Rally honors King’s fight

The University of Wisconsin Teaching Assistants’ Association held a brief gathering atop Bascom Hill Monday featuring two campus unions and Rev. Jesse Jackson before marching down State Street to the Capitol building where a rally commemorated Martin Luther King Jr.’s death and his fight for workers’ rights.

A group of roughly 50 protesters consisting of undergraduates, graduate students, professors and workers met in front of Bascom Hall to listen to presentations from Jackson, AFSCME Local 171 and 2412 leaders who represent UW cooks, janitors and other workers, the Student Labor Action Coalition and a performance by two First Wave program participants.

Jackson laid out his vision for a better society, which he said would be based on union values, including access to higher education. He said Gov. Scott Walker is playing “wolf in a sheep’s clothing politics” through his controversial budget repair bill which would effectively eliminate collective bargaining.

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