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Minneapolis Plans To Return Land To Indigenous Stewardship By 2026

April 17, 2025 Darren Thompson, Last Real Indians. , , , ,
Minneapolis, MN — Minneapolis city officials and community leaders announced at a press conference on Monday that the city would transfer land to Indigenous stewardship. The announcement comes after a decade of organizing by local organizations and is amongst a movement of lands being returned to Indigenous stewardship. “Owámniyomni is not only a place sacred to the Dakota, it is a place of shared importance to all who call this land home," Owámniyomni Okhódayapi President Shelley Buck said to CBS News in Minnesota on Monday. “Our vision for the land at Owámniyomni is to create a place of healing, beauty and belonging that is open to everyone — while reclaiming Dakota stewardship of this land, restoring native plantings and uplifting traditional practices in caring for our natural relatives.”

After Years Of Injustice, A Day Of Empathy

April 9, 2025 Noah Schumacher, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, April 5, organizers, family members and individuals impacted by wrongful incarceration and over-sentencing came together in North Minneapolis for A Day of Empathy – a powerful gathering focused on the stories of those whose lives have been upended by wrongful incarceration, over-sentencing, mass incarceration, police violence and racial injustice. Event organizer Alissa Washington, founder of the Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-Sentenced Families Council-MN, told the story of her fiancé, Cornelius Jackson, who was stolen from his loved ones 19 years ago and still remains behind bars to this day.

Minneapolis Parents And Teachers Protest Cuts To Special Education

March 31, 2025 Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN — Dozens of teachers and parents interrupted a school board meeting to demand the Minneapolis Public Schools not cut special education department staff or funding. As special education teachers are beginning to be laid off and the Minneapolis Public School district faces a $75M budget deficit with plans for wide cuts, protesters are calling for the most vulnerable students in the district not to be on the chopping block. With chants of “Who’s schools? Our schools,” and “inclusion is for everyone,” the large crowd of protesters interrupted the School Board meeting on Tuesday, March 25, by standing and chanting in unison before several speakers shared their stories.

United Airlines Flight Attendants Pressure Management Worldwide

March 21, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
United flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, demonstrated at nearly 20 airports worldwide, March 19. As recent aviation incidents have shown, flight attendants perform lifesaving work every day to ensure the safety and health of the passengers in their care. Management has dragged out negotiations while United flight attendants’ pay falls further behind competitors. With record profits of $3.1 billion in 2024 alone, the airline has more than enough to negotiate an industry leading agreement with the flight attendants.

Minnesota Movement For Divestment From Israel Resists Repression

March 6, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Minneapolis, MN — On Saturday, March 1, more than 60 Twin Cities community members gathered to attend a “State Board of Divestment” speak-out event hosted by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee in a Minneapolis community center. Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (SBI), a large public fund managed by state officials Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, and Secretary of State Steve Simon. It currently invests approximately $5.4 billion in apartheid Israel, Israeli companies, weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel’s military, and other companies that prop up Israel’s apartheid system.

Activists Continue Target Boycott Until Corporation Brings Back DEI

March 4, 2025 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN — After boycotting Target for Black History Month, activists and residents in Minnesota are continuing that boycott indefinitely until the corporation brings back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. During a protest at Target’s downtown Minneapolis corporate office on Feb. 27, speakers called for a “buycott” of Black businesses, advocated for picketing outside of Target stores and vowed to not shop at Target. “We want to make sure that we’re holding Target, in our community, accountable for the promises that they made following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police,” said Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities.

Big Turnout For Immigration Raid Response Trainings In Minneapolis

February 13, 2025 Brad Sigal, Fight Back! News. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN – More than 100 community members packed into a South Minneapolis church for a three-hour training on January 4, and then another 100 people on February 8, to prepare to resist incoming President Trump's attacks on immigrants. The Immigration Raid Response Trainings were organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), a grassroots immigrant rights organization that's been fighting against deportations and for legalization for all since 2006. The training walks people through how to observe, document, protest and resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations that attempt to detain and deport people in their communities.

Minnesotans Rally For An End To Genocide This Christmas

December 23, 2024 Trent Fast, Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Minneapolis, Minnesota – On Saturday December 21 close to 100 people rallied in downtown Minneapolis to say, “All we want for Christmas is an end to the genocide.” The rally was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and took place across the street from the WCCO TV studios, within sight of the Minneapolis Holidazzle Celebration, in the Nicollet Mall district of downtown. Fourteen months into Israel’s genocide in Palestine the death toll has reached over 45,000 people, and attacks on civilians, their homes and refugee camps continue to be a daily occurrence.

Groundbreaking For A Minneapolis Youth-Serving Community Staple

December 18, 2024 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
For nearly three decades, the educational nonprofit WE WIN Institute has been nomadic, serving youth in Minneapolis out of rented spaces. But that era is coming to a close — on November 19, 2024, WE WIN held a groundbreaking event for their new building in Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood. Unicorn Riot was there to document the historic occasion and interview board members, organization partners and a former student-turned-staff. Founded in 1996 by award-winning educator Titilayo Bediako, WE WIN Institute has served thousands of youth in Minneapolis with a mission of creating academic and social success for all children.

1934 And Now: History Lives!

November 28, 2024 Peter Rachleff, Portside. , , , , ,
Over the first three decades of the 20th century, Minneapolis was the most notorious “open shop” city in the country. An employers’ organization (the “Citizens’ Alliance”) leveraged the power of banks, manufacturers, and local government to resist workers’ attempts to unionize. In February 1934 the city’s truck drivers and coal yard workers organized and struck their industry, winning union recognition in a week. Their success inspired other truckers and warehouse workers to organize and strike twice, in the spring and summer of 1934, facing down the power of police and private “deputies.”

Protesters Vow To Shut Down The Xcel Monticello Nuclear Reactor

November 26, 2024 Fight Back! News!. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday November 21, 50 members of the newly formed Coalition for a Nuclear-free Mississippi River and their supporters rallied in front of Xcel Energy headquarters on Nicollet Mall in the heart of downtown. They demanded the energy company keep to its 2030 shutdown date for the Monticello Nuclear Reactor, because of the serious threats posed to public health, the Mississippi River, and drinking water for millions. As rush hour traffic passed by, motorists and pedestrians saw protesters holding signs reading, “Don’t nuke our river.” Chants like “Xcel let’s be clear, Monticello Reactor’s not wanted here” were loudly amplified by the surrounding buildings.

University Of Minnesota SDS Statement Of Halimy Hall Occupation

October 27, 2024 Fight Back! News. , , , , , , , , , ,
Shortly after President Cunningham started working at our university, she and the Board of Regents held an emergency meeting, a week before students returned to campus, where they passed a policy of neutrality for the UMN endowment. Regent Jamie Meyron introduced the institutional neutrality policy declaring the University’s endowment funds “politically neutral”, effectively making it impossible for students to campaign for the University to divest from certain companies. In this same meeting, they resurrected restrictive protest policies, including banning unpermitted protests of more than 100 people and the use of more than one sound amplification device, and put size limits on signs and banners.

Minneapolis Residents Are Building Yurts To Shelter Homeless Neighbors

September 16, 2024 Lorena Bally, Next City. , , , ,
Christin Crabtree walked out of St. Paul’s Church in Southern Minneapolis feeling hope on the morning of July 24. An organizer with the local unhoused resident outreach project Camp Nenookaasi, she left the community meeting believing that locals would work together with the 80 people living in Nenookaasi’s three small encampments to help keep each other safe. But at 6:30 a.m. the next day, residents at all three camps woke to police-enforced evictions. Officers arrived with heavy machinery to heave residents’ tents, bikes, blankets, mattresses and clothing into a garbage truck. Within minutes, residents lost access to medical records, identification, cellphones and other belongings.

Pro-Palestine Students March Against Political Neutrality Policy

September 2, 2024 Merlin Van Alstine and Staff, Fight Back! News!. , , , , , , ,
On August 30, 150 University of Minnesota students, staff, faculty and community members rallied and marched from Morrill Hall to McNamara Plaza in response to the Board of Regents vote that happened earlier this week. The Board voted on a resolution that would impose political and institutional neutrality on the university’s endowment fund. This vote was pushed by new University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham. It effectively makes any sort of divestment from Israel, or weapon manufacturers and other entities complicit in war crimes and human rights violations, impossible. It takes away any accountability that administration has to its students, to its staff, or to its faculty.

Climate Activists Celebrate Shutting Down Major Polluter

August 18, 2024 Whitney Wildman, Fight Back! News. , , ,
Minneapolis, MN – On August 16, over 100 activists and community members held a celebratory rally in response to winning the struggle to shut down a long-time polluter, Smith Foundry. The Smith Foundry is one of several heavy industrial sites located in the residential Minneapolis neighborhood of East Phillips, one of the most diverse and working-class neighborhoods in Minnesota. The city has long used East Phillips as its toxic dumping ground, and, as a result, East Phillips has some of the highest rates of asthma and cardiovascular disease in the state. Notably, Smith Foundry operated as the top lead polluter in the county, further poisoning an already environmentally overburdened community.
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