Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Charlene Lyles, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and Amadou Diallo; I could recite the names of black men, women and children murdered by racist vigilantes and racist police in the United States for my full five minutes, and I could go on for much longer than that. I stand with those in the US and around the world rising up against systemic racism, and against racist policing in particular. In the US, protesters have been met with extremely violent and brutal repression. I refer to the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, cavalry charges, hit-and-run attacks, arbitrary arrests, protesters shot, journalists shot, medics gassed and brutalised and much more. At least two people have been killed, and more than 10,000 protesters have been arrested. People are being maimed by the police and many have lost eyes or more. Even children are being shot, gassed and pepper sprayed. Trump's authoritarianism is deepening by the hour.

He has declared that anti-fascists are terrorists and that he will deploy "heavily armed soldiers" against protesters. It is repression on a scale comparable to that under a dictatorship. He has invited white supremacists to respond to protests with violence, tweeting "when the looting starts, the shooting starts". A man responded to the tweet, pulling out a bow and arrow and aiming it at protesters before he was subdued by them.

We need a clear and unequivocal message to be sent to the Trump regime and those on the streets. Will the Tánaiste state that black lives matter and that we stand with the Black Lives Matter protests? Will he state that we stand against the violence and racism of the Trump regime and US capitalism? He has not even committed to discussing the issue with the US ambassador, Edward Crawford, by telephone. That is pathetic. Not only is it time to phone the ambassador and explain people's horror about what is happening, it is also time to inform him that for as long as the US police forces are brutalising protesters, he, as a representative of Donald Trump, is not welcome here. We need to send a clear signal internationally. What the Government says and does will be seen as indicating which side it is on; whether it is on the side of Trump, authoritarianism, racism, brutality and so on, or on the side of the majority of Americans, who support the protests, oppose what Trump is doing and are standing up against injustice and oppression. We need a strong stand to be taken and that involves sending a signal to the US Government, to the protesters and around the world.

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