The Dig Minneapolis Fight Back w/ Emilia González Avalos, Greg Nammacher, JaNaé Bates Imari
Jan 30, 2026
JaNaé Bates Imari, faith organizer building mass mobilizations; Greg Nammacher, seasoned labor leader for janitorial and security workers; Emilia González Avalos, immigrant-rights and community organizer. They discuss how decade-long organizing in Minneapolis scaled into rapid resistance against ICE occupation. Conversations cover faith-based action, labor strategies, mutual aid-to-organizing pipelines, coordinated citywide noncompliance, and lessons for scaling movement infrastructure.
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Deep Civic Infrastructure Enables Rapid Resistance
- Minneapolis's long history of labor and community organizing created dense civic infrastructure that enabled rapid mass resistance.
- That preexisting ecosystem made coordinated, large-scale actions possible under extreme provocation.
Prepare Infrastructure Before Calling A Shutdown
- Build the logistical and relational groundwork long before calling a mass shutdown; preparation must precede the public call.
- Treat a day of no work/no school/no shopping as an organizing operation requiring sustained base-building and infrastructure.
Witnessing As A Leadership On-Ramp
- Constitutional observing served as a low-bar on-ramp that turned passive witnesses into active leaders.
- Filming and bearing witness deepened people's commitment and created leadership pathways into sustained action.