The people of Minneapolis have taken to the streets the past 72 hours, demanding the arrest of the killer cops who murdered 46-year-old African American George Floyd on Monday night, May 25. Eyewitness video was released Tuesday morning showing now former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pinning Floyd to the ground, with Chauvin’s knee directly on the back of his neck – the video shows Floyd’s last gasps for air. You can hear him telling the killer cop that he can’t breathe and calling for his mother before you see his body going limp. Three other cops on the scene stand by, with two other cops actively helping to restrain Floyd on the ground, all ignoring the pleas of bystanders to let him breathe. Since then, tens of thousands in Minneapolis and have taken to the streets, demanding justice and retribution, which prompted the Minneapolis police to immediately terminate the four officers involved with Floyd’s murder and finally to charge and jail Chauvin May 29.

We can’t forget that Twin Cities area police have been the target of recent high-profile struggles involving police murders, including the murder in 2015 of African American man Jamar Clark by two killer Minneapolis killer cops, which prompted a wave of protests; the murder of Philando Castile in the suburbs of Minneapolis on video, as well Justine Damond in 2017, which also prompted mass protests.

The question of killer cops targeting African Americans isn’t just a story of Black people being more oppressed workers, it’s also the result of the system of national oppression, a system that chains down African Americans and subjects them to the most intense methods of brutality at the hands of the ruling class and its police force. From Minneapolis to Louisville, we see a disregard for Black life at the hands of the police, with the Minneapolis rebellion becoming a breaking point for the Black liberation movement, sparking nationwide protests.

As Martin Luther King Jr, once said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

We must continue the call to demand community control of the police as well as the indictment and convictions of all killer cops, especially those who murdered George Floyd. We must also, as what we’ve seen in Chicago with the LaQuan McDonald cover-up, fight to kick out government attorneys and prosecutors who refuse to prosecute killer cops and racist vigilantes, as they did initially in the case of Ahmaud Arbery’s lynching in Brunswick, Georgia.

On May 30, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is calling for a day of nationwide protests against the murderous policies of police departments nationwide as well as demand the mass release of inmates in prisons due to COVID-19. We unite with this call and know that the more people that hit the streets, the shakier the foundations of national oppression in this country becomes. Protests have already started taking place in cities like Memphis and Los Angeles, with many cities planning protests through the week leading into the weekend.

Our job is to organize, agitate and connect the struggle for Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Breonna Taylor to our own local struggles for justice and community control of the police. We need to build organization on both local and national levels to consolidate the power of the people into a fighting force against national oppression and the criminal injustice system.

The streets are on fire for action and our job is to continue to fan the flames.

Justice for George Floyd! Indict and convict the killer cops! Community control of the police now! All power to the people!

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HawaiianNation #IndigenousPeoples #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Socialism #FRSOJointNationalitiesCommission #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

San José, CA – On Friday, May 22, the monthly report on state-level labor markets saw the – unemployment rate for three states – Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i – all soar to more than 20%, levels unseen since the worst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Actual job losses, reported by business, came to almost 20% between March and April in Vermont and New York, along with Hawai’i.

Since the survey for state-level unemployment rates was taken in mid-April, as many as 15 million more unemployment insurance claims have been filed with the states and with the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program set up by the CARES act. This could add as much as 10% more to the national unemployment rate, and even more to the hardest hit states.

There were also signs that the economic crisis is spreading the housing and auto markets. 3.6 million people did not pay their mortgages in April. This rate doubled from 3.06% in March to 6.45% in April. In the 2007-2009 recession it took one and a half years for late mortgages to rise as much as it did in one month in this pandemic economic crisis.

#SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #OppressedNationalities #Unemployment #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #HawaiianNation #economy #stockMarketCrash

The USW represents 150 production and maintenance employees at Par Hawaii Refining (PHR). With nearly 90% of USW members voting, over 95% of them rejected PHR’s onerous demands.

Jarrett Wa’a, USW Local 12-591 Kapolei unit president, said, “Our members deserve predictable benefits from the company. PHR relies on our members’ vast knowledge, experience and skill to make fuels efficiently and safely; in exchange, our members expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Par Pacific and PHR must step up and negotiate benefits for their workers – our members – in Hawaii now.”

Members of USW Local 12-591 are bargaining with Par for a new three-year labor agreement that covers the approximately 150 bargaining unit members producing gasoline, diesel, jet, and other products at the only fully operating oil refinery in Hawaii. USW members are currently working under a rolling 24-hour extension to the February 1, 2015, through January 31, 2019 Labor Agreement.

#KapoleiHawaii #KapoleiHI #PeoplesStruggles #HawaiianNation #UnitedSteelWorkers #ParHawaiiRefining

Corvallis, OR – Over 300 students, campus workers, professors and community members rallied at Oregon State University on May 12, to protest the racist SB 1070 law in Arizona. Chanting “The people of Arizona are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back!” the demonstrators marched from the Centro Cultural César Chávez to the center of campus, with banners and brightly-colored signs denouncing SB 1070, as well as another racist bill, HB 2281, which bans schools in Arizona from teaching ethnic studies.

Rocío Acosta, one of the leaders of the demonstration and a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), told Fight Back!, “SB 1070 is a ridiculous law. It is racial profiling.” Acosta continued, “As an organization, we believe in equal rights. We've been fighting for our people, for equal rights and education for everyone. This law is unfair not just to Latinos but to everyone.”

A broad coalition of student organizations worked together to organize the rally. The march was spirited and multi-national, uniting Chicano, African-American, Asian American, Native American, Filipinos, and whites—together in solidarity. It was a strong showing in the face of racist attacks against immigrants.

Speakers expressed outrage at the racist SB 1070 bill and the attacks on ethnic studies. This call resonated strongly among the protestors, as Oregon State University has an ethnic studies program and numerous cultural centers – Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez, Native American Longhouse, Black Cultural Center, Asian/Pacific Cultural Center, the Pride Center and the Women Center – that were won through decades of struggle, and which demonstrators promised to defend should attempts be made to attack ethnic studies in Oregon.

The Oregon State University demonstration is the latest in a wave of demonstrations sweeping across the United States in solidarity with immigrant families under attack in Arizona, and to oppose and overturn SB 1070 and now, HB 2281. More protests are being planned locally and nationally.

#CorvallisOR #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #AsianNationalities #ChicanoLatino #HawaiianNation #IndigenousPeoples #OregonStateUniversityOSU