Wisconsin Protesters Erect 'Walkerville' Tent City To Protest Scott Walker's Budget Cuts

[iwishiwas]

Source: Huff post




Wisconsin Protesters Erect 'Walkerville' Tent City To Protest Scott Walker's Budget Cuts


Posted: 06/ 5/11 06:38 PM ET



WASHINGTON -- In February and March, thousands of protesters flooded the Wisconsin Capitol, sleeping in the building overnight and filling the dome with their chants to bring attention to Gov. Scott Walker's (R) attempt to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Now, some of those same individuals are taking the fight to the grounds around the Capitol, erecting a tent city to pay witness to the legislature's budget negotiations.

"It's pretty tough for these politicians to ignore us when we're right there," said Peter Rickman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law student and Teaching Assistants' Association member who is helping to organize the event. "It is a galvanizing, symbolic action of working folks standing up and saying enough is enough."

Rickman told The Huffington Post there were around 100 tents set up Saturday night around the Capitol in downtown Madison. The tent city is being called "Walkerville," reminiscent of the "Hooverville" shanty towns set up by homeless Americans during the Great Depression.

Organizers have a permit to stay there until June 20. The intent, however, is to remain as long as as the budget negotiations are going on inside the Capitol.

Each day will highlight a particular group of individuals organizers argue will be most affected by cuts in the budget. ..................................

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/05/wisconsin-protesters-walkerville-tent-capitol-scott-walker-budget_n_871523.html

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Nice photo at link.

[iwishiwas]

1. "SCOTTY WE ARE COMING FOR YOU"--song at the end

of this video....

http://solidaritywisconsin.com/video/walkerville

[iwishiwas]

2. Here is a schedule of events.....

http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/walkerville-tent-city-this-budget-is-wrong.html

[juajen]

3. Why can't they have sleeping bags? That concrete is gonna get awfully hard. NT

[iwishiwas]

5. Where did you read that?

[juajen]

4. I forgpt tp say that I love Wisconsin.

My late brother taught math at the University of Wisconsin. He would have been so proud. He loved that state and so do I. Go, Wisconsin!

[sakabatou]

6. Scotty don't

[MadisonMike]

7. I am so proud to be a Wisconsinite! CNN link

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/05/wisconsin.walkerville/

Eighty years after Hoovervilles sprung up around the county, and four months after tens of thousands descended on the Wisconsin state capitol, progressives have a new home in what they're calling Walkerville.

The Madison tent city is named in honor -- or, more accurately, in defiance -- of Gov. Scott Walker, who became an icon for conservatives and lightning rod for liberals after he pushed through a controversial new collective bargaining law earlier this year.

David Boetcher, one of Walkerville's coordinators, said the aim is to recapture the spirit of Hoovervilles, the shanty towns that popped up and were named to tweak President Herbert Hoover's perceived inaction in the Great Depression's early years. Since Saturday night's kick-off, about 80 tents have sprung up in and around State Street in Madison, with a handful of people sticking it out throughout but mostly fresh rounds of activists rotating through on a daily basis.

[larwdem]

8. RECALL

RECALL WALKER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, THE SCUM BAG :kick:

[iwishiwas]

9. legally we can start the process in November of this year.