Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

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By Meredith Aby

Palestine solidarity bannering in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  | Paul Ellertson/Fight Back! News

St. Paul, MN – On October 17, 40 protesters held banners, signs and Palestinian flags on the Snelling Avenue bridge over Interstate 94 to draw attention to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon. Over 42,000 Palestinians and 2400 Lebanese have been killed by Israel since last October. Now 41% of people in Gaza are in danger of catastrophic levels of hunger in the coming months. Thousands of cars passed under the bridge while hundreds more went up Snelling Avenue.

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By Sophie Breen and Montana Hirsch

Minneapolis protest against vice president candidate Vance demands legalization for all.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN – On Monday, October 14 over 50 protesters gathered together on Indigenous People’s Day to tell Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance that he is not welcome in Minneapolis. Vance attended a private fundraiser in Minneapolis the same day, and held a press conference at the burned down Minneapolis former 3rd Precinct police station.

The protest was organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) as part of a national week of action called by the Legalization for All Network to stand with Haitian immigrants in the fight for legalization for all, in the face of the intensely racist anti-immigrant rhetoric spewed by right-wing politicians at every turn.

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By Trent Fast

October 6 Minneapolis march for Palestine. | Brad Sigal/Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN – On October 6, over 4000 protesters gathered in downtown Minneapolis on to mark one year of protest and resistance to Israel’s U.S. funded genocide in occupied Palestine. The Free Palestine Coalition started the march with a rally at the Gateway Park Fountain on the corner of Hennepin and Washington Avenues. Protesters marched through downtown and the North Loop neighborhood, proudly displaying support for Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq and all people caught in the crosshairs of Israel’s terror campaign.

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By Meredith Aby

Minneapolis protest against U.S./Israel attacks on Lebanon.  | Meredith Aby/Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN – On October 2, over 100 people protested outside the office of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. The MN Anti-War Committee called the protest to bring attention to the recent Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon which is leaving many Lebanese civilians dead in its wake.

Senator Klobuchar was targeted for the protest because her policy decisions have repeatedly put Israel first, and its victims last; and that the people of Minnesota stand with the Lebanese people and against U.S. military support for an Israeli led large-scale regional war.

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By Allison Gunderson

Protesters on the Marshall/Lake bridge over the Mississippi River.

St. Paul, MN – On Friday, August 2, the Free Palestine Coalition held a rally on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue bridge and marched to Governor Tim Walz’s residence to commemorate 300 days of genocide in Palestine and to demand a permanent ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

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By Wyatt Miller

Minneapolis, MN – On July 24, several hundred protesters took to the street in front of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s downtown office on busy Washington Avenue. A smaller group, holding banners that read “We are the red line” then shut down the southbound on-ramp to Interstate 35W and declared their intention not to disperse despite police orders.

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By Brian Chval

Protest at U.S. gymnastics trials calls for banning apartheid Israel from Olympics.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, June 29, as Olympic trials for gymnastics were being held at Target Center, 85 people gathered at a rally organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee to demand that Israel be banned from the Olympics due to its genocide against the people of Palestine.

The crowd was received warmly by many passersby on foot and in cars as they used drums, whistles, chants, and speeches to make themselves heard.

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By Drake Myers

No Minnesota money for weapons manufacturers banner at Honeywell Aerospace protest.  | Ashley Taylor-Gougé/watch me rise mpls

Minneapolis, MN – On Tuesday, June 25, around 100 people gathered as the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition led a protest of the Honeywell Aerospace Building in Northeast Minneapolis. Cars honked in support and many people who were just passing by brought bulk packs of cold bottled water for the protesters unprompted, just to show their support on the sunny day.

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By Sarah Martin

St. Paul continues solidarity with Gaza. | Ashley Taylor-Gouge/watch me rise mpls

St. Paul, MN – On June 21 during rush hour, 75 people rallied and chanted at the weekly WAMM (Women Against Military Madness) bannering at the busy intersection of Snelling and Summit Avenues in Saint Paul. This week’s event was co-sponsored by the Free Palestine Coalition.

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By Meredith Aby

Minneapolis protest confronts war criminal and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. | Ashley Taylor-Gouge/Watch Me Rise Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – On June 6, hundreds of protesters unwelcomed former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who came to downtown Minneapolis to speak for the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative think tank based in the suburb of Golden Valley.

The Center has supported a number of Republican-led political initiatives and regularly features right-wing speakers at its events. Ticket prices for the event ranged from $300 for individual seats to $30,000 “diamond sponsor” tickets that included special VIP access to Bennett.

Bennet is known as a war criminal who in 2013 said, “I’ve killed a lot of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.” Bennett was the prime minister during 2021-22 and represented the New Right political party, which opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and demands Israeli sovereignty over all of Palestine. He describes himself as more right-wing than even Netanyahu. After Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October, Bennett mocked concerns for Palestinian lives, saying in an interview, “Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians?” and “I am not going to feed electricity or water to my enemies.”

The police stood alongside Zionist ticket holders, who heckled the crowd with racist and Islamophobic slurs, flipping off community members, including young children, while cops took no action.

Over the course of three hours, hundreds of Minneapolis police officers, including SWAT and riot teams, joined the racists in antagonizing the demonstrators.

One protester was violently arrested by riot police armed with rifles as he was peacefully walking away. Four others, including three Muslim Twin Cities residents – two of them minors – were arrested later, violently picked off the street by a large, black SWAT BearCat vehicle.

Wyatt Miller from the Anti-War Committee said, “The supposedly progressive city of Minneapolis helped facilitate the visit of an Israeli leader who helped lay groundwork for the current genocide, invited by a right-wing think tank to speak at a major downtown venue. We call on elected officials to denounce this hateful event and the fact that MPD was allowed to set up an apartheid-like militarized area on its behalf.”

The juveniles were released later that night, but the other arrestees were held until the evening of June 7.

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