USA
Minneapolis General Strike and Federal Agents Murder Another Person
Sunday 25 January 2026, by Dan La Botz
The day after a remarkable one-day general strike in Minneapolis held to protest federal agents’ murder of Renée Nicole Good, on January 26 federal agents murdered a second person, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Federal spokespeople immediately declared that Pretti was a domestic terrorist who had intended to “massacre” federal agents who, they said, shot him in self-defense but videos of the event contradicted the government’s claim.
One can see clearly in the videos that Pretti, holding a telephone in his hand to video ice agents, stepped up to assist a woman who had been pushed down, when he was attacked by seven agents who knocked him to the ground, pepper sprayed him, and beat him. The agents then discovered that Pretti was carrying a concealed handgun, as he was permitted to do under state law, though he never brandished the weapon. Agents took his gun from him and then a Border Patrol agent shot him ten times, killing him.
As had happened earlier with Good’s murder, Federal agents took command of the shooting site, and even though state officials with a judicial warrant demanded a right to examine the scene the Department of Homeland Security refused. Despite the below zero temperatures (-6 degrees Fahrenheit, -21 Celsius), hundreds of people took to the streets to protest Pretti’s murder and a thousand showed up for a spontaneous outdoor memorial service for him. Governor Tim Walz, who had earlier ordered the National Guard to stand ready, now mobilized it to keep order in Minneapolis.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act which allows the president to mobilize the U.S. military. He now says that Democratic governor Walz and Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.” So far, Trump has not sent in the military troops though his Justice Department is investigating the governor and mayor for allegedly impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The Minneapolis general strike against ICE on January 23, supported by labor union, religious groups, and community organizations mobilizing under the slogan “Day of Truth & Freedom” and calling for “no work, no school, no shopping” virtually stopped economic activity in the city. One hundred clergy members who gathered at the airport and blocked the facility were arrested for failure to comply with police and released, while tens of thousands marched through downtown Minneapolis. Hundreds of small businesses closed for the day in protest while others permitted employees to take the day off. Everywhere people shouted “ICE out.” There were also protests in other cities across the country, despite the sub-zero temperatures, snow, sleet and ice in half the nation.
Unlike Europe or Latin America, we don’t have general strikes in the United States. The Minneapolis general strike is unprecedented in contemporary America. Not since 1934 has there been a general strike in Minneapolis and no other city has gone on strike since the Oakland general strike of 1946. But it has also been a long time since federal officers have beaten, gassed, and murdered white U.S. citizens with impunity. We have gone beyond the reactionary McCarthyism of the 1950s. The events in Minneapolis confirm that we now live in the grip, the death grip, of an authoritarian government, but also that there is a powerful, popular resistance. We are in a struggle for justice, for democracy, and for our lives. And that struggle goes on, most intensely in Minneapolis, but also everywhere else in the country. And the end is not in sight.
25 January 2026
Attached documentsminneapolis-general-strike-and-federal-agents-murder_a9382.pdf (PDF - 1.6 MiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9382]
ICE Murder of Minneapolis Woman Leads to Grief, Anger, Sparks National Protests
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
Undeterred by Freezing Temps, Statewide Minnesota Strikes Demand ‘ICE Out Now’Minneapolis General Strike and Federal Agents Murder Another Person
Sunday 25 January 2026, by Dan La Botz
The day after a remarkable one-day general strike in Minneapolis held to protest federal agents’ murder of Renée Nicole Good, on January 26 federal agents murdered a second person, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Federal spokespeople immediately declared that Pretti was a domestic terrorist who had intended to “massacre” federal agents who, they said, shot him in self-defense but videos of the event contradicted the government’s claim.
One can see clearly in the videos that Pretti, holding a telephone in his hand to video ice agents, stepped up to assist a woman who had been pushed down, when he was attacked by seven agents who knocked him to the ground, pepper sprayed him, and beat him. The agents then discovered that Pretti was carrying a concealed handgun, as he was permitted to do under state law, though he never brandished the weapon. Agents took his gun from him and then a Border Patrol agent shot him ten times, killing him.
As had happened earlier with Good’s murder, Federal agents took command of the shooting site, and even though state officials with a judicial warrant demanded a right to examine the scene the Department of Homeland Security refused. Despite the below zero temperatures (-6 degrees Fahrenheit, -21 Celsius), hundreds of people took to the streets to protest Pretti’s murder and a thousand showed up for a spontaneous outdoor memorial service for him. Governor Tim Walz, who had earlier ordered the National Guard to stand ready, now mobilized it to keep order in Minneapolis.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act which allows the president to mobilize the U.S. military. He now says that Democratic governor Walz and Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.” So far, Trump has not sent in the military troops though his Justice Department is investigating the governor and mayor for allegedly impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The Minneapolis general strike against ICE on January 23, supported by labor union, religious groups, and community organizations mobilizing under the slogan “Day of Truth & Freedom” and calling for “no work, no school, no shopping” virtually stopped economic activity in the city. One hundred clergy members who gathered at the airport and blocked the facility were arrested for failure to comply with police and released, while tens of thousands marched through downtown Minneapolis. Hundreds of small businesses closed for the day in protest while others permitted employees to take the day off. Everywhere people shouted “ICE out.” There were also protests in other cities across the country, despite the sub-zero temperatures, snow, sleet and ice in half the nation.
Unlike Europe or Latin America, we don’t have general strikes in the United States. The Minneapolis general strike is unprecedented in contemporary America. Not since 1934 has there been a general strike in Minneapolis and no other city has gone on strike since the Oakland general strike of 1946. But it has also been a long time since federal officers have beaten, gassed, and murdered white U.S. citizens with impunity. We have gone beyond the reactionary McCarthyism of the 1950s. The events in Minneapolis confirm that we now live in the grip, the death grip, of an authoritarian government, but also that there is a powerful, popular resistance. We are in a struggle for justice, for democracy, and for our lives. And that struggle goes on, most intensely in Minneapolis, but also everywhere else in the country. And the end is not in sight.
25 January 2026
Attached documentsminneapolis-general-strike-and-federal-agents-murder_a9382.pdf (PDF - 1.6 MiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9382]
ICE Murder of Minneapolis Woman Leads to Grief, Anger, Sparks National Protests
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
“We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up.”
Demonstrators participate in a rally and march during an “ICE Out” general strike and day of protest on January 23, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
According to union leaders, 12 airport workers are among the Minneapolis-area residents who have been detained by ICE in recent weeks.
Julia Conley
Jan 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Twin Cities residents are weeks into the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in an operation that has seen a legal observer and young mother fatally shot; US citizens dragged out of their homes and vehicles by masked officers; one of President Donald Trump’s top Border Patrol officials lobbing a gas grenade at lawful protesters; children as young as 2 detained; and armed agents seemingly lurking around every corner.
But the trauma inflicted on the cities during “Operation Metro Surge” appeared only to have strengthened residents’ resolve to push US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of Minnesota on Friday as residents filled the Minneapolis’ downtown area to march in subfreezing temperatures and assembled at a nearby airport through which an estimated 2,000 people have been deported.
Fury Over ICE Brutality and Lawlessness Fuels Push for Minnesota ‘General Strike’
Minneapolis Labor, Community Leaders Join Call for Jan. 23 General Strike to Demand ICE Out
The demonstrations were part of a “no work, no school, no shopping” general strike that labor, faith, and community leaders and businesses have joined in calling for in recent days as outrage has grown over ICE’s arrests of immigrants and citizens alike and attacks on residents’ First Amendment rights.
Demonstrators carried signs reading, “ICE Out Now,” “Stop Pretending Racism Is Patriotism,” and “Stop Disappearing Our Neighbors.”
Businesses and cultural institutions were closed in solidarity across the city and the state on Friday; Truthout reported that about 700 businesses shut their doors across Minnesota, while businesses that remained open planned to donate their proceeds from the day to immigrant rights groups.
Organizers said about 100 clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport protest. They were among the protesters who blocked the road at a departures terminal, singing, “Before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail, everybody has a right to live.”
Jan 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Twin Cities residents are weeks into the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in an operation that has seen a legal observer and young mother fatally shot; US citizens dragged out of their homes and vehicles by masked officers; one of President Donald Trump’s top Border Patrol officials lobbing a gas grenade at lawful protesters; children as young as 2 detained; and armed agents seemingly lurking around every corner.
But the trauma inflicted on the cities during “Operation Metro Surge” appeared only to have strengthened residents’ resolve to push US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of Minnesota on Friday as residents filled the Minneapolis’ downtown area to march in subfreezing temperatures and assembled at a nearby airport through which an estimated 2,000 people have been deported.
Fury Over ICE Brutality and Lawlessness Fuels Push for Minnesota ‘General Strike’
Minneapolis Labor, Community Leaders Join Call for Jan. 23 General Strike to Demand ICE Out
The demonstrations were part of a “no work, no school, no shopping” general strike that labor, faith, and community leaders and businesses have joined in calling for in recent days as outrage has grown over ICE’s arrests of immigrants and citizens alike and attacks on residents’ First Amendment rights.
Demonstrators carried signs reading, “ICE Out Now,” “Stop Pretending Racism Is Patriotism,” and “Stop Disappearing Our Neighbors.”
Businesses and cultural institutions were closed in solidarity across the city and the state on Friday; Truthout reported that about 700 businesses shut their doors across Minnesota, while businesses that remained open planned to donate their proceeds from the day to immigrant rights groups.
Organizers said about 100 clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport protest. They were among the protesters who blocked the road at a departures terminal, singing, “Before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail, everybody has a right to live.”
According to union leaders, 12 airport workers are among the Minneapolis-area residents who have been detained by ICE in recent weeks.
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation (MRLF), AFL-CIO, acknowledged that the weather on Friday was “dangerously cold.”
“Negative-10°F with wind chills. Like the high is going to be -10°F with wind chills of up to -20F,” Glaubitz Gabiou told the Guardian. “We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up.”
Organizers said the goals of the general strike were for ICE to leave Minnesota, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good earlier this month to be held legally accountable, and no additional federal funding for ICE operations.
Seven US House Democrats joined the Republican Party in passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week. The legislation still needs to get through the Senate.
Nationwide, data has shown that nearly three-quarters of people arrested by ICE have had no criminal convictions, but the Trump administration has continued to claim it is detaining the “worst of the worst” violent criminals, even as agents have clearly been shown arresting people who are authorized to be in the US and have no criminal records.
“Negative-10°F with wind chills. Like the high is going to be -10°F with wind chills of up to -20F,” Glaubitz Gabiou told the Guardian. “We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up.”
Organizers said the goals of the general strike were for ICE to leave Minnesota, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good earlier this month to be held legally accountable, and no additional federal funding for ICE operations.
Seven US House Democrats joined the Republican Party in passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week. The legislation still needs to get through the Senate.
Nationwide, data has shown that nearly three-quarters of people arrested by ICE have had no criminal convictions, but the Trump administration has continued to claim it is detaining the “worst of the worst” violent criminals, even as agents have clearly been shown arresting people who are authorized to be in the US and have no criminal records.
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