Northwoods Socialist Collective

  This past Friday the nurses at the Chisholm Health Center held an informational picket. The facility is owned by St. Francis and the nurses are represented by United Steelworkers Local 9349. They have been in contract negotiations for nine months. The company is not only refusing to give their workers a raise, but are demanding significant cuts to their benefits package. However they had plenty of money to give management a raise! The union picket was well received by passersby, and the nurses were joined by Steelworkers from the nearby mines, members of United Steelworkers Local 9460 from Duluth, SOAR (Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees) and the United Food & Commercial Workers.

 We reported last week on now ICE abducted Villamizar Rojas Álvaro de Jesús from the Red Rock Inn & Suites in Hibbing.  It has since come out that Villamizar had legal documents to worker in the United States. His papers indicated that he was authorized to work in the U.S. from March 2024 until August 2025 .  And he was already making plans to return to his home country of Venezuela before his papers expired.  In a blatantly illegal act, Immigration, Customs & Enforcement agents abducted him anyways.  And to date they have not released him, and are refusing to share where he is being held. This is the second time in a row that ICE has done this.  They did the same thing back on May 1st when they abducted two roofing workers in the Duluth Heights neighborhood, one of whom was a U.S. citizen, the other had legal papers allowing him to work in this country.  In that instance, after several days, both workers were released .

  ICE has struck again. This Monday they abducted Villamizar Rojas Álvaro de Jesús from the Red Rock Inn & Suites in Hibbing. Villamizar was a Venezuelan immigrant who was loved and embraced by his community.  We urge folks to raise their voices against this, and all of the other ICE abductions that are sweeping the country.  We will post updates here on the fight to free Villamizar.  Below is a statement issued by Building Mean and Women for a Change , an Iron Range group that knew and worked with Villamizar:    Justice for Villamizar — Our Brother, Our Fight

 This past Wednesday hundreds of nurses took the streets of Duluth to demand safe staffing levels and fair compensation.  Pickets were held in front of the Aspirus St. Luke's Hospital from 8am to noon and in front of the Essentia St. Mary's Hospital from 2 to 6pm.   The nurses are members of the Minnesota Nurses Association, and they are currently locked in tough contract negotiations with both employers.  For years, the MNA has been fighting to get both companies to commit to hiring enough staff to better guarantee patient safety, something that is seriously threatened by the dramatic staff reductions and workload increases that are becoming the norm across the healthcare industry.  And they also point out that the refusal to offer competitive wages and benefits stands in stark contract to the astronomical pay increases the CEOs and other top brass are giving themselves (In 2022, Essentia CEO David Herman received $3.07 million in compensation!). 

The combative resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and deportations in Los Angeles continued on Sunday, June 8. Tens of thousands of the city’s multi-racial working class took to the city’s streets, led by Latino youth, and stood down against police at detention centers.  Police — some of whom were on mounted horses — deployed flash bang grenades and rubber bullets, and arrested 27. The protesters fired off bottles and rocks, and wore masks and keffiyehs to protect themselves and to support Palestine, defying Trump’s no-mask order. Thousands took over the 110 freeway, cheering and marching and waving Mexican and Palestinian flags. Protesters threw motorized scooters from a bridge above the cops, busting the windshields of their cars. 

 As Israel continues its genocidal campaign to try and wipe Gaza off of the map, activists in the Twin Ports continue their efforts to stand in solidarity with the beleaguered people of Palestine.  Here is a brief summary of recent and upcoming solidarity events in our region. This past Saturday, more than 50 folks gathered at the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Duluth for a teach-in titled " Resisting Genocide & Zionism ".  The event was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group.  It consisted of a series of workshops on topics like the history of ethnic cleansing in Palestine & North America, the economic history of Zionism and the Boycott, Divest & Sanctions movement.  The event also hosted a picnic and a brainstorming sessions for future actions. This month there are five Palestine solidarity protests planned: