Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, June 17, about 30 protesters gathered at the busy intersection of Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue to demand U.S hands off Cuba. Passing cars were supportive with many honks and fists out the windows. Chants of “What’s the number one threat to the world today? Donald Trump and the USA!” could be heard down the street. The action was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition.

In the last year the United States has tightened sanctions on Cuba, resulting in intensified shortages of fuel, medicine and food. Linden Garcia-Torres, a healthcare worker and member of Women Against Military Madness’s Hands Off Latin America committee, spoke about the impact of deadly sanctions on Cuban hospitals.

“When hospitals lose power, medical supplies are accessible to only 3% of Cubans in pharmacies, and infant mortality increases to 148 percent the level prior to Cuba’s reinstatement on the [U.S. government designated] ‘State Sponsors of Terror’ list in 2018. And public water access is strained by lack of fuel,” Garcia-Torres said. He noted that even with deadly sanctions, Cuba still has a lower infant mortality rate than the Twin Cities does for Black and indigenous people giving birth.

Garcia-Torres continued, “An invasion would make visible the corrupt, extortive practices and policies of the U.S. regime.”

Earlier this month, in an attempt to show strength during a failing war in the Middle East, Trump imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. These new sanctions also include attacks on the president’s wife and stepson as well as the son and grandson of former President Raul Castro, brother of Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro, for whom the U.S. also issued an arrest warrant for last month.

Trump and the U.S. claim that Cuba’s policies of free healthcare, free education, and housing programs are a threat to U.S. security, but speakers at the protest underscored that the real threat to global peace and security is the United States itself.

Liz Bolsoni, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, spoke about the violence of the U.S. government against foreign countries, saying, “Our government doesn’t want to simply arbitrarily take out people in power, but it wants to take out an idea and the mere possibility of any nation or people that exist in opposition to the U.S.”

“We have a lot to learn from the Cubans who have shown that international solidarity, not power grabbing, is what being on the right side of history means,” Bolsoni continued.

Calls for international solidarity were echoed by other speakers who made connections between Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Lebanon and Palestine.

Nadiyah Salawdeh, a member of the Minnesota chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, explained, “It is because of this internationalism that the ruling class is targeting Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Alone, these countries may pose a threat, but together, the ruling class knows that they cannot and will not win. As a movement, we must demand an end to the U.S.’s illegal occupation of Cuba in Guantanamo Bay and an end to its genocidal sanctions. We must demand no war on Cuba.”

Salawdeh continued to speak to the connection to Palestine, where collective punishment has been on full display throughout the genocide, with severe food insecurity reaching alarming levels across the territory, leaving large numbers of families struggling to meet basic nutritional needs. “From Cuba to Palestine, food should be nourishment, not a weapon. Kids should be able to grow up without fear of a bomb dropping on their home or their school. The people of the land should have sovereign control over their own land,” Salawdeh concluded.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Cuba #MPAC

Minneapolis, MN – On the morning of June 15, the Department of Justice announced charges against 15 anti-ice protesters for “conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer,” and other bogus charges. That same morning 12 out of the 15 protesters had their homes raided and were arrested in relation to the federal indictment.

After the arrests, the DOJ held a press conference, where U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen claimed that the accused had assaulted a federal officer and destroyed government property, among other charges. When asked, Rosen did not respond to any questions regarding the injuries or the number of agents injured by the indicted, or about the investigations of the federal agents who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In response to the outrageous charges, the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild announced an anti-repression press conference at the same time as the DOJ conference. As part of the press conference, attorney Nekima Levy-Armstrong and other community organizers spoke in solidarity with those arrested.

Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) member Montana Hirsch stated that MIRAC “stands in unwavering solidarity with all anti-ice protesters,” further stating that “protesting is not a crime, and protesting ICE is the right thing to do.”

After the press conference, NLG put out another call for the community to show up at 1:30 p.m. to the Federal Building in Saint Paul to pack the court for the first hearing of the arrestees. Dozens showed up to demand the release of the arrestees.

When the courtroom filled to capacity, the officials refused to offer an overflow room for additional viewing, and the U.S. Marshals deployed chemical irritants on the crowd for trying to enter the building in support the wrongfully indicted. This did not deter the community from remaining steadfast in their solidarity.

The People’s Action Coalition Against Trump (PACAT) and MIRAC held a rally outside the courthouse at 5 p.m. and remained until the arrestees were released. 100 people remained on the plaza of the federal courthouse six hours after the start of the previous action, and after the brutality by the U.S. Marshals.

Drew Harmon, of the Minnesota chapter of 50501 told the crowd, “They want us to back down. This is to instill fear in us, so we have to do the opposite,” Harmon urged the community. “Since Metro Surge officially ended, we’ve been seeing a drop-off on rapid response, in mutual aid, food delivery. People, now is the time to get back involved!”

Jess Sundin from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) spoke at the rally, “The 15 people who were indicted this morning are us. They are rapid responders. They are protesters. They are organizers – They are you, and they are me.” She also went on to say, “They stood with us. Minnesota said no to ICE, no to the targeting of our immigrant neighbors.”

Other speakers included representatives from About Face: Veterans Against the War, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, MN Anti-War Committee, Sunrise Movement Twin Cities, and Democratic Socialists of America.

Community members chanted until all 12 people who were able to be released the same day were allowed to leave, but with stipulations restricting their further participation in protests and communication with organizers.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #ImmigrantRights

Richfield, MN – On June 14, over 50 protesters gathered outside a U.S. Army recruitment center to demand an end to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon, highlighting the war crimes committed by U.S. military personnel while admonishing recruiters for preying on vulnerable people’s basic needs. The event was organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) with a wide range of grassroots organizations participating in the event.

The day also marked the Flag Day holiday. Instead of flying the U.S. flag, protesters displayed the flags of Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Cuba and other countries targeted by Trump, calling on Americans to respect the sovereignty of other nations. Hundreds of passing cars honked in support.

Maamoun Slayhi, a member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), spoke at the rally. “They tell us this is about security. But whose security? Not the security of the children in Gaza. Not the security of the families in South Lebanon. Not the security of the people of Iran,” said Slayhi. “And certainly not the security of working families here in the United States who are told there is no money for healthcare, no money for schools, no money for housing, and no money for infrastructure, but somehow there is always money for bombs, warships, and unconditional support for Israel.”

Slayhi continued, “Brown University’s Costs of War project found that the U.S. spent over $21 billion on military aid to Israel after October 7 [2023], not counting billions more in related U.S. military operations in the region. And now over $15 billion for the Iran War. That is our money. That is money that could be spent on healthcare. That is money that could be spent on schools.”

The Pentagon has not been forthcoming about the true cost of the war on Iran. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, at a House Armed Services Committee on April 29, estimated the cost of the war to be about $25 billion. However, a more comprehensive analysis by Popular Information estimated the total cost of the war through the first 60 days at $71.8 billion, almost three times the stated cost.

Doubts about the true cost have been further legitimized by reports that the Pentagon has sought hundreds of billions to be added to the War Department’s budget.

Sima Shakhsari, a founding member of the grassroots group Let Iran Live, connected military recruitment to the human toll the U.S. military has inflicted on their home country, saying, “These recruiters make it sound like it is a heroic act to go and fight in the U.S.-Israeli wars. I ask you: Is it heroic to kill a three-day-old baby in Lebanon or a 20-day-old baby in Iran? How heroic is it to kill Avina, a two-year-old girl who struggled to take her last breaths with her pacifier still in her mouth, as doctors tried to save her?”

In the last week, the U.S. and Iran reportedly reached a memorandum of understanding — reportedly including major U.S. concessions — aimed at ending the war. Continued Israeli violations in Lebanon, as well as mixed signals from the Trump administration about the terms of the agreement, have threatened to keep the war going.

“Many of us are skeptical about the end of the military attacks, because we have seen repeatedly how Israel, under the protection of the U.S. government and under the cloak of ceasefire agreements, continues to bomb and kill Palestinians and the people of Lebanon,” cautioned Shakhsari.

Cedar Larson, a member of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), spoke about the system that is ultimately responsible for these wars, saying, “We, as the people, the majority in this country, the workers of the world, we are so united. We see the world around us – we see that our enemy is the ruling class! It is the billionaires – the trillionaires! Elon Musk is an official trillionaire. The Pentagon budget is one trillion dollars. And still millions go hungry. We can see that the only option is an end to capitalism, an end to U.S. imperialism, and the time has never been more ripe!”

“The U.S. government itself creates the poverty conditions that many look to escape by joining the military,” explained Yossi Aharoni of the AWC, one of the rally’s emcees. “We can all see the corruption of the Iran war: completely illegal, immoral, built on lies upon lies. It is a disgusting immoral war and it is a disgusting immoral act to recruit young people at the prime of their lives to fight and die for this administration or any U.S. war.”

Members of Veterans for Peace and U.S. Palestinian Community Network also spoke at the rally.

Protesters concluded the event with a group photo in front of the recruitment center, leaving behind a few signs bearing the words: “Genocide is not a job!”

#RichfieldMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Iran #AWC #AMP #WAMM

Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, June 10, Twin Cities activists of the Taking Back Pride Coalition (TBP) gathered at Strive Bookstore in downtown Minneapolis to hold a press conference demanding corporate sponsors like Delta, 3M and US Bank get out of Twin Cities Pride.

Now entering its tenth year, TBP organizes a protest march against the presence of police and corporations at the state’s largest free Pride festival, and calls for a return to the explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-police politics of the Stonewall Uprising.

Attendees held signs reading “No capitalism, no cops, no corporations at Pride!” and “No Pride in ICE collaboration! Dump Delta,” highlighting the unethical practices of many of the corporate sponsors of TC Pride. Many of these corporations are guilty of pinkwashing issues like genocide and climate change, and even directly fund Republicans who attack LGBTQ rights.

“We believe that Pride is strictly political, and that superficial representation from companies that slap a rainbow on once a year while they fund politicians stripping us of our rights is not something to be proud of,” explained Jae Yates, member of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Although TC Pride ousting Target as a sponsor of last year’s festival was seen as a win by many, TBP organizers pointed out that the issue is not about a single corporation, and that companies donating to Pride does not erase the negative impact they have on communities at home and abroad throughout the rest of the year.

“We have to ask how much money is enough to undo the harm that companies have caused?” asked Steff Yorek of the Climate Justice Committee, who argued that companies like 3M have no place at Pride. Yorek pointed out that 3M has knowingly hidden the threat of “forever chemicals” released into Minnesota waterways, and its political PAC has funded politicians who voted against the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Area mining ban. “3M funds these politicians that are a threat to both our environment and to our safety as queer people with their homophobic and transphobic platforms.”

The largest TC Pride donors this year include companies like Delta, which was among the GOP’s biggest contributors in 2024 and a million-dollar donor to the Trump Inaugural Fund. The airline’s ties to ICE operations were also made clearer to Minnesotans through Operation Metro Surge just this past winter, as Delta completed hundreds of flights transporting detained neighbors out of the state to be placed in detention centers.

Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) member Aizar Cabrera highlighted these connections between the struggle for LGBT and immigrant rights, stating, “Our rights to education, healthcare, and to simply exist are being threatened” by companies like Delta, that are “making money by helping to separate families.”

Nick Benson of Minnesota 50501 added “They were flying children and families including Liam…down to San Antonio where they would be put into the concentration camps at the Dilly Family Detention Center,” Benson said, referring to Liam Conejo Ramos of Columbia Heights who was detained by ICE along with his father and sent to a detention center in late January of this year.

Speakers also called out sponsors complicit in war and genocide such as US Bank, whose ties to the fossil fuel industry highlight its connection to the U.S. attacks on Venezuelan sovereignty and the war on Iran, which has passed its 100th day mark this past Sunday.

“When your ‘customers’ facilitate war crimes with their fighter jets, missile systems, tanks and naval vessels, then you need to be called out for who you do business with. Decorating your bank with rainbows can’t clean up the blood on US Bank’s hands,” said Meredith Aby, director of Women Against Military Madness.

Anti-War Committee member Maeve Aickin pointed out that Waymo, as a subsidiary of Google’s holding company Alphabet, has connections to the genocide in Gaza, as “at least two of Israel’s state-owned weapons manufacturers, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, are mandated to use Alphabet products for cloud computing.”

Aickin went on to describe how these ties to war endanger queer lives, as “machines bearing offensively adorable names that Rafael and IAI manufacture don’t discriminate based on sexuality. They are equipped with shrapnel spray systems, but they are not equipped with gaydar.”

Taking Back Pride organizers emphasized that they would continue to protest corporate sponsorship of TC Pride until their demands are met.

“Pride is not about one weekend. It is a time to honor those before us that have risked their lives and come face to face with state violence in the name of Queer Liberation,” said Nadiyah Salawdeh of the US Palestinian Community Network. “It is a time to recommit ourselves to carrying on that legacy. We must disrupt, not make ourselves palatable to shareholders. From the bricks thrown at Stonewall to the rocks thrown in Palestine, our fight is one fight against capitalist, imperial violence.”

Organizers encouraged community members to join them at events throughout the rest of June leading up to their annual protest, where they invite all who can to hit the streets alongside them to demand cops and corporations out of Pride on June 28.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #LGBTQ

Minneapolis, MN – On the morning of Saturday, June 13, scores of protesters gathered at the corner of Lake Street. and Bloomington Avenue in South Minneapolis to stand in solidarity with people held in immigrant detention centers and against the persecution of anti-ICE protesters. Organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), the bannering action was held as part of a national weekend of action in coordination with the Legalization for All network.

The rally emphasized local demands aimed at pushing Governor Tim Walz to issue an executive order to restrict all law enforcement agreements that follow state law 287(g).

Although Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a legal opinion restricting individual sheriff's offices from independently entering into agreements with ICE or other federal agencies to perform immigration arrests, seven counties in Minnesota – Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca, Kandiyohi, Freeborn and Jackson – have county commission-approved agreements to hand over detainees suspected of having immigration violations to ICE. But Minneapolis residents showed up to spread awareness of continued abuses under the guise of various federal operations and to demand that Governor Walz use executive powers to end all cooperation with the federal entities who want to kidnap and terrorize Minnesotans.

Chants of “¡No más deportaciones!” and “No one is illegal! All power to the people!” rang through the streets as cars honked in support as they drove by the busy intersection that was witness to the beginnings of increased federal immigration operations since June 3 of 2025, more than six months before the infamous Operation Metro Surge officially began.

MIRAC member Mira Altobell-Resendez spoke to the crowd, “ICE is still here kidnapping our family and neighbors early in the morning and late at night! Governor Walz could end this with a stroke of his pen!”

Alissa Washington from The Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Family Council Minnesota stated, “Too often, the same communities harmed by policing, incarceration, detention, surveillance and criminalization are excluded from the decisions being made about them.”

Arroyo Burns García-Torres of Hands Off Latin America Committee (HOLA) of Women Against Military Madness said, “We know people are dying in detention. We know they are deprived of medical care. We know they’re being punished without fair trials.”

Drake Myers, a rank-and-file member of Minnesota Federation of Educators, remarked, “Every educator has felt the terror of the attacks firsthand in their own families, neighborhoods and classrooms. During Operation Metro Surge students and staff were abducted, even on school grounds, schools were stalked relentlessly and sometimes even teargassed, with classrooms missing more students every day!”

The renewed outrage comes in solidarity with the hunger striking detainees in Delaney Hall ICE Detention Center, New Jersey, where over 70 protesters have also been arrested since May 31.Many media outlets widely praise Governor Mikie Sherill’s use of executive powers to rebuke ICE’s invasion of the Garden State, while grassroots organizers felt betrayed by the use of State Police to control protesters.

Given the threat of the possible reopening of Appleton Prison for ICE use in Minnesota; MIRAC demands that Governor Walz and all state and local representatives work to ban 287(g) agreements, ban immigration enforcement agencies in and around schools, hospitals and houses of worship, ban immigration enforcement agencies using state property, ban face coverings and require visible ID for all law enforcement officers, defend anti-ICE protesters against political repression, provide justice for victims of ICE terror, and implement a statewide eviction moratorium.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #MIRAC #L4A

Minneapolis, MN – On June 5, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) and allied organizations held a rally outside the Minneapolis Convention center to disrupt the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s (DFL) 2026 Humphrey-Mondale fundraising dinner. The dinner is the Minnesota Democratic Party’s annual fundraising event and a strategic rallying point for local Democrats ahead of key elections.

Braving the intense summer heat for a program of chanting and speeches, community members made their voices heard as they demanded an end to state funding of Israel’s genocide in Palestine, an end to the war on Iran and Lebanon, and a return to quarterly in-person State Board of Investment (SBI) meetings.

Cassidy Aickin, member of the AWC and co-emcee for the day, opened the event by saying, “In that building the DFL is hosting their annual Humphrey-Mondale dinner; their biggest fundraising event of the year. The people who have the most institutional power in our state, alongside their benefactors, are coming together to celebrate – another ‘great year’ of shutting out their constituents, ignoring people’s cries for divestment, and directly paying for the bombs that have martyred hundreds of thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian people. Shame!”

Aickin continued, “The State Board of Investment, composed of Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Julie Blaha and Steve Simon, chooses to invest hundreds of millions of Minnesota state employee pension dollars into weapons manufacturers, Israeli companies, and war profiteers like Palantir.”

The SBI had been scheduled to hold its second quarterly meeting of 2026 on Wednesday, June 3, but quietly removed the details from its schedule less than a month before. This effective cancellation continued the SBI’s over year-long trend of restricting community participation in what should be public meetings. But these cancellations have not deterred community involvement and have instead given way for powerful coalitions.

Representing the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Mira Altobell-Resendez reminded the crowd that, “The Minnesota Democratic Party spent all of winter ignoring the calls for protections for immigrants during Metro Surge. Tim Walz can sign an executive order at any time to ban 287(g) agreements that deputize county law enforcement into local ICE agents. The candidates for this year’s gubernatorial election like Amy Klobuchar could commit to creating ICE free zones as soon as they step into office.”

Alissa Washington, founder and executive director of the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council of MN, gave an impassioned speech connecting the wrongful conviction of her fiancé, Cornelius Jackson, and the over-policing of communities here and abroad. Washington said, “We’re here tonight because while the DFL dines with donors, we’re out here struggling to survive. While politicians gather behind closed doors, families are torn apart by wrongful convictions and over-sentencing! While they celebrate fundraisers, our loved ones are deported, imprisoned, displaced, and forgotten.”

Washington continued, “The DFL loves to tell us they are the party of working people. Then prove it! Stop shutting the public out of SBI meetings. Stop making decisions that impact our communities without our communities present.”

“What they’re really doing is defining what it means to run as a Democrat: position yourself as the only alternative to the Republican Party when you support genocide, racist tough-on-crime policies, corporate profiteers, expansion of the police state, all at the expense of the same constituents you claim to represent,” said Maddy Schwartz, member of the MN AWC. “The SBI has ignored constant calls from public employees to address this disgusting complicity in human rights violations. This sends a clear message that if you stand against genocide, your voice doesn’t matter.”

Only two days after the SBI was scheduled to meet, workers and allies in the anti-war movement made their voices heard, questioning why DFL politicians have time for their donors but not the taxpayers who pay their salaries. One volunteer working at the dinner stepped out from his role inside the Convention Center and picked up a “Divest MN from Apartheid Israel” sign for a portion of the action, before returning to his duties inside. When asked why he chose to join the voices demanding divestment he said, “It is the right thing to do.”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #DFL #Palestine #Divestment #BDS

St. Paul, MN – On June 6, a beautiful Saturday morning, over 100 people gathered in Langford Park in Saint Paul’s Saint Anthony Park neighborhood for Women Against Military Madness’s (WAMM) 19th annual Walk Against Weapons.

This year WAMM marched on Lockheed Martin subsidiary ForwardEdge ASIC, which makes application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) for F-35 jets which have been used in the U.S.-funded Israeli genocide of Palestinians and now in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

WAMM’s new director and emcee for the event, Meredith Aby, said, “Today we are marching to Forward Edge to highlight the role of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest manufacturer of weaponry. Lockheed Martin is a primary weapons supplier to the Israeli military, providing F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, Hellfire missiles, and tactical transport aircraft that have been used extensively against Palestinians.”

Aby continued, “The U.S. outspends the next several highest-spending nations combined, historically accounting for roughly 33% of all global military expenditures and U.S. military spending is approximately 13% of total U.S. federal spending.”

Before leaving the park to march to Lockheed Martin, No Weapons No War Collective performed a short song and dance piece to explain how ForwardEdge ASIC was brought to Saint Paul by Governor Tim Walz, a member of the State Board of Investments, which has the power to divest Minnesota from apartheid Israel. Additionally, WAMM and Veterans for Peace members displayed a life-size battle tank replica that shoots flowers as a send-off for the participants marching.

Cassidy Aickin, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, spoke about the experience of learning about genocide and the “brutality of war” from her teachers who have their pensions funded in genocide.

“The State Board of Investment, which manages the pensions of thousands of public employees in Minnesota, chooses to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into weapons manufacturers and surveillance technology companies like Palantir, which makes the software for the child-killing bombs used in Iran, and the ICE-funded surveillance technology used domestically. My teachers, who have to buy classroom supplies out of pocket, are indirectly paying for the abduction of their students and the slaughter of Palestinians,” Aickin said.

Christina Neighbors, a Navy veteran and member of About Face Veterans Against the War stated, “The products manufactured by ForwardEdge conveniently enable such events [genocide of Palestinians] to be far enough away that no one who profits ever has to see the reality of what their greed births and leaves behind.” The crowd erupted in “Shame!”

Neighbors continued, “ForwardEdge builds the silicon mind inside the weapons circuits made for one specific application; that application is death. And the giant it answers to, Lockheed Martin, pulled $75 billion last year out of a country that is told, time over time, that there is no money – none for the clinic, none for the classroom, none for the people sleeping in the cold outside in the very city that is helping slaughter innocent men, and women, and children around the world.” The crowd once again erupted in “Shame!”

WAMM’s next actions are on June 10 with a protest at the Saint Paul City Council meeting to pressure the city to divest from Israeli cyber security company Waterfall and, later that day, another protest at the Minneapolis Federal Building to demand the Trump administration stop its war threats against Cuba.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovemen #LockheedMartin #Iran #Palestine #Cuba #WAMM

Minneapolis, MN – Under the early summer sun, about 50 people came together on a busy Minneapolis bridge for a double-headed rally addressing the domestic and international sides of the struggle for liberation. A combined bannering took place for two hours, spreading the message to passersby and drivers on Washington Avenue and Interstate 35W.

The first part of the event was organized by the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Family Council (WIAOFC) and marked 20 years since Cornelius “Corn” Jackson, fiancé of WIAOFC founder Alissa Washington, was unjustly incarcerated.

The second protest, organized by the MN Peace Action Coalition (MPAC), demanded an end to U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Washington, stated, “We want you to ask questions. We want you to ask why a man who has spent 20 years behind bars is still fighting for justice. We want you to ask whether Minnesota’s criminal legal system truly believes in redemption. And we want you to ask why so many families are still fighting to bring their loved ones home.”

The first speaker for MPAC was Amber Mathwig from About Face Veterans Against the War, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a cook, turning a wrench, patrolling the base, or pressing the button that launches a Tomahawk into a school full of children – every single job in the military contributes to the end goal of destruction and occupation and every single service member has a right to say ‘No, I do not want to be part of this anymore.’”

Cedar Larson, representing Women Against Military Madness, stated, “Today we are protesting a number of heinous crimes being committed by our government. We’re protesting not only Trump’s continuous attacks on Gaza, in violation of a so-called ceasefire, but we’re also protesting the continuing attacks on Iran and the attempted ethnic cleansing of Lebanon. Writing this speech, I felt a pent-up rage exploding. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, you guys. I am angry. I am tired of writing speeches about something that makes me so pissed off.”

Larson concluded, “I cannot make sense of the fact that billionaires, the ruling class, see nothing more important than a profit while I, an educator who lives paycheck to paycheck and purchases classroom supplies and end-of-year gifts out of her own pocket, see nothing more important than sustaining and educating the next generation who will no doubt recognize this absurdity for what it is and will join with us to destroy it!”

Naveen Borojerdi of the MN Peace Action Coalition and the MN Anti-War Committee spoke on another tragedy that occurred closer to home; the death of AFSCME Council 5 field director Khalid Abdi, a 26-year-old union organizer who was shot and killed on May 27 in Shakopee, Minnesota while observing Eid.

“Khalid’s death is not just a coincidence,” Borojerdi said, “but rather, the symptom of a much larger problem. The normalization of mass murder that we’ve seen in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001 is what resulted in his unfortunate death. When you spend over two decades since the turn of the century slaughtering Muslims, Arabs and Persians while demonizing them through the production of propaganda films like American Sniper, Argo, and Black Hawk Down, this is what you get. Shame on this country.”

All of the speakers spoke to the critical importance of remaining visible and in the streets to oppose this criminal war.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #InjusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #Palestine #Iran

Minneapolis, MN – On June 3, community members and local activist groups packed a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting to speak about the Law Enforcement Agency Agreement Accountability Ordinance that prohibits new joint powers agreements that allow officers to cover their faces.

The ordinance was introduced by Council Members Chavez, Chowdhury, Chughtai and Osman. Members of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), MN 50501, the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Families Council MN (WIAOFC-MN) and other members of grass roots, nonprofit organizations and the Minneapolis community were present and gave testimony, speaking in support of the ordinance.

In his testimony, MIRAC member Alvin Sheng said, “We’re still struggling to get justice for Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Victor Manuel Diaz, three Minnesotans who were killed by ICE during Operation Metro Surge. It’s extremely clear that the federal government will do just about anything to escape accountability for their crimes. City council and Mayor Frey, do right by the people that have been terrorized and murdered in your city and pass this ordinance to require mask regulations from any law enforcement agency the city partners with. And that should only be the first step. We need to move forward to banning secret police in our city entirely.”

Sheng went on to mention that in February, Saint Paul passed a similar ordinance banning federal agents from covering their faces and obscuring their identities. He stated that after all of the kidnappings, brutality and murders committed by federal agents in Minneapolis, it is embarrassing that this city has not yet banned masked law enforcement.

The public comments stressed the importance of law enforcement transparency following the Operation Metro Surge and referenced that the date of this hearing fell on the anniversary of the June 3 Lake and Bloomington federal operation, where ICE and other federal agents descended upon an immigrant-owned business and brutalized protesters. The council members unanimously moved the ordinance to be heard among the full council, which is scheduled to take place on June 17 at 1:30 p.m.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #ICE #OppressedNationalities #MIRAC

Rochester, MN – On May 29, activists from across Minnesota converged outside the Mayo Civic Center to protest the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party’s annual state convention.

Delegates lining up to enter the convention were confronted by several dozen protesters with banners, Palestinian flags, petitions and informational leaflets about the DFL’s ties to Israel and the movement to cut them. The action was organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) and Rochester Solidarity with Palestine.

Using slogans like “DFL, grow a spine! Stop funding war crimes!” protesters demanded complete divestment of Minnesota money from apartheid Israel, an end to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon, the release of the unredacted 2024 election autopsy, and that DFL politicians refuse to accept campaign funds from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). DFL Representative Angie Craig and Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith have received hundreds of thousands in AIPAC funding.

Organizers highlighted DFL members’ condemnation of President Trump’s agenda while investing state funds in corporations that are instrumental to executing that agenda.

For example, the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) invests $57 million in Palantir, the secretive surveillance company contracted by ICE, the DHS, the U.S. military and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. ICE describes Immigration Case Management, Palantir’s deportation support system, as “mission-critical,” and it relies on Palantir’s large language models and custom FALCON targeting system to optimize ICE activity and orchestrate violent raids.

Meanwhile, the U.S. uses the Palantir product Maven to select strike targets in its war on Iran. DFL leader and current governor, Tim Walz, has condemned the Iran war as a product of fascism and likened the experiences of immigrant children under ICE occupation to those of Anne Frank – all while actively funding companies whose products enable the Iran war and ICE operation.

“We’re gathered outside the DFL convention 965 days into the U.S. and Israel’s live-streamed genocide of the Palestinian people,’ explained Maeve Aickin, an organizer with the AWC. “This is a genocide that many DFL politicians are helping fund and benefiting from ignoring. The State Board of Investment, which DFL members Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Julie Blaha, and Steve Simon sit on, invests $5.5 billion in companies that have a financial interest in perpetuating Israeli apartheid and genocide.”

“I am a public worker whose pension is invested in genocide against my will, and many of the speakers who you’ll be hearing from today are also public workers with SBI-managed pensions,” Aickin continued. “We wanted to share our horror over the use of funds we earn to plan our futures to extinguish hundreds of thousands of futures in Palestine, Iran and Lebanon, but the SBI canceled a quarterly public meeting for the third time in the past year and a half.”

The SBI canceled two of its quarterly public meetings in 2025, and on Wednesday, May 13, it deleted the details of its previously announced meeting scheduled for June 3. SBI representatives have yet to communicate a reason for continuing to delay and cancel opportunities to engage with public workers. As of press time, no rescheduled date has been posted.

Another public employee with a state-managed pension, Maddy Schwartz, pointed out the DFL’s hypocrisy. “When they claim to be the moral opposition to the Republican Party, and claim to oppose Trump's wars, that isn’t enough! They need to take substantive action to earn people's trust and votes.”

Schwartz continued, “What do the DFL elected leaders on the SBI do instead? Cancel public meetings. What do elected officials do instead? Avoid their constituents and refuse to take accountability for their ties to Israel.”

In 2025, the SBI divested the majority of its holdings in Israel Bonds, which are direct loans to the Israeli apartheid state, after facing immense pressure from a coalition of local grassroots organizations and unions. However, board members refused to acknowledge the removal of almost all Israel Bonds from their investment portfolio as a political divestment act, despite Israel’s historic unpopularity with their constituency, with eight in ten Democrats holding an unpopular view of Israel as of March 2026.

Deah Kinion of Rochester Solidarity with Palestine also spoke outside the convention. “It’s our right and duty and our moral obligation to speak out and do what we can to stop this racist, sadistic war on Palestinian children and others. [The DFL] refused to acknowledge the war crimes Israel and the U.S. are perpetrating on Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.”

“They want us to believe that this is not a Democratic problem, that this is not a state problem,” said Kinion. “It is everyone’s problem.”

Many of the convention attendees expressed support for protesters’ demands. Inside the convention, divestment emerged as a key issue for the state auditor’s race in particular.

The AWC announced it would similarly protest the DFL’s annual Humphrey-Mondale fundraising dinner, to be held one week later on Friday, June 5, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 2nd Avenue S, Minneapolis.

#RochesterMN #MN #Divestment #Palestine #AntiWarMovement #AntiWarCommittee

St Paul, MN – On Friday, May 29, about 40 protesters rallied on the corner of Summit and Snelling Avenues to demand a free Palestine. The action was organized by Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), which has run Free Palestine rallies at this location every Friday for decades.

This week, the rally had a special focus on WAMM's “Cut the Contract with Waterfall” campaign. Waterfall Security Solutions is an Israeli cybersecurity company contracted by the city of Saint Paul to provide security services for its infrastructure.

Cedar Larson, a member of WAMM, spoke to the crowd about the importance of cutting the Waterfall contract, “When people say that this is a faraway issue that does not affect us here, I want them to know about Waterfall Security Solutions and the fact that they are using taxpayer dollars to feed Israel's genocide against Palestinians.”

Larson continued, “The tech sector within Israel feeds their war chest and their war economy. WAMM stands firmly against aiding the Israeli economy and we believe that boycott, divestment and sanctions are a crucial strategy for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Larson also pointed out that Waterfall is directly led by former Israeli state officials and military officers. This includes its founder, Lior Frenkel, who bragged about doing “offensive cybersecurity” for Israel, and Keren Tal, who once worked for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister and fugitive from the International Criminal Court.

“There is no other way to put it. Waterfall Security Solutions contains a racist, genocidal leadership, and Saint Paul should not do business with them,” said Larson.

Under the pressure of this campaign, the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners has agreed to take a vote on the fate of the Waterfall contract during its July meeting.

In the meantime, WAMM invites concerned Minnesotans to help keep the pressure up by attending the Saint Paul City Council meeting on June 10 at 3:30 p.m., as well as the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners meeting on June 16 at noon.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #WAMM

Saint Paul, MN – On Wednesday, May 27, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) brought its demands for a sanctuary state executive order to the office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, along with dozens of blue bunny hats that they left on the floor outside of his office.

MIRAC has been calling on Governor Walz to issue an executive order making Minnesota a sanctuary state and on all gubernatorial candidates to commit to implementing statewide sanctuary policies. With no response from Walz, the group took their demands to his office in person.

MIRAC member Yann Chen laid out the group’s demands for the governor to sign an executive order that would: ban collaboration with local agencies and ICE; protect sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and churches from immigration enforcement; keep ICE off of state property; ban officers from wearing any face covering or concealing their identity; defend protesters against political repression; provide justice for all victims of ICE terror, and implement a state wide eviction moratorium.

“At least five of my neighbors from my apartment complex have been stolen, while on the way to work, or getting ready in the early morning,” said Chen, “We demand Walz signs this executive order and we demand a sanctuary state now!”

Alissa Washington, representing the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over Sentenced Families Council (WIAOSFC-MN) as well as Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) said, “We witnessed the devastating impact Operation Metro Surge had on Black and brown communities throughout Minnesota. But our people fought back. Because when systems fail, the people protect each other. And we are still fighting ICE today! Governor Walz, if Minnesota truly believes immigrants belong here, then prove it!”

After hearing from a few speakers, the group brought a box of blue bunny hats into the office foyer and took them out one by one, placing them on the floor. In the next room, children while on tour of the Capitol building watched as the hats were placed and organizers explained the significance of the hats and why they were protesting.

The hats are a tribute to five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos who was kidnapped along with his father outside their home in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and sent to detention in Texas before being released and returning home. Although released by a judge due to the outrage sparked by pictures of Liam being detained in his blue bunny hat, the Trump administration has continued its campaign to deport him and his father. The fight continues, so MIRAC brought the hats directly to the governor’s office, giving him no choice to look away.

A member of the governor’s staff repeatedly told the group they should leave and not interrupt the school groups or leave the hats on the floor, asserting that this was “a hazard.” Protesters left the hats there anyway and told the staff, “if children are not too young to be separated from their families, they are not too young to hear about this.”

After the hats were all placed, the group held a banner in the hallway that read “Sanctuary now!” and chanted “We want justice, you say how? Sanctuary state now!” as school group after school group went in and out of the office foyer, most of them stepping on the pile of bunny hats as they walked through. Before they left, protesters were told that the bunny hats would be thrown away. As MIRAC member Erika Zurkawski pointed out “this shows what they think of immigrants – that they are disposable!” The group left the pile of bunny hats on the floor for the governor and his staff when they left the capitol premises.

#StPaulMN #MN #MIRAC #ImmigrantRights #LiamConejoRamos #TimWalz #Featured

Minneapolis, MN- Al-Nakba, meaning “The Catastrophe,” is a day of remembrance when communities grieve the over 15,000 Palestinians the Israeli occupation murdered in 1948 and the over 750,000 Palestinians displaced from their homeland. After the Anti-War Action Network called for their third annual day of action commemorating Al-Nakba, the Twin Cities hosted two protests to mark the importance of resisting U.S. funding for Israel.

On Friday, May 15, Women Against Military Madness held their weekly protest at the Summit and Snelling intersection in Saint Paul with a specific focus on the Nakba. Speaker Wyatt Miller from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) said, “I’ve given plenty of speeches like this on past Nakba Days. I usually say something about how Palestinians are the bravest people on Earth. I still believe that, but let’s have this year’s Nakba Day be the one where we say, the Palestinians have been brave enough. They have made enough sacrifices. The world can no longer deny the injustice of the occupation. It’s time for the rest of us to learn to find that bravery in ourselves. The Palestinians have taught the world that dignity doesn’t mean mere politeness or etiquette; true dignity means standing up for what is just and refusing to tolerate anything less than justice.”

On Sunday, May 17, over 30 cyclists gathered at Minnehaha Falls for the Gaza Sunbirds solidarity ride in commemoration of Al-Nakba. The Great Ride of Return global bike rides are organized in support of the Gaza Sunbirds, a Palestinian para-cycling team bringing awareness to the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza and its production of disability under occupation. The cyclists biked through Minneapolis with Palestinian flags attached to their bikes, chanting “Free, free Palestine” over their bullhorns.

The bikers joined hundreds of activists and community members gathered at Chute Square to march along the Mississippi River in protest of 78 years of Israeli occupation in Palestine. The Nakba Day march was organized by the Minnesota chapter of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the AWC.

Nadiyah Salawdeh, co-chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network’s Minnesota chapter stated, “Palestinians had been rebelling against British and Zionist forces for decades,” they said. “Every time a fascist settler murders a Palestinian, it’s a catastrophe. Every time a Palestinian is illegally detained, it is a catastrophe. Every time a child starves to death, it is a catastrophe. Home demolition, poisoned water, burning olive trees—these are all catastrophes. Just as the Nakba was not confined to 1948, it is not confined to the borders of historic Palestine. The Lebanese people and the Lebanese resistance have been on the front lines defending their land from Israeli settler expansion. Since the U.S.-Israeli war was launched on Iran and Lebanon, thousands have been murdered, and over a million have been displaced. That is a catastrophe.”

Joe Yamine of the AWC told the crowd, “Today, the Zionist entity is more callous, more destructive, more depraved, and more afraid than it has ever been.”

Yamine continued, “The Western regimes [that] back it have revealed their utter contempt for their people, who turn out in the streets demanding justice and liberation for Palestine now. In Minnesota, we're confronting our municipal governments as they try to sign contracts with Israeli tech companies like Zencity and Waterfall. We are fighting for an end to our state's complicity in Israeli apartheid and the ongoing Nakba by pressuring the State Board of Investment to divest.”

Alissa Washington of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice and the Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Families Council expanded on the theme of state detention as she discussed the Palestinian right of return.

“The right to resist oppression, occupation and dehumanization is rooted in the struggle of oppressed people across the world,” Washington affirmed. “That is why we also demand freedom for Salah Sarsour and all people targeted, criminalized, or punished for standing with Palestine and speaking out against injustice.” Sarsour, the Islamic Society of Milwaukee’s president and an AMP board member, has been held in ICE detention since March 30.

Washington contined, “Today, let us remember: They want us divided because united people are dangerous to systems built on oppression. From Minneapolis to Palestine, our struggles are connected. From the prison walls to the refugee camps, our people are connected. From the streets demanding accountability to the marches demanding liberation, our resistance is connected. And as long as oppressed people continue to rise together, there will always be hope for freedom.”

Before the protesters flooded the streets to express their grief, hope and rage, Taher Herzallah of AMP articulated Israel’s commitment to dehumanization, breaching international law and fostering a culture of settler violence, concluding, “Israel has absolved itself of its right to exist.” In this spirit, the crowd marched down to the Mississippi River and disrupted business as usual to demand an end to the ongoing Nakba, Sarsour’s release, and a free Palestine.

After two and a half years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its continued annexation of the West Bank and southern Lebanon, people of conscience know that the Nakba is an ongoing ethnic cleansing project that the U.S. government has funded for over three-quarters of a century. Indeed, Minnesota state pensions are currently funding Israel’s crimes to the tune of $5.5 billion in SBI investments. The SBI canceled two of its quarterly public meetings in 2025, and on Wednesday, May 13, it deleted the details of its previously announced meeting scheduled for June 3 from its website.

The MN Anti-War Committee will demand answers at the 2026 DFL State Convention, taking place in Rochester, Minnesota on May 29.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Nakba #AntiWarCommittee #USPCN #AMP #SalahSarsour

Minneapolis, MN – El viernes, 1 de mayo, una coalición encabezada por el Comité de Derechos de Inmigrantes de Minnesota y el Movimiento de Protectores Indígenas y respaldado por más de 60 sindicatos, grupos de derechos de inmigrantes, y otras organizaciones progresivas salieron a las calles para conmemorar el 20ª marcha annual el Día Internacional de los Obreros.

La coalición exigió que ICE se saque de Minnesota y la legalización para todos, puesto que la marcha siguió meses de lucha intensa contra la ocupación federal de la ciudad por los policías de inmigracion y confrontaciones militantes entre la gente y ICE. 10,000 manifestantes marcharon, cantaron, mostraron pancartas y celebraron durante la marcha del Día Internacional de los Obreros este año.

La marcha llenó la Calle Lako, el corazón de la comunidad inmigrante en Minneapolis del Sur, con grandes banderas, y contingentes de varios sindicatos, grupos de derechos de inmigrantes, grupos contra-guerra, grupos de estudiantes y otros movimientos progresivos. Como tradición para las marchas de MIRAC de 1 de mayo, la bandera principal fue sostenida por jóvenes, este año un grupo de estudiantes del colegio. La enorme marcha tuvo tres camiones de sonido, cada uno con su propio programa de discurso. La gente y las familias bordearon las aceras de la calle Lake para dar elogio a los eslóganes y brindar la marcha, saliendo de los varios negocios de inmigrantes para mostrar su apoyo.

Justo antes del inicio del programa, Consejeros de la Ciudad de Minneapolis progresivos tuvieron una rueda de prensa para leer la resolución del consejo municipal para nombrar al 1 de mayo como Día Internacional de los Obreros, seguido por una interpretación de baile por Danza Unida.

En la congregación inicial, las multitudes escucharon a Diego Guaman de Operación Vuelo Sagrado, un grupo comunitario de las bases que fue creado como respuesta directa a la campana en aumento a los inmigrantes en Minnesota y la necesidad de protegerlos, educar y apoyar a las familias inmigrantes.

“Ser inmigrante no es un crimen, pelear por tus derechos no es un crimen y hacer oír tu voz no es un crimen!” proclamó Diego Guaman.

Manuel Pascual, participante de MIRAC, les contó a las multitudes un poco de la historia de May Day y la importancia de salir a las calles en la 20ª marcha de 1 de mayo de la ciudad, “Cada año estamos aquí el 1 de mayo y cada año queremos decir la misma cosa: este es el dia del obrero. ¡El día de los obreros inmigrantes! El único día de fiesta del mundo que nos pertenece a nosotros!” Concluyó su discurso diciéndoles a las multitudes sobre la campaña actual de MIRAC para convertir Minnesota en Estado Santuario y un fin a toda la colaboración local y en el estado con ICE. “Estamos organizando, estamos presentándonos, y estamos retrocediendo a nuestros vecinos cuando ICE intenta llevarlos. Hoy es la práctica, mañana seguimos adelante!

La marcha se detuvo en la Calle Lake y la Avenida Bloomington, sitio de una gran operación federal en la cual policías de inmigracion estaban presentes el junio de 2025. Las multitudes escucharon a Isavela Lopez, activista que fue brutalizada por policías federales aquel día y ahora enfrenta cargos federales sin validez.

“Yo se que no estoy sola,” dijo Lopez, “En el momento se trata de más que me, y se trata de los niños en Palestina, se trate de la gente de Venezuela, y se trata de la gente que quedan encarcelada en los centros de detención ahora mismo!

Benji Gomez, miembro de las bases de Teamsters Local 638, quien también organizó una despensa comunitaria para las familias inmigrantes ubicado en su garaje durante la Operacion Metro Surge con la ayuda de los otros Teamsters de su sindicato, le dijo a las multitudes, “Soy inmigrante. También soy el primero de mi familia que me inscribí a un sindicato y me ha dado verdadero poder. Los sindicatos existen porque los obreros se presentaron juntos y exigieron dignidad, sueldos justos, condiciones sanas y respeto, y muchas veces esos obreros eran inmigrantes, ¡gente con la menor protección pero con el coraje de organizarse de todos modos! Eso sí es verdad hoy en día.”

En la marcha también aparecieron habladores incluyendo Presidente de AFL-CIO Minnesota Bernie Burnham, Presidenta de Local 59 de MFE MArcia Howard, miembros de Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, MN8, Monique Cullors-Doty con los Honrados 39, el Comité Anti-Guerra de MN, y muchos mas que representaban sus sindicatos y otras organizaciones de las bases.

La Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad también tuvo un contingente grande y visible en la marcha.

La marcha terminó en una tienda Target al otro lado de la calle de la 3ª Delegación anterior (quemada) con un teatro criticando Target y la avaricia corporativa, y también más discursos inspirando a la gente que siga tomando acción. Al final de la marcha, los organizadores pidieron a los manifestantes que coman en los negocios que tienen como dueños inmigrantes en la calle Lake y que asistan a la posfiesta en el Mercado Central para concluir el día.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #Trabajo #DerechosdeInmigrantes #1ºdemayo #MIRAC #OSCL #ImmigrantRights #Labor #MayDay #FRSO

St. Paul, MN – On Tuesday, May 12, protesters once again attended the St. Paul Board of Water Commissioners meeting to demand an end to the city’s contract with Israeli cybersecurity company Waterfall Security Solutions.

This action was organized by Women Against Military Madness (WAMM).

After months of the board attempting to limit public access, activists were able to make their presence felt at this meeting. Holding signs reading, “Waterfall: No blood in our water” and “Palestinians need water too,” they disrupted the meeting by intermittently shouting chants such as “No more money for genocide!” and “Free, free Palestine!”

Eventually, amid echoes of “Waterfall has got to go,” the board cut the meeting short and exited the room.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #WAMM

Minneapolis, MN – On Mother’s Day Sunday, May 10, the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) organized a pro-choice Mother’s Day protest across from what was an anti-abortion, Pro Life Action Ministry (PLAM) billboard.

A few days leading up to the protest, members of MNAAC learned the billboard was replaced with a local orthopedic billboard. Despite this change, they continued with the protest with about two dozen attendees to fight for comprehensive reproductive healthcare, oppose abortion restrictions and the attempts of “pro-life” organizations to influence legislation and to shame women.

MNAAC is actively fighting against the existence of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), or anti-abortion centers, in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with activists demanding restrictions on the ability of CPCs to spread medical misinformation and demanding state and local regulations to require CPCs to disclose that they do not provide a full spectrum of reproductive healthcare.

CPCs convince unknowingly pregnant people in crisis to not have abortions by using scare tactics and promoting myths about abortion causing depression, cancer and infertility. In Minnesota CPCs outnumber abortion care clinics eleven to one, since there are 90 CPCs and nine abortion care clinics. Anti-abortion attacks continue at the federal level with the recent 5th Circuit ruling that seeks to block remote prescription and delivery of mifepristone by mail.

Activists shared their stories about what it means to have the ability to choose to become a parent and how American imperialism continues to harm mothers.

Jordann Hoff, a member of MNAAC, shared that blocking access to mifepristone via telehealth and delivery by mail will harm nearly two-thirds of people needing to have an abortion, since approximately 63% of all abortions are via medication.

Emily Newberg, a member of Women's Against Military Madness (WAMM) shared how Palestinian women are using tent scraps for pads and, without aid mothers, are continuing to take care of their children alone as the men have migrated away throughout the war.

River Road Townsend, a member of Twin Cities Coalition For Justice (TCC4J), told their story about receiving a lifesaving abortion during their first trimester because they still had children to take care of, and how they later were able to choose to adopt a child into their family. Townsend calls their family a family of choice; and that reproductive healthcare should not have to come through the intersection of luck and circumstance.

MNAAC is a grassroots, volunteer-based organization fighting for reproductive justice. The pillars of reproductive justice are the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent a child in safe and sustainable communities while maintaining personal bodily autonomy as a human right.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #MNAAC #AbortionRights #WomensMovement #LGBTQ

St. Paul, MN – On May 9, the day before Mother’s Day, 100 Minnesotans, from all generations, gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol with blue bunny hats in remembrance of Liam Conejo Ramos and the 4030 immigrants who were kidnapped during Operation Metro Surge.

Two months on from the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge, people came out to the Capitol to demonstrate their determination to fight back against the continuing attacks on immigrant communities. Protesters brought their own blue bunny hats or grabbed one made by the Conejo Rally organizers. The crowd of blue bunny hats made for an emotional visual as various immigrant rights advocates spoke to the crowd.

The event, dubbed the “Conejo Rally,” was co-organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) and Families Against Military Madness (FAMM). The rally honored five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who in January was kidnapped by ICE agents along with his father outside their home in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. The two were then sent to the notoriously cruel Dilley detention center in Texas, where Liam became depressed and ill.

As images of the scared preschooler in his blue bunny hat stoked global outrage, a judge ordered ICE to release the pair, and they returned home on February 1; but the nightmare is not over, for them and many other immigrant families.

The federal government is still trying to deport Liam and his family and seems determined to retaliate against them for the attention their case has received. The Department of Justice successfully moved to end the family’s asylum claims, and now it has appealed the release of Liam and his father. Nonetheless, Liam and his family themselves attended the Conejo Rally, bravely keeping their story in the public eye.

Kevin Centeno, an administrator at Liam’s school stated, “We’ve seen children used as baits. I’ve seen parents taken just for taking out trash, going to work, dropping off their kids, or picking them up from school, or from everywhere they need. These parents are not a threat. These are working-class families. This is our community. We will stand together for those who cannot stand. We will not be afraid for those who are afraid, and we will fight back.”

Liz McLister, the co-emcee of the rally from FAMM told the crowd, “We know that the fallout from Operation Metro Surge is still impacting our neighbors in the form of PTSD, continuing detentions and deportations; and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, income and program cuts. We know ICE is still better funded than some countries’ militaries, and that it’s concentrating power behind the scenes as I speak! We know that someone has died in ICE detention every six days so far this year. The terror persists, albeit in less obvious ways.”

Manuel Pascual, the co-emcee of the rally from MIRAC, notified the crowd of the renewed threats made by “border czar” Tom Homan and the new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Last week at the Border Security Expo, Tom Homan boasted about the rate of kidnappings made by immigration officers, who are now making about 1200 arrests a day. He also explicitly threatened to send more agents to states and cities that restrict cooperation with federal law enforcement, which would lead to an increase in collateral arrests and violence courtesy of the federal government. Markwayne Mullin, for his part, clarified the Trump administration’s strategy of conducting mass deportations, but in a quieter fashion, with the DHS out of the headlines.

The people are also fighting back at the state level to uphold immigrant rights through a large coalition of immigrant rights groups called the North Star Alliance. Karen Wills, a member of the North Star Alliance Policy Team addressed the crowd and told them about the importance of getting Senate File 3699 passed in Minnesota, something the coalition has been working on. This bill is expected to be discussed this coming week, and would restrict immigration enforcement agents’ access to courts, hospitals, schools, and childcare centers.

In addition to passing bills like this, MIRAC members have been pushing for immediate action via an executive order issued by the governor to ensure immigrant communities get immediate protections.

Myrka Zambrano, who spoke at the rally on behalf of MIRAC, asserted, “We have already seen what the federal government is capable of. The time to act was yesterday. We need change now. Governor Walz has the power to make it happen. We are asking Walz to issue an executive order to make us a sanctuary state now. We are demanding no cooperation with ICE and local law enforcement. We are demanding all charges dropped against protestors. We are demanding justice for all of the victims of ICE terror.”

Zambrano continued, “And we want a statewide eviction moratorium. What we want is simple. We want Governor Walz to protect immigrants and all Minnesotans from federal violence and repression.” MIRAC’s upcoming actions will be aimed at pressuring Governor Walz and the gubernatorial candidates to uphold these sanctuary state demands.

The rally concluded with a speech from Liam’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias. “As you know, we have gone through very difficult times, but thanks to your support, your messages, and your good wishes, we have pulled through. Thank you for being here. This is the symbol that represents all immigrants, ” Arias declared, holding up a blue bunny hat.

At the end of the rally, participants gathered on the steps in front of the capitol building with their blue bunny hats, chanting “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!”

#StPaulMN #MN #MIRAC #ImmigrantRights #SanctuaryState #LiamConejoRamos #OperationMetroSurge

Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, April 22, the city of Minneapolis released a long-awaited after-action review examining the Minneapolis Police Department’s failures in the handling of the murder of Allison Lussier and the shooting of Davis Moturi.

Allison Lussier was a Native woman living in the North Loop of Minneapolis who called MPD more than six separate times to protect her from her abuser Chuck Foss. Despite her family and community making MPD aware of Foss’s potential connection to the case, MPD never called a crime scene unit to investigate and failed to interview witnesses or review surveillance footage. Chief O’Hara, without reviewing the findings of the medical examiner, immediately declared she had died of an overdose despite the lack of investigation.

There was similar neglect in Davis Moturi’s case. Moturi logged 19 separate complaints with MPD regarding racist harassment and threats from his white neighbor John Sawchak, and, leading up to the shooting, the Moturi household called MPD at least 38 times according to the report. Officers did not arrest Sawchak until five days after the attempt on Moturi’s life.

The findings confirmed what families, organizers, and community members have been saying for years: the system meant to protect the most vulnerable is failing, and without sustained public pressure, those failures are buried. This review did not come out of nowhere. It exists because Allison’s family and loved ones refused to stay silent. They organized, they pushed, and they forced this city to confront the truth.

Activists and community members listened as the City Auditor presented for nearly four hours to a joint meeting of the Audit Committee and the Minneapolis City Council. What the City Auditor presented was beyond misconduct; the presentation showed MPD engaged in patterns of neglect and indifference toward non-white victims and that these failures show up in every level of the department’s functioning.

The audit revealed that MPD did not request the Medical Examiner’s report in Allison’s case until nearly two years later and only after the Auditor attempted to obtain it. Several officers outright refused to participate in the audit, including Sergeant Heyers, who was the detective assigned to Allison’s case. One officer who took early retirement before the auditor could speak to him reportedly said, “I’m not going to participate in the investigation.” Despite orders from leadership to participate, O’Hara chose not to enforce this order and as yet there have been no consequences for these officers.

When asked whether race played a role in how Allison’s case was handled, Chief O’Hara repeatedly dodged the question. Additionally, coordination between MPD and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office still had not been established even after months of public scrutiny and promises. O’Hara blamed these issues on understaffing, but a lack of staff does not explain why reports weren’t requested, why officers refused to cooperate and properly file reports, why families were ignored, or why accountability only shows up when the community forces it. MPD received a budget increase of over $5 million in addition to nearly $20 million in approved overtime in 2026, so the issue is clearly not a lean budget but a mismanagement of its resources.

Despite everything revealed in this audit, justice has still not been served. Allison Lussier’s killer has not been charged and MPD has yet to take full responsibility not just for failing her in the investigation, but for failing her before her murder and in how they communicated with the public afterward.

We also stand in solidarity with the family of Mariah Samuels, whose case reflects the same patterns. These are not isolated incidents. This is a pattern of neglect, especially when it comes to indigenous women, Black women, and marginalized communities. The families and community members demand a full direct apology, real consequences for officers who failed to act and investigate these cases, and immediate and meaningful investment in domestic violence response. Twin Cities Coalition for Justice will continue to highlight these cases and push for community control of the police so that cops are held accountable for these egregious failures.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #TCC4J #AllisonLussier #DavisMoturi #MariahSamuels #PoliceAccountability #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities

Brooklyn Center, MN – On April 29, a career fair organized by Hennepin County at the quiet Brookdale Library became the scene of a successful action against the presence of U.S. military recruiters in communities. Roughly a dozen activists from the MN Anti-War Committee and the anti-war veterans’ organization About Face disrupted the fair with the demand that recruiters for both the U.S Army and the Minnesota Army National Guard leave immediately. 

Protesters began by inconspicuously entering the fair before unfurling a banner reading “Recruiters out – stop the war” and taking the floor to speak and chant against the military personnel present, refusing to leave until the recruiters did.

“We’re protesting the presence of U.S military recruiters at this career fair,” said AWC member Wyatt Miller. “These people are preying on our communities. They are preying on people’s basic needs like employment and healthcare and education.”

Miller continued, “U.S. massacres in Iran are launched from the same bases where the U.S. military staged its many wars and occupations in neighboring Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands. Most people want the U.S. military presence in the Middle East to end once and for all.”

The recruiters simply packed up and left within minutes of the protest beginning. With further chants of “Recruiters out! Stop the war!” “No justice, no peace!” and “U.S. out of the Middle East,” protesters followed them to the parking lot to ensure they had actually left before dispersing. No arrests were made.

In a time of economic hardship, tens of thousands of Americans are looking for work, and the military-industrial complex is happy to prey on those people. Recruiters for the armed forces are a common sight at job fairs across the country. Making sales pitches about travel, education, healthcare and career opportunities, recruiters seek to entice people into a career with the military.

Contrary to the popular view that the National Guard doesn’t deploy outside U.S. borders, at least 250 Minnesota National Guard soldiers, from 58 communities across the state, are currently deployed in the Middle East. Such deployments are not new. The U.S. military’s newspaper Stars and Stripes reported in February 2024 that 550 Minnesota National Guard soldiers were being deployed to the Middle East. That same division, nicknamed the “Red Bulls”, was also deployed in Kuwait in 2018-19, and Iraq in 2009-10. 

As the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran have continued, and a combination of American threats and Israeli aggression in Lebanon have damaged the prospects of a negotiated end to the war, concern has grown about the possibility of U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iran.

 A statement from the MN Anti-War Committee says, “American soldiers have murdered thousands of Iranian civilians, including the hundreds of children killed at the Minab girls’ school on February 28, potentially the largest massacre committed by U.S. forces since the 1968 My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war. U.S. troops have bombed other Iranian civilian infrastructure like hospitals, power plants, bridges and water treatment facilities. These are all war crimes under international law.”

The statement continued, “U.S. military recruiters prey on our communities to make these crimes possible.”

This successful action highlighted the opportunities that are available for activists to target the areas in which the U.S military-industrial complex intrudes upon communities.

#BrooklynCenterMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #MNAWC

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, May 1, a coalition led by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) and the Indigenous Protectors Movement (IPM) and endorsed by more than 60 unions, immigrant rights groups, and other progressive organizations took to the streets in Minneapolis to commemorate their 20th annual march on International Workers’ Day.

The coalition demanded ICE out of Minnesota and legalization for all, as the march came after months of heightened struggle against a federal occupation of the city by immigration agents and militant clashes between the people and ICE. 10,000 protesters marched, chanted, held signs and celebrated at this year’s International Workers’ Day march.

The march flooded Lake Street, the heart of the immigrant community in South Minneapolis, with large banners and flags, and contingents of various unions, immigrant rights groups, anti-war groups, student groups and other progressive movements. As is tradition for MIRAC May 1 marches, the lead banner was held by youth, this year a group of high school students. The massive march had three sound trucks, each with their own speaker programs. People and families lined the sidewalks on Lake street to join in on chants and cheer the march on, coming out of the various immigrant businesses to show their support.

Just before the program began, progressive Minneapolis City Council members held a brief press conference to read the city council’s resolution recognizing May 1 as International Workers Day, followed by a performance by Danza Unida.

At the starting rally, the crowd heard from Diego Guaman from Operación Vuelo Sagrado, a grassroots community group that was created as a direct response to the growing crackdown on immigrants in Minnesota and the need to protect, inform and support immigrant families.

“Being an immigrant is not a crime, fighting for your rights is not a crime and speaking up is not a crime!” said Diego Guaman.

Manuel Pascual, a member of MIRAC, told the crowd some May Day history and the importance of taking the streets on the city’s 20th annual May 1 march, “Every year we are out here on May 1 and every year we mean the same thing: this is the workers’ day. The immigrant workers’ day! The only holiday in the world that belongs to us!” He ended his speech by telling the crowd about MIRAC’s current campaign for a Sanctuary State in Minnesota and an end to all state and local collaboration with ICE. “We are organizing, we are showing up, we are pulling our neighbors back when ICE tries to take them. Today is the rehearsal, tomorrow we keep going!”

The march stopped at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue, the site of a large federal operation where immigration agents were present in June of 2025. The crowd heard from Isavela López, an activist who was brutalized by federal agents that day and now faces bogus federal charges.

“I know that I am not alone,” said López, “Right now it’s more than about me, it’s about the kids in Palestine, it’s about the people in Venezuela, and it’s about the people that are still in detention centers right now!”

Benji Gomez, a rank-and-file member of Teamsters Local 638 who also organized a pantry for immigrant families out of his garage during Operation Metro Surge with the help of other Teamsters from his local, told the crowd, “I am an immigrant. I am also the first in my family to join a union and it's given me real power. Unions exist because workers stood together and demanded dignity, fair wages, safe conditions and respect, and so often those workers were immigrants, people with the least protection but the courage to organize anyway! That’s still true today.”

The march also featured speakers from Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham, MFE Local 59 President Marcia Howard, members of Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, MN8, Monique Cullors-Doty with the Righteous 39, the MN Anti-War Committee, and many others representing their unions and other grassroots organizations.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization had a large and visible contingent in the march.

The march ended at a Target store across the street from the former (burned down) 3rd Precinct with a theater performance calling out Target and corporate greed, as well as more speeches inspiring the crowd to continue to take action. At the end of the march, organizers encouraged participants to eat at the immigrant businesses on Lake Street and attend an after-party at Mercado Central to finish up the day.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #Labor #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #MIRAC #FRSO