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You are here: Home / Music / Open Thread: Bread & Roses

Open Thread: Bread & Roses

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Report from commentor Rozlyn, on the front lines:

Just returned home from Madison—it was another beautiful day at the capitol with great turnout. Police and fire were there in force, which really fired up the crowds (the governor has exempted them from this union battle in an attempt to divide and conquer)!
__
The counter protest was weak tea, folks. Turnout was low and their rally, which was scheduled from 12-3, wrapped up at 1:20!! No sign of Breitbart or Palin.

***********

Also, a reminder: Nixonland book group “meeting”, tomorrow, Sunday, at 4pm EST. We’ll be discussing chapters 6 & 7, and new voices are always welcome!

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Sully attacks back.

    My favorite line:

    To personalize this and say it’s all because I have contempt for “people I will never meet” seems bizarre. I have met one of those who will be much worse off if we can end the federal debt on Bowles-Simpson lines and he’s staring at me in the bathroom mirror every morning.

    Yes, he met one of these people and it’s- guess who!? His own privileged, Province-town-vacationing, taking-every-August-off self! This is why you can’t get through to these people. They are totally self-unaware.

    Sully might wind up having to take three weeks off in the summer instead of four, or vacation in New Jersey..

    Won’t anyone think of Sully?

  5. 5.

    pbriggsiam

    Thank you for your update! My wife and I here in Pasadena, CA have been looking for anything to give us an idea how things went today in WI. We were very worried about the astroturf bused in Teatard protesters causing trouble.

    Things seem so bleak with Republican controlled legislatures in other states trying to do the same thing that Walker and his minions are doing.

    My wife had an idea to help show solidarity concretely with the people in WI. Having progressives in other parts of the country, including this household, adopting a household in WI. Writing emails, providing help if needed…. I wonder if that’s an idea that could take off.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    From he previous thread, re-posting the link to the WI State Journal (the WSJ that doesn’t lie), with pics from today’s rally.

    http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/collection_0f10041a-3c45-11e0-b165-001cc4c002e0.html

    Joe the Fuckhead Plumber was there, and one can only imagine the words of wisdom.

    Hope we hear from other folks at the rally. Me and Mrs. BG plan on going up next weekend if there is still protesting. Or even if not, because there is beer.

  8. 8.

    Mark S.

    Shorter Ann Althouse:

    Wait, when RedState talks about how we’re really going to fuck public employees up the ass, um, guys, I’m a public employee. But, Gov. Walker just wants what’s best for all of us, right, right? Yes, that’s it. Bless, bless.

  9. 9.

    gbear

    One of the tweets at this site had this to say:

    Conservative activist Andrew Briebart to crowd: “America is not going to be community organized anymore.”

    Did he phone it in?

  12. 12.

    Dee Loralei

    @pbriggsiam: There’s an article in the previous thread for a pizza place near the Capital building. Seems people all over the country are phoning in pizza orders to deliver to the marchers. Make sure you specify for pro-Union marcgers, wouldn’t want Breitbart or Joe the Plumber of a GD teabagger to get a piece of your munificence. I think it was Ian’s Pizza. YellowPages.com prolly can get you a number.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    3:25 p.m.: During what has been mostly a peaceful day of protest, at least one Walker supporter complains of a painful encounter.
    I posted this in the previous post but think it’s worth highlighting again.

    Larry Oppelt, a trucker from Delavan, says he was kneed in the groin by an angry pro-union marcher…………………………………………..
    Oppelt was on the Square with his wife and teenage son. He says another Walker supporter tried to knock his hat off.
    Though Oppelt says he supported public unions when they first started, he said he now feels they have grown too powerful. He says that as a truck driver in the private sector he has to pay for his own retirement and his own health benefits. It’s a struggle, he adds. That’s why, he says, he came to the Square on Saturday.

    I can’t believe this guy is complaining about union benefits but not Wall Street. Your tea party at work, I suppose. There are more updates at this link.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    Rozlyn via AL @ Top:

    The counter protest was weak tea, folks. … No sign of Breitbart or Palin.

    It will probably remain that way as long as the cops & firepeople stay vocal and on the unions side. None of GOP stalwarts and stars want to come out against first responders. Sure, they’ll do their manipulations and propaganda in the media, but they won’t put themselves in the position of getting booed by the police and other first responders.

    It creates bad video for them.

    .

  16. 16.

    JenJen

    Breitbart was there. Or, at least, he gave an interview to NRO from Madison. Not sure how involved he was other than that.

    @Mark S.: I’ve been getting quite the kick out of Althouse the last few days. Not in the way she’d want, of course; more in the “pointing-and-laughing” sense.

  17. 17.

    manny

    I was there for several hours today and made several rounds around the square. Do NOT believe the media hype that the Tea Party was there in an significant numbers at all. Of the 100,000+ that were there, there were [i]maybe[/i] 1,000 Tea Partiers there. That is not spin, 1000 may be a generous estimate. They were scattered around the sidelines and a few congregated per corner of the square, and that’s it.

  18. 18.

    inkadu

    @JPL: I can’t believe this guy doesn’t come to the conclusion that he needs to start a truck driver’s union.

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    @JPL: So, let me get this right: He’s there at the march with his wife and teenage son. Another WALKER supporter tries to knock off his cap? He says he supported unions when they began? That’s what several decades ago — 60, 70 years ago, he’s that old? The story doesn’t make sense to me.

    (So why isn’t he trying to bring back the old Teamsters union and get better benefits for himself and other private drivers?)

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Just got back from about 4 hours at the protests in Madison. In my estimate, only about 1000 people showed up at the tea protest. There was a solid mass of real protesters moving around the Square the whole time I was there. In addition there were masses of people on the west steps of the Capitol, facing down State Street and on the opposite side from the tea folk. There were a large number of union people up from Chicago. Also a large number of people inside the capitol were speechifying and cheering away. On one corner of the Square, there were doctors doing “medical examinations: and writing medical excuses for people who “needed healthcare” and a doctor’s excuse for missing work. I probably spent 3 hours marching and the rest of the time taking photos.

  21. 21.

    jwb

    @feebog: Read somewhere on the WI State Journal site that the counter demonstration was estimated at 2,000. One estimate I read of the main protest was around 60,000.

  23. 23.

    Apsaras

    “Turnout was low and their rally, which was scheduled from 12-3, wrapped up at 1:20!!”

    That just proves that they’re almost three times more efficient!

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL:

    He says that as a truck driver in the private sector he has to pay for his own retirement and his own health benefits. It’s a struggle, he adds.

    So naturally he supports tax cuts for the rich, cuts in social security and Medicare, and opposed efforts to introduce a non-profit insurance program for Americans of all ages.

    Excuse me, I need to go bang my head against a wall.

  33. 33.

    JGabriel

    PurpleGirl:

    He says he supported unions when they began? That’s what several decades ago—60, 70 years ago, he’s that old?

    A lot older than that. In an interesting twist of irony, the original Boston Tea Party was thrown mostly by a carpenter’s union:

    Workers played a significant role in the struggle for independence; carpenters disguised as Mohawk Indians were the “host” group at the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

    So you’d think the Tea Parties would support unions.

    .

  35. 35.

    BGinCHI

    If I go up to Madison next week, here’s my sign:

    Tunch Says:
    __
    Governor Walker is a P*ssy.

    Any better ideas?

  37. 37.

    El Cid

    If the Breitbart Brigades are too weak, then we need to set up a new American Protective League.

    This time it can be Koch-funded.

    The American Protective League
    __
    By the first year of WWI, American political leadership was ferreting out disloyalty and enforcing scientific conformity. Any number of private and secret societies appeared to forward this cause.
    __
    The “Anti-Yellow Dog League” was one of these, composed of schoolboys above the age of ten, who searched out disloyalty each day from one of its thousand branches nationwide, barking like German shepherds when a disloyal yellow dog, otherwise someone looking like you or me, was flushed from cover and branded. Schools enthusiastically cooperated in “Dog Hunts,” as they were called.
    __
    The U.S. Justice Department secretly empowered private associations as volunteer spy-hunters.
    __
    One, the American Protective League (APL), earned semi-official status in the national surveillance game, in time growing to enormous size.
    __
    Founded by a Chicago advertising man, the APL had twelve hundred units functioning across America, all staffed by business and professional people. It was a genuine secret society replete with oath and rituals. Membership gave every operative the authority to be a national policeman.
    __
    The first location placed under surveillance in every neighborhood was the local public school. Assignments were given by the old (Federal) Bureau of Investigation and by the War Department’s Intelligence Division to report on “seditious and disloyal” conversation. From the authorized history of the APL comes this specimen case:

    Powers County, Colorado: investigated fifty cases of mouth-to-mouth propaganda, a notable cause being that of a German Lutheran minister who refused to answer the questions as to which side he wished to win the war. He asked for time. The next day he declared very promptly that he wanted the United States to win. He was instructed to prove this by preaching and praying it in private as well as in public, which he agreed to do.

    The APL checked up on people who failed to buy Liberty Bonds. It spotted violators of food and gasoline regulations, rounded up draft evaders in New York, disrupted Socialist meetings in Cleveland, broke strikes, threatened union men with immediate induction into the army.
    __
    The attorney general of the United States reported to Congress, “It is safe to say never in history has this country been so thoroughly policed.” (emphasis added) Nor, he might have added, the training of the young so well regulated.

    If by some flight of imagination unions and working people in general start causing such unrest, you will see things like this.

    It would take maybe a week to get Koch et al funding shock troop recruits for TeaTards so Republicans like Walker can suggest that they go out and protect the liberties of the free market from the collectivist terrorists.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Apsaras: Their turnout looked really small. Some of the other areas of the Capitol Square where protesters were just sitting and resting looked almost as crowded.

    ETA: I saw Wobblies. Real IWW Wobblies. How cool is that?

  39. 39.

    JenJen

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Yes, that line is by far the winner, but for first runner up, may I offer

    Really: you have to resort to this kind of nastiness to make a point?
    __
    I guess they do. It’s all they seem to have.

    What does that even mean?

  40. 40.

    Martha

    I just got home from the Madison rally too. Wow! What a great crowd! We guessed 100,000 and I just saw a CNN report that confirmed our guess. I would say the tea partiers/Walker supporters were maybe 2,000 (I’m being generous)

    Loved the number of signs that mentioned the Koch connection…”Walker is a Kochhead” was a particular favorite. Everyone was friendly and smiling. Tons of parents with little kids and older folks too.

  42. 42.

    jwb

    @Omnes Omnibus: What’s your sense of how this is playing in Wisconsin, especially the teachers calling in sick? That’s a point the wingnuts, of course, are pounding, but I can’t tell if that’s because it has actual resonance or if that’s because it’s all they have.

  44. 44.

    jwb

    @Martha: Thanks for going! And thanks for posting about your experience. As I mentioned above, the Wisconsin State Journal listed the counter protest at 2,000 as well. It will be interesting to see if the wingnut multiplier gets applied.

  45. 45.

    Martha

    Oh, my other favorite sign:

    Evolution is a myth
    WMD in Iraq
    Unions cause deficits
    Witches float

    The guy was also carrying another sign below that one that said “Governor Walker, the world is watching”

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JPL:
    @BGinCHI:

    I am not a technical savant, so does anyone have a suggestion as to the best way to make them available?

    @gbear:

    It wasn’t too bad. Around 30 and sunny, but with a brisk wind.

  48. 48.

    Martha

    @asiangrrlMN: He didn’t, but he did ask them if they were enjoying their Saturday…when they were DUMB enough to say yes, he said….wait for it…then thank a union! The looks on their faces were priceless.

  52. 52.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jwb: I can’t really be sure how it is playing here. Most of the people I know, friends and family are in favor of the protests. The few who aren’t are known teabaggers. The problem si, I don’t want to fall victim to Pauline Kael syndrome.

    @Martha: I loved the “witches float” guy. I talked to him for a bit. He said he was trying out for the Tea Party. I told him that if he went over to the east side, they might put him on the podium. Did you see me? I was the guy with LLBean Norwegian sweater.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    Bread and Roses always brings tears to my eyes. So I went looking for other versions on YouTube.

    The one Annie Laurie posted:

    Boston Workmen’s Circle A Besere Velt (A Better World) Yiddish Chorus, performs “Bread and Roses/Makhnes Geyen” at the Rosenberg Fund for Children’s “Celebrate the Children of Resistance” event in Boston, MA, June 19, 2007. The song is a ballad from the 1912 Lawrence, MA textile strike, woven together with an anthem dedicated to the fighters in the Spanish Civil War. “The masses are marching in the struggle for victory.” http://www.rfc.org

    There is also a beautiful one by Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Farina.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRcCa-ddOo&feature=related

  55. 55.

    Martha

    @wobblybits: It really was priceless. The thing I love about this state is that there really are a lot of really smart people. Not all are book smart, but what we call farm smart. And a lot of the tea baggers are neither.

  56. 56.

    Sly

    @JGabriel:
    This is a complete nitpick, but modern trade unions can’t really trace their origins to guilds. The enemies of most guilds were often one another, and were set up to pretty much establish what, in modern terms, would be a protection racket. Induct new members, isolate tradesman who wouldn’t participate, and wage turf battles with rival guilds. In the most charitable sense, they were more like a “small business association” than a modern trade union. More Chamber of Commerce than AFL-CIO.

  57. 57.

    Three-nineteen

    Here’s an interesting tidbit: The WI state assembly was in session yesterday (only the senators left), and the Speaker “accidentally” started the day before the Democratic caucus showed up and passed the bill on a voice vote. They pulled it back when the Dems showed up (on time, the vote was taken about 2 minutes before the session was supposed to start) and protested.

    ETA: Watch the video too, it has a righteous speech by the Minority Leader.

  58. 58.

    Martha

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh man, we must have been within spitting distance of each other. Mr m and I stood at that corner for quite a while and talked to a couple of union guys who were sitting on the steps resting. Then we walked up to the top of the stairs so we could see the view down State St and stayed there for quite a while and listened to the music.

  64. 64.

    D-boy

    I just got back from the protest as well and I would agree that the tea party presence was only about a couple thousand. I thought I heard Breitbart and possibly Michelle Bachman addressing the teahadists but I couldn’t see for sure.

  65. 65.

    Binzinerator

    I was on the Square Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of people demonstrating, there were only a handful of pro-walker twits. One guy yells out ” Go Walker!” and a dozen demonstrators start chanting “What’s disgusting? UNION BUSTING! What’s digusting? UNION BUSTING!”

    Lots of different ages of people demonstrating, lots of young college age people. Lots of parents with kids in strollers too.

    I had heard a Fox News reports of “violence” on the Square. It’s bullshit. It’s propaganda to make tens of thousands of prosters look bad and to lay teh groundwork for a justifucation for any teabagger who shows up packing heat.

  67. 67.

    policomic

    The counter protest was weak tea, folks. Turnout was low and their rally, which was scheduled from 12-3, wrapped up at 1:20!! No sign of Breitbart or Palin.

    It was enough to allow NPR’s on-scene reporter to emphasize that “some” of the protestors were pro-GOP, with that supremely annoying, “now wait a minute, we all know that both sides,” etc. tone in her voice.

    That was the opening of the report, after which I angrily switched the station, so I don’t know if there was any clarifying quantification. But, I doubt there was.

  68. 68.

    Binzinerator

    Stayed home yesterday due to schools being closed, taking care of the schoolage little one. Parents are coming in tonight from out of state so they can do kiddie care next week. And also to come protest with me and Ms. B. and the kids tomorrow. Hoping the coming snow storm wont be too icy.

  70. 70.

    kideni

    Great rally today. I think official reports are 30 to 1 anti-Walker vs. pro. My friends and I ended up in the Tea Party area for a bit when they started their festival of misinformation (I think Breitbart might have been the guy blathering about what violent anarchists all those public workers and their supporters are). My friend the former social worker couldn’t help herself and had to strike up a conversation with a pro-Walker woman to make sure she understood what the bill means as a whole. My friend is one of those people who can have that sort of conversation, break through the other person’s initial defensiveness, keep it civil, keep it on message, and maybe even get the other person to rethink things. I don’t know if it worked, but at least this other person can’t (honestly) say that all of us are foul-mouthed, irrational thugs.

    The signs were great, the bands were great, the chants were great. It was wonderful to see so many people (and their dogs) from so many places and so many walks of life out there exercising their first amendment rights. Inside the Capitol, in between people’s statements through a bullhorn, musicians led us in “This Land Is Your Land,” “If I Had a Hammer,” and various Wisconsin songs. It was beautiful.

    Some day we need to have a Madison Balloon Juice meet-up.

  71. 71.

    Binzinerator

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me neither. We’re going to try to make it downtown tomorrow with the kids if it isn’t too blizzardy. I wanted to go today but we had to get the house into shape for my parents arrival tonight. Actually I thought the place looked fine but Ms. B was insistent. Gotta go install a towelbar in the spare bathroom….

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Flickr is a pain. I am trying to put all the photos in one group without dragging each one fucking individually. I am not having success at this.

  80. 80.

    mellowjohn

    LOVED LOVED LOVED the spellcheck sign. as a snarky teacher myself, i’m always glad to see another.
    btw, judy collins does a pretty mean “bread and roses.”

  86. 86.

    Anne Laurie

    @mellowjohn:

    btw, judy collins does a pretty mean “bread and roses.”

    Yes indeed she does! — to be truthful, that’s the version I was looking for, unsuccessfully, when I decided this one was more appropriate for the moment anyways. But if anyone’s YT-fu is stronger than mine, I’d love a Collins link.

  88. 88.

    Jeanne ringland

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for posting that.

    There is one sign that puzzles me, the one that says “Aaron Rodgers is a shop steward”. I do not understand. Who is Aaron Rodgers?

  90. 90.

    Yutsano

    @Jeanne ringland: @asiangrrlMN:

    There is one sign that puzzles me, the one that says “Aaron Rodgers is a shop steward”.

    I’m more curious if this is actually true. If so, that is all kinds of serious win. Rodgers is a pretty decent chap. I’d even let my cousin date him.

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