University of Illinois Press

Steven Ashby, co-author of the recent book Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement, has been using the book’s website to share his on-the-ground account of the current labor protests in Wisconsin:

THIS IS WHAT RELIGION SHOULD LOOK LIKE
This morning at 10:30 am the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of Southern Wisconsin Interfaith held a rally, attended by over 60 clergy and supporters, in front of the Grace Episcopal Church. See their website at: http://www.workerjustice.org/ Grace Church, with its beautiful towering spire, is right on the square opposite the capitol building in Madison.

The event kept getting interrupted as workers from nearby cities joined the Madison protests. Numbers are hard to gauge, but it looked like 1,000 building trades workers from Minneapolis — it seemed every trade was represented — chanting at the top of their lungs. Then came 1,500 AFSCME workers, mostly corrections officers, marching by and chanting. The clergy stopped their rally to come to the street and cheer on the workers. They had to stop a second time as the marchers circled the capitol building.