It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, June 08, 2020
George Floyd protests in France give bereaved family new hope for justice
BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, France (Reuters) - Since the wave of protests triggered by the brutal killing of George Floyd reached France, protesters have been chanting another name too: Adama Traore.
“They died in exactly the same way,” said his sister Assa Traore. “Adama carried the weight of three officers on his body.”
Adama Traore was celebrating his 24th birthday on July 19, 2016, when three police officers restrained him using the weight of their bodies. By the time he was delivered to a police station, he was unconscious and could not be revived.
Like Floyd, Traore was black, and his death triggered huge protests in France, where the police’s record of brutality and racism remains unaddressed.
For four years, his family have demanded that French police be held to account for the death of her brother in police custody. Noone has been prosecuted. Medical experts are unable to agree on whether the way he was restrained killed him, or an underlying medical condition. Attention to the death had faded.
Now, anger over the killing of George Floyd in the United States is giving their campaign new impetus.
“It’s a strong, powerful echo,” Assa Traore told Reuters in an interview in Beaumont-sur-Oise, the neighbourhood near Paris where her brother lived.
The Traore family and their supporters are this week calling for a nationwide day of protests in France.
“All the light shed on the George Floyd case has served as a reminder of the numerous other victims who died in the same conditions as George Floyd,” said Almamy Kanoute, a French actor involved in the Traore campaign.
“We’re not saying the police in France are the same as in the United States. But the deadly techniques used in the United States are the same ones as in some European countries, the same ones that kill the same type of people.”
Reporting by Noemie Olive, Lucien Libert and Yonathan Van der Voort; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
Trump ordered National Guard troops to begin withdrawing from the streets of Washington, D.C. “now that everything is under perfect control.” Trump warned that the troops “will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed.” The move comes amid a barrage of criticism over his violent response to mostly peaceful protests across the city and his threats to further militarize the government’s response to nationwide demonstrations against police brutality and the murder of George Floyd. (New York Times / Washington Post)
TRUMP'S REAL BASE IS 15%
poll/ 80% of Americans say things are out of control in the United States, while 15% say things are under control. 59% say they’re more troubled by Floyd’s death and the actions of police than they are about recent protests or occasional looting, compared to 27% who are more concerned about the protests. (NBC News / Wall Street Journal)
U.S. economy entered recession in February, business cycle arbiter says
2020 BC, BEFORE CORONAVIRUS
TRUMP CRASHES ECONOMY IN FEBRUARY
(Reuters) - The U.S. economy ended its longest expansion in history in February and entered recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the private economics research group that acts as the arbiter for determining U.S. business cycles said on Monday.
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said in a statement that members “concluded that the unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions.”
The designation was expected, but notable for its speed, a mere four months after the recession began. The committee has typically waited longer in order to be sure. When the economy started declining in late 2007, for example, the committee did not pinpoint the start of the recession until a year later.
But the depth and speed of this collapse left little doubt.“In deciding whether to identify a recession, the committee weighs the depth of the contraction, its duration, and whether economic activity declined broadly across the economy ... The committee recognizes that the pandemic and the public health response have resulted in a downturn with different characteristics and dynamics than prior recessions,” the committee said in a released statement.
U.S. gross domestic product fell at a 4.8% annualized rate in the first three months of the year. The outcome for the April to June period is expected to show an even worse annualized decline of perhaps 20% or more. The unemployment rate rose from a record of 3.5% in February to 14.7% in April and 13.3% last month.
Arkansas Employment and Unemployment – April 2020 ... Since February, the U.S. labor force has declined by 4.9% and the Arkansas labor force is down 3.7%. ... The predicted values in the table show the results of applying the national ... The new IHS forecast projects GDP growth falling at nearly a 37% annual rate in the ...
WE SPY ON YOU Israel's NSO showcases drone tech, pushes to counter rights abuse allegations
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s NSO Group showcased a new anti-drone defence on Monday, giving the public a rare look at its technology as it seeks to counter allegations that another of its products has aided privacy breaches and political surveillance. A test drone operator prepares to launch a drone during a demonstration for Reuters of Israel's NSO Group's product, Eclipse, a system that commandeers and force-lands intruding drones, at Bloomfield Stadium, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 8, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The new system, Eclipse, commandeers intruding drones and, according to NSO, costs “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to provide stadium-sized protection. More than 10 countries have bought it to safeguard sites like energy facilities, NSO said.
The promotion follows controversy for the company around Pegasus, spyware that has drawn a lawsuit by WhatsApp alleging it helped government spies hack the phones of roughly 1,400 users including journalists and dissidents.
Pegasus has been linked to political surveillance in Mexico, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance
NSO denies wrongdoing and says it sells only to government agencies, subject to oversight by Israel’s Defence Ministry.
On Monday, Chief Executive Shalev Hulio also sought to highlight a heightened transparency drive.
NSO has declined deals worth around $500 million on ethical grounds and, as of next year, will issue annual compliance reports, Hulio told Reuters at an empty soccer stadium where Eclipse, in a test-run, intercepted a drone within seconds.
Like other security exporters, NSO maintains secrecy around its client list and spyware, citing a reluctance to tip off those being tracked. This makes independent verification of its business practices difficult.
“The beauty of this product, unlike other products that we developed, is this is something we can demonstrate,” Hulio said of Eclipse.
In November, NSO set up a compliance department which it says brings the company into line with U.N. “guiding principles” on safeguarding against human-rights abuses.
“We always want to be more transparent,” Hulio said.
Hulio said NSO had about a dozen products that saved lives. He is also promoting Fleming, an analytics system aimed at mapping the spread of the novel coronavirus.
KKK FANBOYS
Ku Klux Klan newspaper declares support for Trump
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Ku Klux Klan newspaper has declared support for Donald Trump’s Republican run for U.S. president, saying America became great because it was a white, Christian republic.
The Crusader, one of the white supremacist group’s most prominent publications, published a lengthy endorsement and defense of Trump’s message on the front page of its current issue under the headline: “Make America Great Again.”
“Make America Great Again” is Trump’s campaign slogan.
The Trump campaign rejected the group’s support. In a statement, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form. This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign.”
The KKK is the oldest white supremacist group in the United States, tracing its roots back to the Reconstruction period in the South that followed the Civil War. In addition to anti-black views, it has expressed anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant and anti-gay views and, until recently, was anti-Roman Catholic.
Earlier this year, former KKK leader David Duke of Louisiana voiced support for Trump, saying white people are threatened in America and that he hears echoes of his views in Trump’s rhetoric.
Trump drew criticism in February for failing to quickly disavow support from Duke.
Some critics have condemned as racist Trump’s call for limiting Muslim immigration, building a wall along the border with Mexico and criticism of a Mexican-American judge.
In The Crusader, Pastor Thomas Robb wrote, “While Trump wants to make America great again, we have to ask ourselves, ‘What made America great in the first place?’
“America was great not because of what our forefathers did -but because of who our forefathers were. America was founded as a White Christian Republic. And as a White Christian Republic it became great,” Robb wrote.
Robb, based in Arkansas, heads the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which took over in the 1980s after the departure of Duke, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hates groups.
Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
Floyd's death spurs 'Gen Z' activists to set up new D.C. rights group
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jacqueline LaBayne and Kerrigan Williams met for the very first time in person on Wednesday, at a sit-in they organized in front of the U.S. Capitol over the death of George Floyd.
They have been using social media, which they call a “tool of justice,” to rally a new, ethnically-diverse generation of young activists connecting online to protest Floyd’s May 25 death and push for civil rights reforms in the nation’s capital.
Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The death, recorded on a bystander’s cellphone, sparked a storm of protests and civil strife, thrusting the highly charged debate over racial justice back to the forefront of the political agenda five months before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
“We spotted each other via a mutual friend’s thread on Twitter immediately following yet another police-executed murder,” said Williams, a 22-year-old black woman who moved to Washington from Houston, Texas and is pursuing graduate studies at Georgetown University.
“Now, we organize together in real life to help other first-time activists get involved in local responses to injustice.”
Within hours of Floyd’s death, they had founded Freedom Fighters DC, which now counts 10,000 Twitter followers, 20,000 Instagram followers, and brought hundreds of demonstrators to Washington in recent days, most of them “Generation Z-ers,” some of about 70 million Americans born after the mid-1990s.
“White allies need to become accomplices in the fight against racism toward black people,” said LaBayne, a 23-year-old white graduate student at Florida State University.
“Embracing this cause is the only way to have meaningful impact in 2020 - the only way justice is served.”
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Washington and other U.S. cities since Floyd’s death to demand an end to racism and brutality by U.S. law enforcement and push for justice in the Floyd case.
Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was seen with his knee on Floyd’s neck, has been arrested and charged with second-degree and third-degree murder as well as third-degree manslaughter. Three other officers who were involved in the incident were charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. All four have been fired.
‘A CRY FOR JUSTICE’
Williams and LaBayne spent much of the week scrambling to take care of details mundane and profound ahead of the sit-in on Wednesday and a march from a U.S. Senate office building to Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
LaBayne solicited T-shirt donations for volunteers and fielded requests for media interviews. Williams got advice from the group’s five other board members on an intended route for Saturday’s march and reminded attendees to wear comfortable shoes.
“Sometimes we argue over priorities. Sometimes we make compromises. But in the end, we keep the main thing the main thing - a cry for justice for all brothers and sisters,” added LaBayne, who plans to become a civil rights lawyer. Wednesday’s sit-in attracted a diverse group of about 500 protesters who sat in front of a line of police officers. One volunteer successfully convinced a white officer to kneel with her, drawing cheers from the protesters. Others passed out information on jail assistance for those who are arrested, and promoted voter registration. More than 2,000 people showed up for the Freedom Fighters’ march on Saturday, many of them first-time activists.
“Americans of different races saw the video of (Floyd’s) death on social media,” Williams said. “They also see our lives as regular people and were attracted to the cause. Like-minded, progressive people will always see themselves as stronger in large, diverse numbers. It makes the message of justice more compelling.”
LaBayne and Williams say they hope their efforts lead to substantial reforms, including de-funding Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and an ending its contract with the District of Columbia’s Public Schools system. Kerrigan Williams, 22 (left) and Jacqueline LaBayne, 23, two activists who help organize Freedom Fighters DC, discuss their tasks in preparation for a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 5, 2020 in this screen grab taken from a video. REUTERS/Gershon Peaks
“We do not seek to silence the wave of support by other movements for black lives, but we see an immediate need to use this as a springboard to specifically highlight the injustices of Washington natives,” LaBayne.
“This is the focus of Freedom Fighters DC beyond this current moment,” LaBayne said. “I just want people to take away that change is on the way, and we are here to usher it in.”
(This story corrects William’s major in paragraph 5, removes reference to Black Lives Matter activist in paragraph 13.)
UN AFFICHE UN DILETTANTE UN MODÈLE A demonstrator holds up her fist in front of police officers during a protest organized by Black Lives Matter Belgium, in central Brussels. REUTERS/Yves Herman OR IS SHE A MODEL TAKING A SELFIE USING THE RIOT SQUAD AS BACKGROUND
THUGS CELEBRATING VIOLENCE
AND
WANTON DESTRUCTION
OR AN ART ACTION BY GRAFFITI ARTISTS
CELEBRATED BY HAUTE KULTURE #BLM ACTIVISTS
Ballerinas Kennedy George, 14, and Ava Holloway, 14, pose in front of a monument of Confederate general Robert E. Lee after Virginia Governor Ralph Northam ordered its removal, in Richmond, Virginia. REUTERS/Julia Rendleman
THIS IS VANDALISM NOT VIOLENCE, AND IN FACT IT'S AN ARTISTIC AND PUBLIC ART EXPRESSION NOW THAT THE OLD BASTARD IS GOING TO GET TORN DOWN WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL.
*Franchisee's are considered small business owners.
UK Slave trader's statue toppled in anti-racism protests AND NO-ONE IS ASKING WHY
VIDEO AT THE END
AFP / ISABEL INFANTESProtests took place in several British cities, including Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London (pictured)
Protesters tore down the statue of a notorious British slave trader Sunday and dumped it in a harbour on the second day of demonstrations against George Floyd's death.
Footage showed a few dozen people tie a rope around the neck of Edward Colston's statue and bring it to the ground in the southwestern city of Bristol.
They stamped on it for a few minutes before carrying it and heaving it into the harbour with a great cheer.
Red paint was splashed on Colston's face and a protestor put his knee to the statue's neck to recall how Floyd -- an unarmed African American -- was asphyxiated by a white policeman in the US city of Minneapolis last month.
"The man was a slave trader. He was good to Bristol but it was on the back of slavery and that is absolutely not on. It's an insult to the people of Bristol," 71-year-old protestor John McAllister told Britain's Press Association.
"Today I witness history," another witness named William Want tweeted.
"The statue of Edward Colston, a Bristol slave trader, was torn down, defaced, and thrown in the river. #BlackLivesMatter."
But interior minister Priti Patel called the toppling "utterly disgraceful". The city's police promised to carry out an investigation.
AFP / JUSTIN TALLISA statue of Nelson Mandela is seen holding a Black Lives Matter placard in London's Parliament Square as demonstrators show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the George Floyd killing
"That speaks to the acts of public disorder that actually have now become a distraction from the cause which the people are actually protesting about," Patel told Sky News.
"That is a completely unacceptable act and speaks to the vandalism, again, as we saw yesterday in London."
The London police reported making 29 arrests during a day of largely peaceful protests Saturday that included a few scuffles with officers protecting the government district around Downing Street.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the sporadic violence but did not directly address the toppling of the statue.
"These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery -- and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve," Johnson said in a tweet.
"Those responsible will be held to account."
- 'Good' -
Bristol mayor Marvin Rees struck a more conciliatory tone than the one adopted by Britain's interior minister.
"I know the removal of the Colston Statue will divide opinion, as the statue itself has done for many years," the mayor said in a statement.
"However, it's important to listen to those who found the statue to represent an affront to humanity."
AFP / Paul ELLISDemonstrators also marched in the northern English city of Manchester
Colston grew up in a wealthy merchant family and joined a company in 1680 that had a monopoly on the west African slave trade.
The (RAC) was formally headed by the brother of King Charles II who later took the throne as James II.he Royal African Company
The company branded the slaves -- including women and children -- with its RAC initials on their chests.
It is believed to have sold around 100,000 west Africans in the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689.
Colston later developed a reputation as a philanthropist who donated to charitable causes such as schools and hospitals in Bristol and London.
His 18-foot (5.5-metre) bronze statue stood on Bristol's Colston Avenue since 1895. The city also hGuardian newspaper said a local petition to remove the statue had gathered 11,000 signatures by the weekend.
as a school named in his honour.
The UK opposition Labour party lawmaker Clive Lewis welcomed its toppling by the crowd.
"Good," Lewis tweeted.
"Someone responsible for immeasurable blood & suffering. We’ll never solve structural racism till we get to grips with our history in all its complexity.
#BLM"
British protesters topple statue of 17th century slave trader
June 7 (UPI) -- Anti-racism protesters in Britain on Sunday torn down the statue of a 17th-century slave trader and threw it into the Bristol Harbor, authorities said.
Thousands of people took to the streets in the southwestern British city on Sunday to protest the police-involved death of George Floyd, a black American who was killed May 25 in Minneapolis while being arrested by a white police officer, when protesters yanked down the statue of Edward Colston that stood in the city center with ropes.
Video of the incident posted online shows demonstrators roll the bronze statue over a railing into the River Avon to cheers of the onlooking crowd.
Avon and Somerset Police said only a small minority "committed an act of criminal damage in pulling down a statue near Bristol Harborside.
"An investigation will be carried out to identify those involved and we're already collating footage of the incident," police superintendent Andy Bennett said in a statement.
Bennett said some 10,000 people attended the Black Lives Matter demonstration, the vast majority of whom peacefully and respectfully voiced "their concerns about racial inequality and injustice."
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees told Channel 4 News that as a politician he can't condone damage to the city but that he did not support the statue.
"What I cannot do as an elected politician is support criminal damage or social disorder like this but I would never pretend that the statue of a slaver in the middle of Bristol, the city in which I grew up, and someone who may well have owned one of my ancestors was anything other than a personal affront to me," he said.
Edward Colston is a controversial figure as he is known as both a philanthropist and a slave trader, according to the Museums of Bristol website.
The website states that he sat on the governing body of the Royal African Company, which dealt in slaves, for 11 years.
The statue of Colston was pulled down as a petition online with more than 11,000 signatures called for its removal.
Andrew Adonis, a politician with the British Labor Party, tweeted he hoped no legal action would be taken "against those who removed mass slave trader Edward Colston's statue."
"This should have happened decades ago," he said. "His name has been removed from other monuments in Bristol. No way should we be celebrating slave traders today."
Felling of slave trader statue prompts fresh look at British history Estelle Shirbon
LONDON (Reuters) - The toppling by anti-racism protesters of a statue of a slave trader in the English port city of Bristol has given new urgency to a debate about how Britain should confront some of the darkest chapters of its history.
The statue of Edward Colston, who made a fortune in the 17th century from trading in West African slaves, was torn down and thrown into Bristol harbour on Sunday by a group of demonstrators taking part in a worldwide wave of protests.
Statues of figures from Britain’s imperialist past have in recent years become the subject of controversies between those who argue that such monuments merely reflect history and those who say they glorify racism.
By taking matters into their own hands, the protesters raised the temperature of a debate that had previously remained confined to the realms of marches, petitions and newspaper columns.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said the removal of the statue was a criminal act.
“The PM fully understands the strength of feeling on this issue. But in this country where there is strong feeling, we have democratic processes which can resolve these matters,” the spokesman said.
Protesters tear down a statue of Edward Colston during a protest against racial inequality in Bristol, Britain June 7, 2020 in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Mohiudin Malik/via REUTERS
But others countered that such processes had failed to recognise the pain caused by the legacy of slavery.
“People who say - authorities should take statues down after discussion. Yes. But it isn’t happening. Bristol’s been debating Edward Colston for years and wasn’t getting anywhere,” said historian and broadcaster Kate Williams on Twitter.
“PERSONAL AFFRONT”
A street and several buildings in the city are still named after Colston, and the plinth where the statue stood bears the original inscription from 1895, which praises Colston as “virtuous and wise”.
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said he did not support social disorder, but the community was navigating complex issues that had no binary solutions.
“I would never pretend that the statue of a slaver in the middle of Bristol, the city in which I grew up, and someone who may well have owned one of my ancestors, was anything other than a personal affront to me,” said Rees, who has Jamaican roots.
Bristol police said they made a tactical decision not to intervene because that could have caused worse disorder.
“Whilst I am disappointed that people would damage one of our statues, I do understand why it’s happened, it’s very symbolic,” said police chief Andy Bennett. Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into the water beside Pero's Bridge, during a protest against racial inequality in Bristol, Britain June 7, 2020 in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Twitter/Sellottie /via REUTERS
Even Britain’s wartime hero, Winston Churchill, was under renewed scrutiny: a statue of him on Parliament Square in London was sprayed on Sunday with graffiti that read “Churchill was a racist”.
Churchill expressed racist and anti-Semitic views and critics blame him for denying food to India during the 1943 famine which killed more than two million people. Some Britons have long felt that the darker sides of his legacy should be given greater prominence.
These debates in Britain echo controversies in the United States, often focused on statues of confederate generals from the Civil War, and in South Africa, where Cape Town University removed a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes in 2015. Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Macfie
