2025-10-05
We have many big events coming up!
It is really important that we show up for No Kings events on October 18. This is a national mobilization that aims to be the largest in U.S. history.
There is also a de-escalation training on October 6 that the No Kings coalition encourages folks to attend online.
Let's all gather together, strengthen the resistance & build something better!
Barb is a longtime progressive and DFL activist with a wide range of experience in grassroots organizing and activism. She will address the need for engagement with the political process and answer questions about how to approach our growing political quagmire. There will be lots of time for questions and discussion so bring your thinking caps and be ready for some lively conversation.
All are welcome to attend.
Here's your opportunity to set the agenda for our future actions and programming! Come join in the conversation as we plan upcoming events.
All are welcome to attend.
Action Toolkit
from Indivisible
Republicans shut down the federal government because they insist on taking away healthcare, jacking up health insurance premiums, and giving Trump another blank check to fuel his illegal power-grab.
This toolkit has everything you need to know about our next steps, including how to hold Republicans accountable, how to help Democrats hold the line, and how to mobilize locally.
Each Friday at noon at the following locations:
Signs should include issues common to everyone like good jobs, enough money for food and healthcare, and a good education.
Before you hit the streets — join our know your rights, protest safety, and de-escalation training
from ACLU
This October, communities across the country will mobilize en masse for the second No Kings national day of action- a mass mobilization against President Trump's abuses of power and federal crackdown on our freedoms. Together, we'll send a clear message: the people will not be silenced.
To prepare, join the ACLU's Protest Safety, Know Your Rights and De-Escalation Training on October 6 at 8 PM ET. This training will give you the tools to take action safely, confidently, and with key de-escalation strategies in hand. Whether you're marching, rallying, or supporting from the sidelines, you'll learn how to protect yourself, your community, and stand up for your rights.
One last opportunity!
The W.A.R.R. Action Committee will hold rallies on the following dates and times. While themes are strongly encouraged, you are welcome to bring signs of your own choosing.
As always, we gather in peace and expect all participants to do the same. Please do not engage with naysayers or counter-protesters.
We will also be collecting non-perishable food items and monetary donations for the local food shelves. Your support is appreciated.
Save the Date!
Hosted by Ely Indivisible
The vision of Ely Indivisible is to realize the promise of democracy and justice for everyone in Minnesota and across the country.
We need you! Join us on OCTOBER 12!
In America, we don’t put up with wanna-be kings
Hosted by Northern Progressives
** Live Music! **
Stand up for democracy, free speech, and unity at a peaceful rally from 10am until 11am on Saturday, October 18, at the City Park on South River Street in Cook. There will be an MC, music, noisemaking, and joy — and then we will walk together to the intersection of Hwy 53 to show the community that we have No Kings!
The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings, and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. Grow our movement and join us.
Bring a sign and bring a friend. Bring your own chair too. This event is hosted by Northern Progressives.
Hosted by W.A.R.R.
Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and stronger. 'NO KINGS' is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, carried by millions in chants and on posters, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.
The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings, and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty. Grow our movement and join us.
Make it clear — American people will not bow to fascism.
Stand against the oligarchs and stand up for democracy at a rally and peaceful protest from 3 pm until 5 pm Saturday, October 18, at the Lakeside Ball Field in Virginia at the corner of 9 Ave W and 3 St S. There will be speakers then we will gather at the intersection for a rally to show the community that we have No Kings!
Hosted by Ely Indivisible
'NO KINGS' is more than just a slogan; it is the foundation our nation was built upon.
Our national constitution is under attack from within.
We the People have the power to stop this.
We won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.
On Saturday, October 18th, millions of us are rising again to show the world the power belongs to the people in America.
The president thinks his rule is absolute, but we don’t have kings.
Never have, never will.
We hope you will join us to send that message LOUD and CLEAR.
We ARE making a difference.
In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings
New podcast
from Red Wine & Blue
We’re two moms with very different backgrounds, but together, we run Red Wine & Blue. Connecting with each other and our community helps to keep us from losing our sh!t on the regular.
"So we have a theory: what if self-care and politics aren’t actually opposites? What if connecting with our neighbors and making real, positive change can make us feel even better than a bubble bath or a manicure?
"We’re excited to launch this podcast to explore this. It’s not going to be an instructional guide; rather, it’s a place for us to lose it a little bit together, but more importantly, uncover how we can all make a difference while losing it a little less.
"Every Wednesday we’ll talk to experts and everyday women who are getting involved and feeling better in the process. Our first conversation – out today! – is with our favorite historian Heather Cox Richardson. Have you ever wondered how she can write her newsletter every day without completely losing it? She fills us in on that, and why she’s excited about the elections coming up in November.
"If you’re already subscribed to the Red Wine & Blue podcast or The Suburban Women Problem, you don’t need to do anything – new episodes will be in your podcast app every week. If you’re not subscribed yet, you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts. Find those links here on our website."
You can find more events on our website.
If you have read an article you'd like us to consider for the newsletter, submit it for review to Northern Progressives by Friday at 5pm!
Write to us at: hello@northernprogressives.org to speak your mind & send ideas. We value your input!
This week the team has been dealing with family members with health issues & our editor/coder is on the road. There was little time to curate & summarize the news for this newsletter. We are giving you the raw flow of links contributed to us this week. It was just another week in the overwhelming barage of news stories on every front...
We leave you with some inspiring words from Writers for Democratic Action MN.
from Writers for Democratic Action MN
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."
— Jane Goodall
It's October and many of us are exhausted beneath the unbearable and daily outrages. We have a president who uses propaganda to unleash fear and hatred. He wants to turn our country's military against our citizens. We can enumerate the human rights abuses, the shootings, and the hostilities.
What can one do in these times when democracy itself is at risk? To whom does one turn? The poet Wislawa Symborska comes to mind. She was up to the task, unafraid to take on the worst subjects. In "The Joy of Writing" she says:
Each drop of ink contains a fair supply
of hunters, equipped with squinting eyes behind their sights,
prepared to swarm the sloping pen at any moment
Her subjects were political. She addressed the worst things: war, hatred, cruelty, oppression, and death. Her writing has unique clarity, wry wit, and irony. Perhaps she needed these qualities to avoid being hurt by her materials. She did what Emily Dickinson advised -- to tell the truth but tell it slant.
The problems we face are not new. Divisions have been here since the beginning. The president might be trying his hardest to rewrite history, but we know what happened after the pilgrims arrived in the New World. We know that settler colonialism was responsible for genocide against the native tribes who inhabited North America. We know how wealthy landowners benefited from free labor by slaves, and we know that the Civil War did not end prejudice and racism. We know that women have struggled long and hard to obtain equal rights. Even the right to control their own bodies has been a constant battle. We know that the Progressive Era of the early 1900s was followed by the McCarthy era's Red Scare, and that good people were unfairly black-listed and lost their livelihoods. We know that corporations operate on a profit model, and their bottom line is the dollar. They dislike being held responsible for environmental damage or negative health impact, and they dislike paying taxes.
In 1973, the artist Richard Serra created prescient short video, "Television Delivers People." One only need to change the word "television" to "social media" and understand the challenge we all face to access accurate news and information.
The last three lines of Szymborska's "The Joy of Writing" are these:
The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.
So let us lean on Szymborska and approach the daily disasters with her undaunted spirit. Writing is a form of power. Let's wield it.
It could have happened.
It had to happen.
It happened earlier. Later.
Nearer. Farther off.
It happened, but not to you
...
So you’re here? Still dizzy from another dodge, close shave, reprieve?
One hole in the net and you slipped through?
I couldn’t be more shocked or speechless.
Listen,
how your heart pounds inside me.
By Julie Gard
Postcards with timely quotes, sent by a constituent to Representative Pete Stauber of Minnesota District 8
"'Postcards to Pete' is an attempt to resist, in a small way, the current daily shattering of democratic norms. Each postcard features a handwritten, pro-democracy quote that a politician such as Representative Pete Stauber of Minnesota District 8 might view as part of his own political and ethical heritage. So far I’ve quoted the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Ronald Reagan, Russell Kirk, and Pope Leo XIV. Through regular (most often weekly) social media and blog posts, I'm attempting to create a structure for these reminders to gain strength through repetition. I am choosing to believe there is still common ground, a shared history and ethics that Americans across the political spectrum can draw upon, and that can lead some of us back to each other."
— Julie Gard
First & third Wednesdays in Tower or Cook
Everyone is welcome to come and discuss current happenings, help shape the direction of NP, and get to know each other.