This is the place to connect with Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity – MPLS. MPLS is an alternative to the party-centric and money-hungry system of political power in our city. All you need to join is the will to step up and participate in the endeavor.

Read more about it right here.

October 9, 2020

The MPLS platform is taking shape. We have been writing and researching the major topics and issues raised by the people. The foundation of everything that the new Minneapolis might become was summarized in Platform Plank Zero.

“Minneapolis is emblematic of many cities and towns in Minnesota because so many of us have been sweeping the racist, genocidal aspects of our history under the rug and out of mind for centuries. A large part of the MPLS initiative is to pull up that rug and examine all the stuff that empowered white people have hidden from ourselves. I say “ourselves” because I am an empowered white man, and let’s face it, the human beings we have oppressed historically, and still do today, are quite aware of what is swept away.”

Platform Plank Zero

October 14, 2020

The MPLS initiative and Brixton Hughes laid out comprehensive plans for The Future of Police in Minneapolis. A 3 part approach. 1) Leverage movement on the future of the 3rd Precinct to remove Bob Kroll and his violent cohorts from the MPD. 2) Create an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and have the Mayor delegate authority to control MPD to that organization. 3) Transform the Minneapolis Park Patrol into the Minneapolis Urban Park Service. Unarmed Urban Park Rangers would be the public connection to the city services for which the smaller, more narrowly focused, MPD will no longer be expected to deliver to residents.

“The bottom line is that replacing, rebuilding, or reimagining the 3rd Precinct is a central concern for MPD, as well. An active City Council or Mayor’s Office would be taking the initiative and work within the “spirit” of their pledge to “abolish the police” by developing a bold proposal to couple the reworking of MPD with the replacement of the 3rd Precinct with a smaller, more dispersed, civilian-controlled, community-led, form of policing. At the same time, it should be made clear that nothing will be done to rebuild the precinct as long as Bob Kroll remains in MPD. Bob Kroll must go, then we can even begin to talk about the future of the 3rd precinct, MPD, and policing in Minneapolis.”

The future of police in minneapolis

October 19, 2020

The Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity (MPLS) Initiative intends to disperse power by breaking up 3 main power centers in Minneapolis government – City Hall, Minneapolis Police Department, and Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board – and establishing more elected boards, councils, and commissions with more focused missions and community participation. First and foremost, we will establish a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). The CPAC members will be elected and control hiring, firing, promotion, demotion. reprimand, and federation contract negotiations. The Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) has been working to establish a CPAC in Minneapolis for many years. See the draft legislation TCC4J has researched and written, for details.

The work of TCC4J and other community-led groups such as, MPD 150 and Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) on holding violent cops accountable for their crimes and abuse should be recognized and honored by Minneapolis City Hall. If I were a City Council Member, I would reach out to these groups and any others working on police accountability to educate the Council, Mayor, MPD, unions, and other parts of Minneapolis city government, on what CPAC is, how it works, and why it is essential to the renewal of Minneapolis. I would propose we adopt the legislation TCC4J has prepared, and establish community control of MPD.

The creation of an effective CPAC would become a model for further decentralization of municipal power in Minneapolis. Whether established simultaneously with CPAC, or staged in a sequential march toward community control of city resources, land, and capital, the MPLS Initiative proposes to establish the Minneapolis Urban Park Service (MUPS), Residents Land Board (RLB), Health Wellness and Healing Council (HWHC), Soil and Farm Council (SFC), Public Works and Infrastructure Board (PWIB), while retaining Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and the Board of Estimation and Taxation. Some aspects of the stripped-down MPD, City Council. and MPRB will also remain.

“We will disperse the power centers at City Hall, the Minneapolis Police Department, and the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board by increasing the number of elected councils/boards/commissions, each with a more focused mission. City Hall, MPD, and MPRB may not be completely abolished. As we transfer their power to new and reclaimed community-based, popularly elected, governing bodies, we may find their core functions. Bottom line is that they will be sharing power with more elected officials, serving on more councils that will more completely represent the residents. The MPLS Initiative will approach direct democracy in the same way squares can approximate a circle, by using more of them.”

Dispersed Political power – MPLS Initiative

October 22, 2020

Brixton Hughes summarized the Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity (MPLS) Initiative proposal to establish community control of land and housing through the Minneapolis Residents Land Board (RLB) and a network of Community Land Trusts (CTLs). Land Trusts should be established by many geographic, demographic, and cultural communities in and around Minneapolis. These may be aligned with 1 or more municipal councils. For example, CTLs that aim to counter gentrification an/or work toward universal housing, would primarily work with the RLB. Land Trusts intended to preserve urban wild and undeveloped spaces would work with the Park Service and the Health Wellness and Healing Council (HWHC). Farm oriented CLTs would work with the Soil Agriculture and Food Council (SAFC) and MUPS. The SAFC could form CTLs in partnership with small, local, organic farms near the Twin Cities to bring a variety of healthier choices into the neighborhood and community farm markets, while expanding the acreage into which atmospheric carbon can be sequestered into healthy soils. Capturing the excess carbon put into the atmosphere by centuries of burning fossil and carbon based fuels in soil is a major step toward completing the natural cycle that produced the fossil fuels humans extract and consume.

“Whatever form the Residents Land Board has when it is convened, the over-arching goal will be to return control of the land to the people in the communities that make up Minneapolis. Because land – stolen and withheld – is at the root of the white supremacy that so permeates our city, state, nation, and culture, it is appropriate that RLB be centered on Black and Native lives. Community control will be multi-faceted because each Community Land Trust will be managed by community members and the RLB Commissioners will be elected by residents. This change in land stewardship will bring back the knowledge and experience of people that have been disempowered, exploited, and oppressed for many generations. It should be an act of acceptance, atonement, and intentional healing. May it become a seed from which proper reparations will grow and blossom all across the state and nation.”

Minneapolis Residents Land Board – B. Hughes for MPLS

October 28, 2020

Communication Director for Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity (MPLS), Brixton Hughes, unveiled a proposal to convene a Soil Agriculture and Food Council (SAFC) in Minneapolis to coordinate the local food network from backyard gardens, through Community Gardens, and to nearby organic farms. The SAFC centers attention on producing healthy soil because it is essential to growing good food for our residents, but also because soil can be used to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and effectively bury it in the ground.

“The value of locally grown and community-controlled food network was underscored by the Covid pandemic and the Minneapolis Uprising in 2020. Imagine if Minneapolis already had been distributing healthy local food through the parks, community gardens, and mobile food trucks when the global supply chain stocking the big box store shelves was disrupted by the pandemic, or when the neighborhood grocery store was shut down and boarded up. The generosity of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the metro region was on full display as neighbors pitched in to help with food drives and community clean-up. Imagine if that generosity were reflected in our city government. If instead of sending bulldozers and armored cops with pepper spray to the shanty towns in our parks, our city sent Park Rangers, healthcare workers, and social service workers with food, clothes, cots, access to sanitary facilities, and connection to city housing services. For too long the resources of the city have been channeled to good ole friends networks and the non-profit industrial complex instead of being used to directly support the efforts of residents to stand with their neighbors and communities.”

Minneapolis Soil Agriculture and food Council

November 3, 2020

The Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity (MPLS) Initiative intends to convene a Health Wellness and Healing Council (HWHC) to bring health and social services to the neighborhood parks. Working along side the Urban Park Service (MUPS) and with the Soil Council (SAFC), the HWHC will also provide locally grown and produced food through the parks. The HWHC will also reach out to residents all across the city, particularly communities that have been historically oppressed and disadvantaged, to begin planning a Truth and Reparations Commission.

“The Minneapolis People for Liberation and Solidarity (MPLS) Initiative stands for community-control of healthcare, including mental health services and preventative care. Because the land where our city stands has an on-going history of personal and cultural trauma that too often goes unrecognized and unspoken, is in necessary to take serious action to make amends and restitution as part of cultural healing. We propose a Health Wellness and Healing Council (HWHC) to serve these needs in Minneapolis. The HWHC would develop community-based response networks to provide mental health services, violence prevention, and addiction counseling. Working with Minneapolis Urban Parks Service (MUPS), the Health Council would establish, staff, and maintain everyday clinics and emergency services in the parks. The Minneapolis Parks system has extensive reach into many neighborhoods across the city. Basing city services, particularly Health, wellness, and food distribution, in the parks brings them into the neighborhoods, rather than centralizing access in Downtown. The Soil and Farm Council (SFC) would join HWHC and MUPS to eliminate food deserts in Minneapolis and alleviate food insecurity in solidarity with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). The HWHC would promote and coordinate Community Patrols throughout Minneapolis. Community Patrols have a long history of effective violence prevention and public safety in Minneapolis. North and South Minneapolis.”

Minneapolis Health Wellness and Healing council