"... In connection with the protests against racism and racial discrimination in the United States and other countries"

STATEMENT

Executive Committee and Political Council

Unified international anti-imperialist

anti-fascist front (EMAAF)

 in connection with protests against racism and racial discrimination in the United States and other countries

In the last days of May and the first days of June, the world witnessed unprecedented events that were unseen long ago: mass racial protests and riots swept the United States and most Western countries: Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Denmark and even Australia, t .e. the most advanced Western capitalist countries, most of which were formerly colonial powers.

Protests began in the US and were caused by the death of African-American George Floyd after a hard detention, this happened on May 25. Floyd, 46, was detained on suspicion of using fake bills. One of the policemen, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee down his neck, ignoring Floyd's words that he could not breathe. This episode hit the video. A few hours later, Floyd died in the hospital. Four police officers who were detained were fired.

Chauvin was arrested, on May 29 he was charged with murder. The three other former police officers who participated in the arrest were charged with complicity and incitement to murder. Independent forensic experts concluded that mechanical asphyxia was the cause of Floyd's death.

After the emergence of information about the death of Floyd, protests began in Minneapolis, where he died, then the protests completely covered the whole of America. There were no states and cities in the USA that would not join these protests. The action was often accompanied by pogroms, looting and clashes with the police. More than four thousand protesters were detained, five were killed. Curfews have been imposed in 40 cities across the country, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Portland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and others, in many cities introduced the national guard. But this did not help Trump, moreover, only exacerbated the situation. The National Guard did not intervene in the protests, and often sided with the protesters. Trump's actions were not shared by many governors and mayors of American cities, which led to the further development of protests in these states and cities. It got to the point that Trump temporarily had to hide in an underground bunker during the mass protests at the White House.

The protesters made demands on the authorities to disband or abolish the police. Such statements, by the way, are also inherent in all “Maidan technologies”, we observed this in Kiev in 2014, to which Donald Trump replied that the US authorities would not abolish the police or reduce its funding.

US officials are worried that mass protests across states may trigger a new outbreak of COVID-19.

The wave of protests that began in the United States spread throughout the world - social networks posted photos and videos from London, Bristol, Paris, Marseille, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Brussels, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brisbane, Vancouver, where thousands of people went to protests against racism.

The highest peak of events in the United States reached during the funeral of George Floyd, who died during his arrest by the police. The funeral took place on June 9 and was amazed in a big way: they said goodbye to a national hero. The gilded coffin on a glass wagon with the body of Floyd, who had 6 convictions, was first put up for farewell in Minneapolis, then in Floyd's homeland in Raford (North Carolina), and on the third day they were transported to Houston (Texas), where a solemn funeral was held. Former farewell ceremony in Texas, Houston, ex-vice president, and now presidential candidate Joe Biden. Even among black Americans there is an opinion that what was happening on that day in Houston was completely absurd.

Currently, many political analysts and ordinary citizens in different countries are wondering: how to evaluate the latest developments in the United States and other regions of the world. As always, political scientists were the first to give assessments, for whom the “conspiracy theory” was ready for all cases, as if “some forces” had specially organized everything in the USA, Europe and other countries. However, they do not always give a clear answer: who did it and why.

True, US politicians always have an answer. For example, Susan Rice, a former national security adviser to former US President Barack Obama, suggested that Russia could be involved in the riots, for example in terms of using incitement on social networks. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called this statement propaganda. The Kremlin said that Rice’s point of view is wrong.

In the service of the bourgeoisie, a large group of political scientists are now working who consider the entire history of mankind from a civilizational point of view, i.e. all events reduce only to  the struggle of civilizations and individual individuals empowered with power, leaving behind the brackets that in every civilization, where there are rich owners and poor citizens who sell their labor, there is a class struggle that ultimately comes first in history. At the moment, these "civilizational politicians" generally shrug, they have nothing to say. The same can be said about senior officials of the world elite, for example, about Kristin Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who answered the question: who is to blame for the protests, "No one is to blame for this crisis." Of course, she is cunning, she knows everything well, but she will not tell the truth.

But the main truth is that the current world imperialist system is completely rotten. The general crisis of the world imperialist system continues, despite the temporary defeat of socialism in the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp, because the main contradiction of capitalism between the social character of labor and the private ownership system for appropriating its results remains. This leads to an extremely unfair distribution of wealth in any civilization where there is private ownership of the means of production. For example, 40% of US wealth belongs to one percent of its citizens, half of the territory of England belongs to less than 1% of its population, 3% of the richest Russians own 92% of all term deposits and 89% of the country's financial assets (Russia is the champion of inequality).

Being generally in a state of general crisis, the world imperialist system in the process of development goes through the stages of relative stabilization, which are then replaced by a round of intensification of the crisis. The most recent economic crisis hit most countries in 2008, and it began with a mortgage crisis in the United States.

Even before the global coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, many analysts had already predicted another crisis, a pandemic (COVID-19 only accelerated and intensified it. During the crisis, production declines, trade decreases and unemployment increases, for example, in the USA it is now 14.7 % (the number of unemployed exceeded 40 million people), which was the worst result since the Great Depression, here they are birthmarks of capitalism that are tearing America apart!

The crisis is also accompanied by an increase in racism and chauvinism, which has happened recently in the United States. Racism in the USA has long roots, despite the defeat of the slaveholding states in the American Civil War of 1861-1865. and the adoption of the famous 13th amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery throughout the country, genuine equality between whites and blacks has not yet occurred. Racial discrimination and social inequality in the US have only recently intensified. In the “land of equal opportunities”, blacks receive a quarter less than those whose skin color is lighter. Among African Americans, unemployment is higher than among whites, and therefore crime is higher (the United States has the largest number of prisoners in the world, more than two million people are in prison, that is 25 percent of all prisoners on the planet). The level of education among African Americans also lags behind the level of education of white fellow citizens. All this dissatisfaction has been accumulating over the years, which periodically spills over into protest explosions; the current one has been the strongest in recent years. George Floyd became an accidental catalyst for the explosion of mass discontent when his patience was finally full. White citizens of the USA also participated in the protests, firstly, they supported the protests against racism, and secondly, the latest crisis significantly worsened their financial situation, as mentioned above.

It should be noted that the largest oligarchs of the USA tried to use these speeches for internal political struggle among themselves. They paid for George Floyd’s funeral.

In the United States, a presidential election is scheduled for November 3, 2020. They are scheduled to elect the 46th president of the United States. The struggle is between two candidates: the current president Donald Trump wants to be re-elected from the Republican Party for a second term, and Joe Biden from the Democratic Party.

From the point of view of foreign policy, there is no big difference in their plans: both Republicans and Democrats advocate US hegemony in the world, build-up of NATO forces, suppression of national liberation movements, and the maximum obstacle to the development of Russia and China.

In terms of domestic policy, Trump more represents the interests of the national bourgeoisie, which is trying to return industrial production to the United States, which was previously moved to countries where cheaper labor and more profit. Trump has repeatedly stated that the implementation of his plan will provide new jobs for Americans and strengthen American industry, he achieved something in this.

Biden more represents the interests of the American financial oligarchy, which forms the basis of the international financial oligarchy and makes its plans to continue the export of capital to other countries. Those. D. Biden Represent t interests, relatively speaking, the most parasitic clan of the American bourgeoisie.

Both candidates sought to use the situation with protests against racism in their election campaign, although both are by no means real supporters of African Americans. The shutdown of enterprises, increasing unemployment, protests reduce Trump's rating and strengthen Biden's position, not without reason he flew to Floyd's funeral.

The fact that the situation became critical is evidenced by the fact that US generals and US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper refused to obey Trump in fulfilling his demand for the army to disperse protesters

To summarize the foregoing, the Executive Committee and the Political Council of the Unified International Anti-Imperialist Anti-Fascist Front (EMAAF) declare:

    We strongly support the just struggle of citizens of the United States and other countries against racism and racial discrimination, which is an integral part of the struggle against imperialism and all its vile manifestations.
    We strongly oppose the violent suppression of anti-racist protests by the police and the army using methods that threaten the life and health of protesters.
    We demand a full investigation into the murder of George Floyd, a thorough trial and punishment of those responsible in accordance with US law.
    We demand that the US leadership develop and enact laws to prevent the use of methods that threaten the lives and health of protesters.
    We condemn the acts of pogroms, looting and robbery that were committed during the protests against racism and racial discrimination in the United States and other countries. These heinous acts discredit fair protests.

Our call remains the same: “Down with imperialism!”

                                    A.E. Gigova, Chairman of the Executive Board of the EMAAF


                                                 V.B. Zelikov, Chairman of the Political Council of the EMAAF

EMAAF Headquarters,

Varna city (Bulgaria)

12 June 2020

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