RELEASE: Zero Burn Coalition Launches Campaign to Hold County Commissioners Accountable to Closing HERC, Building Momentum On Heels of "Freedom to Breathe" Hunger Strike | READ: www.zeroburncoalition.org/news/zero-bu...

#mnleg #FreedomToBreathe

A packed room of supporters at the Hennepin County Board, with signs visible through a glass partition reading "Striking for Freedom to Breathe," "Striking for Clean Air," and "Close the HERC -- Stop Choking N. Mpls."

Hunger striker Natasha Villanueva, a north side community member testifies at a public podium inside the Hennepin County Board chambers, surrounded by a packed, diverse crowd of attendees listening intently.

Community members sing in unison inside the Hennepin County Board chambers, disrupting the meeting in a coordinated act of protest.

🧵 Today, the people showed up. A multigenerational, multiracial, multifaith community came to demand justice for neighbors in the shadow of the HERC trash burner. We sang for the demise of this polluter. We shut down 6th Street. We testified with truth. #FreedomToBreathe #mnleg (1/6)

This isn't theory. This isn't just mobilization. This is praxis — organizing to end the largest industrial polluter in Hennepin County. Be part of the movement for everyone in Minneapolis to have the #FreedomToBreathe

Thanks for proving the point, I guess?

Minneapolis action!
Close the HERC. End this toxic pollution in North Minneapolis.

Cover slide of a carousel graphic. Bold white text on red background reads: "What Hennepin County Commissioners Don't Want You to Know About Burning Trash." Below, a flip-clock countdown shows 04 Days. Text reads "#FreedomToBreathe Hunger Strike Countdown." Background shows a smokestack billowing dark smoke over a city skyline. Zero Burn Coalition logo in bottom right. "Swipe" prompt in top right corner.

Carousel slide with bold cream text on red background reading "Legal Doesn't Mean Safe." Below, a dark rounded text box states that HERC's pollution permits were set in 1989 based on equipment capacity, were found inconsistent with the Clean Air Act in 2008, and that under EPA's own updated 2024 standards the HERC trash burner would fail limits for hydrochloric acid, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Hunger strike countdown shows 04 days. Zero Burn Coalition logo bottom right. Source: bit.ly/hercfaq.

4 days until the hunger strike begins. The HERC trash burner's permit was written in 1989 using technology that is now understood as outdated. Under the EPA's own 2024 standards, the HERC would fail.

Demand the Board call a vote to close it: bit.ly/endthestrike26 #FreedomToBreathe #CloseHERC

HAPPENNG NOW: us02web.zoom.us/j/84940196368

Proud to be in this fight alongside these badass community members. “People have lost patience,” said Geoff Dittberner, a coalition leader. “All traditional advocacy has failed.” #FreedomToBreathe #Mpls

We're at #NoKingsMN because what's happening to the EPA is happening in #mpls. A captured EPA. A complicit county. A 37-year-old trash burner poisoning a BIPOC working class community.
NO KINGS. NO TRASH BURNERS. ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE. SIGN: bit.ly/dontburntrash
#FreedomToBreathe #NoKings

Doesn't this piss you off? It has been so normalized, and the county is complicit. We're raising the alarm. Join us on Tuesday! #FreedomToBreathe #Minneapolis

Square graphic with a bright red background and bold headline at the top reading “TRASH BURNERS BLOCK ZERO WASTE.” In the center, a large green recycling symbol is engulfed in flames, suggesting recycling being destroyed. Fire surrounds and rises around the symbol. In the bottom left corner, a small white logo reads “ZERO BURN COALITION” with a smokestack graphic.

Today is Global Recycling Day. And every day, Hennepin County burns 365,000 tons of trash — including materials that could be recycled.

Trash burners don't complement recycling. They cannibalize it. As long as the HERC exists, the county has a financial incentive to keep feeding the furnace...

Hennepin County is burning millions of taxpayer dollars to keep a trash incinerator running that was supposed to close in 2009. The HERC is now losing millions each year, and in 2024 was strapped with $37 million in debt — all while releasing lead, mercury, and dioxins...(1/3)

Screenshot of Lauren bobert for Congress. The text says no new wars in the image says thank the Trump administration signed the card and it has a picture of Donald Trump on a greeting card.

Bless her heart. #NoWarOnIran

Aliya Rahman, woman who was dragged out of car by ICE in Minneapolis: "I've spent the last month learning the names of the tendons in my shoulder, because both of my shoulders are torn -- cartilage and tendons. But what I haven't learned is the names of the people who did this to me."

Terrorized By ICE, Unable to Pay Rent, Minnesotans Are Getting Ready for a Rent Strike A tenant organizing push in the Twin Cities has support from labor unions representing more than 25,000 workers.

Greg Nammacher, president of SEIU Local 26, says his union has ​“learned the hard way” that gains at the bargaining table can quickly be eroded by economic pressures, like rising housing costs. “We cannot limit ourselves narrowly to just traditional wages and benefits.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson taught us that environmental justice is civil rights in our time.

For decades, toxins from the HERC have filled the lungs of Northsiders and surrounding communities. 🧵(1/3)

#minneapolis #ShutDownHerc

Community members from the Zero Burn Coalition testified today at the Hennepin County Board about the ongoing harm caused by the HERC trash incinerator.

Despite years of promises to close HERC, the County has still not set a closure date.

Screen grab of a social media post from Heather Edelson, Hennepin County Commissioner. The text of the original post is visually corrected like so: “Today, my office joined colleagues Angela Conley Hennepin County Commissioner District 4 and Irene Krissie Fernando on the Hennepin County Board in calling on Tom Homan [‘in calling on Tom Homan’ is crossed out] to provide a clear timeline and plan to end Operation Metro Surge. [Operation Metro Surge replaced with Trash Incineration in Communities of Color].” A Zero Burn Coalition logo is included.

🧵We have notes.

Our communities do deserve stability, safety, and humane treatment — and that includes the freedom to breathe clean air.

Caucus for Clean Air Resolution: the DFL party will combat environmental racism by demanding that the hennepin county board keep its promise and shut down the HERC trash burner as it resolved to do on october twenty fourth, 2023. HERC must be shut by twenty twenty seven in line with a resolution the city of minneapolis passed on October thirty first twenty twenty four.

🧵 Neighbors come together at caucuses to demand change from the institutions that shape our lives. It’s a moment to show up collectively and make our expectations clear.

This should be for the People of Minnesota.

insisting on calling every mass day of protest or one-day boycott a "general strike" is not the move. it's good to see people rallying around the cause, it matters, but if you want to be part of a large-scale labor action that shuts down the gears of capital, start by unionizing your workplace!!!

Minnesota stands with Georgia Fort and all arrestees! #freepress #iceout #chingalamigra

Tighten rules on warrants? Body cameras? HOW ABOUT A SIGNED JUDICIAL WARRANT FOR EVERYTHING! HOW ABOUT THEY LEAVE MINNESOTA AND NEVER CARRY OUT ANYTHING AKIN TO MINNESOTA IN ANY OTHER STATE. I DON'T WANT BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE OF THE ATROCITIES I WANT THEM TO STOP. I AM SO FUCKING FURIOUS!!!!

How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Chills Organizing and Erodes Conditions for All Workers When one group of workers is terrorized or disappeared, it threatens all workers’ ability to fight for their labor rights.

Studies show that escalations in immigration enforcement make workplaces MORE dangerous for all workers (not just immigrants), lead to MORE minimum wage violations for all workers, and lead to FEWER jobs for US-born workers. I summarized the research here.

CITY of HEROES A new song of resistance

Hey @billybragg.bsky.social wrote a song for us #mpls #mn #ICEOut braggb.substack.com/p/city-of-he...

AFT President Randi Weingarten address the ICE OUT rally in Minneapolis.

Thanks for joining us! #Solidarity #IceOutMN

A person drumming. The drum says "this machine kills fascists"

People marching in downtown Minneapolis. The banner says ICE OUT OF MN

A person holds a sign that says "no one is illegal on stolen land"

CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. and SEIU President April Verrett dance on stage in between speeches.

Never get involved in a land war in Minnesota.

~100k strong today, and we're still just getting started.

#ICEOut #ChingaLaMigra #mn

sure hope so

Say her name: Renee Good.

ICE out of Minneapolis and Minnesota now.