MINNEAPOLIS—“When injustice becomes policy, something else happens, too. The people will rise up because the only alternative is surrender…and I don’t think Minnesota is going to surrender.”
Those were the words of Service Employees International Union President April Verrett speaking to the tens of thousands who demonstrated in downtown Minneapolis on Friday for the Truth and Freedom March—an event now widely referred to as the “Minnesota General Strike.”
They were joined by hundreds of trade unions, civil rights groups, community organizations, and faith groups collectively demanding the complete removal of ICE from Minnesota and an end to raids in their communities, schools, and workplaces.
“Our goal is to hit the corporations and the politicians where it hurts the most—their pocket books,” said an organizer with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which played a big role in the demonstrations.
In a show of solidarity, over 700 businesses in the Twin Cities also closed to protest the presence of thousands of federal agents, a deployment dubbed “Operation Metro Surge.” Organizers told People’s World that between 50,000 and 100,000 people participated in the demonstrations alone—not counting all those who collectively decided not to work, shop, or attend school.
The march was sponsored by an array of organizations, from trade unions and labor federations to faith groups; community organizations like Black Lives Matter and Indivisible; peace groups like Veterans for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace; and political organizations, including the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Marcia Howard, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators (AFT Local 59), led protesters though downtown as they faced freezing, subzero weather. “We are on the move,” she called out to the demonstrators, who chanted back, “ICE OUT!” The mass march converged on the Target Center, where people crowded inside to escape the -16°F degree cold and hear speeches.
Faith leaders ground Delta
Hours before the main demonstration, several unions—including Unite Here Local 17, SEIU Local 26, and Airport Workers United—along with hundreds of workers, community organizations, and clergy, held a civil disobedience action at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Delta Airlines terminal. They demanded the air carrier end its complicity with ICE deportation flights.
Other demands raised at the airport included an immediate end to the ICE surge into Minnesota; for ICE to leave the state; accountability for ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who killed Renee Good; for Congress to stop funding ICE; and to ensure Target stores deny entrance to any agents who do not have “signed judicial warrants.”
Nearly a thousand demonstrators, including clergy, staged the civil disobedience action on the street outside the Delta terminal. Police arrested at least 100. As people were being handcuffed, the sea of protesters, including striking workers and union members, cheered in solidarity, chanting, “We are the workers, the mighty mighty workers.”
Faith leaders sang “Everybody’s Got a Right to Live” and recited the Lord’s Prayer as police outfitted in riot gear grabbed them and carted them off into yellow school buses. As they prayed, they held signs bearing the names of Unite Here Local 17 members who have been deported by ICE.
Anders Bloomquist, an organizer with Unite Here Local 17, told People’s World the airport demonstration was organized because his union and several others have many members directly impacted by ICE—and because 2,000 people have been deported through the airport.
“It is absolutely urgent that we send them a message and that we do it at this location,” he said. “There are so many workers here, and there is real leverage here to send a message to corporations like Delta who have remained silent.”
On the unity of labor unions and clergy, Bloomquist expressed his thanks for that “workplace-community solidarity” and said it’s what’s necessary to bring about fundamental political change.
It’s about intimidation, not immigration
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declared that all 1.8 million AFT members are standing up coast to coast in solidarity. “We are all Minnesota today!” she said. “Donald Trump is using ICE to provoke violence in communities that have been historically welcoming and safe,” she added, calling it an effort to militarize American cities and “state-sanctioned violence.
“This is not about immigration, this is about intimidation,” Weingarten declared. “It’s not about law and order, it’s about terrorizing communities and stripping us of our constitutional rights.”
Claude Cummings, Jr., president of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), told the crowd that the country is united in opposition to “masked, armed men who abduct and terrorize workers and their children.
“In our labor movement, we have a saying: ‘An injury to one is an injury to all’,” Cummings said. “And when I look around here, I see the workers, the people who make this country run—Black, white, brown, Indigenous, the LGBTQ, and the disabled—those who were born here and those who came here for a better life. And I see us all united for fairness, justice, and freedom.
“But not since the days of Jim Crow have we seen a government so determined to divide us, limit us, and silence us. But I believe in the power of working people to make a difference even in the face of unchecked hate. We will stand up to Trump, a wannabe dictator, and all his billionaire buddies and corporations who quietly fund him to shred the Constitution.”
Cummings said trade unions have a duty to stand up to fascism and “the corporations who enable fascism” and that “community organizations and labor unions are the source of our power.” He added that history is calling on everyone to play their part, stand up, and never bow down.
Verrett, SEIU president, said that in the face of the Trump regime, working people are “not without hope and not without power.” She connected the violence of ICE agents to the murders of Philando Castile and George Floyd while linking the murder of Renee Good to the Ku Klux Klan and “organized systems of terror.
“These fights against corruption, greed, racism, white supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence are all connected, she said, “and we must rise and we must organize. From here on out, we stay engaged, we stay organized, we stay united, and we continue.”
Next stop: Washington
David Stiggers, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005—which, along with SEIU Local 26, played a key role in organizing Friday’s actions—told People’s World he is inspired to be part of such a historic moment and that his members—mostly bus drivers and transit workers—played a crucial part.
“First of all, without our members, who have brought in so much support for this to happen, you know some of them kept working so we could bring everyone here,” he said. “But think about this—what started out as small pockets of neighborhood and workplace organizing turned into something that spread across the whole nation and the whole world.”
On the nature of the coalition, he said, “We’re showing that labor is the community and the community is labor. We’re one in one and hand in hand. Solidarity can be done if you put forth the effort and make it happen.
“It’s not just wages we’re fighting for, it’s quality of life. It’s about taking care of your neighbors and your community. Grassroots efforts can blossom into this huge expression of solidarity. It’s beautiful. And no better place to do it than Minneapolis, where we had the 1934 Teamsters strike.”
Stiggers told People’s World that next steps for the movement should include a national labor-led March on Washington, as called for by the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, to “send a direct message to the fascist regime: The people are the power.”
Video footage by Cameron Harrison / Editing by Taylor Walker | People’s World
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