The Philippine Women Centre (PWC), Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada (FCYA/UKPC), and SIKLAB Ontario stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives in the wake of the Black lives lost at the hands of police including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and in Toronto, Regis Korchinski-Paquet. We support the demands of Black activists and organizers to defund the police and the immediate re-allocation of funds to pro-people social services such as publicly funded and universally accessible and free health care system, childcare, education, housing, transportation, and investment in arts and culture programs.
In the last few days, we have seen and heard the world scream “Enough is enough!” as protests erupt across the U.S., sparking solidarity protests across the world calling for justice in ending police brutality, systemic racism, and more urgently, anti-black racism. As the police force continue to terrorize Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities – the same communities deemed heroes for being frontline and essential workers– the police expose themselves as an institution whose ultimate purpose is “to serve and protect” capital and the wealthy 1%, not the needs of the people. Make no mistake; it is designed as intended: to keep the status quo and chastise those who oppose, obstruct, and dare suggest an alternative to the system.
But as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the people’s impatience for the governments’ lack of action in providing basic and essential social services and long term sustainable economic plan – a contrast to what’s laid out for big corporations as they get bailouts using the public’s money guised as relief funds and loans. This pandemic has unmasked the inequalities in our society, highlighting the government’s defensive stance in keeping intact what is left of an already broken socio economic fabric. It’s worth noting that while healthcare workers continue to work in hospitals and long-term care facilities without proper personal protective equipment, we instead see further militarization of police deployed in full protective riot gear.
The movement for Black lives has shown us the power of the people. The leaders – the working Black women and youth – have shown us that justice can only be truly served when we replace the old system with a new truly democratic one. It is this radical tradition that we in PWC, FCYA/UKPC, and SIKLAB-ON uphold as we continue to educate, mobilize, and organize our own community. We move forward in solidarity with unwavering and assertive resolve towards building a new, transformed, and liberated society free from systemic racism, economic marginalization, and political oppression.
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#JusticeForBreonna
#JusticeforGeorgeFloyd
#JusticeforRegis
#DefundThePolice
#saytheirnames
#BlackLivesMatter