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SUPPLEMENT
No. 42November 1, 2020
2020 U.S. Elections
No Let-Up to Protest Movement in the U.S.
 
October 12, 2020. Indigenous Peoples' Day
is marked in Santa Fe, New Mexico by tearing down
a monument commemorating the conquest of
Indigenous peoples of the Southwest U.S.
• Photo Review
2020 U.S. Elections
No Let-Up to Protest Movement in the U.S.October saw a further expansion and deepening of
the movement of the people for justice. While
statues of pro-slavery Confederate Generals and
others had been targeted north and south all
summer, the drive for accountability and redress
is now evident in the targeting of statues of
former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Teddy
Roosevelt. On Indigenous Peoples' Day, which more
and more has replaced "Columbus Day" across the
U.S., calls for the recognition of crimes of
genocide against Indigenous peoples and of crimes
committed by the U.S. imperialists against the
peoples of the world rang out.
 Lincoln played a major role in the genocide
of Indigenous peoples, including the mass
execution of 38 Dakota men and massacres of many
more. While often credited with "freeing" the
enslaved African Americans, Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation left slavery intact in all the border
states. The enslaved people liberated themselves
together with poor farmers and workers south and
north.
Teddy Roosevelt was a main architect of U.S.
world expansion and striving for domination, a
proponent of U.S. aggression, especially in the
Americas, with his dictum: "speak softly and carry
a big stick."
The demand is growing for the celebration of
history of the people themselves, of their
striving for a democracy of their own making which
upholds the rights of all.
The mass mobilizations also show that those most
brutally attacked on all fronts, like African
Americans, Latinx and Indigenous
peoples, do not stand alone. Governments will not
succeed in isolating them and branding them as
criminals, just as they are not succeeding in
branding demonstrators as "terrorists" and
"violent anarchists." In many places videos are
being produced to show it is the police and
government that are racist and violent. In
Portland, there is currently a court case against
local police for instigating violence and using
chemical weapons such as tear gas and pepper
spray, rubber bullets, flashbang grenades and
more. A video constructed from those taken by
participants has been produced to expose the lies
and disinformation of the police concerning the
source of violence. Claims which blame the people
for violence are no longer credible as more and
more people are in action to defend protesters
against police.
The "Wall of Moms," initiated in Portland, Oregon
has spread to other cities as mothers have come
forward to link arms and stand at the front of
actions as the first line of defence against
police. The "Wall of Veterans" was organized to do
the same as many vets stand with protesters
demanding rights in actions in all parts of the
country. Indeed, active soldiers are refusing
orders to attack demonstrators, just as bus
drivers are refusing to transport those arrested
by the police. Actions have also been organized to
uphold the rights of undocumented immigrants and
refugees caged in detention camps. Immigrants too
have joined the many Black Lives Matter actions.
The actions are imbued with the consciousness that
so long as Black Lives do not matter, no lives
matter.
Anger with government failures concerning the
COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to a
consciousness that governments at all levels
refuse to take up their social responsibilities
and are thus unfit to govern. Nurses have
organized more than 1,500 actions since March,
texted every nurse in the country, delivered half
a million signatures demanding a national standard
of safety for all frontline workers and sufficient
personal protective equipment, testing and
staffing. They are outraged that more than 2,000
health care workers have died from COVID-19 as
they carried out their duties against all odds.
Postal workers, warehouse workers, cannery workers
and meat packers too have all demonstrated and
demanded the protection and safe working
conditions required as they too do their duty for
the public, which the government and giant
corporations refuse to provide.
 
October 7, 2020. Nurses on strike at San Leandro
Hospital in California.
 
October 29, 2020. Nurses protest at Corpus
Christi Medical Center in Texas. 
Photo Review
Indigenous
Peoples' Day Actions, October 11 and 12
Portland, Oregon
 
Activists hold Indigenous Peoples' Day of Rage,
tearing down statues of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Graffiti on Lincoln's pedestal refers to 38 Dakota
men executed after the 1862 Dakota-U.S. War.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
After the city fails to remove a racist monument
commemorating the conquest of Indigenous peoples
and soldiers who died in "battles with savage
Indians," activists tear it down themselves.
Flagstaff, Arizona
North Dakota
 
South Dakota
Rapid City, South Dakota
 
March to honour children who died at the Rapid
City Indian School; placards bearing their names
are held up by a hillside containing some
of their unmarked graves.
Clearbrook, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Decatur, Georgia
Rally calls for the removal from Decatur
Square of a cannon used in the U.S. war
against the Creek Nation.
Boston, Massachusetts
 
Providence, Rhode Island
Protesters block all lanes of Route 95.
Tampa, Florida
 
 
Actions Against
Police Violence and Impunity, October 3-30
Seattle, Washington
 
October 26, 2020. Activists mark 150 days of
protest.
October 8, 2020.
Portland, Oregon
 
October 27, 2020. Vigil at federal courthouse for
Walter Wallace Jr.,
killed by police in Philadelphia the previous day.
 
October 5, 2020. Vigil (top left) calling for
police to be held accountable for the killing of
Jonathan Price in Texas on October 3, 2020,
followed by protests (top right, bottom)
the next day.
October 7, 2020. Protest calls for reopening the
case of Patrick Kimmons,
killed by Portland police in 2018.
San Jose, California
 
Salt Lake City, Utah
October 7, 2020. Actions take place in
conjunction with the Vice-Presidential debate
being held that day at the University of Utah.
Denver, Colorado
 
Wolfe City, Texas
 
October 3, 2020. Vigil for Jonathan Price, a
31-year-old African American man shot and killed
by Wolfe City police earlier that evening. Price
was unarmed and complying with police instructions
when shot. The officer involved has been arrested
for murder.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
 
October 8, 2020. March honours the memory of all
those killed by Minneapolis police.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
 
October 8, 2020.
Chicago, Illinois
  
October 28, 2020. Activists demand
immediate removal of statue of General Philip
Sheridan in Lincoln Park. Sheridan is notorious
for his role in the genocidal U.S. Indian Wars
against the Indigenous nations of the Great
Plains.
 
October 20, 2020. Protest demands Chicago Police
Officer Jason Van Dyke be tried for the 2014
murder of Laquan McDonald and that a civilian
police accountability council be established.
Columbus, Ohio
 
October 3, 2020.
Louisville, Kentucky
October 10, 2020.
Nashville; La Vergne, Tennessee
 
October 3, 2020.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 
 
October 25-30, 2020. Ongoing protests
since the police killing of 27-year old Walter
Wallace Jr. on October 26. Wallace was
killed after family called 911 to request medical
assistance for him.
New York City, New York
October 27, 2020. Protest against
police killing of Walter Wallace, Jr.
 
October 27, 2020. Protesters picket the
headquarters of the police union after it endorses
Trump for President. Picketers hold up photos of
police repression across the U.S.
October 21, 2020. Protest at New York Police
Department precinct, against kidnap-style arrests,
deportations and detentions of immigrants.
October 17, 2020. March in Washington Square Park
against police violence and impunity.
 
October 5, 2020. Demonstration demands justice for
Jonathan Price, killed by police in Wolfe City,
Texas the previous day.
Washington, DC
October 27, 2020. Protest for 20-year-old Karon
Hylton (Rondo), who died after being struck by a
vehicle while being pursued by police for a helmet
violation.
 
October 12-17, 2020. Protests against
confirmation of new Supreme Court justice.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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