Wisconsin Grassroots Festival

media release: Wisconsin Grassroots Network’s (WGN) 16^th Annual Grassroots Festival is coming to McFarland. This year’s theme is “We Are the Guardrails Now.” Attendees will choose 4 of 20 breakout sessions. Topics range from creating a fair maps coalition to public education under siege to celebrating diversity.

It's up to us to rescue our democracy - together. No one can do it alone. This Festival brings us together to network, to learn, and to support one another. 

39 statewide tabling organizations

20 breakout sessions

Lunch if reserved in advance by May 4 (walk in registrations are welcome for the day's other events).

Entertainment: Tom Kastle; The Raging Grannies of Madison & Dane County

Keynote speakers:

John C. Bonifaz is an Amherst-based attorney and political activist specializing in constitutional law and voting rights. He is the president and co-founder of Free Speech for People. He is also the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute and a former candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Alan Minsky is the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).  

A lifelong activist, Alan worked as a progressive journalist for two decades before joining PDA full time in 2018. He was the Program Director at KPFK Los Angeles from 2009-2018; and the coordinator of Pacifica Radio’s national coverage of elections. Before that, Alan was one of the founders of LA Indymedia. He co-created the original podcasts for The Nation and Jacobin Magazine, as well as the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. His writing can be found at The Nation, Truthdig, Commondreams and other platforms.

Alan’s activism began in college with union solidarity work and opposition to US involvement in Central America. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Alan was active in the counter-globalization and media democracy movements. In 2011, he began organizing for Occupy Wall Street in the months leading up to the occupation of Zuccotti Park.

Alan is a committed anti-racist, feminist and LGBTQ+ rights advocate. He is also an advocate for economic policies that address social inequality, eradicate poverty, and prioritize the interests of working and middle-class households. Alan began working with PDA in 2014. 

John Nichols shares his perspective on the Wisconsin political condition. He also will review the threats posed to our democratic institutions. John Nichols is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on media and politics. He is the national affairs correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times.

George Penn: The social gains of the last 100 years are being feverishly disemboweled. That will continue until who knows when. Social activists are trying to work on issues to improve our country. Win today, we lose tomorrow. It should be clear by now that our successes will not be durable unless we reclaim representation. We will not reclaim representation until we demand and achieve many reforms. The national movement is working on those reforms. In Wisconsin, three important reforms in the works are Fair Maps, Final Five Voting, and Wisconsin United to Amend’s work toward the We The People amendment bill. This amendment to get big money out of politics in the keystone reform. Working only in our favored silos and GOTV is Sisyphean folly. Big money in politics is the critical flaw.

George grew up in Yonkers, NY and joined the Navy in 1971. He was a Reactor Operator on a submarine. Leaving the Navy in 1977, George came straight to UW Madison to get a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Inspired by the “energy crisis” in the 1980s, he received a Masters in Energy and Environmental Management at the School of Environmental Studies – again at UW Madison. In the last 20 years of his working career, he ran his consulting company, Global Energy Options. In 2012, he shut down his business to join the movement to get big money out of politics. He works with many Wisconsin patriots on this work to this day. He hopes to continue this increasingly important work until he can no longer.

Congressman Jamie Raskin (on pre-recorded video) proudly represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the 118th Congress. Previously Rep. Raskin served three terms on the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on House Administration, and two terms on the Rules Committee and the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee. During the 117th Congress, he served as Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Chair of the Rules Subcommittee on Expedited Procedure. Rep. Raskin was the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump and served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Raskin was a three-term state Senator in Maryland, where he earned a reputation for building coalitions. He was also a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, the highly-acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court cases For and About America’s Students, and the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy.

Congressman Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is a former editor of the Harvard Law Review.