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

Upon finding out Mayo’s plan to subcontract them out to an out-of-state corporation after decades of working hard as Mayo employees, the workers decided they needed to fight back. They launched a coordinated fight to say “we need good jobs at the Mayo.” In the end, they could not legally stop Mayo from subcontracting them, but the workers were determined to win a contract with Morrison, their new employer, which did not contain major concessions and moved them forward with a contract that keeps good jobs in Rochester and across the Mayo system.

The Mayo food service workers organized in the community to let people know what Mayo was doing, and that they were only doing it to make more money off of the backs of their employees and off the backs of the community that is paying increased property taxes and state taxes to allow Mayo to continue expanding and increasing its profits. At the same time as that workers were making these changes, Mayo announced that they were closing down or moving out much-needed patient services, like the birth center in some of their facilities, which will cause many of Mayo’s workers and the surrounding community to lose services.

These fights culminated in large pickets in Rochester which brought out the majority of the Mayo food service workers as well as hundreds from the community.

Seeing these workers do whatever it took and fight for what they deserve was an inspiration for anyone to behold. One group of non-union food service workers in another area of the Mayo decided they wanted to join the union too. Last fall over 100 more workers voted yes by an 89% majority and joined SEIU Healthcare MN and merged bargaining units to become part of the SEIU Food Service Bargaining Unit.

Now, a year later, because of their strength and resolve, the Mayo food service workers have reached a tentative agreement with Morrison in which there are no major concessions and in fact the workers will be getting raises that vary in size from 12.5% to 42% over the life of a 5-year contract. The newly organized workers fared especially well, with many getting raises of as much as several dollars effective immediately upon ratification.

In addition to raises, the workers won better healthcare than they had before and a guaranteed contribution 401k in which the employer must deposit 50 cents for every hour an employee works with no contribution required form the employee.

Most importantly they won good strong language in their contract and have built the power they need to move forward and go up from here in future bargaining. They won all of these improvements because they organized and showed the boss they would not back down. Because they were so organized they did not end up having to strike but it was clear to all that they could have if they needed to.

Ratification votes are being held over the next week and the contract is expected to pass overwhelmingly.

#RochesterMN #PeoplesStruggles #Minnesota #mayo