government in the first place. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> john nichols reports on the public protests that took place in madison, wisconsin in february of last year in reaction to governor scott walker's decision to removal collective bargaining rights from teachers and public employees. it's about an hour and 15 minutes. >> so, i don't think i can do any better than to read a couple of paragraphs john wrote in the introduction, about -- a lot of people you know, and so comic strips because i produce books for young people. a second childhood. a century ago -- i'm quoting

him -- heard that the promise of democracy is a threat to the people of wisconsin who had a call to action in response they formed a populist movement that would inspire franklin roosevelt and the new deal. the old fight was on again as a new generation of robber bare ron trying to undernine the new deal but all 20th century progress. they played it first in wisconsin and went the -- learned the hard way that the people are not so disengaged or disenchanted they will easily surrender their rights. wisconsinites gave a sign of democracy and they passed it on to america. once more. in madison and lansing and columbus, tallahassee, and washington and it was a chal

length they face it to every bit as daunting. so is there responsibility. what started in wisconsin cannot end in wisconsin, just as the promise that was made a century ago, wisconsin was passed on to the rest of the united states so the movement that began on that cold february and march days must spread. the old fight is joined by a new generation this year. regarding the palpable truth of the american experience, that the mass of mankind was not born with saddles on their backs, ready to ride by the grace of god, and by the grace of god this is written history. thank you, john. [applause] [applause]

>> i think i will just say thank you and leave. but i would be very remiss if i didn't at least stick around long enough to say that one great historian of the american experience, and the condition of america that is deeply rooted not just in progressive policies today but in the progressive politics that began with our mutual hero, -- and has carried forward across the centuries and i encourage you to buy that book as well. so one more round of applause to my hero. paul.

[applause] >> now, the complicated thing about the wisconsin struggle is people from other places don't always understand how it got there. i had a friend from new jersey, the governor -- governor walker was referred to her as an out of state union boss. came out on her own dime, drove out because she wanted to see what was happening last february and march in wisconsin, and hundreds of thousands of people came out, not just in madison but in ken northern should and milwaukee and in platsville and washburn and towns across the state, to rise up. it was not about labor rights but democracy itself. she was outside the capitol in madison, and it was a day that the governor, his aides, had locked the protesters out. they closed the capitol, so there were thousands of people

outside chanting, "let us in, let us in." and this woman from new jersey, a top labor boss, she didn't understand the last words being said. let us in, something else. so she said, what they saying? and the person said, saying, let us in, please. >> we are very polite people. well, we also took her advice, and as a result -- we do recognize the folks who joined us for this discussion, and i want to say how very, very honored i am to be in the presence today of people who formed the storyline of the book, people who are in every page of this book, and one of

them is the account supervisor who, as this struggle was rising up, got the county board -- the county around madison -- to vote in favor of labor rights and said that this county, this place stands on the side of labor unions and economic and social justice, and amazingly enough, he is the guy that dayton county -- she is now running for the legislature to go up to the capitol, our friend, elizabeth. black black. [applause] [applause] >> i want to recognize -- i promise i won't go down each row person-by-person. but i do want to know that the sheriff of the county, who was in charge of the security at the

capitol,, established a differet routine in recent months about "occupy wall street" and the way that policing has responded to public protests and to defend it in this country. sometimes very draconian measures police force have gone to in some cities. in madison that did not happen, in wisconsin that did not happen because we had police officers who believed that their responsibility was not merely to protect public safety -- of course that was essential -- but also to protect the constitution and the public's right to dissent, and the sheriff -- [applause] -- the sheriff of the county, when he was asked to reject that premise to reject that notion, and take actions he thought were inappropriate as regards to defending the rights of the day

and protecting the right of people to have free speech -- one of the great quotes, that my deputies are not a palace guard. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> and finally, again, i promise not to go row-by-row but i do want to know that at the early stages of the struggle in wisconsin, there was a big question about how it would take form, and one of the most profound moments was when the teachers in the madison public schools chose not -- the parents

and the communities chose to step up and say that, we need to go to our capitol. we need to take the day off school and go to the capitol and lobby on behalf of public workers, public school teachers, public education, and public -- because our elected leaders have forgotten their commitment in this regard, and the long-time executive director of madison teachers incorporated and one of the great leaders in the struggle is with us today, john matthews. [cheers and applause] >> the day that the teachers did walk out, i was driving to the state capitol here in madison, and folks in madison know it's not the most -- it's -- you can

get across town pretty quick, and at 10:00 in the morning you can drive up east washington avenue the capitol will no trouble at all. it's never a problem. and yet this morning, as i was driving up -- about a year ago today -- i'm driving to the capitol, and i am encountering traffic difficulties. there were cars in front of me, and it was moving slowly. i thought to myself what could be amiss, and i saw police lights flashing, and i thought, what is happening in my peaceful, calm city? and as i got closer, realize that the when the teachers had chosen to get out of schools and go to the capital to rates the issues, the students could have had the day off in stepped the students used facebook and twitter, all the technologies of the new generation, connected to

very old, peace struggle, they said let's gather in the park lot of east high school and i encountered 1,000 students from madison east high school marching two miles in solidarity. [cheers and applause] >> now, the book i have written, uprising, a story of this struggle -- not about one state. and that is the important thing to understand. the state of wisconsin has become a word that -- it's like in europe, and people say, oh, i'm from wisconsin, and suddenly they light up. much the same way they mention

egypt. here's a place that did something amazing, that the whole world watched, and this is about that amazing transformation of a local struggle into an international event, and i thought for a minute because i think it's an important thing. wisconsinites recognized it early on. a lot of other people struggled with kind of getting their head around it. i think is that what wisconsin did was renew a connection with the founding premise of the american experiment. this nation was founded in revolution by a power not of our source, brought ideas not of this place, and yet demand that the people obey.

so, foreign and generous ideas, so that revolution put into the american people a sense of distrust of government, of distrust of power, not distrust of people who work in government. not distrust of teachers. not distrust of public employeesment but distrust of that elite. and thomas jefferson was perhaps the best -- he said we did not fight a revolution in order to have a representative democracy in which we elected kings for four years. we didn't create a situation where we would replace a foreign despot and then have an elected despot here at home. and elections are important. it's a democratic moment, and ron talked about with such joy in this poetry.

elections are good and right, but the person who is elected does not become a king for four years. the person who is elected is responsible to the people. they're not someone who have the people serve hem. rather, the elected leader serve s the people. [applause] had great doubt about whether you could always assure the day would pass the elected leaders would respect that reality, so in concert with the american people, after the constitution of the united states was written, the american people said, we're not signing on to that thing. very attractive but we need a bill of rights to go with that. we need protections against government. this was a jeffersonian -- ran for congress in 189 -- 1789 and

write protections of the people. that bill of rights, was not written simply as protection, however. it was also encouragement. it was an outline for how to respond to government. and so we get freedom of speech. a great thing. in america today, if you are a billionaire, you have immense amounts of see. you can form a super pac and nominate mitt romney for president. but if you are a working person in this country, you're speech is about as loud as you can yell. we have -- america, if you are an australian, you d -- if you're a working person, your ability is opened one the the

internet and facebook and twitter allows you to communicate but you don't have the ability to amplify the way a billionaire can. so freedom of speech is a wonderful protection, and yet in the political moment, the broader political moment, holding those who are elected to account, the great protections in our constitution were for the right to assemble, to call out your friends and bring as many as them as you can to the public square. if anything to bring 100,000 to the square in madison on a saturday afternoon. and fill that square. [cheers and applause] >> so, the right to assemble. and also, the most wonderous of all to petition for the redress of grievances to say to an elected leader, to say to a person who is in charge, we

respect the reality of your election but we demand that you respect those who elected you. we demand you respond to the people, not merely government, not merely tell them what to do but act in concert with us, and the right to assemble, and the application for redress, is really what this book is about. every one of the great moments that occurred in madison, the marches, the protests, the occupation of the capitol, gave so much inspiration to struggle in other states, and also to "occupy wall street." all of those events took place in a city named for the essential author of the constitution, james madison. and the person who presented the bill of rights to the first congress. and on every street -- i'm not sure madsonnans are aware of

this -- on every street where protests took place, these are the names of the signers of the american constitution where madison was founded in 1838, they named it for the essential author and the streets of the city were named after the signers. i believe in february and march of 2011, the people of this city and this state realize the promise of that naming and ended up using their right to assemble and petition for the redress. [cheers and applause] >> why did it happen in madison? why did it happen in wisconsin? is there something in the water? [laughter] >> i will tell you that, having been born and raised in wisconsin, it is fluorodated,

and despite some criticism from the john birch society. there's a tradition in wisconsin that wisconsinize are very proud of, and it is a tradition that we talk about going back to the progressive of a century ago. it goes back much deeper. it goes back to the civil war. and it goes back to when wisconsinites rose up, not against the position of the southerners that believed the united states -- wisconsinites rose up in opposition to the original sin of the american experiment, which was to allow human bondage. they fought against slavery. and many of the great rallies that took place in february of 2011 were held outside the state

capitol, on king street, and the statue that stands there of hans christian hague, a norwegian immigrant who called his fellow scandinavians into battle and said, we will fight as a unit so if anyone is speaking english, tell them to retreat or surrender, we will not understand the orders and we will march on. [applause] >> that's the wisconsin tradition, and that statue was reverendded against and again and against. when it showed up recently, however, in the chrysler super bowl commercial, with the two-man commercial, which featured several seconds of

video from the madison protests of last year, they whited out the union signs as if union signs are unamerican. the second thing they did that was amazing, they blur out the description of hans christian hague on the statue, and i thought to myself, i hope we do not live in a country where it is controversial to have been on the right side of the civil war. but it was that tradition, that sense of wisconsin, that -- a century ago led a progressive movement that embraced the rights of labor and the right for small business owners to have a voice in the republic,

that is strong and equal to the voice of corporations and economic policies. referred to that as the money power. and he said the money power will always try to control our elections, and to control our legislators. it will march, it will march not for economic conquest but for the political conquest that will allow it to create monopolize. i'm sure the coke brothers recognized something in that description but the notion that there is always a great struggle in america, always a great struggle, between the money power and the great mass of people. and one of the things that -- came to be part of the understanding of the struggle in wisconsin, after governor scott walker proposed, do radical assault on collective bargaining rights, on civil service, on the

department of public education, the funding of public services, and so many things involved in that position. actually laid the groundwork for how to respond. said we're slow to realize that democracy is alive, and involves continual struggle. it is only those of every generation who love democracy, with all their might, the the encroachment of the enemy that the ideals of representative government can never by nearly approximated. democracy is a right. it is not an election. it is not an event on one day. it is an ongoing process, a process of holding those who are elected to account. what happens in wisconsin in february and march of 2011, those mass demonstrations, the occupation of the capitol, and yet determined, and the ongoing

process carried out since then, is a living embodiment of the principle that democracy is alive, the fathers would be so proud of his state and his people. and it was -- gaylord nelson, the great wisconsin governor, who in 1959 was arrested in the north, led the fight to protect the collective bargaining rights of public employees, because gaylord nell son believed that when you protected public employees, and public teachers, when you allowed them to have a voice in their work place, and in a political right of the -- life of the state and the republic you're assured that democracy will always be protected in the political discourse. it was essential to give

bargaining rights to unions so democracy itself can send from that. so that's what -- nelson did, and that is what governor walker sought to undo, the better part of 50 years later, with his proposal. interesting, to dismantle collective bargaining rights. i wish i could tell you the struggle was just about a renewal of a law that carried forward and followed tradition but we live in modern time. we watch television. we go on the internet. and when we do, we don't just see the stories of ourselves and our place, although those stories are vital. we see the stories of the world, and the fact of the matter is the reason the wisconsin struggle became a national and international phenomenon is

because governor walker announced his proposal to undermine labor union rights and most of democracy in this state the day after hosni mubarak stepped down as the dictator of egypt. i've heard it suggested the governor looked around the world, determined we were one dictator short, and tried to fill the void. [applause] >> now, i know -- i would be on bbc or al jazeera talking about what is going on in wisconsin, and say, can't really be connected to egypt, can it? let me tell you. on the first day of major demonstrations, i was picking up my daughter after school, and i was going to take her to noodles where all the children eat, and i said, it's going to be a little demonstration at the

capital. i'm going to stop by. i won't take long. i wasn't quite sure how many people would turn out. it was 10,000 people. so i go up there and going to do a couple of talks about the history of wisconsin, and the guy standing next to me had a sign in arabic, and i covered wars in the middle east, and covered issues in palestine and jordan, and the man's sign in arabic. arabic. and he looked at me and said, al-jazeera. he said, oh, i went online this afternoon and figured out how to write, if egypt could get rid of

mubarak, wisconsin can get rid of scott walker. >> some guy watching on tv. but a few days later as the numbers grow from 10,000 to 40,000, 50,000, mass people every day around the state capitol, it's cold, and there's a guy and he had a large handmade sign and on it he had written, i walked to cairo. wisconsinites got something about what could happen and they practiced an international solidarity. when we use that word solidarity, we do it casually. a great union term. suggests connection to your fellow workers, but solidarity

is beyond that. it's a connection with people in other places and a sense that while we may have something to teach them, americans taught egyptians something wonderful. those who gathered in tahrir square did so with an understanding and respect for the american constitution, the american principles of dissenting against unjust policy, to right to assemble and redress, and they can also teach us something. and what we were taught in january, early february, of 2011, by the egyptians, was that if you're confronted with what you see is an unjust power and a threat to your basic rights, you do not have an opportunity. you have a responsibility as a citizen to go to your public square, to assemble, and to return day after day, week after

week, until that unjust power is made to bow down to the will of the people. [applause] >> now, i got to tell you, one of the things that made me decide to write this book was a sense that there were many elements of the struggle that were not being especially well portrayed in the national press. some of you will recall on fox news presented the image of a violent labor struggle, and bill oreilly was saying, wisconsin, and unions are acting up, and then they went to the video of people pushing one another around, and thought, wow issue was at the capital. i didn't see that.

i asked my friend, did you see that? he did not. and as the camera pulled away we saw -- nonwisconsinnites would not be aware but that tree is not native. and -- saw a palm tree. and nonwisconsinnize would know that the is not native. it wasn't always well captured, and yet so wonderful, so beautiful, that we needed to go to the story of what happened here, not just the labor but with our communities, with our politics. but also with our sense of self, and our sense of how we relate to our constitution, and i think also perhaps the role of young people in reminding older folks

they have duties. all of this needs to be written about, and needs to be written about now. not place long down when history is already written, done. not after the fast ball. people said, well, why did you wait to write your book until the re-call election is completed. because that's not the story i want to tell. that's the story i'd like to tell. but in the short term, the story i wanted to tell was about that deeper politic, that democratic politic, that went the public square and assembled and required redress. that's what want to write about. not the cable station drive-by distant people. i want to view politics that isn't a tradition of fox, and i also wanted to talk about how people persevere when they're

often misportrayed, so i wrote bat lot of media, and one thing is a scene where national reporters came in -- they were there in thousands and thousands of people in the state capitol. they reported this story. so they head down to james in wisconsin and saw some workers who they thought were emblematic of the fight. and they talked to them. and presumably they turned off their facebook, flown in from a different place. you must be very upset about paying taxes and government because people -- and the worker person says is that right? and that was enough. so, if we had a big article that

said, contractor workers don't agree with public taxing workers in wisconsin. and i thought about solidarity and there it is. realize it's is not there. and i opened up my "new york times" on page two, and i saw the correction that said the guy he wrote about last week, got his name wrong, and he didn't as was suggested, work at the office plant down in jamesville. we works in an industrial plant -- contacted the uaw, the unite auto workers had no record of him as a member. now, the interesting thing about the article was that governor walker discussed that article when he thought he was talking to one of the coke brothers in

that famous phone call. he took a prank call and he said, i don't usually read "the new york times." but there was an article on the front page the other day i really liked. it said that the private sector -- and i said, this is a great danger. great dangers when media does not tell the story of what is really happening. not just the story. it's the policymakers come to believe they are right. they come to believe their own sin because media feeds them the sin back, and how could those reporters have gotten the story? what could they have done to get the story about what private sector workers thought about the public sector employees and their allies marching on the

capitol. i have an idea. they could have just stayed in madison any day of the week they were there and they could have looked at the hundreds of members of the united auto workers local from jamesville, wisconsin, who were marching every day in solidarity with the public sector workers. [applause] >> unfortunately that is not the whole story of how sometimes what happened in wisconsin wasn't well presented to rest of the country. when the governor and the legislature broke up their bill and decided to pass it and -- it is an amazing thing. they took a bill that has to do with pay, wages, pensions, benefits, and they said, well, this stuff is noneconomic. and they said after the noneconomic measure. that meant they didn't need the vote of the 14 democratic

legislators from wisconsin who left the capitol and refused to be caught in the machine of governor walker. [applause] >> they dismissed the opposition party to pass the bill. after they passed the bill, there were headlines across the country said, wisconsin's struggle is over. and the governor preveiled. it got passed. and it was like they were peasants, back to your hovels. the struggle is over. i said, that's not the spirit that thomas payne spoke about. the press said this must be what happened.

and yet, the next saturday that i was going south of madison to a parking lot about four mild south of town, where some of my friends decided to come in from around the state and ride back to the capitol. now, as many of you know "the new york times" does not rave until several days later and the farmers were not aware the struggle was over. and so i go home, forget it, the struggle is over according to the press. imagine riding a tractor and thought, okay. in wisconsin, from midnight until 3:00 a.m. and then had driven the tractors seven hours from kolb into madison.

[applause] >> how do you tell a guy, you can't -- and so let's usee how this plays out. so the tractors started rolling towards the capitol, and wisconsinites, tractors do not move exceptionally fast. but they got to the first corner, and there was a kid with a sign that said, thank you, farmers. and at that point i thought, in addition to farmers, something forgot to tell the kids the struggle was over, and as we roll around the corner and head into town, creeping along, there were people with a big sign that said farmers and labor pull

together, solidarity. and i thought to myself, this is getting really sad. because this is what i have been looking for all my life. labor, farmers, workers, people of the land together, struggling as one for economic and social justice, pulling together. i thought, this is beautiful and yet the struggle is over. well, then -- suddenly police cars, the county sheriff vehicles, came rolling up by the side of the tractors, and i thought to myself, oh, no. i have taken my eight-year-old daughter off on this fruitless endeavor because the struggle is over, and now we're going to get arrest with a bunch of farmers. and in madison, where the police and firefighters were on the side of the -- [applause]

[cheers and applause] -- the point when the suvs showed up. creeping along the road, and all of sudden these suvs pull up beside me and the window rolled down. you may see a single finger objection. and also frankly an suv is generally a tractor, but as the window went down, suddenly out shot -- people in suvs were participating in the american right. in time we figure things out and even figured out as people how to walk the slogan, this is what

democracy looks like, on the horn, and beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. and the police lights flashing, the suvs honking their solidarity to farmers, the snow, it's beautiful, i thought this is the best day of my life. so many things coming together so much of a sense of solidarity and connection, across lines of class and occupation, all these people coming together in this great struggle to assemble and petition for redress of grievances, and all for not, the struggle is over. and so very sad as we crept forward to the great square in madison, and the snow was coming down, and i could see those -- i could hear beep, beep, beep, beep. and i'm thinking, what could

make my spirit rise? what could make he think that maybe there's another way in america? maybe we don't have to just accept what the politicians and pundits and spin doctors say. and as we topped that has curve on the great square in madison, the hornes honking, fists in the air, we were greeted by 180,000 people who do not read "the new york times." [cheers and applause] >> and we do not believe that the struggle in wisconsin will end until economic and social justice has prevailed. [cheers and applause]

and i thought to myself, i'm going to write a book about that. and so i did. and it's been a very great pleasure to write this book. an effort to recall the governor, so many other issues in place, but i believe, and i hope, that capturing those moments and also talking about how this fit into not just the national but international event and how pulled off the promise of a new era of economic and social justice, the promise taken up not just by wisconsinites but the ohioans and "occupy" wall street group. we're at a point in our history where great choices will be made, and i'm so very proud to have been able to tell the story of my state, a state that i believe made the essential choice, the choice that democracy is alive.

not on elections but an ongoing process of the people speaking up, of the people speaking truth to power. and it's the people ultimately prevail. thank you so much. [applause] [cheers and applause] ... i know it's very warm in this room. i also know that many of you,.

[inaudible] [laughter] but i will take a few questions if we can. >> thank you, john. well, i will speak loudly. when i read the budget repair bill, takes to the walls of the capitol, one of the elements of that was the ability of the governor take give state assets such as that chartered, nearing completion, costs of $120 million, is this the pay offer of a con -- campaign contributions the government is ready in, giving that? have you heard anything? >> well, but me ask you that. the money in politics.

but i think that was one of the reasons why so many people who are now members of labor unions because remember nationally, so frequently as purely a labor. it was live. let's be absolutely clear. the proud members of the american federation of state, county and municipal employees, union founded and wisconsin in 1932. [applause] that was a labor. there was also a broader democracy struggle. that is at the core of the question. many of the elements in this governor's agenda have raised through questions about whether our politics is really our weather multinational

corporations from addis state, whether it is serving campaign donors rather than citizens. those are the elements of the struggle. this is something that people talked about. it is not just talk about liberates. did not just talk about funding for public services. they also talked about why you would want to educate children to be citizens and why you would want to allow people to organize so there might be a popular alternative to massive corporate power in our politics. they embrace decisions that we ought not to have politics simply about the money, citizens united give to our television campaign but also about the human capital to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances.

we must have, not just the politics. but also. >> it's an issue. one of them not to get. >> as a student of world war ii, do you see parallels between the rise of the coke brothers and billionaire heiress with a history of italian fascism and miscellany? >> you know, one of the things that happened and wisconsin, one of the things that happened it was gossan is that we saw quite a few posters that compared to the governor, the various figures in history, and highlighted on the national news . sean hennessey. well, that is really. you would see miscellany.

and is people. very long time. i have never really seen him as the mussolini tight. casual comparison. because when we read the facts of history and to find somebody written like, no, decide that. and to be quite honest with you my fear is the american republic today, run very deep. it runs deep because you know, they didn't -- they never figured out that their leaders in italy or bad. they rose up against them.

it was quite clear. your american confidence today, with this massive flow of money from very wealthy people in to our electoral process, we will have much more dangerous. we have decided democracy where we believe in our republic remains. yet so much money flowing in, our elections in a political processes can be worked to favor the interests of an elite 1% rather than a great amount of americans. that scares the window me. one of the things that i've read about in this book is the argument that the way, i don't believe that it is possible to counter the money that the koch brothers and other wealthy people by amassing some sort of

liberal super pak, some aggressive super pac. i don't buy it. the fact of the matter is the only way to organize money is the same way. the way they organize money is the way they said this should be done. organized people. and we still have that to go. i don't think we are in a fascist moment now. at the grand a very dark and complex moment that has political danger in it. but compare with much more. we are at a moment's in history where money is marching with great force into our politics. if we want to find a reference

point we ought to go above 120 years ago to when the robber barons were marching into politics on behalf of monopolies and an oligarchy that controlled all of our lives and yet, 120 years ago, he raised. took him three tries. but when he finally became the governor of wisconsin is swept off. he made this the progressive state that it is. [applause] >> first i would like to it and thank you for always coming out to speak.

okay. first would like to thank you on behalf of local 274 for os coming out to our meetings and raising their spirits. my question is, if you have ever consider running for public office. [applause] >> this opportunity. you know, i am but jefferson on this issue. served two terms as president of the united states. when he finished his presidency said to him, obama you must be kind of bummed out. the nephew use the term bummed out. down in the dumps. you're no longer the most exalted leader of the republic. jefferson said i am the happiest man in the world today because yesterday i was a servant.

i was a servant. but today i am the most powerful figure in their public. i am a citizen. i deeply respect those to go into political life. i am not willing to surrender the power of citizenship. [applause] >> i am president of local 1077. on behalf of the people let slept on the marble floor for 12-, on behalf of the people tht paraded around the square day after day, night after night, who never left, so we did not have to here. whenever left. it has never been left. i want to thank you for putting the uprising straight, and what

you to know that we think your family for allowing you to have the time to do that. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, take a look this beautiful physical specimen. this man slept for 12 days on the steps of the wisconsin capitol with graduate students and small business owners and union members and retirees. he slept on those steps. i tell the story in the book. his union unit took up around the statue. the national bowling to clear the capital. when members of this unit said that the last people out of that capitol will be those who stood at the side. the progressive position.

[applause] >> look. i think it's absolutely important to recognize that if you're part of the democratic process must respect the fact that sometimes their rights. and when that happens you have a responsibility to be careful, respectful of the people. but the people, the people have chosen someone else. you have the responsibility to respect that. but you also have the responsibility to be alive and to recognize when the people themselves may have come to a different conclusion. you don't have to wait for years until the next election to recognize that. prison guard. a prison guard, not only voted democratically in the last

election, every death. i've voted for scott walker, and i am so sorry. and so politics, i respect the electro process very much. i also respect the way that we hold the electoral process to accounts with petition for the redress of grievances and us to use the tools that the progress is davis told the electoral process to account. the recall power. recall an official who has taken actions during their tenure that did not fit with what they said during their campaign. the beetle referendum power. out just note that in the state of ohio the alleged or response, they have the power. we don't have that and a wisconsin, to put the collective bargaining in the debate.

they did so in november of 2000. the first time collective bargaining has been put on a statewide ballot. first on the voters of listed have been asked. public teachers and public services and public education. ohio voted 61% to 39 percent in favor of labor rights. [applause] nsa that come up my respect for the electoral process. we have to regard it as a process. their points of which you can object. the thing that makes a dysfunctional is money. and when massive amounts of money for other states flow into a state and take the precious, that renders have the dysfunction of hamas takes away and makes it effective.

that is not how it's supposed to be. suppose to something we cannot touch and be a part of. in money and politics of the democratic or republican money is evil. money in politics damages the real politics of democracy. [applause] [inaudible] this fascinating bang. even in the middle of winter when he put to a dozen people inside a volatile capital it gets out. you down the heat. it's out. the other thing, the people in

the midst of the sea. one of the greatest heroes. a young legislator who was so incredibly articulate and passionate and effective. representative corey mason is with us. [applause] the last question. >> thank you. i would like to add our thanks as well. as you to come out and speak. euro is still wonderful job of firing a bar bass. my question is, last year, part of the success was their was a surprise element of occupy. not in anticipation of the occupy movement spreading across the nation. now that their is a systematic clearing of those occupy camps

how do you see this summer plane out? the surprise element is gone. what is your speculation on the summer's activities? >> the title of the book is "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street". and wisconsin actually, occupy wall street experience. finally formic continuity that was important to discuss, but wisconsin, i think we should understand that occupy is organic. rooted in some elements. basically learn from a lot of other places. and i love the evolution of the occupy movement as it has grown and changed and become so many

different things to power. i don't know where occupy is going to end up. what i do know is this, one of the most beautiful things was the fact that it was not all people with white hair. if you go back, yes, there are people, one woman a song, from whitewater wisconsin. she came with her walker. she had a little bit of trouble getting around. she has a walker. alleys this walker is useful. [applause] look at those images of the capitol and you will see that on the rotunda day after day after day there were young people. high-school and college students

who may have not come from labor union families and yet they embraced this struggle. the labor union rights, part of a broad struggle for economic and social justice. now, we have a new generation coming up. so much of our media suggests that the galleries in, rain in the cold, the only reasons there were occupying is because they don't have jobs. somehow the economic system did not work out perfectly for them. welcome a much steeper than that. they recognize that the democracy of this republic is a stake. that we have a power in this country concentrated not in the 1% of one-tenth of 1%. so powerful that would dominate all of our economic off of some much of our media and so much of

our politics. and these young people are willing to go out and put their bodies on the month. jefferson and madison intended to say no. we refuse to except the future designed by corporate power. , struck by this. i know that. [inaudible] i think it will confront both political parties at their national convention this summer. i think that is appropriate. [applause] occupy in new york. i suggest that the best thing about occupier is where you start to occupy wall street. james madison getting elected to congress. urged congress to write a bill of rights. he did that matter in washington

d.c. because the capitol was in in washington in 1789. the capitol was in lower manhattan. the bill of rights that gives us our right for the redress of grievances was written and passed at number 26 wall street. and i would suggest to you that occupy wall street is the best thing that has happened in that place sense that day. thank you very much. [applause] >> you're watching book tv on c-span2, 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> you're watching book tv on c-span2. here is a prime-time lineup for tonight beginning at 645 eastern time, a biography of transformation of chinese leader then at 8:00 former senator arlen specter of pennsylvania talks about his political career

. at 9:00 eastern our most recent afterwards interview, author of the undead, organ harvesting, the eyes with a test, beating heart cadavers, how medicine is blurring the line between life and death. and it's an:00 social psychologist jonathan hague on the current political and social divisions that he contends separate the left and right. that all happens tonight on c-span2 book tv. >> this fall, the european commission issued in minimum 85 memorandum saying we needed trillion euros for the energy internet now. countries put in feeding calves across europe. here is other work. raise the electricity bill for consumers so slow you don't even notice under bill. the funds that you collect i then used for early adopters you want to put wind or photovoltaic a geothermal heat and, can do

that and then get premium for spending their energy. they give more money than the normal electricity. so we put in these feed in tears across europe. in germany especially create hundreds of thousands of jobs overnight. but what is happening now is everyone is trying to feed in their green electricity to the great. the great can't accept electricity easily because the grid is 60 years old, server mechanical, unidirectional caught leaking 20 percent of the electricity just across the transmission line. it's a disgrace. but then we realize we have another problem. some of our regions have become so successful that there 20, 30, 40 percent real electricity. 70 percent green electricity. so what is happening is that because there is no hydrogen storage we are losing three of the four co-ops. in other words, the wind is blowing at night and we needed during the day.

so now we realize we have to ratchet up 03. then we realized we were not incentivizing public to for the little guy. pillar to is the buildings. the big infrastructure, the big companies were getting their facilities transformed into power plants. what about a homeowner? a small business. how did they afford 25,000 euros to put a photovoltaic power plant on a roof? well, now we have gone to that. the banks have come together in germany and italy. listen to this. if you ever spent time in italy, it to be pretty bureaucratic. the banks of come together. if you are a homeowner use analog paper and get a green lawn with a low discount rate, 60 days later you have 25,000 photovoltaic power plant on your roof. why are the banks willing to do this? they checked your electricity bill. they can sell in advance how much electricity you will save

over time, and then now you want to pay it back. it's copay is to take. why can we do this? then we realized the other four pillars that are not put in place in this infrastructure plug and transport will die on the vine. elektra vehicles and fuels sell vehicles will be able to plug in and create great electricity for the future. this is mega technology. and infrastructure, nervous system. the reason we can do this now is something called the great white teeth. for 30 years government leaders say, come on. your turn to tell us were going to run the world on garbage and windmills. there nice. it's like them. the night. soft energy. you can't run a robust global economy like we have an windmill's and garbage except. for 30 years we couldn't answer this question.

now we can, and it has been brought to us here in silicon valley one a couple of young researchers were trying to figure out how to monitor radio waves in the universe. one is to see if there was any intelligent carrying life. kind of strange we are killing off intelligent carrying life here. what they realized, even centralized super computers cannot monitor the entire universe, so they came up with the idea of creating software to connect thousands and millions of little teeny desktop computers. when the connect them with software the distributed computing power, little computers dwarfs anything you can imagine with centralized super computers. gravity is the cutting edge been used in industry and now we can take it to a electricity in transmission. millions and millions and millions of buildings collected just a little bit of green electricity, starring hydrogen and then sharing in across intelligent energy networks, the

power of distributed energy force these will centralize its nuclear coal-fired power plants. this energy is sustainable, works with the rhythms of the plan. this is power to the people. this is the democratization of energy. this is a form of distributed capitalism. it requires that everyone be an entrepreneur and it also requires that we collaborate in deep social space to share our energy. the music companies did not understand distributed power and file sharing of music. we have a few young people smiling because you figure out. apparently and people have nothing else to do after school but find new ways to create software to get all this music for free. now, the music companies, at first they laughed at this and then it tried to legislate against it and went out of business. you can't beat millions of little kids to have nothing else

to do after school banthine software. there will win every time. the newspapers did not understand the blog is here and distributed information and the importing of news. now the newspapers are either going out of business or creating blocks. certainly and cyclopedia britannica could not fathom the expedia. why would millions of people retreat the knowledge of the universe into a free and then check each other for accuracy book tv counter intuitive people cooperate. guess what. that is why the human race has been somewhat successful. we are a social creature. cooperation is basic to us. our neural circuitry is wired not for predatory utilitarian pleasure seeking behavior. that is secondary. we are now learning at the cutting edge that we are wired and an oral circuitry so that we can feel as if out is our own. of the spider does appear on and

i'm watching it i will feel it's going up my arm. krakatau's don't do this as far as we know. where ultimately social. we seek companionship. the worst thing we can do to each other is isolate. so the third industrial revolution is interesting because the first and second industrial revolution based on in the energy had to scale vertically, top-down. the energies are the lead and require huge financial capitol investments of large banking institutions. they also require that all the businesses that flow of that energy had to scale in big giant factories, giant logistics', transport networks. in all scaled top-down. the third industrial revolution, is going to come and natalie. that is, as each city begins to lay out these pillars for the of the structure then they become a