Thanks to Rudy Perkins for sharing this first-hand account of his weekend trip to Madison

On Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011, I took part in the latest of the large demonstrations at the Madison, Wisconsin State Capitol building against the attempt by Republican Governor Walker to strip collective bargaining rights for many of the public sector unions in the state and to launch sharp cutbacks.  The late afternoon demonstration surrounded the Capitol with large contingents of union members, Wisconsin families, and progressive activists  — maybe 50,000 to 75,000 demonstrators in all, with more still arriving when I left, as dusk and a new dusting of snow began to fall across the city.

It’s quite possible that organizers hit their 100,000 target by day’s end.  Certainly tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets, curb to curb, completely surrounding the Capitol on the four long city blocks that surround the state house square.  Several thousand more demonstrators circled on the sidewalk at the base of the Capitol building, or stood on its wide steps or on the snow-covered slope of the Capitol lawn.  Hundreds more continued the occupation inside the Capitol building.

In decades of participating in demonstrations and the occasional sit-in and occupation, this was unlike anything I had ever seen.  First, there was the unusual venue and duration of the occupation — an entire American state capitol building occupied for nearly two weeks.  Second was the prominent involvement of labor unions and the sharp, class-struggle-oriented nature of their messages.  The Teamsters, for example had parked two huge semi-trailers facing the Capitol, with their twin horses Teamster logos and American flags painted down the sides.  From the back of the trailers they were handing out signs proclaiming:  “Stop the War on Workers”.  Many demonstrators carried signs from one of the nurses’ associations demanding:  “Blame Wall Street – No Concessions!”  The Wisconsin Teachers Association was handing out hundreds of signs reading:  “Stop the Attack on Wisconsin Families.”  AFSCME’s ubiquitous green sign, carried by many demonstrators, proclaimed simply  “It’s About Freedom!”   “Cops for Labor” read the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association signs, from one of the police unions in the state.

Inside the Capitol building the nearly two-week old occupation continued, an unceasing line waiting patiently to take the megaphone in a permanent speak-out on the ground floor in the beautiful state house rotunda.  Young students, local union leaders, Wisconsin residents, labor activists from other states, all waited in line to add their voices to the statements of solidarity from other parts of the country, and the testimonials from around the state on what the Governor’s bill would mean for them, their families, or the future of American politics and unionism.

One young student stepped to the microphone as I reached the rotunda floor .  He quoted President Obama’s campaign promise that he would himself join the picket line if American workers’ collective bargaining rights were threatened.  The young man asked why President Obama wasn’t here now.  A hand-written sign down one hallway had the same quote from Obama and raised the same question.  But at the local level, the fourteen Democratic State Senators who decamped to Illinois to prevent Wisconsin’s Republican Governor from having a Senate quorum to pass his bill – dubbed here the “Fab Fourteen” – were praised and thanked in sign after sign.

Above the rotunda floor, two levels of circular marble-ballustraded balconies formed the gallery of witnesses to the speak-out testimonials.  Occupiers, visitors and union activists, pressed two and three rows deep against the balcony railings, and leaned over the marble rails to hear the speeches from the rotunda floor below.  Every foot of balcony railing was covered with banners, some announcing the many union locals taking part in the demonstrations against the Governor’s bill, some broadcasting the political truths and the necessary demands that are becoming clearer every day – at least in Wisconsin.  “Tax the Rich”  “An Injury to One Is An Injury to All” and “Honor Labor”.  Even Wisconsin’s unionized prison guards had draped a hand-painted banner “We Guard Criminals – Please Guard Us From This Criminal”.  

One sign simplified the austerity formula in Wisconsin, a formula that is being repeated in state after state and at the federal level:  “Walker’s tax cuts:  $117 million; State deficit:  $137 million.  You do the math.”  Other signs denounced the Governor’s “Koch habit” – a reference to his connection to the rightwing millionaire Koch brothers who reportedly have funded parts of the Tea Party movement.

The grass-roots speeches and testimonials in the state house were punctuated with heart-pumping rhythms from the ad hoc drum circle that seemed to have taken up residence on the rotunda floor.  Union songs and chants of “This Is What Democracy Looks Like!” and “Kill the Bill!” alternated with the speeches and drumming .  Energy radiated and reverberated from the crowd gathered in the rotunda, growing in volume and power as it echoed off the inside of the Capitol dome and down the marble hallways of the state house.

All the hallways of the Capitol were plastered with taped-up signs, placards and announcements.  A small food canteen distributed soup, water, and sandwiches to the occupiers.  Sleeping bags were rolled up in one corner and another.

The mood of the many State Police present was relaxed.  State troopers were controlling entrance to the building to keep it from becoming overcrowded, allowing five new protesters to enter as five left.  Other than that, they were giving the run of the Capitol building to the people.  Hundreds of occupiers and sympathizers filled the rotunda and circulated in the halls, picking up leaflets from the stacks on the marble floor, chanting and singing, discussing politics and next steps with their friends and colleagues.

On a memorial statue for women’s rights outside the Capitol, some wit had hung a hardware store For Sale sign, reading   For Sale:  Wisconsin, Call [Governor] Scott Walker.  Inside the Capitol, the bust of Wisconsin’s historic progressive Governor Robert LaFollette was bedecked with signs, including one proudly calling out, “Long Live LaFollette!”

On the frosted glass state house office window of one sympathetic state senator, two recently taped-up signs on the glass announced “We Stand With Wisconsin’s Workers” and “Public Welcome  — Please Come In”.  These two simple signs on a legislator’s office, as much as the banners on the marble balconies, the drum circle and speeches in the rotunda, and the tens of thousands encircling the Capitol, gave me hope that the people of Wisconsin have launched new possibilities for us all.

— Rudy Perkins

rudyperkins@yahoo.com