Northwoods Socialist Collective

One of the ways that folks can fight back against ICE is to join a mutual aid network. These bodies can help folks who are vulnerable to being attacked by ICE to do At our recent Socialism and a Slice discussion on "Organizing Against ICE in Our Communities", sign up sheets were passed around to get these set up in every neighborhood of the Twin Ports. If you'd like help finding one to plug into, or need assistance from such a network, email us or Twin Ports Against Weapons Trade or the ICE Out of the Twin Ports (those last two groups you can find on instagram @_tpawt and @iceoutoftwinports).

A LOT has been happening in the last week.   The most significant of which was the ICE murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, and the massive fight back that has risen up since then.   And the Twin Ports has been part of the fight back. On the day of Good’s murder three different protests took place in Duluth.   The first was the regularly scheduled protest in east Duluth held every Wednesday at noon since the first ICE raid hit our community this past Spring.   That event is organized by Twin Ports Against Weapons Trade.   Then Twin Ports Rapid Response held a protest in front of the Civic Center from 3 to 6pm.   And an ad hoc group of activists held a candle light vigil downtown at 7pm. Suspecting and increased ICE presence in the Northwoods, rapid response folks have held multiple mobilizations, responding to tips about possible ICE sightings, as well as staking out businesses and institutions that request it. Friday evening over 100 folks turned out...

On multiple occasions  Chief Mike Ceynowa has stated that the Duluth Police Department (DPD) does not handle immigration enforcement. However, local immigrant solidarity activists have had experiences that expose that this is not the case.  Here is a statement by a local solidarity activist that gives a specific example: In a recent incident, myself and other constitutional observers were practicing our legal right by tailing what we believed to be an ICE vehicle that had been circling Denfeld High School. We tailed this federal vehicle until they entered the Public Safety Campus, at which point a fellow observer entered a nearby parking lot and all exits were blocked by DPD vehicles. We then lost the federal vehicle. Secretary Noem has deployed 2100 federal officers to Minnesota to assist in deportations. 600 of those officers are Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) officers, which DPD has confirmed that they do work with, and that they plan to continue to work with. My con...

In addition to our weekly activist calendar that we publish online and send out as an email zine, we publish an occasional printed newsletter called the Northwoods Socialist .  We just finished putting together our end of the year newsletter, which is a round up of the social justice activism in our region that the Northwoods Socialist Collective was involved in.   To read a PDF version of the newsletter, click here .

Africa has experienced countless genocides, and behind them there are always the interests of companies from imperialist countries. The French in Algeria, the Italians in Ethiopia, the Belgians in Rwanda and Congo, the Germans in Namibia and Tanzania, the British in Kenya, etc. In Darfur, Sudan, near the border with Chad, the non-Arab African population experienced a first genocide in 2003, and for two and a half years now, the Black Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa ethnic groups have been experiencing a new genocide similar to that of 2003. The first genocide, in 2003, was carried out by the Janjaweed (lit. “armed horsemen”), who, under the government of dictator Al Bashir, gained the status of regular forces and from which emerged the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) of the supposed general Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo. In 2003, it is estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 people were murdered! A reactionary civil war In Sudan, there are two bourgeois factions at war with each other,...

In the last several months, the U.S. military has repeatedly conducted air strikes on small fishing boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Almost every few days, the Trump administration has bragged about ruthlessly bombing boats and killing everyone on board nearly every single time. Trump and the head of the newly named Department of War, Pete Hegseth, who used to be a Fox News host, claim these strikes are being done to prevent so-called “narco-terrorists” from Venezuela bringing drugs into the United States. One of these targeted assassinations, which all occurred without any evidence ever being presented, was recently criticized as a potential war crime because after the boat was first bombed, there were survivors still hanging onto the wreckage for dear life, who were then bombed again and killed.