The Independent Socialist Group Stands With the Call for a General Strike and Day of Action in Minneapolis

Our Unions Need to Fight for the Working Class: Strike Against ICE Terror! 

An Injury to One is an Injury to All! Solidarity Between All Working People!

Abolish ICE!

ICE agents have murdered Renee Good and at least 5 other innocent civilians over the last year. ICE and the Trump administration have blood on their hands. Minneapolis is under siege by militarized ICE and other police. Democratic governor Tim Walz has activated the Minnesota National Guard, who he deployed against Black Lives Matter protesters in the past. Trump’s Department of Defense has activated 1,500 troops of the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska and is threatening to send them into Minneapolis to suppress protests. 

Weeks of ICE terror against immigrants and other working class people in the Minneapolis area is the result of Trump’s so-called “Operation Metro Surge.” ICE is going door-to-door, threatening and kidnapping innocent people, dragging them out of homes, cars, and workplaces. ICE has pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, and shot and maimed protestors. Their attacks have even sent infants to the hospital. ICE and other militarized police forces have imprisoned thousands of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Despite ICE’s attempts to intimidate and repress any resistance, tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the streets to demand justice for Renee Good and to kick “ICE Out!”

The Minneapolis and St Paul Regional Labor Federations of the AFL-CIO, which represent 80,000 workers, have endorsed the call for a day of action on January 23rd: “ICE Out of Minnesota: No Work, No School, No Shopping!”. In addition to the AFL-CIO in Minneapolis and St. Paul, many union locals have endorsed the day of action as well, including ATU Local 1005, CWA Local 7250, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17 and others. A long list of community organizations like the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Black Lives Matter, and Veterans for Peace have also endorsed the day of action.

The January 23rd action could help unify all the various anti-ICE groups for a strong demonstration of Minneapolis workers and youth resisting a police state being imposed on them. The call for “no work” as part of the day of action, backed by the endorsement by unions, along with some progressive and left groups calling for a general strike, has raised the possibility of unions going on strike and escalating the day of action beyond protests. 

A general strike, including no work, school, or shopping can severely disrupt the operations and profits of the capitalist class which benefits from ICE terror against the working class.

However, even with many community groups and unions supporting the call for a day of action, including “no work”, the leadership of several of those unions said publicly that they will obey “no strike” clauses in their contracts or bans on public-sector workers striking and will instruct their members to go to work.

No general strike has ever been “legal.” No general strike has ever been allowed by contracts or by the government. But they happened anyway. Labor law is written primarily to stop the most effective tool unions have: the right to go on strike together.

A refusal by any union leaders to organize walkouts and strikes will severely weaken the impact of the day of action. Unions exist to help workers take collective action to fight for their interests when individual efforts won’t work. Unions on strike can share resources and use strength in numbers to overcome corporations and their political parties stopping workers fighting for better lives and resisting attacks on unions and the working class. Reducing a strike to simply a call for workers to individually make plans to take off work for a day is the exact opposite of what should be done in the face of ICE terror and to resist the anti-worker Trump government.

There is still time for rank-and-file union members and other activists to organize for their unions to mobilize members, build support for a day of action, and make it a real strike by not working on January 23rd. This would represent the most significant blow struck against Trump 2.0 and ICE since the LA uprising, and create a mass movement like the magnificent Black Lives Matter movement which weakened both Trump and police repression after George Floyd was murdered by cops in Minneapolis.

There are also examples of strikes which began with just one union but broadened out to general strikes and mass protests, including the illegal Minneapolis general strike of 1934, which began as a strike by Teamsters led by revolutionary socialists. The heroic West Virginia teachers strike in 2018 was illegal, organized despite the objections of union leadership, and also wildly successful, sparking a nationwide wave of educators strikes, many of which were also illegal.

By going all out with a general strike in defense of immigrant workers and the neighborhoods that ICE is attacking, the labor movement will also benefit from recruiting new members, activists, and building links of solidarity which could help reverse the long decline of union density, militancy, and power. 

The Independent Socialist Group calls for:

1. All out for the January 23rd day of action! Maximum turnout of the working class and youth to send the strongest possible message to Trump and his ICE thugs!
2. Minneapolis labor unions to make the day of action a real strike! Organize workplace walkouts and join the demonstrations! Rank-and-file activists should work together to bring our unions over to the position of taking job action.
3. Plans should immediately be made for escalating follow up actions, with all anti-ICE organizations working together to coordinate day to day resistance to ICE as well as bigger and more disruptive demonstrations and strike actions until ICE withdraws completely from the city.
4. Solidarity events should be organized around the country to show support for Minneapolis, but also to begin to work towards similar actions wherever ICE is present.
5. We need a workers party! Despite Democrats like Jacob Frey putting on an anti-ICE show, ICE has been expanded, reinforced, and empowered by Democratic Party governments, even when the Democratic Party controlled both the Presidency and Congress. ICE has received local support for its operations from municipal and state agencies, including those run by clear Democratic Party majorities. There are two corporate parties in favor of the deportation machine: the Republicans and Democrats. They both refuse to abolish ICE. The anti-ICE movement, unions, and the working class needs its own political party. Working class activists should run for election with clear pro-labor and anti-ICE platforms, independent of the Democrats and Republicans and the billionaire money that backs their parties. We can start laying the foundation for a workers’ party which not only runs in elections but also builds and unifies the fightback in the streets.
6. Organize a mass socialist movement for international working-class solidarity across borders.