MADISON, WI (FDL) – As you may know by now, as many as 100,000 people gathered in Capitol Square in Madison yesterday for a rally for workers’ rights (the media really doesn’t want to give those 6-figure numbers, so more commonly we’ve seen 70,000, but I heard the Madison Police spokesman utter 100,000 personally). I understand that if your media diet is restricted to the cable nets, you may not have heard the news, but there’s plenty of great coverage elsewhere. Most important, the people of Wisconsin know what happened in their state yesterday. And regardless of the publicity, what’s happening here has sparked a new conversation around the country about the basic rights of workers and the importance of organized labor.

MADISON, WI (FDL) – In what has been billed the largest rally in the history of Madison, over 100,000 people packed the Capitol Square for a “Rally for Workers’ Rights” to protest the budget repair bill and the proposed stripping of collective bargaining rights from public employees. Madison Police told AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale that they estimated the crowd at 100,000 30 minutes before the 3pm rally. As Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, who graced the stage, said, it’s 40% of the March on Washington, which he attended.