Federal agents execute Alex Pretti and then envelop the people in a cloud of tear gas.

Within 24 hours of the January 23 mass protest against ICE in Minneapolis, the Miller/Vance/Trump presidency had its response: They executed another protester, this time ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

As we go through the events leading up to this execution, what happened in that execution, and what followed, it is vital to remember that Trump is not omnipotent. As his designs on Greenland show, he can be stopped, but not by truth nor reason. Bear in mind: right before our very eyes a movement is building. What is required is to build this movement into a force that is more powerful than the Miller/Vance/Trump presidency. In order to do so, we must identify what that more powerful force is, and how it can be mobilized. We must start by being armed with the actual facts. If some of this analysis of the state of affairs sounds gloomy, there is nothing that can be done about that. Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses never helped us in the past and it won’t now. Only sober realism will serve us, keeping in mind that there is a way forward, as we discuss at the end of this article.

With that in mind, let’s start with a frame-by-frame analysis that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that Pretti was murdered in cold blood. This is important in order to fully understand what followed.

These frames are part of a longer video by Youtuber “Paul the Combat Vet”. He is an army vet who served in Afghanistan as a platoon leader. He also does excellent reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the lead up to these frames it’s clear that Pretti was videotaping ICE/CBP agents from across the street and they approached him. His cell phone is in his right hand and his left hand is empty. The other point Paul makes is that when somebody is pepper sprayed in the face, that person is blinded and disoriented. Here are the key frames:

The execution is so blatant that even the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus had to criticize it since it violated his right to carry a gun.

Fed lies and coverup
The responses of government officials DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol “Commander at Large” (whatever that means) Greg Bovino, and the coverup that followed are significant. In the murder of George Floyd, after it was revealed that there was a video that documented the entire crime, Minneapolis officials retreated. Not with the feds in this case despite the fact that they must have known that the murder

Some of the lies of Kristi Noem

was documented by bystanders. Noem said: “This individual showed up to impede a law enforcement operation, and assaulted our officers. They responded according to their training… this is a violent riot, when you have someone showing up with weapons, and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.”

Greg Bovino. Even in Germany they are commenting that he dresses like a Nazi!

Nazi lookalike Greg Bovino said “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Trump commented “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go…” It’s true that they only imply that Pretti threatened an officer, but the picture they paint is false from start to finish.

In all officer involved shootings in Minnesota the state’s Board of Criminal Authorization (BCA) heads up a following investigation. In this case, BCA superintendant Drew Evans reported that they were blocked from the crime scene even after they got a court search warrant, which the feds disobeyed. Minnesota DA Ellison went to court to get a court order prohibiting the feds from destroying any evidence. Do you understand this? They had to get a court order to (hopefully) prevent the feds from destroying evidence.

Won’t stop here
These criminals will go further if they can. From the execution of individuals and tear gassing entire crowds, they will go to shooting live rounds at groups – in other words approach what the Iranian regime is doing. Trump’s threat to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to call out the National Guard and impose martial law must also be taken seriously. That is the second prong of this attack, and it might start in Minneapolis, but it won’t end there.

The Democrats are placing all their eggs in the basket of the November elections. However, Trump now says he wishes he had declared martial law after the 2020 elections and seized the voting machines. He has already raised the idea of cancelling the elections this November. His ignoring his increasing unpopularity shows that he is perfectly prepared to do so.

Governor Walz. During last year’s election campaign he was such a “nice guy” that he helped Vance appear normal, thereby helping Trump to win. Now the “nice guy” is sending the National Guard into Minneapolis. They will be protecting ICE/CBP agents.

Governor Tim Walz
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as VP candidate sane-washed his opponent, the Nazi-connected JD Vance, when the two of them held a friendly conversaton disguised as a debate. Now as governor Walz has denounced the role of ICE/CBP, but actions speak louder than words. Minneapolis Mayor Frey and his chief of police requested Walz to send in the National Guard. Acting on that request, Walz sent in 1500 troops. They are keeping civilians at a distance from the ICE/CBP agents. This allows those agents to act under cover of even greater secrecy and with even greater impunity. It normalizes the presence of National Guard when federal agents are present.

Media coverage has been building. Initially, CNN’s “law enforcement experts” like John Miller and Josh Campbell – both former law enforcement officials themselves – tried to walk a middle ground. They took the “we don’t know all the facts” line to divert attention away from what we saw with our own eyes. They did this without challenge from the news presenters like Dana Bash. (The New York Times was more clear from the start.) CNN did shift gears on fairly short order and became more direct. For example, On Sunday (1/25), Dana Bash interviewed Nazi lookalike Greg Bovino somewhat aggressively. She did not allow his lies to pass unchallenged. CNN and the NY Times exist under conditions of capitalist democracy, after all. So the threat to such democracy is a threat to them!

The union leadership – missing in action.

As for the union leadership, picture a drunk in a deep, deep slumber – almost comatose – with his house now nearly overwhelmed by a powerful hurricane. Parts of the roof have been torn off and windows shattered. The wind and rain coming in are now stirring the drunk from starting to wake up. That is the situation of the union leadership. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten gave a rousing speech at the Jan. 23 protest, although she did not say anything specific about what she and the AFT were going to do. Finally the AFT featured some stories about this attack on their web site as did the Oakland Education Association. The near total silence of the union leadership has been ignored by nearly the entire “socialist” left, from DSA on down to the would-be revolutionary groups. Oaklandsocialist has repeatedly pointed that out, including in our article Minneapolis – ICE fascists rampage, and we use the term “fascist” advisedly. 

What has been the left’s response since the Pretti execution? Former Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins interviewed Kieran Knudson, president of CWA Local 7250 on Saturday, January 24. In that interview, they discussed “self defense” from ICE/CBP. Howie compares it to both civilian mobilization against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 1960s black armed self defense Louisiana group the Deacons for Defense and Justice. Oaklandsocialist discusses the relevance of that group in this article Mass anti-ICE Protest vs. extremely dangerous alternative.   We explained that that situation was entirely different, as was the cvivilian mobilization in Ukraine on the initial days of the 2022 invasion. Kieran agrees with Howie. The execution of Alex Pretti, and the administration’s subsequent defense of that execution, is only a hint of what they would do at this time if they are confronted with or attacked by an armed group of civilians. Again to stress: civilian armed self defense against groups like the KKK is entirely different from such self defense against the armed federal fascists like ICE and CBP. Kieran also criticizes the inaction of the union leadership. He also reports on how he pressured a CWA President Claude Cummings… in a private conversation. Private pressure doesn’t even start to be adequate. What’s necessary is building organized rank and file opposition groups whose purpose is to make the unions really fight for the members on the job and for all workers in society as a whole. That necessity is never raised by either Howie or Kieran.

Socialist Alternative, which seems to have something of a presence in Minneapolis, has a similar failing. They report on the January 23 protest here and comment on the execution of Alex Pretti here. To their credit, they do repeatedly comment on the passivity of the union leadership, but what they fail to do is propose a remedy – in other words, build rank and file opposition groups. The reason for this absence is two-fold: First is that in all their history they have failed to try to do this. Second is that in reality they see the solution as being to join Socialist Alternative. (I say this through long personal acquaintance with this group and many of its members personally.)

Movement developing
An article in today’s NY Times entitled Watching America Unravel in Minneapolis  actually describes the exact opposite. It describes Americans coming together to build the cellular structure of a movement from below. A similar process seems to be developing here in Oakland, as various individuals are coming together to form ICE warning patrols that will help black and brown people avoid ICE when we face an invasion similar to what people in Minneapolis are facing.

This process is similar to what happened in Mexico City following the disastrous earthquake there in 1985. There, city and federal authorities completely failed to provide any sort of emergency assisstance, including sending teams to help residents dig out of the rubble of their collapsed homes. So residents of one neighborhood after another came together to do exactly that. In the following months and years, a powerful community-based movement developed out of this. One gets the feeling that something similar is developing here.

The labor movement can stop Miller/Vance/Trump and ICE fascists.

What is absent is a central force that can give a working class content to this movement and help drive it forward. That force is the unions. In order to harness that potential power, the twin tasks are to join and help build this molecular process and combine it with a direct appeal to rank and file union members to build independently organized rank and file caucuses to press their unions to step up and actually lead this movement forward. Oaklandsocialist had helped develop this petition but events surrounding Minneapolis make it out of date. When it is brought up to date, we and others will publicize it as one step towards helping union members organize within their own unions. We hope others join us.