Mass-Protest Planned For Donald Trump Foxconn Groundbreaking

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — President Donald Trump, Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn CEO and Founder, Terry Gou are expected to be in attendance on June 28 in Mount Pleasant at Smolenski Park for the groundbreaking ceremony for the $10 billion Foxconn electronics manufacturing plant.

In response, the Gaia Coalition Network, made up of nearly 40 organizations, is planning a mass-demonstration called, "Operation: Shake the Ground!" to voice their objections to a perceived misuse of public funds, to seizing the property rights of landowners and homeowners, to siphoning off water from Lake Michigan as well as posing other environmental threats, and to granting contracts to some of Walker’s biggest donors.

"Luring Foxconn to Wisconsin is the biggest mistake of Scott Walker’s tenure as Governor. The factory has been promised a record-setting incentive package that will burden taxpayers for decades to come," organizers said in a preared statment. "Funneling money to Foxconn takes away resources that should be going to fund our public schools and universities, to repair roads and bridges throughout the state, to fix the state’s segregation and incarceration problems and to protect Wisconsin’s natural areas."

The demonstration is scheduled to begin with a rally at Smolenski Park highlighting the voices of landowners and residents impacted directly or indirectly by eminent domain and blighted zone rulings, changes in local transportation and local governance.

The group will then march approximately half an hour to Mt. Pleasant Village Hall for a second rally featuring voices from all over the state concerned with the economic, political, social and environmental repercussions from the Foxconn deal and legislature that approved it.

Voter registration will take place throughout the event. Assembly, Senate and Gubernatorial candidates from throughout the state are confirmed to be in attendance.

Organizers say this group was initially started and led entirely by student/youth leaders from 350 Stevens Point and the Gaia Coalition Network, nearly 40 student and community organizations from throughout Wisconsin have formed a statewide coalition to oppose Foxconn, Scott Walker, and political corruption in Wisconsin.

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