Stand Up to Racism Dorset - meeting
Join the call for justice for slavery - reparations now !
Time’s Up, Richard Drax
Wednesday 1 March, 7.30pm
The Dorford Centre, Bridport Road, Dorchester DT1 1RR
Speakers :
David Denny, Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, Barbados
Grafton Straker, Unite the Union (pc)
Vicky Williams, NEU (pc)
Drax is the richest landowner in the House of Commons - wealth gained through generations of violence and exploitation
It’s time to do justice to former slaves. For centuries, British plantation owners made their fortunes from slave labour in the Caribbean - merchants, aristocratic families, the Church and the monarchy were all involved. Dorset MP Richard Drax still owns a large plantation in Barbados, nearly 400 years after his ancestors began transporting and enslaving people from Africa.
Drax is the richest landowner in the House of Commons - wealth gained through generations of violence and exploitation. The Government of Barbados wants to see his wealth placed in the hands of the local community so that it can be used for the benefit of Barbadians.
David Comissiong is Barbados’ ambassador to Caricom, the organization of Caribbean states. He says : « The Drax are fabulously wealthy. The Drax family is the central family in the whole history of slavery in Barbados. They are the architects of slave-based sugar production. It was a crime against humanity and we place a moral responsibility on Richard Drax and his family to contribute to the effort to repair the damage. »
Stand Up to Racism says : « Time’s Up, Richard Drax ». Listen to leading activist David Denny from Barbados explain why the time for reparations is now - and join the campaign for restorative justice. Everyone is welcome.
David McDonald Denny is a trade unionist, pan-Africanist and socialist, who played a key role in the Black Lives Matter movement in Barbados, working with colleagues across the Caribbean to highlight the legacies of slavery and their impact today.
Grafton Straker, born and bred in Barbados, has lived in Dorset for nearly 30 years and is a trade union representative for Unite.
Vicky Williams is a teacher in Dorset and a union representative for the NEU.
The 21st century will finally be the century of reparations justice.
Professor Hilary Beckles, Barbadian historian
Stand Up to Racism Dorset : sutrdorset(at)gmail.com
22 février, par Hilary Beckles