Statement on the Murder of George Floyd and the Calls for Change

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section

We stand in solidarity with the protestors of police brutality and systemic racism calling to defund the police, because Black Lives Matter.  No one should have to suffer the heavy emotional and physical burden of generations of inequality, constant oppression, discrimination, and trauma.    

The pandemic of racism has taken George Floyd’s life.  He joins countless others who have been killed due to racism.  Here are just some of their names: Treyvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Freddie Grey, Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, Sandra Bland, John Crawford III, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Emmett Till and many more.  

Enough is enough!

We must defund the police and shift the money to public health and mental health services, housing, and other human needs.  

As a peace and justice organization, WILPF US stands for systemic changes toward our ultimate goal of ending war and the causes of war.  We see oppression based on race and poverty as important causes of war, and we support the call of our ally, the Poor People’s Campaign, for participation in the PPC’s June 20 virtual Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington. 

For more information about WILPF US, see our declaration on Police and Workplace Murders: Two Intersecting Pandemics.