Stop Wisconsin’s GOP War on Women!
Madison, WI - The Overpass Light Brigade messages on Scott Walker’s War on Women in Wisconsin, as he has promised to sign in to law a mandatory trans-vaginal probe bill.
Flickr photo album of this action
Madison, WI - Last week, Wisconsinites sitting in the legislative gallery for debate on the controversial Senate Bill 206 (mandatory trans-vaginal probe bill) taped their mouths closed in protest. When republicans saw this they ordered the Capitol Police to demand the protestors remove the tape from their mouths. Welcome to Walker’s Wisconsin, where our constitutionally protected rights are constantly being trampled.
“In Wisconsin, our silence is beling silenced” – Overpass Light Brigade
Thanks to Leslie Amsterdam for the use of her excellent photos.
Madison, WI - Last week, Wisconsin GOP legislators pushed and passed an invasive bill that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo a costly and completely unnecessary vaginal ultrasound probe. This extremist legislation is now set to become law, as Governor Scott Walker has made it known that he will sign the regressive bill into law. All of this while Wisconsin is 49th in national economic outlook, 44th in job growth, and 50th in short-term job growth. It’s easy to see why Walker and his lap dogs in the legislature would want to distract Wisconsinites attention away from the state’s abysmal jobs numbers with this divisive and controversial legislation.
The shameless politicians who pushed this bill claim they are looking out for the health of women yet each of the following amendments to make the bill even slightly less egregious were all denied by the Republican majority:
- Require the free ultrasound facility to have a doctor
- Require a physician to read the ultrasound
- Require a certified ultrasound technician perform an ultrasound
- Remove the admitting privilege requirement
- Restore the Healthy Youth Act
- Specify that women cannot be physically forced to have an ultrasound
- Require insurance coverage for ultrasound
- Require a woman’s consent to an ultrasound before it can be performed
- Strike the reporting requirement for rape and sexual assault
- Prohibit any discovery of any medical record in an action under the bill
- Add fetal anomaly(s) incompatible with life to the list of exceptions under the bill
- Require that the woman is told the risks and benefits of different types of ultrasounds
The Overpass Light Brigade decided more light needed to be cast on the backwards Senate Bill 206, so they brought a lighted message to the Capitol Lawn. Close to forty Holders of the Light showed up by the Lady Forward statue to participate in the action. The group pulled out and walked their message right up to the Capitol, where they turned and held their message for all to see, “THE VAGINA DEMAGOGUES”. A perfect message to describe the drive of Wisconsin’s GOP religious right and their extremist agenda for the people of Wisconsin.
Flickr photo album with more photos from this action.
The Overpass Light Brigade kicked off the Milwaukee fast food worker strike on Tuesday night by displaying this message over I-43 for drivers leaving downtown.
Milwaukee, WI - Hundreds of fast food workers didn’t show up to work in Milwaukee on Wednesday. Instead they decided to stand up in a one day collective action called “Raise Up MKE“ demanding a living wage ($15.00/hr) and the ability to organize a union without reprisal from bosses. They became the fifth city (Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and New York City) in the nation to organize and strike in the last month for better working conditions in what appears to be a growing movement.
Striking worker leave the Milwaukee County Courthouse after rallying for 45 minutes.
Workers rallied in front of several local fast food locations successfully coaxing other workers to join them. After making several stops around Milwaukee many workers descended upon the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where they rallied for about 45 minutes before finally marching down Milwaukee’s most prominent thoroughfare, Wisconsin Avenue, where other striking workers met up for a massive rally in front of Grand Avenue Shopping Mall, shutting down Milwaukee’s busiest street. There several speakers spoke in support of the striking workers, including Wisconsin State Rep. Mandela Barnes, Jennifer Epps-Addison (Citizen Action of Wisconsin), and Rev. Willie Brisco (MICAH).
Hundreds of striking fast food workers rally in front of the Grand Avenue Mall in downtown Milwaukee.
Striking workers state that their current wages are not enough to support themselves and their families. Many workers complain that their employers have limited their hours under the critical threshold of thirty hours to evade national healthcare law provisions that would require the employer pay health care benefits. This current dynamic pushes many fast food workers and other low wage workers onto government assistance programs. These costs are then passed on to the rest of society, while the corporations, who employ them, rake in record profits and pay out unprecedented bonuses. Current fast food wages have not kept up with inflation while corporate executive pay has ballooned for decades. It is more than time that low wage workers be paid living wages and given stronger protections to organize unions. After all, shouldn’t workers who get up everyday and contribute to society be afforded the ability to purchase housing and food for their family?
Wisconsin State Representative Mandela Barnes speaks to striking fast food workers.
The Reverend Willie Brisco speaks to striking fast food workers assembled in front of a downtown shopping mall.
Before marching on Grand Avenue Mall, striking workers met up in front of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
Poster put together by the Overpass Light Brigade in response to the fast food worker movement.
Find more photos here:
West Allis, WI - With President Barack Obama’s decision looming on the Keystone XL pipeline members of the Overpass Light Brigade (OLB) decided to meet on an overpass bridge Saturday night over I-894. They wanted to stand collectively and hold their “BLOCK KEYSTONE XL” message / call to action for not only motorists rolling underneath but to President Barack Obama and fossil fuel companies. Wisconsinites will not sit idly on the sidelines while their planet is pillaged by fossil fuel companies for profit.
The Overpass Light Brigade unloads their LED letters and begins to spell out their message.
The OLB (an affiliation of volunteer activists that use LED letters to spell out messages on pedestrian overpass bridges around the country) “holders of the light” recognize and understand that the Keystone XL pipeline would wind its way through Wisconsin and surrounding states, not only endangering environmentally sensitive parts of these states but continuing to accelerate Earth’s already warming temperatures. This race to destroy the planet for profits must be disrupted and groups like the Tar Sands Blockade and Red Lake Chippewa Enbridge Tar Sands Blockade are already beginning to do just that.
Members of the Overpass Light Brigade braved frigid temperatures to shine this message.
Watch the action through our movie from the evening below.
Block the Keystone XL Pipeline from Occupy Riverwest on Vimeo.