Thread by @GChamedes

Feb 2021 marks the 10-yr anniversary of the Wisconsin Uprising--the mass worker and student movem't that stood up to defend the collective bargaining rights of state public sector unions. What lessons can the Uprising-- and the Occupy movement it helped spawn--teach us today?

In Feb 2011, then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced Act 10, which struck down the rights of public employees, nurses, and teachers to organize in the workplace. The response was massive: 100,000 people protested in the state's capital, occupying the Capitol building. 1/n

The protests went on for 2 weeks. Farmers announced, 'Strike now while you still have food on your table.' They were joined by students, road and water workers, teachers, retirees, and many more. 'I’m from Wisconsin,' organizers said. 'I’m from your future.' 2/n

The overall mood was joyful: '68-reminiscent (+Occupy Wall St-anticipating) events erupted. In the Capitol, there were knitting circles and reading groups, tons of singing ('Solidarity Forever,' forever), free childcare and lots of mutual aid. tinyurl.com/1obbjnuk 3/n

For complex reasons that did not directly reflect the protesters' collective will, the Uprising quickly morphed into a recall campaign to get Scott Walker out. The campaign massively failed: Walker was re-elected by a significant margin (almost 7%). Act 10 was not repealed. 4/n

Worse still, other states began implementing their own version of Act 10. In 2018, Act 10 became the law of the land when the US Supreme Court ruled that public sector employees could say no to union dues (Janus v. AFSCME). Already low union membership plummeted once again. 5/n

The defeats of the Uprising anticipated the defeats of Occupy Wall Street--a transnat'l movem't that provided a sense of collective identity for a generation but that didn't put in place serious financial regulation or transform politics as quickly as many activists had hoped.6/n

But 10 yrs on, it would be a mistake to present the Uprising and Occupy as failed movements. In strategic terms, they taught progressives at least 3 crucial lessons. #1, the protests were a living reminder of worker power. 7/n

They challenged the idea that workers lack agency b/c of their oppression. They reminded participants that people power is real. As @EleniSchirmer, an Uprising organizer, put it, 'Most of the time working people believe we don’t have power; we reminded ourselves that we did.' 8/n

People power scared the living daylights out of the Repub Party. Scott Walker's attempt to paint himself as the face of the Occupy Resistance was one response--and Trump, Breitbart, + Bannon tried to copy him. They aped Walker's divide+rule/anti-'urbanites' tactics too. 9/n

#2: The discourse changed. Suddenly, mainstream media orgs were talking about the working class, corporate power, and income inequality. New magazines (e.g., @jacobinmag) exploded. Social, economic,+racial justice were front and center for the first time in a long time. 10/n

Politicians got the drift. 2016, 2018, 2020 drove this home. And Biden now feels compelled to at least partly deliver on a series of demands so crisply articulated 10 yrs ago. Why? 11/n

Because, lesson #3: people power in the streets translated into real electoral wins for progressives. Uprising + Occupy impelled activists to try to take back the Dem Party. Activists focused on coalition-building and grassroots organizing. Hundreds of new orgs took shape. 12/n

Nationally, DSA, @OurRevolution + @justicedems rallied around Bernie, AOC, and the Squad--showing that these politicians were not isolated when they sought to address low wages, healthcare, education, union rts, racial inequality, + climate change. 13/n

Locally, these big orgs and hundreds of smaller ones are building a deep bench of progressive candidates, who are slowly making their way up from school boards and city council seats to state and national government. The way forward is by no stretch of the imagination easy. 14/n

But it would be a huge mistake to present the Uprising as a net failure. Its lessons have helped activists focus on grassroots urban-rural activism and bottom-up politics. And they've carved out a politics of possibility rather than one of despair. So: Happy 10th anniversary!

[I didn't move to WI till 2014, but among those who were @ the Uprising, check out the work+analysis of @EleniSchirmer @NicholsUprising @BenManski @OccFreedomPlaza @SpudLovr @RosemaryFeurer @OPEIU39 Family Farm Defenders @TAA_Madison
@brendakonkel @friendsofheidiw & many more]