Some Leftists in the 1960s disparaged the pop song brigade as a propagandist distraction from the struggle. And maybe large parts of the category were consciously designed to help listeners “tune in, drop out”. However, folk music—the prized fare of the 1950s–80s leftists—was not frozen in the time of the 19th-century rise of the factories. How does a folk song come to be, who “writes” one, and can we have new ones now?
Many of the popular folk songs—even in the 1960s—originally came from the people. As A.L. Loyd wrote in the book Come All Ye Bold Miners:
“Songs that are so close to the heart of the common people may have a functional quality that goes far beyond mere diversion. Many of them were made up not so much to decorate life as to make it bearable … these songs arose spontaneously in working-class communities and in the main were transmitted orally.” (p.13–18)
We don’t know who wrote many of the extraordinary ballads of working-class resistance, such as the ones collected by Lloyd, like “Blackleg Miner“. But we do know who wrote “Streets of Minneapolis“.
Following the killing of nurse Alex Pretti on the 25th January and mother Renée Good on the 7th January in Minneapolis by ICE agents, Bruce Springsteen—in a fever pitch—wrote this song of memory and resistance.
On Sunday, 25th January, Springsteen recorded the song, and to date, it has had over 2 million views. “Streets of Minneapolis” is already a folk song.
To quote the lyrics of the first two verses and chorus:
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee GoodOh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Listen to this new anthem of our class today—but also organise.
We believe it is the agenda of Trump to provoke individual acts of violence. As we wrote when the ICE thugs were launched on Los Angeles workers in June 2025, the Trump regime is trying to provoke individual acts of resistance. In order to justify a military crackdown, Trump and Stephen Miller are using ICE to “provoke and goad”.
The current tactic of the Trump Government is to appear to “de-escalate” in the very short term. As a first step, they removed Border Patrol officer Greg Bovino, whose provocative and inflammatory actions were crucial to ICE’s aggression, and replaced him with Tom Homan. In a New York Times article, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz wrote:
“Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief whose tactics in immigration operations in American cities have garnered lawsuits and protests, was pulled out of Minneapolis. But White House officials maintained he was not at risk of losing his position. The White House has directed Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, to replace Mr. Bovino in Minnesota and meet with local authorities to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, in Mr. Trump’s words.”
The New York Times and the Democratic Party are making it appear that things are going to “settle down” as Trump will somehow “see reason”. Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz reported in an article for the New York Times:
“The president announced on social media that he was sending Mr. Homan to Minneapolis, a tacit acknowledgment that he was losing control of a situation that posed one of the most serious political threats of his second administration.”
But this idea that Trump has suddenly had a change of heart is misleading. As the article goes on to scrutinise, who actually is Trump’s so-called “border czar”, Homan?
“Mr. Homan, a longtime ICE official, is seen among Mr. Trump’s allies as someone who could bring a measure of calm to the chaos in Minnesota, particularly because he has called for targeted arrests instead of sweeping raids. But he is fully on board with Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign; in 2018, he, along with two senior officials, recommended a policy that eventually led to families being separated at the southern border.”
Neither Kristi Noem (Secretary of Homeland Security) nor Stephen Miller (“the mastermind of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policy,”) have been removed from authority. Meanwhile, Democratic Party leader Chuck Schumer makes deals with Trump and the New York Times, tries to reassure the public. According to Carl Hulse, Schumer suggested that a Democratic Party agreement would allow Republican legislation to proceed on a “six-bill package” of spending measures, including spending on the military, health programs and other federal agencies. The Senate would then split off funding for Homeland Security (e.g. funding for ICE), where there could be “negotiations” on limiting ICE powers.
But the working class cannot believe that Schumer and Trump would agree to anything of any lasting value for the working class.
Meanwhile, a threat to do another Venezuela on Iran is unfolding, which will not help the working class oppressed by a theocracy there.
We need mass united actions and a united Marxist-Leninist party. We would like to reiterate what we said on 25th January 2026, that, as a minimum, the demands for this movement should include the following:
- The withdrawal of ICE agents from Minneapolis and other cities
- The prosecution and public trials of the murderers of both Renée Good and Alex Pretti
- The release of those in detention from the ICE raids across the USA
- A public enquiry with a view to laying criminal charges against the Trump leaders, setting and enabling the ICE attacks on the agenda.
We recognise that the last demand in particular will be difficult to achieve.
Ultimately—given the nature of the capitalist crisis besetting the USA—only a Marxist-Leninist united party can prevent this continuing and deteriorating. Only a socialist solution can stop this societal attack on workers. But the General Strike held in Minnesota is a valuable sign of how the working class can move.
As Lenin said, “strikes are a school of war”, and Minneapolis was one. In these times, we must learn fast.
It is necessary to add that while we are at war, our enemy is much more powerfully armed. At this stage, our class response must be non-violent, mass demonstrations.
Only mass action and all that this implies can prevent the move towards the cancellation of the mid-term elections, the declaration of the Insurrection Act, and the formal imposition of fascism.
This is a revised version of an article that originally appeared on MLRG.online.
