Minneapolis woke up completely empty this Friday the 23rd. In addition to sub-zero temperatures, thousands of workers did not go to their jobs and hundreds of businesses closed in solidarity with immigrants. The residents of the “Twin Cities” (Minneapolis and St. Paul, because each is located on one bank of the Mississippi River, NdT) demand justice for Reneé Nicole Good and the immediate withdrawal of ICE. Later today, union members, activists, teachers, students, neighbors and political organizations will gather to protest together against Trump’s new Gestapo.
Very early in the morning, about 100 religious leaders, along with workers and community organizations, blocked the road in front of Terminal 1 of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. As they were arrested, they shouted: “Before this campaign fails, we will all go to jail, everyone has the right to live.” Protesters carried signs depicting members of Unite Here Local 17, a union with a largely immigrant workforce, who had been kidnapped by ICE.
The workers who participated in the action chanted: “We are here to tell companies to stop being complicit with ICE.” Grassroots organizer Nick Benson told progressive magazine In These Times: «This airport is the narrow end of the funnel through which our neighbors are sent to God knows where. Yesterday we reached our 2,000th estimated deportation for this month.
By midday, the crowd had grown and hundreds of non-union Unite Here workers clashed with police as they began detaining community leaders and clergy. Protesters told reporters that the airport has been a key location in the Department of Homeland Security’s operations to carry out mass deportations.
The mass action at the airport wasn’t even the main protest taking place in Minneapolis today. The main march, scheduled for 2 p.m. Central Time, has the potential to bring together protesters from across the city. Solidarity actions are taking place throughout the country.
The fight that Minneapolis is waging should be taken up by the entire movement in defense of immigrant rights. Unions should also intensify their actions by organizing strikes that use all the power of workers to paralyze everything. In this spirit, immigrants and their allies across the country can build a movement capable of abolishing ICE and achieving justice for Reneé Nicole Good and all those ICE has killed.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
