Saint Paul, MN – On March 14, operating on short notice, organizers with the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC), workers from the reproductive justice movement and their supporters held an emergency protest outside a private event where Vice President Kamala Harris was set to speak on reproductive freedom.
Protesters gathered outside the venue with banners and signs, chanting to passersby in an effort to call attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, its particular impact on Palestinian women and girls, and Vice President Harris’s role in funding Israel’s military operations.
St. Paul, MN – On March 9, the Minnesota's Free Palestine Coalition organized a march to celebrate and stand in solidarity with Palestinian women on the day after International Women’s Day. The speakers and chanters were primarily Palestinian women, all of whom made connections between women’s liberation and an end to the Israeli genocide, occupation and apartheid.
4000 people attended the march, which took the streets and disrupted business as usual in Saint Paul’s Midway neighborhood. Demonstrators stopped to chant in front of a police precinct and marched past a highway exit, blocking traffic.
St. Paul, MN – The Saint Paul city council unanimously passed a ceasefire resolution at their meeting on March 6. Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson introduced the ceasefire resolution in front of a packed chamber. The resolution calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to unconditional U.S. aid to Israel, the release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and facilitation of the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
St. Paul, MN – On March 5, students belonging to the Mac for Palestine Coalition staged a die-in at the Macalester Center for Study Away. The students continued to occupy the building for the next 48 hours, a marked escalation in their months-long campaign to pressure the college to cut its institutional ties with Israeli universities.
St Paul, MN – On March 1, at the weekly Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) bannering, 70 community members stood with Palestine and the people of Gaza who have endured over 145 days of relentless, genocidal U.S.-funded and backed Israeli attacks. Over 32,200 people have been slaughtered, mostly women and children and those still alive face a deadly shortage of food, safe water, medicine and stand on the abyss of famine due to Israel’s total blockade, siege and bombing.
St. Paul, MN – For the fourth week in a row, residents of Saint Paul and members of the Free Palestine Coalition packed the Saint Paul city council meeting on February 28 to demand they pass a ceasefire resolution or at the very least, have a public hearing about it. And for the fourth week in a row, City Council President Mitra Jalalai, who wields the power and controls the agenda, refused to let a resolution be introduced.
St. Paul – On February 29, dozens of Palestine solidarity protesters packed into the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI)’s first quarterly meeting of the year to demand divestment from apartheid Israel.
St. Paul, MN – On February 28, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee organized a protest at the Eastcliff Mansion, where Governor Tim Walz currently resides. On the eve of the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) meeting, a crowd of over 100 people rallied to demand that the Minnesota governor, also the chair of the SBI, divest from apartheid Israel and weapons manufacturers.
St. Paul, MN – On February 27, over 100 students rallied on Macalester College campus, followed by a march to the high-traffic intersection of Snelling and Summit Avenues, to demand that Saint Paul city council take a stand and pass a ceasefire resolution.
At the intersection the students chanted, “City council you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” at rush hour traffic, with a dozen supporters who joined off the street.
Minneapolis, Saint Paul’s neighboring city, passed one of the most progressive ceasefire resolutions in the country on February 8, calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Despite this, Saint Paul city council has shown considerable resistance to even introducing a ceasefire resolution, which has already been written by a coalition of local organizations, to be voted on.
St. Paul, MN – On February 25, over 1000 people carrying Palestinian flags and signs lined both sides of the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River and then marched to Governor Tim Walz’ Eastcliff Mansion residence to demand that the Minnesota State Board of Investments (SBI) divest from Israeli weapons manufacturers, banks and bonds, and other entities complicit in Israel’s apartheid system in Palestine. Research done by the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) shows that the MN SBI invests more than $3 billion this way.