By Millie Collins
Despite his best efforts Keir Starmer failed to keep the issue of reparations for slavery and British colonialism out of the joint statement which was signed at the end of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Chogm).
On the way to the two-day conference in Samoa he had insisted there would not be any discussion on the question and no apology for it. Starmer even insulted leaders, telling them that they should focus on ‘real challenges on things like climate change in the here and now’ rather than engage in ‘very, very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past’—as if the continuing legacy of their impoverishment by Britain did not inseparably link the two.
The reason for Starmer’s dismissal of reparations is simple enough; UN Judge Patrick Robinson calculated last year that the total sum would be £18 trillion. But other attendees were not so easily brushed off. Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, said he was seeking ‘a frank talk’ with Starmer about reparations.
In the end the final statement read:
‘Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.’
A verbal slap-down for the bumptious Labour imperialist, though the promise is an empty one—to hold these talks in the future.
The Commonwealth is made up of Britain’s former colonies and settler-based dominions, the Empire which accumulated the capital for its industrial revolution based on centuries of chattel slavery.
Though the conference concentrated on the need to combat climate change, particularly in the small and island nations, the pledges for action by the imperialist members UK, Canada and Australia were thin enough.
Notable for the reduced role of this post-colonial talking shop was the absence of India and South Africa. Narendra Modi and Cyril Ramaphosa chose to attend the more important BRICS+ summit, hosted by Vladimir Putin in Kazan: a signal they are prioritising relations with Russia and China, rather than the UK and its increasingly irrelevant ‘Commonwealth’.
The Brics—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—originally set up to facilitate investment flows between its founders has evolved into a potential rival to the World Bank and IMF, with the addition of 31 countries, including Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
The tiny handful of left wing Labour MPs, like John MacDonnell, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Clive Lewis, express support for reparations and there is a lively campaign for this in the Britain’s Black communities, which has the support of the RMT rail union and the Scottish TUC.
At a time where domestic living standards are falling and public services are on their knees, simply to talk of billons, however justified, is not likely to win the support needed to get anything done. That does not, however, invalidate calls for reparations.
Socialists can address the issue by developing a programme which calls for assistance to develop the economies and social services within of the Global South, by tackling of unfair trade, cancelling debt burden and extraction of their mineral wealth by Western multinationals. In short one which breaks the bonds of imperialist domination.
In that struggle the role of the whole working class, Black and white, north and south, will need to combine in a revolutionary challenge to the imperialist order. If the debate around reparations can educate workers on global inequality and stir them into action against imperialism, then that is a good thing.
