Pussy Riot in collaboration with Las Tesis have released a new single condemning police brutality, which seems only fitting to share now in memory of George Floyd and everyone else that has fallen victim to the brutal hand of the law.
Las Tesis, a feminist art collective from Chile, recently become famous for creating the choreography and protest song ‘A Rapist In Your Path’ which became a massive protest sensation around the whole world in 2019.
In their online manifesto Pussy Riot write:
“May 2020. Either we organize ourselves or we perish. We are facing an unprecedented escalation of state brutality and repression. And with it, the historic opportunity to set it all on fire.”
Furthermore, on the Pussy Riot YouTube page, the collective goes on saying: “Make social workers being in charge of the police institution. Their goals should be to help people to deal with social and economical problems, not to punish them and kill for no reason, as they just killed George Floyd in the US. The government and the police are our servants. Too often they forget about it and think that it’s us who’re here to serve them.
5 STEPS FOR POLICE FROM PUSSY RIOT
1. Refocus police forces towards protection of the civilians instead of oppression and violent suppression of our rights to express and demand what our communities need.
2. We are here to hold the police forces accountable for every act of violence against civilians. Nothing will go unnoticed.
3. We demand that if the police show up at the demonstration, they protect our right to speak our minds freely, act respectfully and peacefully.
4. We are the many, they are the few. We stand together with Chilean protesters, we are women who want to be safe while marching for female rights with Las Tesis. We express our solidarity with Argentinian, Chilean, Mexican, Colombian, Brazilian, Peruvian, and all Latin American sisters and street fighters who only want to have a damn right to be in charge of their bodies and their reproductive system (but only get police batons in response).
5. Police forces in Latin America and Russia need to be urgently re-trained to focus on protecting women’s rights, LQBTQ+ community, and the rights of alternatively able people.”
Cover photo taken from the YouTube video ‘MANIFESTO AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE / RIOT x LASTESIS’
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Halldór is the managing editor of Shouts - Music from the Rooftops!, an investigative journalist, audio engineer, and animal rights activist. Currently based in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
