A Statement from the Solidarity Caucus On the Politically Targeted Federal Charges Against Our Union Siblings
This week federal prosecutors charged 15 Minnesotans, including union members, in connection with opposition to ICE operations in our communities.
The Solidarity Caucus stands with our siblings in the labor movement and with all those who have been targeted for resisting ICE terror and the attacks on our Constitution. An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us.
Our defense of our constitutional rights is a defense of our union contracts. These rights survive only when we are organized enough to defend them together. We fight for a future where:
– we can all get healthcare, pay our bills, and take care of our families
– children go to school knowing they’ll see their parents at the end of the day
– America’s diversity is embraced instead of criminalized
The same federal government that claims there is no money for public programs that sustain people has no shortage of money for raids, prosecutions, detention, and intimidation.
From Palestine to Minnesota, workers and oppressed people are being targeted for resisting imperialism, capitalism, racism, and authoritarianism. These struggles are connected by the same system that answers resistance with surveillance, occupation, prosecution, and force. ICE raids, detention, and deportation are weapons being used to divide the working class by race, nationality, and immigration status.
The government hopes to isolate, frighten, and punish those who organized in solidarity with our neighbors. Our answer must be organized labor solidarity. We call on unions, labor councils, and community organizations to stand publicly with the accused, support their legal defense, and demand that all charges be dropped.
Their militarized agents did not frighten us. Their courts will not silence us. Their repression will not divide us.
