Hello, all.
Last Saturday was the 13th annual Fighting Bob Fest, in honor of "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Wisconsin's beloved governor, senator, and perennial presidential candidate in the early 20th century, who did really important work for consumer protection, women's suffrage, public education, and the anti-war movement. A bunch of left and semi-left politicians, journalists and union leaders get together and speak to the faithful.
I must say a lot of this felt more forced than usual- almost like we're all lying to each other. For one, Mary Burke (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) is rather conservative, but we heard everyone, including some really good leaders, say how sure they are that she'll put a stop to Walker's agenda. Even if she manages to win, I'm skeptical- she's refrained from taking positions on a lot of key issues- protecting women's right to choose, infrastructure development, and health care among them, and I just feel slimy voting for someone whose main qualification is success in business. Government is not a business, it's a collective arrangement for everyone's benefit.
There were plenty of bright spots, though we lacked some of the best speakers who usually grace the stage. Susan Happ came out swinging on equal pay and voter rights, (Wisconsin's supreme court just disenfranchised 200,000 voters, for those who don't follow it), and I think we were all wishing she was running for governor. The only thing wrong with her speech is that she didn't ride her Harley onto the stage, but plenty of time to fix that once she wins.
Baldwin spoke as well, and she didn't mess up like she did last year- it's nice not to have to riot against your own senators over their possible support of an unjust war.
Doug La Follette spoke there as well, and he has really improved as a speaker since the last time I saw him- a pity they didn't do question and answer, as that's where he does his best, but he was on- voting rights protection, unequal wage distribution, he really hit his stride. I'm looking forward to his visit to Beloit in October.
The high point, as always, was Sen. Bernie Sanders, Soc-Vt. Aside from his grave slander that Wisconsin "should be proud of producing the second-best cheddar cheese in the nation" he laid out a perfect indictment of plutocracy at every turn, spoke about climate change as a national security threat, and still called for public employment and nationalized healthcare. I went up to him afterward and told him that I'd move to wherever his campaign needs me, if he runs.
The event was entirely white (the speakers were a tad more diverse), due largely to a location change to a remote, rural town called Baraboo, rather than the Madison venue of previous years. Genossin Sophie also pointed out that calls to resistance against unjust regimes may be insensitive, or offensive to minority citizens who are engaged in a constant struggle for basic dignity and in many cases survival; the event would have done well to have a breakout session focused on race-conscious organizing, on everything from transportation to safety. Finally, there were two speakers who seemed to be inserted as tokens- Angela Trudell Vasquez- her speech was billed as a poem but it was a speech- who talked passionately about immigration and the burden placed on children of deported parents, who often end up caring for their siblings. She made good points but it seems like the fest made little effort to attract anyone who isn't white, and this was somewhat questionable. More problematic was Philomena Kebec, a representative of the Ho-Chunk tribe as well as the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. She spoke at great length about the spiritual beliefs of her tribe, and why they would be violated by allowing unsafe mining practices, which is an argument we definitely need to have, as Burke has shown next-to-no leadership on this issue, but this seemed to undermine it as much as anything. I'm not sure if the organizers deliberately chose someone to speak for the Ho-Chunk with a bad stutter, and a spiel all about spiritual matters which most people will reject out of hand. In short, I felt that, while this woman does great work for her cause, the way she was presented here served to make her look incompetent and exoticized in her beliefs. I don't think this is any fault of hers, just that she was being used as both a token and in some ways a ready-made rhetorical strawman, and that the festival should do a much better job in future of not exoticizing women of color. To their credit, they did back her up with other anti-mine campaigns, but it seems they chose an inexperienced spokeswoman on purpose to make her and her religion look silly. It's also worth nothing that neither of the Wisconsin Dems' prominent African-American leaders- Firefighter Union President Mahlon Mitchell and Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore- were present. Whether this was a schedule conflict on their parts, a deliberate decision not to attend the event after changes made it more hostile to minority constituents, or a snub by the organizers, I don't know but it looked bad.
Oh and Mark Pocan did a nice little trick of linking the American Revolution to opposition to the India Company. That was fun. I also got to see a lecture by Professor Nancy Unger, La Follette biographer, who is finishing a work on Belle La Follette and her activist work for feminism, Civil Rights, Peace and Socialism. Can't wait to read it.
It felt like a sadder, weaker Bobfest than before, and that was disheartening, but we do have some great people in office and on the ballot this year, and it's always nice to hear them speak.
Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen
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