Bristol City Council approve slavery reparations

The city council of Bristol has approved a motion calling for reparations for slavery as an act of “atonement” for the British port city’s role in the slave trade.

The Labour Party-run council passed the motion by a margin of 47 votes to 12 on Tuesday following a zoom meeting of the councillors. The council agreed to implement “community wealth creation strategies” and to write to Parliament demanding the establishment of a commission to determine “how reparations may be delivered”.

In a statement, the Bristol city council said that racial injustice today is a byproduct of “economic injustice or domination of the global economy established in the seventeenth century,” and therefore “efforts need to be made to expedite the atonement process, and work needs to be done to achieve holistic reparations.”

The left-wing council went on to say that “reparative justice should be driven by Afrikan Heritage Communities experiences, voices and perspectives to ensure that advocacy messages not only reflect but also respond to the real needs of the community in order to recognise inequalities.”