Hi John, it's Aru.

I was recently interviewed for Jacobin, and I wanted to share some of those words with you, and then ask you to get involved. This might be THE most critical moment for our future.

But first, please sign up for our mass call on Wednesday January 28th.

Now let me tell you why I'm optimistic about our strategy and our chances of beating back this violent occupation, and ultimately, the authoritarian Trump regime.

Here's what I had to say to Jacobin:

“When you’re organizing a population against dictatorship, it’s important to understand what the main emotional barriers are that stand in people’s way. In a lot of countries, that ends up being fear. I don’t think the main barrier in the US is fear. It’s skepticism. Most people don’t believe in our ability to change things. So one of the most important things for organizers right now is to pick campaigns that are ambitious, tangible, and winnable”

There’s been a lot of good, defensive work we can do to protect our neighbors from ICE, and we’ve seen that across Minneapolis with rapid response squads doing the absolute most.

But we need to go on the offensive and win. That’s why for the last month, we’ve been targeting hotels, and pursuing aggressive, creative tactics to get them to stop housing the ICE agents that are terrorizing our city. We’ve booked hotels up so that ICE agents couldn’t stay there. We’ve protested outside hotels where we know ICE agents are staying, loudly, in the middle of the night.

We’re at a critical point to expand that strategy, and put so much pressure on those hotels that they cave. We need every single person who’s pissed off that an invading army is occupying American cities and harassing and even executing civilians in the street to get involved.

Show up to our mass call this Wednesday, January 28th, and find your place in the movement.

In solidarity,

Aru Shiney-Ajay