Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where it’s been a very exciting day dreaming about the future of the labor movement now that Minneapolis has successfully pulled off a general strike.
$430 Short of $5,000 General Strike Coverage Goal
Payday tracked over 300 solidarity actions with the Minneapolis General Strike. It was a ton of work, and now we need your support to do more coverage on what happens next for the movement.
300 Pittsburghers Occupy Target in Solidarity with Minneapolis
In Pittsburgh, over 300 activists occupied a Target in the East Liberty neighborhood, chanting “ICE Out of Target, ICE out of Target.” The retail giant based in Minneapolis has become a target of Minnesota General Strike activists, given their cooperation with the Trump Administration.
Activists, who spoke at the rally, gave updates on what was happening in Minneapolis.
“100 people just got arrested at the airport,” Sara Stock Mayo, a Jewish activist with Bend the Arc, told the crowd. “So, we are gonna sing ‘Let it Shine, Let It Shine on Minneapolis, Let it Shine on all of us’. We are with you, Minneapolis and St. Paul. We are with the rest of this country.”
Many said the general strike in Minneapolis was an escalation of tactics and would lead them to intensify their own tactics, particularly against the mega-retailer Target.
“Target has lost between $12 billion and $20 billion from the boycott,” said Jasiri X of 1Hood Power. “I live down the street, and I haven’t been here in over a year.”
Photo and reporting contributed by Maranie Stabb
700 Businesses Close in Minneapolis
In Minneapolis, more than 700 businesses closed as a result of the strike in the city, propelling tens of thousands into the streets in -10 degree weather.
Restaurant owners say that the closings helped give a wake-up call to some people, who have not been as involved in organizing in the region.
"There are many places that are already shutting down or will need to because their team members are terrified to leave their home, or they have already been taken and shipped off,” reads an Instagram post from Meteor, a bar in Minneapolis. “For this to be effective, we need the people who aren't living it day to day to feel it."
Photo of strike at top contributed by Kieran Knutson of CWA Local 7250
For more, check out Bring Me the News.
Over 300 Minneapolis General Strike Solidarity Actions
In Athens, Ohio, Tylar Ayers, the vice-president of the Ohio Student Association, told a crowd, “We know it is no longer a question of if ICE will be here, but when. We’re organizing to make sure that never happens in Athens and calling on our university to protect our campus.”
In Boston, Massachusetts, Jodi Rymer, a Minnesota native at a rally at the South Bay shopping center in Boston on Friday, told the crowd:
“My loved ones are in Minnesota and I wake up in an anxious sweat every morning because I am fearing for my loved ones’ lives and their safety.”
Hector Soares, the child of two Brazilian immigrants, told the rally that his father had been detained by ICE in June.
“It still impacts us every day. My brothers cry while trying to understand why they can’t have a dad anymore,” Soares told the crowd. “I have to sit and tell my brothers how this country chose to take him away from us. How this country now has decided that he’s a criminal when he has no criminal record. [The] only crime he’s committed is being here as an immigrant.”
In Duluth, Minnesota, Luis Islas, City of Duluth Human Rights Commissioner, told a crowd, “It is a battle to wake up not knowing if you’re going to be able to make it to work. It is a battle to wake up and not knowing if you’re going to be able to make it to the grocery store for fear of being detained, nobody should have to live in fear.”
In Harrisonburg, Virginia, Michaela Blosser, a local organizer with Harrisonburg-Rockingham Indivisible, told a rally “We are a peaceful group that is just voicing our rights as American citizens to protest peacefully, and that’s what we believe.”
Will There be More Strikes?
Now, that the general strike in Minneapolis is over, organizers hope that there will be more strikes across the country to reduce ICE’s activity and get more businesses and union leaders to speak out.
“This isn't just a one-off. What I want it to be is something that delivers a blow and shows how serious we are, and provides some lessons for us learning in terms of building the movement, but also provides some ideas about how to take the next step,” CWA Minneapolis local 7520 President Kieran Knutson told Payday Report. “And what does the next step look (like), what does it take to shut down the cities for a sustained amount of time?”
(For more, read our article “Minnesota Labor Leaders Talk Organizing Lessons as Strike Movement Goes National” and watch our interview with Knuston about what's next. )
Already, the May Day Strong coalition is calling for a massive mobilization and strike on May 1st against ICE and the Trump Administration.
“On May 1st 2026 we need to take what the people of MN are going to do this Friday January 23 to the entire country,” says Neidi Dominguez, a veteran union organizer, Executive Director of Organized Power In Numbers. “We are not going to work, we are not going to shop, and our kids won't go to school that day.”
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