DEMOCRACY

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES THIS IS WHAT

http://solidaritywisconsin.com/
http://bluecheddar.wordpress.com/
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/
http://wiseye.com/
http://www.wort-fm.org/
http://www.wisaflcio.org/

LOOKS LIKE
(and not to mention)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beloit-
Solidarity/11 522503521 8953
&
http://beloitcollegesolidarity.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Darrah, Doreen, Phil, and the lovely housekeeping staff for being
wonderfully friendly and cooperative during the Science Center occupation,
Thanks to Nick Stephens for photos # 1 , 4, 8, 1 0 and 1 2 (left to right, top down),
and thanks to everyone who came and offered their unique skills and
perspectives for a successful week!

ISSUE #1
For more information, contact
beloitsolidarity@gmail.com
 The fight that began in February is not an isolated incident,
and Scott Walker's political system is not the one bad apple
among 49 other perfectly balanced cabinets. Governments
across the country and even the world are broaching austerity
measures which strip people of their livelihood and offer very
little of their promised economic recovery. Ask yourself, is this
system of corporate welfare and public disempowerment the
future that you want for your state?
In addition to continuing protests, rallies, and occupations,
many of the statewide movements have shifted their efforts to
urge people to exert influence with their vote. If three
Republican senators are recalled, the senate majority can be
flipped, and while recall efforts are moving swimmingly they will
not stand without public unanimity. On April fifth, elections will
be held for the seat of supreme court justice/Walker cronie
David Prosser.
It is crucial now more than ever that
we unite in a concerted effort to effect
the change that we want to see.
The hundreds of thousands in Madison cannot be
wrong. The laborers, the students, the families, the police,
firefighters, and politicians that occupied the rotunda in
solidarity to demand simple protections from their state
cannot be wrong.
We cannot remain silent.
Educate yourself and join the fight.
WE WILL WIN.
The Fight Ain't Over Yet
Though the passage of Walker's Budget Repair Bill
came as a shock and set a new precedent for the ability of
state government to violate the rights of workers, teachers,
CONTENTS
students, the sick, and the poor, the events of March 1 0th
did not signify the end of our state, nation, and worldwide
p.3-6: "The Beloit Occupation : An
efforts to amplify the voice of the people. Experiment in Building
Community and Potentialities"

p. 7-1 0: Reflections from Beloit Students and

Occupiers

p. 11 -1 2: Simple Actions You Can Take to Fight

the Budget Bill

p. 1 3-1 4: The Fight Ain't Over Yet

The fight that began in February, 2011 was not against
Scott Walker, was not against the Bill, and was not against
"The Republicans" or the Tea Party. Rather, the fight we are
now engaged in is a battle for the future of our state and
country. The passage of the Budget Repair Bill does not
signal a defeat or an end in any sense, but must be viewed
as a beginning, and a sign that our efforts have been still not
strong enough. Certainly, our situation will grow worse if we
dilute the force that suspended the process of an unjust
government for nearly a month. The people have suffered
one concession, but now is the time to branch out and band
together to extend the statewide atmosphere of love and
community that bloomed so brilliantly in Madison.
 The Beloit Occupation : An Experiment in Building
Community and Potentialities
“Space is fundamental in any form of communal life; space is fundamental in
any exercise of power.”
-Foucault
For four full days, from the late evening of Monday, February 28th, to Friday,
March 4, the atrium of the Science Center at Beloit College in southern
Wisconsin remained continuously occupied by dozens of students. On the
surface level, this occupation was a manifestation of resistance to Governor
Walker's bill which stripped public sector workers of their public bargaining
rights, and other austerity measures which demonstrate the crisis of financial
capital, putting the struggles in Wisconsin in context to what is happening on
a global scale. On a deeper level however, those occupying the Science
Center sought to build community, empower student organizing, and redefine
the boundaries of public space on their own terms.
During the last week of
February and the first weeks of
March, several Beloit College
students had participated in the
occupation of Madison's capitol
building. They had been greatly
inspired by the spirit of
community, the non-hierarchical
organization of some of the
aspects of the space, and the
reclamation of the public
building for multi-faceted use.
Upon returning to Beloit, a group of about ten students decided to call for a
mass all-campus meeting to organize some way in which these inspirations
could be brought to their own community and to sustain longer-term
resistance to Walker's bill. On Monday, February 28th, over 1 00 students
showed up at the meeting, representing a diverse cross-section of the
campus community. At this meeting, several students expressed interests
ranging from organizing voter drives, building for a general strike, and
boycotting Koch brother companies that Beloit College does business with.
The meeting formed the group Beloit Solidarity, a loose coalition in which
individuals that could pursue their own ways of resisting Walker's agenda.
The tensions between liberal and more radical analyzes were apparent at
this meeting, and in many subsequent large gatherings during the
occupation. Therefore, Beloit Solidarity came together and maintained a
plurality of visions as well as advocated a diversity of tactics.
At the very least, you can learn a lot about the minute political details of the
Wisconsin Budget Bill Struggle and gather with others in a spirit of
solidarity, and at the best you can lend a valiant helping hand in various
protest activities to make a difference for worker's rights and people's
quality of life in Wisconsin.
• Distribute Pamphlets: There are several informative pamphlets that
you can access and print out from the Internet that you can distribute out to
people, or simply leave at a publicly frequented table, spreading awareness
of the various political issues surrounding the struggle agains the budget
bill. By googling "IWW General Strike Pamphlet", for example, you can
swiftly access a well-designed and radical pamphlet courtesy of the
Industrial Workers of the World that explains how the Wisconsin Budget Bill
will hurt worker's rights and advocates for a General Strike. If you're so
inclined, you can even try to make a pamphlet of your own.
•Boycott: There are several corporate entities and conglomerates that are
either privately or publicly support both Governor Walker and the provisions
of the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill: by exercising our economic power and
boycotting the Products of these companies, we can exert pressure on both
the economic 'captains of industry' and the political figures they support.
The most prominent of these corporate entities is Koch Industries, a
conglomerate that is not only the chief supporter of Americans for
Prosperity, the Tea Party Movement, and Governer Walker and his budget
bill itself, but also one of the Top Ten Polluters in the United States of
America. They sell Oil products under the subsidiary companies Koch
Pipelines and Flint Hill Resources, Fiber Products under Invista, Fertilizer
and Cattle Products under Koch Fertilizer LLC and The Matador Cattle
Company, and lots and lots of Paper Products under the label Georiga-
Pacific (Brawny, Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern, etc.). Boycotting the
products of Koch Industries and their subsidiaries a simple and effective
means of direct action.
And Last but not least...
• Spread the Word: debate, discussion, and discourse are the three
alliterative "D"s of Democracy and Direct Action: don't be afraid to voice
your opinions on the injustice and power-playing that lies behind the fiscal
rhetoric of the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, reach out to other people you
known and urge them to take action, and support public forums for the
discussion and exchange of information on this significant struggle, such as
this here Zine. Speak out and write out, and you'll make a difference. At
least, that's what I'm hoping this article of mine will do.
 Simple Actions You Can Take to
Fight the Budget Bill
Coleman Gailloretto
The Wisconsin State Budget Bill is one of the important political struggles
of this decade. If the bill becomes law, it will affect the livelihoods of million
of hard-working Wisconsinites, restrict education opportunities for students
and employment opportunities for teachers, cripple people's abilities to pay
for Medical Care, and hand over a lot of public utilities to some rather
unscrupulous corporate entities. The moment the significance of this cause
became clear to me, and I saw how the supporters of the budget bill were
willing to play extremely dirty, I realized I had to do something to help,
something I could look back on years from now and be proud of. I'm sure
that sentiment is shared by lots of people other than me, people who want
to make a difference.
Sometimes, though, it's hard to figure out what ways you can help the
cause besides riding over to Madison and the State Capital Building
Protests (though that's always a cool thing to do). So for people's
edification and in a spirit of mutual aid, here's some simple, day-to-day or
weekly actions you yourself as an individual can take without a hassle to
'push back' against the Powers that Be that are backing this budget bill:
• Write Letters to Your Local Representatives: This action is
effective for about the same reason that you always write your Mother's
Day Poems out on paper: even in the era of lots and lots of emailing, the
weight and gravitas of a sheet of paper can't be shrugged off lightly. If your
local representative is an opponent of the bill, then write to thank them for
the hard work they're doing: if they're are for the bill/undecided, then
politely explain why you feel the measures of the bill are a Bad Thing, and
ask them to make the right decision. Emails are okay too, but are more
easily ignored, unless you...
• Sign a Petition: There are several petitions floating about the Internet
or carried on the clipboards of hard-working activists: some are for
initiatives to recall Walker and Friends, others are more generally against
the bill, etc. Find one whose message you agree with and sign it.
• Go to a Local Protest/Solidarity Meeting: By perusing a
newspaper or running some dedicated Google Searches, it's not too hard
to find protest events going on in your home town, or find groups that are
meeting on a weekly basis: our own Beloit Solidarity Group currently meets
on Monday at @1 0:1 5, and has a email list-serve going
<beloitsolidarity@gmail.com>.
Upon arriving at the Science Center, the school administration's flagship new
building, the students set to work reorganizing and decorating the atrium. A
large banner was dropped from the second floor, and a food and tea tables
were set up. A projector was brought to stream tweets from Madison and
movies. Until 3am, the students then continued their meeting to decide the
direction the space would take over the next few days. The meetings were
conducted using the consensus process, and facilitators rotated for each
new topic of discussion. Guidelines, a press release, and a calender of
events (which included information sessions, community dinners, yoga, a
hootenanny, and prisoner letter writing) were all organized. A mission
statement was drafted which read:
“We are here to raise awareness, build community,
and encourage dialogues about the ongoing
struggles and peaceful demonstrations, both
locallyand globally, to fight forbasic human
rights. We stand in solidaritywith those taking
collective action to bettertheirworking conditions
on theirown terms, including the right of
Wisconsin public employees, and the rights of
everycitizen to peaceablyand directlyengage
theirgovernment. ”
At around 2:30am, campus security approached the students and asked
them to leave, as all academic buildings close between 2am and 7am. After
a brief discussion, the students agreed to temporarily move to the Java Joint
(the coffee shop on campus) and then return to the Science Center at 7am
with the intention to stay no matter the consequence. Though the occupation
was certainly not sanctioned by the school administration, Beloit Solidarity
agreed that the occupation was not a protest against Beloit College, but
rather an experiment in building community and serving as a focal point for
action. However, with the exception of the compromise made the first night,
the occupation was conducted almost entirely on the students' terms. Emails
were sent out to the College's president, the head of security, and all faculty
and staff who worked in the Science Center, explaining what the occupation
was about and inviting all those interested in participating (though requests
for permission to utilize the building was noticeably absent from any of this
correspondence.)
Over the next few days, students and
several faculty maintained a continuous
presence in the space. During the day, the We awoke in the capitol
numbers fell between 5 and 1 0 students in on Saturday to the tearful gratitude of a
the atrium but at night or at bigger events Milwaukee elementary school teacher who
the number of participants was between 30 shook all of our hands and thanked us for
and 50. An information booth was set up representing the teachers that needed to
during the day to pass out information about be with their students. Stay strong, and
the bill and other literature ranging from know that every action is meaningful!
organizing a general strike to a ride-share
for coordinating trips up to Madison. On
Wednesday, a yoga class was held in which
around 20 people rolled out their mats on
the floor of the atrium and later that night, "I slept outside!"
four acoustic guitars prompted a sing-along
that last hours. On Thursday, Don Collins,
an organizer with the steel-workers union in
Beloit, came to speak about the history of I have been
unions and current organizing against the
bill. Those occupying the building sought to sharing
make the space accessible to residents of our efforts with my family in
Beloit who were not students, as the college TN+NC, and they have been
is largely seen as off-limits and alienated forwarding it to others who have
from the rest of the town. The space itself provided one medium for doing been forwarding it to others. Our
so, as semi-public space with one specific purpose was redefined to become efforts are nationally known and
a multi-faceted, vibrant, community in which participants challenged supported, and have inspired
themselves and each other. others to act similarly. Let's keep
up the momentum!
However, some of the limitations of the occupation included timing, as the
oncoming Spring break meant that the Science Center could not be held
indefinitely. The schedule of mid-term exams and papers also limited
participation because some sympathetic students were simply too busy to
take part. Another critique of the occupation was that participants were
overwhelmingly white students and there was a noticeable absence of many
students of color. Even though efforts were made from the start (inviting
large activist groups of color on campus to both participate in the large What I love most
planning meeting and facilitation), to prevent this, the fact that it occurred is how, even though
must be discussed for future initiatives. Additionally, there were those that they're specifically protected,
attempted to take the occupation in a more radical direction, with a less cops and firefighters are still
diplomatic tone towards the college's administration. In the end however, the
occupation was a step towards building student power autonomous from united with all the other union
campus administrators, and it was indeed radical for a student body that workers in the struggle.
typically thinks and acts well inside the paradigms handed to them.
 INSPIRATION
It was from the strong affinities built over the course of the week, that the

ACTION:
success of the occupation was most apparent. A new arena of struggle was

FOR
opened at Beloit College, and the number of those participating in active
organizing increased tenfold. The space was used as a place where deeper
connections could be made, and people challenged to see the wider
systemic context that shapes the current struggle to defeat this bill. Though

Anonymous Thoughts and Stories of Beloit Students

the occupation ended Friday night at the start of Spring Break, (not enough
students would be left over the following week to maintain the space), the
energy that it fostered will continue to manifest itself in new and creative
ways in the coming weeks. The Beloit occupation, which proved successful
My Father
in building both communal space and empowerment, was not an end in and
of itself, but rather it was a starting point for new affinities and potentialities.
was a teacher's union president in St. Paul for 4 years.
During his time as presidents I learned the value of union -Jeff Pickert
organizing and its importance as a vehicle of democracy and
rights in the workpace. This past week makes me love this
school so much more- WIN FIGHT WIN
When I was outside the capitol,
a woman told us about how the police wouldn't let her
bring a bag of supplies such as clean underwear, socks
toothbrushes, etc. into to the capitol. She managed to throw it
into an emergency exit door when no one was looking. It was
awesome.
I'm really
passionate
about
The dialogue of rights,
legislation, and
representation. This
bill got me particularly
outraged, as it is
turned against those
who are already
struggling to be heard.
This cannot be a
precedent!
As I climbed the steps,
my toes becoming more numb from cold with each step, I
felt as though I was rising, reaching toward a precipice of
unimaginable height that I couldn’t quite see, and as I
turned and saw thousands of people spread before me, I
could see the sparks connecting everyone, the way in
which we were many but also, at the same time, one
glorious being that rose up from every corner of the state
and nation and proclaimed in one voice, this is what
democracy looks like; and to me, at that moment, looking
down upon thousands of signs and heads held high with
passion and rage, I could see clearly the shape my state
made, the shape my country had taken, the picture we
were trying to uphold, and I, for the first time, knew what it
was like to be proud of where I came from, so I did not
move, but simply stood and held my breath, afraid that if I
emptied my chest the feeling would follow the air and I
would be left again without any sense of belonging, and
these people would just become people trying to be a part
of something, wanting to be a part of history, all together
but still separate, not quite sure how to take the next step,
and then I let out my breath and held up my sign and
joined in the chanting that flooded the air around me and
closed my eyes so I could feel the breathing of the body
that was Wisconsin, inside of me, outside of me, between
and in all of us, that we had finally found.
-Anna Holmquist.