Twin Cities progressive groups to protest on Inauguration Day

Pro­gres­sive or­gan­i­za­tions in the Twin Cities are large­ly ex­cit­ed for Democrat Joe Bi­den to take of­fice, but they are al­read­y pres­sur­ing him to move fur­ther to the left in the first 100 days of his presi­den­cy.

Members of more than a doz­en groups gath­ered in front of the U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis on Tues­day to en­cour­age peo­ple to turn out for an In­au­gu­ra­tion Day pro­test Wednes­day eve­ning.

Tracy Molm of the Anti-War Committee and the Cli­mate Justice Committee said that or­gan­iz­ers have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to make sure Bi­den fol­lows through on cam­paign prom­is­es and oth­er is­sues he has not spok­en pub­lic­ly about.

"Dem­on­stra­tors are call­ing for a peo­ple's a­gen­da that im­medi­ate­ly re­verses Trump's terri­ble at­tacks on work­ing peo­ple, im­mi­grants and com­mu­ni­ties of color," Molm said dur­ing a news con­fer­ence. "But we ask for more. … We ask that he (Bi­den) does bet­ter."

The groups de­mand com­muni­ty con­trol over the po­lice, an end to de­por­ta­tions and the sep­a­ra­tion of fami­lies at the bor­der, a stop to the Mus­lim ban, cli­mate ac­tion, a strength­ened so­cial safe­ty net, eco­nom­ic re­lief for those af­fect­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and stu­dent loan re­lief, a­mong oth­er con­cerns.

The groups' Minnesota goals in­clude drop­ping charges against peo­ple pros­ecut­ed last year dur­ing the George Floyd pro­tests and the 600 peo­ple arrested on In­ter­state 94 on Nov. 4.

Zarlasht Niaz of the Minnesota Im­mi­grant Rights Ac­tion Committee said they are pleased with Bi­den's planned im­mi­gra­tion over­haul bill on day one of his ad­min­is­tra­tion.

"This is a great goal, we are feel­ing hope­ful but we're not naive," Niaz said.

Niaz re­called a high rate of de­por­ta­tions dur­ing the Obama-Bi­den era, and she is hop­ing for a vast im­prove­ment un­der the Bi­den-Har­ris ad­min­is­tra­tion.

The in­com­ing pres­i­dent was crit­i­cized for what some view as a re­laxed re­sponse to cli­mate change. Austin Dew­ey of the Cli­mate Justice Committee said he is dis­ap­point­ed that Bi­den has not ex­press­ed an o­pin­ion on the Line 3 pipe­line pro­ject in north­ern Minnesota.

"We are the ones who have to hold him ac­count­a­ble to real change," Dew­ey said.

Molm is hope­ful for a large turn­out giv­en Wednes­day's rel­a­tive­ly warm weath­er fore­cast. In 2016, more than 1,000 peo­ple at­tend­ed a sim­i­lar pro­test, she said.

The pro­test is sched­uled for 5 p.m. Wednes­day at 32nd Street and 21st Avenue in Minneapolis near South High School.

Zoë Jackson • 612-673-7112 Twitter: @zoemjack