Reparations is a well established principle of International Law that usually involves payment from one nation to another for war damages.  A classic example of this is the payment of nearly a billion dollars in Reparations by the Federal Republic of Germany to the state of Israel for the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe from 1935-1945.  It is very interesting that at the time these murders were happening, the government of Israel, which received the billion dollars in reparations, did not exist; Israel came into being, officially, in 1948.

The concept of Reparations is not new to the United States. Some new developments regarding Reparations and the United States are as follows:

In 1983, the former Mayor Diane Feinstein of San Francisco approved a bill compensating Japanese-American employees of the city with $1,250. for every year they were interned;

In 1984, the Los Angeles City Council awarded $5000. to each Japanese-American employee of the city who was forced to resign and enter concentration camps;

In 1987, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill granting $20,000. and a formal apology to Japanese survivors of U.S. concentraion camps.

Reparations to the Black Nation is not just another case of "handouts" from the government.  We must remember our origins in this country; war was declared on us, and in the course of this war we were kidnapped by whites with the direct knowledge and involvement of the United States government. The United States Constitution clearly states in Article One, Section Nine, that the warfare know as the slave trade in Black flesh could be carried on in every state of the union that wanted to for twenty years.  So-called Affirmative Action programs, supposedly designed for our people to right past wrongs are constantly coming under attack by white males in the courts, and the white males usually win.  Therefore, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement understands that Reparations are owed to our Nation from the United States of America.  We are entitled to Reparations due to the loss of over 100 million Afrikans during the slave trade; we are entitled to Reparations due to the countless lynchings, Klan and police murders, National Guard, FBI and CIA murders of our people, and we are entitled to Reparations due to the fact that we built this country, laboring without one cent in wages for over 250 years, and as compensation for the land that was taken from us wrongfully.

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement feels that Reparations should be in the form of money with interest, machinery, technology, and land.  Many groups have long advocated money as compensation for our suffering, but the truth is that the U.S. does not have enough cash ro repay us for our misery; besides, cash payments to individuals is not important; we have suffered as a people, not as individuals.

Secondly, cash doesn't last long.  What we need is something that lasts.  What is needed is something that has intrinsic value, something that multiplies itself.  Land has value; it reproduces wealth that can be utilized over and over again.  Food, machinery/technology on the land, mineral resources, and the potential to trade with other nations and countries can be utilized only with control over the land and that which comes from the land.  It is only with control over our own land that we can be assured of power over our own lives.

Reparations and Self-Determination are closely connected to each other.  How the reparations are used among our people can be worked out through our freely chosen representatives; this is not a simple process, but we must begin to at least dialogue on it right now, to raise our peoples' awareness of our right to reparations, demonstrating to the International community our demand and our legitimate, historic case for reparations through documentations of wrongs inflicted on us, and building a mass movement demanding reparations from the U.S. for our collective oppression.  The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is committed to organizing our people for this purpose.