POLICE brutality and racism in the US is “aggravated by austerity and a corporate strategy designed to take back gains previously won by workers,” PCS conference agreed yesterday.

Proposing a motion voicing “concern at the killing of Freddy Gray in Baltimore and the numerous other deaths of black citizens by police in the US,” union executive member John McInally said recent shootings amounted to “state terrorism.”

“We’re seeing the highly advanced militarisation of the US police forces, who increasingly see their role as defending rights of corporate interests rather than defending rights of citizens,” he said.

“This is the reality of life for black citizens, rooted in racism and inequality, and deeply aggravated by austerity.”

In its international section, the conference also passed a motion condemning the continued detention of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay and pledging to work for his release.

And a resolution on the conflict in Ukraine resolved to “support workers’ unity in opposition to oligarchs, meddling big powers and reactionary politicians and the far-right on all sides.”