Union leaders, religious clergy and immigrant rights activists called for three major Minnesota corporations to condemn the sweeping federal surveillance campaign targeting activists and to sign the Business for Democracy Pledge outside Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis on Aug. 17.
The rally came amid court filings that revealed Homeland Security Investigations deployed undercover federal agents into community centers, churches and libraries; infiltrated private encrypted communications; logged license plates of churchgoers; conducted facial recognition searches; and attempted to entice activists into more violent tactics in an effort targeting the movement opposed to Operation Metro Surge.
“Local businesses like Target, Cargill, Best Buy, 3M, please take note: your silence is complicity,” said Treasure Cay Thoreson, special educator with Minneapolis Public Schools and a Minnesota 15 defendant. “This bold-faced attempt to break our unity as Minnesotans cannot move us. Keep moving in love and solidarity.”…