Many people weren’t sure if the day of action would be successful once they saw the forecast. At minus 20 degrees, your nose hairs freeze. You want to have as little skin exposed to the elements as possible. You generally do not want to be standing outside, chanting and holding a megaphone, or marching downtown, under the shadows of buildings.
The conditions also would have made it difficult to spot University of Minnesota (UMN) Resident Dr. Avalon Swenson that day in Minneapolis–if she wasn’t wearing a white coat on top of her parka.
“Organized labor in Minnesota is standing up again in solidarity to resist state sanctioned violence, institutional racism, and oppression,” Dr. Swenson reminded a crowd of CIR members and their fellow union workers outside Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) on January 23. “Our demand and the reasons for it are explicit. We need ICE OUT OF OUR HOSPITALS AND OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW.”
Dr. Swenson had joined her peers at HCMC from UMN to participate in Minnesota’s statewide Day of Truth and Freedom, which called for ICE out of the state amid the horrors of the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge.” While workers held their unity break at HCMC, their colleagues simultaneously rallied at two UMN sites, to demand ICE out of their hospitals and out of Minnesota.
As physicians remarked that day, ICE’s presence has a devastating impact on patient care–both because of the climate of fear that impacts health outcomes and makes patients afraid to seek care, and because in the Twin Cities, agents were literally going into hospitals. Despite the risks, especially following the killing of Renee Good on video, UMN and HCMC doctors could not abide this assault on their patients and their community. They had to fight back, and they did–in the hundreds, holding handwarmers, bouncing on their toes to stay warm, and shouting through their rage.
They were not alone. Estimates say about 100,000 people marched in downtown Minneapolis on January 23, with many taking sick days or skipping their shifts to do so.
Communities in Minnesota–and especially the state’s labor movement–sparked a wave of action across the country, culminating in another, national day of action the following Friday. HCMC and UMN members also inspired their peers in Chicago, LA, Oakland, and elsewhere, who all took action against ICE in subsequent weeks.
“It has been clear that relying on morality will not suffice to save our family, friends, and neighbors,” said Dr. Nicolette Alberti at a unity break in Chicago on January 30. “We urge the University of Chicago to make sure ICE cannot terrorize our patients.”
At each action since January 23, physicians carried yet another weight: ICE’s killing of nurse, union member, and friend of CIR members at UMN, Alex Pretti.
CIR’s physician leaders in Minnesota and the CIR executive committee said the following in the wake of Pretti’s killing on January 24:
“Like so many healthcare workers, Alex’s commitment to caring for the people around him was unwavering and extraordinary. Alex was passionate about his work as a nurse, skillfully and thoughtfully caring for each of his patients every single day. He advocated for them and for his coworkers. He bought us coffee. He supported us during some of the most difficult moments of our careers as physicians. His life spoke to the incredible bonds that are possible in this field.”
“We demand the abolition of ICE, now, and CIR calls on all labor unions and organizations to make the same demand, and to take action against this horror. We must refuse, as a movement, to let ICE separate one more family or kill one more person.”
On the Sunday following Minnesota’s Day of Truth and Freedom, dozens of the state’s CEOs seemed to respond to the pressure from workers and the community, signing a joint letter calling on Trump to pull ICE out of Minnesota. A month later now, there does seem to be some scaling down of the previous height of the horrific ICE operation, though ICE has not left the state.
Still, it can be difficult to measure the true impact of a single day of action, or even of years of organizing. But something was unleashed on the side of workers and ordinary people on that Friday afternoon in Minnesota that cannot be contained, and CIR leaders are clear that our union has an essential part to play in the fight to come.
