NYC in Solidarity with Wisconsin

Jet lag caused an early awakening this morning. I had come in from Geneva Wednesday pm. Online by 4.30 am which was good, since I found among my e-mails an announcement for a protest on 6th Avenue at 9 am. Well, I had read a number of diary entries over the last few days about what was happening in Wisconsin – so this previous union chair (in my native Norway, many years ago) quickly decided to participate.
The protest was organized within the last 36 hours, or so by Jobparty.us:

Rally in solidarity with Wisconsin workers against union-busting Gov. Scott Walker, who promised to call out the National Guard against striking workers.

In Madison, 30,000 activists protested against Walker on Wednesday. Let’s show our support for workers in Wisconsin, New York, and across the USA!

We’ll gather on 6th Ave. (Ave of the Americas) at 9 a.m. at Time-Life (old CNN) between 50/51. We’ll march past NBC between 49/50. And we’ll end at FOX on the corner of 48th and 6th.

Make your own signs. Wear Packers gear (or just green/yellow) and cheesehead hats (we’ll bring a few to share). Bring your smartphones and cameras to tell the world!

I arrived at the appointed spot a bit early, maybe 20 minutes before start. There was barely a half dozen protesters there. But then, people started trickling in and by the time we started moving just after 9, we must have been close to 200 marchers. The route took us past Time-Warner, NBC and Fox – all situated within 2 1/2 blocks along 6th Avenue.

The corporate media coverage of events in Wisconsin has so far been dismal, both on TV and in print. Union busting, apparently, is not news. Many passers-by seemed puzzled by our chants and posters, though there were a number of thumbs-up and other signs of support as well. I noticed a UPS driver chanting along with us as he waited for the green light; “What’s disgusting – union busting”. I saw no signs of hostility to our action.

In front of News Corp at the end of the march we had a fun little episode – a security guard came out and announced that we could not film or take photographs of the building. What a joker! We were on public property – the sidewalk. No one paid further attention to him (pics below) and the (few) police officers that followed our protest were highly professional and courteous – probably sympathetic as well. One of them simply said: “My father is a teacher”.

I hope the actions in Wisconsin and those in sympathy elsewhere can help bring Americans out of the current state of complacency.

Some pictures from the march:

Bob Fertik, one of the organizers being interviewed before start