Yesterday

news broke

of a sweeping undercover investigation by the Department of Homeland Security in Minnesota early this year to infiltrate and surveil meetings and obtain the financial records of nonprofit groups and two of the country’s largest unions, the Communications Workers (CWA) and the Service Employees (SEIU). This investigation was behind the

indictments

of 15 people in June.

The news should unite the labor movement in defense of constitutional rights and democracy as its members face what one defendant’s attorney calls “

political prosecution

.”

“CWA 7250 has learned that we have been subject to an illegal and aggressive federal investigation that used undercover agents to enter our office, infiltrate meetings we co-sponsored, subpoena our finances, and surveil one of our officers,” said CWA Local 7250 President Kieran Knutson.

“We know that this is because our members, from across the workplaces we represent,

were active in the fight against the federal occupation and racist campaign of terror by ICE. CWA 7250 members joined neighborhood rapid-response groups, distributed warning whistles, protested at the Whipple Federal Building, marched in the streets and the snow, and helped build the January 23rd Day of Truth and Freedom.

“We are proud of our work and will never apologize or back down because of these dirty tricks and intimidation.”

“The most notable revelation to me was their infiltration of the February 15th Workers Assembly to Defeat ICE, a great event that brought over 300 unionists and community members together to democratically debate on next steps for the movement,” said UFCW Local 663 executive board member Paul Kirk-Davidoff, a meat cutter at Cub Foods supermarket.

“I helped put this together, and multiple unions sponsored the event.

Four

undercovers attended, and made sure to take detailed notes of all the speakers and political positions. This, along with the surveillance of unions, leads me to believe that the feds were frightened by the January 23rd mass strike and the possibility of more labor action.”

BOGUS CONSPIRACY

Federal Deputy Attorney General Brian Lynch

participated

in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Now he is leading a taskforce dedicated to prosecuting left-wing activism, which the administration calls political violence. The taskforce is using Trump’s

National Security Policy Memorandum

(NSPM-7) to investigate the funding sources of the president’s opponents.

Lynch is casting a wide net to go after Trump’s perceived enemies. The investigation targets, among others, the AFL-CIO, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, and the Minneapolis Federation of Educators. A

slide

that prosecutors showed to a grand jury portrays the unions, along with some nonprofits, left groups, and a bike shop, as part of an antifa conspiracy.

Minnesotans are responding with solidarity.

“This winter, Minnesotans stood together in rejecting the Trump regime’s occupation of Minnesota,” said a

statement

from a broad coalition of unions and nonprofit organizations, including many who had not been targeted in the investigation so far.

“Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol agents broke countless laws while kidnapping Minnesotans based on racial profiling, violating our constitutional rights, and murdering our neighbors… Across the state, Minnesotans joined with community, faith, labor, and neighborhood organizations to build networks that protected our neighbors and defended our constitutional rights.”

“Minneapolis educators worked in union to exercise our constitutional rights to peacefully protest Operation Metro Surge and other discriminatory policies of the president—and we will continue to do so,” said Minneapolis Federation of Educators Teacher Chapter President Marcia Howard in a statement. “For now, we have no further comment about this so-called investigation into whatever they’re calling ‘Antifa’ today.”

FOLLOWED TO CHURCHES, PARKS, AND UNION HALLS

In January, after federal agents killed Renee Good and union nurse Alex Pretti, investigators with the Department of Homeland Security launched the undercover mass surveillance and infiltration campaign, called “Operation Puppet Master,” targeting the widespread community and labor organizing against ICE and Border Patrol agents.

“These agents surreptitiously recorded dozens of conversations with ordinary people who were simply exercising their First Amendment rights to …