People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“Today marks the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a day of reflection and solidarity.
Floyd’s death put a spotlight on the terrifying arrogance of US police forces who routinely kill people of colour with the knowledge they’ll get away with it, even when it happens in broad daylight with people challenging them and recording their brutality.
Floyd’s murder also put a spotlight on the vicious poverty the vast majority of Black and other people of colour continue to face in the US, even after decades of civil rights legislation.
The Black Lives Matter rebellion in the US sparked a global movement challenging police violence and institutional racism. Without this movement there would have been no accountability for George Floyd’s murder. There would be no discussion about the need to challenge the pervasiveness of structural racism. No matter what the political establishment says, people power is the key to bringing change.
As people in Derry attempted to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests the Stormont Executive parties greenlighted a PSNI crackdown.
Despite multiple investigations confirming discrimination towards the June 6 protests in Derry and Belfast and widespread violations of civil rights, the fines have not been dropped. The threats of prosecution have not been lifted. There has been no apology to the BAME community from the Stormont Executive who greenlighted the PSNI’s actions that day and who then voted retrospectively to rubber-stamp the last minute legislation rushed through the Assembly.
In the US, the work of the Black Lives Matter movement continues. Upending racism there and the poverty that it produces will require a massive people power push against elites and corporations intent on protecting the status quo of inequality.
Here in Derry, and across Ireland, we should remember George Floyd and redouble our efforts to build an inclusive movement based on people power that aims to eradicate racism and all forms of discrimination.
We need to remain vigilant to the attempt by the racist far-right, and those in power emboldening them, to scapegoat people of colour and marginalised communities for social and economic problems created in Stormont, the Dáil and Westminster.
We want a diverse, welcoming society that values everyone in our communities underpinned by access to housing, properly funded public services good paying jobs.”