Another wintry storm Friday

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On Friday, hundreds of coffee shops, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses across Minnesota closed in observation of a one-day strike and economic blackout. 

The one-day strike was organized by Minnesota faith leaders — and endorsed by some Minnesota labor leaders — in response to the surge of federal immigration operations in Minnesota and the killing of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE agent. 

For more context on this action, MPR News host Clay Masters spoke with labor historian Peter Rachleff.

Press play above to listen to their conversation, or read a transcript below, edited for time and clarity. 

Many are using the term ‘general strike’ to describe Friday’s collective actions. What does that term ‘general strike’ actually mean? 

This is addressing a broader shared set of concerns that affects workers in different industries, workers with different kinds of employers, workers who might not even be in unions. And it's also interwoven with a boycott. So it's kind of a mobilizing of economic muscle, and it's an unusual and interesting intersection of community members and union members acting together with one voice. 

It’s a Friday. Some businesses are concerned about closing. It’s a big business day for restaurants and immigrant-owned businesses are already struggling. How do you know the economic impact of these strikes is actually hitting where it hurts the most?

I think that more important than the immediate economic impact is the social interaction among the people who are participating. So immigrant community members, Minnesota healthcare providers or public sector workers, owners of small restaurants and taverns and [other] people will be mixing what we might think of as spatially horizontal connections. For a one-day event like this, the most important kind of consequence is how people come to know and rely on others from different settings and different positionalities in our economy and in our community. 

So it's more about community building and awareness then then the immediate economic impact? 

That's what I would say. It's the sticking together and acting together that will be the biggest experience and the biggest message from today's activities. 

Have there been more recent examples of general strikes?

We could look at the May Day, 2006, “a day without an immigrant” 

. 40,000 people marched in St. Paul on May Day of 2006.

And again, this social interweaving of people coming together, of getting to know people who come from other places and speak different languages. 

So these identities are fluid and moving, and they shape themselves as a consequence of the activities that people participate in and get mirrored back to them a sense of connection and identity.

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For more context on this action, MPR News host Clay Masters spoke with labor historian Peter Rachleff.


The history and meaning behind Minnesota's general strike and economic blackout

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