Forest Lake, MN – Nearly 50 community members from the Climate Justice Committee (CJC) and Indivisible members in Forest Lake joined at a rally to target U.S. Representative Pete Stauber, who had recently spearheaded legislation that would again open the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) to copper sulfide mining.

The Boundary Waters is a protected area where motorized vehicles aren’t allowed, and campers are expected to take out everything they bring in. During Biden’s presidency, legislation was passed to impose a mining ban, but Representative Stuber worked to overturn that ban after just three years to allow the Twin Metals mining company to resume operations in this area.

Michael Wood from the CJC spoke at the rally saying, “We are here because Pete Stauber’s vision of the BWCA is to sell every lake every range every river and stream to the highest bidder. Pete Stauber’s vision is selling you clean water at the highest markup. Forget 10,000 lakes, Stauber wants Minnesota to be a land of 10,000 mines.”

Indivisible members have been rallying every Sunday since January to oppose Trump’s attacks, from immigration to environmental rights. The CJC was excited to join Indivisible to target Stauber in front of his listed local Minnesota offices.

Michael Wood continued, “But Minnesotans love the BWCA and we are going to fight with everything we’ve got to defend this precious wilderness. So, we ask you to get more involved. Call your representatives, petition the government, protest climate criminals like Stauber.”

#ForestLakeMN #MN #Environment #CJC #BWCA

Minneapolis, MN – On July 8, Minneapolis City Council’s Public Health, Safety and Equity Committee held a public hearing on a proposal for a trial program for “drones as first responders” (DFRs). The drones are manufactured by Skydio, a California-based tech company that makes autonomous surveillance drones.

The Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) called for its supporters to pack the meeting, achieving this with both the meeting room and the overflow room at capacity. Over 40 people testified, all expressing opposition to the drone proposal.

One of the main concerns residents raised is that Skydio is a major producer of drones for the Israeli military. Sarah Martin, a member of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), testified on this point, saying, “300 to 500 Palestinians were killed every day and there's no question Skidio drones account for many of those deaths. You must decide to reject the contract with Skydio and continue to do the right thing, as you did when you passed one of the strongest if not the strongest, ceasefire resolutions in the country in 2024. Or when you voted not to use ZenCity, an Israeli surveillance company. We don’t want our tax dollars going to companies profiting from the genocide, and a company whose drones have been use to surveil protesters, including those opposing this vicious and evil genocide.”

The other main concern residents raised is that drones operated by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) would be used to violate the civil liberties of oppressed nationality communities, and to surveil protesters.

Mary Ford, member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), testified, “I remember in late May, early June, 2020 during George Floyd [protests], the Blackhawk helicopter swooping low and loud over my house, breaking tree branches and scaring the neighbors that had banded together. The Minnesota State Patrol also flew a Cirrus spy plane over our city at this time. U.S. Customs & Border Patrol collected our data using a Predator drone during George Floyd. To track and pursue targets, both ICE and CBP have purchased Skydio drones. This is not the company that Minneapolis wants to keep. We want to demilitarize police work, not militarize police work to further ridiculous levels.”

Maddy Schwartz, also of the AWC, expressed similar sentiments in her testimony, saying, “This could 100 percent be used as a tool to expand state-sanction violence, surveil protests and dissent, Black and brown communities, and bring in huge amounts of visual data. I worry that this will be the next course of violence against unhoused people who, as a city, we’ve already decided don’t deserve privacy, dignity, or any space to exist. I wonder how this could affect community rapid response systems as we rely on community members to respond to ICE. I’d like to know how many of your immigrant constituents still living in fear, would feel safer with this expanded surveillance through this third party. When we make these investments in law enforcement, it gets harder to trust that council cares about privacy rights and over-policing of communities of color.”

The proposal is for the MPD to launch the Skydio pilot program in Ward 4 in the city’s Northside, which is a Black-majority neighborhood. Many residents came from the ward to address their councilmember, LaTrisha Vetaw, who authored the proposal and sits on the Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee.

At the end of the hearing the committee voted to “forward without recommendation” and the full Minneapolis City Council is expected to discuss it at their 9:30 a.m. meeting on Thursday, July 16.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #MNAWC

The Palestine Solidarity Committee of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) found out on July 7 from the Saint Paul Water Board website that they have selected Waterfall Security Solutions again for a contract.

Saint Paul provides water to Saint Paul, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Lilydale, Maplewood, Mendota, Mendota Heights, West Saint Paul, Roseville, Little Canada and Arden Hills.

Meredith Aby, the WAMM director, explains, “After a year of attending board meetings, meeting with board members, petitioning and calling, we are angered that, despite Waterfall being an Israeli company that works hand in hand with Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian people, Saint Paul wants to expand and extend their contract. The new proposed contract will be $153,611.74 and for five years. They proposed this knowing that their constituents do not support genocide.”

WAMM has been working on this campaign for a year as a part of the boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement. WAMM chose this strategy because it was previously successful in pressuring the U.S. to stop supporting South African apartheid. The BDS Movement website says that the tech sector “feeds Israel’s war chest, making up 20% of Israel’s GDP (in 2023) and 53% of its exports (2023).” The goal of the BDS movement is to isolate Israel economically to pressure them to end apartheid and genocide.

Aby continued, “If you drink or use Saint Paul water, please call today – 651-266-6350 extension 7. And regardless of where you live, we need you to come out to the next Water Board meeting on Tuesday, July 14 at noon at Saint Paul City Hall, 15 W Kellogg Boulevard in room 300 to demand that they cut the contract with Waterfall!”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Divestment #BDS #Palestine #WAMM

St Paul, MN – The Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) issued a national call to action for protests on July 4 weekend to highlight that the U.S. 250th birthday celebration also mark 250 years of nonstop genocide, war and imperialism.

Both the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) and Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) held actions to draw attention to the costs of U.S.-sponsored wars and genocides.

On July 3, WAMM held its weekly Free Palestine protest as a part of the call and to draw special attention to also mark 1000 days of genocide of Palestine by Israel sponsored by the United States.

Meredith Aby, the director of WAMM, explained, “This week the United Nations issued a report detailing evidence of Israel deliberately targeting Palestinian children during the conflict since October 2023. In fact, Israel continues to violate the agreement on a daily basis. The UN reports that 265 children were killed and more than 400 others injured since the ceasefire, which averages to nearly one child killed every single day. Children are starving to death in Gaza too. The world needs to be more outraged by this massive level of mass murder, especially towards children. Women Against Military Madness holds a protest at Summit and Snelling every Friday for a Free Palestine, but this week’s protest is important in our efforts to stop the normalization of genocide.”

On July 4, the AWC held a rally at Chute Square in Northeast Minneapolis to protest the insidious “holiday.” Dozens of protesters held signs with statements like “No blood for oil,” “Iran is not the enemy” and “Victory to the Palestinian resistance,” with a large banner that read, “No freedom in endless wars.”

Organizers say that the American flag was intentionally left out of the various flags flown as a display of international solidarity with Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Lebanon and Palestine. They chose these countries’ flags because they are current targets of the Trump administration.

Organizations around the Twin Cities, such as American Muslims for Palestine, MN50501, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) were represented among the speakers at the rally. They reiterated that American taxpayer dollars are funneled into the $1 trillion military budget that goes towards attacking, sanctioning, decimating and invading sovereign peoples and sovereign nations.

Maumoon Slayhi from American Muslims for Palestine summed up the sentiment of the crowd by declaring, “Enough endless wars. Enough blank checks for militarism. Enough asking working Americans to fund destruction while our schools struggle, our families struggle, and healthcare becomes more and more out of reach.”

The irony of the Trump administration’s “Freedom 250” coming on the heels of the deadly Operation Metro Surge, when federal agents murdered, displaced, kidnapped and terrorized Twin Cities communities was also noted by speakers. In her speech, Montana Hirsch from MIRAC stated, “U.S. intervention leads to forced mass migration; sanctions and wars create conditions where people are forced to leave their homelands and come here only to be met with the deportation machine! Where is the freedom in that?”

Over 30 members of both the MN Anti-War Committee and WAMM will travel to Chicago for AWAN’s second national conference July 11 and 12.

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #MNAWC #AWAN #WAMM

Minneapolis, MN – June 28 marked the Taking Back Pride Coalition’s tenth annual protest march that disrupted the Twin Cities Pride Parade in downtown Minneapolis.

Despite a heavy morning downpour that delayed both the march and parade, community members took to the streets with banners reading “Delta deports neighbors” and “Dump Trump donors,” inviting the crowds lined up awaiting the corporate-sponsored festivities to join the protest march into Loring Park.

Many parade-goers were receptive to the messaging and chants, with some heeding the call and stepping out into the street to march alongside protesters, and many others joining in during chants of “No cops, no KKK, no racist Pride today!”

Initiated by the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) in 2017, the Taking Back Pride Coalition (TBP) has organized a protest march for the past ten years to demand that Twin Cities Pride oust police and big corporations from the state’s largest free Pride festival, which they see as antithetical to Pride’s origins in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969.

The contradiction between sponsoring a Pride event and donating to Trump and other right-wing politicians who have been increasingly targeting the rights of queer and trans people across the country is not lost on the organizers of this year’s march. TBP co-chair and member of TCC4J Jae Yates called out sponsors of this year’s event like Delta Airlines, Uber, JP Morgan Chase, and others that have donated to Trump and other right-wing politicians, stating, “We deserve a Pride that is free from corporations that profit off of us for June, and then donate to Trump's campaign the rest of the year.”

The protest marched along much of the planned route for the Pride Parade, with multiple stops where speakers like Khalani Matus of the Climate Justice Committee highlighted for the audience why TBP marches against sponsorship from corporations like 3M every year.

Matus stated, “There is no Pride or Stonewall spirit in companies like 3M who poison our water with ‘forever chemicals’ and fund Republican politicians who are trying to take away our humanity,” referencing 3M’s donations to right-wing politicians and PFAS chemical waste mismanagement. In 2018, the state of Minnesota settled a lawsuit with the company for $850 million for contaminating drinking water and natural resources in the southeast metro area of the Twin Cities.

Other speakers along the march route featured members of organizations from the student organizing to labor solidarity, a song led by Singing Resistance, poetry by Azariah Baker, and words from sex worker activist Mona Notte, who reminded the crowd that Pride itself would not exist without the Black and brown trans folk who resisted police violence at Stonewall.

After the last set of speakers, protesters split into groups to conduct demonstrations in front of two of the booths located inside Loring Park, 3M and U.S. Bank. However, organizers learned that the 3M tablers had left their booth, possibly to avoid protesters. Organizers proceeded to escort a portion of the marchers to the Power to the People Stage to await the remaining demonstrators, who continued on to U.S. Bank.

At the U.S. Bank booth, organizers and supporters gathered in front of the table on either side of the walkway, with speakers on megaphones announcing to passersby why corporations like big banks should not be allowed at Pride festivals.

Festivalgoers were generally receptive to the messaging, and chants of “No pride in ecocide!” and “No pride in genocide” sounded above the music and revelry. A speech written by Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) executive director Meredith Aby was read by Yates, stating that U.S. Bank had no place at Pride due to its financing of the fossil fuel industry and revolving credit for defense companies. “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,” Aby wrote. “Decorating your bank with rainbows can’t clean up the blood on U.S. Bank’s hands.”

The action concluded with an invitation from Yates for anyone who resonated with TBP’s message to join the coalition next summer or one of the many groups that took part in organizing this year’s action, as many work year-round across a variety of struggles.

This year’s coalition included Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J), Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC), Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), Bikers Riding Against Police Brutality (BRAPB),Fury Du Nord, Climate Justice Committee (CJC), MN 50501, Communities Against Transphobia (CAT), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Minnesota Workers United (MWU), Community Aid Network Minnesota (CANMN), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Sunrise Twin Cities (SMTC), Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Justice Frontline Aid (JFA), Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America (TCDSA), Singing Resistance, Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P), and individuals passionate about queer and trans liberation.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #LGBTQ #TCC4J

Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee held a bannering, July 2, to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court’s racist decision allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Haiti and Syria. Cars honked in support as community members held letters that spelled out “TPS 4 Haitians & Syrians,” during rush hour traffic on a busy bridge and chanted “Hands off TPS!” at passing cars.

For 36 years, TPS has allowed hundreds of thousands of people from countries embroiled in natural disasters, wars and other extreme conditions to live and work legally in the U.S. – including some 330,000 from Haiti and 3800 from Syria. When Trump’s DHS attempted to end TPS for these two groups earlier this year, status holders challenged the decision in court on the grounds of racial discrimination.

But on June 25, once again demonstrating their contempt for the truth, Trump’s cronies on the Supreme Court ruled that the administration can end the protected status of Haitians and Syrians, and of any other group he wishes to attack.

TPS has been a narrow but critical lifeline for people endangered by the climate change, conflict and deprivation that the U.S inflicts on the developing world in pursuit of power and profit. Revoking the program is signing a death sentence for thousands of parents and children, for grandparents, aunts and uncles, for teachers, public servants, delivery drivers, artists, cooks, and entrepreneurs, and for healthcare workers, who make up a third of Haitian TPS holders.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #MIRAC

Minneapolis, MN – On July 1, over 200 people rallied in support of the MN 15, a group of Minneapolis community members that were indicted on bogus conspiracy charges relating to ICE resistance in the Twin Cities. 14 of the 15 were due in court to enter not guilty pleas to federal charges.

Rally speakers noted that most of the people indicted were union members, and many union officials spoke of the need to stand up to defend our union siblings, reminding attendees of the longstanding union motto, “An injury to one is an injury to all!”

Speakers included representatives from GLU-UE 1105, Macalester AAUP, MN Nurses Association (MNA), SEIU Local 26, IBEW Local 292 and the MN AFL-CIO, as well as one MFE 59 member facing indictment in this case, and a Black Lives Matter-MN organizer, who was indicted for a January protest calling out David Easterwood, a Cities Church pastor and director of the local ICE field office.

The crowd chanted “We got your back!” while those indicted and family members went to their court appearance. Monique Cullars-Doty, BLM-MN founder and indicted Cities Church protester, told the crowd, “I encourage everyone to stand up for [the Minnesota 15]. Reach out and remind them that they are not alone, to remind them that we stand with them in this fight.”

After the rally, a long line formed out the door, across the large plaza and down the sidewalk, with supporters who wanted to attend today’s court hearing. Most were turned away, despite an overflow courtroom with capacity for 80. After court, defendants came out of the building with their fists in the air, greeted by cheering crowds of supporters.

Montana Hirsh from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee stated, “We stand in solidarity with the MN 15 because federal agents don’t get to come into our streets and kidnap our neighbors, brutalize our communities and separate families without a militant fight back from the people. Protesting ICE and defending our communities is the right thing to do. We will continue to fight in the streets until all the charges are dropped on anti -ICE protesters. From Minneapolis to LA, protesting is not a crime!”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #ICE #PoliticalRepresssion #PeoplesStruggles #Labor #Featured

St. Paul, MN – Around 50 people rallied outside Birthright, a crisis pregnancy center in Saint Paul the evening of Wednesday, June 24. The protest comes on the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This decision ended federal abortion protection, thus leaving abortion regulation to the individual states. Birthright, the target of the protest, is a crisis pregnancy center. Crisis pregnancy centers are projects with the primary mission to block access to abortion services.

In Minnesota, abortion is legal, protected and accessible at all stages of pregnancy, but with neighboring states banning abortion outright, people are forced to travel to Minnesota, or carry out pregnancies against their will. Federal cuts to Medicaid have forced the closure of four Planned Parenthood locations in Minnesota (Alexandria, Bemidji, Richfield and Apple Valley). Planned Parenthood serves as the only providers of reproductive healthcare in some rural and underserved areas.

Aizar Cabrera of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee stated, “Today, we’re seeing children who have been kidnapped by ICE turn up pregnant due to sexual assault. These children have then been forcefully relocated to Texas, a state with some of the most strict abortion restrictions, only made possible after Roe v. Wade was repealed in 2022.” Cabrera is referring to over a dozen pregnant unaccompanied minors who were sent to a single facility located in the small border city of San Benito, Texas. “We know this is not a coincidence,” said Cabrera, in response to these pregnant minors being sent to a state with a total ban on abortion.

The rally was organized by the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump. Speakers at the event included members of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Twin Cities for Justice, the advocacy and organizing manager of Gender Justice, and a health care worker. All speakers talked about the need for bodily autonomy for all.

The rally ended with the crowd chanting, “We won’t back down from this fight – abortion is a human right!” Traffic on Snelling Avenue honked along, some in solidarity and some in disapproval of the crowd's plea for widespread protection of reproductive rights.

#StPaulMN #MN #WomensMovement #LGBTQ #ReproductiveRights #Abortion #RoeVWade

Minneapolis, MN – On July 24, pro-Palestine and police accountability advocates as well as local media gathered in the Minneapolis City Hall rotunda around a banner that read, “Drones out of MPLS. Drones out of Palestine. Say no to Skydio.” The Twin Cities-based Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) proceeded to hold a press conference calling on Minneapolis City Council to reject a proposal that would enact a trial program of so-called “drones as first responders” supplied by U.S. drone manufacturer Skydio.

Organizers explained that Skydio was complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza for supplying cutting-edge, AI-powered drones that autonomously surveil urban areas and identify potential targets.

In 2024, the FPC successfully mobilized Minneapolis residents to pass a city council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and supporting an end to tax dollars contributing to Israel’s attacks. A campaign against a city contract with Israeli surveillance company ZenCity followed in 2025.

Speakers at the press conference argued that rejecting the Skydio proposal was a logical next step for the local boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

“Minneapolis should not be a customer for genocide-linked technology,” said Maamoun Slayhi with American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota. “Israel is an apartheid state. It is committing genocide in Gaza. It has used surveillance, drones, artificial intelligence and military technology to control and destroy Palestinian life. We should be cutting ties with that system, not creating new ones.”

Wyatt Miller of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee explained how Skydio’s current business model relies on drone sales to Israel. “Before October 2023, Skydio was a small company and its drones were primarily sold to individual civilian consumers,” Miller said, noting that the Gaza genocide allowed the company to pivot to scaled-up contracts with militaries and police departments. “Within hours of beginning its genocidal campaign in Gaza, the Israeli military had reached out to Skydio for expedited orders of autonomous surveillance drones. Hundreds were shipped within weeks.”

Organizers highlighted that the Skydio proposal would also be a dangerous new tool in the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). If enacted, the “drones as first responders” trial program would be run out of Minneapolis’s 4th Precinct in the city’s Northside, a heavily Black community with a history of repression at the hands of the police. In 2015, the 4th Precinct was the site of major Black lives matter protests after the murder of Jamar Clark by MPD officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze.

Jae Yates is an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, a group founded in the immediate aftermath of Clark’s murder. “As a Black-led organization, we understand this drone technology would be used on our already overpoliced and heavily surveilled communities,” said Yates. “We cannot trust a police department with a pattern and practice of racist policing to responsibly implement a drone program.”

Yates continued, “If this contract goes through, these drones will be another tool for an unaccountable, racist, and violent police force to increase surveillance and repression on Black, brown, indigenous and immigrant communities.”

Marvina Haynes is the founder of Minnesota Wrongful Conviction Reform, and the sister of Marvin Haynes, a Black Northside resident who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit before his sentence was vacated in 2023. “We are being told these drones are intended for emergency response. But communities across this country have seen surveillance technologies expand beyond their original purpose. Once these systems are in place, residents often have little control over how they evolve, what data is collected, how long information is stored, or how the technology is used in the future,” wrote Haynes in a letter read at the press conference. “I am especially concerned that North Minneapolis could become the testing ground for a program that many residents neither requested nor had a meaningful role in shaping.”

Speakers from FPC member groups Minnesota BDS Community, Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America Abolition and Decarceration Working Group, and Women Against Military Madness also spoke at the press conference.

The FPC urged community members to speak out at a public hearing on July 8 at 1:30 p.m., when the Minneapolis City Council’s Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee of will hold a preliminary vote on the Skydio “drones as first responders” proposal.

At the conclusion of his remarks, Miller asked rhetorically, “Do we really need a new technology that only became available at scale after being developed to facilitate a genocide? Is this proposal the solution to a real problem that we face, or is it a hammer in search of a nail?”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #InJusticeSystem #Drones

These action come in response to the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) call for a National Day of Action honoring the Juneteenth holiday, and in light of the acquittal in the killing of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, the reversal of homicide convictions in the killing of Elijah McClain, the sentencing of Karmelo Anthony, and the police murder of one-year-old Kohen Wiley in Mississippi.

In 2023, Cyrus Carmack-Belton, a 14-year-old Black boy, was fatally shot in the back over suspicion of stealing bottled water. In 2019, Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, was put in a neck hold by police and then given ketamine by paramedics for “suspicious behavior. He died. In 2025, Karmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old Black teen, was tried as an adult by an all-white jury and, this June 9, was sentenced to 35 years. One-year-old Kohen Wiley was murdered by a police officer in Mississippi, who shot into his mother’s car after she was falsely accused of shoplifting from a Walmart.

“These cases are not identical. The facts are different. The legal circumstances are different. But they all force us to confront the same question: Why must Black communities constantly fight to prove our humanity?” asked Alissa Washington, executive director of WIAOFC-MN, in her statement at the press conference.

The day after the press conference, June 18, TCC4J held a rally outside of the former Minneapolis Police Department 3rd Precinct, which has remained unoccupied since burning down during the uprising after the murder of George Floyd. Speakers included local organizers and activists from Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, TCC4J and WIAOFC-MN.

“Minnesota has the third-biggest racial wealth gap in the United States,” said Trahern Crews, of Black Lives Matter Minnesota. “Minnesota needs to pay reparations now!” Crews is part of a group of 39 local activists and community members, The Righteous 39, facing trumped-up federal charges after protesting at Cities Church, whose pastor, David Easterwood, was also employed as an ICE field director.

“A lot of people think reparations were paid to Black people,” said Jae Yates, an organizer with TCC4J and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “That is not true. Nobody got compensated for the gerrymandering, for the terrorism of white supremacy throughout the Civil Rights period, for the mass incarceration that tore apart hundreds of thousands of Black people’s families – we have not been compensated for the harm of chattel slavery, and we are still living with the consequences today.”

Dozens of community members gathered outside of the old 3rd Precinct site with signs and chants as many passing vehicles honked in support. The speakers and chants reiterated the demands from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, including community control of the police; reparations now; defend voting rights; free the wrongfully incarcerated; end police collaboration with ICE, and protect Black trans lives!

#MinneapolisMN #MN #InJusticeSystem #TCC4J

López was charged with four felonies, including assaulting a federal officer, after her participation in a protest against a federal action on June 3, 2025 when ICE, FBI and other agents raided a restaurant in the Latino immigrant business corridor in the center of Minneapolis.

There was no evidence of López initiating direct physical contact with any of the agents on the scene; however, there were multiple videos showing agents brutalizing López during the incident. Later that week, FBI agents abducted López, holding her in jail for several days, during which she was informed of the felony charges that could have had her sentenced to eight years in prison for a crime she did not commit.

Over the course of the following year, the U.S. Attorney postponed López’s trial multiple times due to this lack of evidence, keeping López in an unnecessary state of stressful uncertainty while the Twin Cities remained under attack by the same federal immigration enforcement she resisted. The fight to drop the charges further united the movements for immigrant rights, for indigenous sovereignty, and against political repression. This is a clear example of how the Trump administration’s attacks on oppressed people and the right to protest continually backfire, bringing progressive forces even closer, rather than destroying our organizing momentum.

The movement to drop the charges against López has ended in victory, with the prosecutors offering a plea deal to bring the sentence down to that of a single misdemeanor charge of impeding a federal investigation. López has accepted this deal and will not spend a single day in prison. Her passport, which was confiscated a year ago, has been returned to her, as she is no longer on probation, and there will be no fines beyond the $25 fee she was able to pay right away.

This tremendous victory comes just one week after the indictments of 15 other anti-ICE protesters in the Twin Cities. They now face felonies for their alleged involvement in the mass resistance against Operation Metro Surge. The favorable outcome of López’s case lends renewed optimism to the battle against racist and political repression. Although most of these campaigns are fought with great difficulty, activist organizations and community members in Minnesota and beyond are well-equipped with experience and fervor to keep up the fight for justice.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #InJusticeSystem #FBI #PoliticalRepression

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