One year ago, a group of local activists, including Nekima Levy Armstrong and Monique Cullars Doty, gathered in front of a Target store in Minneapolis calling for an indefinite boycott of Target until the retailer restored its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Under outgoing CEO Brian Cornell’s leadership, five-years prior Target had become a champion among large corporations when it came to supporting Black-owned businesses. It invested $2.1 billion in such initiatives after the brutal police murder of George Floyd and the global uprising that followed shortly after.
One year on from the boycott’s launch, Target faces mounting pressure from not only the African American community nationally but now also the anti-ICE movement. It’s a development that culminated out of Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, the largest deployment of immigration enforcement into a state in the history of the United States. The sweep resulted in the recent ICE and CBP murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Target stores in the Twin Cities have recently been used as staging grounds for ICE raids, which led to a revived effort from Armstrong and Doty, alongside CAIR-Minnesota and Unidos Minnesota, to boycott all Target stores until the raids end.
A short time later, ICE agents raided a Richfield, Minn., store and detained two Latino workers who were U.S. citizens, leading to workers skipping shifts out of fear. Following this incident, CBP Commander Greg Bovino did a fascist-like perp walk in a St. Paul store with about a dozen agents guarding him on his way out.
Leading up to the Day of Truth and Freedom on Jan. 23—now known as the Minnesota General Strike—dozens of faith leaders occupied the corporate headquarters of Target in downtown Minneapolis demanding a meeting with CEO Cornell. The faith leaders called upon him and the company’s other executives to publicly call for an immediate end to Trump’s ICE surge in the state, to affirm Target stores as 4th Amendment-protected workplaces, and to publicly call on Congress to stop funding ICE.
Dozens of actions around the country took place at Target stores last week—in D.C., Rochester, N.Y., Pittsburgh, and throughout the state of Minnesota.
On Sunday, Jan. 25, the incoming CEO of Target, Michael Fiddelke, together with the CEOs of 60 other companies signed on to a public letter issued by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local, and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.” This was likely in response to the massive one-day general strike and threat of a further decline in profits.
Earlier, Armstrong, St. Paul School Board member Chauntyll Allen, and military veteran William Kelly helped organize a protest at a St. Paul church whose pastor was an ICE field officer. This action led to an uproar from MAGA and white Christian nationalists about the supposed sanctity of the church and how it is illegal to protest in spaces of worship. The three were eventually detained by federal agents and charged for civil rights violations under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act—a law typically used to protect abortion providers.
The struggle against Target has reached an important moment. What began as a struggle against a big corporation that caved to Trump on DEI and racism is joining forces with those fighting Trump’s fascist immigration policy. It’s a development with the potential to deepen theh alliance among Black, Latino, and immigrant communities and set the stage for widening the entire coalition resisting the MAGA agenda.
Minneapolis continues to be the epicenter of the fight for democracy, with a common thread linking the murders of George Floyd and now Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The world is watching Minnesota, and it is up to the working people of the world to support their resistance and organize demonstrations and other acts of solidarity—whether it be picketing and boycotting Target stores or rallies in front of institutions of power.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views expressed here are those of the author.
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