The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.

The resolution - proposed by Ghana - called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money.

The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against - the United States, Israel and Argentina.

Countries like the UK have long rejected calls to pay reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.

  • encelado748@feddit.org
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    6 hours ago

    If your standard for imperialism is “some companies from a state are operating in another state under that state regulated market” then every state is imperialistic: Italy’s Trenitalia manage trains in Spain and the UK, Spain bank Santander operate as a major player in Italy, Germany Volkswagen operate factories in Mexico, China and Brazil. China battery CATL operates in Spain. Brazil aerospace Embraer has factories in Portugal.

    But is interesting your shift from “your country is a slaver country” to “your country’s companies operate subsidiary in other law regulated markets”.

    For example, Enel (Italy) operate in South America with concessions that can be revoked by the country if Enel does not follow the law, while prices are not decided by Enel. Electrical grid is a natural monopoly, so prices are decided by government entities (ANEEL for Brazil, CREG for Colombia, CNE for chile). See for example this: https://legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/chile-fines-italys-enel-19-million-over-2024-power-outages/117472660 “We hope that not just Enel, but all companies, see that they need to comply with regulations and understand that in Chile nobody is above the law”

    And sorry to reiterate but fascism and imperialism are not the same. While both have an affinity for capital market, the core tenant of fascism is militarism, political violence, suppression of media and suppression of the individual to serve the state. State that are fascist are Russia for example, with other arguing that Hungary is becoming a fascist regime as well. The current US administration has traits that I would link with fascism as well. Other states with strong nationalism are North Korea, Myanmar, Eritrea.