Communist Activists at Minneapolis Rally Push 20-Hour Workweek, Rent Caps and Wealth Seizure

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. Communist and socialist activists joined broader liberal protest movements in Minneapolis, where they promoted a 20-hour workweek, rent caps, seizure of private property and confiscation of wealth from billionaires.

Owen Phernetton, a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America, outlined these ideas in an interview with Fox News Digital at the demonstration. He held a copy of the group's newspaper, The Communist, and wore a sweater reading "Communism Will Win."

"We are building a party of professional class fighters, people who are seriously looking at the system of capitalism and coming to the conclusion that we need a revolution… on a socialist basis," Phernetton said. "This means handing political and economic power to the working class."

Phernetton said the vision includes placing factories, mines and businesses under collective control, limiting rent to a fraction of workers' income and using confiscated wealth to fund government-backed healthcare, education and housing. He walked along the edge of the main rally with fellow members distributing newspapers.

"Their wealth should be expropriated and put to use for the working class," he said of the richest Americans. He called for cutting the workday to 20 hours a week without loss of pay. "I’d actually say that the productivity will increase if the economy operates on a planned basis," he added when asked about a potential productivity drop.

Andy Koch, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said wealth and power should shift from the ultra-wealthy. "The country is run by billionaires, for billionaires," he said. Koch welcomed funding from wealthy donors for progressive pro-worker causes. "If one billionaire wants to donate to progressive pro-worker causes, that’s great," he said.

At another spot, a masked protester with a group holding The Communist—headlined "Down with Trump’s War!"—engaged bystanders. "I'm a communist because the workers create all the value in society and we get to own none of it under capitalism," she said. She called for capping rent at 10% of income and said such policies fail without workers' control. "The reason why rent control hasn’t worked is because it hasn’t been under workers’ control… under capitalism, it won’t work."

Cass Batica, another Revolutionary Communists of America activist, stood among demonstrators with Soviet-style flags. "I came to the conclusion that capitalism is not the way to go. We need socialism, we need communism for the workers of the world," Batica said, citing the Soviet Union.

The march was led by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, which gathered speakers in a public green space and showed a banner reading "Legalization for All, Sanctuary State Now." Freedom Road Socialist Organization members stayed toward the rear, skipped the main program and fell in behind immigrant rights groups during the march.

Caleb Batts, 24, not tied to a group, wore a hybrid LGBTQ pride and Soviet-style flag and called himself a Marxist-Leninist. "I like the way [Lenin] structured the economy and I believe the growth they saw under it was amazing. I believe China has seen some of the same growth," he said. As a business major, Batts said capitalism had run its course after 250 years and society should move to socialism.

Batts opposed borders, matching Freedom Road Socialist Organization banners for "No Deportations" and "ICE Out of Minnesota." "I believe that the most productive human society would be one without borders at all," he said. He envisioned progression to socialism with workers owning production, then communism with government ownership, and finally anarchism in a stateless, classless, moneyless society where neighborhoods work together.