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Supplement
No.
20June 6, 2020
Mass Actions Across the U.S. and Around the
World Demand Justice and an End
to Police Brutality and Impunity
United
States
Tens of thousands march on the I-94 in
Minneapolis, May 31, 2020.
At actions in Minneapolis
and across the United States, people from all
walks of life, and especially African-American
youth, have been out in their thousands taking
courageous stands to demand justice for
George Floyd in the face of massive
state-organized violence by the police and
military. They
are decrying not only the racist killing of George
Floyd on May 25, but all similar injustices
and impunity for such crimes that are rife across
the United States.
Speaking in their own name, working people have
made clear their opposition to racist and
police violence and that those who permit such
crimes to be committed do not speak for them
and will be held to account. They are standing up
to be counted and fighting to humanize
their society by calling for new arrangements and
rejecting arrangements that dehumanize
everyone, including police forces and a legal
system that are premised on protecting private
property and the interests of a wealthy ruling
elite, at the expense of the people's well-being.
This is confirmed by the hundreds of incidents of
unprovoked brutality by heavily armed and
militarized police, as well as the National Guard,
against the people demanding justice and
accountability that have been documented
throughout the protests.
In Minneapolis alone, protests have taken place
continuously since May 26, organized by
many organizations that defend the rights of
African Americans, high school students,
organized labour, as well as medical students.
Massive actions have taken place at the site of
George Floyd's killing, throughout the streets of
Minneapolis, as well as the Capitol Building
in neighbouring St. Paul (the other half of the
Twin Cities), at the residence of Governor Tim
Walz, the residence of County Prosecutor Mike
Freeman, Minneapolis City Hall and the
offices of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner
that issued a misleading preliminary report
about George Floyd's death. The four police
officers involved in killing George Floyd were
fired on May 26, as the mass actions began. The
sustained actions saw to it that some of the
people's further demands -- that criminal charges,
including murder, be brought against all
four former Minneapolis police officers -- have
been met. Protestors continue to demand
investigations into all police violence and
killings against African Americans and other
minorities in Minnesota in recent years. They are
also calling for community control over the
police, and that the current police force be
defunded and disbanded. Many local businesses
and organizations have taken their stands by
publicly breaking ties with the Minneapolis
Police Department.
Washington, DC has become another focal point for
the demonstrations, where U.S. President
Donald Trump, who epitomizes the inhumanity and
racism of the ruling circles and their
wanton use of state violence against the people,
has only contributed to people's outrage
through his self-serving provocations.
Memorial services were held in Minneapolis on
June 4; and in Raeford, North Carolina, George
Floyd's birthplace, on June 6, where cars were
lined up for miles with
those wishing to pay their respects to George and
his family. Another
will be held on June 7 in Houston, Texas, where he
also lived.
What is telling about the actions across the U.S.
is that people are not only protesting the
killing of George Floyd, but they are giving
expression to a desire for new political
arrangements, where they can exercise control over
their lives and cannot be victimized by
those who do not represent them and refuse to
recognize their rights.
Minneapolis, MN
 
  
June 6, 2020
June 5, 2020
Memorial for George Floyd, June 4, 2020.
Minneapolis City Hall, June 3, 2020
Capitol Building, St. Paul, June 2, 2020
  
Medical students rally outside the offices of
the Hennepin County
Medical Examiner, June 2, 2020.
Rally at Minnesota State Governor's Residence,
June 1, 2020.
Rally at the Capitol Building in St. Paul, June
1, 2020.
 
Organized labour rallies to demand Justice for
George Floyd, May 31, 2020.
Protestors rally outside Minneapolis Police
Department Precinct 3, May 28, 2020, which is
later burned to the ground.
May 27, 2020
 
Rally through the streets on, May 26,
2020 including the
place where George Floyd was killed by police the
day before.
Washington, DC
The eighth consecutive day of protests takes place
in Washington, DC, June 6, 2020.
 
On June 5, 2020, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel
Bowser renames a portion
of 16th St., which leads directly to the White
House, "Black Lives
Matter Plaza." Protestors provide an addendum
nearby in their own
yellow lettering the next day: "Defund the
Police."
Protestors march down 16th St., with Lafayette
Square and the White House
behind them, June 3, 2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Hartford, Connecticut
Dover, Delaware
Bethesda, Maryland
New York City
Brooklyn, New York
Columbus, Ohio
  
  
Detroit, Michigan
 
East Lansing, Michigan
Chicago, Illinois
Louisville, Kentucky
Raeford, North Carolina
Memorial and visitation for George Floyd, June
6, 2020.
Nashville, Tennessee
Ferguson, Missouri
Des Moines, Iowa
Atlanta, Georgia
Miami, Florida
Montgomery, Alabama
Shreveport, Louisiana
Denton, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Frisco, Texas
Phoenix, Arizona
Oakland, California
Anaheim, California
Stockton, California
Seattle, Washington
Actions
in Canada
Despite the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, working people in Canada have been out in their
thousands to express their outrage at the police
killing of George Floyd and lend support to the
militant fight for rights in the U.S. At the same
time, they are condemning ongoing state-organized
and racist police violence in Canada, and the
conditions that make Indigenous peoples, Black
people, national minorities and women fair game.
In Toronto on May 27, 29-year-old Regis
Korchinski-Paquet, an Indigenous-Black woman,
fell to her death from her 24th-floor apartment
under suspicious circumstances. Police were
present in her apartment at the time of her death,
called by Korchinski-Paquet's mother to
de-escalate a family fight, news agencies report.
The family's lawyer Knia Singh told reporters that
six officers showed up and went into the apartment
with Korchinski-Paquet, but stopped family members
from entering. Singh said Korchinski-Paquet
yelled, "Mom, help," from inside the unit, then things
went quiet. Police later informed that she was on
the ground. The matter is being investigated by
the Special Investigations Unit. A mass rally was
held at Christie Pitts on May 30, followed by a
march down Bloor St., under the banner "Not
Another Black Life." The people's concern about
the role of the police in the death of
Korchinski-Paquet is well-founded. Toronto police
have a long history of unjustified use of lethal
force against Black people and national
minorities, including Sammy Yatim, Jeffrey
Reodica, Andrew Bramwell, Faraz Suleiman, Wade
Lawson and others, as well as people suffering
from mental illness including Otto Vass, Lester
Donaldson, Edmund Yu, Sylvia Klibingaitis and
Andrew Loku.
In Montreal, the city's police service (SPVM) is
also notorious for its mistreatment of Black
people and other minorities, including racial
profiling and police brutality, especially in the
more impoverished area of Montreal North. An
especially infamous case is the 2008 police
killing of 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva, for which
the SPVM could not be held to account. Despite
this notoriety, Montreal Police Chief Sylvain
Caron on June 5, indicated that he would like to
attend a June 7 protest against police brutality
and racial profiling. His invitation to
participate was withdrawn. "Unfortunately, I have
to cancel the invitation to the chief of police,"
a Facebook post from organizer Anastasia Marcelin
reads. "Citizens are terrified at the idea of him
being there. This is the consequence when we lose
confidence in an institution that should be there
for our security, which has chosen to brutalize
us." Similarly, a joint statement from the groups
Hoodstock, Justice for Victims of Police Killings
and Tout Le Hood en Parle, also rejected the
participation of the SPVM chief. "We want to
express our opposition to the presence of the
Montreal police chief at a demonstration against
police violence and brutality, which amounts to
reinforcing police impunity," the statement reads.
"It is also disrespectful to the victims of police
violence and impunity, including those people
killed by the Montreal police."
On June 6, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca
Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta spoke out about
his recent treatment by RCMP officers, in which he
alleges he was beaten after being stopped for
expired stickers on his vehicle license plates.
"Because we [First Nations] are a minority -- and
nobody speaks up for us -- every time our people
do wrong, the RCMP… they always seem to use
excessive force. And that has to stop. Enough is
enough," Adam said at a news conference in Fort
McMurray. Alberta's police oversight agency has
been directed to investigate.
Police brutality and killing of Indigenous
peoples are crimes on which Canada was founded,
and continue in the present era. Most recently
there have been the police raids on the
Wet'suwet'en land defenders, and before that the
sieges by the police and military at Oka, Quebec,
Gustafsen Lake in BC, and Ipperwash, Ontario,
where Dudley George was shot and killed by the
police. There are the "starlight tours" of the
Saskatoon police, driving Indigenous men outside
city limits and leaving them to die in freezing
weather. There is also the terrible sexual abuse
of Indigenous women by the Sûreté du Québec in
Val-d'Or, and the callous indifference of the
Government of Canada and police services to the
plight of Indigenous women and girls being
disappeared across the country.
Working people in Canada have always opposed
state-organized racist attacks in all their forms,
whether it be racist immigration measures, the
police and their agents instigating racist attacks
to divide the polity and blame the people
themselves for racism, or attempts to deny the
Indigenous peoples their hereditary and treaty
rights, and even their very right to be. It is in
this spirit that working people across Canada are
demonstrating and organizing to change the
situation, while standing shoulder to shoulder
with those in the U.S. and around the world also
fighting for empowerment and in defence of the
rights of all.
Ottawa, ON
Some 15,000 people took to the streets of Ottawa
on June 5, 2020,
including stops at the U.S. Embassy (top) and Parliament Hill.
Halifax, NS
 
Charlottetown, PEI
Montreal, QC
 
 
Toronto, ON
 
  
Windsor, ON
Chatham-Kent, ON
Edmonton, AB
Calgary, AB
 
Vancouver, BC
Prince George, BC
Around the World
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
London, England
Birmingham, England
Liverpool, England
Dublin, Ireland
Marseille, France
Berlin, Germany
Poland
Helsinki, Finland
Reykjavik, Iceland
 
Zurich, Switzerland
Portugal
Italy
 
Athens, Greece
Haifa, Palestine
 
Dakar, Senegal
Abuja, Nigeria
 
Perth, Australia
Sydney, Australia
New Zealand
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individually click on
the black headline.)
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