Justice for Sheku Bayoh!
Activists from Glasgow Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! joined thousands of young people, many of them black and working-class, who gathered in Glasgow Green on Sunday 7 June, in defiance of the Scottish government and Police Scotland, to stand in solidarity with the uprising in the US following the murder of George Floyd and to fight against state racism in Scotland.
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The protest coincided with the 5th anniversary of Sheku Bayoh’s funeral and many of the home-made placards present demanded justice for Sheku, a black man who was killed by nine police officers in Kirkaldy, Fife (Scotland) on 3 May 2015. The officers attacked Sheku with CS spray, pepper spray, batons, leg restraints and handcuffs. Like George Floyd, Sheku could not breathe as the police piled on top of him. One of those officers was 6 foot 4 inches weighing 25 stone – almost twice Sheku’s weight. Following his murder, the police abused and intimidated his family and circulated lies and falsehoods to the press. There was stone-cold silence from the Scottish SNP Government (see letters in FRFI at the time here and here) and a cover up from their so called independent investigatory body PIRC.
Following Sheku’s murder Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! participated in the campaign for justice and against state racism which was built on the streets alongside the family’s legal campaign. See our reports here and here.
To date, none of the officers involved, including the notorious racist pig PC Alan Paton, have been arrested or charged. In November 2019, the family was told by the Lord Advocate James Wolffe that none of the officers will face prosecution.
The righteous anger against police brutality and state racism that has surged in recent weeks must be built into a fight-back on the streets. As happened with the killer cops responsible for George Floyd’s death, we must demand that police involved in racist killings in Britain, like those who killed Sheku Bayoh, are arrested and put on trial.
We were proud to participate in Sunday’s protest with our banner ‘Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Glasgow’ and our newspaper which has borne that title since the 1970s. Our support for a revolutionary movement against racism was well received.
Justice for Sheku Bayoh!
Justice for George Floyd!
Jail the killer cops!
