What is a good example of the kind of strategy approach we can have as socialists in the fight for a better world?

Look no further than Minneapolis in the USA. A city flooded with ICE agents, hundreds of people kidnapped by federal agents and two people murdered by the state. A clear example of the kind of world that our ruling class is building for us everywhere as we hurtle towards authoritarian capitalism.

Operation Metro Surge began in December 2025 – the “largest anti immigrant action ever”, gloated ICE. What the response from the people of Minneapolis shows is the organising and mobilising that is possible and that ecosocialists can be at the forefront of. Protests, direct action, mutual aid and a city wide general strike humiliated ICE, drove them out of the city and dealt a significant blow to Trump’s racist agenda.

Long term building

This success is the result of years of organising. Minneapolis has become a stronghold of the left in the USA.  From the protests against the racist Sensenbrenner bill in 2006 (which made it a felony crime for immigrants not to have papers and also criminalised acts of solidarity with them), the day without immigrants on 1 May 2006, the Occupy movement after 2010, eco-protests against Dakota Access Pipeline, solidarity work with indigenous communities (also across the border in Canada).

We must not forget that Minneapolis was also the epicentre for the Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd was murdered there in 2020. The networks that are built in one phase of the struggle help provide the infrastructure for subsequent movements and resistance.

The initial phase of resistance to ICE built on these networks and organic opposition, led by people who were motivated to protest Trump and his policies. Mutual aid was crucial at this stage, bringing neighbours food because they were too afraid to leave their houses, helping to take kids to school, observing ICE agents and warning communities about their arrival was a key part of the early resistance networks. This required volunteers able to do this work and to be properly coordinated together.

The fight against ICE was broad with many sites of struggle. There was a fight to demand that the city government have nothing to do with the ICE thugs, stop them using city property to park their cars for instance. And a campaign against them collaborating with local police because ICE often picked up people as they are stopped for a traffic violation.

ICE tried to buy industrial warehouse spaces in the Woodbury and Shakopee suburbs of Minneapolis for mass detentions, but a concerted public campaign meant the deal collapsed after the owners got cold feet.

Boycott tactic

There was also a growing mood for boycotts – for instance of Target, where immigrant residents and workers were targeted by ICE and the company said nothing (Minneapolis is their corporate HQ) and other corporations that do business with ICE/Border Patrol – Enterprise (where they rent their cars and vans), Hilton hotels where they stay, and also the airlines companies that are contracted to fly people out of the US.

On 6th January it was announced a further 2,000 federal agents were deployed in the city. The next day Renee Nicole Good was murdered by an ICE officer as she drove away.  It is worth remembering that the ICE agents have been poorly trained but also a number have been recruited directly from far right and violent nationalist organisations. This makes these kinds of killings even more likely that usual cop-protestor interactions.

After Good was murdered and Trump’s administration lied about the circumstances the Democrats appealed for calm and some tried to demobilise the community movement. This was opposed with clear agitation that the shooting should not be responded to with retreat but with greater tenacity and increased organisation.

Response to Good’s murder

The killing led to the calling of the mass city wide strike for 23 January. There was serious community mobilisations, an impressive social media campaign, daily meetings in some places and lots of work to reach out to workers and students. The day was initially pitched, “No work, no shopping, no schools”. Unions such as SEIU, who have had several of their members picked up by ICE were involved SEIU had some members deported, some kept in the inhumane detention centers.

Teachers and all school staff were central to the organising as they work closely with parents to patrol schools. Whilst there was no formal strike, many were able to take sick days so around 25% of workers didn’t go to work that day.

The campaign was also backed by many small businesses, but the momentum behind it carried over into the city council chambers as DSA members in the municipal government fought within the local Democrat establishment who ended up backing the strike and protest as well.

This one day strike was the largest seen in decades – around a quarter of Minneapolis residents took part. Although the anti-ICE message was pushing at an open door for many, this was the result of serious organising on the ground – nothing is spontaneous.

The next day after the city wide strike, Alex Pretti was assassinated in the street by ICE agents. Again the lies from the government appalled people. Once again the movement did not back down and a call for a nationwide day of action was issued – initially from students at Minnesota university.

Some of the forces involved in 23 January were reluctant to back a call for another – country wide – action only 7 days later. But the energy and organising capacity of the movement had grown in Minneapolis and this was being replicated elsewhere through a focus on a day of action against ICE.

There had been other mass protests, the No Kings demonstrations on 14th June and 18th October 2025 – which some on the left had dismissed as too tied to the Democrat party and not radical enough.

Nevertheless the process of building those protests helps to create networks for mobilisations that can respond when a more specific and clearer day of action is called as it was on 30th January 2026, they also bring people into contact with the socialist left and more radical ideas.

Shortly afterwards it was announced that ICE would end operations in Minneapolis – a clear victory for the movement and the working class of the Twin Cities.

A model for the movement

It is important to think about this victory not because it is the final battle – Trump is still in power, capitalism still grinds on its exploitation, climate breakdown accelerates. Rather, we should because it shows the kind of movement that can be built.

That movement combines direct action (ICE watch grounds, anti arrest networks, etc), boycotts, community organising, going door to door speaking to people and getting them to take action, and specifically class based resistance – mass strikes and mobilisations like on 23 January and 30th January.

When we talk about the working class we are not just speaking of factory workers – though those workers are important! We are talking about how socialists can connect with genuine concerns, can help to focus and radicalise the movement, how we can reach out to people who otherwise might consider themselves ‘apolitical’ or be despondent about the state of the world.

Socialists are the tribunes of the oppressed – if the state and racist forces are mobilising against a community then we are the first to offer practical solidarity as well as mobilising and organising to create a political and social movement to fight back.

What was achieved in Minneapolis is an indication of the kind of strategy that shows how a fighting united force can be built in practice. But it also does not happen overnight, it takes time to build these kinds of networks.

So get involved in something now, a local anti racist group, or palestine support, or a trade union branch, an ecological campaign – the list goes on! When the time comes these networks matter and organised resistance and escalation flow from the work that has been done before. 

Next, the mobilisations for another No Kings protest, then May Day and then beyond… to raise the fighting spirit of the people, to give a strategy and a focus for action – this is the role of revolutionary socialists.

You can read more about what happened in Minneapolis on the Against The Current website and the Tempest Collective have written an article that also draws out some of the lessons we can look to apply.

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