As the French government enacts new austerity measures in the midst of quarantine and the coronavirus pandemic, people turned out en masse to demonstrate these policies. Police responded with additional brutality, although they were rapidly pushed back by a crowd far larger than theirs.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Santiago at Plaza Dignidad, marching to the Presidential Palace amid fierce use of chemical weapons including tear gas and water cannons by police forces after the death of Camilo Miyaki in a police station and the murder of street juggler Francisco Martinez by a Carabinero (Chilean police officer).
Dozens of protesters gathered in Washington D.C. for the weekly FTP march organized by the They/Them Collective, demanding justice for Xzavier Hill, a teenager killed by state police in Charlottesville on the 9th of January. The MPD harassed the demonstrators, trailing them in nearly equal numbers on bikes, before demonstrators dispersed mostly without issue.
Protests took place in Manisa after the closure of a mine in Soma; authorities refused to pay the Somali workers their salary after the closure of the mine, inciting a strike and subsequent protests in the area. A solidarity protest also took place in the Kadıköy region of Istanbul by anarchists.
Protesters took to the streets in Seattle for Black Lives to demonstrate against police brutality in the city that has been criticized for being unaddressed, even through the minor defunding of the police by Mayor Jenny Durkan.
