By noon on Friday, about 50 people stood shoulder to shoulder together on the overpass at Shaw Avenue and Highway 41 in a bridge brigade, holding signs as part of the national shutdown—a coordinated action urging people across the country to step away from work, shopping, and school for the day.
Below and beside them, traffic flowed steadily. Cars and business trucks honked in approval, turning the overpass into a brief but unmistakable exchange between protesters above and commuters below, linked by a shared moment of solidarity.
The national shutdown traces its roots to the University of Minnesota’s Somali Student Union and has since grown into a broad movement, with dozens of regional and national organizations backing the action.
Central Valley Indivisible, which organized the bridge brigade, was joined by several local groups, their signs calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and voicing support for the general strike…