JUSTICE -- GOVERNMENT -- LEGISLATION -- LIBERTY. Choose the order in which to recite them. Those are themes of the four murals that adorn the Capitol Rotunda in Madison, Wisconsin and surround the throngs of citizens who have gathered for many days now to protest and, we hope, block passage of the anti-labor, indeed, anti-democratic Budget Repair Bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker. It's a bill that not only slashes public workers' incomes, but also strips them/us of their/our democratic rights to bargain collectively.
On Friday my wife Lorna and I decided, quite suddenly, to go down to Madison. We made the 300-mile round-trip drive on Friday to help bolster our fellow citizens on the eve of the big events on Saturday; to register our anger at the Republican-dominated Assembly's shameful passage of the bill (the Republican-dominated Senate remains "filibustered" with Senate Democrats holding out in Illinois); and to renew our own spirits in the face of the media's inadequate coverage and misrepresentation of what is at stake.
Arriving mid-afternoon, we went straight to the "unionized" Concourse Hotel, where Wisconsin's labor organizations have their "war rooms" set up. There we got caught up on developments and picked up "WI red" AFL-CIO signs bearing a blue map of the state in the shape of a fist and the words STAND WITH WISCONSIN. Informed and equipped, we headed up to the Capitol.
It was a chilly 20-degree afternoon, but it was bright outside and one had the sense that the state's motto "FORWARD!" still mattered. Police officers, drawn from cities and towns around the state, guarded entrances and patrolled counter-clockwise to the marchers. But they too were smiling, at least for now. In fact, to show their solidarity with the protesters, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association responded to reports that the governor's office was planning to close the Capitol that night and clear sleeping protesters from its halls by announcing that some of its own union brothers and sisters were going to sleep in the building along with them. (As one of my colleagues, Steve Cupery, put it hopefully: "Oh, oh, the cops are coming to Madison for a sleepover. Does this mean they are in bed with the demonstrators?")
After one full circle, we went into the Capitol building. It's a gorgeous place, not unlike the Capitol in DC. And it was made all the more gorgeous and welcoming by the presence of the hundreds, no thousands, of our fellow citizens occupying nearly every corner of the place. Posters adorned the walls and banisters, and noise -- the good noise of citizens' voices and young drummers -- reverberated throughout. And yet somehow everything remained "Wisconsin clean."
Moving with others into the Rotunda area, beneath the great dome, I could not help but look up and around, and what I saw and heard made me tearful, joyfully so: throngs of people, the four murals above, the many signs that read "Beam Scotty Up," "Scott Walker is a Weasel, Not a Badger," "Forward! Never Backwards!," "The People Own this BLDG, the Kochs Own Walker," "I'm Sorry if My Rights are an Inconvenience for You," and "Stop the Class War Against Workers!," and the banners of diverse Wisconsin unions.
At the center of it all was the "People's Microphone" (smartly managed by a group of young people whom I assumed were members of UW-Madison's Graduate Assistants Union). There, one-by-one, people young and old spoke: students, Wisconsin unionists and labor delegations from around the USA. Teenagers spoke in support of their teachers and parents. Workers of every trade decried the Republicans' so-called Budget Repair Bill and the corruption of democracy by billionaires such as the Koch Brothers; recounted how their own parents and grandparents struggled to organize unions and secure their democratic rights; and declared their determination. Folks from New York, Florida, Michigan, and points west registered their own unions' solidarity with Wisconsin.
Each little speech garnered rousing cheers -- and regularly everyone broke into "Kill the bill!" But just as regularly, and just as enthusiastically and tunefully, we all sang out with "This is what Democracy looks like!" accompanied by young drummers beating out the rhythm on large white plastic containers.
Voices never spoke hatefully. But they expressed outrage -- an outrage built up over thirty years in which the rich have become extraordinarily richer and working people poorer, in which livelihoods and industries have been destroyed and jobs exported, in which the public good and public infrastructure have been squandered. And they expressed outrage that the corporate elite, conservative politicians and pundits, and even other middle class folk of the Tea Party sort were now eager to not only cut the wages of public workers, but also savage democratic rights and the progressive services we have helped to create.
The democratic spirit and energy -- that's what brought me to tears. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, here in the heart of the state, here in America's heartland, working people in all their diversity were once again coming together in solidarity. It has been in the making for thirty years and more. Sadly it did not arise sooner. But that is history -- a history not to forget and a history from which to learn -- but, nonetheless, history. Now we have the making of a democratic surge. "This is what democracy looks like," I thought. Liberty -- Government -- Legislation -- Justice. Forward!
Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.
Follow Harvey J. Kaye on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HarveyJKaye
The Democrate party is owned by the unions and does their bidding even if it means running up exorbintant and unsustainable spending in our local communities. How can a Democrate negotiate on behalf of citizens when the unions have placed that politican into power. That is why collective bargaining in the public sector is so corrupt.
Taxes must be raised locally to pay for most of these unsustainable contracts. The burden of these taxes falls on everyone in the local community - rich, poor, middle class. The cost of home ownership will be impossible to afford - not due to cost of he house but due to the high property taxes which fund much of the spending. This is desctuction of the middle class dream in favor of the public sector union's never ending demands.
Remember, our best years witnessed high taxes, union power, and public action - not selling public goods, running down the public infrastructure, and giving extraordinary wealth to a small class of people. America's future is at stake. I believe in American exceptionalism - an exceptionalism of freedom, equality, and democracy. I stand with those who believe that and want to advance that.
Gather signatures and be ready to recall Walker and the rest of the newly elected when their year is up.
Hold the signatures over their heads. Let them know their days are numbered and they are lame ducks.
They are supposed to be public servants. They are supposed to serve ALL of the public, not just Republicans, not just the wealthy, not corporations over people. They are supposed to serve the people of Wisconsin, not two out of state billionaires.
Squash Moammar Walker like a bug. And let the rest know they're next if they don't start acting like their oath of office states. For the good of the people. ALL of the people.
No longer a government of for and by the people, the ballot box no longer revelent. To be replaced by government by thugocracy, crowds in the streets, no longer by the ballot box. The SEIU has declared itself above the law, or the new law, and, no longer subjec to laws and democracy and the will of the people by way of elections,
http://hearus-now.org/?p=1647
Good description of the Tea Party for the last two years.
gdogs: Uhh yeah he did.
Just to address those who are under the misconception that the WI voters were aware of how far Walker was going to go, here is Politifacts view on this:
PolitiFact sums up:
Walker contends he clearly "campaigned on" his union bargaining plan.
But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either.
While Walker often talked about employees paying more for pensions and health care, in his budget-repair bill he connected it to collective bargaining changes that were far different from his campaign rhetoric in terms of how far his plan goes and the way it would be accomplished.
I don't like public unions paying Democrats to write favorable contracts.
I don't like corporations paying Republicans to write favorable legislation.
However, While Wisconsin wanted to give unions a beat down, few Wisconsinites wanted it to be a hit job.
many faces is the true face of republican conservatism? Is it the one that spent the country
to the brink of bankruptcy bringing freedom to the middle east or the one that would strip rights
from U.S. citizens? Is it the one that rails against dictators with complete powers of life and death
over it's citizens or the one that favors being ruled by the Oligarchy of this country and sometimes
with the same life and death matters on the line? Is it the one
that carries on and on about immigrants coming to this country and taking jobs away from legal
citizens or the one that imports foreigners on h1b1 visa's?.
I could go on and on with example after example of how the right points it finger at what they say
is wrong with this country BUT doesn't have the courage to point that finger at it's self.
But then, voters would have been so pleased at the Democrat's accomplishments, that many Republican governors (Walker for one) and state legislstors would not have been elected. The Republicans decided it was better to destroy the country than to lose another election.
The Republican plan should be called, "EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND!" The sacred cow of the Republican Party are billionaires & millionaires. Teachers are just fodder, children are just manure!
The Republican Plan is a GIANT STEP BACKWARDS!
The Republican’s Plan is to destroy Collective Bargaining, Worker’s Rights, and the Unions.
The ATTACK on teachers is to again destroy Teacher’s Unions which is part of their long-term plan to dismantle the Department of Education, Public Education, Public Libraries, NPR and PBS, and so the list goes on! The Republican Plan is a GIANT STEP BACKWARDS!
If you look it up, that is the definition of fascism.
100,000 protesters and not a single racial epithet.
100,000 protesters and no one brought a gun.
100,000 protesters and not a misspelled sign.
Take note teabaggers: THIS is what the founders had in mind when they guaranteed the Freedom to Peaceably Assemble!
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/145627-dem-lawmaker-on-labor-protests-get-a-little-bloody-when-necessary