On Black Friday I was arrested with 25 others in an act of civil disobedience to demand an end to poverty wages in Minnesota. It was the busiest shopping day of the year and with a thousand people marching, we shut down half a dozen Saint Paul City blocks with our joyful rebellion. You can see pictures of the action here.
Now, we were determined to disrupt business as usual, but we weren’t creating a crisis. The truth is with hours cut, benefits non-existent and wages stagnating or in decline, our families are already in crisis. With our kids growing up in working poverty and our schools underfunded, our communities are already in crisis. With so much wealth in so few hands, our state is already in crisis. Our civil disobedience was about making the crisis visible.
I was surprised, though, that a demonstration filled with righteous anger felt so celebratory. The truth is collective action is a liberating thing. You’re not alone in your anger. You have a community. You come alive to the sense of possibility and power you’ve always had inside.
Maybe Minnesota’s Senate should take note. They could easily step up and pass the minimum wage hike the House of Representatives has proposed. And it’s frankly the least they could do.
