The following speech was delivered by Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly at a Minneapolis October, 2019 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese revolution. Kelly is a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of Freedom Road Socialist Organization and is responsible for its international relations.

Minneapolis, MN – Activists rallied then took to the streets, October 25, blocking light rail, dodging police, and delaying rush hour traffic to demand justice and transparency in the police murder of Brian Quinones.

Minneapolis, MN – About 70 people gathered in south Minneapolis, October 26, to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese revolution. Each year Freedom Road Socialist Organization in the Twin Cities organizes an event to celebrate the “Two Octobers,” the victories of the Chinese and Russian revolutions.

Minneapolis, MN – On October 18, the five-starred flag of the People’s Republic of China fluttered in the wind, as a group of patriotic Chinese international students marched in opposition to a reactionary demonstration billed as the “Liberty for Hong Kong March.”

Minneapolis, MN – Thousands of people poured into the streets on October 10 to resist the reactionary rally held by President Donald Trump in the heart of Minneapolis. Long targeted by the president’s racist incitement against the city’s immigrant, Muslim and Black communities, Minneapolis rose to the occasion with a massive display of righteous militancy.

Minneapolis, MN – A wide range of organizations have come together to organize a massive protest on the evening of Thursday, October 10 outside the Target Center arena in downtown Minneapolis, where President Trump will hold a campaign rally. The protest will start at 5:30 p.m. outside the Target Center.

Minneapolis, MN – Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is among the organizations mobilizing for the massive “Dump Trump! Trump not welcome in Minneapolis!” protest set for Thursday, October 10, 5:30 p.m., at the downtown Target Center arena.

Fight Back! is circulating statement by the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar

Demand fairness and respect

Minneapolis, MN – University of Minnesota AFSCME members confronted soon-to-be-inaugurated University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel at the September 13 Board of Regents meeting in the McNamara Alumni Center.

Minneapolis, MN – A September 5 press conference at the offices of CAIR MN made public new information in the police murder of 23-year-old Isak Aden. Aden, a breadwinner and caregiver for his younger siblings and disabled grandmother, was surrounded on July 2 by 90 officers for four hours in the Twin Cities suburb of Eagan, before fatal shots were fired by five cops from the cities of Eagan and Bloomington.

Minneapolis, MN – Twin Cities activists against police crimes have been busy this week with actions: On August 15, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis gave his address on the city budget. However, activists got wind that Mayor Frey would probably ask for more cops to patrol the streets of Minneapolis, particularly in downtown. This proposal came at the time the city was settling with the family of Jamar Clark, who was killed by Minneapolis police in 2015.

Minneapolis, MN – A few hundred protesters blocked off all roads outside of the Whipple Federal Building here at a 'Never Again is Now' protest July 30, shutting down business as usual to demand that the government close the concentration camps at the U.S.-México border.

Minneapolis, MN – “Workers of the world, unite! Not ‘workers of America unite’ or ‘workers who look like us, pray like us or love like us unite.’ It’s all workers,” said union organizer David Gilbert-Pederson of Minnesota Workers United. “We have more in common with the tailor in Tehran than the bankers who crashed our economy. We have more in common with the bus driver in Caracas than the politicians locking kids in cages.”

Minneapolis, MN – On June 30, 4000 people marched in South Minneapolis to stand with immigrants and Muslims who are under attack by the Trump administration.

Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday, June 30, more than 1000 Minnesotans will march in south Minneapolis to oppose the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies of the Trump administration. The march will start at 2:00 p.m., at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, MN – For the third year in a row, the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar has held a protest during the downtown Minneapolis Pride parade, June 23, against the presence of cops, and contesting the corporatization of Pride.

Minneapolis, MN – Community members took over the office of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, June 12. They demanded the mayor take the actions – actions that he has the power to take – to get justice for the family of Jamar Clark.

Minneapolis, MN – June 4 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1989 anti-socialist turmoil in Beijing’s famed Tiananmen Square and the decisive moves by the government of the People’s Republic China to confront counter-revolution. The U.S. State Department, the corporate media (and some unthinking people who parrot their lies), will speak about a ‘massacre’ that never happened, and use the opportunity to breathe some life into an anti-communist paper tiger that has lost its power to compel or convince.

Minneapolis, MN – 30 people held signs reading “Hands off Venezuela” and a big banner saying “No coup – no sanctions – no war – hands off Venezuela” on a bridge from Loring Park to the Walker Sculpture Garden over Interstate 94 in Minneapolis during rush hour, May 30. Ten lanes of traffic filled with rush hour traffic traveled underneath. The protesters heard hundreds of honks of agreement that the U.S. shouldn’t intervene in Venezuela.

Minneapolis, MN – Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association held informational pickets, May 29, in their fight for a decent contact. Hundreds gathered at Fairview-Riverside and other hospitals to participate in huge picket lines, demanding that the issues of safety, benefits and wages are addressed. The existing contact will expire May 31.