In Minneapolis there is an explosion of resistance, led by migrants and working class communities of colour, against the brutal occupation of their city by paramilitary Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The working class have risen to defend their communities and have been pushed into outright revolt against the racist US state. Protesters regularly face state forces equipped with pepper spray, guns, ‘less-than-lethal ammunition’, tear gas, riot shields and helicopters and yet they remain determined to fight back, creating the biggest political crisis for US imperialism since the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. The movement has been further galvanised by the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, leading to two general strikes demanding the abolition of ICE. FRFI unconditionally supports this anti-racist uprising against state terror.
It is no accident that the racially oppressed sections of the US working class are leading the movement. Their daily experiences of paramilitary policing, state-sanctioned murders, immigration enforcement, mass incarceration, poverty and unemployment make them irreconcilable enemies of US imperialism. The movement is politically maturing, some people are linking their struggle with struggles against imperialism internationally, particularly Venezuela and Palestine, and the rising has spread across the US with businesses grinding to a halt, students walking out of class and large demonstrations on the streets.
The US ruling class is scrambling to contain this political crisis. The Democrats have, so far, been unable to co-opt and divert the movement into safe channels because they are discredited and excluded from the movement. The state, now on the backfoot, has been forced to shift tactics and temporarily back down.
Anti-racists in Britain must take note. We are facing a racist Labour government that boasts of deporting 50,000 people since coming to power in the summer of 2024. Yet the militancy of Minneapolis is nowhere to be seen in Britain. Instead, anti-racism in Britain is dominated by a petit bourgeois left that has nothing to offer but liberal respectability politics. Stand up to Racism (SUTR), the self-appointed leader of anti-racism in Britain, called a protest in solidarity with Minneapolis with the slogans ‘stop ICE murders’ and ‘fight Trumpism’ – nothing on our tasks in Britain. SUTR’s empty politics are clear from its main slogan ‘refugees are welcome here’ which flies in the face of reality; the British state has done everything it can to make migrants unwelcome in Britain.
The liberal farce will reach its peak with the ‘Together Against The Far Right’ demonstration on 28 March. It will be lead by Together Alliance which is really SUTR and its allied organisations re-branded with more trade union, MP and celebrity endorsements. While the movement in Minneapolis defends communities from ICE, Together Alliance will pretend immigration raids, arrests and deportations are not happening while they ‘mobilise against the far right’. Labour MPs will be welcome to speak on their platform and no one will be allowed to criticise them for staying in a racist, pro-imperialist party. Together Alliance is yet another pathetic cover for the racist Labour Party and state racism. The anti-racist movement in the US does not focus its energy on confronting fascist sects nor does it cover up for the Democratic Party, its primary enemy has always been the US state.
Despite the left harping on about solidarity with Minneapolis, the kind of solidarity Minneapolis can expect from the established British left is exemplified by Chris Nineham, founder of the Stop the War Coalition and Counterfire member. At a public meeting in Scotland he said: ‘It is important that [the protesters] don’t retaliate to the violence, as it will onlyresult in more violence from ICE.’ Far from seeing Minneapolis as an inspiration, these opportunists will fight to ensure that spirit of resistance never materialises here.
The movement in Minneapolis proves what FRFI has argued – a revolutionary movement will be led by the most oppressed sections of the working class to oppose state racism in its entirety. In the US, the oppressed have led the struggle while the official labour movement has had to follow. It confirms our political standpoint – the fight against racism is central to the class struggle in an imperialist country. In Britain we have a choice, either follow the dead-end politics of SUTR/Together Alliance or be inspired by the example of Minneapolis and build a militant anti-racist, anti-imperialist movement that is capable of smashing the British state.
