In this chat with Minnesota resident and longtime community organiser, Erik Peterson, we hear about some of the stories behind the peoples’ extraordinary and enormous resistance to the reign of terror against immigrants launched by ICE in December 2025.
The whole story is remarkable, and a testament to how “power over” can be contested by “power with”. But, one of the stories he tells really demonstrates why we can and should think bigger about the kinds of organisations that can make a difference.
Erik describes how school Parents & Citizens organisations played a role in creating safety for kids to come to school, using their relationships (and signal chats) to coordinate with parents at individual schools – so that parents could come together and support and protect other parents and their kids ability to access education when their families were threatened with deportation.
