“My lungs strained, but not from the exertion of pushing the dumpster. It was light work with the four new companions I had made in the street, whose names I did not know and would not learn. It was the tear gas, clawing at my throat. I had already washed my eyes and mouth out two or three times, and my drenched scarf was now frozen to my icicle-laden beard, my cheeks numb but tingling with chemical irritants. We pushed through the smoke. We expected to catch up with the armored car and riot squad, which kept falling back.

After Border Patrol agents murdered our brother Alex Pretti on January 24, the tear gas had not yet cleared from Nicollet Ave when Governor Tim Walz called President Donald Trump to make a deal. The details of that phone call are unknowable to working class people like us. However, we can make some educated guesses. We know how the State behaved before and we can see how its behavior has changed since. We believe any concessions or cosmetic changes they are offering come not because they killed someone, but because the people fought back.

At 9 AM this morning, as the general strike settled across the Twin Cities, a group of some hundred community defenders took up positions around the Whipple building, the lair and headquarters of the Federal occupation of our metro. This band of defenders equipped themselves with shields and reinforced banners, marched to the Snelling light rail stop, and physically blocked the road for two and a half hours.

On January 17th, 2026, the Pentagon alerted 1,500 troops from the 11th Airborne Division about a potential deployment to Minnesota.  This new threat comes after a rapid series of escalations.  Homeland Security forces have occupied the Twin Cities for 50 days now. More than 2,400 of our Latino, Somali, Hmong, West African, and even Indigenous neighbors were disappeared by these fascists. Neighborhood patrollers have been attacked hundreds of times, and protestors and federal forces clash almost every night. ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered our comrade Renee Good on January 7th.

Community defenders routed a poorly organized group of fascists in Minneapolis today, as pardoned January 6 attempted coup participant and Florida US Senate candidate Jake Lang attempted to lead a “March Against Islamification” from city hall to the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. 

As a climate activist and rank and file labor militant, I have often thought of how these two movements can merge and become one strong movement for a livable, thriving planet and a society run and controlled by the working class. Far too often these movements are pitted against each other with the interests of workers coming in conflict with the right for breathable air, clean water, and a stable climate. More often than not, workers do not think to leverage our power to fight for a sustainable environment.

I’ve been in some dangerous situations as a person active in social movements, ranging from marching through tear gas and rubber bullets in uprisings against police terrorism to locking underneath a truck to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. I can say it took me more courage to decide to go to Planned Parenthood last month, to receive the reproductive healthcare all women should be entitled to. The pain of getting an IUD procedure 12 years ago and the lack of forewarning of what I would experience was enough to keep me away from getting it replaced.

On Sunday, December 15th Black Cat Workers’ Collective (BCWC) and our partners in the Workers Solidarity Circle (WSC) coalition put on our first Workers’ Assembly. The WSC is made up of BCWC, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Labor Branch and Red Pine Revolutionary Collective (RPRC). 

On Saturday, November 2, a group of local workers and members of the labor movement participated in a peaceful march and rally in front of the Minneapolis home of Darryle Owens, a member of the Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing think tank that has pushed anti-worker policies since the 1970s. Most recently, they authored Project 2025, a 900+ page wishlist of extreme right wing policies that will trample on the rights of all workers.