Ferguson solidarity by Irish Bloody Sunday families

This video from Ireland says about itself:

BLOODY SUNDAY full unseen footage of British paras killing 14 MEN+BOYS 1972

14 innocent people shot dead by the British parachute regiment in Derry, Ireland. All these people were unarmed civilians; some as young as 15, they were brutally shot in cold blood by an army out of control, hell bent on mayhem at a civil rights protest.

From the Derry Journal in Ireland:

Ferguson Missouri: Bloody Sunday families show solidarity with victim

by Greg Sharkey

1 December 2014

A small gathering attended a vigil for Michael Brown‘s family and the people of Ferguson, Missouri at Free Derry Wall on Saturday afternoon. Key speakers were Bloody Sunday family member, Kate Nash and veteran Civil Rights campaigner, Eamon Mc Cann.

Throughout the world have been angered by the decision of the Grand Jury not to indict police officer, Darren Wilson, on any charges for shooting dead the American teenager on August 9.

Speaking to the Derry Journal, Kate Nash said: “As family members of the Bloody Sunday dead, we draw parallels with other unarmed and innocent victims killed by the forces of law and order.”

Regarding the judicial response, or lack of, Kate Nash drew similarities between their experiences and that of the Brown family, stating: “You have a judicial system that’s meant to be independent and impartial, but in reality, is actually politically interfered with.”

Speaking of the similarities between Ferguson and what engulfed Derry 42 years ago, Eamon Mc Cann said: “Distance and skin colour make no difference to the grief and anger that has erupted across the US since the decision not to prosecute the policeman who pumped six bullets into the teenager’s body.”

Eamon Mc Cann also warned of the dangers regarding the dramatic rise in the militarisation of policing in the US stating: “We can recognise that scenario here, too, and know that no good came of it for anyone involved.”

USA: Thousands of people took part in a “Hands Up Walk Out” action on Monday, during which participants left their jobs or schools to protest last week’s grand jury decision to not indict the white police officer who killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri: here.

Massachusetts, USA: In solidarity with Ferguson National Call to Action, students at five area colleges are planning to support a mass walkout at 1:01 p.m., the time Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a Missouri police officer: here.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — About 100 Syracuse University students marched today to protest last week’s decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death. “From Syracuse to Ferguson, black lives matter!” the protesters chanted on the half-hour march that started and ended on the steps of Hendricks Chapel: here.

From Bloomberg news agency in the USA:

Communist Party members from New York, pastors from Atlanta and the Korean Culture Association helped form a gathering of more than 300 people over the weekend in a St. Louis church with agendas as far flung as their origins.

The activists passed around water bottles and fliers as they huddled Nov. 29 in the church basement to plan protests over the killing of a black teenager by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson. Outside, members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People marched past the church en route to the state capital in Jefferson City, 124 miles (200 kilometers) away.

What started as a spontaneous neighborhood protest in the hours after 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson has expanded internationally, drawing support from as far away as London and Hong Kong. As groups joined Ferguson-related protests over the past 114 days, they’ve brought new energy and resources to the movement. They’ve also hatched ideas, goals and tactics of their own — sometimes at odds with the original protests over police brutality and racial profiling.

“A lot of these groups, I’ve never heard of,” said Johnetta Elzie, 25, a St. Louis activist who was at the meeting at Greater St. Marks Family Church. “As long as everyone keeps the focus on black lives mattering, and no one tries to co-opt the movement, I’m fine with whoever wants to join.”

Black Friday Wal-Mart strike! – in unity with Ferguson campaigners: here.