Democracy Is Busting Down the Doors of State Capitols Across the Country

From the Texas filibuster to Pennsylvania’s low-wager-worker sleep-in, citizens are rising up. What’s happening in your state?

June 29, 2013  |

Madison. Occupy… Now in North Carolina it’s Moral Mondays. In Texas it’s a filibuster, hundreds of thousands watching online, and the spectator gallery goes nuts when Republicans try to shut down the speaker. In Pennsylvania low-wage workers are sleeping in the capitol. In Nebraska it’s Pipeline Fighters. What’s happening in your state?

Madison

Corporate-funded Republicans took over in Wisconsin and passed laws restricting democracy and unions. People turned out at the state capitol in protest. Here are Wisconsin protesters chanting: “Tell me what democracy looks like. THIS is what democracy looks like!”

Occupy

Then people started showing up for Occupy. All over the country in late 2011 people were showing up at thousands of Occupy events across the country.

I was in Oakland when tens of thousands of people turned out for a day of protest in that city.

North Carolina: Moral Nondays

Now people are turning out every monday in Raliegh to protest cruel cuts by corporate-funded Repubicans.

Raleigh News & Observer: Moral Monday crowds swell in week 8; first protestors appear in court,

Nearly 120 people were arrested and charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse on command. That brings the total number of arrests to almost 600 on the same day that the first wave of protesters made their first appearance in Wake County District Court.

I wrote about Moral Mondays in North Carolina State Senator Calls ‘Moral Monday’ Protesters ‘Moral Morons’.

This video is from the June 3 Moral Monday rally:

Texas: Citizens Turn Out In Support Of Wendy Davis

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis held a 13-hour filibuster to block Repuboicans from shutting down most of the state’s women’s clinics and outlawing many reproductive medical services. When Republlicans broke with proper parliamentary procedure to force her to sop, citizens in the banlcony stood up and shouted down the Republicans, holding things still until the midnight end of the legislstive session.

Pennsylvania: Low-Wage Workers Hold Sleep-in In Capitol

In Pennsylvania a number of low-wage workers are holding a vigil in the state capitol.

PennLive: Medicaid expansion proponents to sleep in the Capitol ‘until their voices are heard’,

Deeming themselves, “the faces of Medicaid expansion,” at least 10 people will sleep overnight Wednesday in the Capitol building outside Senate Democratic leaders’ offices. Event participants said they chose to stick on the side of the Democrats, because leaders on the left have mostly supported the cause.

The staging of the sleep-in was put together by several organizations including the Service Employees International Union and the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. Earlier Wednesday, dozens of demonstrators from those organizations staged a “sick-in” at the governor’s residence where they chanted and pretended to be sick.

Medical Emergency in Pennsylvania Capitol; Uninsured Activists Begin Occupation for Medicaid Expansion

A dozen uninsured Pennsylvanians have set up a camp inside the State Capitol to support Senate Democrats in their fight to pass Medicaid expansion in the state budget. The group wants to serve as a 24-hour a day reminder to legislators that the decision whether to expand Medicaid could have a life-or-death impact on peoples’ lives. They say they will stay until their voices are heard.

This is a video from insde the PA capitol:

Nebraska: Pipeline Fighters

In Nebraska Pipeline Fighters are holding meetings across the state and organizing, getting their countries to pass zoning laws forbidding tar sands pipelines from crossing through.

One example, from earlier this money: Norfolk Daily News, Pipeline fighters stand their ground,

NELIGH — Continue to fight the good fight.

That’s the message landowners affected by the proposed Keystone XL project heard Wednesday evening from members of Bold Nebraska, NEAT (Nebraska Easement Action Team) and the Nebraska Farmers Union.

Updates were presented to about 50 area residents at a “pipeline fighter” meeting here as opponents worked to capitalize on a resolution passed by the Holt County Board of Supervisors in April that bars tar sands and crude oil pipelines in the county.

Your State

Is democracy rising up in your state? If not, why are you sitting somewhere reading this instead of rising up and getting people organized?

If democracy IS rising up in your state leave a comment, or otherwise let me know!