Reparations

As progress is being made in Champaign County, Illinois to enact reparations to address the previous and ongoing harm caused by slavery and systemic racism, it’s important that we understand the history of Black struggle in the United States.

This four-part video series provides a brief overview of U.S. history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era, and shows how the super exploitation of Black labor continues into the present day. This series also highlights that when working people are organized and engaged in well-coordinated struggle, there is nothing they cannot achieve.

Part 1: Slavery & Reconstruction

This video provides a brief history of the ending of chattel slavery in the U.S. and how that was only achieved through a general strike of enslaved African Americans.

Part 2: Civil Rights Revolution

In the next video in the series, we take a look at the Civil Rights movement and how legal apartheid was ended in the U.S. through grassroots organizing.

Part 3: Prison Labor & Modern Slavery

In this video, we discuss how mass incarceration and forced prison labor are a form of modern slavery.

Part 4: Socialist Reconstruction

In the final part of the series, we look toward the future socialist reconstruction of the U.S. Racism and all forms of bigotry can only be ended by replacing capitalism with a new a system where the working class holds political power and the economy is planned to meet the needs of the people and the planet.