
Around a thousand people marched to the State Capitol building in downtown Madison this past weekend to call for elected officials to protect rights.
On Jan. 18, protesters gathered at James Madison Park on Madison’s East Side to rally and call on elected officials to protect rights expected to be taken away under the new presidential administration. Dubbed the People’s March, they rallied women’s, workers’, abortion, trans and immigrant rights in addition to solidarity for the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, Congo and Sudan; environmental justice; and housing justice. The People’s March was a nation wide coordinated effort with rallies all around the country.
Protesters later marched to the State Capitol building, where roughly half of the crowd dissipated, according to organizers of the protest. The around 500 left filled the State Capitol’s rotunda across its three floors calling for action.
“It’s important to remember that change is just the very tip of the iceberg of what we want. What we want is an ultimate transformation of the pre-existing systems that were built off of fear, off of privilege and hatred,” said Mya Cullens, a UW-Madison student who spoke at the rally. “The next four years are going to be challenging. But when you start to lose hope and start giving up on the dream of change, that is what I need you to remember, not only your own voice, but the voices surrounding you, because these are the voices that have your back.”

(Photo by Omar Waheed.)
The rally heavily centered on calling out those in power and urged elected officials to take action against a new wave of oligarchy. The term, defined as a government ruled by a few, was highlighted by President Biden in his farewell address over concerns of influence in the Trump Administration. Notably, CEOs Mark Zuckerburg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman donated significant sums towards Super PACs to elect Trump and or his inauguration fund.
Protesters voiced their concerns over the possible oligarchy. A large portion of the rally at the State Capitol building was aimed at socialist reforms. David Rivera-Kohr, attendee of the rally and fervent supporter of housing reform, said he’s here “because direct action is the only way to bring about the changes we need.”
“I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the working class is fed up with a system that works mainly for the billionaires. We’re seeing this in every facet of society,” Rivera-Kohr said. “There’s quite visibly a hostile takeover of the executive branch by billionaires. Trump’s cabinet has like 13 billionaires on it. Enough is enough. We need to start fighting for the working class, we need to take our livelihoods back from billionaires who continue to extract our wealth and wage racist wars overseas.”
The sentiment was backed by many at the rally. State Rep. Francesca Hong mirrored Rivera-Kohr’s remarks, but also highlighted Wisconsin’s own political scene.
Hong highlighted the stark shift in the Republican Party within Wisconsin, and at the federal level, seemingly leaving the interest of citizens. In the same train of thought, Hong criticized the Democratic Party’s own complacency through abandonment of progressive politics “in the name of pragmatism and electability.” Hong preached the need for solidarity among the people over political affiliations as a vehicle for change.
“No matter your affiliation right now, remember that this vision for a better future remains within us. It’s in times like these that we must lean on and care about one another,” Hong said. “The solution has always been to root ourselves in the diversity of a coalition that spans across race, that spans across place, that spans across ethnicity, generation and talent.”