Black Lives Matter Movement Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which triggered several violent protests across the country last year, has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel peace prize by Petter Eide, a Norwegian member of Parliament, who represents the Socialist Left Party.
In nominating the BLM, Eide said the effort was “very important worldwide” to fight racial injustice, although he brushed off questions linking the movement to violence, rioting and widespread looting in the name of the movement.
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“I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality,” the socialist-left party member said.
“Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice. They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice,” he added.
“They have been able to mobilize people from all groups of society, not just African-Americans, not just oppressed people, it has been a broad movement, in a way which has been different from their predecessors,” Eide continued.
BLM-related protests spread across 2,000 cities nationwide and in over 60 countries last summer — mainly triggered by the death of black Minneapolis man George Floyd in the hands of the police. Authorities have reportedly made at least 14,000 arrests in 49 cities, and at least nine people were also killed due to the often violent protests.
The vandalism, looting and damage related to the protests also reportedly cost the insurance industry $1 billion — or more than any other violent demonstrations in recent history.
“The protests that took place in 140 US cities this spring were mostly peaceful, but the arson, vandalism and looting that did occur will result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims — eclipsing the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King,” Axios said, noting that it will be the “most expensive in insurance history.”
In June last year, Fox News reported that based on estimates from insurance experts and city officials, the Floyd protests could cost more than the 1992 Los Angeles riots to become the most expensive civil disturbance in US history. The 1992 riots cost $1.4 billion in 2020 dollars, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Eide in his nomination statement defended the violence that often got tied with the BLM protests are “activities of either the police or counter-protestors.
“Studies have shown that most of the demonstrations organized by Black Lives Matter have been peaceful. Of course there have been incidents, but most of them have been caused by the activities of either the police or counter-protestors … There is actually a tradition for doing this. It’s a strong linkage between antiracism movements and peace, and a recognition that without this kind of justice, there will be no peace and stability in the society,” he said.
The nomination statement concludes: “Awarding the peace prize to Black Lives Matter, as the strongest global force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles.”
Qualification for Nobel Prize
The qualification for winning the Nobel Peace Prize according to Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, who the award is named after, is divided into five equal parts, “one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
This year, the deadline to submit a nomination is February 1. By March, the committee will narrow down the nomination and issue a shortlist. The winner will eventually be chosen in October, and the awarding ceremony is set for December 10 late this year.
