NC State students gathered at the Belltower to join a nationwide walkout in protest of the continued presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, calling for a day-long general strike on Friday.
The nationwide walkout was a response to the citywide strike in Minneapolis a week earlier, when hundreds of businesses shut their doors and thousands of protesters flooded the streets. Both strikes included the general call to boycott all work, school and shopping for the day.
ICE presence in Minneapolis has resulted in days of protests, the targeting of American citizens by untrained ICE agents and the public executions of mother and poet Renee Nicole Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
The protest at NC State was organized in collaboration with the NC State chapters of Young Democratic Socialists of America, Students for Justice in Palestine, Mi Familia and Palestinian Youth, as well as the NC State Campus Workers Union and Party for Socialism and Liberation in the Triangle. Each organization had a representative speak to the students and community members, each with their own connection to the cause.
Michelle Rodriguez, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), spoke to the crowd through a megaphone from the base of the Belltower.
“Thank you so much for coming out here with your rage, your anger and your demand for a better place for all our neighbors,” Rodriguez said.
A few hundred students gathered with homemade signs and a few cowbells, listened to the speakers and responded enthusiastically. Rodriguez said the community showed up because they are fed up with ICE and the policies being enacted by the Trump administration.
“Students, workers and families are finally taking the agency to stand up and fight back against the billionaire agenda and showing their voice, showing that the people don’t want ICE in our streets, don’t want ICE in our communities and that we stand in full unwavering solidarity with Minneapolis,” Rodriguez said.
A large part of the PSL’s messaging was not just about solidarity with immigrants but also with workers as a whole. Mickey Brigham, a graduate student in the College of Natural Sciences and an organizer with the PSL, opened the event with a speech centering on the importance of the worker.
“People called out of work. Students walked out of class. And in sub zero temperatures, over 50,000 people flooded streets and shut the city down!” Brigham said about the strike in Minneapolis. “The general strike is the ultimate expression of working-class power. When we withhold our labor, the system grinds to halt.”
Other speakers included Julianna Simmons, a third-year studying accounting and international studies and an organizer with the PSL; Jaden Foy, a third-year studying agriculture business management, who spoke in support of student journalism and the Nubian Message; Katie Boatner, a graduate student in history and an organizer with the Student Workers Union; and Nathaniel Dibble, a fourth-year studying political science with the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
During his speech, Dibble called for students to get organized in whatever ways they could, whether it be through an organization or direct action.
“We cannot wait for someone else, whether it be politicians, whether it be bigger organizers,” Dibble said. “We cannot wait for them to go ahead and protect us. We have to be those organizers ourselves.”
After the speeches, students and community members marched across the Court of the Carolinas and along Hillsborough Street, headed by a large banner reading “From Raleigh to Minneapolis, Stop ICE Terror!”
“It’s nice seeing people out here. It’s nice seeing a lot of new faces,” Dibble said in an interview during the march. “The bitter part is the conditions that we’re in. This is what is taken in order for people to be out here and it’s kind of sobering, realizing the inertia that we’re up against.”
Leaders led the protesters in chanting several anti-ICE slogans like, “Abolish ICE,” “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here,” and “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!”
After reaching D.H. Hill Library, the crowd doubled back and walked back towards the Belltower. They were met with honking cars and onlookers from the businesses on Hillsborough Street.
“I’m here because I am the voice of my parents. I hate everything that’s going on right now. It feels like betrayal if I don’t stand up for everybody,” said Abril Martinez, a first-year student studying physics and science education. She held a Mexican flag as she marched with a friend.
“The work continues. We cannot not rely on one day or one action to produce all the change we want to see,” Rodriguez said in her closing remarks. “We must commit ourselves to taking part in that change. Like the people of Minneapolis, we will not be intimidated. We will take action, and we will get our demands. “
“Showing up here, this is not the end. It’s only the first step,” Brigham said at the beginning of the event. “We have to get organized. That is the only way that we can fight back. ICE is still in North Carolina. And when they send another surge to Raleigh, we have to be ready.”
