News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – On January 28, the Women Against Military Madness’ Solidarity Committee of the Americas (SCOTA) and the MN Cuba Committee held their monthly car caravan with 15 cars and 20 people to demand Cuba be taken off the U.S. terrorist list.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 29, 500 Minneapolis public school students participated in a student-organized walkout for Palestine.
Students marched from downtown’s Gold Medal Park to Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office, chanting, “Louder, louder, say it more; not a conflict; not a war” and “No more hiding, no more fear; this genocide is crystal clear.” The students’ demands included calls for an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and for U.S. divestment from Israel, both of which have been vehemently echoed across the nation.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 28, over 60 protesters rallied in front of Abria Pregnancy Resources, a so-called “crisis pregnancy center,” or CPC, to demand its removal from the Northside neighborhood.
Protesters held signs and banners demanding an end to fake clinics, while chanting “Pass more bills, secure our pills!” and “Fund abortion, make it free, fuck the right and CPCs!” Passersby expressed their support vocally and by honking their car horns.
Abria, one of four anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers'' located in Minneapolis, utilizes deceptive tactics and medically inaccurate information to pressure pregnant people out of getting an abortion. Most of the funding for CPCs comes directly from right-wing evangelical backers.
CPCs set up shop in low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods like the Northside, knowing that pregnant people seeking abortion resources would have nowhere else to turn to.
Jae Yates, speaking for Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J), referring to Abria’s predatory practices, said, “This isn’t about human rights, it's about controlling people’s behavior and controlling their bodies and trying to force them to conform to a system of religion that they may or may not believe in.”
Samantha Alsadi, from the Anti-War Committee, spoke of her own personal experience with a CPC when she was seeking abortion resources. “I instantly felt unwelcomed,” Alsadi said, “but didn’t know what else to do. The staff assured me that everything I said to her would remain confidential and under no circumstances would anything I say to her be revealed to anyone else, but here she was telling someone else, getting the police involved, and calling my parents.”
Aldadi continued, “They manipulate people by portraying themselves as some resourceful place someone can go to for help, when all the while they’re only there to scare and coerce people into making decisions the facility wants them to make.”
“Black people have historically chosen abortion as a means to protect from material conditions. As early as when Black people were considered property Black mothers performed their own abortions in an attempt to protect unborn children from enslavement,” another speaker on behalf of TCC4J said. She told of her mother’s experience: “No one explained the health risks to her, the emotional responsibility, the vulnerability, no one explained abortion to her as anything more than a sinful option. She deserved more and that is another reason why I stand here today to fight.”
Alé Guzman, a member of the MN Abortion Action Committee, spoke to the way CPCs drain community resources, saying, “The physical space they use can be utilized a hundred times over for better capacities than a fake reproductive healthcare clinic. This could've been a community bodega, this could’ve been a family's source of income, future and dream. Yet Abria takes up space where they are not needed: shame on you!”
This protest against Abria Pregnancy Resources was organized by the MN Abortion Action Committee and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar.
#MinneapolisMN #WomensMovement #ReproductiveRights #MNAAC #TCC4J
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, January 27, over 200 people gathered for a protest under the slogans “U.S. hands off Yemen” and “End the siege on Gaza.” The action was called by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition in response to ongoing U.S. airstrikes on Yemen. It featured people chanting, giving speeches, and holding signs and banners to supportive honks from passing cars in the diverse Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
Minneapolis, MN – With hundreds of Palestine supporters packing the city council’s meeting room and the hallway outside for the third time in recent weeks, on January 25 the Minneapolis city council voted to pass a Palestine resolution that’s more progressive than most others around the country.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who opposed the resolution, attended the city council meeting to make an impassioned plea to council members to reject the resolution and instead pass a watered-down substitute resolution brought forward at the last minute by Councilmember Linea Palmisano.
Minneapolis, MN – With hundreds of Palestine supporters packing the meeting room and the hallway outside, on January 23 the Minneapolis City Council’s Committee of the Whole voted 9-3 (with one abstention) to pass a Palestine ceasefire resolution.
The next step January 25, for a full council for a final vote.
Minneapolis, MN – Amidst a frigid Saturday afternoon on January 20, over 750 Twin Cities pro-Palestine residents came out in the blistering cold to the Hennepin County Government Center to tell the Minneapolis City Council that their constituents demand they vote yes on a ceasefire resolution.
This week, on January 23 and 25, the Minneapolis City Council will be discussing and voting on a resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire of Israeli aggression against the civilians in Gaza.
Minneapolis, MN – 30 supporters of reproductive rights rallied at May Day Plaza on January 6 to demand that the Supreme Court uphold the existing status of the drug mifepristone.
On December 13, 2023, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit. If upheld, the lower court ruling would only allow access to the drug via direct prescription from a doctor – preventing online ordering, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of abortion pills. It would also restrict the time to access pills from ten weeks to seven weeks.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 7, a gathering of more than 700 demonstrators convened at the Minneapolis Federal Building, poised to march to U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar's office and call for an end to Klobuchar’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. Senator Klobuchar has consistently advocated for U.S. aid to Israel, going so far as to label it a “beacon of democracy” in 2019.
Minneapolis, MN – More than 200 people, many holding pro-Palestine signs and wearing keffiyehs, packed the first Minneapolis city council meeting of the year on January 8.
The Free Palestine Coalition called on people to come to the meeting to show support for a resolution calling on Minnesota’s state and federal elected officials and the Biden administration to use their authority to support a ceasefire in Palestine and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.