BARBADOS | Richard Drax needs to come to the Table says David Comissiong

KINGSTON, Jamaica. Wednesday May 3, 2024 – Richard Drax, a member of the British House of Commons and a beneficiary of black enslavers in the Caribbean, is missing the opportunity to be a “representative of the national honour of the United Kingdom.” So says David Comissiong, Barbados’ Ambassador to  the Caribbean Community, CARICOM.

In a spirited conversation with The Repair Campaign team on the fight for reparations for the heinous crime of the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and chattel slavery, Comissiong says : “Drax is today probably the most hated man in Barbados.

“If he had simply done the correct thing, he could have been a hero in Barbados; a descendant of this infamous Barbadian slavery family who did the right thing and reached out in the right way. He could have set such a positive example.”

While highlighting the tension between Drax’s moral obligation as an elected official to do the right thing and his “I owe these people nothing” stance, Comissiong calls into question the integrity of an individual who serves at the highest levels of the UK Government and throws a spotlight on the attitudes of people in the UK to their elected representatives.

Comissiong continues : “Responsible people in the UK should be very concerned about this, not simply in relation to our own interest in reparations, but this gentleman is a member of parliament. He’s seen as a representative of the people of the United Kingdom in the highest political office.”

Underlining that reparatory justice is about crafting “a future based on mutual understanding and partnership, as opposed to bitterness and recrimination”, Comissiong is calling on public advocacy and “allies in the UK” to help bring Richard Drax to the table to map out how the grave actions of the past can be recast into positive and restorative affirmative action.

He concludes; “Drax has cast himself as the arch villain of the reparations campaign in Barbados but we have to bring him to the table and we have to use public advocacy. We need our allies in the UK.”

Proving just how out of touch Drax is with UK sentiment on the issue of reparations, recent polling carried out by The Repair Campaign into UK attitudes to reparatory justice show strong support with 60% of respondents agreeing that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology.

Among those who agree that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology, 56% believe this apology should come from the UK Government, while 36% said that families whose ancestors profited from slavery in the Caribbean should extend the apology.

Notably, with four in ten people agreeing that Caribbean nations should receive financial compensation to make amends for the legacy of slavery and colonialism, 51% believe the UK Government should be the entity that pays this financial compensation, while 32% believe that families whose ancestors profited from slavery in the Caribbean should pay compensation.

The Repair Campaign is a social movement for reparatory justice in the Caribbean, guided and endorsed by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) and its 2014 Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice.

Their goal is to amplify voices calling for reparations in the Caribbean and  to apply pressure on former colonial powers to commit to reparatory justice.

"We intend to do this by producing country-specific, evidence-based Socioeconomic Reparatory Justice Plans that identify key areas in which reparations would have an intergenerational and sustainable impact," Comissiong said.

Go to https://repaircampaign.org/reparations-today/why-is-drax-hall-important-to-the-reparations-movement/ to read the full interview and join the movement by signing the petition here: https://repaircampaign.org/petition/

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