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Joy Powers: From 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR, this is Lake Effect. I'm Joy Powers. Today we'll explore the history of the Milwaukee Socialists, and how they rose to power.
Aims McGuinness: They saw the health and the power of working class people as important, not just for the working class, but for society and humanity more generally.
Joy Powers: Then, in a new Beats Me, we'll examine the use of the term “Black on Black crime.” Plus, we will tell you about a new Milwaukee store selling eco-friendly home goods and refillable products.
Kayla Bouma: You come in, and if you know that you want refills and you brought clean and dry containers to put things in, place your order. There's a refill menu on the wall that tells you all of the different products that we have.
Joy Powers: All of that is coming up on Lake Effect. This is Lake Effect from 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR. I'm Joy Powers and thank you so much for joining us.
Joy Powers: Milwaukee is known for its deep ties to socialism. It was the first city to elect a socialist mayor and was the first place to elect socialist to congress. But the rise to power was an uphill battle, and their status as a third party often made progress challenging...
John Gurda: We were the most German city in America. Germans were a majority of Milwaukee's population as early as 1860...
Joy Powers: The radicals among these revolutionaries were attempting to unite the German states under a written constitution...
John Gurda: These are the guys... who began the Turner Societies, the Freethinker congregations...
Joy Powers: By the mid-1800s, Milwaukee's immigrant community was rapidly growing...
John Deisinger: Milwaukee in the 19th century is a rapidly growing, rapidly industrializing city...
Joy Powers: As history teacher John Deisinger explains...
John Deisinger: That heavy industry requires a huge amount of human labor...
Joy Powers: And, as more immigrants flocked to the city...
Aims McGuinness: They... were deeply troubled by what they saw as the terrible effects of factories...
Joy Powers: At the time, workers’ shifts were often 12 to 14 hours long...
Bay View Massacre Reenactor: The hours of work must be shortened...
Joy Powers: Workers and labor activists marched toward the Bay View Rolling Mill...
Bay View Massacre Reenactor: The present agitation is not a question of wages...
Joy Powers: As the workers near the mill, the shots ring out...
John Deisinger: There is a shaking of faith in these institutions of government...
Joy Powers: Many Milwaukeeans were tired of a two-tiered system...
Aims McGuinness: Socialists cared deeply about working class lives...
Joy Powers: This change wouldn't come easily...
Aims McGuinness: Socialists under the leadership of Victor Berger...
Joy Powers: Berger wasn't just a politician...
John Deisinger: Milwaukee in the 1800s... is an extremely corrupt city...
Joy Powers: Perhaps no one exemplified this corruption better than Mayor David Rose...
John Deisinger: Dave Rose... allowed the city to rot...
Joy Powers: Mayor Rose was known for turning a blind eye...
Joy Powers: The corruption boiled over into what became known as “The Boodling Scandal”...
John Gurda: “Boodling” is just graft...
Joy Powers: In 1910, the stars aligned for the socialists...
John Gurda: They began to run candidates back in 1898...
Joy Powers: The Socialists accomplished what had previously seemed impossible...
Joy Powers: The term “Black-on-Black crime” has existed for years...
David Pate: You know, I think we've heard it for quite some time...
Teran Powell: The history that you're speaking of...
David Pate: But it was also laying the foundation...
Teran Powell: So let's stay on that...
David Pate: There was a study that just came out in January...
Teran Powell: One of the things that I came across...
David Pate: I mean, again, it's very valid within your own community...
Teran Powell: So getting back to the original question...
David Pate: For me, it makes me kind of sad...
Teran Powell: Final thoughts...
David Pate: No, I do think it's a valid question...
Joy Powers: That was David Pate...
Joy Powers: May is Jewish American Heritage Month...
Jac Lahav: The whole series started from my search for Jewish identity...
Maayan Silver: How did you get to 48 people?
Jac Lahav: The 48 comes from another artwork...
Maayan Silver: How would you describe your style?
Jac Lahav: Some people called what I was doing “style-flipping”...
Joy Powers: That wraps up today’s show...
Today on Lake Effect, we explore the history of the Milwaukee Socialists and how they rose to power. Then, in a new Beats Me we examine the use of the term “Black on Black crime.” Plus, we tell you about a new store selling eco-friendly home goods and refillable products.
Guests:
- David Pate, associate professor in the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison
- Jac Lahav, artist
- Kayla Boumais, owner and founder of ECO MKE Refillery
