Solidarity Sing A Long: Wisconsin Labor Protests Continue The noontime sing-along has protested Gov. Scott Walker’s policies daily at Wisconsin’s Capitol since March 11, 2011. However, a new round of arrests began two weeks ago and more than 100 citations have been issued to protesters by Capitol Police. But this is in addition to nearly 200 citations already since July 2012 when the Department of Administration began enforcing new permitting requirements for gatherings in state facilities. What is the noontime solidarity sing-along protest? Attorney Jonathan Rosenblum: When you have a new governor who within weeks in office describes his legislation as a bomb, which was to end collective bargaining for public sector workers. This led to more than a hundred thousand people, multiple times on the square where I’m sitting right now here on Wisconsin Avenue. Beyond the anti-union agenda, this governor has come in with a pedigree from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. He as a legislator in the same building was a member of ALEC, was a proponent of its agenda. His agenda as it moved along, was to remove vast numbers of children from medicaid, of claiming a jobs agenda would bring Wisconsin to the top in the United States, instead it plunged to the bottom. He eliminated funding for high speed trains, instead the trains for Wisconsin are now sitting in Oregon. The main point about this governor is about closing the doors of this government to the public. Even the union legislation that led to the crowds was passed in violation of a Public Meetings Act. Let me take you to March 11, 2011 when it all started. I was standing there with my friend Steve Burns, folks had slept in the capitol for weeks, the anti-union legislation was passed and signed that day and Steve had printed up a few copies of a songbook that had the dome of the capitol opening up with musical notes on the cover of it and 10 tunes, the classics of the civil rights movement. Several of them modified in the great Wobbly tradition. This sing-along has preceded from that day March 11, 2011 without skipping a beat, every single week day since that date. More than 650 consecutive sing-alongs. The sing-along is a joyful conglomeration. It’s reached about 300-400 daily as the crack down has actually caused a surge of concerned citizens to join us. We Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister. A Long Range Acoustic Device is being used. The police have started to use the recordings of Chief Irwin’s declaration of unlawful assembly to blast into the rotunda so nobody misses it. They use the siren that ramps up to 150 db to disable people. They haven’t put it to that level yet. The State Capitol Police are in a bind. They have their orders, most are executing them with a little more zeal than they should. Some of them seem to be maintaining friendships that they had before with the singers. Guest – Jonathan Rosenblum, PRWatch.org contributor, an author, award-winning journalist, and practicing l
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 09:51:59 +0000
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