Minneapolis, MN – In December, a year of US threats finally escalated to a full-scale, military assault on Iraq. The bombing campaign caused thousands of Iraqi deaths, and destroyed hospitals, roads, phone lines and civilian factories. President Clinton launched the attack in the midst of impeachment proceedings, in response to a report by chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler. Millions of people around the world protested the attacks, which ended in four days. Protest actions in Minneapolis mobilized hundreds each day.
Minneapolis, MN – At a February 19 public meeting at Holy Rosary Church, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) yielded to demands raised by Minnesota's Latino immigrant communities for improved and increased services.
Minneapolis, MN – One hundred and fifty people took to the streets on August 8, 1998, to protest Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) policy in Minnesota. Chants of “Not my border, Not my war, Stop the INS!” and “Papeles Para Todos (Papers for Everyone)” echoed along the one mile plus march route through South Minneapolis. Participants were energized by the Danzantes, a local Aztec dance group that accompanied the march.
In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' – specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.
Less than a week after the U.S. elections, labor leader Gilberto Soto was assassinated in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto, a Salvadoran who emigrated to the U.S. in 1975, was a Teamster organizer in New Jersey, an activist with CISPES – the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador – and a long-time member of the FMLN, El Salvador’s left political party. The FMLN has actively opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, both in the legislature, where they hold a plurality of the seats, and in the streets, where they have led tens of thousands of people marching against CAFTA and against the war in Iraq.
