The event is co-sponsored by the Anti-War Committee and Women Against Military Madness.

A statement issued by organizers says, “We protest in Minneapolis to speak out against the military coup in Bolivia, and the role of the U.S. government in this coup. The people of Bolivia, who are struggling to defend economic and social gains won under the leadership of President Evo Morales, are struggling to stop this coup. The U.S. government is clearly the sponsor of the coup. The goal of the coup is to restore the absolute authority of the Bolivian elites who rule as clients of the United States.”

“The U.S. government has worked overtime to turn back the left-wing tide sweeping Latin America. The struggle in Bolivia, and all of Latin America continues between the forces that want to empower the people and those that want to maintain the power and wealth of the rich,” the statement continues.

Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness explains, “Evo Morales became President in 2006 on the shoulders of a powerful mass movement of indigenous people, and farmers and workers. When he used the gas and mineral wealth of the country to improve the lives of the people and not to enrich the transnational mining companies, he became a target of U.S. regime change. We stand with Bolivians in opposition to this right-wing, military coup.”

Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Anti-War Committee concurs, “The whole history of the U.S. in Latin America has been to maintain the interests of large U.S. corporations in the region against any attempt by the rank-and-file people to take steps to rebuild society in their interests. The coup in Bolivia is only the latest example of this whole history.”

#MinneapolisMN #MinneaoplisMN #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #Bolivia #AntiWarCommittee #Americas

Minneapolis, MN – About 800 people blocked a major bridge here, Nov. 17 in a march demanding jobs. Police declared the protest to be an unlawful assembly and arrested 11 people who sat down in an act of civil disobedience. The 10th Avenue Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River, was closed for about an hour.

Speaking on the bridge, Pastor Paul Slack demanded Congress pass a job bill that addresses unemployment, particularly the massive unemployment that exists in the African American community.

“Minnesotans know better than almost anyone how much crumbling bridges and infrastructure can cost a community. We must fix Minnesota’s infrastructure and we must use these jobs to fix the economic inequality in our state – with 22% African-American unemployment we have one of the worst racial job gaps in the country. We are marching to demand that our leaders pass a jobs bill that will put people back to work repairing our infrastructure and providing vital public services, not kill even more jobs with devastating budget cuts,” said Tee McClenty, Executive Vice President of SEIU HealthCare Minnesota.

After the protest on the bridge, demonstrators marched to People’s Plaza, the home of Occupy Minnesota for another rally.

Kim Defranco of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout told the crowd, “Make no mistake, the 1% wants us to go back to our foreclosed homes, unemployment lines, to our jobs and shut up! So they can continue their stealing from us. We tell the 1%, it's too late. We will not go back! We are awake and united and we will continue this fight until we get justice.”

Deb Konechne, of the Events Committee of OccupyMN urged people at the rally to join encampment at Peoples Plaza, where people have held a 24-hour presence since Oct. 7.

#MinneapolisMN #MinneaoplisMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #SEIU #OccupyMN #OccupyWallStreet #SEIUHealthcareMinnesota #MinnesotansForAFairEconomy #OccupyMinneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – About 400 people rallied at People’s Plaza and marched through downtown Minneapolis on November 14 in defense of OccupyMN. After the march they returned to the plaza and filled it with blankets and sleeping bags for a mass ‘sleep-in’ in defiance of Hennepin County’s new rules banning sleeping in the plaza. As of 10:00 p.m. the County authorities have not moved to clear the plaza.

The new rules which go into effect today were passed at the County Commissioners’ meeting last Tuesday in response to OccupyMN’s occupation of Hennepin County Government Plaza since October 7, which the protesters renamed “People’s Plaza”.

The new restrictions include the ban on sleeping in the plaza, no hanging or posting of signs on the plaza, and no porta-potties on the plaza except at the discretion of the County Administrator. The porta-potties which had been there since October 7 are no longer there. The commissioners passed the new restrictions unanimously.

According to Deb Konechne of the Minnesota People’s Bailout Coalition, who co-emceed today’s rally, “The new rules are an eviction notice, and people won’t accept them. Tonight we can see that more people are occupying the plaza to speak out against corporate greed and injustice, regardless of whatever new restrictions on freedom of assembly Sheriff Stanek may have gotten the commissioners to pass.”

The rally featured many speakers vowing to defend people’s right to continue the occupation of People’s Plaza. Union leaders that spoke included Cliff Poehler of AFSCME Council 5, Javier Morillo of SEIU Local 26, Michelle Sommers of ATU Local 1005, Donnie McMillan of Carpenters Local 322 and Kieran Knutson of the IWW. Some of the people who have been sleeping out at the plaza since the beginning spoke about the need to continue the movement. Several individuals and organizations from the community vowed to defend the occupation including Darryl Robinson of Communities United Against Police Brutality, community activist Mel Reeves, Polly Kellogg of Women Against Military Madness, Linden Gawboy of the Welfare Rights Committee, Jennie Eisert of the Anti-War Committee, among others.

#MinneapolisMN #MinneaoplisMN #OccupyWallStreet #OccupyMN #SheriffStanek #HennepinCountyCommissioners

Minneapolis, MN – Clyde Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement (AIM) organized a rich and moving Indigenous People’s day ceremony of speakers, dancing and drumming for OccupyMN at the People’s Plaza, Oct 10.

“This is a day of mourning for the 120 million indigenous people of the western hemisphere erased from the face of the earth after the pirate Columbus landed,” said Bellecourt.

The Meshika and the Ketzal Coatlicue dance groups energized and electrified the crowd and opened their circle for all to dance.

The General Assembly, a mass meeting where the occupation is organized, cut short their daily meeting to see Jackie Bird, who came from South Dakota perform the beautiful and difficult hoop dance. As hundreds gathered around, she and the spirited AIM drummers sang. The evening ended with everyone greeting each other by walking in 2 facing lines.

#MinneapolisMN #MinneaoplisMN #IndigenousPeoples #AmericanIndianMovement #OccupyMN #ClydeBellecourt #OccupyWallStreet #JackieBird

As the occupation began at 9:00 a.m. and organizers set up tables for food, media, logistics, medical, and other basic occupation infrastructure, around 500 people were already gathered on the plaza. At 2:00 p.m. a sizeable group of people went on a march around downtown. The official kickoff rally started at 5:30 p.m. As people poured in after work, the crowd swelled to over a thousand.

The rally was started off by American Indian Movement leader Clyde Bellecourt. Spoken word artist and rapper Guante read a poem he had written inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Chris Mato Nunpa, a Dakota elder, expressed his support for this Occupy movement as it protests against Wall Street and capitalism, while also explaining how the word “occupy” has a very different meaning to Native people whose lands were occupied and stolen, including the land the rally was happening on, which was stolen from the Dakota people.

Steph Taylor from Students for a Democratic Society at the U of M spoke next, getting loud cheers when she talked about the massive student loan debt graduating students face. Teacher Chris Gray spoke about the massive cuts to public schools. Antonia Alvaro of Asamblea de Derechos Civiles spoke about the huge profits made from immigrant labor and immigrant imprisonment. Angel Buechner of the MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout and Welfare Rights Committee talked about the ongoing fight against poverty in Minnesota. Javier Morillo, President of SEIU Local 26, spoke about the attacks on unions and union members. Jess Sundin of the Anti-War Committee talked about the 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Farheen Hakeem of the Green Party talked about environmental destruction under this system and the need for political change. Northside activist Mel Reeves spoke about the need for fundamental change, and Nick Schillingford of Join the Impact spoke about the attacks on LBGTQ people. The president of the Minnesota Nurses Association and the President of National Nurses United also spoke, expressing nurses’ full support for the movement against Wall Street. It was also announced that AFSCME Council 5 had passed a resolution supporting OccupyMN and Occupy Wall Street movement.

After the rally, hundreds stayed for the General Assembly meeting and to occupy the People’s Plaza overnight. The occupation is continuing indefinitely, with many more rallies and marches targeting big banks and corporations being proposed for the coming this week.

#MinneaoplisMN #MinneapolisMN #OccupyWallStreet #OccupyMN #PeoplesPlaza

On September 24th last year, FBI agents raided the homes of peace and anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago as well as our office, and issued subpoenas to 14 activists to appear before a federal grand jury in an investigation of alleged material support for terrorism. The number of activists subpoenaed to date has grown to 23, and one of the common threads that has emerged in this “investigation” is related to the activists’ solidarity work with the people of occupied Palestine.

We are outraged that history is repeating itself. Not only is the second Gaza Flotilla being prevented from delivering humanitarian aid to Palestine, this act of solidarity is being demonized as material support for terrorism by the U.S. State Department. It has been widely reported that the State Department regards the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza as equivalent to “conspiring to deliver material support” to Hamas, and could result in lengthy prison sentences for flotilla participants. It is outlandish that rather than using their influence with the Israeli government to help the American citizens on the Flotilla that the U.S. State Department is threatening prosecution. The Flotilla is an incredibly brave act of international solidarity, not a criminal act punishable by the United States. The real criminals are the people working to keep badly needed supplies out of Gaza!

The Anti-War Committee knows that now more than ever it is essential that we stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and that we truly change U.S. foreign policy. We urge our supporters to take action in solidarity with the Flotilla and to keep sending humanitarian aid to the people affected by U.S. sponsored warfare – including Palestinians.

What you can do:

• U.S. Boat to Gaza is urging supporters to immediately contact the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC at 202-939-1300 and by fax at 202-939-1324. Please tell them to let The Audacity of Hope leave Athens safely and sail to Gaza.
• End the Occupation is calling of supporters to call the State Department at 202-647-6575 and demand that it retract its June 24 statement that the flotilla and the U.S. Boat to Gaza are “irresponsible and provocative actions.”

We should demand that the United States stop threatening U.S. citizens acting peacefully to break Israel's illegal and immoral blockade of Gaza that their actions “could violate U.S. civil and criminal statutes and could lead to fines and incarceration.”

Demand that the United States ensures safe passage for the flotilla and that it ends U.S. support for Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. * For updates: Follow @USBOATTOGAZA on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/usboattogaza) for breaking news and info on emergency actions).

#MinneaoplisMN #MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Gaza #Palestine #GazaFlotilla #Hamas #MiddleEast

Minneapolis, MN – On Jan. 20, dozens of Latino immigrants who were among the hundreds fired from Chipotle Mexican Grill throughout Minnesota last month protested at a downtown Minneapolis Chipotle. At the protest the workers entered the store, while eight of the workers’ allies chained themselves together inside the store until they were arrested. The workers and their supporters are demanding justice from Chipotle.

Chipotle, a large multinational corporation that markets itself as a socially conscious Mexican food restaurant that sells “food with integrity,” abruptly fired hundreds of their Mexican and other Latino immigrant workers in Minnesota in December. At Chipotle restaurants across the state, they fired dozens of workers at a time, showing them the door without giving them a clear explanation for their firing.

Hearing rumblings of the firings, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc) denounced the cruel pre-Christmas firings publicly, and the media quickly took notice. Since then the fired workers have continued to speak out. They've organized several protests to demand justice. Their campaign is being supported by SEIU Local 26, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) and MIRAc.

The workers are demanding that they be properly compensated, including all back pay, vacation pay and compensation for years of service. They are demanding the truth from the company, which for weeks refused to make a public statement about the firings. Under pressure from the workers and repeated media questioning, Chipotle now admits in the press that the mass firings were a result of an I-9 Audit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but they still haven’t communicated that clearly to the workers they fired.

I-9 audits are an anti-immigrant enforcement mechanism that have been dramatically ramped up by the Obama administration over the last two years, resulting in massive waves of unjust firings of immigrant workers around the country. Here in Minnesota, in addition to the hundreds of fired Chipotle workers, 1200 janitors were fired from ABM a year and a half ago and 100 immigrant workers in South Saint Paul who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union were fired recently from I-9 audits as well.

According to MIRAc member Brad Sigal, “The workers at Chipotle were fired because the Obama administration is ordering more and more of these anti-immigrant I-9 audits. The President can stop them today administratively – it doesn’t need a vote in Congress. If President Obama wants to show he supports immigrant rights like he claims, then not one more immigrant worker should be fired unjustly because of his administration’s policies.”

#MinneaoplisMN #MinneapolisMN #SEIULocal26 #MIRAc #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommittee #Chipotle #CTUL #I9Audits

Minneapolis, MN – Leaders of the Twin Cites Peace and Justice movement blasted city government at a press conference here, Aug. 27, in front of the Minneapolis City Hall.

The agency designated with the authority to issue parade permits in Minneapolis, the Public Works Department, has turned down an application from the Anti-War Committee for a mass march and rally on the opening day of the proposed Democratic National Convention.

Officials responsible for making the decision to turn down the application for the anti-war march have not even bothered to put forward coherent reasons that are consistent with the law. An official told protest organizers that it was too soon to submit an application. City law does not establish any dates that are ‘too early’ – in fact the ordinance says “parade permit applications should be filed as soon as possible in advance of the parade or event.”

City officials say another reason for rejecting the permit application is because they will not approve any parade permits for a date that is not on a weekend or holiday. Leaving aside the fact that this restriction in it of itself is unconstitutional, organizers are demanding the permit for Sept. 3, Labor Day, 2012 – a legal holiday in Minneapolis.

“It’s clear city officials just do not want to see a major anti-war march that coincides with the opening day of the Democratic National Convention. We have a right to protest and if the DNC is held here we will to exactly that on Sept. 3, 2012,” states Meredith Aby, of the Anti-War Committee.

“We want permits to have the largest possible march. That said, we have a right to protest and the city of Minneapolis needs to understand that we will march to the site of the DNC with or without a permit. Under the slogan “Money for human needs, not for war,” we will take thousands of protesters to the Metrodome if the DNC is held here,” said Deb Konechne of the Welfare Rights Committee.

#MinneaoplisMN #MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #AntiWarCommittee #DemocraticNationalConvention #DNC