A People's Historical Journey to Self Determination & Decolonization

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MEMORANDUM-46

This is not PRM-46 (?)

Revised Organic Act of 1954

Virgin Islands Code (V.I.C.)

In international law three categories of Political status are usually recognized:

1. Independent countries e.g.: France, Canada
2. Internal independent countries which are under the protection of another country in matters of defense and foreign affairs, e.g.: Netherlands Antilles, the Faroe Islands, British Virgin Islands etc.
3. Colonies and other dependent political units e.g. Puerto Rico. Non-Self-Governing Territories

There are, furthermore, several unrecognized countries and independence, secessionist, autonomy and nationalist movements throughout the world.

Residual Colonialism In The 21St Century

Virgin Islands of the United States.  The Virgin Islands of the United States, formerly the Danish West Indies, were purchased from Denmark pursuant to a Convention ratified on January 17, 1917;

Unincorporated Territory or Outlying Possession:  An "unincorporated territory" or "outlying possession" is an area over which the Constitution has not been expressly and fully extended by the Congress within the meaning of Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution.

Read more @ Status of the Virgin Islands of the United States
 

"We have never really been given a chance to say what we want to be," says Marilyn Krigger, co-chair of the commission appointed to oversee the referendum.

These specks of land, which Columbus named for St. Ursula's legendary 11,000 virgins, have been dominated by foreigners ever since Columbus captured several Caribees/Kalingo people in the vicinity. The flags of six nations have flown over these islands since Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the New World in 1493.

Read more @ Status Referendum of 1993
 

6 Apr 2017 - 1. Adoption of the agenda
2. Preparations for the Caribbean Regional Seminar (A/AC.109/2017/19)
3. Visiting missions
4. Enlargement of the membership of the Committee
5. Other matters (A/AC.109/2017/L.2)

The United Nations and Decolonization, 2017 Caribbean regional seminar

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 16 - 18 May 2017

Action of Second Continental Congress,
July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pre-tended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

by Mark Charles,  03 Jul 2016

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Most Americans, and probably a good number of global citizens, can quote the above section of the Declaration of Independence. But I doubt many can recall much of what comes after that or the historical context from which it was written.

In 1763, King George of England issued the Proclamation of 1763. In this proclamation, he drew a line down the Appalachian Mountains and essentially told the colonies that they no longer had the right of discovery of the empty (Indian) lands west of the Appalachia. That right was now reserved solely for the crown. This upset the colonists, so a few years later they wrote a letter of protest. In their letter, they accused the king of “raising the conditions of new appropriations of land.” They went on in their letter to declare that “he (the King) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages…”

hey signed their letter July 4, 1776.

Yes, believe it or not, a mere 30 lines beneath the statement “All men are created equal,” the Declaration of Independence refers to Natives as “merciless Indian Savages.” Making it abundantly clear that the only reason the founding fathers used the inclusive language “all men” is because they had a very narrow definition of who was and who was not human.

According the Declaration of Independence, Natives are dehumanized as savages who stood in the way of westward expansion. Read the entire article here.

"There are many history books which claim that Attucks was African-American. In the strange view of American racism during the two centuries following the Revolutionary War, a person was considered to be Black if they carried a single drop of Black “blood.” Under this notion, Attucks was indeed Black. At the same time, he was Indian, as his mother was Massachuset (the tribe that gave the state its name). At the time of his birth, she was living at the Christian Indian settlement at Natick. The surname “Attucks” was common among the Praying Indians in Massachusetts and appears to be an Anglo version of an Alongonquian word “ahtuq es” meaning “little dear.”

Crispus Attucks was a direct descendent of John Attucks, an Indian executed for treason in 1676 during the King Philip War.

Crispus Attucks symbolizes the dilemma faced by many Indian people over the past two centuries. The problem is not just that of having a genetic heritage from more than one “race”, but that the fuzzy notion of race inherent in American racism assigns an individual to only one race. In addition, the old notion that “inferior blood dominates” means that many people of Indian heritage were considered Black by the dominant society. Today there are some who feel that mixed blood people should be able to celebrate all of their heritage, not just part of it." Read the entire article here.

Article XIII (Amendment 13 - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude)

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. ^affects 11

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.   ^{ratified #13}

Very good historical pictures and illustrations.

Knowing The Information For Yourself Is Your Duty!!!

Is Free Association Right For the VI?  Let's Take  A Look At The Marshall Islands

THE REAL VI SCOOP

Virgin Islands' testimony starts starts around 52 minute mark.

http://webtv.un.org/search/7th-plenary-meeting-special-committee-on-the-situation-with-regard-to-the-implementation-of-the-declaration-on-the-granting-of-independence-to-colonial-countries-and-peoples/5799373569001/?term=&lan=english&page=5

Puerto Rico petitioning for independence.
http://webtv.un.org/search/6th-plenary-meeting-special-committee-on-the-situation-with-regard-to-the-implementation-of-the-declaration-on-the-granting-of-independence-to-colonial-countries-and-peoples/5799285102001/?term=&lan=english&page=7

May 15, 2010 - Unity March