At least 100,000 protesters showed up in Madison today, and they're not happy with Scott Walker.
An Elvis impersonator holds up a sign with a picture of Walker that says, "Even a king knows when to listen to his people, and YOU ain't the king."
Steve Nelson from Local 200 is sending us photos of such anti-Walker signs and the huge crowd in Madison. We'll post them when we iron out our technical problems. News reports say Day 27 could be the biggest protest yet.
Brother Nelson also sent us a photo of a tractor, as today is the day of the tractorcade.
Rally Girl is watching the protest on the Internet and, as a Cornhusker, found a farmer's speech quite moving. She reports:
Some may question why farmers are rallying in Wisconsin in support of public-sector workers. As a rural American, I can attest to the fact that the labor movement and the family farming movement are one and the same. Both groups are fighting giant corporations, fighting for a special way of life, fighting to make a living from the work they do. And both support each other in their everyday lives. But don’t take it from me. Take it from a farmer who spoke to the 100,000 people in the crowd on Saturday and left his audience on their feet in an emotional cry for more:
Solidarity between farmers and workers is an old and sacred movement. Family farmers, like the labor movement, value the dignity of having power over your work—of being empowered by your work. Like the labor movement, we value a constructive setting to raise a family. Like the labor movement, we value economic democracy. What is a union anyway, but working people coming together to improve our lives? That is what we are here to do. We reject this union-busting bill.
This is a farmer issue because our rural schools are getting decimated by this budget and they are the center of our rural communities. Fourteen of 44 rural teachers in my home will be getting pink slips because of this budget. This is a farmer’s issue because Scott Walker wants to hack Badger Care and 11,000 family farm members depend on Badger Care. It’s a farmer’s issue because we have been battling corporate power for more than a century. WE SAY NO! Public workers are our friends and our neighbors and our family members and we stand in solidarity with them. We know we are all in this together. We go up together, or we go down together.
