{"id":46252,"date":"2026-01-22T21:27:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46252"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:27:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:27:42","slug":"no-work-no-spending-minnesota-workers-will-strike-tomorrow-to-protest-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/no-work-no-spending-minnesota-workers-will-strike-tomorrow-to-protest-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNo Work. No Spending”: Minnesota Workers Will Strike Tomorrow to Protest ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A critical conversation with Minnesota union leaders on the eve of a massive general strike.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ<\/a>\u00a0JANUARY 22, 2026 (inthesetimes.com)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
Protesters participate in a ‘Stop ICE Terror’ rally against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, January 20, 2026.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN \/ ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Maximillian Alvarez:\u00a0<\/strong>As we speak\u00a0\u2014 and we\u2019re recording this on January\u00a019,\u00a02026\u00a0\u2014 the state of Minnesota is under siege by our own federal government, and residents, immigrant and U.S.-born alike, are living in fear. With the deployment of over\u00a03,000\u00a0federal agents to Minnesota in recent weeks, this is the Trump administration\u2019s largest and most violent so-called\u00a0\u200b\u201cimmigration enforcement operation\u201d\u00a0yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with President Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota in response to protests over ICE\u2019s terror campaign, the situation on the ground is extremely volatile. Unions, community organizations, faith leaders and small businesses in Minnesota are calling for a statewide day of no work except emergency services, no school, and no shopping to take place this Friday on January 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our panel of guests, Doug Williams, Janette Corcelius, and Dan Troccoli are all union members and organizers in Minnesota, and they are all speaking here today only on their own behalf, not on behalf of their unions or any organizations that they\u2019re a part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Troccoli: <\/strong>The response by ordinary people in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities in general has been very uplifting. I think you painted a very good picture, Max, of how bleak the moment is and how it just drives hope out of you. This has actually instilled a lot more hope in a lot of people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following the events in Minneapolis for the last 10 years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t even have a Labor Party in this country, to say nothing of the sort of working class organization needed to pull off something like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well I guess I\u2019m sort of like the Grinch, except I\u2019m like a month late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My heart is growing three times because what I have seen here has been beyond inspiring. People are coming together. They are not only saying that this has to stop now. They\u2019re not only saying this is a system that no longer works for us. But they\u2019re doing more than talking. They\u2019re acting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re in the streets. They are engaging in new forms of mutual aid that they might not have engaged in in the past. They\u2019re engaged in high level organizing of their memberships, of their neighbors, of their friends, families, their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something like 10,000 people in the city or more who have joined rapid response networks in their neighborhood to try and patrol dog ICE. It has had a good effect at stymieing ICE and making it difficult for them to continue their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something I don\u2019t know if people heard, but there was like a moment of silence for Renee Good at the Timberwolves game and someone yelled out, \u200b\u201cFuck ICE,\u201d and it just exploded. The whole stadium was just cheering. I\u2019ve never heard of that kind of thing before\u2009\u2014\u2009frankly, even during the Black Lives Matter movement. So it\u2019s very interesting to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are choosing not to stay inside, not to stay silent, not just to say, \u201cI approve of every strike except the current one,\u201d or \u201cI approve of every human rights movement besides the one that’s happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s something I don’t know if people heard, but there was like a moment of silence for Renee Good at the Timberwolves game and someone yelled out, \u201cFuck ICE,\u201d and it just exploded. The whole stadium was just cheering. I’ve never heard of that kind of thing before\u2014frankly, even during the Black Lives Matter movement. So it’s very interesting to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janette Corcelius<\/strong>: I feel so inspired and moved and, frankly, optimistic because of the labor movement and this opportunity to fight and to lead for Minnesota, to lead in this moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m getting people from around the country who want to replicate what we\u2019re doing here where they are at, and that feels so good, especially in a time with so much despair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labor movement has had a long history in the last 50 years of really not doing shit, especially labor leadership. But we\u2019re seeing rank and file and leadership and even non-union people rise up in this moment\u2009\u2013\u2009willing to take that day and not work, not shop, not go to school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also want to connect that Palestine, and the organizing that labor unions have been doing the last few years around the issue of the genocide, has geared us up and propelled us to this moment and was honestly quite\u00a0necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s clear that a vast majority of people in the Twin Cities are absolutely against this occupation. In my union, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, members have been actively trying to do something\u2009\u2013\u2009pulling together networks of people in their buildings and around the city\u2009\u2013\u2009in schools\u2009\u2013\u2009to try and help immigrant students and families. Anticipating something like this happening, organizing began over a year ago and that network has been really important in helping schools respond quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of participation now from many buildings. I don\u2019t know the exact number, but I would imagine it\u2019s somewhere near 90%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most buildings have some sort of control system, including contacting families who are affected, enacting mutual aid\u2009\u2013\u2009whether it\u2019s getting people rides to work and back, or food, or things that they need to do that they just are too scared to leave their house to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s uneven, as most things typically are in organizing. But it\u2019s there, which is just a\u00a0new thing for me and my experience of union organizing. I\u2019ve been doing it for a\u00a0long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should come as no surprise to anyone sort of who\u2019s been following the events in Minneapolis for the last 10 years. The George Floyd uprising literally instilled in people in this city a sense of a fight for racial justice, and I would argue, that was carried through in a number of different actions that various organizations have done since that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our own union went on strike in 2022 for the first time in something like 50 plus years. Centering the demands for our ESPs (support staff) was like a key demand of that strike that elevated it above everything else and made a lot of people see it as another piece in the fight for racial justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s not surprising to me that tens of thousands of people come out to protests. Some of our big days of protests are upwards of 30\u221240,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE COVERAGE ABOUT ICE IN MINNESOTA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How One Minnesota Union Is Helping Members Survive the Federal Siege<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNITE HERE Local 17 is one of many unions, community organizations and faith groups calling for a work stoppage tomorrow, showing a key way Minnesotans are organizing against ICE.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARAH LAZARE<\/a>“We Will Be Closed: ICE Out of Minnesota”All the ingredients for a general strike are present in Minnesota.LUIS FELIZ LEON<\/a>\u201cWe Are Facing a Tsunami of Hate\u201d: Amid ICE Crackdown, Unions and Community Groups Call for Minnesota Shutdown in 10 DaysFollowing the ICE murder of Renee Good and an assault on the state by federal immigration forces, a labor-community coalition is calling for residents to refuse to work, shop or go to school on January 23.AMIE STAGER AND SARAH LAZARE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas Williams<\/strong>: As I\u2019ve been telling anyone who asked me in the Twin Cities right now, our response is as easy as 123. January, 23. ICE out of Minnesota: no work, no spending, we are going to show our working class power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every Central Labor Council in this state has endorsed this day of no work. I fully agree with Dan that they are trying to see whether we will allow ourselves to be brutalized without a response, and we cannot allow the answer to that to be yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I am teaching about organizing I always say that the first job of an organizer is to shut up and listen, but the second job of an organizer is to raise the expectations of workers and to broaden their horizons of what\u2019s possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan, Janette, and I have had so many conversations about a general strike. What they would tell you is that I am someone that is very skeptical of the idea that we could pull off a general strike anytime in this lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I am teaching about organizing I always say that the first job of an organizer is to shut up and listen, but the second job of an organizer is to raise the expectations of workers and to broaden their horizons of what’s possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rally to “Stop ICE Terror” in Minneapolis on January 20, 2026.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN\/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not one for counting the chickens before they\u2019ve hatched, but I think that January 23, this Friday, we are going to see something in this country that perhaps we haven\u2019t seen since the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which is what you could call the closest thing to the last sort of major nationwide general strike that we\u2019ve had in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People understand and more are understanding every day, not only where we are in history, but also their place in where we are in history. They are choosing not to stay inside, not to stay silent, not just to say, \u200b\u201cI approve of every strike except the current one,\u201d or \u200b\u201cI approve of every human rights movement besides the one that\u2019s happening right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are choosing to push forward in the hopes of crafting a better society. At the end of the day, that\u2019s all the social movement is, man. That\u2019s all our labor movement is. It is a collection of imperfect people working to create a more perfect world. And our creation of that world will make its debut, I believe, on January 23 and we have to do everything we can to make sure that it goes off as a success on that day, and that we keep the momentum going towards something better in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Lang, a conservative activist and January 6 insurrectionist who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, winces as he is sprayed, in the freezing cold, with water.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN\/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us knew that the Imperial boomerang was going to come back around on us. And I want to be quite frank: while things are very terrible right now, it\u2019s nothing compared to what our government has done to Palestinians and to other countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Central and South America. Or what they\u2019ve done in the past to Native American people and black Americans who are descendants of slavery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that this could get worse. So I\u2019m hoping that this day will become either a week long or month long, statewide, regional, or nationwide general strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters in Minneapolis rallying against ICE and the abductions of residents.PHOTO BY JOHN WHITNEY\/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m seeing it as a moment to get ready to flex our muscles that haven\u2019t been flexed in a long time. There are unions that have never gone on strike before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than 10% of American workers are in a union right now. I know that the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee and DSA and the organized labor movement is working to organize the unorganized and take advantage of this moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope that every organizer and union member realizes that they have a duty to go around and organize regular people, like talking to people they don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canvas around your neighborhood to different businesses. Talk to the workers. There are union members whose unions didn\u2019t officially sign on to this, but I went to their store and I said, \u200b\u201cHey, I wanted to know, are you all participating on January 23\u201d and they\u2019re like, \u200b\u201cOh yeah, we are, to the point that actually our owners are shutting things down because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That shows that militant shop floor organizing is essential. We can\u2019t replace that. This is a bottom up movement. Yes, some nonprofits and NGOs did call for this day of action like Faith in Minnesota, ISAIAH, Unidos, and SEIU Local 26. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the bottom up element has been crucial to making this successful and impactful. I\u2019ve been seeing a lot of small businesses who are taking major hits right now that have posted, \u200b\u201cWe\u2019re closing on this day in solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal agents fire flash bombs and chemical irritants at protesters in Minneapolis on January 14, 2026, a week after resident Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.PHOTO BY RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII\/THE MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s been really inspiring. And I\u2019m taking note of every single one of these businesses. Before the 23rd<\/sup> and after the 23rd<\/sup> I\u2019m going to spend my money there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strikes, workshop stoppages and other workplace actions are most effective, in my opinion, alongside boycotts. There are people who are still shopping at Target, Amazon, Starbucks, and Caribou. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the businesses that are supporting ice. Spotify is another. We need to stop feeding into this system. We\u2019re doing that with mutual aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sure as hell want to see socialism in my lifetime. People say that\u2019s pie in the sky ideal, but I\u2019m feeling invigorated knowing that we might have a nationwide general strike in our lifetime, and it\u2019s because of awesome people like you all on this call who have dedicated your life and will dedicate your entire life to this movement. We just need more people bought in on our project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ<\/a> is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People<\/em>, available at InThe\u200bse\u200bTimes\u200b.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A critical conversation with Minnesota union leaders on the eve of a massive general strike. MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ\u00a0JANUARY 22, 2026 (inthesetimes.com) Maximillian Alvarez:\u00a0As we speak\u00a0\u2014 and we\u2019re recording this on January\u00a019,\u00a02026\u00a0\u2014 the state of Minnesota is under siege by our own federal government, and residents, immigrant and U.S.-born alike, are living… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46253,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46252\/revisions\/46253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}