UPDATED: Voices and Images From the Solidarity Celebration

 

At a Solidarity picnic on August 8, many groups came out to share information, free food, and music focused on work rights, justice, anti-war activities, and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the Tablers

 

Treehouse Tea Club

Kelsey Hendershott creates homemade teas for her Treehouse Tea Club community space in Hopkins, with plants she forages. At the event, she encouraged people to pick three to five herbs for their own tea blend. “Maybe you have a specific medical thing you want to focus on, or you want to [get more sleep], you want energy, or you just want a tea that tastes good.” She explained that chamomile is for more than sleep, also working to address inflammation, as does willow. She makes sumac lemonade and sodas for respiratory issues. Contrary to folklore, goldenrod is good to address seasonal allergies. Combined with Epsom salt or oat, “I call it the herbal hug, because it’s for that feeling when you’re sick and your whole body aches.”

Bikers Riding Against Policy Brutality (BRAPB)

Bree Krzyzanowski described how BRAPB has been part of the activist scene in Minnesota since 2020 with the uprising. After George Floyd was murdered, motorcyclists provided security at protests, blocked traffic to keep marches safe, and kept people with cars from running into the crowds. The group has since started a nonprofit, Common Road Collective, to help keep people safe on the road. They offer a basic rider course scholarship, which pays for a course in learning how to ride a motorcycle and get their license. This is designed to keep motorcycle culture inclusive and diverse culture. In the winter they offer jump starter packs that also help people inflate their tires and charge their phone in an emergency.

Women Against Military Madness

Cedar Larson joined Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) “because it’s an anti-imperialist organization that understands that U.S. war and U.S. intervention around the world harms women, but also is something women can fight back against.” The group has multiple committees, ranging from work to combat intervention in Latin America to stand with Palestinians against genocide. Another group is focused on U.S. intervention in Africa that is creating ecological destruction that fuels violence. A future protest, she said, is about the many U.S. military bases around Korea that harm locals while placed strategically to threaten China. In collaboration with Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, the group also focuses attention on Honeywell, which continues to manufacture technology and parts for weapons.

Other events include weekly protests, letter-writing to incarcerated people, movie nights, and panel discussions.

Zero Burn Coalition

Leah Dunlevy is with Zero Burn Coalition, which is trying to shut down the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, “which burns 1,000 pounds of trash a day. It’s heavily polluting, under-monitored, and under-regulated. It’s been there for about 40 years, and facilities like that usually only have a 20-year lifespan.” She indicated that it takes a lot of work to reorient the waste management system, but that’s what Hennepin County officials are paid to do.

“We’ve created a 100-page transition plan of what could happen with the garbage. They took a symbolic vote to close it. If they expedited and did the work, they could close it as quickly as within a year. There would be a temporary increase in landfilling, and then a massive increase in recycling and composting. But in their minds, they think we can treat the north side like a dumping ground, the way we have for 40 years, instead of figuring out the hauling system and increasing recycling. … We could be using the millions of dollars to keep this facility running and instead increase education, working with local businesses on reuse and refill, working on enforcement so that big industry is forced to sort their waste and recycle the compost.”

Dunlevy has worked on plastic pollution as her job. “To deal with plastic pollution, it’s not a matter of recycling. Recycling doesn’t really exist in any meaningful way for plastic. It’s about curbing production. Minneapolis has the fourth highest amount of incinerators per capita in the country.”

She added that the incinerator is using old standards and “monitoring only a handful of the 15-plus pollutants that are toxic, once a year. So basically, you can rig it and run it at 20 percent to artificially lower the levels compared to what they would look like on a day-to-day basis. We are saying that if they’re not willing to shut it down, will they at least update to be in compliance with modern standards and provide continuous emissions monitoring. They keep telling the community it’s safe — so we are asking for the data to back that up.”

MN Wheelhouse Collective

A coalition to build upon current mutual aid efforts, including wellness care, reuse and repair efforts, sustainable food systems, regenerative agriculture, co-ops, and local ownership of land and goods to better meet community needs in food, housing, health, and basic necessities. It is affiliated with several organizations who do specialized work in one of its core spokes. Learn more by filling out the form in the link.

Said one member of the group’s purpose: “How do we build a community that is based on sharing and care that’s also sustainable — that is going to meet the challenge of climate change, wealth inequality, racism. So the wheelhouse is built to capitalize on the energies of the community and members of the community. We create spaces, provide education … [in partnership with] co-ops, locally owned businesses.”

 

From the Literature

Wrongfully Incarcerated And Over-Sentenced Families Council

Innocent Black people are 7x more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than innocent white people, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, which is maintained by Michigan State and University of Minnesota law schools. From 1989 to February 2024, the registry had recorded 3,478 exonerations. In 2023, 84 percent of the 153 exonerations involved people of color, including 61 percent involving Black individuals. Common reasons for the incarceration being exonerated was misconduct by law enforcement officials (77 percent) and mistaken witness identification (33 percent).

Two incarcerated individuals the group is currently focused on are:

• Cornelius ‘Corn’ Jackson, who was convicted in 2006 of premeditated murder, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The case relied only on jailhouse informants — people in prison who receive a benefit for testifying against a defendant. In Jackson’s case, everyone who testified against him were facing life sentences for other crimes, which was not known to the defense team until after the conviction — which is a Brady violation, and provides grounds for a mistrial. He was incarcerated 19 years ago, just before the birth of his son.
• Nico Redding had an original release date 20 years ago and is in need of medical care. A call-in campaign is asking for immediate review of his case and action toward his release.

Minnesota Tool Library

Highly skilled volunteers will share time and talent to help repair parts for broken household items, toys, and textiles. The goal is to help people learn how to make repairs at each event for their own future projects and to reduce the 254 million tons of trash each year. A September 20 event will focus on toasters. DIY workshops are offered on anything from car repair to sustainable lawn maintenance.

Climate Justice Committee

A focus is on the copper-sulfide ore mining proposed in Minnesota’s Iron Range, which would be a first in the state. The process extracts precious metals by pulverizing large quantities of rock, leaving behind waste containing sulfuric acid that is dangerous to healthy water. The literature indicates that mines would have to process 265 pounds of rock to produce one pound of copper and that all sulfide copper mines have resulted in acid runoff and caused water contamination. More traditional oxide copper mining and open pit mining pose a lower risk of acid drainage. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) — a region of 1.1 million acres of clean lakes, rivers, and forests — would be threatened by this work. A 2017 study projected the state would lose $288 million in lost annual visitor spending, with 4,490 fewer local jobs.

Minnesota 50501

Named for the 50 protests in 50 states under one movement, this nonprofit cohosts rallies and bridge brigade protests, trains marshals and medics for events, offers mutual aid, holds town halls, and tracks ICE deportation flights. Current mutual aid projects include collecting donations and supplies for homeless communities. The group maintains a list of current mutual aid organizations here.

Community Control of Police

This group is working to create a commission of 13 Minneapolis residents elected to investigate civilian complaints against police, impose discipline on police misdeeds, refer cases for prosecution, work on police budget, do union negotiations, and hire the chief of police. The group maintains that “police policing themselves” is not working, and could be run like other independent boards, such as for schools and parks.

 

Solidarity picnic tablers also included:  Worker’s Solidarity Circle ✦ Twin Cities Coalition For Justice ✦  Minnesota Anti-War Committee  ✦ Community Kitchen  ✦ Veterans Against War  ✦ Minnesota Workers United  ✦ Democratic Socialists of America  ✦ Workers’ Solidarity Circle  ✦ Freedom Road Socialist Organization ✦ Remember 1934 Collective  ✦ Black Cat Workers Collective  ✦ Minnesota Immigrants Right Action Committee (MIRAC)  ✦ Sunrise Movement 

 

Help us build a pioneering statewide media co-op