By Simon Clark
The Black Lives Matter movement is reinvigorating a yearslong
campaign to push some of London's oldest financial institutions to
pay reparations to the descendants of slaves.
City of London companies played an important role for centuries
in organizing and funding the trans-Atlantic passage of African
slaves and the Caribbean and American plantations where they were
forced to work. Directors of the companies earned fortunes from the
trade. The Bank of England, Barclays PLC and Lloyd's of London
insurance market are among those to apologize for or acknowledge
links to slavery since the May killing of George Floyd by a police
officer in Minneapolis prompted protests world-wide.
"Britain was the most efficient and profitable slave trader in
terms of return on capital largely because of the role of the City
of London in providing cheaper finance, better insurance rates,
better reinsurance rates and, critically, funding the construction
of the shipping industry, " Hilary Beckles, chairman of a
reparations commission representing Jamaica, Barbados and 10 other
Caribbean nations, said in an interview.
Mr. Floyd's death has sparked renewed calls from Caribbean
governments and from Black British campaigners descended from
slaves for British companies to pay reparations. They say
apologizing isn't enough and are calling for more discussion about
reparations. Companies are so far resisting those calls, choosing
to focus on improving workplace diversity.
On July 6, the Caricom Reparations Commission, chaired by Mr.
Beckles, called for British companies to participate in a summit to
discuss how they can contribute to the Caribbean.
"The City of London as we know it now would not have been
without the slave trade," Mr. Beckles said. "We are calling for a
dialogue in which we say from our point of view this is what we
think would be an appropriate attempt at remedy. In the case of the
financial institutions of London we are looking for a development
strategy."
The City of London Corp., a centuries-old council which manages
the financial district, declined to comment on whether it would
participate in a reparations summit, as did spokesmen for the Bank
of England, Barclays, Lloyd's of London, Royal Bank of Scotland
Group PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC and law firms Freshfields
Bruckhaus Deringer and Farrer & Co. They have all acknowledged
historic links to slavery.
British politicians have long resisted discussions on the issue.
Speaking to Jamaica's Parliament in 2015 on the most-recent
official Caribbean visit by a prime minister, David Cameron
emphasized Britain's role in ending the slave trade. "I do hope
that, as friends who have gone through so much together since those
darkest of times, we can move on from this painful legacy," Mr.
Cameron said.
"Finance could be the best healer," Darrel Blake, a former
banker who leads a slave-trade money trail tour through London's
financial district, said on a June 20 tour.
The Bank of England said it wasn't directly involved in the
slave trade but "is aware of some inexcusable connections involving
former governors and directors and apologizes for them," a
spokeswoman said.
Lloyd's of London, the insurance market founded in the 1680s,
said it was sorry for its role in the trade.
"This was an appalling and shameful period of British history,
as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that
occurred during this period," a spokesman said.
A Barclays spokesman said the bank is "committed to do more to
further foster our culture of inclusiveness, equality and
diversity, for our colleagues, and the customers and clients we
serve."
Mr. Beckles said commitments to improve diversity are a
public-relations stunt. "That is not a sincere effort to
participate in reparatory justice," he said. "We are talking about
the damage and the harm done to millions of people and the death of
millions of people."
Last year he brokered a GBP20 million ($25 million) reparations
agreement with Scotland's University of Glasgow, which benefited
from slavery. The university is raising the money mainly through
grants and donations to work with the University of the West Indies
on research projects to improve health care and economic
development in the Caribbean. The agreement is a model for
companies to follow but no such conversations have started, Mr.
Beckles said.
"We are happy to share our experience," David Duncan, the
University of Glasgow's chief operating officer, said in an
interview.
That agreement has set a precedent that makes companies wary,
said Malik Al Nasir, a British citizen who has researched his
family history and found he's descended from slaves and slave
traders in Guyana.
"Companies know that there is liability here," Mr. Al Nasir said
in an interview. He wants the United Nations to lead a truth and
reconciliation commission to investigate and quantify slavery
reparations. U.K. lawmaker Layla Moran has written to companies
with links to slavery and asked them to do more.
Calls for reparations for slavery are also increasing in the
U.S. in the wake of Mr. Floyd's killing, according to Ana Lucia
Araujo, a Howard University professor who studies slavery. A bill
embracing the idea was first introduced in Congress in 1989 but the
issue of reparations has languished for decades.
The British government abolished slavery in the 1830s, paying
GBP20 million -- the equivalent of billions of dollars today -- to
compensate slave owners because they were deemed to have lost
property. Beneficiaries are listed on a University College London
website.
The government finished repaying debt used to fund the
compensation payments in 2015. Compensating slave owners was unjust
according to Mr. Blake, whose ancestors, like those of Mr. Beckles,
were slaves.
"My taxes have gone back to the government to replace the money
that was given to the slave masters that owned my family," said Mr.
Blake, who worked at Barclays and HSBC Holdings PLC before becoming
a teacher. "How ridiculous is that?"
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 13, 2020 08:29 ET (12:29 GMT)
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