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38
United States: ten theses on the 2026 Minnesota general strike (marxist.com)
submitted 21 hours ago by RedWizard@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/24494

January 2026 saw some of the most significant developments in the recent history of the American class struggle. The ICE murder of Renee Good set off an explosive anti-ICE movement, culminating in a de facto political general strike. The subsequent murder of Alex Pretti threatened to spread the movement nationally, forcing Trump to back off, at least temporarily. What conclusions can we draw from this experience?

From In Defence of Marxism via This RSS Feed.

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[–] D61@hexbear.net 11 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
  1. The idea that the Trump administration is a fascist government or a burgeoning military-police dictatorship is entirely false.

fry

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I think what they are trying to say here is that historical fascist governments or military dictatorship's would have simply massacred those standing in their way. This pushback in Minneapolis shows that they do not have the level of political capital to simply deal with the unrest.

Like, is this a Fascist Italy / Nazi German move here:

For all the shock and aw this fascist government has, it isn't capable of overcoming these events. They do not have the level of control over the media or newspapers that historical fascist governments had. They don't have the same level of control over labor they had. Nazi Germany would have literally reassigned your ass to another job in another industry across the country for getting in their way, or they would just kill you like they did the Communists.

Now this fascist government is doing the bare minimum PR deployment of cameras to their SS in an attempt to perform damage control.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 17 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

Pretty good but, of course, I found these points annoying:

  1. With a revolutionary leadership, the movement could have gone significantly further. The mood and potential for an all-out general strike were 100% present. This could have shut down not only small businesses, schools, and cultural institutions, but the major levers of the economy: transportation, energy, communications, logistics, manufacturing, etc. After Alex Pretti’s murder, this could have spread across the country. The trade union bureaucrats did everything in their power to direct the energy of the masses into safe channels. Pressure from below had forced them to set a date for a “day of action,” but they conspicuously avoided doing anything more. What was required was to widen and spread the neighborhood committees into the workplaces, and above all to link them through elected representatives into a citywide body accountable to the mass assemblies and capable of coordinating the movement. Armed with this program, a Marxist cadre organization of even just 500 or 1,000 members rooted in workplaces across key industries in Minneapolis-St. Paul could have made all the difference.
  1. The only real weakness of the US working class is its lack of a revolutionary party. The roughly 160 million wage and salary workers in America constitute a potentially unstoppable power, but this potential cannot be fully realized unless and until it has a leadership worthy of the name. In Minnesota, we saw the immense creativity of the working class when it is pushed into action, but also the clear limits of spontaneity on its own. To go further, and to eventually win political and economic power, the working class needs a Marxist leadership. A mass revolutionary party could harness the power of the working class to transform society on socialist lines.

The organizing of the two strikes - both city specific on 1/23 and nationwide on 1/30 - were led on the ground by a Marxist vanguard party: PSL. It was PSL that dedicated over a hundred cadre on the ground to full-time outreach in Minneapolis in the week leading up to 1/23. Then cadre deployed their skills across the country to push for a national day on 1/30 which was hugely successful. It was PSL that made the call to push for 1/30 (at the behest of the Somali student groups who called for it in Minneapolis) and did all the initial work in cities across the country. It was the Marxist leadership and dedicated party cadre of PSL that made this happen. They did it while FRSO in the Twin Cities actively opposed it, abdicating and potential for their leadership of the movement, and while RCA was nowhere to be found.

[–] FettermansFinalStroke@hexbear.net 12 points 20 hours ago

Exactly! I think the biggest takeaway from this is the opposite of what the author was pointing out. This is what happens when a vanguard party leads the charge. The PSL is still relatively small but the great success of these two actions proves the effectiveness of not just democratic centralism but the PSL as the main US vanguard. I mean they (incredibly successfully) helped organize walkouts in over 400 high schools. That is huge.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 8 points 19 hours ago

Yeah, I should have added my own commentary here, but you are 1000% correct. Marxist.com is, unfortunately, a Trotskyist international organization, so when I read these points, they were not shocking to me. I appreciate all the work the PSL does, and has been doing in organizing around MN, it's been great to see. Not a lot of movement here in my state, but if anything, that makes me more interested to join the state's party, since for all I know they need more people.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting comments about FRSO. Can you say more? I've seen at least their members wearing their gear and handing out signs at every one of the large protests and it looks they were present during the few actions inside of Targets as well. Have they been pushing back behind the scenes but folding and participating when things don't go their way?

[–] jack@hexbear.net 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

MIRAC is their primary front group running anti-ICE work in MN.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUEzP66jjCj/

And if you look at FRSO TC's page, there's no mention whatsoever of the strike, the protest, anything related to Friday's action.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 5 points 16 hours ago

I was aware of MIRAC, but I didn't know they were directly tied to FRSO. Other than PSL, I didn't see any official announcements go out about the strike. Definitely weird they'd bow out just based on that instead of communicating when they were definitely at the one the Friday before.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 6 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm actually going to quote your comment and leave it from my account on news.abolish.capital so people see it when they see the story.