Between the Insurrection Act and the Insurrections
by Black Cat Workers Collective (Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA)
19 January 2026 (originally posted to Facebook)
On 17 January 2026, the Pentagon alerted 1,500 troops from the 11th Airborne Division about a potential deployment to Minnesota. This new threat comes after a rapid series of escalations. Homeland Security forces have occupied the Twin Cities for fifty days now. More than 2,400 of our Latino, Somali, Hmong, West African, and even Indigenous neighbors were disappeared by these fascists. Neighborhood patrollers have been attacked hundreds of times, and protesters and federal forces clash almost every night. ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered our comrade Renee Good on 7 January. On 14 January, a gang of these armed invaders shot one neighbor through his front door. Working class heroes fought back the assault on the Northside almost immediately.
Donald Trump threatened on Truth Social that same night: “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E. who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT.” Liberals argue the exact mirror image, scolding us that Violence is just what they WANT. They exclaim: If any action against these kidnappings dares to cross an imaginary line, Trump will send in the military and crush us.
He has never needed a reason.
History students know that Trump is not the first authoritarian to use the military against rebellious workers. The Insurrection Act is not a magic “Game Over” button that presidents use to instantly liquidate resistance. On the contrary, deploying the military domestically often backfires against those in power. It is a sign of a weak state, not a strong one. From Kent State to South Africa, from Detroit in 1967 to Ireland in 1972, from Poland’s Solidarność to the B&O Railroad Strike, the government sending in the army does not crush the spirit. Occupation causes resistance to bloom.
The working class of the Twin Cities holds a history and memory of fighting state forces during the George Floyd uprising of 2020. Many of us remember confronting the National Guard, and we found them weaker than the local police. Police in Minneapolis and St. Paul are trained into intense cruelty, while many in The Guard blinked at us with detached confusion. We kicked them out of our union halls and defeated them in the streets. The 11th Airborne will be more dangerous and organized, but they are not invincible either. If our experience holds true, they could be less of a threat than the fascist ICE psychopaths terrorizing our communities today.
These monsters cannot occupy everywhere at once. They lack the support and solidarity of a class under siege. The force of an insurrection is social, not military. It is warriors defending their people. Our warriors are standing up everywhere: from teenagers on walkout, to motorists chasing down ICE, to elderly mutual aid volunteers. Our response to this next invasion will be the same as our response to this current one. We must continue to organize communities, patrol our streets and build rapid response teams, push for workplace stoppages, and grind them down every step of the way. We must exact a price for every footprint they leave in our snow. When we have the opportunity, we will drive them from our streets and tear down their concentration camp. ICE will melt when the heat turns up.
Military deployment illustrates just how scared these authoritarians are. The regime is sick and weak, and these fools can be defeated. A general strike looms this Friday, 23 January. The local capitalists and federal government fear us. We must push for an even larger and wider stoppage all throughout Minnesota. Students in Duluth, nurses in Rochester, prisoners in St Cloud, laborers in Mankato, hospitality workers in Bemidji, and all those willing to stand up for their neighbors can push with us. This is the only way out of this nightmare. We have no choice but to win.
In solidarity,
Black Cat Workers Collective
Rainbolt
Fash Free TC
Twin Cities Swoletariat
Featured image: a crowd of neighbors chases ICE and other federal paramilitaries off the block after one of them shot and killed Renee Good in cold blood.
