Labor and community leaders from Minnesota have called for a day of action on January 23, urging everyone across the state not to go to work, shop or go to school. The protest comes in response to the murder of Rene Nicole Good at the hands of ICE, and the continuous harassment by federal agents, including abductions, physical violence, and the terrorizing of communities.

The measure, labeled by organizers “A day of Truth and Freedom,” was announced at a press conference on January 13 by Auxiliary Minister JaNaé Bates Imari. “There are lies being spewed about our neighbors” JaNaé said, “to try to validate why we have thousands of masked officers here, harming our people and harming us, taking our citizens from where they work, beating people up and dropping them at random locations. This is not rumor. We’re seeing it with our own eyes every single day.”

Just a few hours after Good was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem raised bogus accusations of domestic terrorism against the victim. Other federal officials, including Vice President JD Vance and President Donal Trump quickly joined the smear campaign to justify the assassination. Furthermore, facing increased protests and doubling down on the repressive campaign, hundreds of more ICE agents were deployed in Minnesota.

“We have had an agency of mass militia swarm our cities. Nothing is normal about that. The way they are operating in land where people live, pray and play is not normal,” JaNaé continued. ICE agents are “acting like thugs in the streets. We cannot allow this to continue. And so … if you ever wondered for yourself when is the time when we do something different. When is the time that we stand up and say this needs to change. The time is now.”

Although the speaker and the organizations behind the call refrained from calling it a strike — presumably to avoid legal challenges, or to make the measure sound less radical — there is no other word for it. It is a call for a general strike in the state of Minnesota. Among the unions that signed on the call are St. Paul Federation of Educators, Unite Here Local 17, SEIU Local 26 and Minnesota’s Amalgamated Transit Union local 1005. We can expect several others to join over the next few days. Community organizations and faith groups were also part of the call, including Unidos, Isaiah, Jewish Community Action, Copaul, and more.

An Emboldened Vigilante Force

It’s increasingly clear that ICE has been groomed and grown like an altogether different repressive force. ICE received a massive budget increase under Trump’s “One Beautiful Bill” in 2025, with an additional $75 billion over four years, nearly tripling its typical annual funding. During 2025 alone, it more than doubled in manpower, thanks to frenzied recruitment efforts, followed by rushed training and minimal vetting.

Furthermore, the recruitment campaigns contained thinly veiled white-supremacist messages, appealing to far-right individuals, including members of the Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and neofascist organizations. Wearing masks covering their faces, refusing to identify themselves, conducting violent and arbitrary detentions, and acting, so far, with “absolute immunity” — to use JD Vance’s own words — the new ICE force sits comfortably on the margins of legality. This is not an oversight or an accident. The result is a vigilante-like military force of more than 22,000 members who are loyal to Donald Trump.

Fighting Fire with Fire

While the federal government tramples over constitutional rights, and state and city’s jurisdictions, Democratic governors, and city Mayors use combative rhetoric and a few swear words while taking measures no one in the federal government fears: legal challenges.

However, Labor leaders, political activists, and community organizations in Minnesota understood that it’s time to truly fight back. Working people in Minnesota figured out something many still fail to see: the most powerful weapon is withholding our labor. A strike avoids a frontal standoff with the repressive forces of the state while at the same time hitting it when it hurts the most: profits.

General strikes are almost unheard of in the United States. But they’re more common in other countries, where unions are stronger and more militant, and where left organizations have stronger leverage. In October, 2025, for instance, millions joined a general strike in Italy in protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The dark shadow of a terrorizing, increasingly unhinged military force has rapidly spread across the country and threatens to impose a new political order. When courts are filled with loyalists and civil rights are surreptitiously undercut, we must show our strength in the streets. This weekend, thousands took to the streets in cities across the country to protest Trump’s military action against Venezuela, as well as the deployment of ICE in our communities. It became obvious to most protesters that the fight against imperialism is intertwined with the fight against state repression at home.

The task ahead is clear, and it’s urgent: all union members must push for a resolution by their union locals to join Minnesota’s general strike on January 23. Let’s make it a nationwide strike. And let’s continue the fight until ICE is out of all our cities, and until the U.S. ceases its military aggression in Venezuela.

The post Workers Across the U.S. Must Join Minnesota’s January 23 General Strike appeared first on Left Voice.

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