As many as 200 businesses in Minnesota are set to be closed Friday as thousands across the state kick of a statewide general strike in an effort to combat the surge of federal immigration officers swarming the North Star State.
“People are going to be wearing certain colors, people aren’t going to be shopping,” said Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, speaking with The New Republic for its report published on Friday.
“People who are able to stay home from work are going to stay home from work. We’re going to be downtown. There’s creative ways to get around downtown through our Skyway system and things like that that might be used.”
Dubbed “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom,” the general strike and its organizers have called on all Minnesotans to not attend work, school or to shop on Friday, essentially shutting down all economic activity in the state.
As part of the general strike, unions are also negotiating with employers to shut down businesses entirely on Friday, which could result in around 200 businesses shutting down entirely for the day.
“We cannot allow this to continue,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, a minister at a Methodist church in St. Paul during the announcement of the general strike last week, The Washington Post reported Friday. “If you ever wondered for yourself, when is the time that we do something different, when is the time that we stand up … the time is now.”
A surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were deployed to Minneapolis earlier this month in the wake of the controversial investigation by MAGA influencer Nick Shirley into Somali daycares. Tensions in the city have heated up in the wake of the fatal ICE shooting of Minnesota woman Renee Good, with what appeared to be thousands of Minnesotans taking to the streets last weekend in protest.