In Solidarity With Minnesota Workers on General Strike Against ICE
People Over Profit stands in full solidarity with the workers and people of Minnesota who are taking up the call of the 23rd – the January 23 Day of Action – calling for a complete economic blackout in the state: “No Work. No School. No Shopping.”
The murder of Renee Nicole Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last January 7th shows how the violence and brutality that for so long has been aimed at migrants, now spares no one. It lays bare the true intent of such violence. ICE is not “protect[ing] law-abiding American citizens”, as Department of Homeland Security claims. It exists to divide the working class and, through the privatization of migration policies, to reap more and more profit for the capitalists.
Around 66,000 migrants are currently detained, mostly in private (read: profitable!) migrant detention centers run by corporations like GEO Group and CoreCivic, whose campaign contributions to Trump are now yielding massive profits during his presidency alone. The average American citizen who suffer under this crisis – those trapped by housing and student loans, stagnant wages, and rising living costs under the privatization of basic services – are misled into blaming ICE-targeted migrants rather than the capitalist system producing their hardship.
It is in this effort that the Trump administration has unleashed Operation Metro Surge, deploying over 3,000 ICE agents into Minnesota who operate without accountability and only bring terror on migrant and poor communities. As Operation Metro Surge expanded across the state, ICE has carried out numerous enforcement operations around schools, creating dangerous conditions that threaten children’s right to receive an education. In response, teachers have been at the forefront organizing safety committees and creating safety systems in coordination with students and parents. Many white students and their parents have been mobilized to patrol around school areas and help coordinate rides for students seeking safer ways to get to and from school.
Teachers play a central role in planning the January 23 general strike, joined by transport workers, healthcare workers, and workers across factories and service sectors. Despite the relentless and brutal efforts by the capitalists to scapegoat migrants, the response of the people of Minnesota has shown that workers solidarity remains stronger. Local and migrant workers, traditional trade unions and workers organizations, formal organizations and neighborhood communities are all standing together to demand ICE out of Minnesota.
The People Over Profit network joins this urgent call. “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here” – a chant that echoes across the state. The people of Minnesota are fighting against the lies, deception, and scapegoating tactics of the capitalists, and are mobilizing every effort to push out the common enemy, ICE, which protects capital at the expense of human life.
Attacks on migrants are attacks on the poor are attacks on workers.