Apr 12 2012
Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker officially began campaigning this week to keep his seat in the June 5th Gubernatorial recall election. Wisconsinites will go to the polls first on May 8th to elect a Democrat to run against the Republican Governor, who became the target of a historic Wisconsin protest movement and subsequent recall campaign starting last year. In February 2011,Walker, in office for less than 2 months, outraged Wisconsinites by introducing so-called “budget repair” legislation that stripped public employees of many collective bargaining rights. He tried to fast-track approval through the Republican controlled state legislature, leaving little time for public input on the historic change in labor rights in the state. However, a group of university teaching assistants held a small protest at the capitol building on Valentine’s Day 2011 that drew state-wide attention to the issue. Over the following weeks workers from all sectors, students, and supporters turned out for regular protests in ever increasing numbers, with crowds topping 100,000 people on some days. National and international attention became fixed on what became a revival of the US labor struggle.
Journalist John Nichols, associate editor of the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin and a correspondent for The Nation magazine, chronicled his state’s transformation into the headquarters for the labor movement and the inspiration for other protests around the country. Nichols’ surveys a year of popular action in the US in his new book, Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street. John Nichols’ Uprising is more than a history. In his book he analyses how Wisconsin and Occupy Wall Street revived American dissent and changed our national discourse.
GUEST: John Nichols, associate editor of the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin and a correspondent for The Nation magazine, author of many books including Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street
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