Wisconsin

About 2,000 Protest Against Right-To-Work At Wisconsin Capitol

February 25, 2015 Scott Bauer, www.AP.org Resist! Labor Rights, Labor Unions, Living Wage, Wisconsin

About 2,000 construction workers, electricians, carpenters and other union members rallied at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Tuesday, pushing back against a fast-tracked right-to-work bill backed by Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker. The gathering was larger than most at the Capitol, but paled in numbers and intensity to the protests seen four years ago when Walker pushed through his measure that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. Rallies then lasted for weeks and grew as large as 100,000 people. “Let’s be loud today and let them hear us,” Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said at the rally where people sang, chanted and booed references to Republicans pushing the issue. Right-to-work laws, in place in 24 states, prohibit private-sector companies from reaching labor agreements in which workers have to pay fees to the unions as a condition of employment.

Unions, Students Rally On UWM Campus Against Cuts

February 13, 2015 Graham Kilmer, www.mediamilwaukee.com Resist! Austerity, Labor Unions, Student Activism, Wisconsin

A group of about 60 students gathered in Spaights plaza Wednesday at a rally organized by the Progressive Students of Milwaukee to protest the recently proposed cut of $300 million to the UW-System. Speakers addressed the crowd and fired them up for a march around the campus. At the protest, students participated in chants calling for an end to the cuts proposed by Gov. Walker, as well as chants to show solidarity and pride in their message. Mott expressed serious concern about the cuts to education in Walker’s proposal. He even questioned Walker’s credibility to make a decision like this being that Walker never graduated college.

The End Of Public Higher Education In Wisconsin?

January 29, 2015 Ragman's Circle, www.ragmanscircles.wordpress.com Educate! Education, Privatization, Wisconsin

In Scott Walker’s first budget in 2011, the one that included the notorious Act 10, which outlawed the formation of, and any substantive bargaining from, public employee unions, there was a proposal to split off UW-Madison from the UW System by making Madison a “public authority.” Back in 2011 plans for this separation of Madison from the UW System went so far that Biddy Martin, then UW-Madison Chancellor, had prepared the text for a new Chapter 37, which would apply only to UW-Madison and would govern it as a public authority that preserved all of the protections for academic freedom, faculty governance, and tenure that are written in to the Wisconsin Statutes. This 2011 proposal would have left the legal status of the rest of the System unchanged under Chapter 36, which lays out the statutory authority (and guidelines) for the University of Wisconsin System, the only university system in the nation so authorized.

A Dozen Wisconsin Communities Challenge Corporate Personhood

October 30, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Organize! Campaign Finance, Citizens United, Law, Wisconsin

Wisconsin residents in 12 communities will vote next week on whether to amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United, end corporate personhood, and get big money out of politics. In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court found that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections. In Milwaukee County, Dunn County, Green Bay, Appleton, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Ripon, Stoughton, Oregon, Wausau, and the Village of Park Ridge, voters will cast their ballots on a proposed amendment that would essentially reverse the Court's 2010 decision by stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech.

Counties Urge Revocation Of Pipeline Permit

June 28, 2014 Jake Kurtz, www.hngnews.com Resist! Enbridge, Oil, pollution, Wisconsin

Dane County supervisors approved a resolution Thursday urging the Department of Natural Resources to revoke a permit awarded earlier that day to Enbridge Energy and undertake a environmental review of plans the company has to boost production along its main Wisconsin oil pipeline. Installed in 2006, Enbridge’s Line 61 transports roughly 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands soil per day from Superior to Pontiac, Ill. The 42-inch diameter line crosses northeast Dane County through the towns of York and Medina. But Enbridge has plans to increase Line 61’s capacity to 1.2 million barrels per day by late 2015 with the construction or modification of pump stations throughout Wisconsin. The project was first announced approximately two years ago. According to Enbridge, the two-phase expansion is part of “ongoing efforts to meet North America’s needs for reliable and secure transportation of petroleum energy supplies,” and the project “will help generate benefits for local economies,” in the form of jobs, tax revenue and the purchase of goods and services. Enbridge is also working to beef up the capacity by adding new pump stations to its Alberta Clipper pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada through North Dakota and northern Minnesota to Superior.

Radio Host Arrested In Wisconsin Protest Sues Police

April 1, 2014 Associated Press, www.jsonline.com Resist! police brutality, Wisconsin

Madison — A reporter has filed a federal lawsuit alleging Capitol Police officers violated the U.S. Constitution when they arrested him during a protest. Philip Dominic Salvia co-hosts "The Devil's Advocates" talk show. According to the lawsuit he filed Monday, he was in the Capitol rotunda on July 24 when police began arresting demonstrators who had been using the space to sing against Gov. Scott Walker. The lawsuit said officers arrested him even though he was merely observing the protest as a journalist, in violation of his First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. A judge dismissed Salvia's $200 ticket in August, but Salvia says police still need to be held accountable.

Pussy Riot Supports Wisconsin Solidarity Singers

March 15, 2014 The Voice Project, www.occupy.com Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Pussy Riot, Wisconsin, Worker Rights and Jobs

"The solidarity singers who gather daily at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison have a pair of surprise guest musicians joining their chorus — Pussy Riot. Two members of the notorious Russian female rock group known for their outspoken protests, Nadya Tolokonikova and Masha Alyokhina, make a surprise appearance in a new video extolling Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to drop the state’s prosecution against the singing protesters. Pussy Riot is an 11-member female group known for staging impromptu performances and protests in the streets of Russia, and then editing the footage into music video. The group has vocally opposed many of the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin – in particular his anti-gay policies – and in 2011 three members (including Tolokonikova and Alyokhina) were convicted and imprisoned of “hooliganism” for singing an anti-Putin song outside a cathedral."

The Battle For Wisconsin: The Revolt of 2011

September 30, 2013 Tom Crean, www.socialistalternative.org Strategize! Democracy, Finance and the Economy, Government, Wisconsin, Worker Rights and Jobs

The uprising in Wisconsin in February and March 2011 was an event of enormous historical significance for the American labor movement. Hundreds of thousands of workers and young people rose up against the attempt to strip public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights. Despite ending in defeat, it potentially marked the beginning of the end of a very long, deeply demoralizing retreat. This pamphlet is a detailed account authored by an active participant in the struggle. It shows how rapidly the movement developed and how quickly it radicalized. It highlights the role of high school student walkouts in paving the way for teacher sickouts, which galvanized the wider resistance. Once begun, the movement touched a deep nerve across the country and demonstrated beyond all doubt that when organized workers take a stand for their rights they can win support from much broader sections of society.

Video: 100 Arrested in Wisconsin During ‘Sing-Along’ Over the Past Two Weeks

August 7, 2013 Jaisal Noor, www.therealnews.com Resist! Wisconsin

In Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, August 6, demonstrators were again arrested at the State Capitol Building at what's being dubbed the Solidarity Sing-Along in protest of Republican Governor Scott Walker. The protesters have gathered at the capital rotunda every weekday at noon since May 11, 2011, to voice their opposition at what they say is a governor who is increasingly suppressing his political opposition. But for the past two weeks, capitol police have been arresting singers and bystanders and journalists for taking part in what they say is an unpermitted event. Activists maintain they don't need a permit to protest on public property.

Wisconsin Activists Rebuke Gov. Walker’s Crackdown on Dissent

August 7, 2013 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Government, Wisconsin

Police in Madison, Wisconsin continued their crackdown on protesters in the capitol building on Monday, arresting 20 people taking part in the near-daily Solidarity Sing Along actions that protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's agenda. The Solidarity Sing Along has been a noon-hour fixture in the capitol rotunda since it first began in March of 2011. The crackdown on the singers, however, began two weeks ago when Gov. Scott Walker announced that protesters need a permit for their actions in the capitol. Wednesday's arrests bring the number of citations to over 140.

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