Oct 8, 2026 · 53 min · 11 segments
In this episode we speak to Keiran Knutson, call center worker and president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250 in Minneapolis about the Minneapolis general strike against ICE and the…
I'm really struck by... what you described a couple of different points about that experience of like we stood up and we held the ground and we changed something and that so often unions as the form that worker organizing takes are about wins, like particular wins in the workplace and they're rare and it becomes the focus of the good feeling and people become so... disaffected by the fact that you so rarely get that good feeling and actually hear something that came into the union was the feeling of it it's not about a win because the context is fatal that thing you can't reverse that but it is about the power of holding ground and that embodied experience, that energy that moves through the community of knowing what it's like to own and occupy as a class your ground.
And that then moves the unions is like really Amazing.
Particularly in the case of like teachers having like teachers like, oh, actually I need to meet the expectations of the young people in my classroom and, and, and not the other way around is so important.
You know, it always feels good to win something material and it's, it is very hard to do.
Um, And it's always tenuous, like you can win something and then it starts getting eroded almost the very next day.
Um, so we're all about, you know, trying to, trying to win some material things that we can, but I also think that the bigger thing is trying to get people prepared for just something much, much bigger.
You know, I feel in any ways, ability and license to speak pretty freely to all kinds of audiences of people that just don't hold back.
You know, I think it's important to be, you know, not sound dogmatic or not sound like you have all the answers or not sound like, you know, some sort of political ideologue or something, but, but I tell people what we're up against, you know, and what we need to do to, to resist it and to put it, you know, put the system down.
People don't want to just hear about the same old, you know, liberal bullshit and want to hear about empowering ourselves and taking on our enemies.
And somehow you got from that to the taking on of the enemies in the form of a general strike so that this hit not just, this was not just about people standing up in their neighborhoods, but about shutting down the capitalist operation of an entire city.
How, I mean, if you're okay to, can you, can you talk through some of the kind of practicalities of how, of how you guys managed to get to that place?
I'm really struck by... what you described a couple of different points about that experience of like we stood up and we held the ground and we changed something and that so often unions as the form that worker organizing takes are about wins, like particular wins in the workplace and they're rare and it becomes the focus of the good feeling and people become so... disaffected by the fact that you so rarely get that good feeling and actually hear something that came into the union was the feeling of it it's not about a win because the context is fatal that thing you can't reverse that but it is about the power of holding ground and that embodied experience, that energy that moves through the community of knowing what it's like to own and occupy as a class your ground.
And that then moves the unions is like really Amazing.
Particularly in the case of like teachers having like teachers like, oh, actually I need to meet the expectations of the young people in my classroom and, and, and not the other way around is so important.
You know, it always feels good to win something material and it's, it is very hard to do.
Um, And it's always tenuous, like you can win something and then it starts getting eroded almost the very next day.
Um, so we're all about, you know, trying to, trying to win some material things that we can, but I also think that the bigger thing is trying to get people prepared for just something much, much bigger.
You know, I feel in any ways, ability and license to speak pretty freely to all kinds of audiences of people that just don't hold back.
You know, I think it's important to be, you know, not sound dogmatic or not sound like you have all the answers or not sound like, you know, some sort of political ideologue or something, but, but I tell people what we're up against, you know, and what we need to do to, to resist it and to put it, you know, put the system down.
People don't want to just hear about the same old, you know, liberal bullshit and want to hear about empowering ourselves and taking on our enemies.
And somehow you got from that to the taking on of the enemies in the form of a general strike so that this hit not just, this was not just about people standing up in their neighborhoods, but about shutting down the capitalist operation of an entire city.
How, I mean, if you're okay to, can you, can you talk through some of the kind of practicalities of how, of how you guys managed to get to that place?
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