By Robin Jackson
There have been a huge number of growing protests outside the United States in support of the rebellion taking place in there against the killing of George Floyd. These are an objective aid for that struggle.
The United States has entered its biggest political crisis since the Vietnam War. Protests have erupted across more than 350 US cities these past eight nights and days. A rebellion, of hundreds of thousands, has taken to the streets, voicing the slogans of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘I can’t breathe’ (George Floyd’s words just before he was killed).
President Trump is deliberately inciting racism by urging state authorities to use violence to quell the protests. Peaceful protest gatherings are being violently attacked by the police and in some cities journalists are being targeted to discourage the media from reporting the brutalisation taking place.
In solidarity with this rebellion, there are mobilisations taking place across the globe. Amongst others, there have been protests about the killing of George Floyd in more than 20 countries and cities (links below are to videos and photos of protests):-
Australia: Sydney
Belgium: Brussels
Brazil: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo
Britain: London (US Embassy and Trafalgar Square), Liverpool, Cardiff and Manchester
Canada: Montreal and Toronto
Denmark: Copenhagen
France: Paris and Bordeaux
Germany: Berlin
Greece: Athens
India: Calcutta
Ireland: Dublin and Belfast
Italy: Rome and Milan
Kenya: Niarobi
Netherlands: Amsterdam
New Zealand: Auckland
Palestine
Spain: Barcelona
Switzerland: Zurich
The huge scale of the US protests is a response to yet another and grotesque racist killing even by the habitual standards of the US police But its background is also resistance to Trump’s attempts to beat the American population into submission – intimidating people with large numbers of Covid19 deaths and mass unemployment. The particular weight of all these attacks of course falls on the black population of the United States but also most other sections of the US working class – hence the large solidarity shown against this racist attack.
The fight back in the US is inspiring the international solidarity actions, the scale of anger of which is shown by the fact that in some countries these are taking place in defiance of the authorities as mass gatherings are still banned. Many of those taking part in the solidarity actions are from the sections of the population facing the sharpest end of the attacks from the ruling class in their own country, in particular the black populations within the imperialist countries.
These international actions are widely known within the US, where they are a real source of moral support for those engaged in the US unfolding struggle.
The outcome of these events in the US will affect the entire situation in the world and therefore also the situation in every country. Therefore it is vital that the people of every country show their solidarity with the people of the United States.