Skip to main content
Reparations for slavery and colonialism are non-negotiable
Western dominance of the capitalist system and the poverty of formerly colonised people in the global South or living as minorities in countries like Britain are the legacy of historic crimes that can and must be paid for, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
Protesters topple statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol

OCTOBER is Black History Month, which in truth would not need to happen if we lived in a fairer, just and post-capitalist society.

A society where the curriculum taught the truth about empire; the mass enslavement, famines and genocides that built the origins of Britain’s wealth and how the system extracted wealth and exerted control and influence abroad.   

The racialised murder of George Floyd, the rising awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement, decolonising education and museums, movements on university campuses, bringing down statues of slavers and imperialists and sportspeople taking the knee and many other acts of solidarity have been met with strong fascistic political and media backlash on both sides of the Atlantic.   

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Children sit and play on the remains of a tank, at the river
Features / 21 April 2025
21 April 2025

Keir Starmer’s £120 million to Sudan cannot cover the government’s complicity in the RSF genocide or atone for the long shadow of British colonialism and imperialism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

NO SAFE ZONES: Children walk by the destroyed house of journ
Features / 8 April 2025
8 April 2025
As Israel’s crimes escalate, Keir Starmer’s government must not subvert, block or ignore the investigation and prosecution of British citizens involved in acts of genocide, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
DEFIANT: Mexican
President Claudia
Sheinbaum
Features / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
With trade wars backfiring, allies resisting military demands, and approval ratings plummeting, Trump’s dangerous pursuit of colonial ambitions threatens to end the ‘American century’ with catastrophic conflict, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
DAMAGING AGENDA:
Work and Pensions
Secretary Liz Kendall
Features / 24 February 2025
24 February 2025
Labour is deliberately continuing Tory policies that cost us £38 billion more than they save while driving illness rates higher — despite the evidence that previous sanctions doubled suicide attempts, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Similar stories
Malcolm X, the militant leader and former member of the Nati
Features / 25 February 2025
25 February 2025
Sixty years after his murder, it is up to all of us to defy ruling-class attempts to sanitise or distort his revolutionary legacy by upholding his deep understanding of capitalism’s ties to racism and empire, writes ISAAC SANEY
REFUSAL: Keir Starmer watches the opening ceremony for the C
Features / 4 November 2024
4 November 2024
The Labour leadership’s refusal to even consider the widely accepted case for Britain to pay reparations for its part in the transatlantic slave trade is a sign of its imperialist worldview, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Britain / 27 October 2024
27 October 2024
RESISTANCE: People take part in an anti-racism march in cent
Features / 14 October 2024
14 October 2024
As Black History Month brings renewed focus on the fight against racial inequality, LUKE DANIELS argues that understanding slavery’s legacy and demanding financial reparations are key to defeating modern racism