Congresswoman Summer Lee Talks General Strike as Pittsburgh ICE Raids Increase

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Congresswoman Summer Lee Talks General Strike as Pittsburgh ICE Raids Increase

 

PayDay Staff – PayDay Report - Feb 19, 2026

 

PITTSBURGH, PA. - On February 17th, with reports of ICE raids increasing in Pittsburgh, nearly 100 community leaders, activists, and concerned community members gathered at the Black Box Theater in North Oakland to discuss how to fight back. The forum, hosted by 1Hood, featured award-winning journalist and NYU Professor Chenjerai Kumanyika in conversation with Congresswoman Summer Lee.

 

Lee discussed the idea of a general strike and what it would take to get there, including deepening ties between local labor unions and social movements. 

 

“The two most powerful tools we have are organized money and organized labor,” said Lee, before addressing growing calls for a general strike. “To get the general strike, that means that we have to learn how to participate in local solidarity, too. If we can't manage local solidarity, we can’t scale it up.”

 

Chenjerai Kumanyika, who serves on the National Council of the American Association of University Professors, says that his union, in coalition with the AFT (American Federation of Teachers), is looking for ways to expand the fight. 

 

“I was in a call just recently, they were saying we need to knock down these pillars,” said Kumanyika. “So we were not just talking about strikes, but I’m also talking about these corporate pillars…. We’re about to put pressure on Target, Hilton, all these companies.”

 

Lee stressed that such movements are crucial to applying pressure to change the Democratic Party to more effectively fight Trump. 

 

“For the people who usually take issue with me when I talk about the Democratic Party, let me tell you why I talk about the Democratic Party, as opposed to the Republican Party,” Representative Lee told the crowd. “I don't need the Republican Party to exist. There's nothing that they can offer me that would be helpful to me or my community. When I critique the Democratic Party it’s because it is the institution that is standing in the way of justice, of liberation, of equity…it is a container for those things. So I need it to be its best version of itself. We need it to be its best version of itself.”

 

Lee, who successfully prevailed over primary challengers who were supported by $5 million from AIPAC in 2022 and 2024, knows firsthand how hard some Democrats will try to silence progressive voices. “I have watched how even Democrats will just stomp out energy, will stomp out talent, if they don't feel like it fits in the mold. I've watched it. So how am I going to sit here and act like that doesn't actually exist?”

 

With a hotly-contended midterm season approaching, Lee called for Democrats to center their politics around communities that they traditionally ignore, in order to save the country from an authoritarianism.

 

“Stop telling those people to shut up,” chastened Lee. “Stop trying to ‘lesser of two evils’ those people. Stop telling those people that they don't know what they're talking about… Please take the time to find out what a non-voter is talking about. Please do it with grace. Please do it with care, because we do need them to participate.”

 

Full at:

 

https://paydayreport.com/congresswoman-summer-lee-talks-general-strike-as-pittsburgh-ice-raids-increase/