February 5, 2000

Through workshops, discussions, and internal surveys of its members, ACAS has been constructing a list of concrete priority areas and policies for progressive work in relation to Africa. Any progressive program of action must include at the minimum the following points:

1. Cancel All Debt and End Structural Adjustment
   Cancel debt owed by African countries to the US and all international institutions without imposing conditionalities, and end all U.S. contributions to the World Bank or the IMF until these institutions stop imposing structural adjustment programs;

2. Support African Peacekeeping and Reconstruction Programs, End U.S. Militarism
   Terminate all bilateral U.S. military aid programs, arms sales and training programs in Africa, including the Africa Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), and refocus U.S. assistance toward United Nations or African peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts. Support refugee assistance and reconstruction efforts equal to those elsewhere in the world--emphasizing African leadership and assistance to women and youth;

3. Fully Fund U.S. United Nations Obligations
   The U.S. must fully pay its treaty obligations immediately without imposing new conditionalities;

4. Support Public Health
   Rebuild the innovative 1970s-era "Primary Health Care For All" program. Refocus health care policy away from single disease threats such as AIDS and toward a comprehensive public health service that prevents and treats all illnesses without undermining the public health sector. Support the public drug sector, essential drugs policies, and African drug production or cheap drug imports;

5. Reparations Now
   Demand the U.S. support reparations for death and forced labor under slavery and colonialism, and the creation of representative, international organizations towards that end. The role of European and American states and firms in slavery and colonialism should be openly recognized and written into K-12 curricula, and national memorials and museums should be erected in memory of the African holocaust;

6. End Slavery
   End slavery in all of its forms, and reject solutions that involve buying slaves. Boycott international companies, such as Talisman, that invest in countries practicing slavery, and deny trade and other benefits to countries such as Mauritania where slavery is practiced;

7. Ban Landmines
   The US should ratify the International Treaty to Ban Landmines;

8. Education for All
   Demand the U.S. government create a "Marshall Plan" to ensure education for all African children, an end to inequality of access and funding by gender, race, class or region; and the revision of Africa's appropriate place in US school curricula;

9. Restore Foreign Assistance
   Raise the level of international aid to $2 billion per year channeled through the Development Fund for Africa in consultation with representative African organizations, and target programs that aid postwar reconstruction, put women and men (not children) back to work, and avoid subsidizing multinational corporations and international NGOs;

10. Support Fair Trade
    Oppose the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. Recognize that free trade policies have historically increased inequality, gender inequity, poverty and dependence, and support instead economic relationships that benefit both Africa and the United States, and lead to balanced, equitable development.

Association of Concerned Africa Scholars: www.concernedafricascholars.org