Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN:
Thousands Continue to Visit Site Where George Floyd was Lynched
| revcom.us
People march from the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6. Photo: AP.
On Saturday, June 6, thousands protested at the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, linking the murder of George Floyd to the horrendous conditions in the prisons, and the heightened horrors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many white people present expressed that they’d long known on some level of the brutality faced by Black people, but this time felt they could no longer look away. They listened – and really took in, many for the first time – the agony of the parents who courageously told of their sons having been savagely murdered by police or facing inhumane conditions in prisons.
The Revcoms in the protest in Minneapolis, June 6.
When Carl Dix spoke, he asked the protesters to multiply the pain that had just been shared with them by millions for all those who had lost loved ones to police or the barbaric cruelty of mass incarceration. He gave people a sense of the magnitude of what the protests and uprising have accomplished and the crucial crossroads we now face, with the vicious threats from the “Bloated Bag of Fascist Feces” in the White House, borrowing from Bob Avakian’s powerful statement. Dix called on people to take up the gauntlet Trump has thrown down and throw it back by stepping up our struggle in the streets and by digging into the fundamental solution of real revolution and the extraordinary leadership for that being provided by Bob Avakian. Deep cheers and shouts of “Fuck Trump” resounded and hundreds snatched up RefuseFascism.org signs distributed by the National Revolution Tour demanding “Trump/Pence Out Now!” Organizers embraced this and, while keeping the main focus on the prisons and police murder, brought the Revolution Tour up to lead chants against Trump during the march and to speak again about the need to drive the fascist regime from power in the name of humanity.
Refuse Fascism protests in Minneapolis, June 6.
On Sunday, June 7, more than 1,000 people gathered in Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis to listen to speeches and a decision by members of the City Council to defund the city’s police. It is not at all clear yet, including to those on the council, what exactly this will mean and how it will unfold.
Meanwhile, at all times of day thousands continued to visit the site where George Floyd was lynched, laying flowers, shedding tears, reading the names of others murdered by police, praying, chanting George Floyd’s name, or joining in some other of the many organized and spontaneous expressions of mourning, fury and debate over the way forward. The National Revolution Tour set up here several times, agitating to crowds and digging in deeper at the table.
Other acts of protest, large and small, continued across the city, too many to track.
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