The protesters aren’t done in Wisconsin — far from it.
The AFL-CIO is organizing yet another Saturday rally at the state Capitol in Madison. This follows the mega-protests that occurred the past two weekends, which each attracted many tens of thousands of people in opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal and its anti-public employee union provisions.
The first mega-rally two weeks ago was interesting in that it pitted the anti-Walker protesters against a promised contingent of pro-Walker Tea Partiers — only to have the anti-Walker people outnumber his supporters at least several times over. And with tens of thousands of people, there were no amazingly no arrests.
The second Saturday rally, which I attended as a reporter on assignment, had an even larger attendance — and in freezing, snowy weather, compared to the relatively warm and sunny day of the previous rally. That second rally featured such celebrity appearances as folk singer Peter Yarrow — who, in an apparent sign of reawakening class consciousness in the state, led a massive sing-along of “Which Side Are You On,” and other populist tunes. Actor and Madison native Bradley Whitford was also in attendance, alongside a brass band that was identified as “not the official UW Alumni Band.”
So let’s see how this Saturday turns out.
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