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April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

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I am a geography pr<strong>of</strong>essor (and faculty union member), who edited an<br />

atlas <strong>of</strong> Wisconsin history, and was active over three decades in Wisconsin<br />

grassroots organizing and media. I moved six years ago to Olympia,<br />

Washington, and now teach at The Evergreen State College, as a proud<br />

member <strong>of</strong> the Cheesehead Diaspora. We understand how Wisconsin’s rich<br />

social history provides a larger context <strong>for</strong> the current Rebellion. A<br />

combination <strong>of</strong> Midwestern progressive values, alliance building, and<br />

community culture have historically stimulated and shaped grassroots<br />

politics in the state. In our 21st-century society <strong>of</strong> Big Box stores, it is<br />

difficult to detect histories <strong>of</strong> resistance, but the Wisconsin Rebellion<br />

shows deeply embedded they still are in many people.<br />

Progressive History<br />

Wisconsin’s history has been one <strong>of</strong> resistance by people who banded<br />

together to protect what is theirs. Because Native American nations in the<br />

region resisted <strong>for</strong>ced removal to the West, most managed to remain in<br />

their homelands. Most immigrants to Wisconsin in the 1850s were Germans<br />

fleeing repression after the failed 1848 revolution. As the Progressive<br />

Senator Robert M. LaFollette wrote, Wisconsin had “a rare and exceptional<br />

people. The spirit <strong>of</strong> liberty stirring throughout Europe…gave us political<br />

refugees who were patriots and hardy peasants, seeking free government.”<br />

Like elsewhere in the country, Milwaukee workers struck <strong>for</strong> an 8-hour day<br />

in 1886, and lost seven workers in the infamous Bay View Massacre.<br />

Populist farmers took on the railroad companies during the 1890s<br />

Depression, sparking the <strong>for</strong>mation <strong>of</strong> a Progressive Republican movement<br />

that briefly took power in the 1910s. The Progressive Party split from the<br />

Republicans and took power during the 1930s Depression (like the Farmer-<br />

Labor Party in Minnesota), and dairy farmers launched “milk strikes”<br />

against creamery middlemen that were <strong>of</strong>f skimming <strong>of</strong>f their income.<br />

Unemployment benefit and workers’ comp laws, vocational schools, and<br />

the AFSCME public employee union all started in Wisconsin. After World<br />

War II, the Left-Populism <strong>of</strong> the LaFollette family lost its competition with<br />

the Right-Populism <strong>of</strong> Joe McCarthy (who resembles today’s Tea Partiers).<br />

But Wisconsin leaders <strong>of</strong> all political stripes still had to appeal to the<br />

“common people” and Milwaukee elected Socialist mayors all through the<br />

1950s.<br />

The trend continued into the 1960s-70s with the strong antiwar movement<br />

that resisted the Vietnam “War at Home,” into the 1980s with the antiapartheid<br />

and family farm movements (which besieged the Capitol), and<br />

into the 1990s-2000s with rural environmental alliances against mining,<br />

energy and water corporations. Even many conservative-looking Wisconsin<br />

citizens have an ingrained anti-corporate consciousness.<br />

Wisconsin people have a pride in their own communities--particularly in<br />

farm and union households--that is <strong>of</strong>ten stronger than their loyalty to<br />

political parties or bureaucratic nonpr<strong>of</strong>its. Even the pr<strong>of</strong>essional football<br />

team is owned by the People, and some <strong>of</strong> its players are now joining the<br />

Rebellion. This is the history that Scott Walker is running up against, and<br />

he is not as skillful as previous Republican governors at playing this game.<br />

Alliance Building<br />

The geography <strong>of</strong> Wisconsin also <strong>of</strong>fers opportunities to bring together<br />

people from different walks <strong>of</strong> life. The state is a meeting ground <strong>of</strong> the<br />

agricultural Midwest, industrial Great Lakes, and resource-based<br />

Northwoods. Building statewide movements is a challenging exercise in<br />

intersecting different economies, historical experiences, class and

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