Harbari Gani Family!

Happy Kwanzaa. As we celebrate this season and this day, please know that in fulfilling the spirit of the harvest celebration, it also requires our collective commitments on pressing collective issues.

This season we are calling on the community to commit to amending the City of Chicago’s Slavery Disclosure Ordinance. This direct action campaign is called Operation: Strengthen the Disclosure.

Since 2001 this ordinance has required all entities seeking contracts with the City to disclose either their active participation and/or complicity with the enslavement of our Ancestors. The Amendment to this ordinance would require the injuring corporation or institution to deposit 6% of their project cost into an economic enhancement fund for the Afrikan and indigenous descendent community’s development needs.

Norfolk Southern Rail Road (NSRR), a company seeking a contract with the city for its $285 million dollar rail yard expansion, would have been the first corporation effected by this reparative legislation. It would have netted the Englewood community, one of this city’s poorest, $17 million dollars in development equity. This money could have been used to leverage over $100 Million dollars in real development to this community. By inking the deal with the City, the injuring corporation, Norfolk Southern, increased its value by 2 Billion dollars. Its stock went from $77 a share to $111 a share, a $2Billion increase in value over the course of a year. In exchange, it offered the Afrikan Descendant community of Englewood $20,000 - to be divided among four schools. That amounted to one hundred thousandth of one percent of what it eventually gained (.oooo1%) That’s like taking a penny and chopping it up in 100,000 pieces and giving the community one of those useless pieces.

We need to push the current leadership in a direction toward community commitment, accountability and development resources.

We would like your participation by signing the Operation: Strengthen The Disclosure Petition To Amend the current Ordinance. The petition is located ……

Pumoja Tutashinde Mbilishaka! Together We Will Win, Without a Doubt!