Ongoing witness is a powerful thing.
If you win your way through the designated doors and the metal detectors at the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, and enter the beautiful marble Rotunda, you're likely to see something else beautiful.
The protest-presence is still there. You can find at least one volunteer in the Rotunda pretty much day-in, day-out, staffing a collection of protest signs and buttons, free for the taking, laid out on the floor at one edge of the circle. Cardboard protest signs are propped against every marble pillar, all the way around the inside of the circle. Taping them up (even with non-damaging blue painter's tape) isn't allowed any more, but with someone on site to keep an eye out, the witness of the signs is consistent.
If you happen to come on the noon hour, the voices raised in song will reach your ears as soon as you open the heavy wooden door from the outside.
"Solidarity forever, solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong!"
There are people who come every single weekday, and some weekend days too, like the energetic song-leader or the local small business owner who recently wrote an article on the Solidarity Singalong called "The myth of out-of-state protesters." Other folks show up when and as they can. I can only make it on a Monday, and not every week at that -- but the singing energizes me and touches me deeply. I love adding a high descant to echo up into the Rotunda dome! The YouTube above doesn't do justice to the way the sound reverberates.
As a matter of fact, the singing echoes not only in the Rotunda, but into the voting chambers and the legislative offices as well. A recent post on the Solidarity Singalong Facebook page said,
thanks to the solidarity sing along - we can clearly hear "Solidarity Forever" from inside the hearing on the voter I D bill
Here's part of what they heard:
When the union's inspiration
through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong!
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong!
"Solidarity Forever" is the signature song for the Solidarity Singalong, generally the first and last song of the noon-hour gathering. Written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915 for the Industrial Workers of the World, it has become a classic labor-union anthem. The tune started out in the 1850s as a campfire spiritual, became a Union-army/abolitionist song with the words "John Brown's Body," and gained a religious-patriotic sheen with Julia Ward Howe's famous lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (glory, glory, hallelujah!) When sung as a labor-union song, on the chorus everyone raises their right fist into the air in solidarity.
The Solidarity Singalong group uses its own special songbook, making it easy for anyone to join in for the whole hour or just a song or two. You can even download your own copy from the Wisconsin Peace & Justice Network website. The book contains an evolving mix of songs. Some, like Solidarity Forever, are classics with roots a century and more old. Some were first created during the Civil Rights struggle, or gained their famous words at that time. There are new Wisconsin-specific verses scattered throughout, and even one Wisconsin-specific song that's new for the occasion.
One song in the book that resonates particularly for me is "It Isn't Nice," a civil-rights anthem by Malvina Reynolds. My father used to sing this one when I was young: "It isn't nice to block a doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail... it isn't nice, but if that's freedom's price, we don't mind!" Dad came of age in the era when people-powered protest was exploding in the US -- the Civil Rights movement, the outcry against the Vietnam War. The commitment to peace and justice that he and my mother shared led him to run for U.S. Congress in 1970. (He won in the primary but lost in the general election to a long-standing Republican incumbent.)
Now in 2011 I have the privilege of joining to sing an updated rendition of that same song. The Solidarity Singalong version of "It Isn't Nice" includes several new verses by the Kissers, a local Irish/rock band.
It isn’t nice to carry banners,
or to try to kick in doors,
or to shout out “Shame! Shame!”
down on the Assembly floor.
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice,
you told us once, you told us twice,
but if that is Freedom’s price,
we don’t mind.
We have tried negotiations,
and crossin’ the state line,
Mr. Walker didn’t see us,
you know he might as well be blind.
Now our new ways aren’t nice,
when we deal with men of ice,
but if that is Freedom’s price,
we don’t mind.
The Kissers are also responsible for the brand-new song in the book, a rollicking folksong with just a bit of a pirate growl to it, called "Scotty, We're Comin' for You!" Scotty is, of course, Wisconsin's governor Scott Walker -- and we're coming for him via recall, just as soon as we can start to collect signatures this November! You can get an MP3 of a live performance on the Kissers' web site, or watch it here:
First they came for the unions,
Saying that you should have less
Business needs more, you people aren't poor
Stop whining, buck up like the rest
And then they came for the children,
Hard to believe but it's true
Schools and good health
might take from their wealth
So tell me what are you gonna do?
Scotty, we're coming for you!
I never knew how much I loved Wisconsin
Till I stood in the capitol dome
Signs on the walls, and drums in the halls
Cries of "Freedom!" ringing out all night long
All of us standing together,
Teachers in green, cops in blue
Hundreds of thousands
show people have power
So tell me what are we gonna do?
Scotty, we're coming for you!
This diary could go on and on; every one of the songs in the book has a story worth telling. But I'll highlight just one more, the song in the title of the diary: "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." This one has its roots in a spiritual called "Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round." With recordings and performances by Joan Baez and other artists, it became a freedom-song for civil rights. (The Sweet Honey in the Rock version has stunning, powerful harmonies!) The words are simple and adaptable:
Aint gonna let nobody turn me 'round,
turn me 'round, turn me 'round
Aint gonna let nobody turn me 'round
I'm gonna keep on walkin'
keep on talkin’
walkin’ into freedom land
To make this freedom-song your own, just replace the "nobody" with whomever, or whatever, is trying to turn you 'round. For Wisconsin purposes, we've got:
Ain't gonna let Scott Walker turn me 'round...
Ain't gonna let Fitzgerald turn me 'round...
Ain't gonna let those Koch brothers turn me 'round...
Ain't gonna let Mike Huebsch turn me 'round...
It's been reported that Huebsch, the Walker-appointee who heads the Wisconsin Department of Administration and is responsible for the illegal crackdown at the Capitol -- and much more -- has been spotted lurking and listening while the Solidarity Singalong raises the Rotunda in song. Particularly now that the Assembly seat he vacated has been decisively flipped Democratic by Steve Doyle in this week's elections, one wonders what he might be thinking.
Is he possibly considering how the singers might yet be stopped, seeing as how humiliating us with metal detectors and taking away our instruments, amplification equipment, blue tape, and snakes didn't stop us? [Well, actually I don't know if any of us ever had any snakes. But they're on the official "disallowed" list at the Capitol ever since the crackdown. I kid you not.]
Or maybe, just maybe, might the music be breaking through, in some small way?
The Solidarity Singalong will continue to bring the witness -- in the Rotunda when possible, outdoors when the Rotunda is booked for the noon hour. I'll leave you with one more YouTube video that has some outdoor Solidarity Singalong footage. I wasn't with the singers when this was taped (they start at 2:33), but you can see me marching around the Square with my ALEC-awareness sign starting right after the 2-minute mark.
Ain't gonna let NOBODY turn us around!