An Injury to One...

"This is our Moment, Everybody up off the Couch Now!" is a quote from Michael Moore on Democracy Now where he appeared today speaking out against the abhorrent tactics used by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to railroad through his controversial "budget repair bill." Moore galvanized both Madison and the country with his moving speech on Saturday railing against the ever-unfolding damage done to working Americans as a result of the Wall Street meltdown of 2008. But yesterday evening, March 9th, Scott Walker trampled our rights further by reworking his bill stripping workers of collective bargaining rights. He divided the old bill into two smaller parts that required only a simple majority, instead of a quorum, to pass. With the Democratic 14 still out of state, it took only minutes to pass this totalitarian, draconian piece of pseudo-legislation with only one dissenting vote.  So, T(yranny) Party faithful, Walker pulled a fast one on the people of Wisconsin and the people of the USA. While the legality of his move remains to be decided in a court of law, the ramifications of his undemocratic action are already underway.

A recent, similar bill in Michigan, not only strips bargaining rights but makes it legal for the governor or his designated representatives to appoint an "emergency financial manager" who would have nearly unlimited financial power over decisions ranging from workers' contracts to the running of school districts and the removal of elected city officials.

Even my home state, Ohio, has passed a union-busting bill that eliminated the ability of public sector workers to bargain for health care, pay raises and seniority issues, plus mandates a fine or jail time for workers who go out on strike.

All this is happening under the auspices of "budget repair." While there is an unhealthy dose of  Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" philosophy in this strategy, eliminating the power of unions is a major, financial stepping stone to defeating Obama in 2012. After the inappropriately named, Citizens United decision, (stating that for purposes of political fundraising, corporations can be perceived as individuals thereby giving them license to buy government elections) the unions are the last source of significant amounts of capital available to the left.

Since these developments, the State House in Madison has been flooded with people who are resuming their campout. Saturday, the agricultural workers will be riding their tractors into Madison and I'm betting that they will have lots of company. Those of us in the rest of the country need to get off our butts as well and make our presence known in our respective states and cities. This is our moment, there may not be another. See you in the streets!

La Lucha Continua...

Today in Wisconsin the AFL-CIO endorsed a general strike on the day Walker signs his "budget repair bill." The last massive and successful general strike in the US occurred in San Francisco in 1934. It was started by longshoremen but grew to include all workers, union and non-union.

Democratic lawmakers in Indiana have followed the example of their Wisconsin colleagues and fled to avoid a quorum on a "right to work for lower wages" bill. Today, February 22, protestors are on all floor of the State Capitol building in Indianapolis. And all the legislators have fled to the state of Illinois. Will there be a hot time in the old town tonight, Chicago?

A major protest is being organized in Columbus Ohio to fight against proposed anti-labor legislation there.

This New American Struggle for Justice is catching fire in a country reeling from job losses, foreclosures and being robbed blind by Wall Street thugs who recieve handsome rewards for their graft and extortion. Click here for the latest updates on the situation and here for data compiled by Mother Jones illustrating the growing abyss of economic inequality in third-world America.

Protest Spreads to Ohio

The Streets of Columbus

The Midwest seems to be rousing the American working-class from its long, winter's nap that has had it hypnotized by T-Party nonsense since the crash and banker bailout of 2008. As an anti-christ, agnostic I must say, Praise the lord and pass me a picket sign!

We have stood by passive and mute as the financiers of Wall Street rifled through our pockets, taking our homes, our jobs and chunks of our salaries. As a public-sector worker, I have undergone wage freezes, furlough days and pay cuts, all the while watching the anti-austerity protests in Greece, Ireland with awe wondering what it was going to take to get us out on the streets again.

Then came Iran which, although they were creamed, was an inspiring battle. Of late the people of Tunisia, Bahrain, Algeria and, of course Egypt have all entered the fray as well, spurred on by some of the same conditions we experience here, falling wages, rising prices and a general lowering of the quality of life. In Egypt the people actually drove out a dictator even though the kind of government they will build remains to be seen.

Now the Wisconsin struggle to hold onto the last vestige of unions, collective bargaining, has spread to the state where I was raised and the town of my old alma mater, Columbus Ohio. Will this be a watershed moment, a turning point for US politics or will this be the beginning of a clash between left and right wing Americans, with have-nots fighting each other in the streets? Civil rights or civil war? I am hoping for the former. That working-class T-party reactionaries will wake up to the fact that fighting against decent wages, benefits and health care is contrary to their own interests.