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Wisconsin

Wisconsin Students Charge UW Board Of Regents With Genocide

Madison, WI – In a show of student power, nearly 50 protesters marched into the UW board of regents meeting Thursday, December 5, to put Palestine and divestment on the Finance Committee agenda. This latest militant action comes after a large-scale administration failure to uphold the Madison and Milwaukee encampment agreements on disclosure and divestment from apartheid Israel. Despite the freezing temperatures, the students opened with a rally outside the event hall. During the rally, SDS and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kayla Patterson told the crowd, “The simple truth is that the board of regents stands on the wrong side of history.

Wisconsin Unions Score Major Win With Court Ruling

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin public worker and teachers unions scored a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and made the state the center of the national battle over union rights. That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. Under the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place prior to 2011.

Milwaukee Demands Community Control Over Jail Audit

Milwaukee, WI – On Monday, November 25, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a press conference to comment on the recent findings of the jail audit that was released the week before. Two inmates’ mothers, Laquita Dunlap and Kerrie Hirte, spoke of their fights for justice and accountability. The audit was conducted with input from fewer than 40 inmates, and with no public transparency or input whatsoever. The public expected to hear a preliminary report in December with the full audit report coming in 2025. Instead, the entire report was released suddenly and without any forewarning in November of 2024.

Wisconsin Approves Pipeline Reroute Near Bad River Reservation

According to Indigenous water protectors, it’s not a matter of whether a pipeline will rupture and leak, but when. The federal government’s own data supports this, with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reporting that there were 1.5 incidents per day in 2023. But in northern Wisconsin on the Bad River Reservation, the incontrovertible claim that the safest way to build a pipeline is not to build one at all isn’t being heeded. On Nov. 14, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) granted the Canadian pipeline corporation Enbridge the permits needed to proceed with a plan to build a 41-mile section of pipeline around the Bad River Reservation.

Not In Our Nursing Homes

Merrill, WI — When the phone rang, it was 11 p.m. Still, Gene Bebel, farmer and retired school principal, picked up. It was Al Curtis, a one-time special education teacher and now resident at Pine Crest Nursing Home, a county-owned facility in Merrill, Wis., population 9,000. Curtis was angry: He’d gotten word that Pine Crest was on the chopping block, with the county board looking to privatize it. Bebel, age 84, leapt into action. He first contacted Judy Woller, who for years had run a support organization for victims of domestic violence in this rural county, and who had a reputation as someone who stood up for others. The two began to organize to save Pine Crest, a Lincoln County institution for nearly 70 years.

Milwaukee Anti-War Committee Holds Hands Off Lebanon Protest

Milwaukee, WI – On September 25, roughly 100 people gathered to demand an end to the U.S.-funded attacks on Lebanon and Palestine and an arms embargo on Israel. Protesters gathered at City Hall Square as a rally began at around 5 p.m. The rally, led by the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee and cosponsored by ten other local, national, and international organizations, had ten speakers, who connected the resistance in the Middle East to U.S. imperialism and the way it impacts us all. After the initial gathering and speeches, the group marched and chanted down Kilbourne Avenue to Juneau Park. The target of the protest was the Raytheon board member George Oliver, who lives in a condominium tower across from the park.

Milwaukee Unionists And Others Stand With Palestine During LaborFest 2024

Milwaukee, WI – On Monday, September 2, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council (MALC) and other unions such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) hosted LaborFest, an annual celebration held in commemoration of Labor Day. Hundreds of workers and union supporters turned out for the occasion. The first portion of the day’s events saw the traditional mass march featuring rank-and-file workers mobilized by unions spanning the spectrum of organized labor, from trades workers to letter carriers to communications workers and everything in between.

How Should Cities Use The Land Freed Up By Highway Removal?

The 20th-century era of urban planning saw highways carving scars across the landscapes of many American cities, leaving in their wake a legacy of displacement and destruction. Today, removing freeways seems to offer a path to repairing some of this harm and moving away from car-centric infrastructure. But highway removal alone is not enough. Whether removal projects make good on their promises to mend some of the damage caused by freeway construction and redesign cities at a more human scale depends entirely on two questions: Who controls the reclaimed land when a freeway comes down, and how will those decision makers use it?

In Milwaukee, Many Black Voters Aren’t On Board With Either Party

In recent years, both Democrats and Republicans have been vying for the attention of Wisconsin’s Black residents, who are largely concentrated in Milwaukee, the most populous city in this critical swing state. The Democratic Party chose the city as its convention host in 2020, with Republicans following suit this year. Today, Harris is expected to be in Milwaukee for what could now be her first official campaign stop as she vies for the presidency, with Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes up for grabs. But the frenzy of outreach from party leaders to lure voters who have been disenfranchised for generations is like trying to sweep water out of the Titanic.

Thousands March Against Republicans On The First Day Of The RNC

Milwaukee, WI – After two years of work, the Coalition to March on the RNC culminated its efforts with a 3500-person rally and march on the opening day of the 2024 Republican National Convention. The Coalition was truly national in character, composed of more than 120 organizations representing all manner of social movements. The principle rallying cry of the broad united front was to fight against the racist and reactionary Republican agenda. “The most visible figurehead of the Republican Party right now is Donald Trump, but we want to be clear: we are marching on the Republicans’ entire agenda.

Milwaukee Shipped In 4,500 Cops To Suppress Protest At RNC

Contestations over the Republican National Committee’s efforts to foreclose avenues for lawful protest outside this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) were already heated months before GOP delegates started booking their flights to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the convention. So it was something of a victory for free speech that, after months of mobilizing and negotiations — and in the unexpectedly heightened state of policing following the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump — some protesters managed to demonstrate close enough to the RNC to be seen and heard by its attendees. The path leading up to that point was filled with uncertainty over whether protest rights would be subordinated to GOP demands.

Milwaukee Republican National Convention Opens With Protest March

Milwaukee, WI — The 2024 Republican National Convention opens Monday morning with downtown sealed behind fences and barricades, forming a large security perimeter. On opening day, the Coalition to March on the RNC is set to take the streets near the inner security zone downtown controlled by the Secret Service. The Poor People’s Army (aka Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign) is also slated to march on Monday. Unicorn Riot is planning to cover events live at the beginning of the convention as conditions permit — support our coverage here. Protesters have faced difficulties getting their message within “sight and sound” of the main convention buildings.

Coalition To March On The RNC Files Lawsuit Over Permit Denial

Milwaukee, WI – After a year of denied permits for their proposed march, the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024 has filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee. Along with a watered-down “free speech zone,” the city of Milwaukee has stoked repression by trying to implement “hard” and “soft” security zones around the Fiserv Forum, where the Republicans are planning to select their 2024 presidential nominee this July. The city government offered no details or insight on these security zones, and hasn’t been clear where the city’s proposed “parade route” will be. Despite this, the coalition is determined to march within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum along their own proposed route, the same one their permit applications have requested.

Museum Workers Win Demand To Shut Down For RNC In Milwaukee

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) employees represented by their union, AFSCME Local 526, are celebrating a decisive victory in their campaign for workplace safety during the Republican National Convention. In a statement, the union said it “presented a list of proposals to MPM administration that would prioritize the rights and safety of MPM employees during the RNC, which will be held just blocks away from MPM. The Union asked MPM not to host organizations or individuals whose actions are inconsistent with MPM’s values, and that employees suffer no loss of wages or additional transportation expenses during the RNC, among other workplace-specific issues.”

50,000 ‘Uninstructed’ Wisconsin Voters Send Biden Clear Message

A mix of rain and snow pelted Wisconsin on Tuesday, covering streets with sludge as voters braved their way to the polls. But despite the weather and what appeared to be low turnout in the primary, Listen to Wisconsin’s Uninstructed campaign defied expectations and netted nearly 50,000 votes. President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by only about 20,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2020, and the strong showing for the Uninstructed campaign is a harsh rebuke of Biden’s policies around Gaza and the larger Democratic agenda as the incumbent is now faced with yet another critical Midwest swing state that may be lost come November.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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