Corporate Enrichment from Slavery

AMERICAN CORPORATIONS' ENRICHMENT FROM SLAVERY
NOTICE OF INTENT

TO: The Chief Executive Officers of the following corporations operating on the North American Continent, namely, Aetna Inc., American International Group, Lloyd's of London, New York Life Insurance Company, Southern Mutual Insurance Company, FleetBoston Financial Corporation, AFSA Data Corporation, Brown Brothers Harriman, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, Lehman Brothers, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Brown and Williamson, Liggett Group Inc., Loews Corporation (Lorrilard), Canadian National Railway, CSX Corporation, Norfolk Southern Corp., Union Pacific Railroad, and Westpoint Stevens Inc.

FROM: The undersigned white citizens and residents of the United States of America, organized to bring long-delayed justice and full reparations to the descendants of Africans who were enslaved by European Americans during and after the period of European colonization in America.

SUBJECT: Accepting accountability for the accumulating wealth derived from the uncompensated labor of African people brought against their will to build this nation.

Organized under the designation of CURE (Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation), we stand with those who have accused your corporate entities of profiting over the past three centuries from the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Reports have appeared in various publications and news media, including CNN (3/27/02), Black Enterprise (12/01/03), ABC News (12/17/03), AP Chicago (11/24/03) and a number of other news sources.

Just as various German corporations and their subsidiaries were forced to face their inescapable responsibility for having directly profited from slave labor and having been implicated in the mass extermination and expropriation of property from millions of Jews and other so-called "undesirables" during World War II, and required to pay;

And just as many American corporations have been forced to face their profiting from the gross injustices of the system of white-dominated apartheid in South Africa, and were eventually brought to withdraw through a massive campaign of "disinvestment";

So today we hereby serve you with this notice of our intent to use whatever means are legally available, through publicity pressure, investor pressure, political pressure or through the courts, to force your corporate entities to face your accountability for the part slavery has historically contributed to the multiple billions of dollars you now enjoy.

We are outraged that today you continue to batten off savagely-compelled labor of enslaved Africans while their descendants are still struggling to overcome the vestiges of slavery - discrimination in housing, employment, education, opportunities for economic development and healthcare, to name only a few.

We recognize that as white Americans we have also benefitted from this criminal exploitation, that we, too, are accountable, and that we must do what we can to make amends by pressing unrelentingly for reparations.

Therefore we strongly urge you to join us today by supporting the growing movement for full and complete reparations for slavery and the lingering effects of slavery in the United States. IT IS TIME TO PAY THE OVERDUE DEBT!