This decade in Kingston, first it was “Black Lives Matter.” Then it was “Stop the Genocide in Gaza.” Then “No Kings Day.” Now, coming to a Kingston street corner near you—Get I.C.E. Out, a national demonstration of contempt for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Meant to show solidarity across the United States with those disturbed by the news that masked agents of the federal government shot two American citizens dead in broad daylight, a day of remembrance along with a general strike was called for Friday, Jan. 30.
Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross killed substitute teacher and poet Renee Good on Jan. 7, 2026, and a little over two weeks later, Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse employed at a VA hospital, was killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents wearing masks and displaying no names or badge numbers.
Outside City Hall in Kingston, despite the 14-degree weather, hundreds had answered the call, gathering beneath the bell tower or lining up along the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, wielding signs, American flags, and at least one crocheted banner.
As in past protests, messages were diverse: “Honk if you’re not in the Epstein files,” “The wrong Amazon is burning,” “You can’t spell hatred without red hat,” and so on.
Protest messaging also had a distinctly menacing read of the situation.
“Protest today so we’re not hiding families in attics tomorrow,” “People are being dragged out of their homes—Anne Frank, Jan. 13, 1943,” and simply, “Orange is the new Nazi.”
While the majority of the population passing by showed their support, honking and whistling, there was one noisy exception. A man extending his middle finger drove back and forth on Broadway Avenue, revving his burble-tuned engine to produce an air-ripping roar. His performance drew the occasional lobbed snowball.
One niggling detail about taking part in a general strike is that one must contribute to the conditions for a total economic blackout. For the consumer, this means no shopping. For the worker, no working. And for the business owner, no opening the business. The point of a general strike is to send a financial message to the powers that be by withholding both labor and its fruits. It’s a tactic of mutually assured suffering developed in the past by labor unions—essentially a boycott against everything and everyone until further notice.
But for a business owner in Kingston, even if one agrees with the sentiment of a general strike, forgoing business on Friday is no easy choice—not if your business is hospitality, and not if you’ve had nothing to do with supporting ICE.
To show solidarity, bar and restaurant owners will swiftly post opinions on Facebook and Instagram, and this does risk customer base. To show solidarity, they’ll even promise to donate a percentage of their proceeds, costing them money. But closing entirely to show solidarity?
“It’s like being asked to cut the tips of your fingers off to prove your loyalty to the fingerless,” said one bar owner, who, choosing the name Chutney, agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. “It’s asinine. Why not just help pick things up?”
Yet, as a political climate, the winds in Kingston blow predominantly from one compass direction—and they blow fraught. This town of 24,000, which calls itself a city, is big on candlelight vigils, big on rallies with bullhorns, and big on ad nauseam, say-it-along-with-me chant sloganeering. Showing up to gather on a public street corner, hold up a sign, and listening to (progressive) politicians, community celebrities and activists make speeches is about all it takes to demonstrate one’s revolutionary bona fides here. Miss a rally, and the absence will be noted.
“We recognized immediately that to stay open would be to send the wrong signal,” Chutney said. “But close shop and we hurt our bottom line and we hurt the workers. For what? We’re all struggling to keep our heads above water.”
But to defy the general strike is to court the harsh criticism of an activist public.
Live-music bar and cultural nexus Tubby’s in Kingston neatly explained their position on Instagram: “We’ll be open tomorrow (we are broke) but FUCK ICE.”
Most—but not all—commenters were supportive of the bar’s decision. Instagram handle Apostrophebeats responded: “Weak and disappointing. You can’t take one night off?”
Other businesses made the same choice as Tubby’s, posting riffs on the we-stand-with-you-in-solidarity-but…
At Sonder, restaurant proper as well as a drinks-and-tapas nightspot on Broadway, “The team here at Sondy recognizes the importance of the Friday national shutdown protest, but as a small business facing the slowest time (and one of the worst fiscal moments in our short history), closing the doors on Friday is not how we can best serve the community.”
At Unicorn Bar, a queer-centered, straight-friendly live-event venue, they said it felt “the world was on literal fire,” but “was not in a position to close tomorrow.”
At Kingston Bread and Bar, a beer, coffee and sandwiches joint on Broadway, they were “sickened by the atrocities taking place in Minnesota and across the country at the hands of our authoritarian government,” but “they frankly [couldn’t] afford another day without sales.”
At Brunette, a savory snack and wine bar on Broadway Avenue near the Rondout Creek, they recognized that the country was being “ripped apart by this deplorable, fascist administration,” but, “Like so many of our fellow bar & restaurant friends, we cannot afford to shutter our doors this Friday…”
Here again, most commenters were supportive—but not all.
Instagram handle Vicnotorious wrote: “It’s kinda disappointing to see so many businesses ‘staying open in solidarity.’ Strikes are painful. They’re not meant to be easy, financially or otherwise. Staying open only encourages others to ignore striking principles.”
Brunette did address the conflict head-on, posting a “story,” a type of Instagram post that is set to delete itself after time elapses.
“There’s been a lot of hand-wringing,” wrote Brunette, “and deliberation and anxiety for small-business owners, in regards to tomorrow’s general strike. Naturally there’s been some shaming of places that are deciding to stay open and I fully understand the frustration and disappointment.”
The bar owner then offered to buy a drink for anyone disappointed, who wanted to come in and have a conversation about it.
According to Brunette, ahead of the general strike, approximately 75 small Hudson Valley businesses had taken part in actionable conversation led with empathy and understanding.
Sonder, Kingston Bread and Bar, Brunette, Unicorn Bar, and Tubby’s all shared that they would be donating a percentage of their Friday night earnings to the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network, a nonprofit started by the late Episcopal priest Father Frank, dedicated to providing aid and comfort to the immigrants currently hunted by ICE. The Unicorn Bar also suggested that customers bring cash to avoid paying any merchant fees to the credit card cartels.
One “ICE Out” attendee weathering the cold in a beanie, scarf, thick jacket and mittens, Carla Singer, agreed that sincere passion to see a fast result has a way of sabotaging its own goals.
“Our common interest here is to not be shot to death,” Singer said, “or even arrested, by the government, for exercising basic rights.”
Really, Singer said, this was all about class.
“The membership of the largest club in the United States is made up of the poor and, by definition, the exploited,” said Singer. “With more and more Americans falling out from the middle class, when they find out where they are, they’ll have to make a choice.”
Singer described three turnstiles, like entrances to the same festival, which await these refugees from the middle class. One, she said, leads to apathy and materialism. Another leads to demagoguery and bitterness. The third leads to organization and solidarity.
“They’ll choose the line which is most attractive,” she said.
Any line known for incessant infighting, sniping, lecturing or scolding; any line led by inflexible ideologues incapable of compromise; any line that features endless purity tests and performative virtue-signaling—any line with these characteristics is doomed to fail, Singer believes.
“You’re only driving would-be allies into apathy—or even worse,” she said, “into active opposition out of contrariness. Think about what building a bigger tent really means.”
Calling general strikes to cause economic blackouts might be a useful strategy to regain some value. And, as with keeping a well-oiled militia in good order, during the downtimes, you practice marching.
Which is how this demonstration ended.
But bars aren’t the only businesses.
Other businesses, like Lite Brite Neon, did close in solidarity.
Or, as Free to Thrift wrote: “We’ve donated more than $60,000 to the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network over the last four years, and we’ll be sending them another $10,000 next week in perpetual solidarity with their efforts to serve and protect our community and our neighbors. We’re making a donation button at the register and we’ll match all donations up to $5,000. If you want to donate to the UIDN, come through anytime through Feb. 9 and we will match what you’ll give. We will absolutely be closed this Friday in solidarity with every community across our country who is fighting the poison of hate that ICE perpetuates. Fuerza ICE. ICE out. Fuck ICE.”
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