MADISON, WIS.
Victory march held after KKK cancels rally
By
Phil Wilayto
Madison, Wis.
Members of the "Wisconsin Realm of the Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan" vowed to rally here at the State Capitol Jan. 16,
two days before the Martin Luther King holiday. Just days
before the event, however, the Klan canceled its plans.
Instead, over 300 students, youths, union activists and
members of progressive organizations marched from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison to hold their own rally at the
Capitol.
"We stopped the Klan!" they chanted, with some adding, "for
now."
Although KKK rallies have been taking place with sickening
regularity throughout the Midwest, the Klan hasn't had a real
base in Wisconsin for years. A 1997 rally in Beloit billed as
the kick-off to a statewide recruitment drive ended in
humiliating Klan defeat.
Shouted down by 500 protesters, the Klan rolled up their
banner early and left town with most of their car windows
smashed out. Plans to hold rallies in Madison, Milwaukee and
Green Bay this past summer never materialized.
Then, when they applied for a permit to rally at the State
Capitol, a strange thing happened. Gov. Tommy Thompson, citing
the Klan's provocative behavior in Beloit, denied them a
permit. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union went to
court and had the denial overturned. But the Klan called off
its rally anyway.
Protest organizers, including the Midwest Network to Stop
the Klan in Madison, A Job is a Right Campaign in Milwaukee,
and many independent activists deserve credit for lots of hard
work in getting the word out about the counter-demonstration.
But the Klan's no-show also says a lot about the real
relationship between the KKK and the government.
Thompson may be one of the only governors to ever try
denying the Klan a permit. He's also a politician well known
for his brutal attacks on welfare mothers, undermining public
education through school vouchers and overseeing the
fastest-growing state prison population in the country. These
issues are particularly important for the state's African
American community and place Thompson squarely in the ranks of
the most reactionary governors.
In order to put over his programs--which were all initiated
by the arch-conservative Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee--Thomp
son has developed a certain approach to the Black community.
That approach, for now, doesn't include the use of racist
terror--unless you count the police.
So when the Klan threatened to rally in Madison, it was a
win-win situation for the governor. Thompson could posture as
anti-Klan, while the ACLU, one of his main opponents in the
fight over school vouchers, fought for the Klan's "right" to
rally. Protest organizers felt the Klan had no such right.
Their rallies are not about free speech, but real-life terror
and murder.
Every Klan rally needs to be met with the largest and most
militant protest possible. But sometimes the worst racist
offensives come without the sheets.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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