Christoher Guess
The 2011 occupation of the state Capitol was the longest in U.S. history.
In February and March of 2011, the Wisconsin Capitol hosted the longest continuous occupation of a major government building in the history of the United States. Gov. Scott Walker had just proposed a bill curtailing the collective bargaining rights of state workers, igniting an intense mobilization. Crowds on the Capitol Square peaked at well over 100,000. Many of them stayed around the clock and slept on the granite floors of the building. The protest took this form, in part, for strategic reasons. Going to the Capitol and staying there was one of the boldest non-violent means for people to show their objection to controversial legislation. After all, that’s where Walker’s office is, where both houses of the Legislature meet, and where the state Supreme Court hears arguments.
Such a lengthy occupation, though, is more than just a statement on legislation. A large part of the motive was symbolic. Understanding the moral symbolism of the Capitol occupation sheds light on what “the people’s house” really means.
It was not a coincidence that, when people felt politically ignored, they congregated at the place where democracy is supposed to happen. In the eyes of protesters, Walker was violating democratic practices, so the principles of democracy needed special and spectacular restatement. The Capitol building embodies the self-government that is supposed to be enacted inside it. Under the principle of self-government the people collectively set the conditions of their own lives based on their own interest.
Visitors to the Capitol pass through heavy wooden doors and walk down the gray marble corridor, past wide Romanesque staircases, entering a palatial Rotunda that surpasses some European cathedrals. During the 2011 uprising, that central space usually featured one of two things: the People’s Mic, where anyone could speak, read, or sing whatever they wished; or a drum circle of pots, pans, and plastic buckets. Despite their prominence, neither the People’s Mic nor the drum circle was the primary attraction. It was what the Rotunda meant that was inherently the attraction. The People’s Mic and drum circle merely seemed appropriate, if improvised, observances to place there.
On a strictly rational level, there was nothing inevitable about occupying the Capitol. Many other spaces were available for protest. At various times, protest allies worked out of the union-owned Labor Temple two miles away, the Madison Masonic Temple two blocks away, and the Concourse Hotel one block away. The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and the Orpheum Theater, each within walking distance of Capitol Square, also hosted events. An Episcopal church across the street opened its doors to protesters.
In some respects, it would have been easier and less risky to use some combination of these spaces as staging areas, rather than the Capitol itself. Rallies, social media activity, news coverage, and general public advocacy were all possible without a continual, overnight presence. Maintaining that presence in a building that was technically closed required Herculean efforts. But nevertheless, people felt drawn to the Capitol building.
Police were mostly cooperative at first, but they eventually attempted to end the occupation by locking the Capitol doors and refusing to allow anyone to enter. Hundreds congregated outside, chanting “let us in!” as the remaining indoor crowd chanted back, “let them in!” Why the compulsion to enter at that particular time? Not for any event — the legislative calendar was empty that day. Not as a media strategy — demonstrating outdoors is at least as effective for gaining news coverage as demonstrating indoors. Not to avoid the weather — the temperature was cold but not extreme, and protesters had been marching outdoors for weeks. Not to unite the two crowds — those indoors never considered leaving to join those outside.
The impulse to enter came from the immense symbolism of the Capitol itself. There was an intense compulsion, sometimes even below the level of rational reflection, to be inside self-government. Taking possession of that house of the people, even if only temporarily and symbolically, was a way of trying to make the ideal of self-government real.
