Rebellion2020

The Network In Defense Of Humanity Demands Justice For George Floyd

June 10, 2020 The Network in Defense of Humanity Resist! George Floyd, Police Killing, Racism, Rebellion2020

The Network in Defense of Humanity adds its voice to those of thousands in the United States and around the world who are demanding Justice for George Floyd. The image of a man of African descent being killed by a racist policeman is very common in the United States. In fact, the police murder about a thousand people annually; a disproportionate number of them are Black. George Floyd’s murder was no different, but it has been on an exponential level since the scene of his death by torture was documented in detail as he told the white policeman “I can’t breathe”–first he appealed to his torturer, then to others to listen to him, and for the eleventh time, as his life was being extinguished, he pleaded to his dead mother. An indelible image was immediately etched into the consciousness of a world in turmoil under a pandemic that exploded onto the streets of 140 U.S. cities.

ILWU, ILA, And Teamsters Take Action In Honor Of George Floyd

June 10, 2020 By Frances Madeson, Spectre. Resist! Police violence, Racism, Rebellion2020, Unions

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters laid down their tools in a work stoppage for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, the precise measure of time that George Floyd, handcuffed and helpless to resist, was forced to endure a policeman’s lethal knee on his neck. Killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, Floyd was buried today in Houston. Trent Willis, president of ILWU Local 10, Keith Shanklin, president of ILWU Local 34, and Gabriel Prawl, former Secretary/ Treasurer of ILWU Local 52 in Seattle, all members of ILWU’s Committee Against Police Terror, conceived of bringing this powerful gesture into union workplaces as a way of honoring Floyd, who earned his livelihood as a truck driver and security guard. In connecting Floyd’s struggle for his last breath with workers’ struggles for survival in a drastically altered post-pandemic economy, they hope to point the way forward by demonstrating the power of the working class.

The Roots Of Violent Protest: Violent Cops

June 10, 2020 Erik Loomis, Lawyers Guns Money Blog. Educate! Militarization, Police violence, Protests, Rebellion2020

You will be shocked, simply SHOCKED, to learn that after decades of researching effective methods for police response to large crowd actions, researchers have found — and you’re never going to believe this — that when cops show up in military gear and get aggressive, they actually make protest violence worse! That’s one of the findings in “New Directions in Protest Policing,” a 2015 paper that reviews decades upon decades of police history and the conclusions of multiple separate commissions. Police that dress like they’re going to war, who try to control First Amendment expression rather than facilitate it, and who act in arbitrary ways can inflame violence and jeopardize their own safety and that of the public. The paper was written by Edward R. Maguire, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and it dives all the way back to the nation’s founding and the civil unrest that led to the creation of the United States.

Chicago Freedom School Offered Food, Water And Rest To Weary Protesters Trapped Downtown

June 9, 2020 Justin Laurence, Chicago Book Club. Educate! Chicago, Food and Agriculture, Police abuse, Protest support, Rebellion2020

Last weekend, as thousands of protesters gathered Downtown, the Chicago Freedom School sprung into action, working to feed and transport those stuck in the Loop — but a surprise inspection by the city has the nonprofit worried about its future. The Chicago Freedom School, 719 S. State St., provides training to primarily Black and Brown youth to learn the fundamentals of community organizing. School leaders knew their members were out on the front lines, confronted with pepper spray and potentially trapped Downtown as curfew approached, bridges were lifted and CTA service halted May 30. The school offered a refuge.

From George Floyd To COVID-19, Two Pandemics Target Black Workers

June 9, 2020 Southern Workers Assembly. Organize! COVID-19, Essential worker, Rebellion2020, Worker Rights and Jobs

Compounding the devastation of coronavirus, Black people in the US continue to face threats, brutality, and death for going to and from work. For being out jogging. For being poor. For sleeping in their own bed. For watching birds in a park. For being Black. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade highlight this grim reality. Now millions of people all across the country are protesting. After experiencing two months of grief from COVID-19, there is now a righteous feeling of collective anger. According to the statement from UE national officers, “It is not surprising that protests over Floyd’s and Taylor’s killings have erupted into rage.

A T-Shirt Sparks Claims That Another ‘Foreign Agitator’ Is Behind US Racial Unrest

June 9, 2020 Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge. Educate! Max Blumenthal, Media, Rebellion2020, Trump

We've seen various state and federal officials over the past two weeks of George Floyd protests point to a 'foreign hand' stirring the unrest for the purpose of creating deeper instability in American society, already unsettled by months of the coronavirus pandemic crisis. Of course, the 'nefarious Russians' were the first to be named — with CNN spending a lot of time amplifying this paranoid claim, for example in an interview with Susan Rice a week ago — but Trump administration officials have also named China, accusing Beijing of exploiting US racial tensions with targeted social media activity “coming straight from the government.”

The Rest Of The World Sees Uprisings, Not Riots

June 9, 2020 By Reese Erlich, The Progressive. Educate! Civil Rights, Human Rights, Police violence, Rebellion2020

U.S. officials, whether Democrat or Republican, pretend that only other countries violate human rights. Every year, the State Department issues a report on worldwide human rights with the heaviest criticism aimed at enemies du jour such as China, Russia, and Iran. Human rights, as defined by U.S. officials, include freedom of the press, maintaining an independent judiciary, and civil rights. But most of the world, the United Nations included, goes further, saying human rights include the right to a job, health care, and housing, among other things. Not surprisingly, U.S. leaders never mention authoritative international reports detailing U.S. human rights abuses. In 2017, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights issued a report sharply criticizing U.S. human rights abuses.

Agents Provocateurs Are Still A Real Threat To Our Movements

June 9, 2020 By Jacqueline Luqman, The Real News. Strategize! Agents provocateurs, Infiltrators, Police abuse, Rebellion2020

As ridiculous as that might sound, there is some sketchy business going on at some of these protests. Mysterious, all-black-clad white window smashers with umbrellas in Minneapolis. Mysterious, all-black-clad white women tagging businesses with Black Lives Matter and being run off by an actual black woman protestor for their trouble in another city. Mysterious pallets of bricks, allegedly showing up on city streets. Is it Antifa? Is it white supremacists? Is it the police? Whoever is behind these curious actions, the issue of agent provocateurs is real and is an ever-present challenge for organizations, movements, and protests. So how do we spot these agents in our midst? The white supremacists in the Hawaiian shirts and assault rifles are pretty easy to spot. Well, what about the undercover infiltrators? Here are some things to look for.

Beating Of Reporter Raises Questions About Race And Media

June 8, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. Educate! Media, Rebellion2020, Systemic Ra, Violence

Late on Saturday afternoon, outside of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ hockey stadium, a crowd of left-leaning protesters brutally beat Ian Smith, a white KDKA TV cameraman, within fear of his life. Multiple activists, both black and white, asked Smith to stop filming people of color engaging in vandalizing of a police car. Drag Queen Alexa Chapman was behind them near the entrance to the PPG Arena. At 5 ft. 6 in., 135 lbs., Chapman is a gay U.S. Army reservist in Aviation operations administration, and a native of Fajarado, a port city, a little over an hour east of San Juan. A black Puerto Rican, she initially moved to Pittsburgh to study journalism at Point Park University four years ago and moonlights on the side at bars around the Steel City as a drag queen.

Violence Towards Protesters Shows Why Many Want To Abolish Police

June 8, 2020 Kim Brown, The Real News. Educate! Minneapolis, Police Abolition, Police violence, Rebellion2020

Welcome to the Real News. I’m Kim Brown. After several sustained days of protest in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd on May 25th, the epicenter of this latest uprising movement, Minneapolis, is experiencing an over militarized response with Minnesota National Guard troops joining alongside Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Police law enforcement agencies in attempting to quell the uprisings. But organizers on the ground there are using their ingenuity to coordinate mutual aid and redistribution efforts, plus providing a platform for the solution to the crisis of over-policing and brutality, get rid of the police altogether. Well, joining me to discuss this today is Tony Williams. Tony is an organizer and a police abolitionist in Minneapolis.

What Next As The Whip Of Reaction Fails To Cow The Masses?

June 8, 2020 John Peterson and Jorge Martin, Marxist.com. Strategize! Police violence, presidential elections, Rebellion2020, Working Class

Over the last two years, more Americans were killed by police than Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan over the last 18 years. ‬More Americans were killed by police in the last three years than people were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. ‪Combine this with a devastating economic crisis and pandemic, and it is easy to understand why a tipping point has been reached, as the accumulated rage and humiliation of centuries spills over onto the streets. Earlier this year, in the 2020 draft Perspectives for the Coming American Revolution, we wrote the following: “2008 profoundly transformed the consciousness of billions. The most serious strategists of capital understand and fear this. The Edelman Trust Barometer polled people in 28 major countries and found that 56% of the population believes that ‘capitalism today does more harm than good to the world’ – including 47% of Americans.

The Movement Gets Big – And Its Enemies Reveal Themselves

June 8, 2020 Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black misleadership class, COVID-19, Democrats, Rebellion2020, Recession

The scope and intensity of the convulsion that has shaken the United States since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, is breathtaking. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ethnicities have participated in actions ranging from silent vigils to pitched battles with police in at least 140 cities, by the New York Times’ estimate – or nearly 500 localities nationwide, according to a marvelously detailed Wikipedia page. The National Guard has been called out in 26 states and Washington, DC, and U.S. Army units, including a battalion of paratroopers from the 82nd airborne division, await deployment to cities by the self-proclaimed “law and order president,” Donald Trump.

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