Author: Joe Brusky

Marchers condemn Briggs & Stratton for giving millions to executives as Mike Jackson worked to death

Marchers condemn Briggs & Stratton for giving millions to executives as Mike Jackson worked to death

Posted by | Jul 8, 2020 |

While Briggs & Stratton executives were working from the safety of their homes during the pandemic, negotiating millions of dollars in bonuses for themselves, and finalizing plans to move hundreds of jobs out of the Milwaukee area, Mike Jackson was being worked to death in the company’s Wauwatosa plant to make products that consumers could not buy for months. Mike Jackson was a Briggs & Stratton worker, union member, and husband who died of coronavirus after fighting for safety on the job. To protest the injustice of his premature death and the corporate system of greed that caused it,...

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Milwaukee’s latest Civil Rights mural honors local leaders and community organizers

Milwaukee’s latest Civil Rights mural honors local leaders and community organizers

Posted by | Jun 17, 2020 |

Another social justice inspired mural was installed on June 13 in the alley of Locust and Holton Streets. Artists from around Milwaukee painted a collage of murals on the walls of a building in the Riverwest neighborhood. The beautification project featured local leaders involved with the Civil Rights Movement, including Vel Philips. A special remembrance to the life of Breonna Taylor was installed days earlier on another side of the structure. “These murals will be beacons for Black Lives and the continued fight for justice in Milwaukee for a long time,” said organizers on social media. The murals were...

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Brown People for Black Power: Latino group marches in solidarity with BLM across James Groppi Bridge

Brown People for Black Power: Latino group marches in solidarity with BLM across James Groppi Bridge

Posted by | Jun 14, 2020 |

The Hispanic activist group El Pueblo MKE organized a “Brown People for Black Power” march from the South Side of Milwaukee to the East Side in a show of unity for Black Lives on June 6. The march started at the Mitchell Park Domes and made it a point to cross the historic James Groppi Unity Bridge, before it met up with another march on the East Side of Milwaukee. El Pueblo MKE described their action: “In 1967, during Milwaukee’s Fair Housing Marches, the 16th street bridge was the location of racial violence as peaceful protestors marched across it...

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From Baraboo to West Virginia: Rufus King students respond to hate with MLK’s message of love

From Baraboo to West Virginia: Rufus King students respond to hate with MLK’s message of love

Posted by | Feb 3, 2020 |

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In November 2018, a photo went viral across social media of Wisconsin students at Baraboo High School giving a straight-arm Nazi salute. Rufus King High School students in Milwaukee responded with a photo of their own. Showing the American Sign Language (ASL) symbol for “Love,” their hope was to make a public statement and social impact with a positive message. Then in December 2019, a similar pictured surfaced from West Virginia, showing corrections...

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Milwaukee students risk arrest during climate protest against banks funding fossil fuel industry

Milwaukee students risk arrest during climate protest against banks funding fossil fuel industry

Posted by | Dec 10, 2019 |

Hundreds of students from around Milwaukee gathered at Zeidler Union Square to rally in support of solutions to the climate crisis, before marching to Wells Fargo and Chase Banks downtown on December 6. The newly formed People’s Climate Coalition organized the Milwaukee Climate Strike, a continuation of the September climate strike events that took place in Milwaukee and cities around the world that called for action be taken to address climate change. “Since 2016, Wells Fargo and Chase Banks have loaned more than $347.3 Billion to the fossil fuel industry. It’s time for them to stop,” said the group...

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No Planet B: Students skip school in Milwaukee to join Global #ClimateStrike

No Planet B: Students skip school in Milwaukee to join Global #ClimateStrike

Posted by | Sep 24, 2019 |

Milwaukee youth afraid for their future joined the international protest along with 130 countries on September 20, urging world leaders to tackle climate change and insisting that the warming world could not wait any longer. Based on the “School Strike for Climate” started by Swedish schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg, Milwaukee’s participation in the Global Climate Strike saw hundreds of students skip class and assemble at Milwaukee City Hall, before marching three miles to North Point Park. “Our world as we know it will no longer exist if we continue down the trajectory that we’re going. Something must be done,” said...

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Knezelism of the Week