https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxxHswvx5v4
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Are we FINALLY seeing a step in the right direction?! (Derek Chauvin found GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES!!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maEyTIQiTSM
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Cuba and the Historic Generation that the U.S. Could Not Kill
By Alejandra Garcia on April 20, 2021 from Havana
Photo: Estudios Revolucion
This Monday, Cuba closed the doors of its most important political event of 2021: the eighth Congress of the Communist Party (PCC). Following four days of sessions, 60 years after the failure of the US invasion of the island, the historic generation of the Revolution took the podium to announce its farewell to the people.
Raul Castro fulfilled what he promised at the 7th Cuban Party Congress held in 2016. This Monday, he stepped down as First Secretary of the PCC Central Committee. He was replaced as First Secretary by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“Today my militancy concludes with the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duty to Cuba. I have confidence in its future, and I will be ready to offer my modest knowledge for the benefit of the people until the end of my days,” Castro said.
The man of “proverbial modesty,” as Díaz-Canel described him, said goodbye before the eyes of the world, undefeated and unbowed. Several times, he was in the crosshairs of Washington-paid assassins who sought to assassinate the Revolution´s main leaders in an effort to destroy the revolutionary changes that Cuba generated after its triumph in 1959.
“They could not kill them,” the Cuban president stressed, alluding to the leaders of the historic generation of the Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Raul. Other political leaders, the last exponents of the clandestine struggle in the mountains, such as José Ramón Machado Ventura and Commander Ramiro Valdés, also said their farewells on Monday.
The transfer of leadership and responsibilities to the new generations of communists will not be abrupt, nor will it imply that the new political leadership will be alone from now on. “Raul will always be on top of everything, contributing ideas and purposes to the revolutionary cause, through his advice and alert to any mistakes and shortcomings,” Diaz-Canel stressed.
The colossal work undertaken by Raul, his resistance in the face of threats and aggressions, and his search for the improvement of the Cuban society will serve as a road map for years to come.
La Jornada described this moment: “The apocalyptic prophecies of a collapse of the Cuban government after the physical or political disappearance of Fidel and Raul are no longer valid. So far, the island’s government has proven to be capable of continuing to exercise power in the face of every change of era, with no instability or anxiety.”
Raul, who assumed the Cuban presidency in 2008 amid a difficult economic and social situation, promoted improving and updating the Cuban economy. During his years as president, Cuba was also key to the consolidation of the Colombian peace process and the strengthening of Latin American integration.
“He always knew for what and for whom the Revolution was going to be made. He was always clear that this struggle was not only for Cuba but for Latin America and against imperialism. Talking with him was stimulating for the spirit: cheerful, communicative, self-confident, very clear in the exposition of his ideas, with an incredible capacity for analysis and synthesis,” recalled Hilda Gadea, Ernesto Che Guevara’s then wife, after meeting Raul a few months before the expedition of the ‘Granma’ yacht, in 1956.
Since 2008, when Raul succeeded the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, as the country´s leader, he led a groundbreaking update to the Migratory Law, promoted transformations in the agricultural sector, expanded the forms of management of the economy’s non-governmental sector, and motivated the creation of a new Foreign Investment Law.
Under his mandate, the country created the Mariel Special Development Zone, eliminated obstacles for the improvement of the socialist state enterprise, and promoted investments in the tourism sector.
With patience and intelligence, as Diaz-Canel noted, Raul achieved the negotiated release of the Cuban Five, fulfilling Fidel’s promise that they would return to their homeland. With mettle, he led the talks and negotiations to re-establish diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. in 2015, under then-President Barack Obama’s administration.
“I can say much more Of Raul and the historic generation. I can affirm that the Revolution does not end with their farewell, because the historic leaders formed new generations equally committed to the ideals of social justice. What we receive today are not positions and tasks, it is not only the leadership of a country. What we have before us, continuously challenging us, is their huge heroic work,” Diaz-Canel said minutes before the 8th Congress of the PCC concluded.
Photo: Estudious Revolucion
A just verdict, but far from justice.
A taste of justice. Justice served on Derek Chauvin. Guilty on all three counts. Bail revoked. It was a quick verdict. Yet it is so rare that police officers are convicted -- one in 2,000 over the last 15 years for killings by police. It doesn’t bring George Floyd back. But, hopefully, it will give pause to some police who think they can kill with impunity. Six white jurors, six people of color, united on what they saw in those nine minutes of horrifying video.
If it wasn't for the video, made by an outraged bystander, Chauvin would not be behind bars now. But not for Breonna Taylor, not for Tamir Rice, not for Rodney King, and not for the more than 135 unarmed Black people killed at the hands of police — 75 percent of them white — over the past five years.
Days before the verdict came down, police shot Daunte Wright in his car outside of Minneapolis. Hours before the verdict, police shot 16-year old Makiah Bryant in Columbus. Painful reminders that one conviction can never undo systemic racism or transform policing.
For millions of Americans, this trial put a spotlight on the terror that many people of color feel when a cop car cruises by them while walking. Or when red lights flash behind them while driving. “Could this be it for me?”
We're confronting racist policing, militarized forces in our communities, mass incarceration, and a massive racial wealth divide that has existed since slavery. Both corporate parties are responsible. Biden is arming police with more military weaponry than Trump did. States are passing anti-protest laws and building walls around government buildings. Pelosi responded to the verdict by thanking George Floyd for his sacrifice. He didn't choose to die. He was murdered.
The close-knit activist community in Minnesota can take pride in putting pressure on public officials to prosecute the case in a visible manner, giving them months to research and build their unequivocal case.
Chauvin was convicted, but the biggest culprit is the system that produced him. We must demand a complete overhaul of our police departments and the academies that train them. We must divert funds from policing and military hardware toward services rooted in the community, like better schools, mental health, housing for all, and community policing. We must end the militarization of police and mass incarceration.
A just verdict. But far from justice.
In Solidarity,
Nick Brana
National Coordinator
People's Party
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
#BREAKING: Former police officer Derek Chauvin found GUILTY on all counts | FULL VERDICT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUP4gO2zHw4
Derek Chauvin guilty of murder in death of George Floyd
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2021/04/derek-chauvin-guilty-of-murder-in-death-of-george-floyd.html
Updated 2:08 PM; Today 2:08 PM
In this image from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, speak to Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill after the judge has put the trial into the hands of the jury. Monday, April 19, 2021, in the trial of Chauvin, in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool)AP
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By The Associated Press
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three counts, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter charges.
>>This is a breaking news story and will be updated. From earlier:
The jury reached a verdict Tuesday at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck in a case that set off a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.
The verdict, arrived at after about 10 hours of deliberations over two days, was to be read late in the afternoon in a city on edge against the possibility of more unrest like that that erupted last spring.
The courthouse was ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire, and thousands of National Guard troops and law enforcement officers were brought in ahead of the verdict. Some businesses boarded up with plywood.
Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a 45-year-old now-fired white officer, pinned his knee on or close to the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd gasped that he couldn’t breathe and onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off.
The jury, made up of six white people and six Black or multiracial people, weighed charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with convictions on some, none or all of the charges possible. The most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.
The city has been on edge in recent days — not just over the Chauvin case but over the deadly police shooting of a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in the nearby Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on April 11.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, President Joe Biden weighed in by saying he believes the case is “overwhelming.”
He said that he had spoken to Floyd’s family on Monday and “can only imagine the pressure and anxiety they’re feeling.”
“They’re a good family and they’re calling for peace and tranquility no matter what that verdict is,” Biden said. “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. I think it’s overwhelming, in my view. I wouldn’t say that unless the jury was sequestered now.”
The president has repeatedly denounced Floyd’s death but previously stopped short of commenting on the trial itself.
Other politicians and ordinary citizens also offered their opinion as the jury was deliberating.
“It shouldn’t be really even questioned whether there will be an acquittal or a verdict that doesn’t meet the scale of the crime that was committed,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, said in Brooklyn Center. The congresswoman said the Chauvin case looks open-and-shut.
Guilty verdicts could mark a turning point in the fight for racial equality, she said.
“We are holding on to one another for support. Hopefully this verdict will come soon and the community will start the process of healing,” Omar said.
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