Minneapolis, MN – On January 22, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, a coalition of anti-war groups in Minnesota, rallied in Mayday Plaza as part of the United National Antiwar Coalition's national call for Martin Luther King Jr. week of actions against U.S. wars to mark his birthday. On the theme of “New Year, Same Wars,” the protest drew a crowd of 70 protesters, eager to hear from activist leaders across the Twin Cities representing the voices of those impacted by U.S. imperialism and endless militarism.

People lined the sidewalks, facing traffic and holding signs expressing the crowd's sentiment, “End the wars! Troops home now!” “War is not humanitarian!” The emcees welcomed everyone who took time to be a visible force and said how it is important to be out demanding the U.S. end all their endless wars.

Setting the tone of the protest, everyone joined in chanting, “Coups and sanctions cost lives! Don't believe the media's lies!”

The organizers drew parallels between Dr. King’s anti-war message during the Vietnam era and the current fight to end U.S. intervention in countries across the globe. Kim DeFranco, member of Women Against Military Madness, explained, “King knew the cost of the U.S. endless wars waged around the world. The cost was not just in dollars but in the human toll. He made the connections between the economic and social costs between the U.S. wars and working people here and in the countries the U.S. destroys.”

The rally included speakers from Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Anti-War Committee, Veterans for Peace, Women Against Military Madness, Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar, Movement for a People’s Democracy, and Minnesota Workers United.

Within the crowd on the plaza, the Veterans for Peace’s minibus was surrounded by colorful signs “Money for the poor not for war,” “Yes to Peace, no to NATO” and “$80 billion for Ukraine – no way!”

Speaking on the ongoing violence and oppression in Palestine was Aarushi Sen from the Anti-War Committee. She shared that in 2023 to date, 17 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and yet the “the U.S. continues to prop up Israeli apartheid.”

During his speech, Mike Madden of Veterans for Peace, in his enlivened style, threw his gloves down like a hockey player ready for a fight, a very Minnesotan demonstration of “We’ve had enough.” He then spoke about the proxy war between the U.S. and Russia and the real cost: “We supply the weapons and the Ukrainians do the dying.” His message emphasized the dire need to stop the dangerous proliferation of the U.S. war machine.

While some speakers addressed the blatant U.S. oppression of countries like Palestine, Venezuela and Iran and the proxy war with Russia, others tied the struggle at home to the actions of the U.S. military. Jae Yates of Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar spoke about the shared resources between local police forces and the U.S. military, sharing the goal of quelling uprisings and public discontent. “If the police are the first line of defense against real change in our country, then the military is the second; it not only backs the police when we challenge the state but trains and arms them.”

Monique Cullers-Doty of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities spoke of solidarity with the anti-war movement and the important role organizations play in supporting each other in the fight for liberation. She also called for the U.S. to change from focusing on getting involved in militarism abroad to address issues at home; “America needs to provide for everyone that is here.”

Throughout the protest people directly participated in chanting, “From inside the capitalist beast, we demand justice, we demand peace!”

Rounding out the protest, David Gilbert-Pederson, member from the Minnesota Workers United, systematically described how endless wars have a devastating impact on workers in the U.S., calling attention to the needs of the people here that are being ignored while military and police spending continues to increase. Issues like housing, hunger, education and healthcare suffer budget cuts and leave people without resources while the government justifies acts of war and violence through the vilification of people in other countries. He said, “We have more in common with the people of the countries that the U.S. attacks than we do with the capitalists waging the wars.”

The rally concluded with the emcees emphasizing the importance of “taking a great stand against endless U.S. wars and for being a visible and a loud anti-war movement.” They encouraged attendees to continue to fight in the streets for an end to U.S. militarism.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #MinnesotaPeaceActionCoalitionMPAC #AntiWarCommittee

Minneapolis, MN – On March 19, more than 80 demonstrators gathered outside Walker Library in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood to protest ongoing U.S. military interventions abroad, from U.S. troops deployed in Syria to the continued funding and arming of troops in Ukraine. The protest was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition.

March 19 marked the 19th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; however organizers made it clear that the event was not only to remember that criminal imperialist war, but to condemn the many wars that the is currently involved in. The U.S. has troops deployed in Syria, funds the Saudi war on Yemen and runs drone operations there, has recently carried out airstrikes in Somalia, and is continuing to escalate the war in Ukraine. Protesters carried signs with slogans like “Fight COVID, not Russia!” “Money for schools! Not for war!” and “No new wars for the 1%!”

Ana Vasquez spoke as a member of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, a union which is entering its third week of striking for safer and more equitable schools. Vasquez stated that as a Salvadoran who grew up there during a U.S.-funded civil war, she “personally experienced what it is like to face U.S. imperialism.”

Vasquez drew connections between U.S. militarism, the tragic state of education and other human services in the U.S., and the oppression of minorities, stating, “The U.S. is the country in the world with the biggest military budget, the biggest military budget that any country has. Yet we cannot have money for our schools to function properly, we continue to close down schools, we continue to not pay a living wage to our workers. And we know that many of the workers in these lower-paying jobs are immigrants, immigrants that have come to this country because of the wars that the U.S. continues to wage around the world.”

MFT 59 educators are currently fighting for a $35,000 yearly salary for educational support professionals in Minneapolis. MPAC organizers noted that a single Stinger anti-aircraft missile costs $38,000 and that the U.S. is quick to fund war instead of education. Organizers raised $300 at the rally for the MFT strike fund.

After chants of, “We won’t sit back for another attack! We were here when you ruined Iraq!” Susan Banaszewski, a member of the Anti-War Committee, directly connected the U.S. invasion of Iraq to NATO’s current involvement in Ukraine. She spoke about the “no-fly zone” that was imposed over Iraq, saying, “In Iraq, our government claimed the no-fly zones would protect the Kurdish people; in reality, it became the longest U.S. bombing campaign since the Vietnam War and killed over 1000 civilians, even before the invasion in 2003.” Many people opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have adopted the slogan “Close the sky,” and are calling for a no-fly zone to be enforced over Ukraine. This may sound like an anti-war slogan, but as Banaszewski stated, “what [this slogan] is really calling for is for the United States to take an offensive military role in this conflict by shooting down Russian planes, or bombing Russian military infrastructure, to which Russia will retaliate, drawing all of NATO into a hot war with two nuclear powers.” This is an example of the pro-war propaganda that we are all exposed to on a daily basis due to the U.S. media’s pro-imperialist, ruling-class bias.

Mike Madden of Veterans for Peace built upon this idea, saying, “In the corporate media narrative, the war in Ukraine started three weeks ago on February 24. But the war did not start on February 24. Two months after the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected government, on April 15, 2014, the Ukrainian government launched military and paramilitary neo-Nazi operations against the breakaway provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. This was the start of the war.”

Madden went on to describe how although we have heard extensive reports about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have heard nothing about the U.S.’s role in this war. “That’s because Ukrainians, when they are attacked by their own U.S.-allied government, are unworthy victims. They do not advance the narrative of ‘America good, Russia evil.’ They are not newsworthy, they are erased,” Madden stated.

The overwhelmingly pro-war messaging of the U.S. media due to the crisis in Ukraine has posed a challenge for anti-war activists. Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee summarized the situation well when he said, “What unites us in the anti-war movement, and in MPAC, is focusing on what the U.S., our own government is doing.” Miller reminded the crowd that when the U.S. claims that intervention in Ukraine, or any other country, will improve the lives of working people in those countries, we have to remember the lessons of Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Nicaragua, Somalia, Yugoslavia, or countless other military and economic interventions.

Organizers at the event announced another protest in commemoration of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which will be held on March 25 at the University of Minnesota Coffman Memorial Union at 6 p.m. Initiated by Students for a Democratic Society at the U of MN, the protest will demand an end to U.S. wars, and for money for education, not military aid.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #MinnesotaPeaceActionCoalitionMPAC

On March 19, more than 80 demonstrators gathered outside Walker Library in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood to protest ongoing U.S. military interventions abroad, from U.S. troops deployed in Syria to the continued funding and arming of troops in Ukraine. The protest was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition.

March 19 marked the 19th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; however organizers made it clear that the event was not only to remember that criminal imperialist war, but to condemn the many wars that the is currently involved in. The U.S. has troops deployed in Syria, funds the Saudi war on Yemen and runs drone operations there, has recently carried out airstrikes in Somalia, and is continuing to escalate the war in Ukraine. Protesters carried signs with slogans like “Fight COVID, not Russia!” “Money for schools! Not for war!” and “No new wars for the 1%!”

Ana Vasquez spoke as a member of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59, a union which is entering its third week of striking for safer and more equitable schools. Vasquez stated that as a Salvadoran who grew up there during a U.S.-funded civil war, she “personally experienced what it is like to face U.S. imperialism.”

Vasquez drew connections between U.S. militarism, the tragic state of education and other human services in the U.S., and the oppression of minorities, stating, “The U.S. is the country in the world with the biggest military budget, the biggest military budget that any country has. Yet we cannot have money for our schools to function properly, we continue to close down schools, we continue to not pay a living wage to our workers. And we know that many of the workers in these lower-paying jobs are immigrants, immigrants that have come to this country because of the wars that the U.S. continues to wage around the world.”

MFT 59 educators are currently fighting for a $35,000 yearly salary for educational support professionals in Minneapolis. MPAC organizers noted that a single Stinger anti-aircraft missile costs $38,000 and that the U.S. is quick to fund war instead of education. Organizers raised $300 at the rally for the MFT strike fund.

After chants of, “We won’t sit back for another attack! We were here when you ruined Iraq!” Susan Banaszewski, a member of the Anti-War Committee, directly con