Thousands of University of Wisconsin students and City of Madison residents participated Jan. 30 in a general strike and protest against the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the Twin Cities and across the country. Participants gathered at Library Mall to rally and listen to speakers, then marched down State Street to the Capitol where the rally and speeches continued.
The event was organized by local organizations including Madison Socialist Alternative and Madison Area Democratic Socialist of America. Similar events took place across the nation, with protesters holding “no work, no school, no shopping” strikes, according to AP News.
The march from campus to the Capitol was delayed by about 25 minutes, due the public address system not having power from UW, according to MSA member Xandear Godar.
“We had our PA system set up out in front of Memorial Library, and we were told that if we chose to use that — which we were welcome to — it would be a strike against our [registered student organization],” Godar said. “When we went to start the protest and use that, we found that the power had been cut.”
They instead used megaphones, which made it more difficult for people in the crowd to hear, according to Godar, who also spoke at the rally.
Student organizations on campus need to request permission from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration to use sound amplification beyond battery-powered, handheld devices, according to the UW Expressive Activity Guide. The application will be evaluated under state law criteria, according to the guide.
“In the case of [Jan. 30] afternoon’s activities, no request for amplification was received by UW-Madison,” UW Assistant Vice Chancellor John Lucas said in an email statement.
Lucas also said in an email statement that the power had not been cut, rather, outside power had not been turned on.
This protest was in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and Keith Porter in Chicago, among others, by federal agents, as well as the increase in ICE presence and activity in Minnesota and across the nation.
“The brutality of the U.S. immigration control regime is designed to keep us from seeing each other as human so that the corporations that run the show can keep exploiting immigrant labor,” MADSA co-chair Halsey Hazzard said in a speech to the crowd. “It’s not immigrants draining our society, it is the billionaires and business owners who put their profits over human life.”
