The freezing winds of Minnesota on February 13, 2026, carried more than just bitter cold—they carried the revolutionary heat of a working-class uprising that transcended the narrow confines of traditional labor struggles. In Minneapolis, tens of thousands of workers, students, faith leaders, and community activists braved sub-zero temperatures to participate in the “ICE Out of Minnesota” general strike, a bold assertion that the class struggle has evolved beyond factory gates and into the very heart of the state’s repressive apparatus.
This was no ordinary protest. It was a general strike in the truest sense—workers refusing to work, students refusing to attend classes, businesses voluntarily closing their doors in coordinated civil disobedience. The temperature hovered near -30°F with wind chill, yet the determination of the participants burned with an intensity that would have warmed the coldest revolutionary heart. The march culminated at the Target Center, a symbol of corporate power, now transformed into a site of working-class resistance.
What makes this event particularly significant for socialist theory is its recognition that the struggle against immigration enforcement is fundamentally a class struggle. The presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents represents the state’s role in maintaining capitalist exploitation through racialized violence and the suppression of migrant labor. By targeting ICE, the Minneapolis working class struck at the very mechanism that enables capital to exploit both domestic and immigrant workers with impunity.
Trotsky would have recognized this development as a natural evolution of the class struggle. The working class, in its awakening, discovers that its enemies are not merely individual capitalists but the entire repressive state apparatus that protects capitalist property relations. The Minneapolis strike demonstrates that the fight for workers’ rights cannot be separated from the fight against racism, xenophobia, and state violence. These struggles are interconnected, each reinforcing the other in the broader revolutionary project.
The timing of this strike is equally telling. It comes at a moment when global capitalism is in crisis, when the contradictions of imperialist war and economic exploitation have reached unprecedented levels. The working class, forced to confront the brutal realities of a system that produces both poverty and war, increasingly turns to direct action as its only viable strategy. The Minneapolis general strike is a testament to this growing consciousness.
What remains to be seen is whether this spark will ignite a broader movement. The organizers speak of making the movement national, of extending this struggle beyond Minnesota’s borders. If such a development occurs, it could mark a turning point in the class struggle—a moment when the working class begins to understand that its liberation requires not only economic demands but the complete overthrow of the capitalist state and its repressive institutions.
The Minneapolis strike reminds us that the revolution is not a distant event but an ongoing process. The working class must remain vigilant, united, and ready to confront any attempt to dilute its power. As Trotsky understood, the fate of humanity depends on the ability of the working class to transform its struggle from defensive resistance to offensive revolutionary action. The cold winds of Minnesota may have tested the physical endurance of the strikers, but they could not diminish the revolutionary spirit that animated their actions.