The REPARATIONS UNITED FRONT (RUF) (formerly known as the REPARATIONS PLATFORM COALITION (RPC) is a coalition of 12 out of 14 existing organizations, based in the Los Angeles, CA area of Southern California which deal w/ the issue of reparations as a primary focus of their activities. This locally based coalition (as the RPC) was formed in the year 2000 to raise the issue of reparations (for Afrikan American slavery) to the National Democratic Party. One of the goals of the coalition was to have the issue of reparations placed on and to become a part of the National Democratic Plarform during that Presidential election year.
The RUF (founded in the year 2002) is a regional group coalition (not national) however, it has and will continue to work for a broader regional coalition w/the Washington and Oregon state reparations groups. Currently there are RUF formations created by reparations groups in Seattle, Washington.
As a reparations activist group focused on identifying viable reparations projects and tasks and getting them completed, since then, as a summary of activities the RUF has:
I. Participated for 5 years in the Los Angeles Kingdom Day Parade.
II. In 2005, began RUF Book Club Meetings. First one was successful, but we need to follow through with more titles.
III. Participated in the N'COBRA Yard Sign Project to promote reparations and the Millions More March (MMM), 2004-2005.
IV. Attended and participated in N'COBRA's annual conferences, June 2002-2005, and virtually every one of the the national N'DABA conferences organized by NBUF and the Nation of Islam. Hosted the N'COBRA Executive Committee Business Retreat in Los Angeles - Carson, CA 2006.
V. In May, 2004 coordinated and organized the firstm National Reparations Congress in Compton, California, which was a gathering of national activists. Out of that series of meetings evolved the publication of the first, and thus far the only, REGIONAL/NATIONAL STRATEGIC REPARATIONS PLAN.
VI. In July, 2004 and June 2005, organized the first and so far the only gatherings of Black churchmen, Muslim ministeries and other religious leaders for a Reparations and the Black Church Forums, both held at First Afrikan Methodist Episcopal(FAME) Church, w/Rev. Cecil Murray.
VII. Establishment & renewal of the RUF website (this is on-going).
VIII. Participated in the Black Buying Blackout, Dec., 2005.
IX. Establishment of the Western Regional group for the Slave Rmembrance and Restitution Fund, 2005 - 2007. State incorporation papers were filed September, 2007. Federal 501 (C)(3) to be filed December, 2007.
X. Created the Los Angeles Slave Business Ordinance, 2003, in association with the former Councilman Nate Holden, based on the model establihsed by Chicago,IL Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman, seeking to minitor enforcement of the ordinance.
XI. Expanded the reparations network nationally and internationaly by pariticipating in the ACCRA, GHANA - RETURN TO THE SOURCE CONFERENCE, 2006 along w/the Pan Afrikan Organizing Committee(POAC).
XII. Organized and coordinated the Reparations and the Land Conference,Columbia S.C. September 2005.
XIII. In 2006, along with the POAC, organized and coordinated the PAN AFRIKAN ROUNDTABLE in Los Angeles that created the current methodology being used to organize the Diasporan Afrikan Union Representatives. In May and September, coordinated the first Town Hall and Caucus to elelct AU Diasporan Representatives from California. Two Representatives were elelcted among w/2 Obervers. Coordinated the election of the California Community Council of Elders, for Southern California. Along w/ the POAC and WHADN, began a national and international campaign to get other groups to adopt and adapt the method to elect their own AU Representatives to attend the April/May 2008 meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
XIV. Established necessary contact w/the Sacramento Slave History Project do that research work can be completed on what California businesses profited from slavery and the slave trade. Currently, negotiationg w/the LA City Councilamn Bernard Parks to introduce in 2008 legislation that will create a Southen California Slave Study Commission, which will produce a grand narrative history of Black Partricipation and contribution to the growth of Southern Califonia's 1850 statehoodthat have profited from slavery in California or from domestic and/or Transatlantic Slave Trade.
XV. Completed the preliminry results of the national Reparations Survey, newspaper published in 2005, and continued through 2007.
XVI. Attended the MMM, established a partnership with N'COBRA for expanding The Reparations Survey,and distributed 6,500 more survey forms. Recived 1,200 by mail. Second report made in February, 2006 and third report in December, 2007.
XVII. Formed the coalition to publish a special issue of the Journal of Pan Afrikan Studies on Reparations. Due to be published by June, 2008.
XVIII. Re-supported the LA City Council's resolution to support HR. 40, now that John Cinyers is chair of the House Judiciary Committee, March 2007. Made the proposal to the Los Angeles City Council, and assisted in the writing of the wording of the city resolution, to establish a Los Angeles Commission to Study the Impact of Slavery and Slaves on the History and the Evolution of Southern California. Not only was Biddy Mason a former slave in Los Angeles, she was the first Afrikan American millionaire in the region, she owned a large block of downtown LA land, etc. There were several similar lives in LA's 18th and 19th century history, and California was part of the Underground Railroad. In August, 2007, hosted along with B. Parks and radio station KJLH, a very successful public Town Hall Meeting (TMH) on reparations.
XIX. Worked w/the POAC to coordinate the successful Howard University gathering of Diasporan Representatives and (California)Community Council of Elders (CCOE) members, September, 2007 and the formation of the Sixth Region Diasporan Caucus, of which RUF is a member.
XX. Began a series of reparations-oriented articles in the Our Weekly Newspaper, August-December 2007.
WITHIN THE RUF, DECISIONMAKING AUTHORITY RESTS WITH THE MEMBERSHIP CONSENSUS (See Meeting Ma'at: The Handbook of Afrikan Centered Gatherings, 2004.
FOR EACH MEETING THERE IS FLOATING CHAIRPERSON (WISDOM KEEPER), SCRIBE (SCROLL KEEPER) AND RECORDS cOORDINATOR (MEMORY KEEPER) TO CONDUCT AND GUIDE THE GATHERINGS.
THE RUF IS TASK -ORIENTED SO THAT THERER ARE ALWAYS ON GOINGPROJECTS THAT MEMBERS COORDINATE AND DIRECT THROUGH WORKING COMMITTEES.
INDEPENDENT GROUPS THAT REPRESENT THE RUF
1. THE REPARATIONS RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY GROUP
2. MR.PEOPLES HELPING PEOPLE
3. RORY'S RBG REPARATIONS FLAGS
4. REPARATIONS FAITH COMMUNITY COORDINATING COMMITTEE
5.POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (L.A., BH/HOLLYWOOD BRANCHS of the NAACP)
6. NEW PANTHER VANGUARD MOVEMENT - INTERNATIONAL/ REPARATIONSEDUCATION COMMITTEE
7.WEST COAST SUPPORTERS OF THE HARVEST INSTITUTE
8.THE COMPTON COLLEGE BSU
9. THE CAL.STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE BSU
10. THE PAN AFRIKAN ORGANIZING COMMITTEE - WESTCOAST SUB REGION
11. ASSOCIATION OF AFRIKAN-CENTERED SCHOLARS AND ACTIVISTS
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