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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Wisconsin "Singalong" Protesters Confront Workers and Chant About Boycotting Their Employer.



Meade recorded this video at the 8/26/11 anti-Scott Walker singalong at the Wisconsin Capitol. Toward the end of what is their regular hour-long protest, workers from The Bruce Company, who were installing a new sprinkler system, began using their noisy equipment near the singalong.

A man jumps up and shouts "Boycott the Bruce Company," and a chant immediately breaks out with lots of people raising their fists and shouting "Boycott Bruce! Boycott Bruce!" — seemingly based solely on the assumption that the workers are deliberately disrupting their singalong. An older male protester directly confronts one of the workers. The police show up to observe and, seemingly, keep the peace. A young female protester wants to know what Meade is up to. What's his take on this? Her take is that the workers started working there for the purpose of drowning out the singers. Meade is heard saying "You don't think maybe you're being a little paranoid?"

If you care about workers — and that is the subject of the songs they sing and sing and sing — why are they harassing these guys? If they care about justice, why do they instantly — based on a paranoid impulse — chant for a boycott? If they care about jobs, why would they want to denounce and injure a local business?

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