George Floyd's barbaric crime, is yet another act of violence against Afro-Americans, for whom being treated differently because of race is tragically, painfully, insanely "

In the USA, blacks make up 13% of the population, but 40% of prisoners; their incarceration rate is 5 times that of whites.  The proportion of blacks who use illicit drugs is similar to that of whites, but arrests of blacks, for that reason, are higher than that of whites. Race-influenced U.S. police violence, is a systematic injustice that violates human rights.

"All men are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and because they are endowed by nature with reason and conscience, they must behave fraternally toward one another", from the Preamble to the American Declaration of Human Rights. In all the Constitutions the human person is sacred, and all countries have an obligation to respect and protect it.  Everyone has the right to life.   George Floyd, with his face on the ground and his neck below the knee of the white policeman, is a violation of the right to life, the most important human right of all. In the videos you can clearly see two souls: one, violent, racist, armed, who kills; the other, careful about rights, ICARE, armed only with a harmless smartphone, which documents the institutional violence, denouncing it. These souls are present in every country in the world and, perhaps, in each one of us.Many cases of violence and racism are now ignored if there is no smartphone to pick them up, and if there were not, the information of what happens would be slower. 

The C.A. of FIMEM and the affiliated organizations, share the CAMEM document

- condemn the racist act that cost George Floyd his life, and deplore further state violence.

- ask the U.S. authorities to ensure respect for the Constitution by the guardians of law and order.

The anxiety of man's dominion over man, selfishness, invasions and colonization, which have occurred over time and are still present in the world today, often more underhand, are the real causes of racism, a VIRUS, which affects men, from which it is difficult to heal. History teaches us that Humanity rarely learns from experience, and so violence, injustice and inequality continue; if states are violent and retain the death penalty (USA, China, Iran, Japan, etc.), so are the guardians of order in uniform and many others who imitate them. Sometimes it seems that one cannot change the status-quo, if not with a spiral of violence, but the conscientization and nonviolence of Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Luther King, Mandela, Malala, and others, show us the direction to follow.

As citizens of the world, we must be against all racial and other discrimination, not just observing and becoming aware of the phenomena, but engaging, sensitizing others, writing to politicians, in social media, newspapers, signing petitions, denouncing episodes of violence that we witness, making donations to the movements of struggle. We must not get tired, white, black, or other skin color, we must talk about racism with friends, colleagues, boys, to arrive at a day when the life of a black man will count as much as that of a white man, because life is unique and must be safeguarded, whatever the color of the skin, sex, age, social condition.And so it must be with the other forms of discrimination!

 Finally, an appeal to the militants of the Freinet movements and to all those in the world, who work in the field of Education, to become more and more aware and work more and better with children, young people. We have an important task: to educate the new generations to nonviolence and respect for Human Rights. The children of today are the adults of tomorrow.                                      

Only culture and education can save the world!

June 2020

   The CA FIMEM

Antoinette Mengue Abesso, Flor Zaldumbide Cecena, Lanfranco Genito, Mariel Ducharme, Sylviane Amiet