Speakers in Berlin traced how Germany’s rearmament, US-led violence abroad and the repression of solidarity at home are converging in a dangerous drive toward war. BEN CHACKO reports
“HEAD over heels into war” was the theme of this year’s Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Berlin, organised as ever by the Morning Star’s German sister paper Junge Welt.
And the voices of school strikers, trade unionists, human rights activists, economists and socialist campaigners throughout the day left no doubt that this is the trajectory of Germany and the whole of Europe.
The shadows of genocide in Gaza and the shredding of international law through US boat bombings, piracy at sea and the kidnap of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro loomed over the thousands who came to discuss how to stop a world war that looks ever closer.
The crisis in the Caribbean prevented Emilio Lozada — head of international relations for the Communist Party of Cuba — from attending as planned, but Manuel Pineda of the Communist Party of Spain struck an urgent note on solidarity with the socialist island.
“Cuba is in danger,” he warned. “Trump is a fascist. He is a danger to humanity as a whole — and he wants Cuba to collapse. Cuba is being strangled.”
Already reeling under the impact of a 64-year blockade — “the most extensive, complex and long-lasting sanctions regime in history,” which made everything from stocking shop shelves to running buses a constant struggle, the US’s increasing readiness to simply steal supplies headed for Cuba, as it did with a Venezuelan tanker shipping oil to the island last month, represents an existential threat.
“Cuba has shown us what solidarity is,” he said, speaking of the medical brigades sent to crisis points across the world — including Europe during the pandemic.
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People attend a candlelight vigil outside the United States Embassy in London, organized by Stop Trump Coalition, Indivisible London, and Tesla Takedown, in memory of Renee Nicole Good, who was killed by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, on January 12, 2026. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images)
“We had whistles,” Becca Good said after her wife’s killing. “They had guns.”
A top prosecutor in the US attorney’s office in Minnesota who for years oversaw a major fraud investigation in the state was among six federal prosecutors who resigned Tuesday as the Trump administration demanded they investigate Becca Good, the widow of the Minneapolis resident who was killed by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week.
Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command in the US attorney’s office, had objected in recent days to the US Justice Department’s (DOJ) refusal to investigate the killing of Renee Nicole Good as a civil rights matter. He also opposed the decision to cut off state investigators from probing Good’s fatal shooting, which was carried out by an ICE agent who was one of several who had approached the front of her vehicle and reportedly given her conflicting orders.
On Tuesday, Thompson and several other prosecutors—including his deputy, Harry Jacob; chief of the violent and major crimes unit Thomas Calhoun-Lopez; and Melinda Williams—stepped down.
They declined to disclose to the New York Timesthe reason for their resignations. On top of the other DOJ decisions Thompson had objected to, senior Trump administration officials had begun pushing him and the other prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into Good’s wife.
President Donald Trump and other top officials in the administration have relentlessly smeared Good and her widow in the wake of her killing—accusing them of domestic terrorism and rioting and, in the case of the president, suggesting they were to blame for her death because the couple was being “disrespectful” to the ICE agents.
Trump has presented no evidence as he’s called the couple “professional agitators” who were being paid to observe ICE’s enforcement actions in Minnesota, where the administration has surged thousands of agents largely to target the state’s Somali population after Thompson’s investigation uncovered fraud in Minnesota’s social services system. The majority of those who have been charged are US citizens of Somali origin.
Brian O’Hara, the police chief in Minneapolis, suggested there was an irony to the fact that Thompson had resigned over the government’s handling of Good’s case.
“When you lose the leader responsible for making the fraud cases, it tells you this isn’t really about prosecuting fraud,” O’Hara told the Times.
As Trump pushes the narrative that Good was a “domestic terrorist”—a designation that would ordinarily not be used by officials before being confirmed by an investigation—the FBI is reportedly probing alleged ties Good had to “activist groups” that have been protesting Trump’s mass deportation campaign, an operation that is opposed by a majority of Americans.
That probe comes months after Attorney General Pam Bondi signed a memo expanding the DOJ’s definition of domestic terrorism to include actions like “impeding” law enforcement officers or doxxing them.
The DOJ is planning to investigate a number of activists who took part in community “neighborhood watch” activities aimed at alerting and protecting neighbors from ICE agents—the same kinds of actions taken by residents of Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina last year.
“We had whistles,” Becca Good said in a statement after her wife’s killing, as the president accused them of trying to harm ICE agents. “They had guns.”
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A US Customs and Border Patrol agents pulls the pin out of a canister of tear gas before tossing it towards residents in a residential neighborhood after a minor traffic accident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 12, 2026. (Photo by Madison Thorn/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The president’s declaration came as new reports documented brutality and other abuses carried out by federal immigration agents.
President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday that “reckoning and retribution is coming” to the state of Minnesota as new reports documented the brutal actions of federal immigration agents throughout the US.
In a Truth Social post that was amplified by the official White House rapid response account on X, Trump addressed Minnesota residents and asked them if they “really want to live in a community in which their (sic) are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign asylums and mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”
In reality, the operations being done in Minneapolis and across the US by federal immigration agents have little to do with taking violent criminals off the streets.
Recently released data flagged by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, shows that a plurality of people detained by ICE in recent months have no prior criminal convictions.
Trump ended his message with an all-caps declaration to “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Trump’s vow of retribution came just hours after ProPublicapublished a lengthy investigation documenting 40 instances in which federal immigration agents across the country used “chokeholds and other moves that can block breathing,” including nearly 20 instances where agents “appeared to use chokeholds and other neck restraints that the Department of Homeland Security prohibits ‘unless deadly force is authorized.’”
The publication also identified several videos in which federal immigration agents were kneeling on the backs of people’s necks, similar to the way that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd as he suffocated to death in 2020.
Eric Balliet, a former law enforcement official who worked at both Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, told ProPublica that he has never seen immigration agents use such tactics before, even if they were arrested people suspected of serious crimes.
“I arrested dozens upon dozens of drug traffickers, human smugglers, child molesters—some of them will resist,” he said. “I don’t remember putting anybody in a chokehold. Period.”
Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-year-old US citizen who was put into a chokehold by federal immigration agents last year, told ProPublica that he “felt like I was going to pass out and die” because of it.
MPR Newsreported on Tuesday that immigration agents in Minneapolis have apparently been using license plate readers to identify local activists who have been observing and documenting operations in their neighborhoods.
John Boehler, a policy counsel with the ACLU of Minnesota, told MPR News that the agents’ actions appear to violate Minnesota state law, which says accessing people’s personal data in this manner can only be done if they are suspects in an active criminal investigation.
There is no reason, Boehler emphasized, that observers should be under any kind of criminal probe.
“Following or observing or reporting on federal agencies or federal activities is not a criminal activity—it’s protected First Amendment activity,” Boehler explained. “To be using those cameras, to use those license plate readers, to surveil protesters has a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, and that’s what we think the goal is.”
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Original article by republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
People protest against ICE after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 10, 2026. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on the streets of Minneapolis on January 7, leading to huge protests and outrage from local leaders who rejected White House claims she was a domestic terrorist. (Photo by Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
“It feels like maybe we’re hitting a tipping point.
With more such events set for Sunday, hundreds of demonstrations took place in cities large and small across the United States on Saturday to denounce the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration enforcement officer last week in Minneapolis.
The wave of “ICE Out for Good” protests arrives as a consolidated expression of outrage directed at President Donald Trump for his authoritarian tactics, cruel policies, and a lawlessness seemingly without end. Just a day after Good was killed in Minnesota, two other people were shot and wounded by federal agents in Portland, Oregon.
“Renee Nicole Good and the Portland victims are just the most recent victims of ICE’s reign of terror,” said the 50501 movement, one of the groups behind the weekend protests, said in a statement. “ICE has brutalized communities for decades, but its violence under the Trump regime has accelerated.”
The killing of Good by Jonathan Ross, a 10-year veteran of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency, came just days after Trump’s unlawful military attack on Venezuela which culminated in the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Many who protested Saturday noted that the two events are deeply related as they epitomize the increasingly violent nature of the president’s second term.
⚡️🇺🇸NOW:
Massive protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after the murder of 37-year-old Renee Good by ICE. pic.twitter.com/6FktgPsjn7
Also notable is how the act of war against Venezuela and the killing of Good bookended the fifth anniversary of the Trump-backed insurrection that took place on January 6, 2021. While many marked that occasion with solemn remembrances, the Trump administration released a fabricated version of the day that was denounced as Orwellian and gaslighting of the highest form.
As Mother Jones’ David Corn wrote on Thursday: “The military assault on Venezuela, the shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent, the launch of the White House’s new revisionist website about January 6—these three events convey a powerful and unsettling message from Donald Trump and his crew: Violence is ours to use, at home and abroad, to get what we want.”
Saturday’s protests—organized by the Not Above the Law Coalition, MoveOn, the ACLU, Indivisible, and others—took place from Minneapolis to New York and from Chicago to Los Angeles. Demonstrations and rallies also took place in Portland, Oregon as well as Portland, Maine, with hundreds of events and rallies in smaller cities and communities nationwide.
More details about the events, including a growing list of Sunday’s demonstrations and rallies, is available here.
After hundreds of nationwide events yesterday, hundreds more marches and vigils are happening today to say ICE Out For Good.Please join us to demand accountability for ICE’s horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good and make visible the human cost of ICE’s terror: mobilize.us?tag_ids=2913…
“It feels like maybe we’re hitting a tipping point,” 49-year-old Ben Person, who marched in Minneapolis, told the New York Times.
“We’re here to say fuck Trump, abolish ICE, arrest Jonathan Ross, impeach [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, and bring justice to anyone who’s ever been wronged by the patriarchy and fascist communities,” another demonstrator in Minneapolis told Status Coup News.
"We're here to say f*ck Trump, abolish ICE, arrest Jonathan Ross, impeach Kristi Noem, and bring justice to anyone who's ever been wronged by the patriarchy and fascist communities," -one of thousands of Minneapolis protesters marching after ICE murdered Renee Good. LIVE NOW ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/9HlpuQntCW
“The shootings in Minneapolis and Portland were not the beginning of ICE’s cruelty, but they need to be the end,” said Deirdre Schifeling of the ACLU. “These tragedies are simply proof of one fact: the Trump administration and its federal agents are out of control, endangering our neighborhoods, and trampling on our rights and freedom. This weekend, Americans all across the country are demanding that they stop.”
At a rally in Portland, Maine on Saturday evening, Troy Jackson, the Democratic former president of the State Senate now running for governor, said the killing of Good in Minneapolis made clear to him that such violence against regular citizens could indeed happen anywhere:
I believe in law enforcement. I respect law enforcement. Hell, police have covered my butt plenty of times at picket lines, logging blockades, and other peaceful protests over the years.
What ICE is doing now isn’t law enforcement. We can’t stand for it, and we can’t be silent. pic.twitter.com/To1C3XIxnY
For one demonstrator in Minneapolis, the imperial and authoritarian drive of the Trump administration reminded him of the galactic villains of the Empire in the Star Wars series:
Protester: Well, our current government reminds me of the galactic empire from star wars. You have a guy that wants to be the supreme ruler, the emperor, his second in command that will do whatever he says to do, whether it's right or wrong… pic.twitter.com/GwMh9pghY0
The organizers of the weekend protests said that public shows of dissent will remain key in the coming days, weeks, and months.
“We will resist the government’s attacks by building community, by documenting atrocities, by protesting nonviolently, by showing kindness and solidarity at all times,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, another of the organizing groups.
“We will meet them in the streets, in the courts, at the day labor corners. We will meet them everywhere. And we will win. We are not afraid or discouraged. And we will not be defeated,” Alvarado added. “The more we stand together as a community of determination and love, the harder it will be for them to divide and destroy us.”
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Several high-profile political leaders have in recent months been seen apparently dabbling in Nazi allusions. In many cases, dog whistle messages send oblique signals to supporters. These are pitched at a frequency that most listeners can’t hear but are meaningful to those seeking confirmation of their own views.
When challenged, the people using these tactics often respond with strong and furious rebuttals. After emphasising their shock that they would be associated with Nazi imagery or ideas, they typically go on the offensive. They express indignation and moral outrage. Then, they demand an apology.
These hostile counterattacks often place their critics on the defensive. If the allusion to the Nazis becomes too obvious to deny, perpetrators typically claim they weren’t aware of the historical association and insist it was all an innocent mistake.
This is the dog whistle playbook: strategic ambiguity followed by belligerent counterattack, and then, if needed, plausible deniability.
Of the many recent cases of Nazi allusions, Elon Musk’s straight-arm salute – a gesture he performed twice at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s second inauguration – is one of the most notorious.
Far from denying he’d made the gestures, Musk went on the attack dismissing criticisms as “pure propaganda”. He argued that critics in the Democratic party were conducting “ideological witchhunts” and needed “better dirty tricks” because Adolf Hitler references are “sooo tired”. Musk also made a series of Nazi-themed puns on social media.
One month later, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist and key figure in the Maga movement, also made a straight-arm salute at the conservative political action conference. Unlike Musk, Bannon denied any Nazi intent, describing the gesture as a “wave”. While Bannon was able to insist this wasn’t a Nazi salute, his critics’ outrage might have helped send a signal to Nazi sympathisers, reinforcing their loyalty and support.
Within the space of a few weeks in 2025, two senior figures in the Maga movement had been engulfed in controversies surrounding alleged Nazi salutes. For years, Trump has flirted with Nazi imagery, given comfort and even pardons to far-right extremists and been reluctant to criticise white supremacists. In November 2025 Trump reposted an AI-generated image of himself in front of what looked a lot like a Nazi eagle emblem (but without the swastika).
He has called political opponents “vermin” and argued that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”. These words are associated with Hitler. Trump has also been quoted as saying “Hitler did some good things” and for asking US generals to be more like those of the Third Reich.
The dictator’s playbook
In Germany, dog whistles are a particularly sinister aspect of far-right politics, communicating coded signals that appear to convey a secret admiration for the Nazis. Such messages are often innocent enough to pass over the heads of the masses, yet iconic enough to resonate with others.
In 2024 Björn Höcke, one of the leading figures of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was found guilty of knowingly using a Nazi slogan “Alles für Deutschland” at a rally. This slogan is forbidden under German law. It was the central slogan of the SA or Storm Troopers, Hitler’s paramilitary group from the Weimar years. Höcke insisted he was innocent because he was unaware of the Nazi links.
And if we reexamine Hitler’s own playbook, his speech to workers at the Siemens Dynamo Works factory in November 1933 never mentioned the word “Jews”. When Hitler talked of a “small rootless international clique” his supporters knew exactly to whom he was referring. Once Hitler had consolidated the power of the Nazis, this gave them, and many others, permission to vilify and scapegoat Jews more explicitly. In effect, the permission-giving facilitated the incremental usurpation of power.
While substantial differences clearly exist between the Third Reich and contemporary politics, there also seem to be disturbing overlaps. Rather than ensuring their messages could never be confused with Nazi references, some leaders seem comfortable using dog whistle signals and strategic ambiguity, hostile counterattacks and plausible deniability.
Some Nazi allusions might be viewed as innocent mistakes or as historical accident but their continued prevalence is starting to look like more than a coincidence.
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