Anti-Drag Campaign Attacks Queer Community, Art, and Workers; Antifascists Fight Back
Visitors to St Paul public libraries in recent weeks may have found an atmosphere quite different from the usual quiet and calm among the bookshelves. On two separate occasions since September, our libraries have played host to competing rallies - on the one hand, members of a hate mob gathered to oppose queer cultural events, particularly Drag Queen Story Hour. On the other hand, antifascists and other community members there to defend queer people and freedom of expression.
Although the far right street presence in the Twin Cities has been beaten back multiple times in the last five years, it is undergoing a resurgence - and its target is the queer community, through a manufactured outrage around drag events.
cw: mentions of CSA, transphobic & racist violence, anti-trans and antisemitic conspiracy theories
Proud Boys Try to Start Violent Confrontation at Children's Event at Public Library, Fail
A joyous Saturday morning of story telling by beloved local drag performers for children and families was in danger of being disrupted by a group of Hold the Line MN and Proud Boys. A coalition of counterprotesters ensured the event proceeded as planned, thwarted the Proud Boys in inciting violence, shielded families and children from pornographic images displayed by Hold the Line MN and the Proud Boys, and made sure all attendees were able to leave safely.
cw: virulent transphobia, queerphobia, transphobic rhetoric
Statement against violent arrests and absurd charges against participants in New Year's Eve noise demonstration
On New Year's Eve, our community gathered for a noise demonstration in downtown Minneapolis in support of prison abolition and in solidarity with incarcerated folks. Officers swarmed the scene, abruptly making violent arrests without dispersal orders. It is an abuse of power to disperse a protest without issuing such an order. Instead of ticketing or releasing folks - which is the norm - our friends and relatives were held over the holiday weekend under probable cause charges, which historically has been used by police to give extra time to justify otherwise unlawful arrests that violate everyone’s first amendment rights to protest.
Brief examples from Minneapolis' Whittier neighborhood of the upswell of organized people
Conversations during and after the Uprising led to people forming up a Whittier copwatch. In that copwatch, connections were made which helped workers get in touch with union organizers and tenants to revive tenant organizing committees and more.
Counterinsurgency and Continuing Insurgency in Minneapolis
As the summer born in flames nears its end in Minneapolis, the counterinsurgency playbook plays out much as expected. As symbolic concessions are granted all over, the material reality of racist police violence driven by propertied interests continues.