“We are all here today because we’re not prepared to let our Black brothers and sisters stand here by themselves.
George Floyd was murdered by police in the US.
The police who killed George Floyd, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Amadou Diallo are not bad apples – the whole US police force is a racist institution. The US was founded on slavery. When Black people have demanded justice they have been murdered. Martin Luther King was murdered, Malcolm X was murdered. Fred Hampton was murdered. The billionaire tyrant currently occupying the White House thinks white supremacists and fascists who kill people of colour are good people. He should never be allowed to step foot in Ireland again. No political representatives should go to the White House to shake the racist tyrants hand.
Without people taking to the streets the police responsible for killing George Floyd would not have been arrested. Do not believe the lies that the demonstrators are initiating violence – the political establishment has sent in the army, imposed curfews, police are attacking peaceful marchers, they have arrested thousands of people, shot them and beat them. They do this not to protect Black people but to protect the racist status quo.
What’s happening in the US isn’t a protest – it’s a rebellion – people are in rebellion in every city and town across the US against racism and poverty. It’s a rebellion against all of Trump’s pandemic policies that have put the interests of elites and corporations first – while health workers have had to protest for PPE. At every demonstration there are Black people, brown people and white people. This is a rebellion of the oppressed and exploited in the US.
In Derry, across Ireland and across the world we are standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Rebellion.
But we are also standing in solidarity with the Black and minority communities here. The racist virus is here too. The fact that the PSNI visited the homes of the Black and migrant organisers of this action – and not the homes of the millionaire bosses of meat plants, of care homes and call centres who have endangered workers, residents and our communities is racist.
In recent years we have had to mobilise here to oppose attempts by racists and fascists to exploit people’s frustration at poverty, the lack of housing, hospital waiting lists. They want to blame people of colour for these problems instead of the political establishment who are actually responsible.
We have been condemned by the political establishment for being here today. This is the same establishment who followed the Tories strategy of culling the elderly and the vulnerable to protect the profits of the elites. It’s the same establishment who abandoned workers and residents in care homes. It’s the same establishment who refused to carry out workplace inspections and get workers PPE. It’s the same establishment who have allowed our health service to be vandalised and privatised and frontline workers to be treated as disposable.
People in Derry are solidarity with people of colour in the US and here because we want a city that’s welcoming to everyone no matter what the colour of their skin, where they are from or what their religion is or what community they are from. Many people are here in solidarity because they have direct experience of sectarianism, police violence and collusion with death squads. Many people here are still denied justice for violence inflicted by the state. People are here because they been arrested for being gay, for demanding equality for women, for defending the environment and for standing up for workers rights. We need to unite everyone who is for justice, for solidarity and equality into a mighty people power movement.
Let the message ring out from Derry today that we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter rebellion. Let the message ring out from Ireland that we will join the global uprising for a world free of racism and poverty. Justice for George Floyd. From Derry to Minneapolis Black Lives Matter. No Justice No Peace.”
