It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest

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Overview

In the spring of 2011, Wisconsinites took to the streets in what became the largest and liveliest labor demonstrations in modern American history. Protesters in the Middle East sent greetings—and pizzas—to the thousands occupying the Capitol building in Madison, and 150,000 demonstrators converged on the city.

In a year that has seen a revival of protest in America, here is a riveting account of the first great wave of grassroots resistance to ...

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It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest

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Overview

In the spring of 2011, Wisconsinites took to the streets in what became the largest and liveliest labor demonstrations in modern American history. Protesters in the Middle East sent greetings—and pizzas—to the thousands occupying the Capitol building in Madison, and 150,000 demonstrators converged on the city.

In a year that has seen a revival of protest in America, here is a riveting account of the first great wave of grassroots resistance to the corporate restructuring of the Great Recession.

It Started in Wisconsin includes eyewitness reports by striking teachers, students, and others (such as Wisconsin-born musician Tom Morello), as well as essays explaining Wisconsin’s progressive legacy by acclaimed historians. The book lays bare the national corporate campaign that crafted Wisconsin’s anti-union legislation and similar laws across the country, and it conveys the infectious esprit de corps that pervaded the protests with original pictures and comics.

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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
Wisconsin caught the world's attention last February when its governor, Scott Walker, introduced a bill taking aim at collective bargaining rights for state public-sector workers. The resulting massive wave of dissent in the state capitol attracted protestors from around the country and sympathizers around the world. These essays, edited by Mary Jo Buhle (history & American civilization, emerita, Brown Univ.; Women and American Socialism) and Paul Buhle (former senior lecturer, Brown Univ.; coeditor, Encyclopedia of the American Left), now Wisconsin residents, delve into the historical, political, and ideological underpinnings of the 2011 events. The first couple of essays and Michael Moore's afterword amount to cheerleading for the "cause," but later chapters are meatier, with events set against the backdrop of early-20th-century Wisconsin progressive politics when Governor Robert "Fighting Bob" LaFollette began the crusade against the dominance of corporate America (at that time, railroads) over government. The book exposes how that same dominance continues today. VERDICT Despite this book's clear liberal bias, it will help readers, regardless of their own stance, to understand much of what's at stake in the country's current labor and political battles. [The reviewer is a Wisconsin state employee and political independent.—Ed.]—Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Lib.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781844678884
  • Publisher: Verso
  • Publication date: 1/9/2012
  • Pages: 192
  • Sales rank: 537,811
  • Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Mari Jo Buhle is Emerita Professor of History and American Civilization at Brown University, retired to Madison, Wisconsin. Her books include Women and American Socialism.

Paul Buhle, formerly Senior Lecturer at Brown University, produces radical comics, has written and edited many books, and is the coedtior, most recently, of It Started in Wisconsin. With Mari Jo Buhle, he is the coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left. He lives in Madison.

John Nichols is a columnist for the The Wisconsin State Journal and Madison.Com, Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, a contributing writer for the Progressive and In These Times, and the associate editor of Madison, Wisconsin’s Capital Times. He’s the author of several books, including The Death and Life of American Journalism, The Genius of Impeachment and The "S" Word.

Michael Moore, a filmmaker, author and progressive-radical commentator on politics, has written and occasionally starred in documentary films. He directed and produced Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story.

Patrick Barrett is Administrative Director of the A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change and an instructor in the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Mary Bottari is the Director of the Center for Media and Democracy’s Real Economy Project and works on the CMD websites PRWatch.org, Sourcewatch.org and BanksterUSA.org.

Roger Bybee edited the weekly Racine Labor, 1979–93, and served as Communications Director of three statewide pro-labor organizations. He is a freelance writer based in Milwaukee.

Ruth Conniff is the Political Editor of the Progressive. In 2011, the editors of Madison Magazine named Conniff’s coverage of the crisis in Wisconsin the “Best in Madison.”

Gary Dumm, a comic artist and long-time collaborator with the late Harvey Pekar, drew large portions of Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History, and has contributed widely to other comic art anthologies.

Simon Hardy is a spokesperson for the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) in the UK, a student at Westminster University and a member of the group Workers’ Power.

Frank Emspak, emeritus faculty, UW School for Workers, is currently the producer of Workers Independent News (WIN), headquartered in Madison.

Ashok Kumar is a former Dane County Supervisor (District 5) and was the Education Officer of the London School of Economics Students’ Union during the height of the UK student unrest in 2010.

Tom Morello, the lead guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, now records under the name Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman. His most recent album is World Wide Rebel Songs.

David Poklinkowski is a member of the Executive Board of the South Central Federation of Labor, has been President and Business Manager of IBEW Local 2304 in Madison since 1985, and has been Secretary of the Utility Workers Coalition—a coalition of utility unions from across the Midwest—since 1992.

Matthew Rothschild has worked at The Progressive since 1983 and has been the editor since 1984. He is the author of You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression and the editor of Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive Magazine, 1909–2009.

Sharon Rudahl, an art editor of the Madison alternative weekly Takeover, has contributed widely to comic art anthologies, and wrote and drew A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman.

Charity A. Schmidt is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She is an active member of the Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA) and continues to organize with various community groups in the ongoing Wisconsin struggle.

Kim Scipes is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Indiana, and Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the National Writers Union. His latest book is AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?

Nick Thorkelson, the first Underground Comix artist in Madison, drew The Underhanded History of the USA and illustrated The Earth Belongs to the People.

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