Milwaukee coalition builds anti-Nazi protest for Sept. 3

A progressive coalition is building in metro Milwaukee and beyond to counterprotest a planned Nazi rally set for Sept. 3 in West Allis, a working-class suburb just west of Milwaukee. A planning meeting on Aug. 21 included a broad range of labor, community and student individuals and organizations to report on counterprotest activities and to discuss further organizing efforts.

AFSCME Local 82 members and supporters at their annual picnic in Milwaukee.

Larry Hales, a national leader of the Bail Out the People Movement from New Jersey, said at that meeting: “The Nazis may still yet be a fringe element on the right but are no less dangerous for it. Just as the ultraright Tea Party was able to attract some white workers on the basis of chauvinism, so could the Nazis. The threat of fascism, whether Nazi or Nazi lite, is a real threat.

“This is especially true,” Hales continued, “in the wake of a tremendous uprising in Wisconsin that moderate political forces are attempting to tamp down amid the severity of the capitalist crisis.” Hales was in Wisconsin from Aug. 14 to 21 supporting the people’s struggle and organizing to directly confront the Nazis.

Professor Doreatha Mbalia at GarveyFest on Aug. 20. WW photos: Bryan G. Pfeifer

“This time they are targeting Black youth,” said Hales, “taking advantage of the mainstream media’s campaign of scapegoating oppressed Black youth. The way to defeat this, as always, is a united front of solidarity led by the most oppressed, that is not afraid and seeks to grind the fascist menace into the dirt.”

‘We need organization and unity’

Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement conducted a tour of Wisconsin from Aug. 16 to 18 visiting Madison, Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Green Bay, Two Rivers, Manitowoc and Sheboygan. National BOPM organizers Hales and Ed Childs from Boston organized and spoke throughout the state with labor, community and student leaders, seniors, the unemployed, women, lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and queer activists, homeless people, members of the Trades Council in Madison and UAW Local 833, and others.

Childs, Hales and other BOPM organizers also attended and spoke at progressive meetings in Milwaukee, including at African-American churches and universities, and they met with union and worker center leaders and members of AFSCME Local 82, the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association, the organization Voces de la Frontera and many others.

“The coalition in Wisconsin of unions; African Americans; Latinos and Latinas; women; immigrants; high school and college students; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; and other organizations fighting for social welfare programs and opposing union-busting is the most successful in this country now,” said Childs, who is also a chief steward of Local 26 UNITE HERE.

“Throughout our tour,” Childs added, “we have found the people’s coalition is at a crucial period now. It’s under vicious attack by the politicians, media and employers spurred on by Wall Street. The coalition is courageously holding on but needs revolutionary input from local, national and international forces. To spark a nationwide resurgence of the class struggle, the workers and community struggles and resistance around the country, and the Wisconsin people’s uprising need to connect even deeper.”

Hales also spoke as part of a diverse community panel at the 23rd annual GarveyFest on Aug. 19 at the Wisconsin Black Historical Museum in Milwaukee. Sponsored by Africans On The Move, the two-day GarveyFest is a Pan-Africanist celebration of the contributions of the historic Universal Negro Improvement Association, led by Marcus Garvey and Amy Garvey and other leaders and movements in Africa and the diaspora.

On Aug. 20, the second day of GarveyFest, there was an afternoon parade/march through the community and cultural events, including youth dancers, drummers and speakers.

Professor Doreatha Mbalia of the Africology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a member of the Pan-African Revolutionary Socialist Party, is an organizer of GarveyFest.

Speaking on Aug. 20, Mbalia said: “We are African people. Africa is the land of wealth. That’s why the United States is bombing Libya, and corporations are taking the oil and other wealth.

“We need organization. It’s the key. We need unity. Every person deserves a living wage job, health care and education. We need all of us to come out and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ If we’re falling down as a group of people, we’re all going to die.”

For more information and how to support the people’s uprising in Wisconsin, including anti-Nazi flyers in English and Spanish, see: www.wisaflcio.org, www.vdlf.org, www.wibailoutpeople.org, www.defendwisconsin.org.