International solidarity actions and statements from around the world.
International solidarity actions and statements are happening around the world in support of the George Floyd protests and resistance in the United States as well as to protest police violence and racism domestically.
In Paris, France thousands defied a ban to protest June 2. They were demanding justice in the 2016 police killing of Adama Traore and their demonstration comes in the wake of months of protests that rocked the country and led to the wounding and blinding of hundreds of "Yellow Vest" demonstrators.:
“Today we are not just talking about the fight of the Traore family. It is the fight for everyone. When we fight for George Floyd, we fight for Adama Traore,” elder sister and symbol of the fight against police violence, Assa Traore, told the protest.
“What is happening in the United States is an echo of what is happening in France,”
A number of rallies have been held across Canada. In Regina, June 2, hundreds gathered outside of the Saskatchewan legislature:
"A lot of people here think that Canada isn't racist," Faith Olanipekun, one of the organizers, said. "So it's important for us to come out, voice our concerns and let people know that we are suffering in Canada just as much as people in the U.S. are suffering."
This came after several days of demonstrations and solidarity protests nationwide including in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Nova Scotia:
The massive Toronto rally on the weekend (as well as those in the other cities) was also in response to the suspicious death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who fell from an apartment balcony when alone in an apartment with police on May 27.
A rally is planned for Friday, June 5 in Winnipeg.
The Communist Party of Canada issued a statement that read in part:
In the United States, the videotaped extrajudicial murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department, is only the latest killing. Police services across Canada do not have a better record. Last week, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black-Indigenous woman, fell to her death in the presence of Toronto police. In early April, D’Andre Campbell, a Black man, was shot by police inside his home after being tased in Brampton, Ontario. Also in early April, Winnipeg police shot and killed Eisha Hudson, a 16 year-old Indigenous girl, and Jason Collins, an Indigenous man, in separate killings. We extend our deepest sympathy and solidarity to the families of all those affected by police murders and violence across the country.
Sadly, the families, friends and communities of the victims cannot expect justice from the police, “police oversight” bodies, the courts or capitalist politicians, without a massive fight. When murders occur and the perpetrator wears a uniform, the police and courts fail to press charges in almost all cases, especially if the victim is an Indigenous, Black or racialized person.
More broadly, racist policing also includes practices such as beatings, sexual assaults and racist harassment through “carding”, “street checks” and “stop and frisk” policies. Racist over-policing of low-income and racialized communities, often acting and trained as a militarized occupation force, is one of the main reasons for the massive over representation of Indigenous and racialized peoples in Canadian prisons. Indigenous peoples make up 30% of the prison population while Indigenous identified people make up 5% of the population. Black Canadians make up 8.6% of inmates while it is estimated that Black Canadians make up 3% of the population.
The current pandemic and capitalist economic crisis have further exposed the structural racism embedded in the United States and also in Canada. In both countries, it is working-class racialized and immigrant communities, especially women, who are on the front lines as essential workers. These workers are being infected and dying at a disproportionate rate, with corporations and governments failing to protect them.
New Zealand:
London, UK:
Athens, Greece saw a demonstration of a few hundred outside the US embassy lead by a contingent from the youth division of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). They held up signs that formed the slogan: “Capitalism means, I can't breathe”.
The KKE's Central Committee also issued a statement that read in part:
“The KKE unites its voice with the thousands of people and youth of the USA that are protesting against the barbarism and repression of the US government and the state. The rage and disgust of millions all over the world is overflowing, following the murders of African Americans and protestors.
The images of the pandemic, on the one hand, with the mass graves and the complete lack of a public healthcare system, which has already cost the lives of more than 100,000 people, and mass unemployment, poverty, repression, racism, on the other, lay bare the famed American dream, demonstrating the rot of capitalism, even more so in its metropolis.
The Trump government, just as its predecessor, Obama, and all of the American governments up until now, Republicans and Democrats, have great responsibility, because racist crimes, police violence and repression have never stopped.
The KKE is one of a number of Communist and Workers' parties that have issued statements about the Floyd murder and uprisings.
The widespread mass protests and riots reflects widespread indignation over fascism, racism, misogyny and anti-immigrant policies of the Trump government. These protests also reflect the growing restlessness of the American working class over the acute problem of unemployment and deepening socio-economic crisis resulting from capitalist economic recession.
The Party denounces US President Trump for fomenting fascist violence against the people when he declared "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," virtually giving the police and military forces the go signal to fire at demonstrators.
The Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria released a statement June 2 (excerpt):
Although the US is still the imperialist hegemonic power, it has serious problems: The capitalist economy is facing a massive crisis, millions of people are unemployed, the rudimentary health system cannot withstand the CoViD-19 epidemic and the public deficit remains immense, not least because of the huge military expenditure. At international level, interventions in Syria and Venezuela have failed, as have the subordination of Iraq and the reorganisation of Libya. The Trump administration is held in low esteem among most of the world's peoples.
However, it is not simply the acute problems, the incumbent president or racist whites, which lead to repression, racism and violence in the US, but monopoly capitalism itself. Exploitation and oppression are omnipresent within capitalism. Racism, division of the working population, nationalism and police violence are part of the methods of rule of a bourgeois state, which is merely an illusion of democracy, in particular in the US. The two-party system of the US is a tool in the hands of the rich, the banks and corporations. In fact, whether Republicans or Democrats sit in the White House is of little real significance - in alliance with Wall Street, they represent in any case the main enemy of the working class and the oppressed people's strata of the US. The death of George Floyd is a result of this situation - but so is the widespread anger over this incident.
"...people in cities around the world are marching in solidarity with
demonstrators in the U.S. to condemn the killing of Floyd. Showing that George
Floyd’s murder is not only a single outrage, but also the latest manifestation of a system
that callously devalues the lives of Black people. When we talk about systemic racism,
we are not only talking about Black lives killed by police brutality with no
accountability. Instead, we are talking about a system of racism that impacts every
single aspect of our lives. For instance, Black women have a maternal death rate three
times the rate of White women, or that the net worth of Black Americans is staggeringly
low compared to White Americans, where Black families own 1/10th the wealth of
White families, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent numbers. Despite only
making up 13% of the U.S. population, Black Americans are two-and-a half times as
likely as white Americans to be killed by the police. Or for instance, in 2017, blacks
represented 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison
population. Whites accounted for the 64% of adults but 30% of prisoners. And while
Hispanics represented 16% of the adult population, they accounted for 23% of inmates.
This has got to end, we urgently need equity for all who are marginalized and made
disposable in a societal system that treats hundreds of millions of people as unworthy of
the basic dignity of human respect. This is why, this party supports and stand with all
protesters who are raising their voice towards a deep change in the economic, societal,
political, and cultural structure of the U.S. but also in the western world."