We Charge Genocide: Ceasefire movement learning from the Black freedom struggle

A delegation led by Paul Robeson presents a copy of the ‘We Charge Genocide’ petition to the United Nations Secretariat in New York on Dec. 17, 1951. | Daily Worker / People’s World Archives At International Publishers’ book warehouse, workers are engaged in a struggle. It’s not a labor struggle, the kind of which you’re accustomed to reading about in People’s World. No, they’re engaged in a struggle to keep up with orders. Copies of the historic 1951 “We Charge Genocide” petition to the United Nations are flying off the shelves. Presented to the U.N. by William L. Patterson, and Paul Robeson, the indictment—officially called We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People—documented page after page of evidence of the inhuman and racist practices of the United States. It was produced by Patterson’s organization, the Civil Rights Congress, and asked for international action to halt what was happening to Black Americans. Now, with yet another genocide being waged, this time by Israel against the Palestinian people, many activists in the ceasefire movement are turning to this historic petition for lessons and insights on how to stop the destruction of a people by a ruthless state. William L....