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Jan. 24, 2026 06:33-07:00 - CSPAN
26:42
Activists Hold Anti-ICE Rally in Minneapolis
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Businesses Stand With Us 00:09:13
Democracy.
It isn't just an idea.
It's a process.
A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles.
It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted.
Democracy in real time.
This is your government at work.
This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered.
Activists in Minneapolis held a rally protesting immigration and customs enforcement operations in that state.
In this portion, several union leaders make remarks, including Randy Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers.
So we're here today because our state is hurting.
We've seen thousands of families being torn apart, attacks for simply trying to witness what is happening in our communities, including the murder of our neighbor, Rachel Good.
We've seen, say her name, Rachel Goode.
We've seen an agency that seems to have no guardrails as they have caused this pain and suffering all across Minnesota.
Renee Good, but you people are the beauty of our state.
You have shown the rest of the world and the nation that here in Minnesota, when one of us hurts, we jump into action.
We bring love and food and diapers and donations and all the friggin rage and joy we have in us.
We patrol our schools, protect places of worship, bring supplies to people too scared to go out.
They came to our state because they see what we built.
They came to our state because all of the people they try to scapegoat for their scumbaggery have made this place great.
But they underestimated Minnesota, and man, we're as mad about that as we are everything else.
I mean, let's be honest, we're doing everything right if the morally bankrupt have to come at us this hard.
The pain and suffering has been immense and it continues, but our solidarity is stronger.
And I just want to note that I just read that over 700 businesses chose to close today.
Think about that.
Give them a round of applause.
These local businesses who committed to solidarity today.
And when today is over, let's commit to shopping at the businesses that stood with us and make sure they can make it through these tough times because the silence from the corporations in this state is deafening.
So let's spend our money at places that actually care about standing for our community.
So how did we get here today?
And why are we shutting things down?
Well, it's because so many wonderful rapid response and mutual aid workers just decided everybody needs to come together, everybody needs to learn how to pitch in, and today you're going to hear how.
So first off, groups of Minnesotans put out an audacious call.
Unions, faith groups, community organizations, immigrant rights groups, the queer community decided to say enough.
And they came with shared demands.
No work, no school, and no shopping on January 23rd.
And look at this.
Look at this.
So let's do a quick reminder of the demands that we are asking of ourselves and of our neighbors.
First, Minnesota and national companies must become Fourth Amendment businesses.
Cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or use their property for staging grounds.
That is one.
Two, not a single friggin penny for funding for ICE in this congressional budget or any congressional budget and human rights violations of Americans who are doing this to our neighbors.
Stop fueling these white walkers, period.
The officer who killed Renee Goode must be legally held accountable.
Instead of going after peaceful protesters and politicians who have stood up for our state, we demand an investigation to the officer who murdered our neighbor.
And most clear of all, the chant, we will say until we leave this building, ICE out of Minnesota now.
So before we move on to our next speakers, let's lift up the hundred organizations who sponsored this event and made this happen, which is the perfect lead-in to our next group of speakers because over 20 unions and federations who bring hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans together have really made a difference.
We know Minnesota, and one of the things that is so amazing about Minnesota history is our labor unions.
Right?
They've strived to be at the forefront of this fight for workers' rights, democracy, racial and social justice, and immigrant rights.
And right here, I am a proud member of the WGA and SAG AFTRA.
So that is why I am so excited to bring up the national presidents of three of the largest unions in the country.
Please join me in welcoming from the Service Employees International Union April Varin, from the American Federation of Teachers, Randy Weingarten, and from the Communications Workers of America, Claude Cummings.
The mic here.
Here you go, Randy.
Thank you, Liz.
I'm losing my glasses.
So, do we want ice out of Minnesota?
Oh my God, I know this is a rally and it was cold outside, but do we want ice out of Minnesota?
So, I'm Randy Weingarten.
I'm the president of the AFT, American Federation of Teachers, and I need to tell you that from coast to coast, 1.8 million members of the AFT are standing with Minnesota today.
We are all Minnesota today.
Our education unions from Minneapolis and St. Paul and Edmund, and here with me today were our leaders from Illinois and from Massachusetts.
We are all Minnesota today.
Authoritarians Don't Stop 00:03:18
And as the faith leaders just said, look, at the very least, shouldn't schools and hospitals and churches be sacrosanct?
What?
And shouldn't the life of Renee Goode, the life of five-year-old Lim, the life of Shang Lee Tao, shouldn't they be sacrosanct as well?
As well as the countless number of immigrants who have come to Minnesota for a better life, who have come to America for a better life, just like my grandparents did.
Donald Trump is using ICE to provoke violence in communities that have historically been welcoming and safe.
And why?
Why is he doing it?
That too.
To militarize American cities.
It is state-sanctioned violence, no different from what Alabama did in Selma in the 60s.
And this is not who we are.
At Roosevelt High School, an educator was tackled and detained by federal agents using pepper spray near students and teachers.
A teaching assistant, yeah, shame.
A teaching assistant was driving his family, driving his family when ICE agents threw a flashbang grenade that almost killed his baby.
Children are terrified.
Families are afraid to send their kids to schools.
This is not about immigration.
This is about intimidation.
It's not about restoring law and order.
It's about terrorizing communities that Donald Trump doesn't like.
It's about stripping Americans of our constitutional rights to protest.
It's about undermining the promise of America and our love for our neighbors.
As people have said already, Minnesota is being invaded by our own federal government.
But you, my friends, our beloved community, Minnesotans, are not standing by silently.
And in this, first they came for us moment, Minnesotans acted because that's what's right.
And because authoritarians don't stop with the most vulnerable or the people that have the least power.
Authoritarians don't stop until they are stopped.
So we who are not Minnesotans are standing with Minnesotans because today you and we are meeting ICE violence with nonviolence.
We are meeting their chaos and cruelty with compassion and community.
Rise And Organize 00:13:08
And let me say one more thing.
Minnesota they, Donald Trump, he misunderstood Minnesota Nice.
Minnesota NICE is compassion.
Minnesota NICE is courage.
Minnesota NICE is about protecting our communities and loving our neighbors.
That is who all you are.
That is who all we are.
Fighting for democracy, fighting for fairness, fighting for our neighbors, delivering food, doing all what other speakers have already said.
That is our work today.
Many days, our work is in schools and workplaces and shops.
But today, our work is raising our voices and standing in solidarity, peacefully and patriotically, embracing our neighbors and telling ICE they are not welcome here.
is our work today when we fight when we fight when we fight thank you I'm Claude Cummings, International President of the Communication Workers of America, CWA.
Thank you for having me here today.
And thank all of you for having braving the coal and the government-backed ice unleashed on your city streets to join together here and lift your voices as one.
Whether here in Minneapolis or in Chicago, Charlotte, or Washington, D.C., we are all united when it comes to armed mass men in uniform abducting and harming people in the name of security.
In the labor movement, we have a saying, an injury to one is an injury to all, and you here are the embodiment of that.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
Thank you, labor leaders, to the civil rights leaders, to the religious leaders, and to the community leaders here today.
Thank you to my CWA family, including CWA District 7 Vice President Susie McAllister and CWA Local 7250, President Kieran Konduten and his members, and thank you, all of you, the workers, the people who make this country run.
Looking out over this crowd, I see many faces of the United States.
I see the black, the brown, the white, and the indigenous.
I see the LGBTQ plus and the disabled.
I see those who were born here and those who came here for a better life.
And I see us united in our values of fairness, justice, and freedom.
But listen, those values are under attack now, like never before in this country.
Not since the days of Jim Crow have we seen a government so determined to divide us, limit us, and silent us.
But I believe in the power of working people to make a difference, even in the face of unchecked hate.
Within the CWA family, we've had several encounters with ICE, including two of our union siblings who were abducted in the job in St. Cloud just an hour from here.
Boo!
Boo.
A third CWA member with our news guild has also been taken.
An attack on one is an attack on all of us, and we will not stop until our family is whole again.
Know that CWA stands in solidarity with you, with workers, and with those who share our values.
We stand in defiance of a wannabe dictator, and we will rise against the corporations and Trump's billionaire buddies quietly funding his campaign to shred the Constitution.
Political scientists and historians tell us when countries have successfully prevented or reversed authoritarian control, unions have played an important role in stopping it.
How do we do that?
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our union siblings and with allies across the country.
We do that when we join together and focus our attention directly on the corporations that enable fascism.
Our unity across communities, organizations, and unions is our power.
And whatever we do, we must do it together.
Listen, we're in the same boat.
And while none of us ask to be here, I can tell you by the looks on your faces and the organizing already happening here that we will rise to this moment.
History is calling on each of us to play our part for the future.
That will take many different forms, but whatever you do, whether it's little or lot, what matters is, instead of bowing down, bowing down, you stood your ground.
So Minneapolis, let me ask you, are we going to buy down?
Are we going to buy down?
Are we going to buy down?
Then let's continue our fight.
Our movement, one voice, one goal.
When we fight, when we fight, when we fight, thank you.
Minnesota!
Y'all can do a little bit better than that.
Minnesota!
Now that felt nice.
I am April Veretta and I am the proud, proud international president of the SEIU.
And if you are ready to choose love over hate, joy over terror, peace over chaos, right over wrong, then you are in the right place.
Because, Minnesota family, we are here because something is happening in this country that demands our time, our attention, and our resistance.
That's right.
Thank you, sis.
We are here because our communities are under attack.
We are here because we know exactly what we must do in moments like this, don't we?
We stand up and we fight back.
Because across this country, our communities are being literally hunted, intimidated, punished, jailed while our democracy is being dismantled.
But here's the thing, friends.
I know deep down in my soul that we are not without hope and we are most certainly not without power.
And look, I came here in this bitter, bitter cold.
And y'all, this is a little goddamn ridiculous.
I'm just going to have to call a thing, like, this is not okay.
But here's the thing, Minnesota.
It might be bitterly cold, but today, you all brought the heat, Sean.
You could just put that down.
Because you all brought the heat.
And so I just want to call a thing a thing.
Because make no mistake about it.
What we are seeing from this federal government is not about safety.
It's not about law and order.
It's about power.
And Minnesota, you all know the truth about power.
And you know the truth about Philando Castile.
You know the truth about George Floyd.
You know the truth about Renee Good, who only got shot and killed by an ICE agent for standing up for her Somali neighbors.
Philando Castile, George Floyd, Renee Good, not isolated tragedies.
They are connected.
And we've seen this playbook before.
America has a long, long history of using law to excuse brutality, to make injustice look official, orderly, and acceptable.
The Ku Klux Klan, it was not just a group of violent extremists acting alone.
No, no, no.
The Ku Klux Klan was a part of an organized system of terror.
And today, ICE is playing the same damn role.
They may wear different uniforms.
They may talk a different language, but a thing is a thing.
It's the same damn thing.
And whenever this country has reached a moment like this, when injustice becomes policy, something else happens too.
The people will rise up.
The people will rise up.
Not because it's easy, not because it's safe, but because the only alternative to rising up is surrender.
And I don't think Minnesota is going to surrender.
And I know my time is short and I'm going to start wrapping it up, but I want to say this.
I've been to Selma, Alabama.
I've stood on that bridge and I saw the through line.
From Selma to Memphis to Minneapolis, the fights are connected.
We are up against corruption and greed, racism and white supremacy.
We are up against stakes sanctioned violence.
Y'all, this is our Selma.
This is our Selma.
And we must rise and we must organize.
We must rise and we must organize.
Listen, history, history tells us real change does not come from one single day of action, y'all.
It comes when ordinary people decide to stay engaged when the cameras leave.
So from here, we feel organized.
From here, we show up.
From here, we participate.
From here, we remember something essential.
This country has never ever moved forward because those in power, oh, suddenly they get a conscious.
No, no, no.
This country moves forward because people like each and every one of you insist with peace, with persistence, and we insist peacefully and persistent together.
We insist, we insist that this country of ours, this country of ours, must and will do better.
Family, if we stay organized, when we stay united, and when we keep our eyes and our arms wrapped around one another, instead of keeping our hearts in fear, then history will record our moment, not just as a time of crisis, but as a turning point.
A turning point, a moment when the people stood up, when working people claimed our God-given right and power to what is ours.
A moment when this country began once again to bend towards justice.
Family, that is where we must go from here.
So let's go get it.
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