Outwardly the occupation may have appeared as a stalling strategy and symbolic occupation - indeed it was that, but also more - inside, people were constantly meeting, sharing, solidifying bonds, working out the tensions of building a broad movement. It had become a rather well organized community with wings devoted to food, health/medicine, family/childcare, meetings, etc while the building served as a sort of nucleas outside more establishment-oriented domains. Maintaining possession may no longer delay passage of the bill, but there is a sense that it is 'our' house and we are determined to have it back; currently, it is back in the people's hands and the old chants, songs, etc echo again through the marble halls. Fire trucks and snow plows have made rounds around the building, horns and sirens blaring. The dane county sheriff's dep't appears to be solidly sympathetic; however, the sheriff warned that the capitol is under the jurisdiction of the capitol police and they in conjunction with the Dep't of Administration will ultimately make enforcement decisions.
My guess is that they will want the capitol back - it serves too many purposes in the people's hands (hence all of the rules issued by DoA over the past week to keep people out).
For now, it is ours, but there is no rest.
On Mar 9, 2011 9:48 PM, "Dissenting Wren" <dissentingwren at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Just heard from a comrade in Chicago Soli that protesters have overwhelmed
the
> police at the WI State Capitol and the occupation is back on. This can be
a
> temporary tactical focus while other strategies are developed. Yves Smith
over
> at Naked Capitalism released a WI state memo demonstrating fiscal impact
of the
> bill that was just passed, so no doubt there will be court challenges to
the
> bill. No doubt recall campaigns will proceed as well. Sustaining a public,
> militant presence is going to be trickier. At Tahrir Square there was a
simple,
> direct demand that kept the demonstrations focused. In WI up until now
there
> has been a similar focus. But with the bill now passed, what focuses the
street
> presence and keeps up the pressure?
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Chuck Grimes <c123grimes at att.net>
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Sent: Wed, March 9, 2011 9:35:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] blog post: radical labor education, part 5: a new
labor
> movement?
>
>
>> On Mar 9, 2011, at 8:29 PM, jam wrote:
>>
>>> I tried send an alert to the list earlier but I'm not sure it went
through -
>>> my messages seem to work when I send them as replies...so:
>>
>> It did get through. Not a surprise really, but shitty news.
>
> Next move, on strike shut it down. Continue the occupation, continue
> the 14 in Illionis, now move to paralize the state government and economy.
The
> legislature can repeal Magna Carta, established the
> supreme fascist leader, Uber Gruppen Fuhrer Valker, whatever. It is
meaningless,
> if the mass on the ground makes it meaningless.
>
> You saw how it was to be done in Cairo, in Tahrir. We are with you, and we
are
> not small. I can feel it in my bones, in my soul. We are vast. They
> have no idea what they have fucked with.
>
> Meanwhile work on the legal angle to put an injunction on the law. By
whatever
> means necessary!
>
> In solidarity,
>
> CG
>
>
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>
>
>
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