Black Lives Matter spokesperson and Green Party Steering Committee co-chair Trahern Crews tells us about Minneapolis, the US city that has become a symbol of racism, police brutality and inequality.

George Floyd, the African-American man who was killed in brutal fashion by police performing an arrest, quickly became a symbol of the oppression and violence suffered by people of colour in the United States. The pain and anger of thousands burst forth in Minneapolis. Day after day, fires burned in protest and anger over a murder that will leave a mark on the city's memory. Demonstrations were soon taking place all over the country, in dozens of major cities – including Los Angeles, New York and Detroit – as well as hundreds of smaller cities and towns. In Detroit, a 19-year-old man who was taking part in the protests was killed as a car pulled up and fired shots into the crowd. Three more people lost their lives in similar circumstances elsewhere, and a curfew was imposed on 25 major urban centres. These kinds of numbers hadn't been seen since the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, in 1968.

By Howie Hawkins

One of my first campaign stops in June 2019 after announcing my candidacy was in Mobile, Alabama, where among the group I spoke to was Chikesia Clemons. I didn’t know she would be there, but I had heard about her more than a year before she became aware of my candidacy. Chikesia was in the national news in April 2018 after she was assaulted by police for non-criminal behavior in a Waffle House. The case was covered by network news, the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Shaun King, and many others. Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, took her case. Rev. Al Sharpton went down to show support.

Humanity lost a Lion of the Civil Rights Movement in the passing of Congressman John Lewis at the age of 80. Significantly, in his last public moment while dying of cancer, he chose to visit the Black Lives Matter Plaza which leads up to the White House. He came to pay homage, to give honor and encourage the Black Lives Matter movement in his humble way.

The first time I saw John Lewis was at the 1963 Great March on Washington. At 16, I had traveled with Father James Groppi and others to that historic gathering. Having wandered away from the Milwaukee group, I ended up about ten feet from the microphone where Dr Martin Luther King gave his iconic “I Have a Dream “ speech. John Lewis, the youngest speaker at 23 had stood out using the word “revolution.” His radical speech was censored by the civil rights movement leadership of which he had a leadership role. John toned it down out of his love for Dr. King.

• The North Carolina Green Party cosponsors protests against police violence and racism and calls for immediate end to police immunity

PITTSBORO, NC – The North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) continues to emphatically support the protests and actions in North Carolina, across the US, and around the world that have arisen in response to decades of systemic police violence and institutionalized racism that culminated in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

GRAY, ME – Join U.S. Senate candidate Lisa Savage, former Green VP candidate and Black Alliance for Peace leader Ajamu Baraka, Director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition Joseph Jackson, and Co-Founder of Bangor’s Racial Equity and Justice Desiree Vargas, in the second of a 5-part webinar series.

"Racial Justice at Home & Abroad" will explore the systems, policies, and practices designed to limit and shape opportunities for people of color.

• Hawkins/Walker Back Nationwide “Strike for Black Lives”

• "The agenda of the working class is our agenda"

Syracuse, NY and Florence, SC, July 20, 2020) – Today, Green Party candidates for president and vice president, Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker, urged support for the nationwide strike today in more than 25 cities that are calling for higher wages, COVID protections and the right to unionize being organized by a coalition of Black advocacy organizations and unions.

• Both in Israel and the US, conversations about reparations and the Palestinian right of return are stifled by arguments explaining why injustice must go on and a yearning for the status quo.

The calls “Black Lives Matter” and “Free, Free Palestine,” serve to remind us that Palestine is not free and that if the lives of Black people mattered, there would be no need for the call. In both cases, people are in the grips of a cruel, racist system that refuses to let go. In both cases, people are being hunted down, caged, strangled, and shot to death, and the root cause of their suffering is rarely addressed.

• "The struggle is for power not reform."

• We must make clear that it is imperialism that degrades and destroys the earth, makes water a commodity, food a luxury, education an impossibility, and health care a distant dream.

The following is excerpted from a presentation by Ajamu Baraka to a national webinar Electoral School of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, June 13 and 14.

NEW YORK CITY – Green Party officers responded to the passage of New York City's FY 2021 budget with the following statement:

"In the face of a massive month-long social uprising demanding the end of police violence against Black and Brown communities and a massive reduction in the NYPD budget, the Mayor and City Council instead used accounting tricks to maintain funding for the department, while attempting to claim otherwise," said Chris Archer, chair of the Green Party of New York County. "We are disgusted by the half-truths and lies emanating from city government, and the continued police violence against our communities as well as peaceful protesters. In a time when the elimination of 22,000 city jobs is being proposed, the Mayor and City Council's refusal to cut the NYPD shows where their priorities lie: maintaining a police state above all else."

• June 2020 Newsletter

HOUSTON – You don’t need the Green Party of Texas (GPTX) to tell you that the current moment is a crisis of authoritarian capitalism. Abuse of authority, police brutality, white supremacy, systemic racism – heartbreaking economic & social conditions – sheer incompetence and waste, all are on full display for anyone to observe.  How can we navigate a pandemic without healthcare for all? How can we loosen environmental restrictions and disregard responsible climate action in a time of looming climate crisis? How can we be so completely dysfunctional?