Minnesota On Strike
Minnesota labor unions, faith leaders, community organizations, and businesses of all kinds are calling for what amounts to a statewide general strike tomorrow, in response to the ongoing federal immigration terror campaign and agent Jonathan Ross’s execution of legal observer Renee Good. “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom” is asking Minnesotans to refrain from work (except for essential services), school, and shopping. A peaceful march and rally will start in downtown Minneapolis at 2 p.m. Central time.
As Minnesota workers did in the spring of 2024, the day of action will bring people together from across sectors and positions to demand and win liberation. This time, it’s not from bosses’ bad policies, but from the paramilitary thugs the regime has sent to the Twin Cities, who are targeting members of the Somali, Latino, and Hmong communities in particular.
The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees International Union are among the more than 50 organizations supporting the day of action.
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The strikers have several demands. ICE must leave Minnesota now; the agent who killed Renee Good must be held legally accountable; no additional federal funding for ICE should be provided in the upcoming congressional budget; ICE must be investigated for human and constitutional violations; and Minnesotan and national companies should become “4th Amendment businesses,” thereby ceasing economic relations with ICE and refusing ICE entry or the ability to use their property for staging grounds.
Minnesota AFL-CIO communications director Chris Shields noted that his organization isn’t calling for people to walk off their jobs or take actions that would put their jobs at risk. “We’re leaving any decision like that up to individuals,” he said, and added that many union contracts include no-strike clauses. But people can still participate by minimizing their economic activity.
“Frankly, what’s been very interesting is that a lot of employers have decided to close their business and give workers a paid day off,” Shields said. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 260 businesses had announced they would close, according to a running list published by local news outlet Bring Me The News.
Kathryn Hoffman, CEO of the nonprofit Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), is shuttering the nonprofit on Friday, giving staff a paid day off, asking them to perform no work, and urging them instead to use their time to “engage in whatever community care they feel comfortable doing.” A letter on the MCEA website explains why: In addition to ICE harming staff and the community organizations they work with, their disregard for the rule of law is also an existential threat to the work MCEA conducts.
“When there’s a lack of respect for the rule of law, it’s harmful to our work and it’s harmful to democracy,” Hoffman told the Prospect. “Rights, the rule of law, courts are interconnected, and the way we see it is that needs to be strong all across our society.”
The Linden Hills Wedge Co-op, Eastside Food Co-op, and Seward Community Co-op are likewise closing for the day so staff can participate. Those who were scheduled to work will get paid their regular wages, a decision UFCW Local 663 leadership praised.
“It has been such long weeks seeing co-workers scared to go to work. They’re calling out, they’re losing wages,” said Quinlan Bock, a produce stocker at the Wedge Co-Op, where he’s also a shop steward with the store’s UFCW Local 663 union. “If we can show up in the masses, everyone together, we can show that we can shut everything down.”
Temperatures in Minnesota are expected to dip as low as -22 degrees on Friday. But that’s no biggie, said a law student who’s planning on going with friends rather than to class. They were forged in Wisconsin, where it will be just three degrees warmer. They’re calling around to make sure everyone has a coat, they told the Prospect, and others in the law student group were at Costco yesterday buying hand warmers.
The perfect outcome for Friday would be for ICE to leave Minneapolis, they said. And in “a maybe less magical” world, they’d like to see Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and other leaders “really speak out more forcefully and take more actions,” including prosecuting Jonathan Ross.
WORKERS ELSEWHERE HAVE SIGNED ON in solidarity. New York unions and organizations, for example, are hosting a solidarity mass rally and march in Manhattan on January 23 at 4 p.m., which will include 1199SEIU, 32BJ, Teamsters, UAW, United Federation of Teachers, PSC-CUNY, and NYC-DSA. The United Federation of Teachers is requesting folks wear black during the day on Friday in solidarity. Other solidarity marches and actions have been called by SEIU in Boston, Columbus, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix, and Seattle. All told, there are at least 80 actions planned around the country, according to a strike tracker managed by Payday Report.
Some are also thinking long-term. Elias Holtz, who organizes with the Writers Guild of America East and is a member of the group Freedom Socialist Party, said tomorrow will be instructive for future mass actions, including showing how unions can work to organize even bigger actions. Freedom Socialist Party is hosting a free forum on Saturday: “Build a General Strike to Stop Trump.”
“It’s really just the beginning,” Holtz said. “Now is the moment where people are looking for what they can do to stand up to Trump, to stop these attacks … that’s why the general strike is gaining traction in unions and conversations online because it’s really about that untapped power we have as workers being essential to stand up and stop the attacks on our communities.”
Organizing will continue well after tomorrow, Bock said, and added that he sees the day as a step toward May 1, 2028, the date the United Auto Workers have proposed as a general strike day, and are aligning their contracts in preparation.
“Strikes I view as a muscle,” Bock said. “They need to be exercised and the more that you use them the stronger that they become. People remember them, what the effects of them are and what we stand to win.”
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