St. Paul, MN - As Donald Trump was inaugurated the 47th president of the United States on Monday, January 20, people gathered in Saint Paul to make a promise that from day one they would resist Trump’s agenda. 

The day began at the Saint Paul Police Department’s Western District precinct. With temperatures dipping to negative five degrees, a single hearse led a caravan of over 100 cars in remembrance of Marcus Golden. At the young age of 24, Mr. Golden was murdered by Saint Paul Police on January 14, 2015. He is the nephew of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities organizer Monique Cullars-Doty. 

The caravan participants decorated their cars with Palestinian flags and signs in support of the defense of Black lives, immigrant rights, and reproductive rights. The caravan proceeded from The Saint Paul Police Department’s Western District precinct along University Avenue. Two young men exited their parked cars in subzero weather to wave a Palestinian flag in support as the caravan passed. The caravan participants honked as they continued east toward downtown.

Cullars-Doty spoke about the significance of the single hearse leading the caravan today. “The hearse is from the same undertaker who took my nephew Marcus Golden’s body from Ramsey County Coroner’s office, but it also represents all the revolutionaries this country has killed and silenced. It is also symbolic that we all follow the hearse because we are still fighting. So as this Trump administration rolls in, we cannot let our dreams die. It means we have to keep fighting.” 

A coalition of organizations led by Black Lives Matter Twin Cities (BLM-TC Metro), the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) organized the car caravan and indoor rally.

In the shadow of the Minnesota State Capitol, the caravan arrived at Saint Paul College where 500 attendees filled the cafeteria to chants of “Black Lives, they matter here! and “Immigrants are welcome here!” 

Despite the somber occasion of Trump’s second inauguration, the room buzzed with enthusiasm as the emcees led the crowd in chants. Speaking for MIRAC was Manuel Pascual - a first generation Filipino immigrant who witnessed the violence of ICE raids against his community first hand. 

Pascual stated, “Immigrants and the working class are the backbone of this country. It is extremely important we don’t panic or fall into despair in this time of uncertainty. Instead, we organize. We take to the streets. We continue speaking up, showing up, and fighting for one another.” 

Charlie Berg, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, affirmed the task ahead of everyone in the room: “It is up to all of us to unite the many in order to defeat the few. We need to make this country ungovernable! Our job is to take the fight to higher stages than ever before.”

Toshira Garraway, the founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, whose fiancé was murdered by the Saint Paul Police in 2009, inspired the crowd saying, “When we see someone being hurt or harmed or mistreated for any reason at all it’s going to take every nationality of people from every walk of life to stand up against the evil and the corruption in this world and we are going to win!”

Sarah Murphy from the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee who spoke about the fight for abortion access under Trump and the fight against the predatory crisis pregnancy centers that are run by the Christian right and embed themselves in predominantly Black and brown working-class communities and college towns to dissuade people from getting abortions.

The crowd also heard speeches from the Climate Justice Committee, the TCC4J, the Minnesota Immigrant Movement, among many others. Other groups were present to table and talk to community members and other organizers throughout the day to share information and get more community members involved in joining the fight against Trump. 

Closing out the program was Anti-War Committee and Free Palestine Coalition member Sabry Wazwaz, who connected the fights for Black and Palestinian liberation, stating, “This connection is not something new. It has always been there. They don’t want us to remind each other that our struggle is one struggle! If you go to Palestine, you will see murals all along the apartheid walls of Martin Luther King, of Malcom X, of George Floyd - because our struggle is one struggle!”

After the program, participants returned to their cars to caravan to the Minnesota State Capitol building where they ended the day of protest honking outside of the Minnesota State Capitol to send the message that Minnesotans will be in the streets to fight Trump’s agenda starting on day one, even in extreme subzero weather.

#StPaulMN #MLKDay #MLK #Trump #Inauguration #Minnesota #AntiWarCommittee #FreePalestineCoalition #FreePalestine #Abortion #AbortionAccess #ReproductiveFreedom #ReproRights #BLM #BlackLivesMatter

The approximately 400 workers mine taconite in Babbitt, Minnesota, make iron ore pellets in Silver Bay, and transport products and tailings.

Workers elected to join the USW through card check, a process by which a majority of workers indicate their desire for a union.

“We chose to unionize so that we can have a voice on the job, especially when it comes to workplace health and safety, retirement security and other critical issues that affect us every day,” said Jason Curtis, who works as a maintenance technician in the operation’s concentrator.

The USW also represents approximately 2000 workers at four other Cliffs’ mining facilities in Minnesota and northern Michigan. Northshore Mining was the last remaining taconite mine on Minnesota’s Iron Range without a union.

#MinneapolisMN #Minnesota #usw #NorthshoreMining

Minneapolis, MN – The family of Khalil Ahmad Azad, a 24-year-old Black man who was found dead in Crystal Lake in Robbinsdale, Minnesota on July 5, 2022, still had many unanswered questions on March 10, after Robbinsdale police released some body camera footage. The footage was released months after Khalil’s family said they requested it in September of last year. Azad was chased on foot by police in July after he was pulled over, and his body was discovered in Crystal Lake two days later.

Azad’s case gained attention after his family shared autopsy photos of his body online, showing severe bruising on his face, damage to his nose, and large scrapes on his body. The autopsy, performed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, concluded that Azad died from “freshwater drowning,” but his family says that doesn’t make sense.

Azad’s sister, Ayisha Johnson, spoke at a rally on Friday, March 10, about the suspicious nature of the case. “Looking at those photos, you know something was wrong. There’s no drowning, he knows how to swim, he was like 6’ 4”, come on now,” Johnson said. “Every video I watch and every article, I add it up in my head. I know they [the police] are lying. Everyone can see that they’re lying.”

A statement released by Azad’s family last week says they believe the body camera footage from Robbinsdale Police was edited because the video skips, pauses, is blurry at times, and does not have time stamps listed. The family says that dogs can be heard barking in the background of the video, and an officer can be heard yelling to comply or they’ll release the dog.

Black Lives Matter Minnesota held several rallies last week demanding justice for Azad, which were endorsed by Twin Cities Justice for Jamar (TCC4J) and various other groups. Another rally is planned for this Wednesday at the Hennepin County Government Center. Azad’s family is demanding the release of all unedited body camera footage from all law enforcement agencies that were involved in Khalil’s case, and answers to all their questions.

Azad’s family said in their statement that they want to know why police stopped searching for Khalil so quickly. Police reported that they searched for Khalil for just 30 minutes. The family says they believe Azad ran from police for fear of his life, due to previous encounters with Robbinsdale police in which they threatened him.

“It’s the art of the cover-up, this is what police do,” said Monique Cullars-Doty during Friday’s rally. Cullars-Doty is a Black Lives Matter Minnesota and TCC4J member and the aunt of Marcus Golden, who was killed by Saint Paul police in 2015. “We can come out and stand up regardless of what the police say, regardless of what the media says, because we continue to see situations where white men survive and Black men do not.” Cullars-Doty also commended Khalil’s family for making the sacrifice to share the graphic autopsy photos and expose Khalil in that way.

During a rally in front of the Robbinsdale police station March 8, Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, said she believes that what Robbinsdale police did to Azad is similar to what Saint Paul police did to her fiancé, Justin Teigen, when they beat him and threw him in a trash dumpster in 2011. Garraway said the way that the body cam footage in Azad’s case goes blank after an officer says that the cameras are rolling, is similar to how the footage in her fiancé’s case went blank, leading her to believe they were both edited.

“He looks like Emmett Till,” Garraway said of Azad’s autopsy photos. “We’re not stupid. We know what our eyes show us. We see a man brutally beaten. These are modern day lynchings happening at the hands of law enforcement here in the state of Minnesota.”

Azad’s brother, Jamal Johnson, said at Friday’s rally that his family received body camera footage from Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office that day, but he said they didn’t have the chance to review this footage before the rally. Johnson said his family is still waiting to receive body camera footage from other law enforcement agencies involved, including New Hope and Crystal police, and a State Patrol helicopter.

Trahern Crews, Black Lives Matter Minnesota founder, commended Azad’s family at Friday’s rally for all they’ve been able to accomplish even though they don’t have an attorney. In addition to the body camera footage that was released, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also opened an investigation into the case last week. Crews said this investigation is unprecedented, given it’s been over eight months since Azad’s death.

Azad’s family wants all law enforcement agencies involved in his case to release all remaining body camera footage and details. “It hurts me because I have to go to sleep at night knowing that I don’t have answers,” Azad’s sister, Ayisha Johnson said. “He was such a beautiful person. He was my best friend and I loved him so much.”

#MinneapolisMN #PoliceBrutality #Minnesota #PoliceCrimes #justice

The workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 320, are set to engage in mediation tomorrow, March 18, which is required during the cooling off period. Settlement seems unlikely and workers are well organized for the fight. At issue are pay parity with prosecutors, overwhelming caseloads, and remote work.

Their employer knows that its position is weak given the resolve of the workers, public support and solidarity with other unions. So the employer has entered into a campaign of intimidation and workplace harassment to head off the strike.

Managers have been denying vacation requests, refused to allow workers to take their children to medical appointments and tried to force workers into providing details about strike plans. While disappointed about how they are being treated, workers are becoming hardened in their resolve to get a fair contract that addresses their demands.

As many of the workers are lawyers, there have been discussions about the ethical concerns of going on strike. They have concluded that they can strike since it is specifically permitted under state law and their district chief public defenders are the ones actually appointed to provide representation. The chiefs decide at will which lawyer will represent any particular client.

In a heavy-handed move, the Minnesota Office of Lawyer Professional Responsibility, which is overseen by the Minnesota Supreme Court, issued an advisory early this morning indicating that striking by lawyers is unethical. The OLPR is headed by Susan Humiston, who is currently under scrutiny for workplace bullying. She seems to have thought she could bully public defense workers. That’s not how things worked out, however.

Public defense lawyers quickly went to work scrutinizing the OLPR advisory and realized it was significantly flawed and did not accurately reflect the law. According to Veronica Surges, a public defense lawyer, “we quickly saw the advisory for what it was. It was an attempt to stop us from standing up for ourselves. It was a legally-flawed thinly-veiled effort to dissuade a strike. If anything, the advisory has strengthened our resolve to fight.”

Public defense workers provide representation for approximately 90% of people charged with crimes in Minnesota. A significant number of their clients are oppressed nationalities. Darcy Sherman, also a public defense lawyer, says, “We are fighting for ourselves and our clients. We are convinced we will win this and we won’t back down in the face of intimidation by our employer.”

#Minnesota #strike #TeamstersLocal320 #PublicDefenseLawyers

The workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 320, are set to engage in mediation tomorrow, March 18, which is required during the cooling off period. Settlement seems unlikely and workers are well organized for the fight. At issue are pay parity with prosecutors, overwhelming caseloads, and remote work.

Their employer knows that its position is weak given the resolve of the workers, public support and solidarity with other unions. So the employer has entered into a campaign of intimidation and workplace harassment to head off the strike.

Managers have been denying vacation requests, refused to allow workers to take their children to medical appointments and tried to force workers into providing details about strike plans. While disappointed about how they are being treated, workers are becoming hardened in their resolve to get a fair contract that addresses their demands.

As many of the workers are lawyers, there have been discussions about the ethical concerns of going on strike. They have concluded that they can strike since it is specifically permitted under state law and their district chief public defenders are the ones actually appointed to provide representation. The chiefs decide at will which lawyer will represent any particular client.

In a heavy-handed move, the Minnesota Office of Lawyer Professional Responsibility, which is overseen by the Minnesota Supreme Court, issued an advisory early this morning indicating that striking by lawyers is unethical. The OLPR is headed by Susan Humiston, who is currently under scrutiny for workplace bullying. She seems to have thought she could bully public defense workers. That’s not how things worked out, however.

Public defense lawyers quickly went to work scrutinizing the OLPR advisory and realized it was significantly flawed and did not accurately reflect the law. According to Veronica Surges, a public defense lawyer, “we quickly saw the advisory for what it was. It was an attempt to stop us from standing up for ourselves. It was a legally-flawed thinly-veiled effort to dissuade a strike. If anything, the advisory has strengthened our resolve to fight.”

Public defense workers provide representation for approximately 90% of people charged with crimes in Minnesota. A significant number of their clients are oppressed nationalities. Darcy Sherman, also a public defense lawyer, says, “We are fighting for ourselves and our clients. We are convinced we will win this and we won’t back down in the face of intimidation by our employer.”

#Minnesota #strike #TeamstersLocal320 #PublicDefenseLawyers

Minneapolis, MN – On February 16, Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota rallied and marched to demand justice for Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man murdered by the Minneapolis police in a relative’s apartment earlier this month.

80 people gathered outside the Student Union on Washington Avenue, chanting “What do we want? Justice!” and “Say his name! Amir Locke!” A banner reading “Justice for all stolen lives” was at the front, along with signs demanding justice for Amir Locke and community control over the Minneapolis Police Department. Signs announced SDS’s own referendum campaign for community control over the University of Minnesota Police Department. Members handed out fliers calling for police accountability and justice on and off campus.

Bella Harbison, speaking for SDS, said, “Police departments and political leaders across the country are not afraid of committing acts of violence against our Black and brown community members; they are afraid of being caught, and being held accountable for crimes against humanity.” Harbison declared to the powers standing in the way of accountability that “Amir Locke’s name will never be forgotten, and that we will always be ready to fight for him.”

Jae Yates from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization made clear that “it is no coincidence that police and slaveowners have so much shared history; both seek to keep oppressed nations and members of the working class in place.” Yates continuing in saying that in order to fight for real accountability, “you should join the fight for community control of police in Minneapolis both on and off campus. We cannot rely on the same people that benefit from policing to defund, demilitarize, or abolish the police. We have to fight for the self-determinative power that Black people have fought for for 400 years.”

Loretta Van Pelt, speaking for the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar raised the peoples’ demands: community control, a permanent end to no knock warrants and the charging and arresting of Amir Locke’s killer, Officer Mark Hanneman, and all other officers involved in the murder.

Allison Leopold, a member of White Coats for Black Lives, a student group from the UM medical school, made clear that when police are threatening the lives of Black community members it is a health issue, and that we have a duty to fight back against racist police crimes.

After chanting and listening to the speakers, students marched down Washington Avenue, ending up at the UMPD station. As they turned the corner, the chants of “Indict, convict send those killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell” were heard throughout the area.

Closing out the protest, Sasmit Rahman, another SDS member said, “We need you guys to sign [the referendum petition], we need more energy, because it is too easy right now for Joan Gabel and the regents to ignore us and to ignore our demands. We need people to share it with their friends, we need consistent action and consistent pressure on Joan Gabel and the regents!”

UMN SDS is currently running a campaign to get Community Control over the UMPD on the ballot in the all-campus elections of Spring 2022. This would be in the form of a democratically elected, all-civilian Civilian Police Accountability Council, that represents students, staff, faculty and the communities surrounding the campus – such as Cedar-Riverside where the UMPD are regularly present – so that they all have the power to decide UMPD’s budget, to hire and to fire, to discipline and carry out other accountability measures.

For students who want to join the fight, keep an eye out for SDS tabling and petitioning around campus. Sign and share the petition, and to keep up with the campaign follow SDS on instagram @umnsds. If you want to help organize around it, join the SDS weekly meetings, Thursday at 6 p.m. in Tate 105.

#Minnesota #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #AfricanAmerican #CivilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncil #AmirLocke

St. Paul, MN – Around 30 people lined the busy Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, June 30, to protest the latest U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The action was called by Women Against Military Madness and supported by the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and other local groups. Peace vigils have been held at the bridge every Wednesday for over 20 years, regardless of weather.

This latest vigil followed the Biden administration’s June 27 announcement that U.S. warplanes had dropped bombs on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. Several people were reportedly killed in the attack. The targets were militias with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), which formed in 2014 to stop the reactionary Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s rapid advances.

In 2018, the PMF was incorporated into the official security forces of the Iraqi state. The Biden administration said the airstrikes were in response to attacks on U.S. troops by the PMF, which it characterized as “Iran-backed.”

Militant resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq intensified after the January 2020 assassinations of top PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The assassinations prompted Iraq’s parliament to call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal, which the U.S. rebuffed. After the June 27 airstrikes, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi condemned the airstrikes as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

At the bridge vigil in Minnesota, Iraqi-American activist Sami Rasouli agreed. “When the military of Iraq was dissolved, Iraq became a wide open arena,” he said. “When ISIS in 2014 invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army that was dissolved came back again, and now is still growing, to defend not only Iraq but Syria too, and Iran.”

Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee added, “These kinds of airstrikes always run the risk of triggering a major regional war. We need to oppose the sanctions, too, and oppose the U.S. military occupation not only of Iraq but of the oilfields in eastern Syria, all of which are contributing to Syria’s inability to rebuild after the war.” In May, Miller travelled with a peace delegation to observe conditions in Syria firsthand.

Syria, which allows the Iraqi PMF to operate on its territory, also condemned the airstrikes, reporting that U.S. bombs had struck a residential building and killed a child while injuring several more civilians. Hours after the airstrikes, U.S. forces occupying Syria’s al-Omar oil field came under rocket attack by resistance forces in the area.

#Minnesota #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #Iraq #Syria #Airstrikes

St. Paul, MN – Around 30 people lined the busy Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, June 30, to protest the latest U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The action was called by Women Against Military Madness and supported by the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and other local groups. Peace vigils have been held at the bridge every Wednesday for over 20 years, regardless of weather.

This latest vigil followed the Biden administration’s June 27 announcement that U.S. warplanes had dropped bombs on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. Several people were reportedly killed in the attack. The targets were militias with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), which formed in 2014 to stop the reactionary Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s rapid advances.

In 2018, the PMF was incorporated into the official security forces of the Iraqi state. The Biden administration said the airstrikes were in response to attacks on U.S. troops by the PMF, which it characterized as “Iran-backed.”

Militant resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq intensified after the January 2020 assassinations of top PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The assassinations prompted Iraq’s parliament to call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal, which the U.S. rebuffed. After the June 27 airstrikes, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi condemned the airstrikes as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

At the bridge vigil in Minnesota, Iraqi-American activist Sami Rasouli agreed. “When the military of Iraq was dissolved, Iraq became a wide open arena,” he said. “When ISIS in 2014 invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army that was dissolved came back again, and now is still growing, to defend not only Iraq but Syria too, and Iran.”

Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee added, “These kinds of airstrikes always run the risk of triggering a major regional war. We need to oppose the sanctions, too, and oppose the U.S. military occupation not only of Iraq but of the oilfields in eastern Syria, all of which are contributing to Syria’s inability to rebuild after the war.” In May, Miller travelled with a peace delegation to observe conditions in Syria firsthand.

Syria, which allows the Iraqi PMF to operate on its territory, also condemned the airstrikes, reporting that U.S. bombs had struck a residential building and killed a child while injuring several more civilians. Hours after the airstrikes, U.S. forces occupying Syria’s al-Omar oil field came under rocket attack by resistance forces in the area.

#Minnesota #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #Airstrikes #AbuMahdiAlMuhandis

St. Paul, MN – Around 30 people lined the busy Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, June 30, to protest the latest U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The action was called by Women Against Military Madness and supported by the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and other local groups. Peace vigils have been held at the bridge every Wednesday for over 20 years, regardless of weather.

This latest vigil followed the Biden administration’s June 27 announcement that U.S. warplanes had dropped bombs on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. Several people were reportedly killed in the attack. The targets were militias with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), which formed in 2014 to stop the reactionary Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s rapid advances.

In 2018, the PMF was incorporated into the official security forces of the Iraqi state. The Biden administration said the airstrikes were in response to attacks on U.S. troops by the PMF, which it characterized as “Iran-backed.”

Militant resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq intensified after the January 2020 assassinations of top PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The assassinations prompted Iraq’s parliament to call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal, which the U.S. rebuffed. After the June 27 airstrikes, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi condemned the airstrikes as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

At the bridge vigil in Minnesota, Iraqi-American activist Sami Rasouli agreed. “When the military of Iraq was dissolved, Iraq became a wide open arena,” he said. “When ISIS in 2014 invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army that was dissolved came back again, and now is still growing, to defend not only Iraq but Syria too, and Iran.”

Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee added, “These kinds of airstrikes always run the risk of triggering a major regional war. We need to oppose the sanctions, too, and oppose the U.S. military occupation not only of Iraq but of the oilfields in eastern Syria, all of which are contributing to Syria’s inability to rebuild after the war.” In May, Miller travelled with a peace delegation to observe conditions in Syria firsthand.

Syria, which allows the Iraqi PMF to operate on its territory, also condemned the airstrikes, reporting that U.S. bombs had struck a residential building and killed a child while injuring several more civilians. Hours after the airstrikes, U.S. forces occupying Syria’s al-Omar oil field came under rocket attack by resistance forces in the area.

#Minnesota #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #Airstrikes #AbuMahdiAlMuhandis

St. Paul, MN – Around 30 people lined the busy Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, June 30, to protest the latest U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The action was called by Women Against Military Madness and supported by the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and other local groups. Peace vigils have been held at the bridge every Wednesday for over 20 years, regardless of weather.

This latest vigil followed the Biden administration’s June 27 announcement that U.S. warplanes had dropped bombs on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. Several people were reportedly killed in the attack. The targets were militias with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), which formed in 2014 to stop the reactionary Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s rapid advances.

In 2018, the PMF was incorporated into the official security forces of the Iraqi state. The Biden administration said the airstrikes were in response to attacks on U.S. troops by the PMF, which it characterized as “Iran-backed.”

Militant resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq intensified after the January 2020 assassinations of top PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The assassinations prompted Iraq’s parliament to call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal, which the U.S. rebuffed. After the June 27 airstrikes, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi condemned the airstrikes as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

At the bridge vigil in Minnesota, Iraqi-American activist Sami Rasouli agreed. “When the military of Iraq was dissolved, Iraq became a wide open arena,” he said. “When ISIS in 2014 invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army that was dissolved came back again, and now is still growing, to defend not only Iraq but Syria too, and Iran.”

Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee added, “These kinds of airstrikes always run the risk of triggering a major regional war. We need to oppose the sanctions, too, and oppose the U.S. military occupation not only of Iraq but of the oilfields in eastern Syria, all of which are contributing to Syria’s inability to rebuild after the war.” In May, Miller travelled with a peace delegation to observe conditions in Syria firsthand.

Syria, which allows the Iraqi PMF to operate on its territory, also condemned the airstrikes, reporting that U.S. bombs had struck a residential building and killed a child while injuring several more civilians. Hours after the airstrikes, U.S. forces occupying Syria’s al-Omar oil field came under rocket attack by resistance forces in the area.

#Minnesota #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #Airstrikes #AbuMahdiAlMuhandis

The union has made attempts to get Marathon to clarify the specifics of their offer around multiple points, but management has failed to provide that clarification, making it impossible for the Teamsters members to agree to the offer.

Scott Kroona, business agent for Teamsters 120 said, “This has been going on a long time, so we thought it was a good time to let our members be heard.” He added, “I think our members made their voices loud and clear.”

One of the key issues that resulted in the strike and then lockout have been attempts by the company to combine jobs with fewer people to do them, which workers have said would make it impossible to react to an emergency in time to prevent it from turning into a catastrophic disaster.

In many cases, the units these workers maintain and run are larger than a football field so travel time alone adds a dangerous amount of lag time to responses. In the event of fires – which are nearly inevitable in this type of facility – workers say they often only have seconds to respond before a fire can spread to multiple units and become a much more serious safety disaster for the workers and for anyone within as much as a 50-mile zone.

In addition to fires and explosions themselves, a fire that is let go too long can result in an acid infused cloud capable of causing mortal risk to those who encounter it. Much of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area is within the high-risk zone in an accident of this type.

Additionally, the company recently ended the use of an onsite fire department and instead began depending on nearby city fire departments, which can take much longer to respond in an emergency compared to the onsite department.

Based on the size of the crowd of Teamsters reviewing the offer and voting largely to reject it, it is clear that the workers are committed to continue fighting for the safety of the workers, their families, and residents of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area.

#StPaulMN #Teamsters #Minnesota

Minneapolis, MN – 1000 people rallied and marched to protest the announcement that no one would be charged for the murder of Breonna Taylor. Organized by Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro and others, the group rallied at the state capitol on September 23, and then marched about four miles, including taking over Interstate 94. Three protesters were arrested but released the later that night.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Minnesota #Antiracism #TwinCities #BreonnaTaylor

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following June 4 statement from Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee.

The police killing of George Floyd has ignited a rebellion that has spread across the entire United States. Minneapolis is the epicenter for this movement, and the people of the Twin Cities are committed to ensuring that George Floyd is the last life stolen by police in Minnesota. We in the Anti-War Committee stand with the movement for Black lives as we demand Justice for George Floyd. We stand against the war waged on Black and brown communities by police forces all across the country, and we stand with other organizations demanding community control of the police.

George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight in front of witnesses, who videotaped the crime. This extrajudicial killing of another black man was carried out by Officer Derek Chauvin and three accomplices from the Minneapolis Police Department. On May 26th, one day after the killing, 20,000 people of all nationalities and ages marched through the streets of South Minneapolis, and included large numbers of youth of color. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans have taken to the streets every day since then. The Anti-War Committee has been a part of protesting every day, and many of our members have purposely broken curfew as an act of civil disobedience.

The Anti-War Committee is one of the founding group-members of TCC4J — The Coalition for Justice for Jamar. We have been in the streets protesting the police killings of Terrance Franklin, Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Thurman Blevins, Isak Aden, and Marcus Golden. According to the Star Tribune, the Minneapolis Police Department has killed 195 people in the last two decades alone, a disproportionate number of them, Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

We denounce the deployment of the Minneapolis Police Department, the Saint Paul Police Department, the Minnesota State Patrol, and especially the Minnesota National Guard in their attempts to suppress our democratic right to protest this unjust system. We also reject the curfew that has been imposed to further limit the ability of the people of the Twin Cities to stand for peace and justice. We stand with all protestors and uphold the democratic right to protest!

City, state, and law enforcement officials have attempted to delegitimize this uprising as the work of “outside agitators” and “white supremacists.” The “outside agitators” and “white supremacists” currently terrorizing our communities are the members of the Minneapolis Police Department, and the other police and military forces currently invading our communities. The truth of the matter is that these forces are not coming to stop attacks on people of color by white supremacists. They are directing their efforts towards assaulting protesters, journalists, and bystanders, while prioritizing protecting private property. We agree that there has been an uptick in white supremacist organizing since Trump’s election, and stand vigilant against it, but we don’t condone using this increase in hate activities to justify a police state. Despite the white supremacist political climate, the people of the Twin Cities are resolute in our home-grown grassroots struggle against this unjust and racist political and economic system.

The killing of George Floyd has caused national and international outrage. We likewise see the connections between the racist militarism of the local police in Minneapolis and the love affair of the U.S. and its global allies, including Israel in particular, with militarism. All four Minneapolis officers involved in the murder of George Floyd had participated in local fear-based “warrior training” which teaches officers to consider everyone a threat. But Minneapolis police officers, along with police from around the Midwest, also participated in a 2012 conference hosted by the Israeli consulate in Chicago to learn from the violent techniques used by the Israeli Defense Forces against Palestinians, while other police departments have travelled to Israel for training.

Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation have long dealt with the kind of brutality being enacted by some US police officers against African-Americans. Palestinians report many instances of similar choke holds to the one that killed George Floyd used by Israel occupation forces. Similarly Palestinians are subjected to military occupation, tear gas and curfews as methods of control. It is no surprise that the U.S. police that learn these maneuvers abroad are now using those same techniques at home. We call on the Minneapolis Police Department to stop cooperating with Israeli security forces.

We call on our members of Congress to stop transferring surplus military equipment from the Pentagon to local law enforcement. During the RNC in 2008, in Ferguson in 2014 and repeatedly around the country every day, we see military equipment and armed soldiers on our streets. These armaments do not make us feel safe and are used to try to intimidate us from gathering together and demanding real change.

We commend both the University of MN and Minneapolis Public Schools for ending their contracts with the Minneapolis Police Department. We urge both these and other institutions not to perpetuate the problem by simply adding private security or other public police forces. Our society, and our schools in particular, need to re-consider the entire concept of policing and security in its handling of confrontation and problems among students and residents, and develop a more equitable system of justice. We join students and teachers in demanding community control of any police force, in investing in counselors, educators and early intervention specialists, and less police on our campuses!

The Anti-War Committee recognizes that the United States government utilizes imperialist warfare to commit atrocities all over the world, and right here in our own communities. The US’’ racist war on Black, Indigenous, Chicano, and other oppressed communities must come to an end.

To further this cause, we demand:

– Justice for George Floyd: Jail, indict, and convict the killer cops and all assisting officers

– Community control of the police now!

– The immediate withdrawal of the Minnesota National Guard from the Twin Cities

– The immediate release of all political prisoners and victims of police torture

– Drop all charges against arrested protesters

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

#Minnesota #AfricanAmerican #AntiWarCommittee #Antiracism #GeorgeFloyd #DerekChauvin #TCC4JTheCoalitionForJusticeForJamar

The brutal police killing of George Floyd has sparked a powerful uprising that will settle for nothing less than justice. It is a case of murder. George Floyd, an African American man, was killed in broad daylight in front of witnesses who videotaped the crime. The crime was carried out by Officer Derek Chauvin and three accomplices from the Minneapolis Police Department. And everyone knows that the Minneapolis Police Department has a history of killing Black people for being Black.

The response from the community in the Twin Cities has been nothing short of an inspiration to all who yearn for equality, freedom and liberation. A day after the killing, 20,000 people marched through the streets of South Minneapolis, a protest that included large numbers of African American youth and others of all nationalities and ages. The Third Precinct Police Station – where the killer cops operated from – was surrounded. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Rocks, bricks and bottles were thrown. Thousands gathered at the police station on May 28. The police were compelled to abandon the station. It was taken over and burned.

At big retail outlets, like Cub Foods and Target, the urban poor of all nationalities are “shopping for free.” Many small Black and Latino business owners, who have been adversely affected by the uprising, are expressing their approval of the fight to end police crimes. This struggle is just and enjoys widespread support across the Twin Cities.

City, state and law enforcement officials have made much about “outside agitators.” In truth, this rebellion was not conjured into existence. It is product of police crimes, racist discrimination and systematic inequity. People have had enough and are taking things into their own hands. That one of the cops involved in the killing, the now ex -Officer Chauvin, has been taken into custody shows the power of our movement. Given that his accomplices are still loose, that Chauvin needs more charges, and that police crimes need to be curbed means that battle needs to continue. More of what we have had this past week is what we need.

Everyone who is concerned about our right to protest needs to insist on the withdrawal of the Minnesota National Guard. It is not part of any solution. The Guard is here to make sure the problem remains. It was wrong to use the National Guard against demonstrators at the Republican National Convention in 2008 and it was wrong to use the Guard to break the Hormel strike in 1986. They need to leave. Now.

We need to defend our democratic rights and oppose measures that are contrary to those rights – like the curfew implemented May 29. Unjust laws are meant to be broken and those that stand up for justice must be defended.

The United States is a jail house for the oppressed. The time has arrived where large numbers of people want to escape. There must be justice for George Floyd. Nothing short of that will do. Right now, in our community there many who have lost loved ones to police crimes. This must be addressed. We need community control of the Minneapolis Police Department. Things must change. They will change. In the streets of the Twin Cities, we can make that change happen.

#Minnesota #MN #OppressedNationalities #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Antiracism #Socialism #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J).

Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J), is committed to protecting our most vulnerable community members during this pandemic; at the same time, we continue the fight against police abuses. Problems of police violence and economic and health inequalities are rising to the surface of day-to-day life under quarantine. Unlike billionaires, corporations, and politicians, TCC4J is staying on the front lines to defend our communities.

Minnesota’s Stay At Home Order aims to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus. That makes sense for the public health, but we worry about the role of police as enforcers. It can’t be a blank check to raise the levels of policing in our communities or destroy our democratic rights. The Stay At Home Order doesn’t mean you lose the right to leave your house until May 4, it means you should not gather in public. We do not trust police to respect our rights.

City and state officials said police would “educate community members” violating the order, before resorting to other means; but some police have charged people going about their business, in no way violating the order. Police are not educators, and we don’t see them setting aside their force-first routine, especially with Black, brown and Native people. Without community control of the police, racist and violent policing will continue. If you see or experience police abuses, please reach out!

In New York, Detroit, Chicago and St. Paul, cops have tested positive for COVID-19. Police can spread the virus in our communities. In most of Minneapolis, arrests and traffic stops are down; in North Minneapolis, police activity is up. We see cops in our neighborhoods taking no efforts to avoid exposing community members. This needs to change. The enforcement of petty violations is not worth risking lives.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, we were in the fight to free Myon Burrell. His wrongful conviction got a lot of attention when Amy Klobuchar used his case in her (failed) campaign for president. Now Myon, and thousands of others are at risk in jails, prisons and immigrant detention centers, with no protection from the virus and no access to adequate health care.

TCC4J is still working to free Myon Burrell and has joined with others to demand that more people be released from jails, prisons and ICE detention centers. The fight to end racist police violence in our communities, means we need to win community control of the police. Supporters are encouraged to get involved.

#Minnesota #MN #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #TwinCitiesCoalitionForJusticeForJamarTCC4J #MyonBurrell

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following speech delivered by Freedom Road Socialist Organization leader Jess Sundin, at the Twin Cities celebration of International Women’s Day.

Good afternoon, comrades and friends, and happy International Women’s Day!

International Women’s Day is about our liberation, but before we talk about liberation, we need to understand oppression, and how it shapes the lives of women and nonbinary folx today. I’m going to start by talking about the economic realities or the material basis of women’s oppression.

It says in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Unity Statement, “The oppression of women predates the rise of capitalism. Capitalism, together with male supremacy, intensified the subordination and degradation of women. Capitalism also manipulated family life and sexuality to ensure its control over the working class.” Or to put in simpler terms, the political-economic system we live under, capitalism, uses the oppression of women to hold down the whole working class.

We can measure this concretely in the differences in the economic lives of women versus men.

Women make less money then men, even when we have the same experience or qualifications and the same

jobs. White women are paid 82 cents for every dollar what white men make. Using data from Census, the National Women’s Law Center points out that the wage gap is significantly bigger for women from oppressed communities: Black women make 65%, Native women make 58%, and Latina women are paid just 54% compared to white men. Or to put it another way, a Latina woman can expect to earn a million dollars less in her lifetime, compared to a white man. All of us other women will see hundreds of thousands of dollars less in our lifetime paydays.

Globally, women are getting further from economic equality instead of closer. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report 2020, “… the figures are sobering, with a deteriorating situation forcing gender parity to a lowly 57.8%, which in time represents a massive 257 years before gender parity can be achieved.”

Not only are we paid less on the job, women also do most of the unpaid labor in society – caring for children, the sick and elderly, and our communities. There is no country where men spend an equal amount of time on unpaid work as women, and where it’s the worst, women are doing double the unpaid labor that our men counterparts are doing.

These are just a few of facts. When other speakers come up here today, I encourage you to listen for the concrete, economic ways, that women in our workplaces, schools and communities, are exploited and disadvantaged.

Women’s oppression is not only a matter of economic exploitation, we also live in a cultural and political climate that piles onto that material reality, and makes up the ideology that keeps our oppression in place.

Every single day in this country, about four women and girls are murdered because of their gender, most are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. Gender-based violence is the leading cause of death for African American women and girls ages 15–24. I was surprised to learn that it’s also the leading cause of death for women while they are at work. Those are the murders. We also experience domestic abuse, street harassment and sexual violence that do immense harm, but do not kill us.

And despite being a much smaller portion of the population, gender-based violence disproportionately harms our trans and nonbinary siblings. In the last year, there have been at least 26 murders of transgender and gender non-conforming people, including two in police or ICE custody. I say “at least,” because we believe these numbers are much higher, as many deaths go unreported and victims are misgendered. The majority of these murders are of Black trans women.

Native American women are more than twice as likely as any other group to experience violence.

Violence against women, girls and gender nonconforming folks is a real pandemic, and capitalist governments have no real answers for it.

On top of all this, we are also living in a time when women are losing the fundamental rights to control whether and when we become mothers. The Trump Administration is spearheading these attacks right now. First, they’re making massive cuts to food stamps, housing assistance, and whatever else is left of the social safety net for low income people. They are literally willing to starve poor and working families, rather than support us as mothers.

On the flip side, access to birth control and abortion are also under attack. Trump appointments have stacked the Supreme Court against us, and just this week they heard a case that could open the door to overturning Roe v. Wade. If that happens, there are 20 states that our poised to ban abortion. And if you think birth control is the answer, that’s under attack as well. Obama’s Affordable Care Act required insurance companies to provide coverage for birth control, but Trump and his kind are also bringing that to their anti-woman Supreme Court, trying to get a religious exemption for employers that don’t want to pay for insurance that includes this basic reproductive health care for women.

Comrades asked me to address the political climate for women in the context of campaigns for the next president of U.S. empire. We are not talking about who will be our president, because working and oppressed people do not run this country yet. I know some of you have been watching the Democratic debates, and some of you voted here in Minnesota’s primary election on Tuesday. I did.

We know that the Democrats and Republicans are just two sides of the same bad penny, but they are not the same. Just like the Democrats who want to run against Trump, they’re not the same as each other either. Some of them were the architects of the war on welfare, designed to keep the poorest section of the working class hungry and homeless. Some of them, fought against those cuts. Some of them supported states’ rights to continue segregation, others joined the civil rights movement when they were fighting against Jim Crow and voter suppression.

Some bosses are nicer than others, but you know they’re still bosses. Same goes for politicians, some may seem nicer, but they’re all politicians upholding this corrupt system. As revolutionaries, we want to overturn this whole rotten system; but in the meantime, we are not neutral about what the ruling class is doing, and which of them will be in command.

Many have been inspired to see several women run for president, but the fact is, women have been running for president my entire life (which as of today, is 47 years). Kamala Harris wasn’t the first Black woman to run either, that’s was Shirley Chisholm in 1972. I won’t lie, I loved her takedown of Joe Biden for collaborating with segregationists. But then, when she dropped out of the race, she endorsed Biden. When Elizabeth Warren shredded that pig Bloomberg on the debate stage, I dreamed of seeing her deliver the same to Trump. But now she dropped out and hasn’t endorsed anyone.

Seeing women on those debate stages felt good for some, but as revolutionaries, we don’t have the luxury of pinning our politics on what feels good. It’s movements that make history, not individuals, no matter their gender, or how high the office they hold.

It was in 1920, a hundred years ago, that women won the right to vote, and it was almost a hundred years of struggle before we won that much. Honestly, how far has that gotten us? Not far enough. And that’s because the whole system is designed to keep us and our class down. There’s no way to vote that away. “Hell no” is never an option on the ballot, though many people express their frustration with this rigged system by not participating.

But electoral politics are an arena of the people’s struggle. So, we think folks should participate.

If Trump is defeated in 2020, it’s clear that will be better for working and oppressed people. We want to come out of this electoral process with our movements being stronger, and our enemies being weaker. That is why FRSO is asking folks across the country to vote for the most-progressive candidate, and that’s Bernie Sanders. His platform promises some reforms that would benefit our people in real ways. His campaign lifts up trade unions and other movement organizers who’ve been working on some of these same reforms for years. And it’s clear enough, the worst of the Democrats hate him the most. That makes it clear enough what we need to do.

The further Sanders gets in this campaign, the wider the door is open for all of us to raise our demands. We are not confused, he is not our candidate. But of their candidates, he’s our pick.

So, let’s end on a high note, because International Women’s Day is not just for understanding our own oppression, it’s for building and celebrating our struggles. It’s a day to honor the leading role of women in every movement for human liberation.

International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world, with forums, rallies, marches and even strikes. On Monday, Mexico will be “a country without women” when 20 million Mexican women are expected to stay home from work, school, markets, everywhere – to strike against the epidemic of violence against women and girls, and the culture of sexism.

In the U.S., we see women taking the lead in almost every social movement. In labor, it’s the strike wave of teachers, who are mostly women; in the African American community, it’s the mothers and wives and sisters, leading the movement against police murders; Native women are fighting back with a massive movement to address the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. You’ll find women on the front lines of any movement in our country today.

The FRSO Unity Statement says, “The fight for women’s genuine liberation and equality is one of the central components of the communist movement. Countries that have had socialist revolutions have seen huge gains for women in terms of political representation and participation, as well as increased rights such as easier access to jobs outside of the home, easier access to divorce, and increased reproductive freedom.”

This is the universal experience of women in socialist countries, and we know that women playing leading roles in transforming those societies. Let’s take a moment to bring some of the great revolutionary women in our history into this room. I need you to help me out, shout out their names. (Crowd responses included Claudia Jones, Assata Shakur, Lucy Parsons, Clara Zetkin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Marsha P. Johnson, Rasmea Odeh, Ahed Tamimi, and Berta Cáceras.)

I want to close by inviting you to join us, not only in the important mass struggles you’ll hear about from other speakers, but also as revolutionaries, committed to overthrowing capitalist system that kills us every day. FRSO is not just an organization that studies what’s wrong with society and thinks about what is to be done, we are an organization of fighters. We are up against a powerful enemy, but there are more of us than there are of them. If we are organized, we can beat them, and we have a world to win!

#Minnesota #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #InternationalWomensDay #sanders

Jess Sundin, a leader in the fight against police crimes says, “Amy Klobuchar is a racist. When she was Hennepin County District Attorney, she always sided with law enforcement against the interests of community members. She never charged a single cop in 40 cases of police murder of civilians. She sent an African American child, Myon Burrell, to prison for life, despite evidence that he was not involved in the crime she prosecuted him for.”

Sundin continued, “The people of Hennepin County, especially Black and brown folks, know that Klobuchar has always believed we are guilty until proven innocent, and has never heard a police lie that she didn’t believe. She used her injustices against our communities as fodder for her senate campaign, and she’s still doing that in her run for the White House. I hope anyone who opposes racism will join me in opposing Klobuchar for president.”

Another Minnesota activist with nothing good to say about Amy Klobuchar is Wyatt Miller, of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee. Miller states, “From her moves to criminalize the BDS movement [Boycott, Divest and Sanction, against the apartheid Israeli government], to her support for neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine, to her outrageous claims that Trump hasn’t gone far enough in his dangerous attempts to provoke a new Cold War with China, Amy Klobuchar wants us to know that she represents the interests of U.S. war hawks and imperialists. As a prosecutor, she sided with the FBI’s repression of anti-war activists, including several here in Minnesota. Peace and justice-loving voters should reject her candidacy as a continuation of the violent status quo.”

#MinneapolisMN #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #Minnesota #PoliticalRepression #Elections #AmyKlobuchar #2020Election

Fight Back! Interviewed Ed Cubelo, the chairman of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, or May 1st Movement in Metro Manila, while he was in the U.S. on a speaking tour. The KMU is one the largest trade union federations in the Philippines.

Fight Back!: Can you say a few words about what the May 1st Movement is?

Ed Cubelo: The May 1st Movement, established in 1980, is a genuine, militant union promoting and advancing workers' interests.

Fight Back!: What are the main issues facing Filipino workers?

Cubelo: Among the major issues, basically, of Filipino workers are low wages, no benefits, no security of jobs, and widespread contractualization.

Fight Back!: Can you say a few words about what contractualization is and the fight against it?

Cubelo: Contractualization is a form of attack against organized labor and against Filipino workers. If you are a contractual, you have no right to join unions, no right to form a union. You have no benefits. If you work longer hours, you'll receive no extra benefits, and if you get injured at work, you get no compensation, and they are vulnerable to various types of labor abuses. This is legalized under Philippine laws, and so for many years, workers have been struggling to repeal this law and end this practice.

Fight Back!: How has the KMU been fighting contractualization?

Cubelo: So KMU has started organizing labor contractuals because we believe that, despite the presence of the law, which prohibits contractuals to form organized unions, it is the right of all workers, whether contractual or regular, to have a union, to have better working conditions, to receive a living wage, and to enjoy rights of an ordinary worker. So KMU has been asserting that these laws would be repealed, at the same time demanding that the president fulfill his promise to end contractualization.

Fight Back!: The KMU has been facing repression from the U.S.-backed Duterte regime. Could you say a few words about the repression and the fight against it?

Cubelo: Because KMU is part of the broader protests criticizing the policies, the repressive policies of the Duterte government, the state has been arresting KMU union organizers. The state has been fighting trumped-up cases against KMU leaders. The state has been demonizing the struggles of KMU, red-tagging KMU, and creating fear among workers, warning them not to join KMU. But despite distress, despite these challenges, the KMU continues to enjoy the support of many workers. KMU continues to wage protests, and KMU has been leading the struggle for the workers' welfare.

Fight Back!: Is there anything you would like to say to American workers?

Cubelo: We are appealing for the support of our brothers and sisters here in the United States, our fellow American workers, to support the struggle of the Filipino people. The situation of workers is not consistently reported in mainstream media, so please help, spreading awareness about the situation of Filipino workers, and support the struggle of the Filipino people for real nationalism and democracy.

#UnitedStates #Labor #Philippines #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #KMU #Minnesota

Up to 500 people gathered at the state capitol building here, May 21, joining a national day of action in response to the new round of abortion restrictions and bans in Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri and Georgia. Chants of “Our bodies, our choice,” and “No more” echoed across the capitol complex.

Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota helped organized the rally. There were a range of speakers and supportive politicians urging all to fight back on the attacks on women and choice. A woman spoke about a very hard personal decision she and her husband made in the second trimester. Doctors stated their fetus was dying in her womb. She told the crowd, “My message to the people pushing these laws is simple: Leave me alone. Leave all of us alone. Our reasons are none of your business.”

Another woman spoke about being old enough to remember what women had to do in order to get abortions before they were legal and declared, “we won’t go back to that.”

During the rally, a handful of anti-choicers tried to disrupt the rally by going behind the stage where the speakers were but they were quickly outnumbered when many pro-choicers. They were shut down by jeers of “go away” from the crowd, after a scuffle, they were escorted off the grounds.

Right now, some right-wing politicians in the Minnesota legislature are trying to pass a 20-week abortion ban in the state legislature. Others spoke to continuing to fight back, stating we must stop these dangerous abortion bans and fight to keep abortion safe, legal and accessible.

#StPaulMN #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #womensMovement #Minnesota #abortion #Trump

Minneapolis, MN – The Anti-War Committee and Women Against Military Madness held a picket in front of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office, April 5, to draw attention to her record of voting for U.S. military aid to Israel and her recent meeting with AIPAC during its national convention.

The action was during the opening day for the Final Four basketball tournament, which was also in downtown Minneapolis. Basketball fans heard chants of “From Mexico to Palestine, all the walls have got to go!” and “Heh, Klobuchar don’t you know? Aid to Israel has got to go!” as they drove towards US Bank Stadium.

April marks the 71st anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre, in the Palestinian village where in 1948 100 men, women and children were systematically murdered by Israeli commandos. Every year Palestinians across the world mark Deir Yassin and demand the right to return to their homeland. This year, however, the Deir Yassin anniversary coincides with a growing resistance movement in Gaza and an ongoing brutal Israeli military response.

Sarah Martin, a member of Women Against Military Madness, spoke to the crowd of protesters and basketball fans about the critical situation in Palestine, “Heroic people of Gaza have marched every Friday for a year by the tens of thousands they have gathered and participated in tent city sit-ins and protests along Gaza’s eastern boundary to protest Israel’s decade-long siege on the territory, and to demand their internationally guaranteed right of return to their villages on the other side of the boundary fence from which their families had been forcibly displaced. Two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2 million are refugees hailing from lands now inside Israel.”

Autumn Lake, a member of the Anti-War Committee led chants and also spoke to the crowd about Klobuchar’s role, as a presidential candidate and a senator, in aiding Israel’s attacks of Palestinians, “No component of Klobuchar's platform exemplifies this more than her consistent and enthusiastic support for the U.S.'s aggressive foreign policy; when it comes to foreign intervention and militarism, her voting record looks like that of any of the worst Republicans that Congress has to offer.”

Lake continued, “Like the most militant of warhawk politicians, this has led Klobuchar to portray herself as a friend of Israel. Her voting record includes the penalization of the BDS – Boycott Divestment Sanctions – movement and authorizing President Donald Trump to transfer precision-guided munitions to the Israeli state. Israel's own legacy of violence and repression doesn't seem to factor into Klobuchar's political platform. Almost 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli repressive apparatus since September 29, 2000. Two thousand of those killed were children. Over 6000 Palestinians are being held as political prisoners in Israel. Almost 50,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967. As Israel has intensified its efforts to disenfranchise, displace and kill Palestinians in recent years, Klobuchar has not wavered in her support.”

She concluded, “Klobuchar said publicly that she would boycott the 2019 AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] conference but in March she met with AIPAC representatives in her office during that week in an effort to try to get votes as a presidential candidate. We are here to say that she can't hide from us. We know she sides with AIPAC and are here to call her on her silence about the 56 children killed by Israel and the 120 children arrested within the occupied West Bank by Israeli Defense Forces in 2018. As her constituents, we know her record and we aren't going to let her claim that she ‘boycotted’ the AIPAC conference or that she cares about the human rights of Palestinians!”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Minnesota #Klobuchar #MiddleEast