Anti-war organizers unbowed by attack on movement space

Minneapolis, MN – Activists with the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC) arrived at their office at 4200 Cedar Avenue on Saturday, May 23 to find two of the front plate glass windows smashed.

The AWC shares its office with the Climate Justice Committee, and the building is a well-known meeting and event space for many grassroots organizations engaged in anti-militarism, immigrant rights, anti-police brutality and environmental justice.

With nothing stolen from inside the office, the AWC told Fight Back! that it believes this act was a targeted attack on the office. Someone broke through the double-paned plate glass and broke the metal frame of windows, which were adorned with homemade signs for Palestine, Black lives, trans rights and abortion access. A picnic table was moved to get access to the window.

The incident occurred in an environment of growing attacks on vulnerable communities and progressive organizers around the country. Progressive groups have warned that the Trump administration’s rollbacks on democratic rights send a message of impunity for reactionary vigilantism.

The Anti-War Committee is no stranger to political attacks and intimidation – several members of the group were targeted with FBI raids and grand jury summons in 2010 in an attempt to halt their Palestine solidarity organizing. All targeted organizers refused to testify and publicly stood together to repel the FBI attack and continued organizing against the U.S. war machine.

“With political violence and repression on the rise under the Trump administration, it does not surprise us to be targeted,” said Committee member Gabriel Miller. Emphasizing that this goes beyond the AWC, they continued, “Standing in solidarity with Palestine, immigrants, workers and the Black Lives Matter movement, we understand that an attack on one is an attack on all. We are not deterred by this political violence. We will continue to raise our voices louder than ever in support of oppressed peoples at home and abroad.”

The Anti-War Committee will hold a press conference with community members and local leaders like Minneapolis City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai at 4200 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 25 in front of their boarded-up windows.

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