This morning, just a day after tens of thousands rocked the Twin Cities with a political strike against ICE terror, Trump’s deportation machine has murdered again. In South Minneapolis, half a dozen federal agents mobbed, beat, and fired multiple shots into yet another person, in a completely barbaric lynching.
Since the killing of Renee Good, ICE has only ramped up their brutality in Minneapolis. They are executing their violent raids more quickly and more effectively. They detained a 2-year-old with her father and sent them to Texas. This is no one-off. On another occasion, they detained a 5-year-old who was flown to Texas, claiming he was abandoned. The family of the 5-year-old, who denied this, had a pending asylum case and no criminal record. This cannot go on.
The 1/23 strike was monumental, the first political strike against the Trump regime, pointing the movement decisively towards shutting down profits as the way to win. The mood was absolutely electric through downtown Minneapolis as workers and young people rallied in the extreme cold. It proved what the movement is capable of, and that it can, and must, do even more. Yesterday was not the culmination of the anti-ICE movement, but the beginning.
ICE is completely out of control. We cannot wait for the empty words of toothless politicians like Minneapolis Mayor Frey or Governor Walz to materialize into action. Yesterday, we showed our power in shutting down Minneapolis. We need to shut it down again, and bigger—this time halting ALL profits.
We need neighborhood response groups to develop into strike committees, organizing communities to not just defend against ICE raids, but to strike against them. We need more unions involved, more workers on strike, and more workplaces shut down. The labor movement can’t afford to be held back by laws and rules restricting strike action. The leaders of the labor movement are well-positioned to lead the way, and workers everywhere need to pressure them to send a clear message: shut down profits until ICE leaves!
This needs to happen not just in the Twin Cities, but every city, as ICE looks towards Maine, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee as its next targets of terror. We call on the labor movement nationally to call for a nationwide strike. We cannot continue business as usual while our neighbors are kidnapped, beaten, and murdered. Our movement needs to show out in force, with the weight of the working class as its backbone. Trump will continue to consolidate his authoritarian regime if we don’t stop him. He only cares about profits and understands power, so working people need to use our most powerful weapon: shutting down the capitalist economy.
On Sunday @ 2 PM at the Labor Center (312 Central Ave), Socialist Alternative Minneapolis is holding an organizing meeting to build a stronger, longer strike to shut down ICE. We urgently need union members, workers, and young people involved in building this movement. Bring neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family to join us in kicking ICE out for good!