Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday, December 8, the Minnesota Anti War Committee held their annual Human Rights Day action. 200 protesters gathered in Minneapolis’s Washburn Fair Oaks Park and marched down the busy Nicollet Avenue, shouting demands for human rights for all and calling on the Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest from apartheid Israel and weapons manufacturers.

Every year, Human Rights Day is celebrated internationally to commemorate the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that protects the inalienable rights of every person. During this Human Rights Day, protesters connected different struggles, including healthcare and abortion access, immigrant rights, police abolition, climate justice, land back, and anti-imperialism, to call for an end to human rights abuses in the U.S. and those sponsored by the U.S. abroad.

Abdullah Muhammad, a member of the Minnesota chapter of American Muslims for Palestine said, “Our unity today underscores a profound truth, the struggles for justice are interconnected.”

This protest heard speeches from the Anti-War Committee, Health Care Workers 4 Palestine, Climate Justice Committee, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, American Muslims for Palestine, Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, and Minnesota Workers United.

Robyn Harbison, a member of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, stated, “Countries are not playgrounds, nations are not chess pieces, nations are the people.” Connecting abortion access to the broader fight for human rights, Harbison asserted the “commitment in demanding better for the working class, our trans family, undocumented sisters, and victims of police violence.” Harbison is an outspoken Palestine solidarity activist and is fighting felony charges for protesting for Palestine at the University of MN.

Nicholas Tolliver, a member of the Anti-War Committee, stated that imperial powers, “monopolize access to resources and secure global supply chains on a planet that is being suffocated by climate change and ecological collapse caused by capitalist production and resource extraction.”

In order to stop imperial violence and human rights abuses, Tolliver stated, “divestment is one of the most powerful tools that we, living here in the imperial core, have to fight against imperialist human rights violations.”

The Minnesota State Board of Investment, which controls and organizes public workers’ pensions and state investments funded by taxpayers, invests $5.4 billion in public assets belonging to entities complicit or profiting from the Israeli apartheid and genocide. They are holding their quarterly meeting this Tuesday, December 10, at 10 a.m. in the Department of Administration Building, where the Minnesota Free Palestine Coalition is planning to pack the room.

The MN Anti-War Committee Human Rights Day protest was also a part of the Anti-War Action Network’s call for a week of action.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiWarMovement #MNAWC #AMP #MinneapolisFederationofTeachers #HealthcareWorkersforPalestine #CJC #MAAC #MIRAC #MWU

Minneapolis, MN – At least 14 unions from Minnesota held a rally in support of the striking Minneapolis educators, March 20. The rally was organized by the Minnesota Workers United (MWU) Strike Support Committee, which is the sanctioned labor and community strike support committee of the Minneapolis educators’ strike.

12 unions or labor organizations were listed on the event as cohosts to the MWU event, which included MWU, AFSCME Locals 3800, 2822 and 3937, CWA Local 7250, the Minnesota Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare MN, MN Bookstore Workers United, MACE, UFCW 1189, the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and the MN AFL-CIO. More unions were reported to have endorsed the events along with the list of cohosts on the event.

Around 300 union members and elected leaders attended the rally which began in the parking lot of Shiloh Temple, across the street from the Davis Center where the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) office is located. The rally then marched, circling the two city blocks surrounding the Davis Center.

At the Davis Center the unions delivered a scroll of the educators' demands at the front door. Theatrics were significant as a union member dressed costume of a town crier read the demands from a large scroll and attempted to be let into the building before placing the scroll in the door handles of the building while the crowd watched and cheered.

Many unions and community members spoke in support of the educators’ demands and called on MPS to meet the educators’ demands for safe and stable schools.

Later, at 9 p.m. that night, the educators stated that they had received a fourth “last, best and final” offer from MPS in which MPS moved some on raises for education support professionals, but the union says that the movement did not meet the needs to consider settling the contract and that MPS will need to move further.

As of Monday, March 21, the strike has now entered its 14th day and workers remain solidly committed to winning the demands that meet the needs of their educators and students and that will allow for safe and stable schools. The educators are on strike for significant pay raises for education support professionals (ESPs) to have a living wage, for smaller class sizes, and mental health supports for students, among other demands. The ESPs are predominantly oppressed nationality low-wage workers. The union is demanding a living wage for the ESPs in which no ESP make less than $35,000 a year.

Picket lines resumed at 7:30 Monday morning at Minneapolis schools, which remain closed for the strike and according to MPS’s own data, 95% of the educators continue to honor the strike.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #Strikes #TeachersUnions #MinnesotaWorkersUnited #MinneapolisFederationOfTeachers