St. Paul, MN – On July 23 Education Minnesota, which represents 70,000 educators, held a car protest next to the State Capitol to pressure Governor Walz to continue to keep Minnesota schools closed to in-person instruction. Walz is expected to announce his plan for education during the COVID 19 pandemic on July 30.

Teachers lined up their cars for an hour before they began a car parade in Saint Paul, decorating their vehicles with signs that stated their demands for what they would need in order to feel safe teaching in person in their classrooms in the fall.

Before the car protest, Education Minnesota held a press conference which teachers listened to in their cars over Facebook Livestream. Teachers and other stakeholders spoke about their concerns for the fall and expressed their desire for Walz to take action to protect teachers. The union announced the results of a survey of more than 20,000 Minnesota educators on their preferred method of instruction this fall. Almost 50% of teachers surveyed said distance learning would be the best course of action for the fall.

The press conference featured an arrangement of 30 chairs spaced out six feet apart, to show how big a classroom would have to be in order to teach a full class of 30 students and social distance.

After the press conference teachers drove in a car parade that kept going for miles. Teachers waved to each other and honked loudly.

Cassie Pagel, a member of the Bloomington Federation of Teachers, told Fight Back!, “We care about our students and want things to go back to normal, but that isn’t possible. We are running out of time to plan for the fall. Governor Walz needs to stop pushing back the date for when we’ll find out about the school year. We need leadership now. Walz must step up and make a decision. As a former teacher, he knows how stressful this is for us. We can’t plan or prepare for September until we know what school will look like, until we are certain that everyone’s safety is our top priority, until we know that if we go into our buildings we will all have quality PPE, and until we have had enough time to prepare for this new format of teaching. Through all of this, it is clear how vital educators and school staff are in our communities. We should value them and their safety.”

#StPaulMN #TeachersUnions #GovernorWalz #COVID19 #carCaravan #EducationMinnesota

Shortly after Walz and the event moderator were settled into two cozy armchairs on a stage at the front of a packed auditorium, one person rose from the middle of the crowd to demand that the governor address the epidemic of police murders that have taken place on his watch. “Are you willing to call for the prosecution of police officers that murder of our loved ones?”

In the seven minutes before he ran away, he was asked repeatedly to call for prosecutions. The governor has the authority to take up police murder cases and assign them to the state attorney general, or someone else, after county prosecutors decline to prosecute. Protesters also demanded that Walz take action to stop bogus investigations by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) when police officers murder, and for him to support community control of the police.

Walz had several responses that fell flat. His statement, “I do not have the power to grant pardons,” was answered with, “We don’t need pardons, we need prosecutions!” He praised public conversations like the University event, and was hit with, “We don’t need conversations, we need convictions!” Desperate to end the public questioning, he offered to meet with activists after the event. “No, we don’t believe you!” There have been several attempts to schedule a meeting with the governor around police killings, but for months, his office has failed to respond.

Toshira Garraway Allen, whose son’s father Justin Tiegen was brutally murdered ten years ago by Saint Paul police said, “You have ignored us Governor Walz! They’re killing our loved ones in cold blood and walking free. And Governor Walz is ignoring our families.”

After Walz ran away, protesters chanted “Black lives matter!” as police pushed them out of the auditorium. Outside the hall, and as they were walking away, police grabbed one young Black protester. They handcuffed and held her in a police vehicle outside, admitting they did so to get other protesters out of the building. She was released without charge about ten minutes later. Undaunted, she demanded identifying information from every one of the officers who targeted her.

Walz came back to continue the event once activists were gone, but he was confronted by a second wave of protesters. This group was speaking out against Enbridge Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline that threatens the environment and violates treaty rights. Those protesters were also removed from the hall. No one left the event thinking Walz’s first year as governor was going well. Least of all, Governor Walz.

#MinneapolisMN #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #TwinCitiesCoalition4JusticeForJamarTCC4J #GovernorWalz #UMNStudentsForADemocraticSociety

St. Paul, MN – Over 40 people protested in front of the Governor's Residence Monday, September 16, to demand the divestment of Elbit Systems by the State of Minnesota. The protest, which was organized by the Anti-War Committee, is the latest action in their current campaign to demand the divestment of Elbit Systems from the state’s public retirement fund. Currently the Minnesota State Board of Investments, which Governor Tim Walz chairs, holds $1.2 million, or approximately 10,000 shares, in Elbit Systems.

Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons company, which has been contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to further militarize the U.S.– Mexico border by installing “Integrated Fixed Towers” security systems; the same border militarization technology that has been deployed against the Palestinian people.

Kane Widlicka, who spoke on behalf of the Anti-War Committee, explained, “We are not here to negotiate with apartheid, we are here to abolish it. The Anti-War Committee sees a particular connection on the war being waged by U.S.-funded Israel against Palestinians, and the war being waged against refugees of U.S. caused economic and violence crisis in Mexico. We see the connection between the war on Palestinians and the refugees because the systems that causes both is funded by and benefits the U.S. government.”

Erika Zurawski representing the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) broke down how “Elbit systems is violating the sovereignty of the Palestinian people and violating the sovereignty of the native lands here in the United States. It is important that Governor Walz, who said he supported a pro-immigrant agenda when he was elected, knows that this is an anti-immigrant company.”

Mariam El-Khatib, representing the Minnesota chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, said, “It's become easy now to figure out what side you’re on. You either support walls or you don't. You either support kids being in cages or you don’t. You either support immigrant rights or you don't. Just talk to people – because most people are gonna want to stand on the right side of the street.”

Chants and messages during the protest included, “From Palestine to Mexico, Elbit Systems has got to go!” “Divest from Elbit!” and “Walz, stop funding walls!”

The MN Anti-War Committee’s next event is a BDS/border militarization teach-in and new members meeting at 4200 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis at 7 p.m. on September 25.

#StPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Divestment #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #Antiracism #GovernorWalz #Elbit

St. Paul, MN – Activists and relatives of victims of police killings held a press conference in front of the state capitol, August 8. They marched into the capitol chanting, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” and seized the governor’s office, chanting, giving speeches and demanding the governor follow through on his broken promise to meet with community members about police violence and take action.

Governor Tim Walz had previously scheduled meetings with members of Racial Justice Network (RJN) and Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), but then he bowed out of the meetings, sending aides who stated the governor would not meet with community members.

Members of the groups explained that the aides said that the governor would not call for reopening the case of Jamar Clark because “there is no new evidence.” Activists called this response a lie and pointed out community investigators have found pages of false and misleading information in the BCA [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] report on Clark’s murder. The recent trial of Minneapolis officer Mohamud Noor for killing Justine Damond documented many examples of incompetence and cover-up by the Minneapolis police and the BCA in investigation of police shootings.

The governor’s only action on police killings has been to form a commission. According to activists, no member of the commission except one member of the ACLU has been active in investigating, researching or responding to police violence. Locations and times of meetings are being kept hidden from the public, and community members and family local members of police killings are not being invited to speak on the panel. The secret location of the first meeting turned out to be a small room in the capitol – expressly limiting access to the community. The co-chair of the commission, Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, previously oversaw a notoriously murderous era of the Saint Paul police department, then moved to the state senate, where he co-authored a bill crippling the Minneapolis police civilian review authority. These facts led activists and community members to call the commission a sham.

Governor Walz was aware the protesters were coming. He had the state patrol send emails described as “intimidating” to organizers, and he sent aides out to intercept and discourage protesters at the beginning of the event. Then he again cowered away from meeting with activists and did not provide an aide authorized to discuss the community’s concerns.

At the press conference, Sam Martinez from Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J) stated, “The governor could get involved if he wants to. He says he has no power, but that’s not true.”

Todd Schuman, from Justice for Justine Damond Ruszczyk, stated that Justine’s trial demonstrated to the public “the corruption and the incompetence of the Minneapolis police department and the BCA as well. There were so many incidents of mishandling of evidence and failures to follow through on investigations that it honestly is a miracle that a conviction was secured. Given that the BCA is responsible for all the police shooting investigations in the state, one has to imagine that these kinds of failures have been endemic to the system.”

Leslie Redmond, president of the Minneapolis branch of the NAACP said, “We scream to the state of Minnesota ‘Black lives matter,’ because the state of Minnesota continues to show and tell us that Black lives do not matter. We know that we have some of the worst racial disparities in the nation, and we know that will never get better as long as we continue to justify the killing of unarmed Black men and women.” She added, “This is not just a civil rights issue. This is a human rights issue, and it is time to stand up. Silence equals consent.”

In the governor’s office, the group chanted “Black lives matter” and “Where’s Governor Walz?”

Nekima Levy Armstrong from RJN said, “Enough is enough. We have a message for you, Governor Walz. We will continue to disrupt the status quo. We will show up at your meetings. We came here nicely, asking for a meeting with you. You knew that we would be here, and instead of facing the people – people of all hues and all backgrounds – coming in solidarity, you chose to run. We are expecting a governor who will stand up for the rights of the people.” She went on, “It should not be the case, that the only person in the state of Minnesota to get any semblance of justice when being killed by an officer is an affluent white woman.” The only conviction in the history of Minnesota for a police officer killing a civilian was against a Black Somali officer, Mohamed Noor, who killed a white woman, Justine Damond.

Michelle Gross from CUAPB documented the evidence for reopening the case against Jamar Clark’s killers and described how police investigators ignored the testimony of almost 20 witnesses, took away civilian video footage from witnesses at gunpoint, and misrepresented the incident leading to Jamar’s murder as a domestic violence incident. She closed by telling the absent governor, “Your next three years can be easy, or they can be hard. We can make them hard.”

Dinni and Sumaya Aden, the siblings of Isak Aden – a young Somali man who died after being shot by seven police officers last month – spoke about the disrespect and the lack of cooperation family members of victims are treated with. Sumaya Aden explained that two of the officers who killed her brother had killed before, “One of them killed somebody in 2015, while he was laying on his stomach, in front of his mom and his wife in his mom’s backyard. Shot him in the back. And he just moved from Duluth to Eagan.” They also described how the officers that killed their brother are already back on the job after only three days of administrative leave.

Monique Collars Doty, of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar and other organizations and the aunt of Marcus Golden, who was killed by shots in the back from the Saint Paul police, said, “We have to continue to force the system’s hand to give us the justice we need,” and explained how all of the information needed to charge Jamar Clark’s killers is documented and readily available on the internet.

Other speakers included representatives from Women’s March Minnesota and Native Lives Matter. Representatives of The Anti-war Committee, Blue Lies Matter, and the director of the Justice Forgotten documentary about Jamar Clark’s murder, were also present.

Although police officers lingered outside the governor’s office, the event ended without a police incident. The protesters marched out chanting and promised to continue to disrupt the governor’s schedule until he takes real action against police violence.

#StPaulMN #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #CommunitiesUnitedAgainstPoliceBrutality #Antiracism #TwinCitiesCoalitionForJusticeForJamarTCC4J #GovernorWalz