Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

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By Kent Mori

Minneapolis Earth Day march

Minneapolis, MN – 80 people rallied and marched, April 23, to celebrate Earth Day in Minneapolis, despite rain clouds. The was organized by the Climate Justice Committee and centered around important struggles in the ongoing fight for climate justice. The rally started outside a chain link fence surrounding the closed Roofing Depot factory that is subject of a struggle between the city government and neighborhood activists.

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By Meredith Aby

Minneapolis marchers at the Deir Yassin memorial.

Minneapolis, MN – 40 people marked the anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre on April 9 at 29th and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. April marks the 74th 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. The rally featured speakers from Veterans for Peace, Northfielders for Palestine/Israel, Middle East Peace Now, American Muslims for Palestine, and the MN Anti-War Committee.

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By staff

Minneapolis, MN – On April 8, Hennepin County Administrator David Hough plans to fire or put on track to terminate over 150 workers for not being vaccinated. While union representatives of AFSCME 2822 are awaiting demographic data, past disciplines suggest the firings will hit workers of color and low wage workers the hardest.

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By staff

Minneapolis educators ratify new contract.

Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday evening, March 27, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) Presidents Greta Callahan and Shaun Laden announced that both teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) had ratified their new contracts. Laden is the president of the education support professionals’ local, and Callahan is the president of the teachers’ local of MFT.

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By staff

Striking Minneapolis educators

Minneapolis, MN – Early on Friday, March 25, the striking Minneapolis teachers and education support professionals reached tentative agreements that will be voted on by union members. They have been on strike since Tuesday, March 8.

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By staff

U of MN students stand with striking educators.

Minneapolis, MN – Around 40 people gathered in Dinkytown, off the intersection of 15th Avenue and 4th Street to hold a speak-out in support of striking Minneapolis educators on Saturday, March 19. The action kicked off with a round of chants, as onlookers passed by, some even joining the protest, and cars honked their horns in support, and speakers made their way to the mic.

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By Andrew Josefchak

Minneapolis protest against U.S. wars.

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.

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By Andrew Josefchak

Minneapolis protest against U.S. wars.

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.

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By staff

Minnesota Workers United solidarity action with striking educators.

Minneapolis, MN – At least 14 unions from Minnesota held a rally in support of the striking Minneapolis educators, March 20. The rally was organized by the Minnesota Workers United (MWU) Strike Support Committee, which is the sanctioned labor and community strike support committee of the Minneapolis educators’ strike.

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By Meredith Aby

Rally in support of striking Minneapolis educators

Minneapolis, MN – On March 17 thousands of striking educators with MFT 59 and community members rallied on both sides of Lake Street, stretched out for about a mile, in Minneapolis in a mega picket outside Adult Education South and Transition Plus at the MPS Center for Adult Learning. After two hours of enthusiastic picketing and dancing, educators from other metro cities got on the MFT sound truck to send messages of solidarity to strikers.

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By staff

MEG workers stand strong on the picket line.

Minneapolis, MN – At 6:30 a.m., March 14, around 100 workers at Minnesota Epilepsy Group (MEG) walked off the job and began a five-day Unfair Labor Practice strike. The striking workers are EEG technologists and EEG associates – union members represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. When on the job, the MEG workers perform Electroencephalogram (EEG) tests to detect abnormalities in people’s brain waves and electrical activity in the brain.

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By staff

Support is growing for Minneapolis educators strike.

Minneapolis MN – Teachers and education support professionals at Minneapolis Public Schools began a strike on March 8, shutting down the Minneapolis school system. Today, March 14, the strike continues as the schools remain closed for a second week.

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By Brad Sigal

![March 12 car caravan supports Minneapolis educators’ strike.](https://i.snap.as/eqQrnCZK.jpg “March 12 car caravan supports Minneapolis educators’ strike. March 12 car caravan supports Minneapolis educators’ strike.

(Photo by Brad Sigal)”)

Minneapolis, MN – On March 12 a car caravan brought honks of solidarity to Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) negotiating committee members while they were in talks with the school district administration at the Davis Center after a week of being on strike.

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By staff

Minneapolis, MN – Fed up with crushing caseloads and substandard pay, public defense lawyers and support staff workers employed by the Minnesota Board of Public Defense voted overwhelmingly March 10 to reject a final offer and authorize a strike. The workers are all represented by Teamsters Local 320.

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By staff

Striking educators march in downtown Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, MN – The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) strike entered its fourth day on Thursday March 11 as Minneapolis Public Schools remained closed. Picket lines continued to have large crowds with many schools reporting 100% turnout to their picket lines every day of the strike, and the others reporting nearly all educators on their lines.

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By staff

Contract settlement reached in Saint Paul

Massive rally of striking educators and supporters.

Minneapolis, MN – Teachers and education support professionals in Minneapolis began striking at 7:30 a.m., March 8, with pickets held at public schools all over the city.

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By Siobhan Moore

International Women's Day march  in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood

Minneapolis, MN – Around 60 people gathered in Mayday Plaza on Sunday, March 6, for an International Women’s Day protest organized by the Twin Cities district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Demands for reproductive rights and healthcare for all, justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and two-spirit people, an end to gender-based violence, queer and trans liberation, and justice for all stolen lives were raised. The demonstrators also stood in solidarity with Twin Cities educators preparing to strike, signs reading “Victory to the educators!” dotted the crowd gathered in the square, and similar phrases frequented the speeches given.

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By staff

MN Workers United holds a press conference in support of teachers strike

Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday March 5 rank-and-file union members along with parents, teachers and students held a press conference in support of the teachers, education support professionals (ESPs) and education assistants who will begin a strike Tuesday in Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools.

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By staff

Minneapolis protest demands "no U.S. war with Russia."

Minneapolis, MN – Fight Back! News interviewed Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a founding member of the MN Anti-War Committee, on February 27 for her anti-war perspective on the crisis in the Ukraine and the proxy war developing between the U.S./NATO and Russia.

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By Wyatt Miller

Minnesota protest against war with Russia.

Minneapolis, MN – On February 24, around 30 people demonstrated outside U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office in downtown Minneapolis with signs and banners calling for no war with Russia and an end to U.S. intervention in Ukraine. Held less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine, the protest came amidst a jingoistic frenzy of calls by Western governments and media for actions against Russia.

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