No one should be that surprised that WISPIRG and CFACT — two of the most well-heeled student groups at UW-Madison — have had nary a peep to say publicly about the MG&E Cogen scandal. One doesn’t rock the boat once on board for the ride.
WISPIRG, like the Sierra Club, is simply too in bed with the Democratic Party Machine to directly confront them. After Doyle and Cieslewicz came out in favor of the power plant, the mainstream environmentalists all fell in behind the ruling liberal elite. As for CFACT, their own neo-liberal track record — not to mention their recent pseudo-apartheid speaker and pro-nuclear editorial — speaks volumes. If CFACT had its way, the SERF would do double duty as a storage pool for spent fuel rods.
Ironically enough, one of the few campus groups that had enough backbone to take on MG&E, the State Capitol and UW over the power plant issue — the Madison Infoshop — lost its SSFC funding last year, yet another victim of the rightwing backlash that seeks to silence anyone who offers a real challenge to “business as usual” on this corporatized campus.
Fortunately, the Madison Infoshop is still alive and kicking harder than ever before from its new digs at 1019 Williamson St. The Infoshop even managed to publish a scathing expose of the MG&E/UW Cogen scandal in its latest UW-Madison “Disorientation” Manual for fall 2003-2004 (copies of which are still available all over town).
In conjunction with the Green Progressive Alliance, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Friends for Responsible Energy (FORE) and other grassroots organizations, the Infoshop may even join a lawsuit against MG&E, UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Administration over the Cogen issue.
Speaking truth to power may not build one’s resume or pay that well, but it always remains the right thing to do. There is still time to stop this juggernaut, and hopefully others will find enough courage to join the rest of us.
John E. Peck
Graduate student — IES
Volunteer — Madison Infoshop
[email protected]
Demographic Segregation: the least of our problems
This is a response to Andrew Fein’s article on the segregation that I perceive to be almost entirely economic, which unfolds between Midwesterners and those from states with higher inflation, and, rationally, more focus on the achievement of significant wealth. Let me begin by assuring the author that this is not an insult; think of it more optimistically as a reality check.
The article begins by mentioning how you decided you were “going to meet some Wisconsinites,” as if this natural occurrence necessitates one’s consent. After all, 70 percent of the student body is from Minnesota or Wisconsin, as you stated.
Then, the article procures the most boring and stereotypical presentation of a Midwesterner I have ever heard — you at least could have mentioned something about casseroles or snowmobiles. At this point, I began to wonder if you weren’t dealing the natives some sort of charity indulgence.
Or maybe you just made it all up, because you never seemed that emphatic about this whole issue anyway, and how could you? This is a complaint about the most logical segregation of all — the economic one. We live in capitalism, accept its results.
Finally, in your half-hearted call to action, you pitch this off into the lap of the over-burdened UW administration to come up with financial backing for this crusade of yours. Consider who will pay for that one. Nevertheless, I shall not discourage you from your campaign; one love, my trustafarian brother, but I won’t lose any sleep over mutual self-segregation.
Nate West
UW student
English major
[email protected]
