News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – In frigid weather, February 20, 50 people rallied with the Climate Justice Committee (CJC) to oppose Trump's attacks on the environment, along with the barrage of other attacks that have happened in the first month of Trump’s presidency.
Minneapolis, MN – In the early hours of Tuesday, January 30, Nenookaasi Healing Camp was evicted for the second time from an otherwise vacant lot in the city of Minneapolis.
On January 4, the encampment was evicted from its original location, which housed up to 200 people, primarily indigenous. Mayor Jacob Frey, the main perpetrator of the city eviction policy, met with camp organizers following the first eviction and feigned support for our unhoused neighbors. This second eviction shows how little the mayor and other city officials actually care for unhoused Minneapolis residents.
Minneapolis, MN – The city of Minneapolis announced their intent to close down Nenookaasi Ikwe Healing Camp in the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. Nenookaasi is an encampment of primarily indigenous people and has been a safe space for over three months.
Because of the steadfast support of local indigenous elders and other local volunteers, the camp has been home to up to 200 people. Because it provides a stable base, residents have been able to access government services, 74 people have gotten stable housing, and the camp has had zero overdose deaths.
Atlanta, GA – On November 13, five Climate Justice Committee – Minnesota (CJC) members joined activists from around the country to oppose the building of an urban warfare training facility for police on the Weelaunee Forest on the edge of Atlanta, Georgia.
St. Paul, MN – The Climate Justice Committee and allies held a press conference at Metro State University to hold the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) accountable as they start the three year rulemaking process for a new cumulative impacts law passed in Minnesota in 2023. This cumulative impacts law would not just take into account air pollution from one business at a particular site but would look at the cumulative impacts of pollution in the area and make permitting decisions based on historic pollution and how the community in the area has already been impacted.
The MPCA is responsible for permitting all businesses that have an impact of soil, water and air pollution and was responsible for the permitting of Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline.
At this event, the CJC showed up to hold MPCA accountable for its current and future actions around the issue of air pollution.
“Why is the MPCA not working harder to outreach to the communities they say they want to protect, like East Phillips. I am a student at Metro State, and I wouldn’t have known this event was happening if the CJC hadn’t done this event. We see this as another time when communities like East Phillips in Minneapolis will be let down by legislation that could benefit them. It’s time to end half-measures and leniency for people who poison us!” said Mordecai Mika of the Climate Justice Committee.
Mair Allen from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy stated, “I’ve lived in East Phillips for 13 years, and I think about my 11-year-old neighbor who died in his house of an asthma attack. And I think about the people who can leave their windows open and can walk around their neighborhoods without coughing; everyone benefits from the environment, but those benefits are uneven. There is no such thing as a ‘community benefit’, it’s not possible to benefit from not having pollution. We shouldn’t have to fight for clean air.” Mair was referring to one part of the legislation that includes making “community benefit” agreements with businesses that would be legally binding.
Climate Justice Committee members and supporters then went into the MPCA meeting to ask questions. The MPCA had intended to only take written comments, but CJC members and other community members forced the MPCA representatives to listen to comments. Several audience members talked about the current lack of community outreach and in particular the lack of indigenous input. Others pointed out the distrust of the MPCA because of its history permitting Line 3. MPCA now knows that the community is watching and will be there to force them to do the right thing and get polluters out of our neighborhoods.
Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis’ Mayor Frey and seven Minneapolis city council members are talking about how they feel personally threatened after the Roof Depot struggle has become national news – after years of ignoring the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, the group that has been spearheading the push to buy the building with the goal of creating a neighborhood space. As the neighborhood is mobilized and righteously angry about the pollution, Frey and his cronies in the Minneapolis city council try to demonize the neighborhood, attempting to paint activists, particularly indigenous activists, as violent.
Minneapolis, MN – This week has been eventful in the East Phillips fight to stop the demolition of the arsenic-contaminated site of the Roof Depot building in south Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 100 people joined together January 28 to celebrate the newspaper Fight Back! and to raise funds for the paper. Emcees Autumn Lake and Robyn Harbison led the night with toasts from Twin Cities movements that Fight Back! has covered over the last year and getting the crowd excited to aim to raise enough for one print edition of the paper.
St Paul, MN – On October 28, despite rain and falling temperatures, 50 activists picketed at the Army Corps of Engineers offices in downtown Saint Paul to call for the Corps to pull the permits for the Line 3 oil pipeline and to conduct a full environmental review.
Minneapolis, MN – On September 18 nearly 100 people rallied and marched to call for an end to the Line 3 oil pipeline. The Climate Justice Committee organized the rally to continue pressure on President Biden and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to end the permits for Line 3.
Minneapolis, MN – Over 50 people came together May 2 to socialize and for a short program at a local park pavilion celebrating International Workers Day. The event came on the heels of a 1000-person May Day march in Minneapolis.
St. Paul, MN – Over 500 protesters picketed outside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mansion, November 14, to protest his decision to grant permits to allow Enbridge to build Line 3, a pipeline that would carry nearly a million barrels of tar sands a day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin through Minnesota. The event was organized by MN 350, and included other groups that have organized against Line 3.
St. Paul, MN – On March 25 Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) members sat in at Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s office throughout the morning to demand welfare grant increases for poor families in Minnesota. The sit-in was timed to coincide with a Senate hearing on bills pushed by the Welfare Rights Committee.
St. Paul, MN – On Feb. 25, Minnesota politicians returned to the State Capitol for the opening of the legislative session and the Welfare Rights Committee and their supporters were there. Over 50 low-income people joined together, despite below-zero temperatures, to send a message to legislators: “Raise the welfare grants. 28 years is too long!”
Minneapolis, MN – Thousands of people gathered here, July 15, in the Peoples Plaza in front of the Hennepin County Government Center, to demand justice for Trayvon Martin, Terrance Franklin and all victims of police brutality.
Minneapolis, MN – On April 15, Noor Elashi, daughter of wrongfully imprisoned Holy Land 5 defendant Ghassan Elashi, spoke to a packed room of over 50 people, mostly students from the University of Minnesota, about her father’s case. John Cline, Ghassan Elashi’s lawyer, also spoke of the injustice brought upon the five men who founded and built the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. George W. Bush shut down The Holy Land Foundation, falsely claiming its charity work for Palestine had ties to terrorism.
Los Angeles, CA – On April 26, Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli ordered the trial of longtime Chicano and immigrant rights activist Carlos Montes. The trial will start on May 15. Shortly after this trial date was set, a massive campaign began around the country to demand L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley to drop all charges against Carlos Montes.
![Demonstrators against "Right to Work" amendment fill halls of Mn State Capitol.](https://i.snap.as/muW5ewDU.jpg "Demonstrators against \\"Right to Work\\" amendment fill halls of Mn State Capitol. Demonstrators against \\"Right to Work\\" amendment fill halls of Mn State
Capitol. \(Fight Back! News/Kim DeFranco\)")
St. Paul, MN – Over 1000 union members from all sections of the labor movement packed the Minnesota capitol, March 12, as right-wing legislators jammed a so-called ‘Right to Work’ constitutional amendment through a Senate committee. The proposed amendment needs to pass the both houses of the legislature for it to be placed on the ballot this fall.
Minneapolis, MN – Today 25 staff, faculty, graduate and undergraduate held a press conference to speak out against the University of Minnesota administration’s continued attempts to push budget cuts onto students and the lowest paid staff at the U.
Minneapolis, MN – The University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter infiltrated the ‘Welcome Week’ convocation to drop banners, Sept. 3. Convocation at the University of Minnesota has historically been an event to welcome thousands of new students to the university and sing the praises of the university administration. ‘Welcome Week’ is increasingly closed off to any issue that runs counter to the administration’s message.