Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites rose up against the austerity policies of Gov. Scott Walker and the Chamber of Commerce. The Wisconsin Uprising launched the participation of millions of Americans in the protest wave of 2011 best made known by Occupy Wall Street and the #Occupy movement.

 

Today, Wisconsin’s struggle against austerity and for democracy and shared prosperity continues. Last week it was revealed by The Guardian that Scott Walker personally solicited illegal corporate donations intended to help his political campaign. In response, as described by theWisconsin Democracy Campaign, sixteen state legislators have called for a prosecutorial investigation. We urge you to: 1. Read the letter calling for the prosecutorial investigation of Scott Walker; and then, 2. Contact Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and urge his office to launch that investigation.

We also want you to know about a new film,Divided We Fall, that tells a critical part of the Wisconsin Uprising story. This is the first film about what started in Wisconsin that provides an inside, critical account of what happened in the course of the occupation of Wisconsin’s Capitol Building. Because the film is focused on what happened inside the Capitol, and not on what was happening elsewhere around the state or around the Midwest, the film doesn’t pretend to tell the entire story. But the vital parts of the story it does tell is conveyed with narrative clarity, solid analysis, and some really great footage.   Divided We Fall opens October 20th in Madison and November 4th in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. A film tour is planned for the Spring of 2017; you can contact the producers to bring the film to a screen near you.

A final note: In November of 2010, the Liberty Tree Foundation initiated the Wisconsin Wave and began organizing for what later became commonly known as the Wisconsin Uprising. The Wisconsin Wave, a population mobilization of community, student, farm, and labor organizations and activists, continued organizing, educating, and rallying into the Winter of 2015. Read the original call for the Wisconsin Wavehere. And see archives of much of the incredible history of the Wisconsin struggle here and here.