85,000-100,000 people peacefully protested in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday. More than protested the Vietnam war.
Protests have rocked the Capitol almost every day since Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking nearly all collective bargaining rights away from public workers, but the largest came a day after the governor signed the measure into law. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people – along with 50 tractors and one donkey – by late afternoon. No one was arrested.
The new law erases public workers’ ability to collectively bargain anything except wages up to the rate of inflation. It also requires them to contribute more to their pensions and health care, changes that amount to an 8 percent pay cut. Police and firefighters are exempt.
“We’re never going to give up,” said Marilyn Rolfsmeyer, 56, who serves as the 300-student Argyle School District’s only art teacher. “What part of it don’t they understand? There’s hope here. I feel it. You feel the energy, the intensity. Somebody’s got to be out there feeling it, too.”
