Massive mobilization against racism across the planet
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Despite the pandemic of the new coronavirus, tens of thousands of people worldwide hit the pavement on Saturday to express their anger at racism and police brutality after the death of the American George Floyd, asphyxiated by a police officer.
From the UK to Australia, through France and Tunisia, protesters defied calls by authorities to stay home due to the health crisis in an unprecedented protest movement that ignited the United States.
After several hours of peaceful gathering, the incidents erupted at the end of the day near Downing Street in central London. Projectiles like bottles were launched at the police, who charged on horseback in an attempt to disperse protesters.
Previously gathered near the nearby parliament, thousands of people, with their faces often covered in a mask, but without necessarily respecting the rules of estrangement, had put up posters with the slogan "Black Lives Matter".
For Tammy Turvy, who works in the education sector, it is "important" to mobilize against "all atrocities", especially for "those who died at the hands of the authorities" in the world.
"The United Kingdom is not innocent," protesters denounced, playing the drums. They also observed a minute of silence, kneeling and with their fists raised, before heading towards the United States Embassy, greeted by the horns of the motorists.
As in the British capital, there were thousands in Manchester (North West) to "end racism", another "pandemic".
Inspired by the tragic event, the famous street artist Banksy unveiled a new job on Instagram, where we see a candle looking next to a photo of a black person setting fire to the American flag. "People of color are abandoned by the system. The white system," he laments.
In Australia, the first country to open the international ball of outrage on Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated across the country, holding "I can't breathe" banners, referring to the complaint filed by George Floyd, whose neck was obstructed for nearly Nine minutes down the knee of the police officer who arrested him for a misdemeanor.
For the organizers, this issue finds many echoes in their country: they also wanted to denounce the very high rate of incarceration among aborigines and the deaths, more than 400 in the last thirty years, of members of this community while they were detained by the police.
In France, where the American drama rekindled the memory of Adama Traoré, a young black man who died in 2016 after an arrest by gendarmes, actions were organized that brought together a total of more than 23,000 people according to the police in various cities. to denounce the "racism" and the "impunity" that would reign within the police.
In Metz, the end of the demonstration was marked by incidents and the prosecutor of this eastern city was slightly injured.
In Paris, despite the authorities' ban, several thousand people demanded "Justice for All" near the United States Embassy, from which they were separated by large-scale police forces.
Mahmoud, a 29-year-old black dancer, sees in these demonstrations a "little hope of making a difference" and of reversing racism of which he claims to be a regular victim.
In Germany, tens of thousands of protesters marched across the country in the afternoon. The Bayern Munich players, the championship leader, also showed their solidarity by warming up on Saturday in a shirt with the inscription "Red card against racism - BlackLiveMatters", before the Bundesliga game against Leverkusen.
In the central square of Turin (northern Italy), young protesters maintained eight minutes of silence, while in Tunisia, around 200 people claimed to be able to "breathe" against racism, which "suffocates" in this country. where migrants from sub-Saharan Africa often claim to be victims of verbal and physical aggression.
In Warsaw, left-wing presidential candidate Robert Biedron joined a thousand people, often young and dressed in black, with their faces masked.
In Canada, several thousand people demonstrated in Toronto for the second consecutive day. Demonstrations were also held in other Canadian cities, including Saint-Jean de Terre Neuve. A large-scale event is scheduled for Sunday in Montreal.
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