ICE Terrorizes Minneapolis: GENERAL STRIKE in the air

All right, Tom. Well, we got to talk about what's happening in Minnesota, and honestly after looking at all the reports this morning, talking to the comrades on the ground and reading up in some ways, this is I'm getting 2020 vibes for sure, but it's also remarkable to think this year just started, you know, the shooting of Renee good happened four days after Trump's invasion of Venezuela and his abduction of Maduro. I mean, we had hands off Venezuela protests across the country, and then this and in some ways you have protests that are sort of merging spare of the moment from hands off Venezuela to include anti ice. I mean, you can see in some ways, the powder keg that is Minnesota right now Minneapolis on the ground is kind of a representation of the mood, the explosive mood across the country. And we're just starting the year. I mean, what kind of year do we have ahead? You know, you bring up a question. We're mentioning about what happened in Venezuela. And what's happening in Minnesota, and on a surface level, some people may say, well, what are these two things have to do with each other, but they're actually very much connected capitalism is a world system. You have the the powerful advanced capitalist countries, the imperialist countries like the United States. And then you have the underdeveloped countries. And those countries are poor, not because of their own fault, but because of imperialism 838 million people live on less than $3 a day. This is the tremendous poverty, tremendously horrible situation facing the vast majority of humanity. Is there any wonder that people who are born and raised in the underdeveloped countries and the countries that has imperialism on their neck, some of them try to come to the advanced capitalist countries to try to make a living. Hence what you have is a situation of millions of refugees that are being called immigrants, but this is, this is the, you know, connected to what's going on in Minneapolis right now. Yeah, absolutely. And we spent so much of last year talking about how US imperialism in particular is a sinking ship. I mean, it's been in stagnation. It's been losing its position as the hegemon of the world. And really that decline is happening even more rapidly as time goes on. And so the number of atrocities that US imperialism is inflicting on the world. It's actually going to intensify over time. As like a wounded animal, it's kind of lashing out erratically, it's clawing different parts of the world. I think we're going to see more events like this. I mean, Trump is constantly talking about attacking Greenland or teasing Greenland, which could be the death knell of NATO, the European ruling class is pulling out their hair. All of this is just to say, we're starting out this year, 2026. We're going to talk about Minnesota, but we have a whole year ahead of us. And it's incredible the pace of events and what it's doing to mask consciousness. That being said, I'll say what we're seeing in Minnesota. In some ways, it's hard to find the words. We are seeing class politics start to come to the fore in a way that we have not seen in decades in generations. And we'll start to develop this more, but the reports that we're getting on the ground. Yes, it's a resistance against ice and Trump's brutal deployment of these federal agents. But it's also you're seeing the gears are turning and people are seeing this as a working class issue to be responded to with working class tactics and they're concerned about the safety of their colleagues in the workplace. We've got some really, really inspiring anecdotes and stories that have been coming in that will review. To say, I mean, what kicked this all off was the murder of Renee Good. You saw the footage, I'm sure everybody, I mean that I remember learning a while ago that there was some New York Times reporters in the Oval Office sitting with Trump the day that this happened. And then he insisted that, you know, both sides were acting bad and that she was trying to run over the ice agent. So, without a laptop looked at the footage and there in the moment Trump starts walking it back because the other reporters are like, everyone can see that her tires turn away. He wasn't in any danger. He shot her in cold blood. And then at the end, I mean, basically Trump's saying, I hate to see this and just sort of walking it back. And you know, they're going to make mistakes sometimes. Ice is going to be too rough with somebody or, you know, they deal with rough people. Probably when I was told that the young woman who had the tragedy, it's a tragedy, it's a horrible thing. Everybody would say ice would say the same thing. The point is, the whole world can see this. You can see this footage. There's no need for any kind of a whole investigation. I mean, you've seen it from many different angles. There's no question about what happened. This ice agent killed a mother of three 37 years old. She was a US citizen, not that it makes any difference. But she was just observing some, you know, basically a protest and the the ice agents coming into her neighborhood. This was right near her home. And because the ice agent thought she was going to get away, he decided to take her life instead. So people, this is basically one of the big things that have transformed this movement and Minnesota into a real flashpoint. I mean, you can imagine the outrage that people feel. The capitalist propaganda, you know, they say, well, you're innocent until proven guilty. One thing that makes America different is get your day in court. But what you saw in, I don't know how many films they had because they had different angles. What you saw was an extra judicial killing. This person was killed. They weren't even arrested for anything, right? And it's a brutal aspect of the capitalist state. And the thing is, of course, we know the capitalist state kills people before they're arrested all the time. But very rarely do we get the film coverage of this, right? And I think it really exposes the government and what it's doing. Really, the New York Times spoke to the chief of police in Minneapolis, who is actually, there's an audio on the podcast episode about this. You guys have a New York accent. You can hear that he's from around here. But he's over that he moved into Minneapolis after 2020 basically has job is to damage control to clean up the mess and to try and restore some semblance of legitimacy for a police department that's one of the most hated in the country. He's talking about trying to repair relations between protesters and the police force. Well, they asked them, what did you think when you first heard that there was a shooting? And when you found out that it was true that there was a shooting involving an ice agent, what was your first thought? I just thought, fuck, this is it. You know, this is the potential here for 2020 all over again. I mean, you can see that the authorities they are very there. They see that we are inches away from repeating the type of scenario that we saw in 2020 around George Floyd. And it's no no surprise that Trump is also talking about using the interaction act. He was threatening and blustering to use that then he kind of backs off and he says, I don't think it'll be necessary. I'm sure he's getting advice from people around him that are telling him, if you use that, that's your last card. And of course, you know, Trump is the type of president who's eager to use that card at every turn. But, you know, they are playing with fire and I think the ruling class recognizes that. Yeah, over over the week, I mean, back to off verbally from using the interaction act, but then they're supposedly mobilizing 1500 regular army soldiers to deploy potentially. The problem with Trump is, you know, obviously a lot of the actions of ICE are provocations, you know, and the thing is is, I guess in his mind, he thinks he's going to provoke people into some sort of clash that then that allows him to use the interaction act, bring in the troops and put everybody down. The problem that I don't know if he's realizing is that could rather than settle things and calm things on, which is what I guess he thinks he's going to do, he could actually inflame the situation, not just inflame it in the twin cities, but inflame it nationally. This happened not far from where George Floyd was murdered less than six years ago, and, you know, and people saw that footage on their screens as well in the power of that footage and the power to elicit a human response, you're seeing someone's life being snuffed out in this case, they're seeing this. And there's no, I mean, they're talking about different authorities going to investigate the circumstances and the Trump administration is pushing for Renee good to be investigated in her background and her widow and to try and find connections to activist groups as if that were to justify the way that she was murdered in cold blood, which is absurd. I've heard that there are some, some federal prosecutors that are actually resigning, at least six of them that resigned, right, six, six prosecutors from the Department of Justice as the federal government, the six prosecutors resigned rather than investigate the victim. They're not investigating the person who did the killing. They're investigating the victim. It's kind of like the Fox complaining about the chickens, right? I mean, it's ridiculous. These are the people who pull the trigger. These are the people who killed someone. Yeah. And in terms of the court of public opinion, I mean, ice has really lost that battle. They everywhere they've gone. They've turned masses of people, including people who are not particularly political. People who have never gone to a protest in their lives are now showing up and they're feeling angry and they're getting activated and it's happening workplace by workplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. I mean, this is a lot of middle class people working class people pouring into the streets and trying to do something about it. And when you have the violence escalate from this sort of general intimidation to taking someone's life, all it does is it redoubles the frustration, the anger, the hatred that people feel and the motivation that they have to get active, which is exactly what's been happening. I live in a fucking pushy house in the suburbs 45 minutes from here, but I was sitting at home every day pissed off looking at social media and I went to see the Renee good thing and I felt moved to come and fucking be part of this. This is not. Have you ever gone out to these sort of things before? Never, never, I've never protested in my life. My daughter was part of it. We're keep going on to whipple every night now. There's an article in the New York Times that came out last week that's talking about the way that protesters, you know, this started the big confrontation was LA, right? And then from LA, then last summer, the flashpoint becomes Chicago. And now from Chicago to Minneapolis, Minneapolis is definitely ground zero right now in terms of the cutting edge of the confrontation between ice and the protest movement against it. But they're saying that in each of these instances, protesters have drawn conclusions they've learned from the experience of the way this was handled in different cities. And basically what you've had developing is a network, they say it's a loose network of neighborhood volunteers, people that are patrolling and following ice agents, they're filming them, they're warning people nearby, they're honking in Chicago, where you were not long ago. They were talking about I remember there was a slogan that sort of emerged and became universal of get loud be loud and form a crowd and people handing out whistles everywhere. You have this general sort of awareness and a very politicized atmosphere of people wanting to respond. The creation of all kinds of group chats, signal chats, neighborhood group chats and associations, people sometimes forming clubs on their own block and then getting in touch with each other, exchanging contact info, social media groups like Facebook groups and so on. Even this article was talking about Catholic parishes, I mean you have this this ups well of organization, there's a very widespread thing in some ways wider than the instances of this that we saw in 2020. I mean the parallels keep coming back between what you saw in the Black Lives Matter movement, the massive response against George Floyd because it was such a force of nature sort of uprising, it included so many people from every layer of society. But now what you're seeing is that it's basically taking off where the George Floyd movement left off and it's happening on a higher level in terms of organization and class consciousness. There was one one of it's quoted in this New York Times article, a lot of people it says who would normally not involve themselves in politics, but at the same time don't like what's happening in their community. Says Sandra Trevino, a Chicago resident who works in sales but spends her weekends patrolling the city for immigration agents and texting her networks with updates. Think about this as a sales, a sales job, a worker with a normal job, a normal life, not particularly the political, but on the weekends, she's policing the police and following them as part of these patrols, alerting local network and these groups have really been expanding. There was one comrade in Minneapolis who said on his own block, there's three different signal chat groups. Why? Because signal has an upper limit of a thousand members. There's like several group chats for every single neighborhood, these rapid response chats, they have been just maxing out the amount of people it can be in a signal chat. So you set up one for this neighborhood and a thousand people enter it, you have to set up a second and a third and it didn't just stop there. There started to be like a division of labor forming within these group chats, so there's sort of becoming branches off of the main ones where, you know, they're focusing on mutual aid, they're focusing on community patrols or posturing or door knocking to spread the word, all these different things. People are really coming into this movement and playing to their strengths, giving what they have to give. There are thousands of people in this single neighborhood trying to get involved wanting to share information and that's the way it's going when they spot the presence of ice or there's a report of ice presence or arrest. Then people see it as a call to action, they're pouring out into the streets spontaneously wherever this is taking place. Minnesota residents are throwing snowballs. Yes, I said trailing them in their cars, honking their horns. This is something they learned from Chicago protesters last year. And the article is talking about, you know, some analysts looking at this protest movement, we're saying they were wondering if after Renee Good's death, if that was going to put a tamper on things and make people less willing to come out and confront ice agents because now you realize you're risking your life, they said the absolute opposite is happening. People are enraged and it's given all of this energy to the protest movement that these WhatsApp groups and signal chats, they've just proliferated and they're going, they become massive. It quotes a member of an immigrant's rights, one of the local organizations in Minneapolis, who said that on a regular week, her organization received dozens of emails a day from people asking how they could get involved. That was in the past, now they're getting hundreds of emails every single day. And so anyway, I mean, this is, this is just from one article, but it's a kind of explaining that what you're seeing is a politicized atmosphere that's drawing in the participation of a lot of people. And this is definitely confirmed by the reports that we've seen on the ground that we've been receiving from the comrades. What ice has really faced is that any moment they go anywhere, they're immediately circled, they're surrounded by people. If they go from one neighborhood to another, the word of their movement spreads from group chat to group chat and it notifies everybody. The most vulnerable co-workers and classmates are taken and hidden away to make sure that ice can't take them. And people come out, they show up, groups of people assemble spontaneously very rapidly to respond to the threat of ice. If people see suspicious cars moving around in neighborhood, maybe tinted windows, Ford escapes, things like this, they immediately shoot the license plate into these group chats. And people have taken it upon themselves to build out databases and figure out what plates belong to ice and note them down and then report back. So you can basically confirm that this is a sighting of ice. All sorts of different like creative ways people are responding to this threat. Ice really like is facing serious, serious resistance, but it's only just the beginning. Isn't an ironic, first of all, politicization of the population is not caused by outside agitators, right? In fact, Trump always saying is always creating some fictitious antifa movement or whatever that that's instigating everything. It's not actually its capitalism itself and its Trump's policies itself, which is politicizing people. And Marx always explained that the working class learns through a success of approximations, right? And what we're saying is that as movements come and movements go, people learn from that. They draw conclusions, movements in one area learn from prior movements and other areas. People start putting that thing together and they understand also that if they come together, that's where the power of the population can really be shown. Because there's a lot more people, there are a lot more workers than there are ice agents, right? For sure. And also, by the way, that fear of that resistance to being held accountable is very clear in the way that ice operates. Because have you ever seen, I can't think of an example in American history where the state apparatus, I'm not talking about like groups like the Ku Klux Klaners. But the state apparatus itself, where the police agents are covering and masking themselves and they don't even wear uniforms in some cases, you don't know who they are, where they come from. I can't think of a historical example where that's occurred before, at least in, let's say at least in the last 100 years in the United States. But it's the attempt by the government to not be held accountable. Yeah, and that's precisely what is getting this kind of an angry response from people who normally, they're not political. That's the thing that I find so interesting is that we're not talking about activists. Despite Trump's claims that these are all professional agitators, and I wish we had a lot more professional agitators, by the way, being able to participate and give some organization and some structure and some coherence to this protest movement, which we'll talk about. But the point is, these are average working class people, and they see these federal agents barging into their workplaces, entering homes in some cases, pursuing arrests and detainment without warrants. I mean, don't think that each of these times that these brutal repressive tactics are being used, it's because they have a warrant and they're doing everything by the book. So this is a free for all, and you can see that the whole apparatus of ICE and Department of Homeland Security that's pushing this, there's a lot of pressure coming from above to hit these quotas. And so it's everything goes, they're sweeping up people from schools, I mean, especially, and I think the fact that these attacks are coming into the workplaces, and that they're targeting people is based on racial profiling. I mean, this is not a lot of times they're lining people up and they're demanding citizenship papers from people based on the way you look. There's no protection for anybody. I mean, this is why it's not just like this natural slogan of an injury to one is an injury to all is becoming a very concrete reality because people realize they're all being, they're being under attack. People feel that Minneapolis is sort of like a war zone, an occupation zone that the federal government is coming in. But what you're starting to see is precisely what you would expect a response, not only a widespread discontent and a desire to get active and fight back. But people are really taking action and they are getting organized on a level that, like I said, I don't, I don't know when you could say the last time you've seen this level of embryonic organization blocked by block. I mean, it's including thousands and thousands of people happening in a spontaneous way. There's no one providing systematic leadership. This is happening practically on its own. You know, we're giving a good history lesson right in front of our eyes, right? You know, all this propaganda that the capitalist spew out about, you know, all these wonderful democratic rights and it comes from the Constitution and it comes from the courts and all that. We're actually seeing in front of our eyes that democratic rights are not given by the Constitution, they're not given by courts, they're not given by rulers. They're actually claimed by the movement of the masses. And when the masses fight, they can expand democratic rights or defend democratic rights. And when the masses are on the back foot when the masses are retreating, then those democratic rights can be attacked and be taken away. And in the history of the whole United States, all the rights, the people, they were never given on a platter, they were fought for. And that's what we're going to have to do. The attack on democratic rights is coming from the government. That's where it's coming from the government, from the courts, right? And it's the masses of people. In fact, the working class, which is going to have to fight to defend and expand these democratic rights. Yeah, and that's the conclusion that people are drawing based on their direct experience because they're seeing this apparently, this is free game. This is the way that these federal agencies are operating. Nobody's controlling them. Forget about trying to get it caught up in the courts or having some kind of lawsuit that's going to curb their actions. They're above the law. They are supposed, they're supposedly law enforcement. So what do you have? What happens when it's law enforcement directly that's coming in and terrorizing these working class areas? That's exactly what's happening and people are responding. I just want to get into some of these examples of the reports that we've been receiving. I mean, we sat down and we were discussing them this morning and it's like, I mean, it's incredible. Let me just begin with one that I found very interesting. This is from comrades in, these are all from Minneapolis, by the way. Comrades who attended a community meeting at an elementary school. And this was called by a Whittier Alliance Neighborhood Association. When I got out of my car, I saw from all around me people just flooding in from basically every city block going right towards the school. By the time the school meeting started, it was completely packed. It was, you know, shoulder to shoulder standing room only. And as I went from room to room to get a view of the size of the meeting, I realized it wasn't just the cafeteria that was full. It was the library, it was the gymnasium. It was the hallways outside. It was the first floor as well. The entire school was completely and entirely packed with people. There are some speeches, but on the second half of the meeting really, people came together and they started to look for their neighbors. You were fishing through seas of people to look for the people that lived closest to where you lived. And people were discussing, meeting face to face, setting up group chats, and figuring out really what they need to do to meet this threat. We talked to people from all across the meeting, you know, probably 50 plus people. And there were all sorts of kind of really interesting discussion. Everybody we talked to in this meeting was absolutely fed up with the Democrats. We also talked about the need to make these meetings regular and make them a discussion place for all of the neighborhood committees to basically elevate the entire struggle along the lines that work best. We talked about the forming of a leadership for this movement, and really it was nothing but the highest enthusiasm for everything that we talked about in this meeting. Some of the observations that the comrades made is, first of all, precisely what we were saying, George Floyd, five years ago, this movement is picking off right where that movement left off. Because we did see embryonic examples of neighborhood self defense committees, neighborhood organization, people coming together different mutual aid networks, people basically taking initiative on their own in a spontaneous way to organize in a, you know, basically in a scattered embryonic way. But now this is happening more systematically. They said that the idea of a general strike, which we'll talk about a little later, has a massive echo. And that's something that I mean the we're not just talking about general strike and class war tactics as like some kind of radical fringe group. This is something that working class people in Minneapolis are asking for demanding are talking about are excited about and the labor leaders are kind of getting swept up. Like I said, I want to talk about that a little bit later, but what the comrades were saying at this meeting is we need to make these kinds of mass meetings regular. This should be happening on a city wide level. And yes, we should be organizing based on our neighborhood and in our workplaces, but we should be discussing the lessons of our experience so far. Electing and designating democratic representatives of the neighborhoods of the workplaces, and then you can centralize them gather them together. And what you would have on a city wide level is a body that's representative of the working class of Minnesota. Now whether or not the labor leaders get out ahead of this and provide any leadership is kind of a secondary point because you would have a direct body that would represent the will and the aspirations and the outlook and the demands of the workers directly. Now we're talking about a level of organization that I think the movement is groping towards instinctively, but there's no one there to put that forward in a systematic way. I wish we had a few thousand people on the ground right now to put this forward, you know, at every one of these meetings because as this is happening, this is one of many meetings that is taking place. They're happening not just on a neighborhood community level, but also in workplaces. Yeah, people people say we need action, and that's what we need to do is set up action committees, action committees in every neighborhood, every action committees, and every workplace. Select the delegate and like you said, if you can get let's say not only a city wide, maybe a twin city wide. All these workplaces and neighborhoods and the twin cities and bring that body together. And that body can discuss how can we take this movement forward? What should we do? How can we combine our forces? You know, there are a lot more workers than there are ice agents. What is Trump have there? He has three thousand. I think there's at least two million workers in Minneapolis, same small area. And I think there's like four million people in the greater metro area in terms of people. So I don't think three thousand ice agents is going to be able to defeat that movement. That movement has more forces, but Malcolm X said, we're not outnumbered, but we're out organized. So it's a question, it's good to have all those numbers, but that number has to be organized, and it has to be done in a democratic way. So it's great that we have a good start being made by some people in some areas, but that needs to be generalized, that needs to be expanded. And talking about the numbers and the balance of forces on the ground, there have been protests in Minneapolis every single day since Renee Good was murdered. I mean, this thing has been building up. And of course, this is also a response to all the other frustration of all these other abuses by these federal agents on the ground. But now it's reaching this tipping point. But just to say a few days after she was killed on January 10th, they had a demonstration of a hundred thousand hundred thousand in Minneapolis again, a city of three million, we're talking about a massive demonstration. And again, you're getting vibes. I mean, this kind of stuff hasn't happened on this scale and with this mood and under these circumstances since George Floyd, which also rocked Minneapolis before it spread to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. There's another report I want to talk about. This is from a comrade who works in a small restaurant in Minneapolis. This is deeply affected the restaurant industry in general because there are many immigrant workers in this industry and many of them are not showing up to work because they feel unsafe because their kids are not going to school as well. They're taking remote classes because ice is not above targeting schools and targeting children. So for my workplace too, we have lost two staff members across the location so far. One of our baking staff was taken and then someone from one of the cooks from a different location was taken. Of course, the boss wants us to proceed as though it's business as usual as much as we possibly can. And I think that this is beginning to break down around us. A couple of weeks ago, a couple of ice vehicles were spotted a few blocks north of our restaurant and they were headed in our direction. And so quickly all of my coworkers were brought into this struggle for the defense of the workplace. We were strategizing. We had locked the side door just to make sure that there was one point of entry and somebody was over by the front door to make sure that it was only customers coming in and that we could lock the door at a moment's notice. Even created an impromptu barricade of chairs in a hallway leading to the back of house and decided to stand there, stand guard to make sure that nobody could get through. You can picture this. It's a small workplace. They're talking about everyone just springs into action. One worker has a bunch of whistles and is handing them out. Keep in mind, it's a restaurant during operating hours. So there's customers they're seating eating their meals. They say the customers start talking to the workers and offering their help giving them information. They're probably on group chats of their own. I mean, everyone just springs into action. And then they decide we're going to make sure that our place is fortified. If this is happening in this area, we don't want these ice officers coming in. So they start barricading the front doors. And meanwhile the managers starting to freak out saying, you guys can't do this. You know, they want stability. They want businesses usual. They said the workers just swept us. They dismissed the grievances of the manager and said, no, we're taking this into our own hands, which is there's something all of this was organic. It was spontaneous. It was unplanned. It just happened. But it shows you this is a class independence in action. In fact, it's kind of an embryonic striving towards workers control. They're saying the question of our safety, defending this place and determining whether those ice agents are going to come in that door and start roughing all of us up or not is up to us. We're the ones that are going to determine whether that happens or not. And it's not the bosses. And this kind of conversation, this isn't just one isolated incident. That's the thing that the more you're reading these reports, you realizing these these scenes are happening at other restaurants, other workplaces, other businesses all across Minneapolis. I'm really it's not an exaggeration to say that this is what looks like when you have the beginnings of class politics start roaring forward because people realize, I mean, I'll also just say this was another another point that it made in this New York Times article. One of these protesters in Los Angeles has been watching as the movement's been developing in Chicago and now in Minneapolis says what's interesting about this moment is it's your employee you're protecting or your kids teacher you're protecting or the street vendor you buy tacos from once a month that feels very personal. But the point is like more and more this is actually workers protecting their co workers and realizing that this question of ice it's not just like it's not just an alien political question of how you feel about Trump and his policies on immigration. People see this as a workplace safety issue much like they did with COVID actually if you remember there was a lot of clashes between workers and management and bosses over what measures they were going to take to keep worker safe. And workers realize that management only cares about making a profit so we can't trust them to take the measures necessary the same thing is happening the same conversations the same conclusions are being drawn when it comes to ice. You know those examples show that you know one of the ways that capitalism maintains itself is the habit of thought right that people defer to people in authority like the manager whatever. But once conditions change and it changes people's behavior they start to get a taste that things don't have to be the way they are we don't have to listen to the manager in fact maybe we shouldn't. And then if we take things into our own hands we can do things better right that gives people a taste of what a new society you know the idea of what a new society could look like. Of course this is exactly why I think a lot of prudent people in the ruling class don't like Trump because he's created so much upheaval and is creating such a lack of stability in society that workers are forced to do things that they wouldn't think of doing before. And not because he wants them to do it it's spite of what he wants them to do but but see how that can turn everything upside down and see the dangers that are posed towards capitalism for the future. Yeah the ruling class what they want above all is stability because they want to make profits they want their exploitation to continue a pace they don't want disruptions like this and they certainly don't want civil unrest and upheaval well that's kind of what they're getting. And that's the interesting thing is that there was an editorial published by sort of the business mouse piece of the ruling class in Minneapolis which by the way for those who don't know there's a lot of Fortune 500 businesses that have their headquarters there target is one of them delta is on the ground in Minneapolis I think on others are headquartered there. And the star tribune published this piece saying you know Trump is going too far and this is disrupting business and this is not good and we'd rather have ice out of here and let's do this let's have a calm wage proceed and a lot of what's happening is right now you have activist groups that are sort of community based groups that have been involved getting swept up in this that are calling on corporations including these Fortune 500 businesses to to get on board with the movement. And they're basically appealing to these bosses to say would you sign up voluntarily to become what they call a fourth amendment business like we need the bosses to help defend our constitutional rights against undo searches and seizures from these these federal agencies. And so they're appealing to target and they're appealing to home depot and delta and saying you guys are you know representatives of the Minneapolis and Minnesota community and we need you to just take a firm stand against this in some ways this is a very naive policy and in some ways it's 180 degrees opposite of what we're. Advocating which is class independent outlook that says the only thing workers can really rely on is their own numbers their own forces their own organization their own interests workers shouldn't be appealing to the bosses they shouldn't be looking at the issue the way the bosses do they shouldn't be trying to use the political vehicles of the bosses and they should recognize that the laws are also set up in a way that the boss that favor the bosses because the bosses have created those laws over the history of their experience ruling society. This is all comes back to this a very common theme on our podcast the theme of class independence and I think that people are starting to realize again through their direct experience the need for workers to to rely exclusively on other workers and our strength in numbers are strength as workers as as having you know our ability to paralyze production and to paralyze the economy. Can you imagine by the way the civil rights movement if they had relied on the corporations to try to change the corporations allowed all that segregation in the south right it was ordinary working people said no i'm not going to move to the back of the bus i'm not going to get off this the seat at this at this lunch counter that's what it took people. Being willing to break the law in some cases that's what that's what had to happen to bring down that rotten system right and it's the same thing here you know it's exactly it's the working class that can defend the rights of its co workers it's not going to be i'm you know writing letter to the CEO of target or whatever company that they're going to somehow intervene and help. yeah they're also calling a lot of these activists are also calling on call your congress representative and tell them that in the next budget not to include funding for ice and it's all of this is our appeals to the ruling institutions. As if that has provided any defense whatsoever when it comes to any of this repressive role played by these agencies but I just want to include here another report that we got from these comments have been very busy on the ground in Minneapolis one of them went to an in person meeting of a local signal group. So it's not just these group chats like you're hearing from your neighbors and that you never see them in person a lot of them they're like okay let's meet at this time at this time at this location and then they'll discuss their plans and they start breaking up into they have mutual aid. Sort of initiatives that they want to take and they're talking about others patrols what they call dispatch you know people communicating and coordinating based on the movements of ice and keeping each other a breast of the movements of these different forces there's one session that was for business outreach again there's no like large organization that's that's providing the impulse for this this is just people trying to figure out their way to organize. And so the comrades describing these meetings they're talking and the comrades says you know for this business outreach session how about instead of talk talking to the bosses and the corporations business that the business level executives of target and Home Depot talk to the workers and starts sharing precisely this experience that I just refer to earlier the comrades in the workplace talking to their co workers saying you're going to get a much better response if you appeal directly to the workers to use their own initiative to organize themselves into form their own. Protocol their own plan of contingency what they're going to do in the event of ice showing up at their workplace and the comrade was describing getting a very warm reception to this idea. This comrade Jason he said looking around the room people were smiling and saying yes he said that there was actually response people are like oh yeah that's what we should be doing so I think basically it's being able to provide that analysis that perspective the class perspective. The situation is screaming out for a class perspective for a consistent class policy I mean that it's because this is all an attack on a layer of the working class and people see it as that so you know how do you respond with class it's like everyone's just we need a class struggle response we need class struggle methods class organization where do we get it from. Well you know we're here to provide that obviously we want to provide it on a much bigger scale than what we're capable of right now but it shows you that the the the the soil is fertile for our ideas and for our. The message the comrades are transmitting it's getting a great echo I think a lot of people they're not only going to learn about what their capabilities are what they can do collectively in the power of the the working class I think also in as part of these discussions they can clarify. The real issues at hand and and and you know combat that horrible propaganda which has been unanswered for for for for a long time this idea that somehow all this impoverishment all these problems in this country you know higher home costs lower wages worst working conditions somehow this is being blamed on immigrants right that was Trump's whole thing well that's not true that was never true none of that is true. But I'll give you another fact on that you know that last year 2025 it's the first year and fifty years in the United States you had a net migration that means more people left the country they came into the country so according to Trump's theory everything should be getting better right because the immigrants are the ones that are causing the problems so you got more people leaving then coming in so everything should be really very good but in fact look at what the polls show people are very angry about the economic conditions are. And it looks like the economy might even be going into a slowdown and in fact maybe the unemployment rate is probably higher than what it is reported to and part of that is because they've kicked out so many people so that doesn't that kind of like makes the unemployment figures look a little lower than they actually should be but but I mean you know part of these discussions will be very educational people will really learn about not only the real sources of their problems which is which we believe is capitalism. But also about how the working class collectively organized can transform things yeah if you look at what's happening to mass consciousness right now the economic concerns are weighing down on people and this is nothing new think about where mass consciousness was at the time of the last presidential election. Everyone was upset about the economy state of the economy finding a job getting through the end of the month inflation the cost of living all of this has been brewing and of course it hasn't found any resolution whatsoever people really disappointed particularly that layer of workers who voted for Trump hoping that he was going to come through and change you know saying. Oh Biden wrecked the economy I'm going to get it back on track well it's certainly not happening there was a u-gov poll that came out I believe a week ago and it was asking people's top issues that they're looking at and I think around 50% said things related to the economy the number one issue was on inflation second was jobs and the general state of the economy then they're talking about health care I mean these are the things you're your health insurance bills whether that's going to you're going to have coverage the health insurance premiums are spiking across the country. People are worried about this and then after that you have immigration it's just like 8% of respondents that say that immigration is the biggest concern and I'll even say those 8% that's not like the rump of the fascist hardline racist that's not what that's about a lot of those people are also just desperate workers who are who are see the economic problems through this distorted prism of this demagogy and they're saying if we didn't have so many immigrant workers we would have better jobs and better resources. And so they're falling for that so if you think about it all of this put together the overwhelming screaming concern of the working class in this country and of the general population is the economy is not going well the working class suffering and so Trump's desperately trying to distract that. You have also the emptying things you have one chaotic foreign policy adventure after another but you can see the way people are thinking they're not they're not getting distracted by that I mean for the most part it's very clear class politics are coming towards the floor. There has been some polls that have come out recently about the situation in Minneapolis and one of the polls said a majority of the people agree that it was unjustified to shoot and kill Renee good in addition to that a plurality of people are saying that ice is making people less safe and that I think 46% of the population believes that they should abolish ice. These are numbers that are shown are exposing ice and that it's not a tool that's going to help people live a better life but it's a vicious oppressive attack dog on the population and 46% are saying it should be abolished. We can imagine in a few days those numbers are probably going to go up even further. The response so far has been very clear it's one of defiance and anger there's a fearlessness it's not that people are running and cowering they've seen these atrocities and they're they're not running away from it they're running toward it I mean literally they're actually they spot the ice vehicles and they swarm it. I mean it's it's incredible it's heroism but it also shows the balance of forces isn't one where people are afraid they're actually going on the offensive and the question is how the movement can proceed in a way that harnesses this massive upsurge of energy that's being generated towards a transformation of society before we get to that and I want to talk about this the talk of a general strike on the ground just one more of these reports there's actually several more of it just one more I wanted to mention. Was you know comrades on the ground in Minneapolis they're not just having meetings and discussions they like I said they've been running around they've been very active and after a couple employees were targeted were were detained at a target these are immigrant workers that were arrested by ice so our comrades they mobilize themselves and they went to the target to talk to the workers there talk to the co workers about what it happened about the idea of self organization in the workplace and then they started going to other workplace. Other workplaces nearby so there was a subway and a Chipotle and a coffee shop and they went to the home depot and they're talking to the workers in all these places which I thought was a great initiative but the not only that they said by the time they had got to these businesses which is immediately after this you know the news is spreading and you have all these signals and the group chat talking about the news they said they're already been rapid response groups from the local spontaneous volunteers that had been there talking to people handing out whistles. I mean the organization the level of organization without any kind of lead is just it's almost ubiquitous it's happening everywhere it's incredible all of this begs the question is what about a general strike I mean people are talking about a general strike that would be the logical conclusion we've been out there organizing in these committees wherever we can trying to help out also raising the ideas that the movement needs most we've been calling for a general strike to kick ice out I think that call really has been taken up more or less. Organically there was this organic call for a day of action basically calling for an economic stoppage for a single day avoid working if you can avoid spending money things like that but across the whole city people were calling really for a general strike. You can file members of unions you talk to in the streets people you talk to in the protests calling not just for a single day of action but a full on city wide strike that would shut down everything people have been really putting serious pressure on the AFL and a bunch of other unions now thousands of unions have signed on to this action on the 23rd most of them are not necessarily calling to strike but you can see how they're being pushed further and further by the movement you have this kind of atmosphere you have this massive desire to fight back and take action. I mean you have the perfect mood if anything to talk about a general strike right now it lands better than it has for generations I mean in some ways I think the way people are talking about a general strike in Minneapolis is something you haven't seen in American city since like 80 years ago the last time would have been probably the Oakland general strike at the end of World War two. But they're not exactly the unions I think we should be we should clarify something are the unions in Minneapolis actually calling for a general strike. Well, apparently on January 23rd right they're calling for this day of action right and they're urging people to come out and support these demonstrations and I think they're asking people to I don't know to call in sick or to you know to leave their job or not try to get the day off or whatever but it's not actually calling people to go on strike and to actually organize a general strike which is what should be done. Now it is a positive thing that there is going to be a day of action on the 23rd we support that we want everyone to go out we want to see massive participation but it's not what the unions really should be doing they should if they're going if they're going to really flex the power the working class they should be actually telling the working class what we need to do is shut the city down because look at nothing is manufactured in this country without a worker. No services provided without a worker nothing is transported whether people or things without a worker the working class right as Ted Grant said right it's the kind permission of the working class that allows everything to function. So if the working class in the United States right to took a major metropolitan area like Minneapolis St. Paul said we are going to call a general strike we're going to organize a general strike not just the union workers we're calling on non-union workers they can use it as a way by the way to organize more people into the labor movement if they if they took such an action it would it would not it would make a national splash and by the way they could also appeal to the rest of the country join us because this is not a Minnesota problem or Minneapolis problem person this is a national problem the attacks of Trump the attacks of ice are not strictly to that small to that particular city but there are national problem and the working class needs to respond nationally. You can just imagine if they actually took this action seriously and they gave it the proper organization and they brought Minneapolis to a halt through actual strike action though the impetus that would create to spread and replicate this across the country you could see. People would start to organize the same kind of thing in Chicago by the way Chicago you still have the signal chats and group chats and all of these response networks apparently in the last few days or the last month they've they've gotten quiet. The actions and the repression in Chicago slow down because Minneapolis has become the center of focus but the point is if you want to really take on what amounts to the federal agencies this is being sent by the federal government. You can't do it city by city you can't do it as isolated and you certainly can't do it neighborhood by neighborhood or as individuals or just relying on spontaneity you need the entire working class involved now I think it's to the credit of the labor movement that they're responding in some way because. You're talking about labor leaders and an apparatus of unions with a leadership that has been dormant for decades I mean they've been in sort of like a coma state they don't do anything they don't say anything their press conferences are very boring they never. They never they never frame anything as a working class issue now from below it's being framed directly as a working class issue and I think they're realizing we need to respond to this and so the pressure has gotten to the point where they're backing this call for this day of action. I thought it was interesting that almost every regional federation of labor in the state of Minnesota has backed this we have it's on board the the statewide AFL CIO along with Saint Paul regional labor federation what they call the West area labor council the Northeast area labor council the east central labor council probably responding to the fact that the mood is the same among all of the rank and file in each of these unions around the area now. If they were to take it seriously the reason we're saying it's technically not a general strike although a lot of people I think in a hopeful way are characterizing as a general strike because that's what they want I mean sometimes people read into things the thing that they wish. There was coming but in the actual press release which we have right here from the labor leaders they don't use the word strike they certainly don't say a general strike it's talking about a day of action and what amounts to basically a sick out. And part of the distinction is if these workers call and sick and then they're kind of at the mercy of their employers who could penalize them they could face retribution I mean it's basically you're saying as individuals participate in this collective action. But either they're using the language of collective action but they're not actually organizing workers as workers to defy their bosses and to say we're going to bring this to a halt they're just hoping we're going to and they actually call for people to go back spend their time with their loved ones to I mean it's just like everyone go home it's it's put in very moralistic terms the day of action is actually being called a day of what truth and freedom. There's a there's a one organizing website on here the why truth and freedom a free and democratic people depend upon our leaders being rooted in the truth repression depends on lies freedom depends on a shared truth I mean we we have very vague wishy washy language. What I wish we were focusing on is general strike and how do we actually bring Minneapolis to a halt you know leading up to the day of action on Friday I've been discussing this with the back of house and with the front of house and all my co workers. And I think that we're approaching a point where you know we're all on board with participating in this this day of unity and solidarity against ice demonstrating that we have the power to shut the city down in protest of ice terrorizing immigrant families and in general just families of the working class. But of course the one voice of dissent at this point is the owner it's the boss and he he wants us to proceed as though it's business as usual we're approaching a point where we are drawing the conclusion that we we have the power to shut down the workplace if we want to if all of the staff is on board then we will not we will not be working on Friday even though it's going to be very cold there should be thousands of people demonstrating in downtown Minneapolis on Friday. But there's two regional labor bodies in the Twin Cities is the Minneapolis regional labor federation in the St. Paul regional fed labor federation the atom together that's more than 275 affiliated locals and more than 130,000 members that's a great start right there that's a great start and I'm sure a lot of those workers like powerful positions like transport some manufacturing. And when I say transport people and afraid right airlines hospitals right there is construction there's a lot there's a lot of potential power there. That the unions could flex but we were talking earlier about this idea of action committees imagine all the action committees get start getting formed in all the workplaces and neighborhoods and they elect delegates and they want to have a meeting that that would be for for the Twin Cities. We would ask the Minneapolis regional fed labor federation asked the St. Paul can you provide us a place to meet right and we want to work with you they should those action committees those delegates should should ask to work with these people to organize a proper general strike to really put an end to to what's going on in the Twin Cities by by ice and I would assume being publicly called out by those action committees I assume the labor leaders would have to respond. But if they didn't right I'm sure that these action committees by the way the action committee should also seek elected representatives from the Native American communities in that area who are being attacked right and if they can if they can't get a meeting space in one of these union headquarters they can find another school or another another building and have all these meetings and what will end up happening is if the labor leaders don't step up and start organizing something these bodies could then organize something. But nothing can really stop the working class once it gets going the thing is is that you know the reason why these things are so protracted is the working class needs leadership and unfortunately the labor leaders have not been up to the task for decades in this country. Yeah you can just imagine the pressure that it would exert on those labor leaders if they saw basically this organization happening spontaneously and then begin to centralize and say this is the this is the will this this body is reflecting the will of the working class of this entire region. I mean in effect this brings us back to nineteen thirty four remember the team search strike was successful precisely because it developed and expanded from a particular strike in the coal yards into a general strike that brought in the working class of the entire city and paralyzed and they used centralized tactics but they how did they begin with a strike committee right I mean basically the thing that you're laying out was the way that that strike. And so what we're saying is these traditions of the class struggle need desperately to be brought back and it's the only way to succeed is we we can't. You know pretend like we're just waiting blind into this new period like we've never faced these kinds of questions these logistics have been worked out before and if you take it seriously because you understand the conflict between the workers and the bosses. And certain things flow from that and you have to proceed with class struggle methods and that's what we're laying out so yes mass meetings you would have workplace committees you have strike committees that have a link with delegates that are elected but also you know the units that are assembled in every single workplace. And then that would be a channel for communication you would be able to explain what goes into a general strike what is the plan of action where are we setting up the pickets what do we do if the picket line is attacked what do we do if scabs attempt to come in what do we do if law enforcement tries to come and arrest some of us all of these things need to be thought through you don't just you know recklessly call for a mass action and people are are risking legal repercussions without thinking through what needs to be in play but this is why we're saying you need resources behind this isn't something that a small group of activists on the sidelines can initiate it's the job of the labor leaders to lead. And we haven't seen them lead for decades for generations but I mean history is knocking at their door they're saying it's time it's time for you guys to wake up and to you know to step into this conflict and I think it's incredible that organically it's it's coming forward as a working class issue as a working class conflict it's not that we the Marxists are trying to intervene in a way and create a working class issue out of something that people don't see as one I think very yeah directly from people's experience they can see. This is about how to workers defend their workplaces against this threat that has come in to their communities in 1934 by the way when they shut down the city no trucks were allowed to move in that city unless they had a signed ordinance from the strike committee right and and yeah these strike committees are very democratic because everyone gets elected to that has to go back to the people who elected them and they have to discuss what's going on everybody's involved in decision making on some level right it's not just a top. It's not just a top down hidden negotiation and then they bring the the result to people say well you got to take this because this is the best deal on offer this is what happens over and over in labor that's not democratic what's democratic is to involve the population say what do you want to do what are you willing to do in order to get these goals. It's a brilliant innovation that I remember from 1934 was they they they came up with these flying pickets that when you had scab trucks that were trying to take loads of the coal and deliver them you basically run them down with these mobile squads that would block off and and basically stop them on the highway and then have a chat and try to appeal to them and win them over and if they couldn't win them over then they would kind of swarm them and dump their dump the load of coal and that would be but that was a way of actually paralyzing the actual distribution. I mean they they use creative techniques to make sure that the goal of the strike what makes a strike effective the basic mechanism your paralyzing production if we're not talking about paralyzing production and distribution and halting the flow of profits. We're what are we really trying to do here and so when you look when you take that as your starting point and say we need tactics that are going to make this effective and we need to make sure that it works. I mean these flying pickets make you kind of think of these patrol squads that are being you know devised in a spontaneous way to go and tail these patrols of the of ice. I mean they're already coming up with creative ways to respond to the situation what's needed is we got to centralize this and this has to be organized on a way that you just cannot do if you're going group by group. One thing to remember too is that happened in 1934 now of course nowadays with television with modern communication social media you know the way things are imagine if there was that that that committee that action committee that that would be organized across the twin city. Just the just the setup of such a thing you know the pictures of those let's a couple of thousand or how many 5,000 that whatever delegates coming together to discuss just that alone would would have reverberations around the country. In fact it would actually have a reverberations around the world and I think things would quickly spread to other cities. I think my my guess would be even Trump would get nervous probably they probably wouldn't even have to go through with the general strike I think he would put if he's actually saw such a thing take place I think they would start heading for the hill. I will remember not just most recent government shutdown but the one before was it in 2019 you had the leader of the flight attendants union Sarah Nelson calling for a general strike and suddenly that I mean that this movement starts to escalate you have these sick outs. The air traffic control starts to get in you know under staff and then Trump backs off I mean the intervention of the working class made all the difference you can just imagine what it would mean if you had a serious working class organized response I mean it would totally it would turn the tables. One thing to say is technically we're talking about something that the bosses have made illegal the last time this happened was end of World War II right the 1945 1946 general strikes that we saw on the west coast and throughout some of the other industrial. Yeah I mean this was a high point of the labor movement and because they were so successful what what made it successful workers acting in solidarity with each other you had solidarity strikes and so it wasn't restricted to the terms of the contract that you have with your employer and then you have all these no strike clauses. And you're restricted to that note they're saying if there's an attack by those employers on their workers and this yard over here then that affects us and we're all going to come out together and if they're going to retaliate against them then all of the all of the bosses are going to pay the price for that retaliation and you put it in class terms that makes the working class so strong so powerful that it forces the bosses to back off. There's nothing else that they can do because they're we're talking about using the power of the working class systematically through solidarity strikes now Taft Hartley was this law that they passed at the end of World War II to make that illegal so you know big surprise surprise the bosses make it illegal to have a successful strike and then the labor leaders roll over and played that and say sorry can't do that anymore it's illegal. There was a once a time when all unions were illegal when it was illegal to even have a strike to collectively bargain was illegal before the the laws had to change to adapt to reflect reality once it was imposed from below on the on the bosses which is exactly what we're saying this needs to be done today. That's right and by the way how many of these labor leaders right they never even call for the repeal of the Taft Hartley law they don't tell people that it exists and that it should be repealed but how many of them back capitalist politicians many mostly Democrats occasionally some Republicans and and where where are their positions on this right when the Democrats controlled Congress did they repeal Taft Hartley did they even try to they did not right so the thing is is this this this has to be a call of the labor movement to repeal Taft Hartley but we're not going to wait till it's repealed because the forces of labor if it comes out it can put it can make it a dead letter basically right. The the working class can shut down production doesn't matter whether it's illegal or not and the thing is is if the capitalist is going to push to enforce it then they said well we're not going back to work until you you know see to our demands and that includes not enforcing Taft Hartley. Yeah you raise a good point about the role of the Democrats in this because Minneapolis is they have a Democrat mayor Frey and they have also a Democrat governor Tim Waltz who was the VP candidate under Kamala Harris what's roll of they played I mean Waltz called in all the repression that we saw in 2020 against these mass demonstrations on the streets of media that was called in by that by walls and he is mobilized the National Guard today again as well. I don't think they've actually pulled the trigger to deploy them but he has them on standby he's the one that saying you know we need to get this under control and they're they're I mean they're shaking looking at the prospects for another 2020 scenario mayor Frey has come out with the press conference all of this bluster and talk about we're going to get ice out of Minnesota trying to get on the side of the protest. This is the way the Democrats operate they always try to get up get on the side of the protest so they can then have it in control channels but what is he actually saying we don't need to let's not take the bait let's not have high tensions everyone we need you to go home. I mean that's the message that he's putting out there so I think this is an important part also if we're saying this is a working class movement we want class independent methods class organization. This has to extend to the political level because when we're saying we want to fight against Trump does that mean we want the Democrats back in. Absolutely not and if that is ambiguous to people then it's actually going to cut across that's another way of dividing the movement what we should be saying is not only do we need our labor leaders to step forward and provide a lead in strike action against eyes to get ice out of here. We need our labor leaders to use the resources of the labor movement for independent political force to break from the Democrats to stop supporting these campaigns to stop throwing away member dues towards this party of the ruling class and actually run I mean look the midterms are coming up what if we had labor candidates saying I'm representing the anti ice movement on the ground I'm representing the general strike that we just had and I'm running for Congress for a workers independent party again. A move like that would just spread like wildfire across the country because the working class is looking for this the Democrats their popularity isn't shooting forward people hate Trump they they're frustrated they don't see an alternative but the Democrats ratings are in the toilet as well and and for good reason people don't want that that's not the alternative that's just another side of the status quo and so it's very important for at this moment for this movement against ice to not allow itself to be confused with the Democratic party. To not let it the liberal establishment get its claws into it I mean look at these anti the the no Kings protest they've been so docile and they've making out to be like this big street festival really what they show is you scratch the surface there's a huge desire to act I mean they got Chicago 250,000 people out on the streets. In part because of the mood against ice people want have this will to take action to resist and then they just treat it like this big you know they put bounce houses and speakers with music and there's no political content whatsoever the Democrats meanwhile rubbing their hands together hoping they can profit from this we should cleave through this and say this needs a political expression that's independent of both ruling class parties. This is this is the time for that and by the way in Minneapolis for those for those listeners who aren't in Minneapolis or in Minnesota I should say Minnesota the Democratic parties called the Democratic farmer labor party the only reason it's called that right it's a Democratic party. There is a there was a farmer labor party in the 20s and 30s and unfortunately the leadership merged it into the Democrats and destroyed any hope of building an independent workers party but what we need is an independent workers party and and there's no time like now. To to form that absolutely the labor movement could could feel 435 independent worker candidates for the House workers candidates on a workers wage to build a workers party to repeal taffheartly for free health care and etc and into the to this ice repression and and and to fight to struggle for workers government if that was the if that was the platform it would do very well in the coming election because people are angry and hate both parties. Yeah the mood in 2026 is streaming it's screaming out for that kind of a class independent response and that kind of if people had that option the ballot you can just imagine the impact that it would make one more thing to to point out before you wrap up is just what does this say about the state the mood in society but also the balance of forces when it comes to the question of like fascism and people's democratic rights and the question of a dictatorship if you remember before the election and shortly after there was a lot of the headlines about Project 2025 and the Democrats also as a party use this this line of argument about this isn't attack on our democratic rights and this is an authoritarian danger to the Constitution and you know we're basically the country slipping into fascism. What we've pointed out is that fascism is the response basically of a counter revolution that the ruling class will resort to when they're threatened with losing everything we're not at that stage yet and the fact that the fact is the real battles the real conflicts the real test has not even happened and we're in some ways the column before the storm is still where we're at. And the fact that so many people sympathize with with undocumented workers and are willing to come out and risk themselves in confrontations with ice and willing to take action that's one side of it but in Minneapolis recently was it just last weekend that you had this far right activists I don't know if he's self describe fascists are not Jake Lane who I have never heard of but somebody who goes out there saying he was going to have a pro ice march anti immigrant anti Somali March. And he brought a very pathetic crowd of a couple dozen people they were apparently sworn by thousands and I mean he was like visibly terrified getting pelted with snowballs and someone actually had to rescue him to keep him from I don't know what the crowd would have done to him with the point is this shows you like you actually have a fascist demonstration or a far right. An attempt to show a public sign of support for ice and for the suppression the balance of forces just crushes it I mean there's no sympathy for this and what does that tell you about the mood in society and the potential I mean really there's a massive political vacuum that's waiting for for structure for leadership for first it's like you have the steam you need the piston box you know you have all of this potential for basically what we're talking about is a revolutionary movement. A class struggle mass movement across the country because as we've said this would spread to Chicago it would spread to New York City the mood is the same it's not something specific to Minneapolis or or to the clashes we've seen with ice in in Portland or other cities this is everywhere. And so anyway I think that's a point that we should make is that we don't need to fear fascism or a dictatorship really trumpism is falling apart he's worried about the result he's going to get in the midterms what this what we should be worried about is how to create the alternative and how to build up our forces fast enough. prominently enough make sure our political message is very clear at this time when the the objective situation is screaming out for clarity and people are saying give us answers how do we proceed because that's the common thread of these reports that we're getting from Minneapolis is that right now if we had several thousand people to deploy and I wish we were there we have a lot of excellent cadres that we've been developing our forces are growing we have recruits that are being reported every day on the ground in Minneapolis it's going very well. But if we had bigger forces then the work that we would be doing would be on a totally different level and we would be systematically putting forward this program of class struggle action in the labor movement in the workplaces on every campus and spearheading its organization in every neighborhood on every block in every building. I'm going to repeat what up Malcolm excited we're not outnumbered without organized and that's the working class has the power easily to push back trump if it's properly organized but in order to be properly organized you need a leadership the leadership that exists right now for the working class is not up to the task they're not they tail in the Democrats they tail in the wing of the capitalist class which is the class enemy they're tail ending the class enemy. The working class needs a new leadership that's what the RCA is trying to build a new leadership and I absolutely agree with you I think if we had you know significantly larger numbers this could play out in a very different way you know we would help facilitate these action committees I mean the action committees they've already started on some level it's moving forward to some degree but it really needs a leadership that's going to direct it in the right in the right channel to be to win. Which is by the way the the the lesson also for the 1934 teams to strike they did have a leadership that's why it was successful it was again a modest force but they had that leadership that's why things turned out the way the way it did in 1934 yeah well this brings us to what the revolutionary communists of America are building across the country right now and I mean tirelessly this is you know it's it's freezing right now in New York City it's even colder in Minneapolis I'm sure and in this frigid sub freezing. Whether they've had these massive demonstrations of a hundred thousand this year is just getting started and I can I mean I can't wait to see what other events and what other opportunities we have to connect with the mood to put our ideas forward and to grow our forces. Minists of America is a podcast produced by our party the revolutionary communists of America if you agree with what was said in this podcast and you want to get organized go to communistusa.org/join. [Music]