Marakah Mancini
Hani Ali of the Movement for Black Lives stands with St. Paul teachers in front of the downtown Minneapolis Hilton to call on companies to pay their fair share of taxes.
Wednesday, November 15, an arctic blast of wind punished a small crowd gathered outside downtown Minneapolis’s Hilton Hotel. Shivering together in the icy air were representatives from the Movement for Black Lives, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha—a group that organizes low-wage workers to advocate for better working conditions.
The groups had gathered to demand that U.S. Bank, Ecolab, and other Minneapolis companies pay their fair share of state taxes to better support local schools, communities, and workers.
Inside the Hilton, executives from these companies were enjoying a lunchtime session on Super Bowl LII, to be held February 4, 2018, at Minneapolis’s hulking, new, billion dollar U.S. Bank Stadium. The Hilton was hosting the Super Bowl panel on behalf of the Economic Club of Minnesota whose top priorities include “entitlement reform” and “simplifying our burdensome tax system to inspire entrepreneurship.”
Outside, Nick Faber, president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, kicked off the protest by describing how, last year, thirteen St. Paul public schools applied to be pilot sites for a union-run restorative justice program. The program is designed to foster stronger relationships between students and staff, and to nurture “anti-racist, restorative work” as an alternative to punishing discipline policies that feed the school-to-prison pipeline. But, Faber told the handful of reporters in front of him, the union could only afford to fund three of these pilot programs.
Many equity-minded initiatives remain underfunded in St. Paul, Faber noted, including class size reduction plans, preschool offerings and adequate mental health support. Yet Minnesota, he said, is “incredibly wealthy,” with state-based corporations having billions of dollars stashed away in tax-free zones.
Education initiatives remain underfunded in St. Paul, including class size reduction plans, preschool offerings and adequate mental health support. But Minnesota is “incredibly wealthy.”
Meanwhile, public school districts are struggling to meet student needs, especially for “black and brown students,” Faber said.
Hani Ali, representing the Movement for Black Lives, spoke next, calling for a moment of silence to honor Jamar Clark, a young black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer on November 15, 2015, just a few miles north of the Hilton Hotel. Clark’s killing sparked weeks of community protest, including an occupation of Minneapolis’s Fourth Precinct police station.
Ali, who calls herself as a “former immigrant,” decried the exploitation and under-resourcing of communities like hers. “Parents and teachers cannot take this on alone,” she said, adding that government and corporations need to “stand up and do their part.” Ali was followed by members of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, who also sounded the call for wealthy outfits to step up and invest in workers—rather than just “walk away with money extracted from our communities.”
It’s a fair point to raise. Members of Minnesota’s Super Bowl Host Committee—which leveraged millions, Faber said, to bring the game here—have estimated that the Super Bowl will boost the area’s economy by more than $300 million dollars. But observers including sports economics professor Victor Matheson have called this a very generous estimate and noted that most profits reaped from the Super Bowl are likely to benefit corporations, not low-wage employees. “It’s not like they’re doubling or tripling the wages of room cleaners,” he told the Star Tribune.
Sarah Lahm
St. Paul teachers brave the cold outside the Hilton Hotel aiming to catch the attention of sponsors for the upcoming Super Bowl.
The public will also be barred from using Minneapolis’s light rail transit lines on game day. Citing security concerns, and being careful to insist that the public is being kept away for its own good, officials announced that the publicly funded light rail lines that go directly to or near U.S. Bank Stadium will be open only for Super Bowl ticket holders during the game. The initial plan was to keep the public away for close to four days before the game, but that proved immensely unpopular. Because of public outcry, transportation officials say the city’s bus routes will be free that day instead.
Just as the blustery press conference was ending outside the HIlton Hotel, news came in that homeless people seeking shelter at a church across from U.S. Bank Stadium will be moved elsewhere during Super Bowl week. The move was framed as being done on behalf of “people experiencing homelessness.” A nearby shelter will open its doors to those who will be disrupted. Talk about bad optics.
There was minimal mainstream press coverage of the protest outside the Hilton Hotel, where sleek black limos and private cars clogged area meters and the hotel’s curved driveway. Inside, Tod Leiweke, chief operating officer of the NFL, promised that the upcoming Super Bowl will “benefit Twin Cities’ image most.”
Perhaps this is the most that workers, students, and residents of Minneapolis can expect.