A third librarians' march took place on March 12 during what has been a month of daily protests at Wisconsin's State Capitol. Library staff and supporters gathered at Madison Public Library's Central Library and marched to Capitol Square singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," followed by chants of "Librarians! United! Will never be divided!"
Once at the Capitol, they merged with the Farmer Labor Tractorcade and paraded around the square while thousands cheered from the sidewalk. Thousands more continued to stream to the Capitol as the parade progressed, and before the librarians' march had made one complete circuit, the parade and the crowd had become one large mass.
Wisconsin librarians joined protest march in Madison on Saturday.
The tractorcade was sponsored by the Family Farm Defenders, Wisconsin Farmers Union, and Land Stewardship project. In their promotional material for the event, they wrote:
Farmers from across the dairyland will bring tractors and solidarity to the WI capitol to fight for labor rights and a just state budget. Rural communities will be disproportionately hurt by the cuts to education and BadgerCare, and farmers in Wisconsin stand with state workers, and all working and middle class families in the state. All farmers and eaters welcome and encouraged to come!
The farmers welcomed the librarians, waving them into the parade and giving them thumbs up signals. Both groups seemed undeterred that Gov. Scott Walker had signed the controversial "budget repair bill" into law the previous morning. The initial announcement of the bill on February 11 had sparked the protests, and many had speculated that its passage would put an end to the public demonstrations. But a number of librarians who took part in the march told LJ that they will continue to fight.
Recall efforts are already under way, as are legal challenges to the bill. Though the bill is now law, the law does not take effect until the day after publication by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette may delay publishing the bill until March 25, to allow legal challenges to move through the courts.
Recall activities are under way for Wisconsin Democrats as well as Republicans. Under state law, Wisconsin senators cannot be recalled until they have served one year. Recall petitions have been started for all senators who are currently eligible. The 14 Democratic senators who fled the state, now known as "the Wisconsin 14," have achieved folk hero status in the eyes of many Wisconsin residents. But to many others, they are deserters who abandoned their responsibilities. To participants in the librarians' march, they are heroes, and a solid group remained at the Capitol to welcome them home at a rally held for them later that day.
Tired of watching from a distance, Timothy Ericson, past president of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), flew to Wisconsin from Phoenix to participate in the rally for the Wisconsin 14 with his wife, Vallie, a former Wisconsin public school teacher. Ericson served for many years (1989-2003) as director of archives at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In a show of support to the librarians' march, as well as in tribute to the Wisconsin labor rights struggle in general, American Library Association past president Michael Gorman drafted new lyrics (see below) for "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night," entitled "Scott Walker's Nightmare." "Joe Hill" has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson, Joan Baez, and, ironically, singer-songwriter Scott Walker (The Moviegoer, 1972).
Participants in the librarians' march included five past presidents of the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA): Alberto Herrera, Terry Danson, Jane Pearlmutter, Nancy McClements, and Paul Nelson. Other protesters included Christine Jenkins, UW-Madison alumna and associate professor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library and Information Science; Melissa Moll, UW-Madison student, School of Library & Information Studies (SLIS); Mark Beatty, librarian of the Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS); Allison Kaplan, faculty associate, UW-Madison, SLIS; retired librarian Jean Casper; John Elliott, cataloger at Edgewood College in Madison; and Sheila Leary, director of the University of Wisconsin Press, who carried a yellow rubber cheesehead hat with a sign that read, "This cheese does not stand alone! Wisconsin stands for workers' rights." Other signs read, "Music librarians know the score. This budget hits all the wrong notes" and "Shelve Walker's scheme under 'True Crime.' Librarians for Labor Rights."
SCOTT WALKER'S NIGHTMARE
(A long way after "Joe Hill")
I dreamed I saw some unionists
Striding down our way.
"Guys," said I, "You're ten days dead."
"We never died" said they,
"We never died," said they.
"But Scott Walker killed you guys,
He smashed you up," said I.
"Takes more than jerks to kill us off,"
Said they "We didn't die,"
Said they "We didn't die."
They were standing there as big as life
And smiling with their eyes.
Said they "What they can never kill,
Go on to organize,
Go on to organize!"
From Eau Claire down to Fond du Lac
In every working hall
Where unionists defend their rights
It's there you'll find us all,
It's there you'll find us all!
I dreamed I saw some unionists
Striding down our way.
"Guys," said I, "You're ten days dead."
"We never died" said they,
"We never died," said they.
Michael Gorman
Reader Comments (17)
I was at the rally this weekend. The most moving sign was: "Librarian. Cancer Survivor. Union Thug."
(In response to the silly labels Walker & Co. have been trying to paste on all unionized public servants.)
Go librarians!
Posted by sarah on March 14, 2011 10:46:43AM
I still cannot believe that he disregarded what the majority were saying. Had there been "some" negotiating, "some" flexability, "some" additional communication with the other leaders, this would have turned out differently. His only care is to dismantle the Democratic party AND at the stake of thousands and thousands and thousands of middle class working people.
Posted by sb on March 14, 2011 10:58:58AM
And why is it that I have to google and "search" for this news? Why is it not being heavily broadcasted?
Posted by on March 14, 2011 11:00:16AM
FROM TEXAS -
Educators and all Texas workers are with you! DON'T STOP, YOUR MISSION IS WORTHY. We need to learn from Wisconsin - to rid ourselves from our nighmarish gay governor, worse than Walker.
Posted by A Solis on March 14, 2011 12:17:04PM
Wisconsin is Ground Zero in the war against the middle and working class. It's a multi-state effort by the GOP. Walker is Big Brothers' hired help.
Posted by joneser on March 14, 2011 01:11:41PM
Go Scott Go. Time for the unions to DIE
Posted by Jim on March 14, 2011 03:26:01PM
So he did what the majority didn't want? BS. We voted him in and he is doing just what I want. Time for the big bad unions to fall. They have crippled the USA just ask why jobs go over seas. I know because of the rich gread. No it is because of the UNION gread and thinking you are owed a living. Work harder and stop sucking from the rest of us. Go Scott Go.
Posted by Jim on March 14, 2011 03:30:43PM
Wisconsin is Ground Zero in the war against the middle and working class. It's a multi-state effort by the GOP. Walker is Big Brothers' hired help.
Are you realy that stupid. Obama sent the hired help. And did the Majority want the Obama health care plan. No but it was shoved down our neck. Well how does it feel in return? Go Scott Go
Posted by jim on March 14, 2011 03:34:32PM
I admire you all, from Canada. Perhaps it is you, the chosen few, who will give your country a better global image. As the Middle East embraces democracy, your governments are betraying their people. It's not exactly an international secret that they are making the middle class pay for the 100th of the top 1%'s wealth. Whilst doing so, they are blindfolding the pitting the "other" (non-unionized) middle class against the unionized. They know what they are doing. Those poor suckers are the only ones in the world that don't see what suckers they are. I feel sorry for them. I wish you all well.
Posted by Terri on March 14, 2011 08:00:02PM
For days I have been having to 'search' for news. Doing my part to share what I
do find. Go librarians! (and farmers, and teachers, and all the working people..)
Posted by mcs on March 14, 2011 10:13:05PM
I'm an educator in Missouri, born in Wisconsin and have friends and family there who are beyond being shocked at what their governor has done to the state in so short a time. The chaos he has caused is unforgiveable. Quiet folks in the town I grew up in are getting out to protest regularly. I've never seen anything like it. Can you believe it...27 days of peaceful protesting! You are all awesome! Standing up to evil (yes, evil)is hard to do...but you are doing it.
Posted by TeacherGranny on March 14, 2011 08:23:31PM
Defamation? See, "Past ALA Prez Defames Scott Walker As a Murderer" at http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2011/03/past-ala-prez-defames-scott-walker-as.html
Posted by Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries.org on March 14, 2011 10:03:12PM
You people who are with the demonstrators are an embrassament to this librarian.
Union Thug seems a very appropriate label -- death threats against the governor for enacting legislation that he was voted in to do, making chalk outlines of dead bodies outside the building with the names of "walker" in the them, the "banned patrons" sign in the pic above (yeah - diversity within libraries is a widely-known but never-talked-about joke) death threats (just in case you didn't catch that the first time!)...
Funny, when Barry told Republicans in 2008 that "Elections have consequences and that there would be no negotiating", and for the the Rep's to "get to the back of the bus!", Dems cheered him on. I guess "consequences and no negotiating" is only supposed to happen when Democrats win? And when they don't get their way, actually running away like spoiled, petulant children, it's taken as a sign of something good? Wow, what hypocrisy.
(I did see one person interviewed who had the major complaint that his boss was a dictator because...nd this is sooooo bad....he was told he had to come in on time and treat customers a certain way...yeah, that's so awful! lol)
Posted by Kelley on March 15, 2011 05:29:15PM
We need more people like the librarians in Wisconsin. Let's put party issues
aside and get some decent, useful laws passed in Wisconsin and the Country. It
seems a few "newscasters" are able to say anything while the ordinary citizen
has no say whatsoever, or if we vote against a bill, a legislature brings it into law
anyway.
Posted by martha on March 17, 2011 06:51:53PM
I to was at the capital march, I am a hardworking law enforcement officer that is exempt per Gov. Walker. That does not stop me for marching for union rights for my fellow brothers and sisters. Stop the maddnes of Scott Walker and followers. Recall Recall Recall. Get active and don't sit on the side lines this is a direct attack on every hard working American!
Posted by Melissa Z on March 18, 2011 10:17:11PM
This is a miscarriage of justice that is spreading beyond
Wisconsin. Yet the information is not being broadcast widely,
and people cannot defend themselves against an unknown evil.
I thank Sharon MacQueen for her on-the-scene reporting and
photos.
Posted by Betsy Diamant-Cohen on March 21, 2011 11:01:54AM
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas may indeed be nightmarish; he may even be gay. But what does the latter have to do with the former? Shame on A Solis.
Posted by roberto g. dominguez on March 21, 2011 02:07:56PM
