Just over two weeks after the murder of Renee Nicole Good, federal agents have murdered another person in Minneapolis in broad daylight.

In a video that was widely shared on social media, six Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents are seen pinning someone down on the sidewalk. Not more than 10 seconds later, while one of the officers repeatedly punches the individual in the face, another agent opens fire. At least four shots are heard, after which the individual falls to the ground, motionless. After a short moment, several agents continue to shoot at point blank despite the individual remaining completely still on the ground, even as other agents flee the scene. In total, at least 10 shots can be heard.

The footage leaves no room for doubt: CBP agents performed a public execution. There is no back story, no motive for the detention, no circumstance that could change or mitigate this fact. Immediately after the killing, hundreds of protesters flocked to the scene. DHS agents are seen in live coverage gassing and pepper-spraying surrounding people, while protestors chant, “I smell Nazis.”

It is no coincidence that this murder takes place one day after the massive general strike and march brought Minneapolis to a standstill on Friday. Businesses shut down, and despite the freezing cold, more than 50,000 people took to the streets. Across the country, tens of thousands of people joined the struggle demanding ICE out of our communities, schools, and neighborhoods.

We cannot stand for this. President Trump and his Gestapo will not be stopped without decisive action. We must shut everything down in a general strike, force all federal agents out of Minneapolis and every U.S. city, and demand the abolition of the DHS. Minneapolis is the battleground that will define the political situation, our capacity to protest, speak up, or even live without fear. Trump has rebuilt federal immigration enforcement agencies to be a loyal shock force of his administration that targets not only immigrants, but increasingly protesters, the Left, and anyone who stands up against them or Trump’s agenda.

By justifying the murder of Renee Nicole Good, Trump and Vance gave a green light for the far-right DHS forces to unleash their racist and xenophobic rage on the people of Minneapolis, effectively giving them the right to murder with impunity.

The massive, working-class action that shut down Minneapolis showed how we can successfully fight back. However, union leaders were mostly responding to the pressure and organizing efforts from below. They did not encourage or coordinate rank-and-file mobilization in schools and workplaces to actually shut everything down. We need to demand more from our unions. In Minneapolis and across the United States, we need to prepare for a stronger general strike that could show the strength of the working class and the people.

We need the energy and the combativeness from Minneapolis to spread at a national scale.

All over the country, we need to develop committees of action to organize active solidarity from our workplaces and neighborhoods with the people of Minnesota. We must accumulate forces towards an organized national strike.

This has to include the teachers’ unions who have organized important strikes in recent years, and the UAW that organizes vital sectors of industry in the midwest. UAW leaders like Shawn Fain in particular have a special responsibility — and the capacity — to coordinate the whole midwest in solidarity with Minnesota and put forward concrete steps towards a nationwide general strike.

Such actions must also include the Teamsters, who must choose the side of their immigrant siblings, not Trump’s murderous policies. This is about defending our right to protest, it’s about standing up to the racist and reactionary agenda being put forward by the Trump administration, and it’s about the fight against a paramilitary police force that can kidnap and murder with impunity.

While we have to demand decisive action from union leaderships, this struggle must be organized from below. Already we are seeing rank-and-file organization in the spontaneous ICE defense networks sprouting up throughout Minneapolis and cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. We have also seen this in the so-called “sanctuary schools” in Minneapolis where rank-and-file committees of teachers are organizing to protect their immigrant students.

We need to expand these kinds of committees to all of our workplaces and unions, to use the most powerful weapon we have: the strike. This will strengthen and inspire self-organizing efforts in neighborhoods and workplaces to defend against immigration enforcement agencies and build a national general strike.

The lives of our immigrant neighbors and activists are literally on the line, and Trump’s violent authoritarian agenda will not be stopped without decisive and organized mass action.

The post Federal Agents Publicly Execute Another Person in Minneapolis. It’s Time for a National General Strike appeared first on Left Voice.

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