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   From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA   
      
   Slavery in the dock   
      
   Five large US enterprises are accused of having practised, and profited   
   from, slavery.   
      
   The five companies are the financials Chase Manhattan and FleetBoston   
   Financial group, and three insurance companies, New York Life, Aetna and   
   AIG. However, an avalanche could follow suit, including foreign companies   
   which have (even unknowingly) bought positions in US companies involved in   
   slavery.   
      
   Previous attempts to take the Federal Government to court over the same   
   issue failed but this is the first time that firms have been sued. The   
   evidence being used by the plaintiffs are documents which point towards the   
   actual purchase of slaves, financing slave purchase, insuring ships in which   
   slaves were transported, selling products used by slave labour, and   
   profiting from the slave trade.   
      
   Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree and author and human rights activist,   
   Randall Robinson, are leading the movement, called Reparations Coordination   
   Committee. They have joined some of America-s most brilliant barristers   
   behind the cause.   
      
   However, their cause will be difficult to present: all the people involved   
   are now dead, slavery was not illegal at the time of the acts being brought   
   before the court, and normally, cases of crimes not resolved after 30 years   
   are considered closed.   
      
   The position of AIG is typical of a company against which the accusations   
   are extremely tenuous: It was founded in 1948, but is involved in the   
   process because it bought American General in August, 2001, which in turn   
   had bought US Life Insurance in 1997. This company was involved in business   
   which included acts connected with the slave trade.   
      
   Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)