Thursday, June 2, 2011

Protesters Taken Out From Wisconsin State Joint Committee On Finance For Disrupting Hearing

Voces de la Frontera from Milwaukee and student members of Youth Empowered in the Struggle were in Madison to defend public education and in-state tuition rights.

Photo by HNG

People protested education cuts and the repealing of in-state tuition.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 2, 2011

Madison - State legislators from the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance had to order State and Capitol Police to remove at least ten people who disrupted their budget cuts hearing to finalize fiscal spending for the next two years. Two protesters were arrested. They vowed to continue the protests in the coming days.
The committee finally met late on Thursday after changing their meeting time several times in the afternoon, trying to diminish crowds. The prostesters were against educational cuts and the proposed repeal of in-state tuition in Governor Scott Walker's budget cuts.
The state joint finance committee is holding a two year spending proposed budget hearing and their version once approved heads for the full Senate. State Representatives have their own budget cuts version and both the Assembly and the Senate would have to agree on a joint version to pass it.
The Republican controlled legislature is moving forward to repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students attending public colleges and universities.
In a press release statement, Voces de la Frontera states that fifty concerned Wisconsinites engaged in an organized, non-violent civil disobedience to halt passage of the state budget, demanding restoration of the cuts to education and in-state tuition for immigrant youths.
Kicking off the action were four prominent community leaders, Jesus Salas, former University of Wisconsin Regent; Larry Miller, Director on the Milwaukee Public School Board; Al Levie, Racine high school teacher and REA union member; and Christine Neumann-Ortíz, Voces de la Frontera executive director.
The disruption stopped the committee for an extended period of time as police carried off speaker after speaker, who refused to let injustice and austerity become law without resistance. Each speaker read a statement before being removed from the hearing.
They have disregarded widespread opposition to their proposed cuts to education, environment, workers, healthcare and other vital public services. Today, the Republicans on the committee delayed the hearing for 5 hours, afraid to face the public backlash, according to Voces de la Frontera.

VDLF video of actual protest at link: http://bit.ly/mS390r

Related article: Voces del Frontera And Students At Joint Committee On Finance Hearing To Protest Repeal Of In-state Tuition http://bit.ly/k2atOu

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