All posts by Janet Powe

Back to normal? Under President Obama Trayvon Martin was murdered

CNN wants to “finally get back to normal”.

What is normal in the USA?

Sadly, racism is normal and the killing of black people by police has long been normalised.

It was nice having a black man in the White House but nothing changed apart from the personnel.

Real comes up from the street. After the election, the struggle continues.

No illusions in Biden and Harris!

“When Obama was President, I was marching for Trayvon Martin fresh out of college”

Rest in power – Trayvon Martin – killed for being black while eating Skittles on his way home in 2012

Black Nurses Matter – call to action to protect our lives – 25 November 2020

Black Nurses Matter – Call to action

How is your NHS Trust protecting black and minority ethnic (BAME) staff during the second wave?

Are you an agency nurse who was deprived of PPE in the first wave?

Were you forced to work on the Covid wards because you are an agency nurse or a bank nurse?

When will the recommendations be implemented for BAME staff in your trust?

Black nurses matter – this is a CALL TO ACTION!

Wednesday 25 November 2020

Take action for one day

No agency shifts

No bank shifts

The junior doctors tok action and they were not losing their lives!

Call to action

Trump loses election but wants to discount black votes

Trump has lost the US election but he wants to go down in flames and take the rest of the USA with him.

In a typically dishonest statement yesterday, in which he claimed ‘corruption’ in Detroit and Atlanta was endemic, his thinly disguised racism was again on display for all to see.

The postal vote is overwhelmingly Democratic and the metro areas being counted are heavily African-American, given the racist residential segregation which is still such a major feature of American life.

On that basis, with Biden now in the lead in Georgia and expected to overtake Trump in Pennsylvania, Trump is finished.

We appreciate that Trump doesn’t want to lose because he knows he will also lose his presidential immunity and could be looking at a prison cell given his clear and present corruption.

Democrats fails to harness the power of the streets at the ballot box

But there is a bigger story about the US election, which was the refusal of the Democrat leadership to focus on harnessing the anger and enthusiasm of the BLM movement, or to articulate and advance policies that will attract working-class people, black and white.

Trump is now planning to unleash his fascist friends against American democracy, such as it is.

The right has been calling for insurrection and violence to stop the count.

Mad man Glen Beck has called for the overthrow of the US government.

Buy peole are taking to the streets again – and again the police are showing whose side they are on. In New York City 25 people were arrested on a peaceful protest and an advocate observer was roughed-up by the forces of racism and disorder.

NYC cops attack peaceful protesters (pic: NYT)

Solidarity with the fight to stop Trump’s election steal

We send our solidarity to our sisters and brothers in the BLM movement in the US and progressive forces beyond that as the y prepare to meet the threat from the deranged christian and fascist right and others among the delusional (and disappointed) MAGA hordes.

But to date, the protests by Trump supporters have been small and violence more at the level of threats and talk than actual action.

But make no mistake, Trump is pushing to block democracy by any means. necessary, and that unfortunately is not confined to unfounded law suits.

Shame of the black rappers in bed with Trump

Finally, how dare Trump and his racist supportes try to stop black peoples’ votes being counted in Detroit and Georgia.

For those black people who were foolish enough to vote for the enemy, hopefully things are a little clearer, although we suspect there’s no telling stupid – yes we are talking about you 50 Cent, Ice Cube and the other rich backers of white supremacist Trump. They let the myth and cult of the entrepreneur cloud their judgement – it is working people, black and white, who make the world go round.

Rappers are not essential workers – especially the ones who have turned their back on the community to assist the architects of the new Jim Crow.

Trump must go! BLM emergency protest 6pm US embassy 4th Nov

Trump must Go – London Calling – solidarity with BLM in the United States of America: All Black Lives UK & Stand Up To Racism protest

Headed for defeat, there are signs that the Orange Agent might refuse to admit defeat and claim he is the real victor.

Join the protest to demand that Trump must go!

Organised by Stand Up To Racism and All Black Lives UK

The Trump Must Go protest at the US embassy is this Weds 4th November at 6pm

33 Nine Elms Lane, Nine Elms, London SW11 7US

We will be offering solidarity to the US #BlackLivesMatter movement if Trump refuses to go and – hopefully – celebrating if he’s lost!

✅P lease share the event and invite Facebook friends ??here https://fb.me/e/1EHM6nqPL please retweet @AntiRacismDay tweets promoting the demo.

✅ This event will be strictly socially distanced and PPE will be provided for everyone taking part.

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BLM brings out to vote – big time!

The BLM movement has radicalised and inspired many black and white people in the US and the fervour and commitment to racial equality has found its way to the ballot.

Young people in particular are turning out in huge numbers, as our women to protect their rights and older people to protect their health from the criminal currently in the White House, and of course black people (apart from one or two rich rapper Uncle Toms) who are beating back the Republican voter suppression tactics of old.

Cops pepper spray kids on BLM get out the vote march

It’s hard trying to vote in America if you are black as an ‘I am Change’ BLM march to get out the vote discovered.

Although we’ve come along way since the legal segregation and oppression that was the Jim Crow regime, the same methods used then to keep black people away from the polls, are returning in force.

On Saturday racist cops in North Carolina decided to take it upon themselves to pepper spray families and children on a peaceful ‘get out the vote’ march in North Carolina.

Suffice to say none of the cops involved in launching the pepper spray attack have been disciplined. In fact they probably got rewarded when they returned to the police precinct for services to the Trump campaign.

Vote suppression police pepper spray toddlers on BLM get out the vote march

“I saw a little girl, probably five, being carried off sobbing and coughing. She was dressed as a fairy or a princess” 

‘I Am Change’ march participant

Amy Goodman at Democracy Now has the full story:

How the ‘get out the vote’ BLM march was attacked

Police in Alamance County in North Carolina pepper-sprayed a peaceful get-out-the-vote march Saturday, descending on the crowd after they stopped near a Confederate monument to kneel in honor of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.

Viral videos of the violent police action show officers in riot gear attacking the marchers, including young children and elderly people, who had intended to walk to a polling place on the last day of early voting in North Carolina.

At least eight people were arrested, including march organizer Rev. Greg Drumwright, who says police gave the crowd of hundreds only 14 seconds to clear out before attacking.

“We never made it to the polls,” says Drumwright. “We believe that this interaction, this interference from the local authorities, has obstructed our marchers from not only lifting up our First Amendment rights but also our rights to vote.”

More from Democracy Now here

Boost for Walter Wallace justice fight – new video coming Wednesday

The murder of Walter Wallace is the latest brutal outburst of racism from American police.

Wallace had a history of mental health issues but instead of getting the help he needed, he ended up dead at the hands of cops who don’t know how to shoot to injury – they always shoot to kill.

The murder of 27-year-old Wallace led to two days of mass protests in Philadelphia as black and white protesters demanded justice for the slain man.

In last week’s protests, at least five police cars were torched and some 91 people arrested.

The Pennsylvania national guard were shipped in at the end of last week to put down the revolt, but the temperature is expected to rise again when the body cam footage is released on Wednesday – the day after the presidential election.

A 9pm curfew has been imposed across Philadelphia.

As usual the white supremacists in the White House were quick to condemn ‘mobs’ and said nothing at all about yet another killing by racist cops.

Racist-in-chief pours fuel on the flames of Walter Wallace killing

At a campaign rally in Arizona on Wednesday last week, the thug in chief Donald Trump said: “Last night, the city of Philadelphia was ransacked by violent mobs and Biden-supported people.

“These were all Biden-supported people, and he wouldn’t even call them out.”

The police did have plenty to say though.

Someone called John McNesby from the the police union (lodge) said the police involved in the murder “are traumatised by being involved in a fatal shooting”.

Yeah right!

Derek Chauvin – the cop who killed George Floyd is out of prison and wandering around as a free man as he waits for a trial at which he will no doubt walk free.

As 400 years of history attests, to get racial justice in America requires struggle.

No Justice No Peace, no racist police.

The brutal killing of mentally ill Black man Walter Wallace

Who shot the sheriff, Eric? Music and the fight against racism

????? We’re excited to have Roger Huddle joining our panel at 7pm this evening to discuss Rock Against Racism and Music and the Fight Against Racism with music from special guests. All welcome. Zoom details: 854 2960 2728 Passcode: 869873 ????? https://www.facebook.com/events/430142544667978/
Hosted by Oxford Love Music Hate Racism & Oxford Stand Up To Racism

This meeting coincides with the new film that tells the story of when Britain’s youth stood up against the far right… a film inspires us today – White Riot.

Breonna protesters outrage grows, Trump vigilantes and cops lash out

An explosion of outrage over the Breonna Taylor murder at the hands of police continues. Anger has spread out in a shockwave of protests from Louisville following the failure of Kentucky state prosecutors to bring murder charges against a police officer.

In a statement on Wednesday Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron read out mealy mouthed excuses for yet another police murder of a black woman.

Breonna’s mother Tamika Palmer speaks out

Breonna’s mother, Tamika Palmer, wrote a letter that was read out a press conference today, where there were calls for the release of the transcript of the grand jury’s deliberations.

The letter was read out loud by Palmer’s sister Bianca Austin:

“I was reassured Wednesday of why I have no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law — that are not made to protect us Black and Brown people.

“When I speak on it, I’m considered an angry Black woman. But know this: I am an angry Black woman. I am not angry for the reasons that you would like me to be. But angry because our Black women keep dying at the hands of police officers.”

Black attorney general won’t deliver justice but the mass movement can

The fact that a black man – Kentucky’s attorney general – delivered the statement that amounts to a heinous travesty of justice, says a lot about the situation in the US, and rubs salt into the wounds. Cameron is a Republican appointee.

Despite the presence of many black faces in high places, the police kill black people with impunity. Already this year alone they have killed 1,010 people.

As always a hugely disproportionate number of the dead are black people – averaging around 35% of the annual total from a African-American population that accounts for only 12% of the population.

Protesters in their thousands from Chicago to Los Angeles and New York and all across America are increasingly asking where this will all end.

The systemic nature of racism in the US means it is deeply embedded in police departments, courts and the prison system.

A reality is dawning that uprooting centuries-old oppression will take something akin to another revolution in America.

Trump stokes racist backlash

And as the struggle for black liberation has advanced it has always been met with a racist backlash.

Today is no different it may seem, but the breakthrough that has seen milions of white people passsively or actively participate support BLM is our new strength.

Trump is whipping up racist vigilantee violence against peaceful protesters – revelling in it as he proclaims his intention to rule for another four years, regardless of how citizens vote in the presidential election, and ram through a conservative supreme court judge that could setback civil rights and womens’ basic human rights.

Two cops were shot this week and a suspect has been arrested.

The stakes are high and getting higher and the movement is meeting the challenge. It grows stronger with every outrage as the movement fuses with wider questions about the real nature of American democracy and freedom.

Justice for Breonna Taylor and all the dead! No Justice No Peace!

Derek Chauvin and other cops in George Floyd murder appear in court

Derek Chauvin and the other three ex Minneapolis police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd appeared in court on Friday.

Chauvin has been charged with first degree murder.

The other three accomplices to the murder of George Floyd – Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao – are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter and are free on bail.

Police defence claims that Floyd died from an overdose although the world saw him die because a policeman had his knee pressed on his neck for 8 minutes and 45 seconds.

As civil rights lawyer Ben Crump put it: ‘The only overdose was an overdose of police force.

The world saw what happened.  ‘Who are you going to believe? Your eyes, or these killer cops?’

The ex cops were greeted with jeers and abuse from protesters when they left the court.

Solidarity with George Floyd

In the UK there were solidarity protests to demand justice for George Floyd on Friday.

Sheffield -“Say his name – George Floyd”