A socialist group invaded a Target store in Minneapolis. They obstructed the entrance and disrupted business. Another group entered a church and disrupted a service. While such actions aren’t nearly as bad as the violence ICE has perpetrated in the city, they violate people’s rights and discredit legitimate protest.
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While the country’s focus on ICE and the Border Patrol has been largely on Minnesota, they’re also committing outrageous acts in Maine, which is much closer to me. Here are some reports from sources which I think are reliable.
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Recently Avelo Airlines announced it would no longer provide ICE with flights to transport abductees. CEO Andrew Levy wrote: “We moved a portion of our fleet into a government program which promised more financial stability but placed us in the center of a political controversy. … The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.” Avelo didn’t admit that negative publicity motivated its decision, but businesses never like to say such things.
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Leslie Fish, one of the best-known members of the filk music community, has died. She was talented, opinionated, outgoing, and just weird (in the best sense of the word). I didn’t know her well, but I’d seen, heard, and talked with her on many occasions. Other people who knew her better will write about her, but I should give my perspective here.
She appeared on the fannish scene around 1975. With a group called the DeHorn Crew, she produced a vinyl LP called Folk Songs for Folk Who Ain’t Even Been Yet. Another, Solar Sailors, came out the next year. The songs focused on Star Trek and space travel. In addition to being a fan, she was an anarcho-syndicalist, associated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), aka the “Wobblies.” She was no fan of central economic planning, and her politics often ran in a libertarian direction.
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ICE has its claws in New Hampshire, even if not as obviously as in some other places. The secret police force has abducted people on multiple occasions. Local politicians are collaborating with ICE in exchange for a little federal money. But New Hampshire residents are pushing back. A new movement called Sanctuary Communities is forming to protest and monitor ICE’s brutal actions.
In my area is the Seacoast Interfaith Sanctuary Community. I’m still finding out what it’s all about, but it looks interesting. It’s been around since 2017 and says its members are “working together to support people facing the threats of immigration detention and deportation.” I’ve sent an email asking to sign up for their mailing list, and I’m still waiting for a reply. Hopefully the person running the list was just away for the weekend. (Update, Nov. 18: Yay! I’m now on the mailing list!)
These groups have been targeted by a campaign of lies. New Hampshire has a law against “sanctuary cities.” It requires law enforcement in every municipality to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The MAGAs are trying to claim it bans private activity protected by the First Amendment. If it did, that would just make the law null and void. Americans’ freedom to gather information and speak out takes precedent over Trump’s wishes.
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