Tens of thousands march in Minneapolis against federal occupation, fascist dictatorship
Tens of thousands of workers, students and residents poured into the streets of Minneapolis on Friday January 30, in the second-largest demonstration yet against the federal occupation of the city and the murderous operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Inspired by last week’s mass protest and the nationwide outrage over the murders of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renée Good by ICE and federal Border Patrol agents, the mass mobilization marked a deepening revolt from below against escalating state repression.
Students from campuses across the country joined the thousands of workers and community members in Minneapolis in coordinated mass protests against the immigration police. From New York City to California, walkouts and assemblies brought together young people, teachers, and healthcare workers in solidarity with those disappeared and killed by the immigration police. These demonstrations are not isolated outbursts but part of a broader rising mass movement from below demanding an end to the immigration Gestapo and the federal forces occupying working class communities.
The protests are increasingly intertwined with striking healthcare workers in New York City and California, whose walkouts over labor conditions and patient care have exposed the limits of appealing to corporations while leaving the conduct of the struggle in the hands of trade union bureaucrats who are more concerned with legal niceties and protecting their ill-gotten assets under conditions where the Trump administration is establishing a presidential dictatorship.
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site intervened at protests across the country and distributed thousands of copies of the statement, “Stop ICE murders and dictatorship! Build a rank-and-file movement of the working class for a general strike!” The statement made clear that the drive toward dictatorship is inseparable from the staggering levels of social inequality gripping the United States and the rotting capitalist system that both parties defend.
It called for the formation of rank-and-file committees independent of the trade union bureaucracies, which have failed to support this week’s or last Friday’s strike actions, as the basis for uniting the working class. These committees would coordinate demands that include the removal and disbanding of all immigration police, an end to the persecution of immigrants, the release of all those detained by ICE and CBP, and the prosecution and removal from power of all those responsible in the Trump administration for violating constitutional rights.
The explosive growth of protest activity underscores the potential for a mass general strike to end the federal occupation and drive the fascists from Washington.
Students throughout Detroit participate in “National Shutdown” protests against ICE
On January 30, numerous protests took place across the Detroit metropolitan region in support of the National Shutdown against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including student walkouts at Cass Technical High School, a sit-in at Royal Oak High School, and rallies in Dearborn, Novi, Hazel Park, and Superior Charter Township. United in protest against the murders in Minneapolis of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, small business closures also took place in the 7 Mile Livernois area where last summer the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) held a hearing to investigate the death of Ronald Adams Sr.
Somewhere around 500 students at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School walked out of school and rallied as part of the National Shutdown, with students waving signs saying, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” “No decent Human has a heart made of ICE,” and “ICE murders innocents.”
Brizait Gonzalez Rivera said, “I am protesting because immigrants are suffering at this moment. I’m Mexican American. Look at all the tragedies that have happened. I have read the stories, I have read the news, I’m informed, and it is obvious we are being tortured. They are taking random citizens. It is not fair, it is not just, it is not right. As students, as the next generation, let’s lead this movement. It is a movement.”
Other students across Metro Detroit walked out, including at Groves High School in Birmingham. They marched demanding, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state.” Other high school protests or walkouts occurred in Berkley, Rochester, Novi, and Dearborn, with hundreds marching on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing.
About 100 Royal Oak High School students organized a sit-in to protest ICE and held a discussion about what they expect from their school to keep them safe. One told the WSWS, “Young people are enraged because we were raised learning to love everyone, no matter what, with movies like Pocahontas, to understand people who are different from us.”
Several hundred workers and young people also marched down Telegraph Road, shouting “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” Palestinian flags were visible, as marchers held signs which included, “Stop U.S.-Backed Genocide in Gaza” and “Protest NOW!! or Bow Down Later!”
Hundreds of high school students in Knox County, Tennessee walk out to protest immigration police
Knox County Schools (KCS) high school students staged a walkout on Friday, January 30 against ICE and KCS’s policy to “follow the law” when it comes to ICE entering public schools.
Despite the district’s warning to students of disciplinary action if they walk out, over 300 students gathered in downtown Knoxville for a rally and march to the City County Building. Many students were accompanied by their parents. Students from the University of Tennessee also participated.
High school students delivered speeches in front of life-sized drawings of Renée Good, Alex Pretti and other victims of ICE brutality. Participants carried handmade signs in opposition to the immigration police along with references to the American Revolution of 1776.
Students who spoke to the WSWS described fear for classmates and their parents who entered the United States without papers.
“I don’t want ICE here. I don’t want to go to school and be scared,” one student said. Another told the WSWS, “It’s kind of like the US is turning into a dictatorship. Some of my friends are immigrants too so I am worried for them and I don’t want them to be taken.”
They also described conditions of poverty and oppression in the countries they fled for a better life in the US. Other participants blamed the corruption of government and US imperialism for ICE and the descent into fascism and barbarism. Students agreed that a general strike, led by the working class, is central to abolishing ICE and toppling the Trump administration.
As Trump’s border czar vows to continue kidnappings, students and workers denounced Democratic Party collaborators
On Thursday reporters with the World Socialist Web Site spoke to students at the University of Minnesota about the ongoing federal occupation of the state by some 3,000 federal agents and the murders of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Earlier in the day, Trump’s White House “border czar” Tom Homan held a press conference in Minneapolis in which he pledged to continue immigration kidnapping operations while simultaneously blaming “protesters” and “agitators” for their own deaths at the barrels of immigration police.
Prior to Thursday’s press conference, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz praised Homan as a “law enforcement professional” and pledged that local police would assist federal agents in kidnapping residents. He said that Homan “understands if you really want to enforce immigration, if you really want to get the worst of the worst, you coordinate with local folks, you coordinate with our [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] and you pick these people up when they are not suspecting it, in the middle of the night where no shots are fired.”
A former substitute teacher and public health major at the University of Minnesota told the WSWS, “I think that Waltz and Trump talked on the phone and made some agreement, but we aren't aware what it was. Trump is saying that he de-escalated but he just sent Bovino home and then brought somebody else in. They think that is going to make people scatter and think things are going to be better when in reality they're going to continue doing the same things. It’s all just optics. Minneapolis is the spotlight right now, so they hope they can send a thousand other ICE agents to different cities without the press following it.”
Commenting on the escalating attack on the jobs and living standards of workers, she said, “I remember when they first started talking about AI it was like this would allow humans to do the jobs they really want to do. Now they’re just firing people. It’s not just the Republicans that defend all this wealth it’s the Democrats too. They’re not investing in education because they want people to be dumber. They’re not using funds to make us healthier. They just want control over people.
“COVID showed us how important workers really are to the world. Even people working in restaurants were essential workers. People needed teachers to send their kids somewhere. If teachers, service and other workers come together and refuse to work there could be a lot of power. The rich are taking money from education and privatizing everything to make more money, when we should be funding public services to make our communities better.”
A University of Minnesota electrical engineer student said, “We should completely defund ICE, and we should not have federal agents targeting immigrants like this. They’re not targeting criminals like they say, they are targeting innocent people and even kids. Even US citizens like me are carrying our passports because we think we’re going to get questioned by ICE or that we are going to be detained and not be able to talk to our family. We’re living in America in the 21st century and it’s just not something that should be happening. It's just crazy to say we're living in a first world country.
“I don’t believe Trump is telling the truth. He’s only saying he’s deescalating and there’s nothing to worry about so people don’t panic. But it’s already too late for that. And even if they remove some ICE agents from Minneapolis, it won’t be long until this happens in another city.
“I saw videos of people saying they're going out wearing scarves because ICE is using facial recognition and they're scared they're going to get tracked and ICE is going to show up at the door. It’s so crazy that we’re being monitored 24-7. I think that Alex Pretti was targeted.”
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