At a public forum celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker and legislation limiting collective bargaining rights, speakers celebrated lessons learned during the past year and steps that could be taken to further the movement.

Leland Pan, a University of Wisconsin sophomore majoring in political science and sociology and a member of Student Labor Action Coalition, spoke about his experience as a student during the protests.

“It was about the solidarity with all the different struggles,” Pan said. “Looking back, that’s sort of what I got out of it. All of our struggles are interconnected.”

As a student, Pan felt particularly strongly about fighting rising tuition costs. He said that tuition is currently $10,000 a year and increasing quickly.

“The ability to pay tuition on an $8.50 wage is not there; you can’t,” Pan said.

Still, Pan commended the local high school students for their support during the protests. As a Madison resident for the past 11 years, Pan said he was impressed with the powerful turnout.

Olivia Sanderfoot, a UW freshman studying biology and Spanish who spoke at the forum, said she participated in the walkouts when she was attending Madison East High School.

“It was an amazing experience, just leaving school and having a sea of 800, 900 people your age behind you as you meet the front doors,” Sanderfoot said.

All four of the panel speakers pointed out problems that have hindered the momentum of last year’s protests.

Lack of leadership, ambiguous messages and uncertainty about the future were three aspects plaguing the protest last year, said Eric Cobb, the former executive director of the Building Trades Council for the South Central Federation of Labor.

Despite these downfalls, the protests in Wisconsin spurred other states such as Ohio to fight for collective bargaining rights, Cobb said.

“We have the ability to empower each other by continuing with this type of behavior,” Cobb said.

Although hopeful for the future, relying on Democrats to solve all the problems is foolish, said Teddy Shibabaw, a writer for Justice Newspaper and SocialistAlternative.org.

“Given the record of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin and nationally, it’s very hard to say that they will actually reverse the damage that Walker has done to this state,” Shibabaw said. “Even during the Doyle years, there were budget cuts and concessions being demanded from public sector workers.”

Shibabaw expressed fear that being restricted to a two-party system will ultimately hurt citizens when Democrats fail to follow through with promises made.

Pressure from big businesses and corporations corrupt both political parties, not just Republicans, Shibabaw said.

“If wealth and power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a few rich investors and CEOs, if we allow the capitalist elite to continue to rule, then all our victories will be temporary,” Shibabaw said.

To move forward, Wisconsin citizens must ban together and hold politicians accountable for serving those who elected them, Cobb said

Shibabaw said to hold politicians accountable and make the changes that society needs, workers must understand their collective power.

“All of these things could be won if only workers understood the power that they have, that they can wield collectively,” Shibabaw said.