The occupation of Minneapolis: things you can do

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Three brief things about the occupation of Minneapolis, which isn’t what this blog is about and is the second post this week, so I’ll keep it brief. 

 

Things you can do from home

One: If you’d like to add your name to Minneapolis’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination,  you can. Seriously. Just follow the link. (The link, folks, sot the yellow brick road. That’s closed for gilding and rumor holds that it’ll be renamed Trump’s Great Big Magnificent Highway.)

The Nation, which made the nomination, writes, “In the face of [unprecedented state violence], ordinary residents have stood their ground with nonviolent protest, mutual aid, and solidarity, confronting fear and authoritarianism with dignity and resolve. Thousands have marched in freezing temperatures; communities have organized legal observers, delivered groceries to those in hiding, and insisted on human rights and constitutional freedoms.

I was going to send a red rose to the people of Minneapolis, but the photo I have on hand is a red begonia. Close enough. They are amazing.

“By adding your name, you affirm that this courageous public resistance—rooted in solidarity and the defense of human rights—deserves international recognition. Your signature sends a clear message to the Norwegian Nobel Committee: the world is watching, and the actions of ordinary people defending human dignity matter.”

Two: If you want to help pay the rent of people who are in hiding and unable to work (this isn’t paranoia; people are being detained at work as well as in their cars and at bus stops), here’s a way. Working with the Coalition on Human Needs, the Minneapolis Labor Federation has started a fund to keep people from being evicted. If you pay US taxes, it’s even tax deductible.

The federation’s president, Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, writes, “One thing I’ve learned in this process is that it’s difficult to pay someone else’s rent. Not any organization can do it. But we can. Our navigators help renters get in touch with leasing companies and landlords, and keep people in their homes.

“We’ve called for an eviction pause during this emergency, but the government moves slowly and the crisis is now.

“We will keep fighting for our neighbors until ICE drags them to a country where we can’t reach them. But the fastest, most effective protection we can give is if we can just pay their rent today. . . . 

“The labor movement is built on solidarity. When people stand together, we are more powerful than any other force.”

Donations are divided equally between the two groups unless you customize your donation and give a larger percentage or the entire amount to one of them. 

*

Update: The Minneapolis City Council just voted $1 million to help cover people’s rent during the ICE surge. That’s all I know at this point. It may be a long time before the money’s available. It could be held up by a court challenge or by a fleet of dragons swooping in from Iowa. It’s too early to tell. I’ve made a donation anyway. I’m pretty sure it’ll be needed.

 

And a bonus for making it to the end

I’m so old that I was around for the Civil Right Movement, so I can testify that it was powered by music, and now music has made its way onto the Minneapolis streets, including a group called Singing Resistance. I found a few examples here, although they keep changing. I also found a typically understated, straight-faced introduction to Minnesota culture for ICE agents from out of state, although you may have to do some scrolling to dig it out. 

35 thoughts on “The occupation of Minneapolis: things you can do”

  1. I live in one of the northern suburbs of Minneapolis. Thank you so much for thinking of us. I don’t need assistance, but we are all very stressed…and angry. And there are plenty of people in the city that do need assistance. The State DFL had a very well-attended Caucus night on Tuesday (the Minnesota Democratic Party has long been called the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party. Just another indication why we are Blue), and voters had opinions!

    Deb

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    • Thanks for your comment, Deb. I’m not surprised you’re stressed. Living with that–who wouldn’t be? I don’t know if you bothered with the music link, but one of the songs on there is simple, haunting, and beautiful: Hold on, hold on, my dear ones, here comes the dawn.

      Stay strong. May the dawn come soon.

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  2. If ICE is successfully faced down will that also bring a cultural shift in the USA ? It seems to me , a Brit, that the mid terms are approaching and polls suggest the Senate and Congress may have a small Democrat majority …… a small majority ?? I can’t understand why the entire Republican Party is not ousted completely ? Perhaps I watch too much partisan news .

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    • Recent by-elections as well as polls indicate that the Republican Party is in trouble, which is why many people are worried that Trump & Co. are looking for ways to capture the election. He recently called for “nationalizing” the midterm election. Translation: putting it in federal hands, where they’d control many things, including who gets to vote. The constitution put it in state hands, so this is a stretch, even for an administration that’s happy to break any law around, but they may try it. He owns the Supreme Court, so who can say? Another possibility is to have ICE surround the polls, intimidating voters and doing who can predict what else. Anyway, lots of worries about the election being openly stolen.

      Why have the Republicans survived? Because we have a strong thread of political insanity running through the country. After Nixon, the party shrank dramatically, which sounded like good news but what happened was that it was then captured by the farther right–which by now looks pretty moderate, but it’s been going further to the right ever since. If we survive this disaster, who know where it’ll end up (she said cheerily).

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      • Another trick to control and reduce who gets to vote is requiring a birth certificate that matches current name either to register to vote or to actually vote at a polling place. So far there is no provision in the Save Act that I know of that would allow a marriage certificate to bridge that gap for those who take their spouse’s last name. Imagine what this would mean for thise with two+ marriages. Of course, this is in conjunction with removing voting by mail. Then think of what DeJoy will do with mailed ballots. California mails ballots to all registered voters. Completed ballots can be dropped at polling places on voting day, dropped in secure boxes at places like libraries or taken to county election offices. US voters should not let the US Postal Service get their hands on ballots. So many ways corrupt monsters can mess with the most essential part of our democracy. My English neighbor is getting ready to return to the UK after decades here in California. I’m somewhat envious. My ancestors came to America in the 1640s. I don’t think the UK wants me back, darn it. Only choice is to emulate Minneapolis with peaceful, persistent resistance which is much easier here weather wise.

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          • Yes! I am definitely getting a bit paranoid!! Sorry. Also, my mind wants to return yet again to the UK. I know it isn’t a perfect place but look at the different response to the Epstein files. The Guardian is my favorite digital newspaper. I stayed a block away from their wavy glass building last April. I wanted to fling the door open and hug one of the security guards but the rational part of my brain noted that this might be misinterpreted. I’m sure they saw the old lady lingering outside for a minute or so every time she walked by on her way to Granary Square and Kings Cross. Off to renew my passport now. Please keep us informed about Minneapolis. Yes to the Peace Prize. Thanks for your quick response to my concern.

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  3. Vote, and if you are not registered to vote register now. Do not vote for anyone that supports ICE, MAGA or Trump. Why do I say this? The reason for the Minneapolis invasion by ICE and Boarder Patrol is political not arresting criminals! Trump ordered this invasion because the political leaders in Minnesota oppose Trump, speak out against his political decisions, and the voters voted against Trump in the last election. It is that simple. Trump has vowed to invade five more cities. He won’t say which ones. This is a vailed threat to all US cities that if they don’t toe the line and support Trump he will send his thugs there to terrorize the citizens until they do! The Minneapolis invasion was used as an example to every US city as to what can happen to them if they don’t do and agree to what he wants. What does he want? Like Hitler did, he wants to rule the US and the world using fear and intimidation! Please share this with all of your MAGA friends if you have any left.

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        • All typos happily accepted.

          It’s amazing at this point that anyone supports him given the trail of wreckage he leaves behind him but I remember some study of a doomsday cults that reported that once doomsday pasesd and the world didn’t end, instead of the cults falling apart they tended to draw closer and intensify their beliefs. That seems to apply here.

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          • I do consider MAGA a cult, just like Jim Jones and his cult The Peoples Temple. People are dying because of the MAGA cult. The closing of USAID has killed 750,000 people! Far more than Jones lead to their deaths. US citizens are ignorant of this facts. Making health care more expensive by increasing health care insurance is killing the people who no longer can afford medications or even visits to their family doctor! We are lucky that we now live in countries with socialized medicine!

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      • Pericles — ‘What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.’
        We had this in the order of service for our daughter’s funeral. It’s true of so many but some don’t understand it.
        Jeannie

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  4. Ellen, is it possible your blog is getting messed with? I couldn’t find a way to sign in to make a comment. I went ahead and wrote a long comment which has not appeared. I’ve read that people like Aaron Parnas Have had their YouTube postings eliminated. Apparently NBC removed the booing of our charming vice president. I am suspicious of everything. Maybe I just need to wait a little bit for my comment to appear. In it, I noted that the save act will require voters to show their birth certificate either when they register or when they vote. Terrible mess for most women who Took their husband‘s name. Of course this would require eliminating all voting by mail. Anyway, that’s it. I signed the petition. My donation dollars are already spent this month, but I was glad to see that Minneapolis is putting up money for rent for all those who are threatened by these monsters. Good day to you. I dream of coming to England again, but I’m 81 and last April I felt flat on my face and broke my nose in Bath. Also, my back has never been the same. I felt like a burden when the paramedics showed up. They were wonderful and funny and fun to be around. I probably won’t come again because I don’t wanna be a burden to the UK. I was embarrassed that my medical care there was free. Anyway, many happy memories of going to the country where I actually feel I belong. Ha ha! Take care. Diane Clement, Los Osos CA

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    • To the best of my knowledge the blog’s not being messed with, but then I’m not sure I’d know. Periodically someone leaves me a note about having trouble leaving a comment, I write to WordPress, and they either tell me everything’s okay or tell me something incomprehensible which does manage to get rid of me. All I can do is offer sympathy, apologies, and virtual chocolate chip cookies. They’re all of no use at all.

      Fingers crossed that the SAVE act is too much of a stretch to pass. And I’m really sorry to hear about your disaster on your last trip here. It does get harder, I know. Getting older’s not for the faint of heart.

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  5. I’d like to believe that we van vote our way out of this mess but there’s a lyric in an old song “The structure is set you never change it with a ballot pull” which seems to be more and more true. I don’t want to be one of the “everything is horrible, I give up” people but nothing seems to make much of a difference either.

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    • If they get the chance and find the way, I have no doubt they’ll steal the election. See the comment above (or below–I’m not sure what lands where) about the SAVE act, which is part of the effort. I wish the Democratic Party were up to the job of really fighting back, but with some exceptions they’re a disspriting lot. If I had a magic formula to protect the election, I’d share it, but I don’t. Best I can do is say vote anyway. We have to.

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  7. Hi, Ellen Mexican folk have pulled together to help each other out (“Evictions” attached). I submitted to The Alley, hoping they’ll stop being p.c. to death like they did in rejecting the other attachment because it supposedly pit one group against the other. So help God, liberals in that shop are frustrating as hell. – dh

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  8. Thanks Ellen. Writing from south Minneapolis, Hell Central, any and all sane coverage appreciated. I’m pissed that Walz hasn’t issued an eviction moratorium. That $1mil won’t go far, assuming it goes anywhere before people become homeless. I read that unlawful detainers (eviction summons) are up 40% over this time last year. The only good thing about all this and it’s a REALLY GOOD thing, is the breadth and force of the resistance. Spontaneous mutual aid that is actually working. I also read that 25% of Minnesotans have been involved as protestors, observers, helpers or donors. Wow! Still, I wish the Martians would land tomorrow and take all the ICE agents to some reeducation camp on north Pluto.

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    • Thanks for writing in, and I wish the Martians would land but damn they’ve been slow to solve the world’s problems. I don’t know what the hold-up is. In the meantime, 25%? That truly is amazing.

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  9. What an incredible time we live in, and the situation in the United States is the most incredible of all. Trump is bad enough, but he’s really no more than a glib, puffed up, bigoted, immoral, cosseted and deviant opportunist who has somehow gotten to where he has by a sad confluence of circumstances. No way is he smart enough — or diligent enough — to have organised this systematic chaos and the contamination of democracy, including the legal and legislative arms. And all those unelected people, including his own family members, being allowed to take key posts and gather filthy lucre wherever they can. Including that vile Musk rat. In many countries right now, including Ireland, the arrogance and failure of the comfortable elite middle ground politicians to engage with or inspire the confused majority, has allowed the sewers to open, and the demagogues and the fast buck opportunists to flood the zone, and undermine the political and legal systems. Aided by softened and compliant ‘watchdog’ journalists, cowed and wounded by the rise of AI and falling newspaper sales. And why those Washington hacks don’t rise as one, hold hands and walk out of all press briefings with Trump and his glove puppet Leavitt is truly beyond me. Now more than ever, the Democratic Party in America and their ilk across Europe and beyond have to rise from their gilded slumbers, and begin to work for the people, not just for themselves, the better to begin the slow release from the claws of the Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk et al elite that knows an opportunity when they see it. End of rant. We shall overcome them. Some day?

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    • We shall, if the human race gets enough time, which is no longer guaranteed.

      I’m tempted to blame to middle-ground politicians who you condemn so eloquently, but they’ve made deals with the devil. Or an assortment of devils. They don’t have the nerve (or, realistically, the organization) to go against the monied interests, which is what they’d need to do, so instead they warn us against more radical options (at the moment, here, the Green Party, which they argue with split the vote and hand a by-election to Reform. Better, they counsel, to stick with them and go down with the ship. Meanwhile, they adopt the right wing’s anti-immigrant platform.

      I could scream.

      Should be meet somewhere in the waters between Cornwall and Ireland and scream together?

      P.S.: I got two copies of your comment. I’ll dump the other one.

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      • I agree. I am pessimistic about the near future but optimistic about the more distant future. The world will see more hard times in the next few years but these hard times will force the politicians to address the problems that are causing these hard times. Politically Fascism will not succeed and easily be defeated but the other problems are not so simple and being ignored by many politicians such as the global climate disaster. I am in the middle of one right now in Portugal. These disasters will become more frequent in the next ten years unless the worlds’ politicians join together with the scientists to solve these problems before it runs away and causes the world to destabilize into a global crisis which will end the lives of billions of people! The longer the problems are not addressed means the worse the outcome will be!

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    • We may need a small island for a scream meet-up. I don’t suppose there are any conveniently situated between Ireland and Cornwall, are there? I understand this isn’t a politically useful activity, but it might make us feel better for 10 or 20 minutes.

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  11. That birth certificate-nonsense is cool – there is a real mean spirit behind.
    I did not know about that.
    The more I look at what happens in Trumpistan, not only in Minneapolis, but esp. in the field of foreign politics, looking at the POOHs excitement-machine – this man does anything to grab & turn away attention from the files.
    The more grows the feeling that the POOH is a child fucker, and that somewhere in the files evidence is buried. If I am right, I only hope that he will not conk out before it is proven.

    Minneapolis for the Nobel ? Well – that award isn’t what it used to be, innit ?
    A nice gesture, nevertheless.

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    • Who cares if it’s not what it used to be? It would make a hell of a statement. And yes, I hope you’re right about the files.

      Unfortunately, I don’t think all this is about distracting us from the files. It’s that and his desperate attempts to steal the November elections, because it sounds like he’s in deep shit if he doesn’t.

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