
Universal Periodic Review for US Cities- Campaign of the US Human Rights Cities Alliance

*The Pittsburgh Universal Periodic Review task force includes: Alliance for Police Accountability, Casa San Jose, Green Party of Allegheny County, Hill District Consensus Group, Pittsburgh for CEDAW, Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance, Just Harvest, City of Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission & Gender Equity Commission, Urbankind Institute. For more information see UPR Pittsburgh.