Commentary: Why the Minnesota-Led Target Boycott — and the Backlash to ICE — Reasserts the Meaning of People Power

Moments of crisis have a way of stripping away comforting myths. During the pandemic, one illusion collapsed quickly: that corporations are the primary engines of social stability. What kept people alive was not executive leadership or brand messaging, but care — delivered by workers, neighbors, teachers, nurses, parents, faith leaders, and volunteers. Then, as now, the lesson was clear: economic strength follows human well-being, not the other way around.

This is a lesson many corporate and political leaders seem to repeatedly forget.

How the economy actually works, according to J.K. Gibson-Graham

In 2020, amid the surge of mutual aid, I revisited A Postcapitalist Politics (University of Minnesota Press, 2006), in which two feminist authors, writing jointly as J.K. Gibson-Graham, argued that if we could “smash capitalism and see it in a thousand pieces,” we would recognize how little of real life it actually explains. The so-called “real economy” — international markets, global competition, shareholder value — represents only a narrow slice of how communities survive and reproduce themselves.

The authors documented what feminist activists had long insisted: unpaid household labor, caregiving, and volunteer work — work overwhelmingly done by women — accounts for an estimated 30 to 50 percent of all economic activity. These forms of labor are not peripheral. They are foundational. Households, schools, churches, neighborhood networks, cooperatives, gifts, bartering, self-employment, public service, and care for elders and children are what make any market economy possible in the first place.

Today, Minnesota is living through another moment of economic truth-telling. It is everyday people who are feeding families, escorting children to school, translating for neighbors, organizing safety networks, and showing up — often in subzero temperatures — to protect one another. Meanwhile, corporations that profit from this labor remain conspicuously silent. They are not organizing food drives. They are not staffing school patrols. They are not standing between their workers and armed federal agents. And they are not risking profit to defend democracy.

The Old Lie, Repeated

As historian Heather Cox Richardson recently reminded readers, the argument that society requires a permanent class of expendable laborers is as old as American aristocracy. In 1858, South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond defended slavery by insisting that “in all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” These workers, he argued, needed neither education nor autonomy — only strength, obedience, and loyalty — while elites would extract profit and call it progress.

Hammond claimed that Black Americans, women, and the poor were naturally subordinate, fit only for service and reproduction, and incapable of leadership, in part because of “criminal inclinations.” Southern aristocrats framed this hierarchy as God’s will.

In another striking parallel to history repeating itself, Richardson quoted Hammond as saying that women were made “to breed,” as “toy[s] for recreation,” or to bring men “wealth and position.” She noted that Hammond’s career was nearly derailed when he admitted that for two years he had sexually assaulted his four young nieces, insisting that he should get credit for showing restraint when faced with four such “lovely creatures.”

Target and the Limitations of Corporate Neutrality

As of February 2, Target has a new CEO, Michael Fiddelke. He inherits not only a Fortune 500 company, but a moral crisis that Target itself helped create.

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers, sent Fiddelke a letter urging Target to take a clear public stand against ICE’s harassment of Minnesota workers and consumers. She pointed out that AFT members are not only educators, healthcare workers, and public employees — they are investors. Public pension funds with AFT participation hold at least $4 trillion in assets, including nearly 7 million shares of Target stock. Teachers alone spend an estimated $3.4 billion annually on school supplies, much of it at Target.

Weingarten made the point bluntly: Target’s mild call for “de-escalation,” issued alongside 60 other Minnesota corporations, does not constitute leadership. It does not protect workers. It does not reassure immigrant consumers who represent a $1.7 trillion market. And it does not meet the moment.

The national boycott of Target began February 1 of last year after the company rolled back its diversity commitments. In December, as ICE escalated violent incursions in multiple cities, community leaders demanded the company speak out to protect its employees and consumers. It did not.

As civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong put it at the outdoor news conference: “This is a multibillion-dollar company with over 1,900 stores. People like us and our families built it.”

Nekima Levy Armstrong and other community leaders speak out at a December news conference about the complicity of Target (photo by Sarah Whiting)

Consumer Power Is People Power

Target cannot credibly claim political neutrality. It was one of roughly 140 donors that gave $1 million to the 2025 Trump inauguration, part of a record-breaking $239 million contribution, ostensibly for one event. Having centered itself in the political arena, Target now faces political accountability.

Community leaders are explicit about what that accountability requires. Ulla Nilsen of Unidos MN, at a January 29 news conference, called on Target to end its complicity with a “violent, unconstitutional occupation” of Minnesota and called on consumers nationwide to expand the boycott. The gathering was held outside the Richfield Target, where two teenage employees — both U.S. citizens — were taken by ICE agents inside the store on January 8; video showed ICE violently abducting them. At least one of them was simply abandoned in a different parking lot.

Ulla Nilsen, Unidos MN (courtesy photo)

“Target is Minnesota’s leading corporate citizen,” Nilsen said. “It is the fourth largest employer of the state. Minnesota sports teams play in stadiums and wear jerseys with Target’s logo on it. Target relies on immigrant labor, from the workers in their stores to the shipping workers that deliver groceries to the people that grow and process our food. Yet, Target has failed to speak out against the violent abductions of workers, nor to call for immigration reform. Instead, there are numerous reports that Target has collaborated with ICE by allowing them to stage operations in its parking lots.”

Nilsen pointed out that when tens of thousands of Minnesotans turned out for a peaceful protest, in sub-zero weather, on January 23, more than 1,000 small business owners closed for the day in solidarity “because they understand what’s at stake, and they made a big sacrifice. Sadly, companies like Target, that could afford to miss a day of profit, did not.”

Target broke its silence — shortly after a second Minnesotan was killed by ICE agents — to sign a statement with 60 other major Minnesota corporations, through the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Nilsen noted that the letter called for “cooperation between state and federal government — an incredibly alarming call, given that Attorney General Pam Bondi has clarified what cooperation would entail: granting the [Department of Justice] access to Minnesota voter rolls.”

Community leaders, Nilsen said, are calling on Target “publicly call for an immediate end to the ICE surge in Minnesota, and for ICE and border patrol to leave the state. We demand Target exercise their Fourth Amendment rights and publicly post signage denying entrance to immigration agents who do not have signed judicial warrants, as required by law, as well as to train staff on how to respond when immigration agents arrive at stores. ICE should be investigated for human and constitutional violations of Americans and of our neighbors. And finally, Target must demand that any federal officer who kills or harms a civilian be held legally accountable.”

She noted for people nationwide: “If you are one of the millions of people across the country asking yourself, ‘How can I help Minnesota?’ this is how. Help us get Target to stand with the community that helped build it.

Community demands are concrete: end the ICE surge; deny entry to agents without judicial warrants; train staff to protect workers and customers; call for investigations into constitutional violations; and insist on accountability when civilians are harmed or killed.

Faith, Fear, and the Refusal to Be Silent

Faith leaders have joined this boycott call, and others. At the Richfield Target-based news conference, Reverend Ali Tranvik of Cross of Glory Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Center spoke about why the faith community is calling on Target to do more.

“In my faith tradition, we take seriously the idea of vocation. It’s a belief that faith isn’t merely something that we do when we gather in a church building for an hour on Sunday mornings, but it’s something that shapes our lives every day. The idea that we are called to do the thing that is most central in our faith tradition, which is love our neighbors as God loves us. … I am here to urge Target leaders … to consider your call to love your neighbors.”

Tranvik added: “It is past time that Target show us that you care about something beyond your own bottom line. … It is our job as clergy and community members to hold you accountable.”

Ricardo Perez Gonzalez, from the Richfield Community Safety Network, talked about the fear in his community, facing eviction due to unpaid rents. “Small businesses are closing or reducing hours due to fear of staff getting kidnapped. Students are not attending school, and kids leave worried about what might happen to their parents if they leave their homes.”

Gonzalez added, “I have also been a witness to the opposite of fear. Thousands of people gather peacefully to protest in sub-zero temperatures. Moms meet late at night to coordinate care. Pastors travel across cities to interpret for kidnapped community members. Funds are gathered to keep people safe.”

He noted that what he had not heard was Target speaking up about the kidnapping of two Latino citizen staff members at the Richfield Target. “Shame on Target.”

Marcia Howard, Minneapolis Federation of Educators (courtesy photo)

Marcia Howard of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators said she regularly made target runs for student school supplies and was proud to shop at the locally headquartered Target. “When a Target run means running from ICE because you allow them in your store and in your parking lots, that’s insane.”

She said the leadership of a new CEO is a great time to pivot. “When we see the impact that ICE has had with our neighbors, with our students, in our parishes, in our psychology as Minnesotans — we’re under siege by the federal government and our hometown store isn’t saying anything. We’re asking them to do the right thing.”

The Point of the Boycott

This boycott against Target — and in ongoing nationwide economic boycotts — is not about moral purity or corporate sincerity. It is about reminding all of us that it is everyday people who are the glue that holds communities and economies in place.

People sustain the economy. And when people act together — persistently organized at local levels everywhere — even the largest and most insulated institutions are forced to respond. They are forced to choose.

This is what people power looks like. Not abstract. Not symbolic. Real. And it is rising from the decentralized, snow-covered resilience of Minnesotans, outward into the rest of the country.

To support our grassroots story sharing:

Resources for participating in consumer boycotts

Unidos MN Target boycott resources

Iceoutnowmn.com 

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