On May 25th the afro-american George Floyd was killed by four police officers in Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA). The four cops kneeled on the 46 year old, one of them kneeled on his throat. George Floyd was pleading for his life. Again and again he said „I can‘t breathe“. After nearly six minutes George Floyd stopped to show signs of life. The cops remained kneeling on him for another two minutes, until an ambulance took him away.
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Protests and riots started in Minneapolis in reaction to this murder. In the course of the protests the local police was driven out by the people and the precinct, where the four officers worked, got evacuated. Shortly after this, the precinct burned down. Meanwhile the protests spread across more than 30 cities in the US and in many states the national guard was mobilized to break the protests.
Million of people in the US know the feeling of not being able to breathe. Since march 2020 the employment rate skyrocketed and about 40 million workers have to survive without a job. The potentially deadly pandemic adds to that. In this crisis, the class character of capitalism is all too clear. The economic crisis and the lack of jobs for the people on the losing side of capitalist freedom. And the black people are disproportionately often on that losing side. Their ancestors were kidnapped as slaves to the US. Their white masters had already appropriated all the land and driven out or killed the native peoples. After slavery got banned, the former slaves became workers. Until today, this inequality in starting conditions shows in the society of the „free“ and „equal“. And this is also why black people are disproportionately often subjected to police violence and disproportionately often in jail.
But more and more people in the US understand the repressive function of the police in a capitalist society. The collective resistance against police shows, that many people are sick of the capitalist status quo. In the pictures and videos of the protests we see responsible people, who want something better than capitalism, racism, repression and division. The protest against police violence and the collective challenging of an order, that needs this violence, is an important step to overcome the system capitalism that has brought humanity as a whole to the brink of extinction.
We are in solidarity with this struggle for a world beyond exploitation and oppression! Right from the start of the protests the ruling politicians and a part of the media began to defame the movement as externally controlled and criminal by spreading lies and speculations. This sounds all too familiar. Every political protest, which challenges authority, is treated like that. We stand firmly side by side with the oppressed and marginalized! Together we fight the racist, patriarchal and capitalist order! We stand for the internationalist class struggle for a world in which we all can breathe freely!
Against the lies of the ruling class!
Solidarity is our most important weapon!
End racism, end capitalism!
