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Health & Fitness

COMMENTARY: It's time for Solidarity to move on

By Kirsten Adshead | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — The final verse of the Solidarity Singalong’s opening protest is sung the loudest — presumably because it’s the gathering’s favorite.

To the tune of “We Shall Overcome”: “Walker won’t be governor, Walker won’t be governor, Walker won’t be governor someday (someday soon!).”

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But if that’s their goal, boy, are the Solidarity Singers stupid.

The Solidarity Singalong is a movement that should have faded long ago, but now it appears that at least one public union is trying to fan the flames.

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As seemingly the whole country knows by now — Hollywood has been tweeting! — a few weeks ago the Capitol Police began a crackdown on the Solidarity Singalong.

The singalong is a daily gathering held at noon at the Capitol. It sprung up in March 2011 as part of organized labor protests aimed at killing Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker‘s successful effort to break the unions’ headlock on state government.

But  new regulations require that groups meeting at the Capitol get a permit, and the Singalong singers have refused — hence, the near-daily “no permit” citations handed out by Capitol Police to participants.

Last week, Wisconsin State Employees Union Executive Director Marty Beil, a key force behind the Act 10 protests, waded in on the side of the singers, writing on his Facebook page:

“These brave women and men sing songs of solidarity and collective action. Songs of Unions and protest. They have become part of our history. … This is our fight and our time.”

The singers’ philosophy is that they shouldn’t need a permit to exercise their First Amendment rights — but there are a couple of problems with that logic.

Read more at WisconsinReporter.com

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