The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.
The resolution - proposed by Ghana - called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money.
The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against - the United States, Israel and Argentina.
Countries like the UK have long rejected calls to pay reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.
Then I guess I am one of those exception then. Not sure you would agree, but the only western countries that qualify to me are the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. To a lesser extent also Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.
That keeps lot of western countries out. Austria, Hungary, Croatia,Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia.
Imperialism is not fascist. Imperialism was born much earlier than fascism was.
most of the countries you mentioned as western are part of the global south. brazil, argentina, mexico and some of eastern europe to a lesser extent.
argentina currently has an us-aligned fascist on power deregulating their markets for foreign extraction, the situation in the majority of latin america is not very different rn. mexico has us-backed cartels fucking shit up to pressure sheinbaum. brazil might get another openly fascist president soon, as if the centrist currently in power isn’t pleasing them enough.
finland norway germany and italy are very much engaging in the unequal trade enabled by imperialism i mentioned. eg. how they own the electrical grid in some places in south america and charge high prices for their actually cheap energy.
i’m not well versed in canadian imperialism but i hear really bad things about them.
If your standard for imperialism is “some companies from a state are operating in another state under that state regulated market” then every state is imperialistic: Italy’s Trenitalia manage trains in Spain and the UK, Spain bank Santander operate as a major player in Italy, Germany Volkswagen operate factories in Mexico, China and Brazil. China battery CATL operates in Spain. Brazil aerospace Embraer has factories in Portugal.
But is interesting your shift from “your country is a slaver country” to “your country’s companies operate subsidiary in other law regulated markets”.
For example, Enel (Italy) operate in South America with concessions that can be revoked by the country if Enel does not follow the law, while prices are not decided by Enel. Electrical grid is a natural monopoly, so prices are decided by government entities (ANEEL for Brazil, CREG for Colombia, CNE for chile). See for example this: https://legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/chile-fines-italys-enel-19-million-over-2024-power-outages/117472660 “We hope that not just Enel, but all companies, see that they need to comply with regulations and understand that in Chile nobody is above the law”
And sorry to reiterate but fascism and imperialism are not the same. While both have an affinity for capital market, the core tenant of fascism is militarism, political violence, suppression of media and suppression of the individual to serve the state. State that are fascist are Russia for example, with other arguing that Hungary is becoming a fascist regime as well. The current US administration has traits that I would link with fascism as well. Other states with strong nationalism are North Korea, Myanmar, Eritrea.
my standard for imperialism is countries fucking us over and downplaying it as “just business”
or like how you just come to say shit you know nothing about countries you know nothing about instead of asking the actual people living there.
enel owns brazilian infrastructure and charges exorbitant rates for cheap energy. we can’t get rid of if because our politicians were bribed by you and it doesn’t matter that i explain it over and over to you as someone literally born and living in these countries that literally sees this shit happen daily. FUCK ENEL, if they are so great how about YOU give them total control over your energy grid.
it’s no wonder the empire leader you guys elected is literally 21st century hitler. i’m tired of talking to fascists in this thread, bye.
Wait, you are not seriously telling me you are from Brazil aren’t you? Brazil, a Western country!
A corrupt country that is accused of exploitation of other countries like Angola (via BNDES loans), or Bolivia (with Petrobras), or Mozabique (with both Vale and the ProSavana project).
That would be the funniest thing ever
lol that one was funny.
Hahahahahahahaahaaaa,
Brazil, the country that imported more slaves then any other countries in the Americas. How could I have missed this.
I cannot take you seriously anymore 😂 You lost the insignificant shred of credibility you fought so hard to maintain.
Your country has bought more or less 5.5 million more slaves than mine.
Feel free to continue the name calling. From someone as hypocritical as you is like a medal.
riddle me this, mr. nazifascist: which continent was ruling over south america at that time again, i forgot? 🤔
not calling you names, btw, just being descriptive.
Brazil abolished slavery 63 year after independence because of British pressure to do so (can you imagine? The British telling you that is too much!). The last nation in the western world to abolish slavery. After the US. For all intents and purposes, the responsibility of Brazil is exactly on par, if not worse on all metrics, than the responsibility of the US. If you condemn the US you must do the same or more for Brazil.
Just being descriptive. My country abolished slavery 650 years before yours 🤣 and you were calling me a slaver 😂 and talking about me enjoying the spoils of slavery 🤪 your entire agricultural economy is the result of slaves being worked to death. While Brazil was an independent free country!