On June 16th the federal government unsealed indictments targeting 15 organizers in Minnesota’s Twin Cities for their alleged involvement in anti-ICE organizing. On July 4th, the Bay Area Local of Black Rose/Rosa Negra held a party to raise money for these organizers’ legal defense fund.
On July 4th, 2026 Black Rose/Rosa Negra’s Bay Area Local hoisted the red-and-black flag over Oakland’s Tamarack social center to party in solidarity with the 15 organizers—now known as the MN15—who were indicted by the federal government for allegedly organizing to stop ICE’s campaign of terror during operation ‘Metro Surge‘. Sharing food, stiff drinks, conversation, and dancing to tunes provided by local DJ collective Left of the Dial, a couple hundred tenants, workers, students, movement elders, and comrades new and old raised over $2,000 for the MN15’s legal defense fund.
Part way through the night the music stopped to allow for two of the indicted organizers to call in and share words of encouragement. The call was piped through the social center’s PA system for all partygoers to hear. These indictments were a “naked attempt by the federal government to intimidate popular forms of resistance and by isolating its revolutionary wing”, the two said. It was this organized popular resistance that successfully led to the ouster of white supremacist Greg Bovino from his post at the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the retreat of ICE’s blitz on the Twin Cities. Rather than waver in the face of fascistic ascent, the indicted organizers urged those listening to “spread the spirit of Minneapolis all over the world.”
The same day we basked in solidarity on the west coast, the fascist ‘Patriot Front’ organization attempted to spread its American-as-apple-pie hatred on the east coast—it was July 4th after all. Marching to the US capitol and waving the flag of a defeated slave owning class, they speechified to no one. Videos later emerged of the khaki wearing boneheads suffering the effects of heatstroke.
Herein lies one of the defining features of our conjuncture. The organized far right is is on the offensive, blazing with contempt for immigrants, trans people, workers, and other segments of the dominated classes. But episodes like the tidal wave of popular mobilization in Minneapolis have shown that we have the power to extinguish the fires of reaction.
Labor organizers who develop plans with their coworkers to keep ICE out of their workplace, tenant unions who ready their buildings and neighborhoods to resist raids, immigrant detainees who hunger strike against inhumane conditions, students who coordinate ‘walking school buses‘ to safely get one another to class, and partygoers who show up to raise money for legal defense all form necessary elements of the movement. As we know, only loud, collective, organized, and visible solidarity will protect us.
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