St. Paul, MN – On Tuesday, February 24, 15 activists led by the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) confronted the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) to demand that the Board divest Minnesota public pension funds from Palantir, a Peter Thiel-founded tech company that works directly with ICE and the IDF.

The action was organized as part of an ongoing campaign to pressure the SBI to divest Minnesota state pension funds not just from Palantir, but from all companies complicit in the apartheid state of Israel.

It was a cold and slippery morning, but energy was high as the dedicated crowd shouted slogans like “No more money for Israel's slaughter!” and “All they sell is death and fear: divest from Palantir!” 148 paper poppies covered the snow in front of the office, each representing 1000 of the roughly 76,000 people held in ICE detention in the U.S. and the minimum estimate of 72,000 Palestinians murdered by the Israeli regime during its ongoing genocide.

A major theme of this action was “hypocrisy.” In the wake of the notorious ICE murder of Renee Good, Tim Walz initially had some harsh words for the agency. But, according to AWC member Yossi Aharoni, this raises questions: “if Walz really believes the things he said on his national press tour, then why is he investing 55 million taxpayer dollars in Palantir, the company that designed ICE's surveillance infrastructure?”

Aharoni continued, “Israel's attacks across the Middle East, and ICE's occupation of the Twin Cities, would be unthinkable and impossible in their scale and horrific efficiency without Palantir.”

Walz has not addressed the board's investments in Palantir. In fact, the SBI has been stifling public comment, or avoiding it entirely, for over a year now. At this time, the board has not even announced if or when it will hold its next mandated quarterly meeting.

AWC organizer Andrew Josefchak stated, “How many people, and which people, are the board members willing to sponsor the execution, illegal detainment, and surveillance of?”

Josefchak continued, “Minnesota is just getting the barest taste of what it's like in Palestine – the barest taste of what Palestinians have been dealing with for decades – and we're discovering how absolutely fucking wretched it is. People are standing up in droves saying 'This must end. This is completely unacceptable!'”

It is in this spirit that, despite any obstacle, the fight to divest Minnesota from apartheid Israel will continue.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Palantir #MNAWC

Minneapolis, MN – 30 people gathered in 16-degree weather in the heart of Minneapolis on February 7 to call for U.S. hands off Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, after weeks and months of tension, threats of escalation, and direct attacks on these sovereign counties.

The Minnesota Peace Action Coalition organized the action as part of an International Day of Action called by the Unione Sindicale di Base (USB), a dockworkers union located in Genoa, Italy. The dockworkers union called for the day of protest to shut down the U.S. war machine.

The cold weather did not discourage the crowd in their energy as they filled the streets with chants of “We will say it every time; U.S. sanctions are a crime!” and “From Venezuela to Falasteen, stop the U.S. war machine!”

Speakers addressed the parallels between the attacks from ICE in Minnesota to Trump’s attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.

Yossi Aharoni, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, stated, “Six months ago in a brazen act of aggression and escalation the Trump administration attacked the nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz in Iran. One month ago, the Trump administration kidnapped the sitting president of a sovereign nation, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, killing over 30 Cuban bodyguards along with dozens of Venezuelans. Two months ago in December 2025, the Trump administration began Operation Metro Surge, which can only be described as a federal occupation of the Twin Cities.”

Aharoni continued, “Both ICE and the IOF [Israeli occupation forces] rely on Palantir’s AI surveillance technology data to track and capture their victims. The bombs dropped on civilians in Gaza are made by the same companies that build the bombs that Trump and Netanyahu drop on Iran. The same 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine that Trump uses to justify attacks against Venezuela are used against Cuba; Trump believes the U.S. can treat Latin America like its own backyard! The same threats that Trump makes against Venezuela are made against Cuba.”

Allison Gunderson, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and the Women Against Military Madness, participated in a U.S. delegation to Venezuela in December and spoke about the need to stand with the people of Venezuela and President Maduro against U.S. attacks.

Gunderson stated, “It is our duty to stand with Venezuela, Cuba, Latin America and the Caribbean and demand an end to U.S. interventions, devastating sanctions, and the stealing of resources and wealth from these countries!” She continued, “We cannot allow the Trump administration to do whatever it wants, especially not waltz into any country it pleases and kidnap their democratically elected leaders, as Trump has made it clear he intends to do to Cuba next! We must demand President Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores be released and we must be ready to get in the streets to protest these sham court proceedings. We have to let it be known we say hell no to Trump's efforts to criminalize the Bolivarian revolution!”

Oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba have been cut off as a result of the U.S. attack on Caracas, Venezuela. Cuba is now facing an energy crisis; this, combined with the pre-existing embargo, will directly threaten the lives of the people.

Demonstrators held signs saying, “Hands off Venezuela” and “No war with Iran.”

Dex Davis explained why he felt the need to show up in the streets. “How can anyone build a life when a foreign power controls their access to medicine, food, fuel, electricity and education? This is the reality for people in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.”

As Minnesotans continue to respond to the attacks by ICE in their communities, it is clear they are making connections to Trump’s attacks abroad and will keep showing up in the streets.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Iran #Venezuela #Cuba #MNAWC #WAMM #MPAC

New Brighton, MN – On October 16, about 50 Minnesotans gathered outside a Howmet Aerospace facility in New Brighton as a part of the Anti-War Action Network’s nationwide call-to-action targeting weapons manufacturers.

The rally, organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, put a spotlight on Howmet’s ties to the U.S. military industrial complex. The Howmet facility, like many other weapons manufacturers hidden among suburban residential streets, postures itself inconspicuously. A Minnesotan driving past the facility would have no reason to assume the scale of Howmet’s connections to the U.S. war machine or the genocide in Palestine.

But in fact, one of Howmet’s top brags is its role in manufacturing parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II. For this fighter jet, Howmet produces pieces ranging from the titanium bulkheads to the fasteners, or as Howmet itself puts it, “From nose to tail.” Lockheed Martin has been supplying the Israeli Air Force with F-35 fighter jets for nearly a decade. Israel, in turn, has been using them to carry out extensive airstrikes across Gaza.

Howmet does not limit its war profiteering to business with Lockheed, but is subcontracted by several of the weapons manufacturers actively selling weapons to Israel. In 2024, 16% of Howmet’s total revenue came from the defense aerospace market sector. Howmet has been subcontracted by all the major players – some include RTX Corporation, Boeing Company and General Electric – ensuring Israel can conduct its genocide in Palestine.

Nadiyah Salawdeh with the Twin Cities branch of the US Palestinian Community Network stated, “When we protest corporations like Howmet, we aren’t only saying that what they create leads to the death of millions. We are saying that they have an interest in and actively do ensure that these imperialist wars and genocides are never ending.”

Salawdeh continued, “When a child in Gaza reads ‘made in the USA’ on the bomb that murdered their entire family, it is because corporations like Howmet want the genocide in Palestine to continue.”

Maddy Schwartz, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee and a public employee in AFSCME Local 668 closed out the program by highlighting another angle of Minnesota’s complicity with Howmet.

The Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI), chaired by Governor Tim Walz, has $11.5 million invested in Howmet. Schwartz underlined the necessity of continuing to demand the SBI divests from Israel, and reminded the crowd that despite a ceasefire agreement, Israel’s violence has yet to end. “Palestine is still occupied. Apartheid still exists.”

Schwartz continued, “This ceasefire agreement is not justice and this ceasefire does not change our calls for a Free Palestine. We will continue to stand against the Israeli occupation, apartheid, imprisonment of Palestinians and genocide as long as these exist.”

Before the rally ended, emcees encouraged the crowd to attend the MN Anti-War Committee’s upcoming rally calling for the SBI to Divest MN from apartheid Israel. The rally will be held on Tuesday, October 21 at 10 a.m. outside the Retirement Systems Building located at 60 Empire Drive, Saint Paul.

#NewBrightonMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #WeaponsIndustry #MNAWC #AWAN #MNPA #DMN

Minneapolis, MN – On August 14, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee hosted an event at the Lucy Parsons Center with author Dan Kovalik and discussed the history of U.S. imperialism in Iran, centered around his book, The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran.

The event began with a discussion among attendees, addressing issues like, “How has this book and the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June affected how you view Iran?” and “What narratives around Iran do we need to get ahead of as the anti-war movement?”

Kovalik’s book follows the history of American intervention in Iran, starting with the U.S.-backed coup of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and transfer of power to the repressive Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, all the way through to the U.S.’s harsh economic sanctions and support for anti-Iran terrorist groups.

The Anti-War Committee explained the purpose of the event, “With Trump threatening Iran with regime change yet again, understanding the history of U.S. imperial meddling in Iran is the first step in fighting back against it.”

AWC organizer Gabriel Miller states, “When Israel and Trump attacked Iran in June, many in the Palestine movement were seeking answers on how to assess the 12 days of war. By bringing Dan Kovalik to Minneapolis, we aimed to consolidate our community around strong anti-imperialist values, including how the struggles of Palestine, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Venezuela and many more are intimately connected.”

The 1979 Iranian Revolution was a fight against the American imperial forces backing the Shah. Iran’s resistance to Western interference since then has resulted in a strengthened opposition to Israel as a tool of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.

A goal of the event was to dispel some myths the U.S. has created around Iran. Iran's opposition to Israel presents a threat to U.S. hegemony in the region, prompting the U.S. to spread propaganda against Iran and its current leadership, as it has done since the 1979 revolution.

AWC members began organizing the event soon after the 12-day war in June in hopes of educating others and combatting propagandistic narratives. “We had the event because of reports indicating that the war is set to continue very soon,” says AWC organizer and co-interviewer Naveen Borojerdi.

A quote from the very first page of Kovalik's book, published in 2018, has proven prescient, “By many accounts, the United States, and its close ally Israel, have been preparing for a war with Iran for over a decade now.”

With the Trump administration furthering the United States' imperialist goals in the Middle East, understanding the history of U.S. intervention is essential in effectively promoting countries' rights to national independence.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Iran #International #MNAWC

Minneapolis, MN – On July 29, over 150 protesters gathered outside U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar's new office in downtown Minneapolis. The event was called by Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, in response to Israel’s manufactured famine imposed on Gaza, and to call out Klobuchar's complicity in this starvation campaign.

Nadiyah Salawdeh, a member of United States Palestinian Community Network Minnesota, spoke about the mass starvation in Gaza, as well as the horrific actions taken by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“The U.S. and Israel designed a famine meant to starve people to death and to make them desperate enough to go to their own deaths for scraps of food,” stated Salawdeh. “For months, we’ve been seeing people argue that they need to block UN aid because Hamas was going to steal it. There was never any evidence of this and, in fact, Palestinians in Gaza were telling us that it wasn’t happening.”

Maysoon Wazwaz, a volunteer for American Muslims for Palestine Minnesota, spoke of a viral video where a little girl in Gaza is asking why there isn’t any food for her to eat.

“She was saying to her dad ‘Why don’t we get aid?’” said Wazwaz. “And the dad replies ‘Because we can’t; they’re going to shoot us.’ And she says a three letter word that shook everyone to their core: ‘Why?’ How do you tell a little girl, who barely understands the difference between certain animal groups, between colors, shapes and letters, that you are a demographic threat, all because you are Palestinian?”

Klobuchar has repeatedly voted to continue U.S. funding for Israel's genocide. On July 24, 2024, when Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed a joint session of Congress, she can be seen in the front row giving a standing ovation. As late as July 9, a group of 14 senators, both Democratic and Republican, posed for a photo-op with Netanyahu, and Klobuchar was included in this exclusive meeting.

Netanyahu has been charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a weapon of war.

Mike Madden, a member of Veterans for Peace, stated, “By providing offensive weapons to Israel, blocking UN Security Council Resolutions intended to restrain Israel, and hosting rather than arresting the criminally indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States is itself complicit in genocide.”

To conclude the demonstration, participants created a display made of empty pots and pans, signifying the empty stomachs of the people of Gaza, just outside of Klobuchar's office.

Andrew Josefchak, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, told the crowd, “Our politicians, who for two years have run cover for the genocide, are beginning to think about how history will view their inaction. Klobuchar, who until now has voted in favor of every single arms package to Israel, just yesterday felt compelled to vote yes on a bill that would halt all arms shipments to Israel. To be clear, this wasn’t out of any moral clarity, but a way to pretend that she has always been on the right side of history. Our politicians are feeling the heat, but we have to keep up the momentum.”

The Anti-War Committee has campaigned to demand that Minnesota divest its tax dollars from companies that have facilitated this genocide.

“Every single person in Gaza is deserving of life and dignity and liberation” continued Nadiyah Salawdeh. “We will remember all of those that we have lost, all of our martyrs. We will also remember the names of all of the people who stayed silent until now, all of the people who are still silent just as much as we will remember the war criminals who were allowed to carry out a genocide because of their silence. When Palestine is free, we will never let them forget what they did. They will all be held accountable for their part in this genocide.”

Speakers at the protest represented grass-roots organizations including the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Veterans for Peace (VFP), Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P), Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), and Food Justice Minnesota.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC

Minneapolis MN – On Sunday, July 13, over 100 community members rallied at Minneapolis’ Mayday Plaza to speak out against the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB), passed by Congress and signed into law by Donald Trump on July 4.

The BBB is set to bring about both the largest tax cut for the rich and largest addition to the federal deficit in many years. Alongside these giveaways to the wealthy, the BBB will also make historic cuts to, among other programs, SNAP and Medicaid, vital federal programs that millions of low income people rely on.

Protesters withstood the summer heat and humidity, as well as smoky air caused by Canadian wildfires to speak out about the BBB as an attack on the working class. The crowd waved signs calling for an end to deportations and genocide, while demanding increased spending on human needs such as employment, education and environmental justice. Cars passing by honked in support as the crowd chanted “We want jobs and education, not wars and deportation!”

The demonstration was organized by Minnesota Workers United (MWU), who decried the BBB as the latest in a series of attacks on working and oppressed peoples launched by the Trump administration.

MWU describes itself as “a group of rank-and-file union members, workers, and community members dedicated to building a fighting labor movement.” Speakers at the rally included several union workers and organizers, as well as activists from a variety of people’s movements.

Organizations speaking at the rally alongside MWU included the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Minnesota Labor for Palestine, Minnesota Anti-War Committee, the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, and the Minnesota Library Workers’ Coalition. A worker from Planned Parenthood also spoke about how the BBB is an attack on reproductive rights and the need for the community and unions to fight back.

Luke Wiebolt, a member of MWU, said to the crowd, “I urge you to not give up or fall into escapism, but to instead join forces with your fellow workers, to join an organization, a union, and to build community amidst these attacks. We will fight back against the attacks on workers, on healthcare, on immigrants, on women and reproductive rights, and on the environment.”

The closing speech in the lineup was from Angel Smith-El, a longtime community activist and organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice. Smith-El highlighted how oppressed nationalities and the urban poor have faced attacks and challenges such as the most recent ones posed by the passage of the BBB and had stood up and fought back for their rights. Closing out her speech, she succinctly exclaimed, “Tax the rich, stop the cuts!”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #Labor #Trump #BBB #MWU #MIRAC #MLP #MNAWC #TCC4J #MLWC

St. Paul, MN – Local residents including members of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Veterans for Peace and the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) protested at the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners meeting on July 15 with signs reading, “Saint Paul cut the contract, free Palestine!” to pressure the board to not renew Waterfall Security Solutions contract this fall.

Waterfall is a company headquartered in Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel. In 2024 it entered into a contract with Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS) to provide cybersecurity for the water department’s computer system. Protesters asked to speak at the meeting but were denied and not allowed to have their prepared statement entered into the minutes.

“If we can’t officially be a part of this meeting, I will take my leave, and I wish you well with the remainder of your work,” Mike Madden of Veterans for Peace told the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners, before launching into chants of “All that evil needs to succeed is for good people to stand by and do nothing.”

“We sent them letters, we sent them requests to address the board, we even asked them questions as simple as, ‘When will you have to review the contract and when do you plan to renew it or not?’ And they can’t answer questions as simple as that,” said Madden after the protest.

Madden said the Board of Water Commissioners President Mara Humphrey “tells us that we can’t address the board or even accept this into the minutes, but she will meet with us afterwards when we can be blown off again. There needs to be an official record of what we’re doing. They’re not willing to accept that. So that’s why this went down as it did.”

A statement endorsed by WAMM, Veterans for Peace, the MN Aati War Committee and the MN Peace Action Coalition said, “Under the Genocide Convention, contracting parties, of which the United States is one, have an affirmative obligation to prevent genocide. It is not an obligation that is specifically assigned to Congress, the State Department, or even the White House. Indeed, by providing weapons to Israel, blocking UN Security Council resolutions intended to restrain Israel, and hosting rather than arresting the criminally indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the federal government has utterly failed in its legal responsibility to prevent genocide, and should properly be considered complicit in genocide. In the dark shadow of this failure, we assume the moral responsibility to prevent genocide. As part of that responsibility, we call upon the City of Saint Paul to refrain from economic cooperation with any entity complicit in, or profiting from, apartheid or genocide. In particular, we call upon the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners to allow its contract with Waterfall to expire.”

The statement concluded, “Israel is acknowledged to be a leader in the development of spyware and other intrusive surveillance technologies. The most notorious, Pegasus, has been used to surveil, detain, and sometimes kill dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists. Compromised phones have also been used by Israel to geolocate individuals algorithmically targeted for assassination by aerial bombardment, with predictable results for innocents in the vicinity. It is disconcerting that a company with a history of ‘doing offensive cybersecurity for the Israeli Government’ should be allowed entry into SPRWS computer systems that hold sensitive data on water customers in the City of Saint Paul and the thirteen surrounding suburbs that receive SPRWS water and services.”

Women Against Military Madness plans to organize their Saint Paul supporters to call the water board and their city council members to pressure them to cut the Waterfall contract.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC #WAMM

Minneapolis, MN – On a rainy Monday evening, June 30, hundreds of Minnesotans lined Lake Street with signs and chants to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to give sweeping power to Trump, which could ultimately allow him to end birthright citizenship.

The decision came on Friday June 27. Legal experts say ending birthright citizenship, a right enshrined by the 14th Amendment since 1868, is a direct attack on the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped directly ruling on President Trump’s racist order, for now.

The court agreed with Trump’s lawyers to limit the ability of federal judges to issue universal injunctions from now on. This drastic move takes power away from the judiciary and hands it to Trump. Now whatever legally dubious executive orders Trump may dream up cannot be stopped in every state by federal judges; they can only be paused for the specific client or class that is suing the government.

While the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s clearly illegal attempt to change the Constitution via executive order regarding birthright citizenship, its decision to expand presidential power and restrict judicial power creates a chaotic legal situation where such orders can be implemented in much of the country, while being blocked in other parts of the country or for particular plaintiffs or classes represented in class action lawsuits.

Protesters yelled “Chinga la migra!” and “No one is illegal, all power to the people!” as passing cars on busy Lake Street honked in support during rush hour traffic. The energy stayed high as the crowd heard from five speakers, and despite some rain, stayed for a spirited march through the surrounding neighborhood.

People came out of their houses and onto their porches to support the protest, and patrons at local businesses cheered on as participants marched by with signs that read: “Defend birthright citizenship” and “If the courts won’t stop Trump, the people must stop him.”

Bruce Nestor, a longtime movement lawyer who has defended many activists from state repression, said “To attack birthright citizenship expands the ability of immigration agents to go to every nook and cranny of the country – not just the border, not just within 100 miles of the border, but every school, every hospital – now it allows them to go back. What if your parents were legal permanent residents and it was revoked months later because someone said they made a mistake?”

Dieu Do from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee shared, “My parents were not citizens when they had me. Birthright citizenship is why I am a U.S. citizen. So, the Supreme Court decision that was announced last week really hit home for me. What is legal about kidnapping people in broad daylight and deporting them without due process? What is legal about deliberately targeting people at courthouses and picking people up as they are going to and from hearings? What is legal about revoking student visas for speaking up for Palestine and human rights on their campuses?”

Other speakers included members of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, Students for a Democratic Society, and the MN Anti War Committee. Dieu Do ended the speaking portion of the program, stating, “We will continue to protest, be in the streets, calling for legalization for all and an end to mass deportations and raids and demanding justice for all. Because the people united will never be defeated!”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #Trump #MIRAC #TCC4J #SDS #MNAWC #Feature

St. Paul, MN – On June 11, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), and the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) held a joint rally at the Lake Street/Marshall Bridge over the Mississippi River to demand an end to Trump’s war on immigrants, and the militarized attacks on Los Angeles residents by local and federal law enforcement.

In the first six months of the Trump administration there has been an upsurge in the militarization of federal agencies as well local law enforcement. This rally came on the heels of the massive protests by LA residents against the increasingly frequent immigration raids by Trump’s ICE. These protests have been met with severe and disproportionate violence from LAPD and federal forces, with deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines.

Cedar Larson, a member of Women Against Military Madness, explained why that group opened up its weekly protest against U.S. militarism abroad to make connections with the immigrant rights movement, “Women Against Military Madness knows a military presence can never make women and girls safer. ICE abductions and the deployment of the National Guard in LA is a danger to all who call the city home. Wherever the U.S. military goes, violence follows! Here in Minneapolis, we have also witnessed violence at the hands of these officers – from ICE to the MPD, we must stand against violent and illegal attacks and repression.”

Minneapolis was also the site of a federal raid on June 3. Around 10:30 a.m. members of MIRAC received reports of ICE and the presence of other federal agencies at the intersections of Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue in South Minneapolis. MIRAC verified over 40 heavily armed and masked officers present as part of the operation, wearing insignias from various agencies, including FBI, DHS, HSI, ATF, DEA and ICE. The apparent targets of the raid were people inside of a taco restaurant. A call was made by MIRAC to the community to show up to the scene and document any racist or illegal activity by law enforcement. In the ensuing confrontation between community members and agents, officers sprayed tear gas, pepper spray, and shot pepper balls at members of the crowd. Due to the strong community turnout, none of the alleged targets of the raid ended up in custody.

Mira Altobell-Resendez, an organizer with MIRAC explained, “Here in Minneapolis, we won’t stand idly by as federal agents are allowed to invade our neighborhoods or those of our compañeros in Los Angeles and around the country. We have a duty to make it known that when ICE comes into town, our communities will show up to defend ourselves from their racist terror and the repression of our movement.”

Protesters denounced the militarized attacks on the Minneapolis and Los Angeles communities and called for strengthening ties and creating unity in a shared fight against Trump, and his use of federal agencies to terrorize working class neighborhoods of oppressed nationalities.

#StPaulMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #ICE #MIRAC #WAMM #MNAWC

Minneapolis, MN — On May 26, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) held a press conference outside the building that houses the offices they share with the Climate Justice Committee in South Minneapolis to address an attack over the weekend that left the building’s windows smashed and local organizers looking for answers.

Wyatt Miller of the AWC opened the event with a chant before giving the facts of the attack as they were known at that time, stating, “On Saturday we learned our office had been attacked overnight. Based on the level of damage, we believe the attackers intended to send a message and escape quickly.” Two large windows of double-paned sheet glass appeared to have been smashed repeatedly with a blunt object according to Miller, although no one appeared to have entered the building.

Meredith Aby, also of the AWC, shared that being targeted is not new to the committee. Due to the AWC’s pro-Palestine activism, it was the target of FBI raids and investigation in 2010. “In some ways it doesn’t surprise me that our office was vandalized during this upsurge of right-wing hatred in this country,” said Aby. “The language the Trump administration uses when they talk about the Palestine solidarity movement puts a target on our back and we are here to demand an end to the racist anti-Palestinian climate he is promoting.”

Aby reported that although the building owners did not yet have an exact number, the cost of damages and cleanup will be in the thousands. When press asked if police had been contacted, Aby said that due to the AWC’s politics and work with the Black Lives Matter movement, they had chosen not to contact the police at this time, but that they were investigating the incident through other means.

Kay Lorehl of the Climate Justice Committee spoke of the impactful work of the CJC and the AWC for environmental and social justice, including holding major Twin Cities air polluters accountable and marching on both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions to call out the environmental impact of U.S. imperialism.

“If rattling off our accomplishments sounds like a brag, that’s because it certainly is. Because if we, and our office roommates, the Anti-War Committee, weren’t excellent, weren’t moving people to come together in the streets to move mountains, this would not have happened,” declared Lorehl.

Minneapolis City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai spoke at the press conference and stated to the media and the crowd of about 100 that the AWC has fought in solidarity with other movements within the Twin Cities community since its inception. “They have stood in solidarity in the fight for environmental justice, for immigrants’ rights, for queer and trans liberation; they’ve turned out against crimes committed by police, stood out with us on picket lines and have remained steadfast anti-war activists for decades. They are an integral part of our Minneapolis community and crucial to our movements, not just as anti-war activists and organizers, but as part of the larger fight for oppressed people everywhere,” said Chughtai.

“This place and this building represent the best of Minnesota,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Minnesota (CAIR-MN), who rounded off the speeches for the day. “It represents those who are willing to use our tax dollars to invest in taking care of our neighbors first, and not sending bombs and displacing people all over the world.” Hussein, a Somali immigrant who told the crowd that he personally is no stranger to political displacement, called out our state leaders in their silence. “Too many unions and great leaders, and great organizations across the state of Minnesota have yet to declare that this war [in Palestine] is genocide and it needs to stop.”

Hussein echoed the sentiments of the earlier speakers, that an attack on activists is more like a boost. “You will not diminish the best of this nation. In fact, what you have done is give us a little bit of an energy shot, because of this attack we are more resolved. We are not turning back. You can break as many windows as you want, we will build them right back.”

“This desperate political attack is the result of all of us winning,” agreed Lerohl.

Aby’s message was equally clear that broken glass will not stop activists from organizing. “Vandals can be angered and destroy things like windows, but they cannot destroy our spirit because we have work to do.”

There was a short question and answer portion after the speeches regarding the investigation, which Miller and Aby fielded. There is not much information to provide yet on the attackers, but the AWC was able to declare with certainty that this attack will only make them and their work for a free Palestine even stronger. The event ended with chants of “Free free Palestine!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

The entire press conference is available for viewing on the Minnesota Anti-War Committee’s YouTube page.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC #PoliticalRepression

Minneapolis, MN — On May 17, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), American Muslims for Palestine — MN (AMP), and the Free Palestine Coalition held a march to remember Al Nakba. They were joined by more than 250 community members in a march that shut down several of Minneapolis’ busiest downtown arteries. The action was a part of the Anti-War Action Network’s week of action.

Nakba Day, the commemoration of Al Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe,” marks the 1948 expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by militias that would later become the formal Israeli army.

Demonstrators marched with signs that read, “Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!” and “End the Nakba.” They carried a banner demanding “Trump: Hands off Gaza!”

While those in Minneapolis were commemorating Nakba Day by demanding an end to Israel’s apartheid laws and genocide in Gaza, Israel is currently carrying out a continuing Nakba. Hundreds have been massacred since Thursday, May 15, as Israel intensifies its aerial bombing and ground invasion in Gaza.

Speaking at Saturday’s march, Sana Wazwaz said, “I don’t want to give a speech today. The people of Gaza were saying their goodbyes the other night. And honestly, I’m sick of the sound of my own voice. But we’re here to say we’ve heard their goodbyes and yet Palestine will never say goodbye.” Wazwaz led the crowd in a series of call-and-response chants, the crowd responding with chants of “Never again!” as Wazwaz listed atrocities that have been carried out by the Israeli military.

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network-Minnesota (USPCN) was represented by Nadiyah Salawdeh, who emphasized that Israel’s crimes against humanity aren’t limited to Gaza. They described the apartheid conditions faced by Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, including the 793 military checkpoints that Palestinians must navigate as they live their daily lives, the land theft that has accelerated in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, and the 40,000 Palestinians who have been driven from their homes in the West Bank in the past few months.

Salawdeh stated, “As genocide continues in Gaza, don’t turn away and forget the escalations happening in the West Bank. It’s no secret that what Israel is doing in Gaza, Israel hopes to one day do in the West Bank as well. We are here to remind you: the Nakba never ended. It has evolved, shifted, and changed, but the goal of the Israeli regime has always been the same: permanent displacement of the entire Palestinian people.”

Layna Crandell, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, spoke as a Jewish anti-Zionist, saying, “This genocide is our modern-day Holocaust. I could talk about how Jews can’t be safe while Palestine is under attack, until Palestine is free, but ultimately this isn’t about us. Our solidarity is with Palestinians and their liberation. Our solidarity is with Palestinian resistance, who have fought for decades for their people and land.”

Crandell continued, “It’s not just Netanyahu or Ben Gvir or Smotrich. Israel has been a strategic pawn for U.S. imperialism for decades and continues to exist through U.S. economic and material support. Israel has been a stable ally throughout the U.S.’s destabilization efforts in the Middle East in pursuit of their own economic interests. Israel has also allied with the U.S. through supplying weapons to paramilitaries and far right governments in Latin America, collaborating with apartheid states in Africa, and supporting U.S.– led invasions in Asia. The IDF even trains our own police!”

Vash Lamp of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) spoke on the necessity of the movement for immigrant rights standing up for Palestine. He summed up the sentiment of the demonstrators when he said, “My friend shared with us the posts made by Palestinians in Gaza sharing their final goodbyes, because they didn’t expect to make it through the night. In these times, it’s hard to remain hopeless when we have the means of forging the future that we’re fighting for. Despite how bad this week has been, I’m not feeling hopeless, I’m feeling like I want to fucking fight!”

Organizers ended the march by emphasizing the need for all those standing for justice in the U.S. to show solidarity across movements, calling for marchers to attend an upcoming demonstration against Trump’s empowerment of police departments.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC #AMP #FPC #Nakba

The protest began with a rally at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis. Among the speakers was Gabriel Miller, a member of the Anti-War Committee, who stated, “Today, we are here together to demand that Palestinian’s are given basic human dignity. The right to go home. The right of return. The right to choose their own future.”

Miller also brought attention to Trump’s plans for ethnic cleansing and “redevelopment” in Gaza, stating, “Trump’s plan for Palestine is a travesty. A disgusting hallucination of Gaza with Palestinians replaced with casinos and gold statues of himself. He and his gang of AIPAC politicians have made it a personal mission to crush any and all solidarity with Palestine.”

“We have not forgotten,” said Shahd Abouhekel, an organizer from Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Minnesota. “We are generations after the Nakba, we are thousands of miles away from Palestine, but we are here to tell America, we are here to tell everyone that Palestine will be free!”

Speaking on the recent political repression and arrests of student organizers at the University of Minnesota, Abouhekel pointed out the hypocrisy of the university calling its students violent while praising Netanyahu when he came to the United States, “You welcome war criminals! Shame on you!”

After the rally, protesters marched through South Minneapolis, where community members cheered from their homes, threw up fists from their cars, and even joined the protest from the streets.

To learn more about Anti-War Committee actions in solidarity with Palestine, or to learn how to join the movement, organizers encouraged attendees to visit DivestMN.com and to follow the Anti-War Committee on Instagram @antiwarMN to learn about Minnesota’s public investments in Israel and how to fight it.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC

St. Paul, MN – On Friday, March 21, the otherwise obscure Minnesota Retirement Systems building was guarded by dozens of state troopers who blocked entrances to the parking lot. More troopers manned the building entrance, screening bags and limiting entry to only a few dozen members of the public. Inside the small conference room where the State Board of Investment (SBI)’s quarterly meeting was to be held, more troopers along with plainclothes security lined the entire perimeter.

These extraordinary measures were the SBI’s latest attempt to demoralize and discourage members of the public from calling on it to divest the billions of state funds it manages from Israel and companies enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The attempted intimidation failed. Despite the show of force by law enforcement and arbitrary new restrictions on public comments, dozens of Palestine supporters showed up to deliver testimony and show support for divestment.

The SBI’s decision to limit the number of people in the meeting room backfired spectacularly. Most of the divestment advocates found themselves shut out of the building, but just steps away from the windows of the ground-floor room where the meeting was held. The crowd quickly morphed into an impromptu protest, with chants of “Free free Palestine” and “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!” clearly audible through the entire meeting.

The SBI is composed of its chair, Governor Tim Walz, along with Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha and Secretary of State Steve Simon. According to the watchdog site DivestMN.com, out of $146 billion total in managed assets, the SBI invests approximately $5.4 billion in entities complicit in Israel’s apartheid regime. That figure includes investments in weapons manufacturers, Israeli banks that fund illegal settlement construction in occupied Palestine, and even Israel Bonds, which directly fund the state of Israel.

Abir Ismael is a Minneapolis public school teacher and member of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59. “My pension was part of the demolition of almost every educational institution in Gaza. My pension was used to burn children alive,” she told the SBI. “I demand that my pension be divested from companies complicit in the murder of children.”

Several members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), a labor union representing state workers, also testified.

“We’re here to remind you that we, the state workers of Minnesota, will not tolerate the investment of our pension funds in these violations of human rights,” said Tracy Waterman, a state Department of Natural Resources employee represented by MAPE. “We haven’t forgotten that Governor Walz once said the situation in Gaza is intolerable, and he was right. It was intolerable then, and it’s intolerable now, this week, as we’re hearing news that Israel has broken its ceasefire and launched new airstrikes on Gaza.”

“Our pension funds were divested from apartheid in 1985; we can, and we must do it again, now,” Waterman added. In 1985, the SBI passed a resolution initiating broad divestment from any corporations deemed to be supporting the apartheid system in South Africa.

Naveen Borojerdi, another state employee and MAPE member, asked the SBI, “With the investments that we have in Israel, and arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Israeli weapons companies like Elbit systems, in the case that what we’re seeing in the Middle East turns into a global energy war, how much of the portfolio potentially becomes affected by that?”

In a powerful moment, city of Minneapolis worker and Minneapolis Professional Employees Association union member Sebastiana Cervantes yielded her remaining time for a moment of silence. The SBI was forced to sit through minutes of nothing but the sound of protesters chanting outside the building.

The SBI meeting adjourned immediately after the public comments, with no response from the board members. Afterwards, the testifiers joined with the protesters outside for a press conference and rally.

“Within the structure of settler-colonialism, indigenous people are seen as a demographic problem. Therefore Israel is engaged in an extermination campaign,” Kalani Matus, indigenous Hawaiian and member of the Twin Cities-based Climate Justice Committee, told the crowd.

Many speakers highlighted the Trump administration’s recent attacks on pro-Palestine immigrants, making divestment from Israel a potential route for Minnesota leaders to fight for civil rights. “Palestine is a civil rights cause,” said Matus. “It’s becoming more and more apparent to everybody that anti-Palestinian repression is the tip of the spear when it comes to removing our freedom of speech.”

On March 8, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents abducted and initiated deportation proceedings against Mahmoud Khalil, an activist involved in the Palestine protests at Columbia University in New York, despite him being a lawful permanent resident of the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleged that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” without providing evidence.

Speakers underscored that the growing tactics of intimidation and repression could not stop the divest movement. “This is going to be a long fight,” said Barry Kleider of Jewish Voice for Peace. “But I’ve learned a lesson from my sisters and brothers fighting for gay marriage. What we’re asking for, what we’re fighting for, is going to be impossible – until it’s inevitable.”

The next SBI meeting, as of press time, is scheduled for May 22 at 10 a.m., with the location yet to be announced. In the meantime, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee has called for a community march to say no to Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza, on Saturday, March 29 at 1 p.m., beginning at the northwest corner of Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MFT #MAPE #MNAWC

Minneapolis, MN – On March 11, over 300 people protested in front of the Federal Building downtown Minneapolis to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil and an end to the Trump administration’s criminalization of the pro-Palestine student movement at U.S. The protest was a part of Student for a Democratic Society’s call for a National Day of Action in solidarity with Khalil.

On the evening of March 8, the Department of Homeland Security detained Palestinian Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil. This was the first detention after Trump ordered the State Department to deport students for pro-Palestine activism. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., a green card holder, and his arrest is an unlawful violation of freedom of speech and immigration laws.

Trump’s Executive Order 13899 requires “the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with each other […] report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”

On February 28, The Department of Justice announced that a federal task force to “Combat Antisemitism” would visit ten college campuses that “experienced incidents of antisemitism.” Trump’s administration conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism and criminalizes students, staff and faculty who have protested a deadly genocide that has killed over 48,000 people in Gaza. This is a discrimination against Muslim, Palestinian and Middle Eastern students, faculty and staff. Columbia University and University of Minnesota are among campuses under investigation.

Crista Ocampo, an organizer with the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee, spoke to the crowd, “We condemn this egregious case of political repression at the hands of ICE. ICE officers have terrorized communities across the country for far too long and now they are being used as a tool by Trump to further repress the Palestine movement. Shame! We won’t let them get away with this. Just look at the hard fought battle SDS put up and won against their administration to get the suspensions dropped for the Halimy Hall students. When our oppressors’ attacks become more blatant, it only makes it easier for us to unite with each other on the path to justice. We will never stop fighting because we know that that’s how we win.”

Lina Jebara, an organizer with the MN Anti-War Committee, closed out the protest, “These acts of political repression – of plucking community leaders from movements, of threatening organizers with unconstitutional deportations or with phony felony charges, as we’ve seen here in our community – are not new for this country. These are deliberate actions taken to make us fear retaliation for standing up against depraved injustices, to push us towards acquiescence. We’re out here today, after witnessing months of harrowing genocide in Palestine carried out by Israel on our dime, to say that these tactics do not and will not work on us.”

The protest was organized by the MN Anti-War Committee, UMN Educators for Justice in Palestine, UMN Students for a Democratic Society, and endorsed by UMN Students for Justice in Palestine, Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #PoliticalRepression #Trump #SDS #MNAWC #SJP #MIRAC #JVP #AMP

Minneapolis, MN — On Saturday, March 1, more than 60 Twin Cities community members gathered to attend a “State Board of Divestment” speak-out event hosted by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee in a Minneapolis community center.

Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (SBI), a large public fund managed by state officials Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, and Secretary of State Steve Simon. It currently invests approximately $5.4 billion in apartheid Israel, Israeli companies, weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel’s military, and other companies that prop up Israel’s apartheid system.

Over the past two years, the SBI’s public meetings have seen increasingly large turnout from the Palestinian community, anti-war movement, and union members whose pensions are paid out via the SBI’s fund, all demanding divestment from Israel.

The SBI’s next public meeting, scheduled for March 5, was recently rescheduled with less than a week’s notice. The previous meeting saw unexplained changes to the format and rules of the meeting, and did not allow community members to speak. The SBI has not provided a new date for its required quarterly meeting.

The State Board of Divestment event was structured like a mock SBI meeting, with the emcees calling up speakers who had previously signed up to speak to the SBI’s board to give their testimony to a camera in place of the absent board. The Anti-War Committee plans to submit the film to the SBI.

Emily Newberg, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, opened the event by saying, “Before the December meeting it was announced that the SBI were switching to a hybrid option without giving a reason why. And they said that any comments that folks wanted to make would need to be sent in advance. A hybrid option, of course, means a choice between in-person or online and does not indicate that the community will not have a chance to be heard. Ater allowing only 35 people into the building, another rule we weren’t made aware of ahead of time, we soon learned that the SBI meeting was not itself in person. The 35 of us were ushered into a room where we were sat in front of a TV screen showing the shameful faces of the members of the SBI holding a closed, but televised, meeting.”

Speakers from AFSCME 3800, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, and a variety of community groups like the Minnesota BDS Community and Jewish Voice for Peace were called to the mic to give testimony to the absent board.

Sorcha Lona, a rank-and-file member of Teamsters 638 and Minnesota Workers United, a group of progressive rank-and-file unionists, addressed her comments to Keith Ellison and Julie Blaha. She spoke about how Ellison and Blaha had met with members of Minnesota Workers United twice over concerns about the investment of union pension funds in apartheid Israel, but that the meetings had not gotten results, saying, “It didn’t feel like we were talking to an ally of labor, it felt like we were bargaining with a greedy and selfish boss. I would like an explanation as to why investing in a pariah state committing genocide is responsible money management, while [Israel’s] credit rating is in a freefall.”

Wyatt Miller, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, addressed his comments to Governor Tim Walz, former vice presidential nominee for the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential race. Miller said, “Trump’s inauguration represents the possibility of the situation getting even worse for Palestinians. Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to ‘take over’ Gaza and ethnically cleanse its over 2 million people, while unlikely to succeed, appears to hint at his administration greenlighting a renewed Israeli onslaught on Gaza – In other words, Governor Walz, your political legacy as someone who refused to divest Minnesota from Israel, is entirely in the hands of President Trump.”

The event was concluded by Minnesota Anti-War Committee member Andrew Josefchak thanking attendees and speakers for coming and then saying ,“But it's bullshit that we even had to host this event today. We started organizing this event over a month ago, because we knew it was almost certain that the SBI would once again try to shut us out of their meeting, and unfortunately, we were correct. And I think we have to start being honest with ourselves and calling the SBI’s maneuvers what they are: political repression. It may not be cops cracking skulls with riot batons, but it's a soft, insidious kind of political repression that is clearly intended to make it more difficult for anyone in this state to organize towards divestment.”

Josefchak continued, “And the thing about political repression is that the only way to respond to it, besides giving in to it and just slinking into the shadows and letting the movement die, is to fight it head on. The SBI has picked the fight, are we gonna fight back?” The crowd responded with a cry of “Yes!” and “Free free Palestine!”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #MNAWC

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. 

Speakers connected Trump's attacks on immigrants, trans rights, workers and Palestine to the rollback of environmental protections that Trump instituted in his first days in office.

Trump has used executive orders to push more fossil fuels and end the U.S. role in the Paris Climate Accords, ensuring that previously agreed upon goals to curb climate change won’t happen. The CJC speaker emphasized how every tenth of a percent of rising temperatures mean more intense weather, food scarcity and increasing energy costs that fall disproportionately on oppressed nationality and working class families and their communities. They also talked about the lack of action by Democrats like Senator Klobuchar, whose office the rally was in front of.

Rally goers chanted, “Stand up fight back” as the emcee rotated the attacks on immigrants, trans rights, Palestine, and workers that are happening from Trump and his cronies. 

Kristen Bledsoe from Minnesota Abortion Action Committee talked about the heart wrenching case of Sam Nordquist, a Minnesota native who had recently been tortured and killed in New York as a logical conclusion of the transphobic rhetoric coming from the Trump administration. 

Bledsoe ended her speech with, “We have to resist the impulse to shut down and hide. We have to recognize that the cruelty and the chaos of the Trump administration is meant to make us lose focus, and we have to counter that by being more strategic, more united, and more organized than ever before.” 

“Trump’s attacks on DEI show the white supremacist mindset, trying to kill anything that would make this country more equal for those who have been left out for centuries,” stated Minnesota Workers United speaker Neil Radford. Radford called on rally goers to focus on solidarity of the working class that needs to stand together and not allow Trump and his ilk to divide us. 

Mira Altobell-Resendez from the Minnesota Immigrant Action Committee talked about the important work MIRAC is doing using Know Your Rights trainings with immigrant communities and allies to stand against ICE and governmental agencies. 

Trent Fast from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee made a clear case, “We need to be mad as hell at Donald Trump and his attacks on everyday working people here at home - and those in Palestine. We all have more in common with everyday Palestinians than we ever will with people like Donald Trump. Solidarity across movements is our sharpest weapon against his presidency. Because when we stand together, there's way more of us than there are of them!”

All of the speakers emphasized the importance of getting involved and building solidarity among the people’s movements to stand against the Trump attacks over the next four years and beyond.

#MinneapolisMN #TwinCities #CJC #ClimateJustice #MNAWC #AWC #ICE #MIRAC #Immigration #NoDeportations #DEI

St. Paul, MN – On February 8, in honor of Black History Month, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) presented an educational panel titled “Black Against Empire: Perspectives On Liberation In Haiti, Congo, Sudan, and the U.S.A.”

The panel was held at Macalester College in Saint Paul. Experts, activists and community leaders spoke about the timelines, struggles and victories of African people throughout history against imperialist oppression.

The panelists included Frank Chapman, head of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR); Nick Tolliver, member of the AWC; Mohammed Farah, member of Healthcare Workers For Palestine, along with a written statement submitted by Ruben Joanem of the Haiti Justice Committee. Facilitating the event were Liz Bolsoni from the AWC and Trahern Crews from Black Lives Matter Minnesota.

“The bottom line is, we have to fight our way out of this. We can’t analyze our way out of it. We can’t pray our way out of it. We’ve got to fight our way out of it,” Chapman said. “We’re building a mass movement, and we’ve got to build even greater.” Chapman is the Executive Director of NAARPR, field organizer of its Chicago chapter, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and sits on the Central Committee of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

“The exploitation of the Congo is the beating heart of the global capitalist system and our collective liberation from imperialism and capitalism is bound together with the liberation of the Congo,” said Tolliver, who provided a history of liberation struggles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tolliver is an anti-war activist and self-proclaimed “Black history nerd” who is passionate about Congo solidarity and African liberation.

Farah was born and raised in Khartoum, Sudan, and works as a hospital pharmacist in Minnesota while pursuing a graduate degree in public health. Farah expanded on the cultural foundation of Sudan found in art and poetry. He said, “Poets are the embodiment of the soul of a nation. It creates the spirit of Sudanese nationalism.”

As presentations and speeches concluded, a dialogue was opened between the panelists and the audience to further discuss issues that Black people have historically faced and how they tie in with modern struggles connected with capitalism and imperialism.

The final question asked was about the future of community organizing around Black liberation, to which Chapman closed with the statement, “Well, the future is always now. And the future belongs to those who are willing to fight for it.”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #International #Africa #Sudan #Congo #StudentMovement #NAARPR #MNAWC #BLM

Minneapolis, MN – On February 2, Palestine solidarity protesters marched down Hennepin Avenue in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. The action, called by the Twin Cities-based Free Palestine Coalition, was entitled, “Ceasefire is not the end! Stop the attacks on the West Bank!” Hundreds of people rallied at Gateway Park for speeches before taking the streets on foot and in cars.

The protest came on the heels of the ceasefire agreement won by the Palestinian resistance, which took effect on January 19. In addition to a cessation of Israel’s massacres in Gaza and at least partial withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Gaza, the ceasefire also won the release of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.

Despite the victories, Israel and its imperialist backers have hinted at intentions to resume the genocidal attacks on Gaza. Notably, on January 25, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke of his hope to “clean out” all the inhabitants of Gaza by forcibly removing them to countries like Jordan and Egypt. In Lebanon, Israel openly flaunted a separate ceasefire won by resistance forces there, refusing to withdraw its troops after a 60-day deadline that expired on January 26.

Since January 21, Israeli forces have initiated new attacks on the West Bank, especially in Jenin and Tulkarm. As of press time, the occupation forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and displaced at least 15,000. Zionist politicians openly compared this new campaign to the 15 months of genocidal violence Israel waged on Gaza. The latest military attacks in the West Bank also coincided with an onslaught of settler violence against Palestinians.

At the Minneapolis protest, speakers urged the solidarity movement to not separate the various fronts of resistance to Israel. “Do not say the ‘Gaza Genocide.’ Say the ‘Palestinian Genocide’,” said Maysoon Wazwaz of American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota. “Because Gaza is Jenin. And it’s Ramallah. And it’s every damn city in Palestine.”

Organizers with the Free Palestine Coalition called for an end to all U.S. aid to Israel. Several local groups, including the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and Minnesota BDS Community, have also called for divestment at the state level from weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid system. The next State Board of Investment is scheduled for March 5; the Anti-War Committee will hold a “State Board of Divestment” indoor rally at the New City Center in Minneapolis (3104 16th Avenue S), on March 1 at 3 p.m.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #FreePalestineCoalition #MNAWC #MinnesotaBDSCommunity #AmericanMuslimsforPalestine

Minneapolis, MN – During the harsh winter conditions on January 11, the streets of Minneapolis were filled with the flags, signs, vehicles and chants of the pro-Palestine movement. 

Marking the one-year anniversary of the Great Ride of Return, an international cycling movement dedicated to raising awareness and funds to support aid efforts for the people of Gaza, a caravan was held to take the streets of the city in an effort to continue applying pressure to get Governor Tim Walz to divest the billions of Minnesota pension holder’s funds from modern day apartheid and genocidal efforts.

The caravan was initiated by the MN Anti-War Committee. It began at Minneapolis South High School, wove through one of Minneapolis’ busiest roads, Lake Street, crossed the Mississippi River, and ended in front of Governor Walz’s mansion in St. Paul.

Before the caravan, participants heard from several speakers. Liz Bolsoni of Minnesota’s Anti-War Committee praised the efforts of the Gaza Sunbirds, a paracycling team that has worked tirelessly to distribute aid throughout the Gaza Strip for the past year. Signifying Minnesota’s complicity with the ongoing genocide, Bolsoni told the crowd, “In a statement of the UN General Assembly in October 2024, the Office of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the besieged Gaza Strip is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in history. Each day, tenchildren are losing one or both legs.” 

Bolsoni continued, “Right now, the Minnesota State Board of Investment - chaired by Walz - has over $700 million invested in weapons manufacturers that are actively selling to Israel. This being only a fraction of the $5.4 billion invested in other corporations that kill, displace, and terrorize Palestinians.”

Brian Chval of Minnesota’s Anti-War Committee explained, “From weapons, tech, and heavy machinery companies, whose inventory marks Palestinian existence for death to demolition the banks, businesses, and government bonds of Israel itself, the SBI has put our tax money and the retirement funds of workers around the state to the service of genocide.” 

Naveen Borojerdi, a unionized public employee and member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, stated, “You would think after losing an election on the national stage, Tim Walz would start listening to his constituents. Time will tell if he, and the rest of the State Board of Investment, will start listening to us. Otherwise, it will be a repeat of what happened this past November.” 

Borojerdi also told how the State Board of Investments recently closed their public meetings to community members, by no longer allowing the public to participate in the meetings in person, limiting their participation to being able to watch the meeting as a live stream. 

After the powerful speeches, a caravan of 75 vehicles and cyclists took to the streets of Minneapolis to begin their journeytowards the mansion of Governor Walz. Slowly traversing the traffic of streets, the caravan continued to grow in size as it approached the mansion.

Cheers echoed, fists were raised, and pride in the continued fight against oppression was experienced by thousands who were witness to the action. Upon arriving at the Governor’s mansion, protesters exited their vehicles to plant and hang signs and messages to make it clear to Walz that his willing participation in genocide will not be forgotten.

#MinneapolisMN #Walz #TimWalz #FreePalestine #MNAWC #AntiWarCommittee

Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday December 21 close to 100 people rallied in downtown Minneapolis to say, “All we want for Christmas is an end to the genocide.” The rally was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and took place across the street from the WCCO TV studios, within sight of the Minneapolis Holidazzle Celebration, in the Nicollet Mall district of downtown.

Fourteen months into Israel’s genocide in Palestine the death toll has reached over 45,000 people, and attacks on civilians, their homes and refugee camps continue to be a daily occurrence. On Friday December 20, Israeli airstrikes killed 25 people in the Gaza Strip, with one strike in particular hitting the home of the Khalla family in Jabalia Al-Nazla. The result was the death of ten members of their family, including seven children – the oldest age six, according to civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal. Meanwhile in Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians awoke to find the Bir al-Walideen mosque had been set on fire by Israeli settlers. The words “Death to Arabs,” among other slogans, had been spray-painted on the building’s facade.

Incredibly, this all continues to take place during a month in which we’ve also seen the collapse of the Syrian government in Damascus, swiftly followed by a rampant Israeli bombing campaign on Syrian airfields and naval bases, rendering any new government that takes shape essentially defenseless in the face of Israel’s incursions into sovereign Syrian land. The Israeli Defense Forces bragged about the operation being the largest in the history of its air force, claiming to have destroyed 70 to 80% of the Syrian state’s strategic military capabilities.

Representing the Anti-War Committee at Saturday’s rally, Layna Crandell spoke about the contradiction between the joy many Americans feel during the holidays, and the horrors that Palestinians are facing this December.

Crandell stated, “While we are celebrating with our friends and families this holiday season, families in Palestine lose children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. While we are celebrating, children in Gaza say that they wish they were dead. While we are celebrating, exchanging presents and taking time off work, our country plunders resources abroad with cheap labor, destroys nations’ sovereignty through destabilization efforts, and bombs civilians for U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. Because to our government, the interests of the ruling class are more important than people's lives.”

Mike Madden of Veterans For Peace also spoke to the crowd. He pointed out how many U.S. officials appear to be above the law when it comes to supplying weapons and support for Israel’s crimes, when Israel has been declared to be committing genocide by the International Criminal Court. He proceeded to juxtapose those officials with Robyn Harbison, a Minneapolis activist and member of Women Against Military Madness and the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee who is currently facing a bogus and trumped-up felony charge for his participation in the occupation of Halimy Hall at the University of Minnesota in October.

In comparison to U.S. politicians’ “above the law” status, Madden explained, “And then there is the flip side of the coin: those honorable people who are doing all they can to stop the genocide, only to have the rules and laws turned against them for minor and fabricated offenses. In their effort to uphold international law, these anti-genocide activists are being unfairly bludgeoned with the law in order to silence criticism of the real criminals; those who are committing genocide in Palestine, and their enablers in Washington DC.”

Educators For Justice In Palestine at the University of Minnesota was represented at the rally by Sima Shakhsari. Shakhsari stated, “As we get close to Christmas and as people shop for Christmas presents, let’s not forget that our tax dollars and pensions are being invested in a genocide in Palestine, where Jesus was born. Rather than buying into the spirit of capitalism, let’s make sure not to buy from companies that are complicit with the genocide in Gaza. In a time when all Gaza’s universities are demolished, what I want this Christmas is for the University of Minnesota to divest from Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to drop suspensions and charges on students who are being punished for standing for justice.”

Rallygoers also heard speakers from the organizations Women Against Military Madness and Families Against Military Madness. The Minneapolis Ceasefire Choir led Christmas carols with revised lyrics which called for an end to the genocide. Hundreds of Holidazzle goers shuffled by the rally, with dozens stopping to listen and some even participating.

The coming weeks will no doubt be a critical juncture for Minnesotans who support Palestinian liberation as we see a transition into Trump’s second presidency in January. The solidarity for Palestine across vast sections of the people’s movements must continue to remain a centerpiece in our organizing and a major thorn in the side of those who hold power and seek to maintain the status quo.

This includes the need for outspoken opposition to Minnesota’s complicity in genocide via the State Board of Investment chaired by Governor Tim Walz, and more broadly the United States facilitation of the genocide in Palestine. This is why the work of coalitions like MPAC are so important to our movement. Their organizing this holiday season proves that regardless of religious affiliation and despite freezing temperatures, Minnesotans will continue to show up and demand an end to the genocide.

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