“We stand full square in solidarity with the growing wave of opposition to racist power and discrimination in all its forms in America and everywhere. By means of stepping up solidarity action justice will surely prevail. A great wave of change has been unleashed whose power cannot be contained.”
PEACE IN KURDISTAN
The Killing of George Floyd – We Stand in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
The killing of George Floyd during the brutal restraint by armed police officer Derek Chauvin, assisted by two of his colleagues and watched by a third, in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, became eight minutes and forty-six seconds that shook the world. The sight of Floyd pleading desperately to be allowed to breathe as Chauvin held him down in the road with a knee pressed firmly on his neck should have shocked every person who saw the incident. The horrifying incident must now have been viewed by billions of people around the world.
Floyd was simply an ordinary guy eking out a meagre living in an uncaring society that worships wealth and casts every other living being onto the garbage heap. He was black but he was also a poor black, so he was doubly worthless in the viewpoint of the authorities.
The actions of the police reflected the harsh reality of racist violence that still persists in what is supposed to be the most advanced economy in the modern world, one that claims to be a model of freedom and democracy worthy of emulation by other supposedly weaker civilisations on each and every continent.
Moreover, the United States is a country that claims for itself the right to judge the conduct of any other country and dictate how it behaves anywhere in the world. It has never felt the need to put its own house in order nor has any of its closest subordinate allies ever had the temerity to tell it to its face how it should behave.
Police brutality is of course nothing new in America and, unfortunately, such incidents are far too common in many other countries. The full force of the law ordinarily bears down on the poorer members of society and the black community especially finds itself disproportionately targeted. Floyd’s fate was far from unique. But because his murder was captured on a mobile phone, the footage was shared on social media and immediately picked up by the mainstream media.
Initial shock rapidly turned into anger and mass protests followed. They continued and rapidly spread across the world. Police brutality has become an international issue. The movement inspired by George Floyd’s tragic fate continues to grow and it has come to encompass a demand for social justice among the black and minority ethnic communities who have suffered discrimination for generations.
The incident has heralded a demand for radical change, and been interpreted as the start of a social revolution of world-shattering proportions. Its ramifications are reverberating worldwide.
The poor and oppressed everywhere have been awakened by witnessing the fate of George Floyd who died a brutal death simply because he was black.
The Kurds share the pain of the black population of America. Both peoples far too often still suffer the fate of being treated as their country’s second-class citizens. Turkey and the United States are close allies. It is not only a military alliance that they share. The two states share a kinship in the grotesquely brutal methods they use to exercise control over the restive, downtrodden populations of black people and Kurds.
We stand full square in solidarity with the growing wave of opposition to racist power and discrimination in all its forms in America and everywhere. By means of stepping up solidarity action justice will surely prevail. A great wave of change has been unleashed whose power cannot be contained.
Statement, 11 June 2020
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Gingell – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, Nick Hildyard, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Elfyn Llwyd, Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, Maxine Peake, actor, Trevor Rayne, writer, Lord Rea, Joe Ryan, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, Steve Sweeney, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Kariane Westrheim, Chair, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Hywel Williams MP.