Daily Archives: June 20, 2020

2020-06-20: News Headlines

Joanna Palmer (2020-06-20). [Comment] Framing health stories: Highlights 2020 photography competition open for submissions. thelancet.com The video and pictures of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, USA, as police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck while he pleaded that he could not breathe, as well as photographs of subsequent anti-racism protests around the world, are some of the most powerful images this year. These pictures highlight the devastating impacts of structural racism and the deep inequities in our societies, and have given renewed urgency to the Black Lives Matter movement. This year has also brought moving and sometimes shocking photographs of health-care staff working in challenging conditions—too often…

Gloria Rubac (2020-06-20). Black Lives Matter in Bastrop, Texas. workers.org With the whole world exploding in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that is sweeping through large U.S. cities and small towns alike, Black Lives Matter may finally become a reality in Bastrop, Texas, for death row prisoner Rodney Reed. Outside court hearing for Rodney Reed, February 2015. WW . . . |

Fight Back (2020-06-20). NYC marches for Juneteenth. fightbacknews.org New York, NY – At noon, June 19, several hundred gathered outside of City Hall Park to celebrate, rally and march for Juneteenth. It was the first of several dozen actions happening throughout the boroughs and was called by the December 12th Movement. | Dozens upon dozens of the red, black and green flags were waving in the hands of protesters, as music played. The organizers ensured that protesters were wearing masks and kept social distance by lining them up to march. | This year's Juneteenth has reached mainstream levels of attention as the country enters its 22nd day of protesting for Black lives. As protes…

Eds. (2020-06-20). ‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚ÄãRe-embracing internationalism and class solidarity in the time of #BlackLivesMatter. mronline.org The struggle against systemic racism and the police state in the U.S. is integral and linked to the struggle against U.S. wars of aggression overseas.

The Canary (2020-06-20). Washington DC protesters topple statue of Confederate general Albert Pike. thecanary.co Black Lives Matter protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital and set it on fire on Juneteenth — the day marking the end of slavery in the US. | Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11ft statue of Albert Pike, wrapped with chains, wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backwards. | Protesters then set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, saying "No justice, no peace!" and "No racist police!". | Eyewitness accounts and videos posted on social media indicated that police were on the scene but did not intervene. | Donal…

Peter Maiden (2020-06-20). Street in Front of Fresno City Hall painted with "Black Lives Matter" indybay.org Over four hundred people came out to downtown Fresno June 18 to paint "Black Lives Matter" in twenty foot tall letters on P Street where it passes in front of City Hall.

Movement for Black Lives (2020-06-20). Friday 6/19: #SixNineteen: M4BL Juneteenth Livestream to Defend Black Lives (online). indybay.org Online livestream…

Milestone in History (2020-06-20). Columbus Statue Finally Removed from Telegraph Hill. indybay.org After decades of protest, going back in memory to 1992, the 500th Anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas, when we were able to move the Columbus Genocide Parade from Market to Fisherman's Wharf, the latest anti-racism movement, Black Lives Matter, finally moved the City & County of San Francisco to take down the Columbus monument outside Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill today.

Nestor Machno (2020-06-20). Millions of Black People slaughtered in Congo – for cellphones! indybay.org BLM is a pretty cool movement but why is it stopping in the 1st World? | Are smartphones more important than African Lives?>

Calvin Deutschbein (2020-06-20). Protesters blockade Central Prison in North Carolina. workers.org June 13 marked the beginning of the third week of protests in Raleigh, N.C., the state capital and home of the murderous Raleigh Police Department and more than 70 other law enforcement agencies. Different days have drawn different groups with varying goals, but not a day has gone by without . . . |

SIREN & other groups (2020-06-20). Thursday 6/18: #HomeIsHere: Car Caravans for DACA SCOTUS Decision & BLM in SF Bay Area. indybay.org Caravans in San Fransisco, San Jose, Oakland and throughout CA…

Martha Grevatt (2020-06-20). Labor vs. police: Learning from working-class history. workers.org Led by oppressed youth, a working-class revolt has erupted, initially over the police lynching of George Floyd. It needs and deserves the unconditional solidarity of organized labor. Unfortunately, what top labor officials have delivered is something much less. GM strikers battle police on Jan. 11, 1937. Consider a recent statement . . . |

Revolutionary United Front (2020-06-20). Tuesday 6/23: Community Meeting on Police Brutality and the George Floyd Protests Pt. 2. indybay.org Willow Park | Oakland, CA 94607…

Suzanne Gordon (2020-06-20). Trading One Uniform for Another. zcomm.org Can Police Be "De-Militarized" When So Many Cops Are Military Veterans?>

John Feffer (2020-06-19). Conservatives Are Comparing Racial Justice Protestors to Maoists. zcomm.org Right-wing "intellectuals" uncomfortable with the Black Lives Matter movement have latched onto a dubious historical analogy.

Mnar Muhawesh (2020-06-19). Podcast: How the Democratic Party Unleashed Decades of Racial Injustice and Police Brutality on Communities of Color. mintpressnews.com Margaret Kimberly and Monique Cullars Doty join MintCast to discuss how Democrats attempt to save face by co-opting justice movements, including Black Lives Matter, and the party's roots in White supremacy.

Roger Harris (2020-06-19). Containing the Black Lives Matter Movement: Democrats and Republicans Play Good Cop/Bad Cop. counterpunch.org A long smoldering and now massive popular response to injustice has been catalyzed by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. Even Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson concedes, "this was without precedent in the modern era." A broad consensus critical of the coercive police function of the US state is building.

Karen Dolan (2020-06-19). The Movement for Black Lives Is a Small-Town Movement, Too. zcomm.org In small towns around the country, often the places you would least expect, people are having protests with signs that say "Black Lives Matter," "I Can't Breathe," and "Defund the Police."

Maria Young (2020-06-19). 'We move forward in our fight'. zcomm.org Local unions march from Oakland to Berkeley in support of Black Lives Matter…

Aaron Morrison, Kat Stafford (2020-06-19). Juneteenth: A day for national action. peoplesworld.org In just about any other year, Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved Black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked by African American families across the nation with a cookout, a parade, a community festival, a soulful rendition of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." But in …

Fight Back (2020-06-19). March set for RNC in Jacksonville: 'We can't breathe'. fightbacknews.org Jacksonville, FL — The Coalition to March on the RNC applied for permits from the city of Jacksonville, June 17, to hold a rally and march opposed to Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention. | The main slogan of the event will be "We Can't Breathe — Defeat Donald Trump." The Coalition to March on the RNC will seek to emphasize the Black-led struggle against police brutality under the past four years of Trump in office. The Coalition also stands for a people's agenda — money for living-wage jobs, education, universal healthcare, peace and equality. | The Coalition to March on the RNC…

Yoav Litvin (2020-06-19). Living the Panther Dream — An Interview with Black Panther Party Veteran Member Aaron Dixon. counterpunch.org On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white Policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Captured on camera and viewed by millions, Floyd's brutalization inspired an uprising in multiple cities across the United States and the world. In Seattle, WA, protesters in an area termed "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest," (CHOP),

Alan Macleod (2020-06-19). Speight of Black Men Found Hanged Sparks Fears of Wave of Racist Terror. mintpressnews.com As the nation grapples with long-simmering racial tensions reignited by the murder of George Floyd, a series of suspicious hanging deaths of black men is sparking fears of a new wave of anti-black terror.

_____ (2020-06-19). 'Black Lives Matter' Is International. popularresistance.org Corte Madera, California – The police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th was the spark that ignited the tinder of accrued injustice throughout the US and globally. This injustice has deep antecedents in the US and indeed in much of what is now called the Global South. There is a shared history of colonial conquest of the Indigenous and the abominable institution of the enslavement of African peoples. | What happened has its roots in systemic oppression that has resonated internationally. Just as the police suffocated George Floyd, US unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua,…

_____ (2020-06-19). Scheer Intelligence: The Powerful Past, Present And Future Of Black Lives Matter. popularresistance.org Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin highlighted the dangers Black children, women and men face daily because of the color of their skin. The grassroots movement has protested against police violence and anti-black racism since then, and advocated for policy changes to address racial injustices. Despite having been active for the better part of a decade now, Black Lives Matter was recently launched into the global spotlight after the police assassination of George Floyd rocked the world. | On this week's episode of "Scheer Intelligence," Dr. Melina Abdullah, one of the Black L…

_____ (2020-06-19). Juneteenth: Strike For Black Lives. popularresistance.org We are calling for disruptive actions aimed at shutting down the city: Strikes, sick-outs, blockades, occupations, and spontaneous marches. | We've watched a wave of grieving and rebellion take hold of the nation, and we say it's about time. We seek justice for Terrence Sterling, Jeffery Price, D'Quann Young, Marquees Alston, Miriam Carey, and Ralphael Briscoe, as well as the many hundreds of Black people who have been killed by MPD, ICE, or other white men with badges and guns. | We remember families separated by prison walls and by state borders. We mourn all the community members we've lost doing sex work, def…

_____ (2020-06-19). Solidarity Means Dismantling The System Everywhere. popularresistance.org A new solidarity movement is rising. From Los Angeles to Sao Paulo, Minneapolis to London, "Black Lives Matter" is a cry and a demand heard around the world. | The message of this movement is powerfully simple: stop killing black people — in their homes, on the streets, and traveling across the sea to safer shores. Yet in its simplicity, it contains the seed of a radical transformation in our planetary system, raging against a machine of racist dispossession to make room for collective and communal liberation everywhere. | The last decade has witnessed a sharp turn in two terrifying directions: turning in a…

_____ (2020-06-19). The Black New Yorker Who Led The Charge Against Police Violence In The 1830s. popularresistance.org At the apex of the kidnapping club were two members of the New York police force, Tobias Boudinot and Daniel D. Nash. Both had grown up in or near Manhattan and they shared a deep disdain for Black people. Like all members of the police force, Boudinot and Nash were poorly paid, inadequately trained, and largely uneducated. Boudinot in particular was constantly in debt, sued by creditors and desperate for the extra money he could make by capturing runaway enslaved people who had managed, against tremendous odds, to escape southern bondage and forge new lives in New York. The nation's founding document, the Consti…

_____ (2020-06-19). How Our Bloated Military Strengthens The Police State. popularresistance.org Nationwide uprisings over the police killing of George Floyd have forced a long overdue discussion about the injustices of U.S. policing—an institution that has consistently harassed and terrorized and, in the words of organizer, writer and educator Mariame Kaba, remains a consistent "force of violence against Black people." As demands to abolish the police are thrust into mainstream discourse, promising—if uncertain and mixed—political changes are being debated and implemented every day. We are seeing a rigorous interrogation of the systems that uphold and compound the brutality of policing: pr…

_____ (2020-06-19). Lost Manuscript Of Eyewitness Account Of Tulsa Race Massacre. popularresistance.org With President Trump holding a campaign rally in Tulsa, OK on June 20, 2020, we thought it would be good to republish this article on the Tulsa Massacre, often referred to as the Tulsa Race Riot. It was a white rampage in the successful black community of Rosewood, also known as Black Wall Street. No one knows how many people were killed in the massacre but "the vast majority of Tulsa's African American population had been made homeless by the event." The white race riot began around a false charge of a white woman being raped by a back man, and conflicts between white and black people at the courthouse, with whi…

_____ (2020-06-19). At Least 2,000 More Black Americans Were Lynched Than Previously Reported. popularresistance.org White mobs and individuals lynched at least 2,000 more Black Americans than previously documented, according to a new report from the Equal Justice Initiative. | The report, released Tuesday, documents confirmed lynchings during the Reconstruction era, from 1865 to 1876, after the end of the Civil War and Black Americans' emancipation from slavery. The group's previous report on the subject, from 2015, detailed 4,500 racial terror lynchings from 1877 to 1950 — adding up to nearly 6,500 confirmed lynchings of Black people in the U.S. from 1865 to 1950. | EJI notes that thousands more lynchings "may never be…

_____ (2020-06-19). City Bar Calls For Investigation Following Arrests Of Legal Observers. popularresistance.org The New York City Bar Association on Wednesday called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department to "immediately investigate" the alleged targeting of nine legal observers earlier this month during a protest against police brutality in the Bronx. | In a statement, the City Bar said it was "gravely concerned" by what it called "concerted efforts" in New York, and across the country, to interfere with the work of observers at mass demonstrations protesting systemic racism and police killings of black Americans. | The City Bar specifically cited reports that legal observers associated with the Nation…

_____ (2020-06-19). NYPD Cops Encouraged To 'Strike' On July 4. popularresistance.org A labor strike is brewing in the NYPD. | A pair of flyers making the rounds among NYPD officers are encouraging them to call out sick July 4 — as retribution for police reform and a perceived anti-cop climate following the outrage over high-profile police killings of unarmed black men across the country, multiple cops told…

RT (2020-06-19). PANDERMONIUM: Snapchat yanks cringeworthy Juneteenth filter that asked users to 'smile to break chains'. rt.com Snapchat has removed a Juneteenth-themed that encouraged users to "smile" to break the chains of slavery, something that was quickly flagged by social media users as an offensive attempt to pander to Black Lives Matter activists. | If users chose to use the filter, they could photograph themselves in front of an African flag with the words "Juneteenth" and "Freedom Day" captioned. The user was then told to smile as chains appear and then suddenly break, a clear nod to the day being a celebration of the end of slavery in the US. | The filter was disabled after numerous complaints and removed from the service in…

RT (2020-06-19). EU Parliament meddles into US affairs as it condemns Trump's response to protests and declares 'BLACK LIVES MATTER'. rt.com A lengthy resolution by the European Union legislators denounced US President Donald Trump for wanting to use force against rioters and condemned the "appalling death of George Floyd" and arrests of journalists. | In a Condemning the "appalling death of George Floyd" — a Minneapolis,…

RT (2020-06-19). PANDER-MONIUM: Snapchat yanks cringeworthy Juneteenth filter that asked users to 'smile to break chains'. rt.com Snapchat has removed a Juneteenth-themed that encouraged users to "smile" to break the chains of slavery, something that was quickly flagged by social media users as an offensive attempt to pander to Black Lives Matter activists. | If users chose to use the filter, they could photograph themselves in front of a Pan-African flag with the words "Juneteenth" and "Freedom Day" captioned. The user was then told to smile as chains appear and then suddenly break, a clear nod to the day being a celebration of the end of slavery in the US. | The filter was disabled after numerous complaints and removed from the service…

RT (2020-06-19). Beatles-glorified Penny Lane NOT actually named after slave trader, museum finds. rt.com There's no evidence linking the legendary Liverpool street Penny Lane to slave trader James Penny, the city's slavery museum has said. The street was recently vandalized, amid Black Lives Matter protests. | The widespread misconception that the road was named after an 18th-century slave merchant was debunked by the Liverpool-based International Slavery Museum (ISM) on Friday. | Penny Lane shot to international fame back in 1967, thanks to the Beatles song named after it, and its original street sign was included in the ISM's display when the museum first opened in 2007. Now, however, "comprehensive research" h…

The Canary (2020-06-19). Celebrating Juneteenth, the day the last enslaved Black people were freed in the US. thecanary.co People across the US and beyond are celebrating a key national day which has a much higher profile this year amid widespread anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.Juneteenth — celebrated each year on 19 June — marks the day in 1865 when slavery was abolished in Texas — two and a half years after president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.Now, with support growing for the racial justice movement, 2020 may be remembered as the year the holiday reached a new level of recognition.While the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved Black people in the South in 1863…

Sit.Walk.Listen. and SF Sanghas (2020-06-19). Sunday 6/21: Sit. Walk. Listen. Because Black Lives Matter. indybay.org Civic Center Plaza (Polk & McAllister)…

Palo_Alto_Action_4 _Justice (2020-06-19). Friday 6/19: Defend Black Lives Event in Palo Alto. indybay.org Palo Alto City Hall's King Plaza | 250 Hamilton Ave. | Palo Alto 94301…

_____ (2020-06-19). Heroless America Is Losing Ideological Ground Quickly. strategic-culture.org Right now, as statues across America and beyond are being defaced and/or destroyed by Black Lives Matter protestors it is a good time to reflect on who the heroes on our monuments should be and ask ourselves if we even need any of these pieces of brass and concrete at all in the 21st century. Why does seemingly every country on Earth bother with using public space for the secular worship of dead political and military figures? What point do monuments even serve? | Regarding heroes it seems very evident that children have over time moved from having historical heroes to fantasy ones. It is hard to imagine, that in…

Staff (2020-06-19). Juneteenth: A Celebration of Black Liberation & Day to Remember "Horrific System That Was Slavery" democracynow.org June 19 is Juneteenth, celebrating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black people in the United States learned they had been freed from bondage. As momentum grows to enshrine it as a national holiday, we speak with author and historian Gerald Horne, who says that while the story of Juneteenth is "much more complicated and much more complex than is traditionally presented," increased recognition of the day "provides an opportunity to have a thorough remembrance of this horrific system that was slavery."

Staff (2020-06-19). 99 Years Later, Wounds of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Have "Never Been Remedied" democracynow.org President Trump's first campaign rally since the start of the pandemic takes place Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, despite a spike of COVID-19 cases there. Trump rescheduled the rally to Saturday after facing backlash for saying it would happen on Juneteenth — a celebration of African Americans' liberation from slavery — amid a nationwide uprising against racism and police brutality. Tulsa is also the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history, when a white mob in 1921 killed as many as 300 people in a thriving African American business district known as "Black Wall Street." For more on this…

RT (2020-06-19). Tucker Carlson becomes target of SPELLS, with #WitchesAgainstTucker trending amid slander lawsuit and BLM controversy. rt.com As Fox News defends host Tucker Carlson's show against accusations of not being factually accurate, the hashtag #WitchesAgainstTucker began trending on Twitter, conjuring up some highly unusual critics of the commentator. | "We, the witches of Poland will no longer tolerate the behaviors of @TuckerCarlson. I am calling on all witches of Poland to cast your spells on him," humorous rapper and successful Twitter troll Elijah Daniel tweeted, appearing to kick off the #WitchesAgainstTucker hashtag, which has received support from thousands of users. | Daniel followed up with a tweet written in Polish, stating, "Yo…

Rachell Tucker (2020-06-19). San Antonio activists seek justice, demand reopening of police killings. liberationnews.org Like in other places around the country, thousands are in the streets in San Antonio demanding justice for victims of national significance like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, but also for local victims of police terror.

WSWS (2020-06-19). Mass protests against police violence expand in advance of Juneteenth rallies across the US. wsws.org Demonstrations have taken place in 1,670 US towns and cities in response to the killing of George Floyd, other murderous acts of violence by police and the repression of protesters.

news.un (2020-06-19). Human Rights Council calls on top UN rights official to take action on racist violence. news.un.org The UN's top rights official, Michelle Bachelet, is to spearhead efforts to address systemic racism against people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, the Human Rights Council decided on Friday. The resolution — decided unanimously without a vote – follows a rare Urgent Debate in the Council earlier in the week, requested by the African group of nations, following the death of George Floyd in the US state of Minnesota.

Ramzy Baroud (2020-06-19). The 'Palestinian Chair': Exposing Israel's Direct Role in US Violence. counterpunch.org The banning of deadly police practices by many American states and cities following the murder of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers is, once more, shedding light on US-Israeli collaboration in the fields of security and crowd-control. From California to New York, and from Washington State to Minneapolis,

Nick Alexandrov (2020-06-19). Twin Histories: Segregation and Police Violence in Minneapolis. counterpunch.org George Floyd's murder tape gives sight, if you look closely, of a world little-named in pieces on his killing. Sustained police savagery marks this world, one city bureaucrats worked, long ago, to segregate, and more recently to keep that way. It is Minneapolis. And knowing its linked police and housing histories is crucial to making sense of today's protests. These histories show a city saturated in violence—state-sanctioned violence.

Combined Sources (2020-06-19). United Nations calls for reparations to confront legacy of slavery and colonialism. peoplesworld.org GENEVA—Reparations should be paid and countries must confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism to better understand continuing "systematic discrimination," according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. She was speaking at the UN session in Geneva on Wednesday in an urgent debate in response to the killing of George Floyd at the …