Editorial: US Explodes with Protests over www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org June 2, 2020

Mass Interracial Solidarity against Police Violence cops to flee, and burned the station down––seems clearly to Tens of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets— have been a major catalyst behind the spread of the protests. and occupied them—since the murder of George Floyd, an The victory over the third precinct shattered the myth that has African-American man, by white policemen in on weighed so heavily on the struggle for racial justice: the myth May 25. We are witnessing the most widespread rebellion that the heavily militarized police are invincible, that all we against police violence in the US since the 1960s. Youth are in can do is bear witness and wait until we have to endure the the lead; black and white youth predominate in the scores of next act of police violence. The torching of the precinct station protests that are continuing and spreading daily. was a potent symbol that positive change still remains possible. It was a crackling heard round the world. The current uprising is much more racially diverse than the urban rebellions of the 1960s. For the first time ever, there is In addition, protesters are clearly fed up with having to stay mass interracial solidarity––in actions as well as in words–– home, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and mass against police violence. It is this, more than anything else, that unemployment, while on the streets and is causing the rulers to tremble. The pivotal moments of murder continued to flourish everywhere. forward movement in the US have always been those moments when white working people took their lead from Tens of thousands of people have come out in Minnesota’s the black masses and coalesced with them. Twin Cities and suburbs; in Washington, DC; Atlanta; Baltimore; New York; ; Los Angeles; San Jose; This time, the interracial solidarity extends beyond white and Sacramento; the Bay Area; Louisville; black. Ruhel Islam, a Bangladeshi restaurant owner in the 3rd Cincinnati; Columbus; Houston; Dallas; San Antonio; Miami; precinct of Minneapolis, put a “Minority Owned” sign on the Nashville; Denver; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Salt Lake City—and front of his building in an effort to save it. It was nonetheless many more places. attacked and burnt out. His daughter, despite being a Black Lives Matter supporter, was upset. But he said, “let my Louisville’s demonstrators are calling for action against building burn, Justice needs to be served, put those officers in the policeman who murdered an African-American woman, jail.” His daughter agreed. Breonna Taylor, in March. The cops broke into her apartment and shot her eight times in her bed. She was an EMS worker Racism, which has been the Achilles heel of US and was mistaken for someone the police were seeking. That civilization from its founding––and the massive and ongoing suspect turned out to have been already in custody at the fightback against racism—have managed to snatch the time of the warrantless break in and killing of Taylor. country’s attention away from the ever-growing COVID-19 death toll and from a rocket going into space. All eyes are on Trump, Racist-in-Chief the unfolding youth-dominated rebellion as it demonstrates, every day, the meaning of “no justice, no peace.” The vast majority of protesters have expressed their rage at the murder of George Floyd by marching and shouting, not by torching, looting, or fighting. Yet the president, our racist-in- This uprising builds upon the last four years of mass chief, has tried to portray the protests in their totality as the mobilizations by the Resistance to Trumpism and the Black actions of looters and arsonists, anarchists and leftists. In Lives Matter and youth against gun violence movements. At unsubtle tweets, he has called for them to be shot––“When the same time, its massive multiracial character indicates a the looting starts, the shooting starts.” new dimension of revolt. The violent suppression of the rebellion that Trump is

inciting comes on top of the massive loss of life he has Cops Not Invincible caused by failing and refusing to act to stem the spread of the The wave of protest began in Minneapolis-St. Paul, right after coronavirus, which has had a greatly disproportionate impact George Floyd was murdered. By Thursday, May 28, protests on people of color. In the US, there are currently 105,000 had spread across the country. More recently, they have confirmed deaths due to the coronavirus (the actual number erupted in many additional cities and towns throughout the is undoubtedly far greater). And the COVID-19 death rate U.S., and elsewhere around the world, such as London, among blacks is double the rate among whites. This is due to Cardiff, Copenhagen, and Berlin. their poorer health before the disease, which in turn is a result of a health care system that discriminates against Protesters’ defeat of the cops in Minneapolis’ third precinct on people of color and the poor. May 28––they overwhelmed the precinct station, caused the

Charging the Minneapolis Cops Press. Nearly a third of those arrests came in Los Angeles, according to a report in Talking Points Memo. By now, everyone in the world has seen the horrendous video of the Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin, with his knee and full weight on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine Despite the curfew, demonstrations in Washington, D.C. took minutes, while Floyd died. Three other cops who had helped place close to the White House on Saturday and Sunday, with Chauvin pin him to the ground remained unmoving while hundreds arrested. On Sunday night, Trump had to Floyd cried, “I can’t breathe” and called for help. Fortunately, temporarily abandon his fake tough-guy persona and flee to a 17-year old girl, Darnella Frazier, captured the whole of the an underground bunker below the White House. incident on video, enabling the world to know at once that the unarmed man had done nothing to cause the cops’ In their efforts to justify the cops’ extreme brutality, they and brutalization of him. their apologists (including Trump as well as “progressive,” social-democratic, Democratic Party politicians like Bill de This particular police murder was reminiscent of that of Eric Blasio, mayor of New York, and Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Garner in Brooklyn in 2014. Garner was apprehended for Chicago) keep harping on acts of burning and looting, and on selling loose cigarettes on the street and put in a chokehold other “unacceptable” acts by protesters, such as halting the until he died. Garner’s murder, like Floyd’s, was recorded on forward movement of a police SUV and carrying bottles filled video, but it took until last year for the perpetrator to be fired with urine. from the police department. He has still not been charged for his crime. Garner had called out “I can’t Yet almost all protesters have been nonviolent, and breathe” over and over, just as Floyd did six years later. “I mainstream media have been reporting evidence that some can’t breathe” is now a rallying cry at the protests that have of the violent protesters are provocateurs––members of erupted throughout the U.S. are beyond, along with “Hands white-supremacist groups and “boogaloos.” There is also up—don’t shoot.” The latter slogan harkens back to the police speculation that they include police infiltrators. Rather than murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, as being an attempt to stop looting and burning, the recent orgy he walked away with his hands up. of police violence we have witnessed may well be, instead, the cops’ attempt to show us that they “are still boss” after As of May 28, none of the cops involved in the murder of Floyd the humiliating defeat they suffered in Minneapolis’ third had been arrested or charged, and authorities claimed that precinct. additional investigation was needed; charges could not yet be brought. Then, that night, Minneapolis’ third precinct station An Entire Generation Radicalized within a Week was torched. Fifteen hours later, Chauvin had been arrested Although the cops may think that they now have the upper and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree hand, their rioting is both ironic and pathetically desperate. manslaughter. But this did not put an end to the protests in They have confirmed beyond any shadow of doubt that Minneapolis. Protesters demanded that the other three cops charges of police brutality are true and outrage over police involved in the murder also be arrested and charged. They also brutality is justified––by displaying their brutality, nakedly supported the wish of Floyd’s family that the perpetrators be and repeatedly, in real time, at a moment when the whole charged with premeditated murder, a more serious crime that world is watching. carries a much longer prison sentence, even though that would make conviction more difficult. As our correspondent in Columbus, Ohio noted, “the

‘violence’ has mostly come from the police.” This has been the Police , Trump Flees to Underground Bunker case in city after city. Our correspondent in Raleigh, North Carolina, wrote that “[t]he cops are just having a field day During the last few nights, curfews have been imposed in shooting tear gas and rubber bullets. On Sunday, the protest Minneapolis and many other cities, and cops throughout the was completely peaceful until the cops attacked.” US, as well as National Guard troops, have responded to the rebellion with what is widely being called a “police riot.” They have treated even nonviolent protesters in the most But because of the state-sanctioned brutality, “an entire brutal fashion––plowing through them with vehicles, pushing generation is being radicalized within a week,” as our them to the ground, shooting them with rubber bullets, tear correspondent from Brooklyn puts it. “Despite the seemingly gas, and pepper spray, setting off flashbang grenades in their unending resources that the city threw at this protest, the midst, and so on. Much of this is common practice among spirit of youth who demanded that their lives not be ground urban police forces in the US, but what is different this time is up in this racist system was irrepressible and obviously that the whole world is watching. Thus, in many cases, the exhausting to the police.” The struggle continues. cops have intentionally singled out journalists to be targets of their brutality. A CBS cameraman was crouched behind a See the online version for links at parked car when he was shot, clearly intentionally. www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/mhieditorial/ www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org Contact emails: US and worldwide: Between Thursday and Sunday, police arrested at least 1,669 [email protected] people in 22 cities, according to a tally by The Associated In the UK: [email protected]