Join us as we demand jus­tice for George Floyd and declare our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the rebel­lion against racist police vio­lence in Min­neapo­lis! This speak­out will observe strict phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing guide­lines. We ask that all atten­dees wear a mask and remain at least 6 feet from any­one they do not live with who is in attendance. 

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The Par­ty for Social­ism and Lib­er­a­tion con­demns the vicious killing of George Floyd by the Min­neapo­lis Police Depart­ment. We extend our deep­est sym­pa­thy to his fam­i­ly and his com­mu­ni­ty. Fir­ing the offi­cers is not enough. Offi­cer Derek Chau­vin, and his three police accom­plices, must be imme­di­ate­ly arrest­ed and charged. Jus­tice can only begin with a con­vic­tion and sen­tenc­ing of all involved!

We salute the thou­sands of Min­neapo­lis, Min­neso­ta res­i­dents who came out in jus­ti­fied indig­na­tion to demand jus­tice for George Floyd. Demon­stra­tors of all back­grounds and ages took to the streets the day after Floyd’s killing and were met with vio­lent police repres­sion. Police in riot gear used mace, tear gas and bean bag guns to repress the right­eous anger of the peo­ple of Minneapolis. 

It was only four years ago that Min­neapo­lis mourned Phi­lan­do Castile, a Black man also shot to death by police. His killer, Jeron­i­mo Yanez, was let off and found “not guilty” at tri­al. The police killing of Castile sparked protests around the country.

This lat­est inci­dent of state-sanc­tioned racist ter­ror comes on the heels of a string of police and vig­i­lante killings that have tak­en place since the COVID-19 cri­sis began in the Unit­ed States. Though in some parts of the coun­try lock­downs and quar­an­tine mea­sures are in effect, the oppres­sion of Black peo­ple still remains and has in fact surged in the wake of one of the largest pub­lic health crises in recent history. 

A video cap­tur­ing the killing of George Floyd was post­ed on Face­book and sparked wide­spread out­rage and protest. In the video, Floyd is seen pinned to the ground by his neck, face pressed against the ground so hard that his nose bled, and is heard repeat­ed­ly gasp­ing “I can’t breathe.” While Floyd was on the ground, offi­cer Derek Chau­vin pushed his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck, chok­ing him for sev­er­al min­utes. As mul­ti­ple bystanders plead­ed with the offi­cers to get off of Floyd’s neck, he became unre­spon­sive and was tak­en by ambu­lance to the Hen­nepin Coun­ty Med­ical Cen­ter. He was lat­er pro­nounced dead. George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe” are the exact same last words of Eric Gar­ner, who was stran­gled to death by NYPD offi­cer Daniel Pan­ta­leo in 2014.

The offi­cers claimed they were respond­ing to a forgery in progress, a pos­si­ble non-vio­lent crime. The offi­cers alleged that the unarmed Floyd was resist­ing arrest, how­ev­er they lat­er changed their sto­ry, assert­ing that he was “suf­fer­ing from med­ical dis­tress.” It is out­ra­geous that police would use such bru­tal dead­ly tac­tics on a per­son in med­ical dis­tress, let alone anyone. 

We can­not depend on the Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tions, which has begun to look into the killing, for jus­tice. The FBI is a vio­lent state insti­tu­tion that has been wield­ed as a weapon against the lib­er­a­tion move­ment of Black peo­ple in the Unit­ed States. The FBI has nev­er been fair and par­tial to the Black com­mu­ni­ty. Real jus­tice will be brought about when the peo­ple orga­nize and fight for their own demands in the face of racist oppres­sion by the U.S. cap­i­tal­ist state. The police will always ful­fill their role of being shock troops for white suprema­cy and cap­i­tal­ism as long as it exists in this racist state. 

In this absolute­ly crit­i­cal peri­od, we sharp­en our resolve to build orga­ni­za­tions capa­ble of wag­ing mil­i­tant class strug­gle against the racist state and their rul­ing class. The rul­ing class and its gov­ern­ment has only shown com­plete dis­re­gard for the lives of mil­lions of work­ing-class peo­ple dur­ing the COVID-19 cri­sis, espe­cial­ly Black peo­ple who are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly vic­tims of the virus. Amidst the deep cri­sis, the racist killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Geor­gia, Bre­on­na Tay­lor in Louisville, Ky. and Sean Reed in Indi­anapo­lis, Ind., make it clear that the protests and fight back must con­tin­ue and inten­si­fy. We affirm and sup­port the right of Black peo­ple and all oppressed peo­ple to protest and defend them­selves against racist terror. 

The Par­ty for Social­ism and Lib­er­a­tion demands that the four offi­cers involved in Floyd’s mur­der be pros­e­cut­ed and con­vict­ed. We also demand the end of the repres­sion of the demon­stra­tors in Min­neapo­lis demand­ing jus­tice and account­abil­i­ty dur­ing a health and eco­nom­ic crisis. 

Jus­tice for George Floyd and all vic­tims of racist police terror!