Shame!

There is a grassroots effort brewing. Workers are taking to the streets like they haven't done in decades. The "busy middle" has awoken as austerity measures have targeted worker's compensation and collective bargaining.

Unions are easy punching bags these days, because they're often bloated, inefficient machines of a bygone era. However, they still serve an invaluable function - providing collective bargaining power to individual workers who would be powerless against their employer otherwise, especially in times of economic distress.

However, a curious thing has happened. On Tuesday, February 15th, 2011, the sleeping lion awoke. Public union workers in Wisconsin were organized by their union officials to protest in the state capitol. They've been there ever since. Three weeks of continuous protests! The protests have continued to grow in size rather than diminish. Union members not affected by the pending legislation in WI have joined to rally with the at-risk workers.

The organized GOP effort to pit private sector workers against public sector workers has backfired. While some still buy the idea that public sector workers are fat cats sucking off the government teet, many more are now realizing that this represents a threat to all working class people. The gutting of collective bargaining power will likely affect how effectively private sector unions can negotiate as well.

Mirror protests have sprung up all around the country in support of Wisconsin. "Workers of the World, Unite!" echoes in these efforts.

But the most interesting rallying cry might be the simplest. After Wisconsin house members passed the bill stripping public employees of collective bargaining rights in a late night session cries of "Shame!" erupted from the public gallery. As the lawmakers broke for the evening the gallery overran the legislative floor as the cries of "Shame!" followed the lawmakers out into the corridors.

Here is that video:

And then it happened again. Over the weekend Michael Moore, rabble-rouser and documentarian extraordinaire, flew to Madison, WI to speak to the protesters directly. His rousing and entertaining speech, America is NOT Broke, was at times inflammatory, at times hilarious, and always impassioned. Shouts of "Shame!" popped up as he spoke about the transgressions of the moneyed elite in their attempts to buy our democracy.

His full speech here:

I don't always agree with his documentary methods and I think he's sometimes over the top in his rhetoric, but he's definitely a lover of the working man and sincere in all he does. He's someone I'd be proud to have a beer with.

And most recently, the "Shame!" chant popped up in a Wisconsin Town Hall Meeting. Remember a couple summers ago when Democratic representatives were ambushed by angry citizens in their town halls over health care reform? Well, payback appears to have come to Republicans. Only the Republicans aren't taking it. They adjourned the meeting without responding to the protester's concerns.

Video here: 

And "Shame!" is what it is. Blaming the working class for the economic problems our country faces is not only incorrect, it is dishonest and at its root demonstrates a disdain for the citizens of our country. School teachers don't become school teachers to get rich. Most don't even become school teachers because they have outstanding benefits. Most become school teachers to teach our children. A similar truth exists about public employees. Many public workers choose those careers in order to serve their communities. In other to improve the lives of their fellow citizens.

It is time that the austerity hawks be shown what shame they bring on themselves and our country for the way they've attacked the working class while protecting the plutocracy.


Shame on every last one of them.

Wisconsin - the new front in the War on America

I'm not sure how many of you have been paying attention to the protests by unionized public workers in Wisconsin this past week. Their turnouts have been much larger and more impassioned than most Tea Party events I've seen, but that's not exactly the point.


At issue is the attempt by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) to end collective bargaining by public employee unions. There has been an enormous push by conservative state governments around the country - and an organized national effort by conservative PACs to marginalize public employee unions as being at fault for budgetary shortfalls around the country. This is an outright lie, but that never seems to matter when money is at stake. 


This attempt by Governor Walker to to fix his budget (read: austerity measures) comes in the wake of him passing a tax cut for ... you guessed it ... the wealthy. As I've explained before, you don't narrow budget gaps by lowering taxes.


Here's the problem with Governor Walker's plan. If he really wanted to simply lower state expenditures he could do so by negotiating less generous benefits with the state employee unions. They've already offered to reduce their benefits packages to help with the short fall. But he's not taking that offer. He's demanding the end of collective bargaining. Without collective bargaining, unions have no teeth. They can't actually improve the quality of working conditions or compensation for their members. 


This is a bald attempt by a conservative governor to kill a union. His supporters claim Wisconsin teachers make too much and have too sweet a deal. I personally don't think teachers make enough anywhere, but I am a strong believer in the importance of improving our educational system and I don't see how that's possible if you reduce the incentives for people to actually become teachers in your community (which is the effect this would have in Wisconsin). Also, putting teachers aside for a moment - this school union includes bus drivers and janitors. Not exactly fat cat bureaucrats, are they?


Why is this so important? Why am I bothering to blog about something that's happening in a single state? Well, its pretty simple. The Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling gave corporations and labor unions the right to spend unrestricted amounts of money on political advertising. If conservative states are successful in busting public employee labor unions, they appreciably weaken the ability of Democrats to raise funds and finance advertising for progressive political issues. In short, if the war against unions takes hold and corporations are successful in ending organized representation of labor, there will be very limited funding for liberal political campaign activities. 


Like I said, it all comes down to money, but not in the way you might think. This has little to do with Wisconsin's budget deficit and very much to do with the ability to dominate American politics with cold hard cash. 


Corporate interests are already in control of way too much of our daily lives and this will make it even worse. Support the proud public employees of Wisconsin.