A nationwide uprising against murderous racialized police brutality has broken out in the streets of U.S. cities — even amidst the considerable risks of mass protests during the coronavirus pandemic, let alone threats from rampant militarized police violence. An enormously positive development is the fact that it is both Black-led and multiracial in its actions and demands, relative to historic urban rebellions from the 1960s onward. The central demands to “Defund the Police” and “De-militarize the Police” stand out for their clarity and radical character — and their necessity.
Popular protest is back in the Middle East
13 June 2020, byThe Covid-19 pandemic was only a temporary truce in popular protest movements for freedom and social justice in the region. The pandemic deepened socio-economic problems, while regimes often took advantage of containment measures to strengthen the crackdown on activists.
Anticapitalistas leave Podemos
13 June 2020, byOn 14 May 2020, Anticapitalistas, a founding component of Podemos and historical current of the radical left in the Spanish state linked to the Fourth International, announced its departure from Podemos. In reality, this decision was taken on 28 March when, in an internal consultation process in which 79% of activists participated, 89% voted in favour of leaving Podemos (3% against and 7.5% abstentions). The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit the Spanish state hard and in particular the most vulnerable sectors of the popular classes, led to the public announcement of this decision being postponed.
Step up the mobilization against racism and police violence
12 June 2020, byA tremendous political acceleration. This is how we can describe what we have seen in France for the last ten days around the issue of racism and police violence. You would have to be very perceptive to have anticipated two weeks ago that these themes would occupy a central place in public debate, to the point that Assa Traoré was invited on set on BFM-TV and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner was forced into making announcements which were very badly received by the police unions.
“The Adama Committee has a clear objective: to force the question of police violence into public debate”
11 June 2020Adama Traoré was killed on 19 July 2016 in police custody. Contested autopsies have finally revealed that he died of asphyxiation from sustained pressure. The Truth and Justice for Adama Committee, led by Assa Traore his sister, has been campaigning since 2016 for the truth about his death to be revealed and for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Our Solidarity with the Worldwide Anti-Racist Revolt
11 June 2020, byThe scope and magnitude of what have become worldwide protests and an emerging mass upsurge against racism and police brutality following the murder of Black worker George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US, are unprecedented. These mobilizations are marked by the massive multiracial participation of young people in a cross-generational movement. They have also been in many cases the first mobilizations in countries emerging from lockdown and have succeeded in imposing their presence on the streets.
Black Lives Matter: Huge Popular Success
11 June 2020, by , ,On Sunday 7 June several organizations launched a call to rally in different cities of Belgium. The starting point for this momentum was the desire to show international solidarity with the mass anti-racist movement around Black Lives Matter in the United States, which has taken to the streets of the country since the police murder of George Floyd. These spontaneous calls (often from people who had never organized a demonstration or rally before) sometimes aroused fear or tension, for example around the fact that it should be an opportunity to denounce racism, violence and police abuse, police killings, ... in Belgium too.
Sympathy Won’t Win Us Better Conditions
10 June 2020, byAnxiety and change: those are the two things that have defined care work in England in recent weeks. Where I work, we have been battling with staff shortages, opaque government advice, and PPE provision based on supply rather than on best practice. But we have also been fighting and winning better conditions for our staff in these unprecedented times.
The Death of Hong Kong’s Autonomy: Beyond the Crackdown
10 June 2020, by ,At the end of May, the Chinese state passed a new national security law that allows it to directly intervene in Hong Kong against the pro-democracy movement that has swept the city for the last year. Spectre’s Ashley Smith interviews Au Loong Yu about China’s crackdown and what it means for the pro-democracy movement.
Justice for George Floyd! Solidarity with the struggle of the people of the USA!
9 June 2020Sosyalist Demokrasi icin Yeniyol (New Course for Socialist Democracy, Fourth International), Isci Demokrasisi Partisi (Workers’ Democracy Party, IWU-FI), Sosyalist Emekçiler Partisi (Socialist Laborers Party, ISL) and Baslangic Kolektifi (The Beginning Collective) condemned the assassination of George Floyd: