News and Views from the People's Struggle
![Twin Cities protesters chant in opposition to a “fun run” fundraiser by Abria Pregnancy Resource, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center.](https://i.snap.as/QW8Exeko.jpg "Twin Cities protesters chant in opposition to a “fun run” fundraiser by Abria Pregnancy Resource, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center. | Photo credit: Ashley Taylor-Gouge/watchmerisempls \")
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, May 10, Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) protested a fundraiser hosted by Abria Pregnancy Resources, a Twin Cities anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center. Pro-abortion activists and community members alike lined a stretch of Lake Harriet Parkway while anti-abortion participants were participating in Abria’s ninth annual “Life is Wonderful 10K, 5K, Walk & Fun Run.”
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, May 3, the Twin Cities district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization celebrated the great proletarian holiday of May Day – International Workers Day. The event took place at the Lucy Parsons Center in Minneapolis. The celebration included grilling, live musical performances, and a lineup of speakers from various people’s movements active in the Twin Cities.
Minneapolis, MN – Donald Trump has spent the first 100 days of his second administration unleashing a wave of terror against immigrants, their communities, their supporters, and even immigration lawyers and judges. This shouldn’t be a big surprise, given his lifetime of racism and his shrill anti-immigrant rhetoric during last year’s election campaign – falsely scapegoating immigrants for the problems created by the billionaire class.
But the scope and methods the administration is using in the anti-immigrant onslaught this time already surpass the cruelty to immigrants in Trump’s first term. This is starting to provoke a significant backlash of mass protests and lawsuits. Even some Democrats in Congress are starting to speak out after their silence or outright support for anti-immigrant measures in the aftermath of Trump winning the 2024 election.
Minneapolis, MN – The Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s $100K Fund Drive has not only met its goal but surpassed it, with $104,600 raised and still climbing as we enter the final stretch. This is what revolutionary commitment looks like!
Minneapolis, MN — University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society led a student contingent to the Fort Snelling Immigration Court on Friday, April 11 and again on Tuesday, April 15, to support Doğukan Günaydın, a graduate student in the Carlson School of Management, who was illegally detained by ICE a few weeks ago.
Minneapolis, MN – On April 15, the date U.S. residents must have their taxes submitted, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition held an energetic rally outside U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office in downtown Minneapolis to demand that Klobuchar stand with her constituents and insist Trump uses tax dollars to improve people’s lives and end U.S. aggression against countries across the world.
Since his January 20 inauguration, Trump has attempted to cut over $11 billion in funding to public health at the state level. While this has been blocked in the federal courts, that hasn’t stopped the executive administration from threatening to cut public education funding from K-12 programs, if they do not eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion projects.
Over 75 protesters and community members held signs and chanted slogans calling for money for schools, jobs, healthcare, housing etc., “not for war!” while Minnesotans drove by and honked in support. The demands of the action included things like “Divest from Israel” “End U.S. forever wars” “Hands off Mexico and Gaza” and “Stop bombing Yemen.”
The first speaker was Vash Lamp from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, who stated, “And that's the sad reality of our situation. That not only are our taxes not used to support us in areas like housing or healthcare, but they are actively used to harm and oppress us. We are having to fight against our own money.”
Abir Ismail, a math teacher and member of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers for Palestine, stated, “While our government write checks to this brutality – the bombing of Palestinian children, they are telling our own children they don’t matter – that their reading specialist is too expensive, that the paraprofessional in their classroom has to be let go, that their special education needs are just ‘unaffordable’.”
Ismail continued, “There is no neutrality when children are being slaughtered. There is no justification for genocide. And there is no excuse for abandoning our schools while we bankroll bombs.”
Wyatt Miller of the MN Anti-War Committee stated, “The war on Yemen like all U.S. wars, is unpopular. And let’s not forget, Yemen is under attack for standing with Palestine against Israel’s genocide. Fighting a new war to protect Israel is more unpopular right now than it’s ever been. People like Amy Klobuchar want us to believe that all of the millions of people who are protesting Trump think just like her, and that only a little sliver of what Trump does is truly bad, and that maybe the problem with Trump’s wars is that he’s not waging them competently enough. I don’t believe it! People aren’t stupid, people understand that the bullshit is connected, and we in the anti-war movement need to go out and find our people, build our movement into the movement against Trump rather than silo ourselves off from it.”
At the end of the protest participants were encouraged to come to the Earth Day march to the state capitol in Saint Paul on Saturday, April 19.
Minneapolis, MN – The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is charging full speed ahead in its $100,000 fund drive. An inspiring $15,000 has already been raised in just the first few weeks. The momentum is building, and it's a sign of the growing determination to build the strongest movement possible against Trump's reactionary, billionaire agenda. Now $85,000 remains to reach our goal and secure the resources needed to fuel this critical work.
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, April 5, organizers, family members and individuals impacted by wrongful incarceration and over-sentencing came together in North Minneapolis for A Day of Empathy – a powerful gathering focused on the stories of those whose lives have been upended by wrongful incarceration, over-sentencing, mass incarceration, police violence and racial injustice.
Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, March 28, 200 protesters gathered outside of Walker Library to rally against escalating attacks targeting the trans community.
Protesters demanded an end to the compliance with Trump’s transphobic executive orders and policies, and an end to the barriers to HRT access in the state, for Minneapolis to become a sanctuary city for trans people, and for Minneapolis Public Schools to expand protections for trans youth. Protesters also demanded justice for Sam Nordquist, a transgender man from Minnesota killed in a racist and transphobic hate crime.
Minneapolis, MN – About 300 community members rallied in Powderhorn Park before marching through the cold in solidarity with Palestine. The event was called by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee to commemorate Land Day, a day of remembrance of six unarmed Palestinian martyrs killed and over 100 injured while resisting Israel’s brutal confiscation and annexation of land in 1976.
Minneapolis, MN – “We set big goals and surpass them, whether that is buying a building, or expanding rapidly in new cities all across the country,” said Sydney Loving of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s Central Committee. “To make the next qualitative leap in our work and shore up our hard-won achievements, we need to raise $100,000 during this fund drive. We plan to put these funds towards paying off our new building.”
Minneapolis, MN – On March 18, over 300 people gathered at the Minneapolis Federal Building for an emergency protest to show their collective outrage at Israel’s latest violation of the ceasefire in Gaza and the Trump administration’s complicity in the attack.
Minneapolis, MN – On March 15 the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC) hosted a panel at the New City Center about U.S.-China relations and where President Donald Trump likely intends to take them. The event featured speakers from MPAC, Asians 4 Palestine, Nodutdal and Minnesota Workers United.
Minneapolis, MN – A second Palestinian student protester at Columbia University, Leqaa Kordia, has been detained by Department of Homeland Security agents. She is an international student on a student visa and comes from the Palestinian West Bank.
Similar to Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian student detained last week despite having a permanent legal status, she played a role in the pro-Palestine student protests at Columbia, including the Hind's Hall building occupation.
Minneapolis, MN – A coalition of unions filed a lawsuit, March 13, against Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and TSA senior official Adam Stahl for the unlawful and unilateral termination of a negotiated union contract.
Minneapolis, MN – 100 people came out of the cold of Minnesota’s winter and jumped into the fires of the struggle on Friday, March 7. Beginning at 6 p.m., the hall of the Lucy Parson’s Center was packed for an event to mark International Women’s Day.
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.
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, March 8, the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) and its partners hosted a protest and march on International Women’s Day. The Minneapolis protest drew over 1200 people across generations and justice movements. They filled Mayday Plaza and lined Cedar Avenue, holding signs in support of reproductive, trans rights and immigrant rights. Other signs included slogans critical of President Trump, Elon Musk, and the current U.S. government.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from UMN Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
On March 10, after 10 days of deliberation, the University of Minnesota’s panel for the disciplinary hearing of the students arrested during the occupation of Halimy Hall decided that the student protestors were found not responsible for the unjust charges of violation of local, state or federal laws, theft, property damage, and vandalism because of the absolute lack of evidence.
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.