Brutal Killing of George
Floyd
Yes to Resistance! No to the Use of Police Powers and the Military to Criminalize Politics!
60,000 protest in Houston, TX, George Floyd's hometown, June
3, 2020.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
expresses its deepest sympathies for the family of George Floyd and all
other victims of police impunity and killings in the United States.
CPC(M-L) denounces all racist attacks -- whether they are spontaneous
or organized by a crisis-ridden failed state which gives
itself a green light to govern through unfettered police
powers and the use of the military. In the United States, confronting
state violence is a way of life, which tells us the kind of democracy
that exists there. It is the resistance of the people, especially
African-Americans, as well as Puerto Ricans, Hispanics,
Indigenous peoples and all minorities, along with working people of all
origins, which tells us about the courage and fighting spirit that
characterize the U.S. working class and people. CPC(M-L) strongly
believes that this resistance is of the calibre that will find
the way forward in a manner which holds the racist American state to
account. We are one humanity, waging one struggle for peace, freedom
and democracy. Canadians stand as one with their U.S. sisters and
brothers.
 In this fight,
CPC(M-L) calls on Canadians to pay utmost attention to opposing the
criminalization of politics. Police powers do not recognize members of
a body politic. They do not recognize rights by virtue of
one's membership in that body politic, let alone rights by virtue of
being human. Police powers only recognize categories of "things"
targeted as "fair game" and slated for some form of punishment and
impunity by narrow private interests in place of government of
laws.
In scenarios that have been unfolding in the U.S.
for some time, people are portrayed as "thugs," "protestors,"
"trouble-makers," "enemy aliens," "blacks," "Latinos," "Hispanics,"
"Muslims," "terrorists," "deviants," "illegals," and other categories
designed to dehumanize them and target them for attack. The same is the
case in Canada, Britain, France and other countries. Prime Ministers
calling for sensitivity training because there is a little bit of
racism in all of us, such as Canada's Prime Minister and other
ministers are prone to do, is diversion, pure and simple. The aim is to
keep the people shackled by a system which claims racism is a matter of
"bad policies" and the solution is to advocate for "good policies,"
while keeping decision-making in a few private hands.
Racism is not a "bad policy." It is systemic,
inherent to the states constituted to defend property rights, whose
very constitutions put the decision-making powers in the hands of
rulers whose main job is to perpetuate social relations and
arrangements that keep the majority in bondage.
In today's conditions, it is the striving of the
people for empowerment, to speak in their own name and control the
decisions which affect their lives that raises the level of politics
and opens the path to progress. The use of unfettered police powers by
those who have usurped power by force merely reveals the essence of
their imperialist democracy and in whose interests the
decision-making power is wielded. It is not a a sign of strength but of
their desperation to maintain control.
On the eve of the U.S. presidential
election in November 2016, CPC(M-L) wrote:
"... the campaign has revealed the extent to which
the U.S. state and system of governance operate through corruption and
coercion as well as how people are deprived of political power."
This is "the other very important aspect of the
state power in the hands of the financial oligarchy. The ruling
imperialist elite achieve this by depriving the people of an outlook, a
way to look at the world and the problems that have arisen so that they
can be calmly sorted out and provided with solutions," CPC(M-L) pointed
out.
When Donald Trump was declared President of the
United States, CPC(M-L) said that his "election to the presidency of
the United States will represent the rule of the oligopolies through
unfettered police powers. [Trump's] election has plunged both the
peoples of the U.S. and the peoples of the world into an even more
dangerous situation."
And now, four years later, it is the
courageous resistance struggles of the people of the United States,
their striving for their own empowerment, which shows there is a way
forward which is not based on violence and war. This is not
the conclusion the rulers want the peoples to reach. Far from it. They
continue to peddle the same narrative they peddled about the 2016
election results. At that time, CPC(M-L) pointed out:
"From the side of the Clinton campaign, the
verdict is that the result is the apocalypse, and the values and vision
of Clinton remain all that stand between 'you and the apocalypse' as
she said during the campaign. From the side of the Trump campaign comes
the explanation that he led 'a movement' which is anti-establishment,
wants the problems of the economy dealt with and an end to 'all the
bullshit.' From both sides comes the agreement that now that the
election is over, everyone's duty is to abide by the Constitution,
ensure the transition of power is peaceful and 'make America great
again.'"
 At that time,
despite the fact that Hilary Clinton failed to "unite America"
behind her vision and values, she said that going forward it is this
shared vision and values which she will continue to push and she called
on her supporters to do likewise. Nothing was said about the fact that
this vision uses aggression and war as negotiation, blames the U.S.
economic decline on China and maintains Russia as the main enemy of the
United States. It was captured in her slogan that the U.S. is the
"indispensable nation," which, of course, makes all others dispensable.
It was expressed by Clinton in 2008 when she said the U.S. could
"totally obliterate" Iran, and in 2011 when she greeted the
assassination of the leader of Libya with the phrase "We came, we saw,
he died."
But now, four years later, former President Obama
is sticking to the same message -- we need change so that good policies
can be adopted, he says. We need to uphold the Constitution.
As concerns where Donald Trump stands, the central
points of his campaign in 2016 were basically that the U.S. system is
broken or rigged, that the U.S. has been weakened on the world stage
and that only a man of Trump's force of personality is capable of
putting things right. His strategy, he said, was to be "engaged" in
making deals. In his victory speech he said, "I've spent my entire life
in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in
people all over the world" and "[t]hat is now what I want to do for our
country." He made sure to mention the large number of generals who
supported him, as well as the National Rifle Association and New York
City Mayor during 9/11 Rudolph Giuliani, and others.
And where is he now? Many of these generals and
assorted crooks in his administration have abandoned his ship and
joined the camp of those who advocate using the military only
in defence of the Constitution. Meanwhile, increasingly
desperate, Trump's threats to carry out death and
destruction against everything he cannot control reach fever pitch
along with increasingly irrational behaviour.
Only the resistance struggle of the U.S. working
people to realize their cause by speaking in their own name will open a
path to progress and contribute to eliminating the dangers which lie
ahead.
CPC(M-L) takes this occasion to profoundly
sympathize with all those in the United States who are targets of the
racist, anti-worker and anti-people attacks and are waging valiant
protests and acts of bravery and resistance, proclaiming loudly that
the military must stand down, police brutality and impunity must end
and the cause of justice must be served. So too in Canada, militant and
large demonstrations show that Canadians stand as one with the people
of the United States and that we are one humanity in one struggle.
Yes to Resistance!
No to the Use of Police Powers and the Military to Criminalize Politics!
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 20 - June 6, 2020
Article Link:
Brutal Killing of George
Floyd: Yes to Resistance! No to the Use of Police Powers and the Military to Criminalize Politics!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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