- It landed, but it's too soon to know where it's going
or how committed workers are to stay the course and spread it to other
US states.
-
- On February 16, however, former Senator Russ Feingold
launched Progressives United.org (PU), an initiative he hopes will inspire
"a new progressive movement" to hold elected officials accountable
by challenging corporate influence in politics.
-
- It also opposes the Supreme Court's January 2010 Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission decision, sanctioning unlimited corporate
spending in elections (the one dollar = one vote ruling by America's supremely
pro-business court). Feingold called it:
-
- "one of the most lawless decisions in the history
of our country. The idea of allowing corporations to have unlimited influence
on our democracy is very dangerous, obviously. That's exactly what it does.
Things were like this 100 years ago....with the huge corporate and business
power of the oil companies and others. But this time, it's like the Gilded
Age on steroids."
-
- According to Feingold, PU won't take soft money or unlimited
contributions, saying:
-
- "We're going to be reporting every dime that we
get, whether required by law or not....It will be 100 percent accountable,
and that is an important principle that I believe in that we'll follow
to the T....as a way of contrasting it to what's going on with the corporate
money" that buys politicians like toothpaste.
-
- It remains to be seen whether Feingold will prove true
to his word, if his agenda also challenges other major issues, including
imperial lawlessness and growing homeland repression. Crucially also is
whether it spreads, inspiring similar efforts across America.
-
- American Courts, like Politicians, Support Power, not
People
-
- Previous articles discussed the High Court's anti-populist
agenda under Chief Justice John Roberts, one of several accessed through
the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/07/supreme-court-inc-supremely-pro.html
-
- The tradition, however, way pre-dated him, notably articulated
by John Jay, America's first chief justice, saying the country should be
run by those who own it. Also in Marbury v. Madison (1803), establishing
the principle of judicial supremacy, making the Court the final arbiter
of what is or is not the law, a disturbing precedent subsequent courts
abused repeatedly.
-
- Besides trashing civil liberty protections, its Santa
Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad decision (1886) was perhaps its
worst by granting corporations personhood under the 14th Amendment, with
all accruing rights and privileges but none of the obligations. More than
any other ruling, including Citizens United, it gave them unchecked powers
to become the dominant institution of our time, able to control Congress,
the Executive, and state and federal courts as well as act lawlessly against
public welfare interests.
-
- On Wisconsin
-
- Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel (JS) covered the uprising
from inception in response to Republican Governor Scott Walker, in office
since January 3, waging war against public workers and their unions, aiming
to legislate restrictions of their collective bargaining rights to wage
negotiations only.
-
- He also wants state employees to double their health
insurance and pension contributions, effectively enacting a 7% haircut
if passed. In addition, he demands future pay raises not exceed annual
Consumer Price Index increases, an index rigged to mask inflation's real
toll, including for rent, medical care, food, energy, and other everyday
household essentials.
-
- On February 16, JS headlines included:
-
- -- "Crowds growing at the Capitol," citing
their numbers, intensity and anger, shouting "kill the bill,"
and waving placards reading "only the little people pay taxes."
They filled the rotunda as Joint Finance Committee members prepared to
vote to strip workers of hard won rights they're struggling hard to preserve.
-
- -- "Madison West students walk out," hundreds
emptying classrooms to protest school curriculum changes to save money
and sabotage their educations.
-
- -- "State's battle lines: Are state union workers
beyond belief?" saying politicians follow a long tradition, serving
power, not popular interests;
-
- -- "Union chief asks MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools)
to close schools Thursday," many teachers joining protesters.
-
- -- "State workers rally at UWM (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)"
against proposed cuts in wages, benefits and union rights.
-
- The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) supports
Democrats in congressional elections. Its web site - http://boldprogressives.org/home
- urged members to:
-
- "Call your state senator: Vote NO on Walker's radical
proposal" and against his threat to use National Guard troops against
state residents.
-
- In an email to 13,000 Wisconsin members, it said:
-
- "The idea that a governor can use the military to
impose his personal, political will on the people he governs is a primitive
relic of the past - one that resulted in a century of bloodshed in this
country."
-
- Howard Zinn wrote poignantly about the 1913-14 Ludlow,
Colorado coal strike and subsequent massacre, killing 75 or more strikers,
strike breakers, and bystanders for defying what he called "feudal
kingdoms run by (coal barons that) made the laws," imposed curfews,
and ran their operations more like despots than businessmen.
-
- In 1968, force was last used against US workers during
Memphis' sanitation strike, days before Martin Luther King's assassination,
there to support them.
-
- The last time in Wisconsin was in 1886, days after Chicago's
Haymarket massacre killing police and striking workers, when state militia
forces fired on striking Milwaukee steel workers, killing seven.
-
- Citizen Action of Wisconsin (CAW) also condemned Walker's
threat, its February 14 press release calling it "shockingly extreme,
without modern precedent, and an attempt to coerce public workers,"
violating their First Amendment rights.
-
- CAW's executive director, Robert Kraig, said:
-
- "It is hard to ascribe any motive other than the
coercion of public employees to deter them from exercising their Constitutional
right to speak out and protest against unjust government actions. It is
a classic union busting tactic to use the threat of dire consequences,
and even violence, to deter legitimate protest and speech."
-
- To enlist support, CAW launched a new web site, accessed
through the following link:
-
- http://www.notmywisconsin.com/
-
- On February 16, New York Times writers Monica Davey and
Steven Greenhouse, reporting from Madison, headlined, "Angry Demonstrations
in Wisconsin as Cuts Loom," saying:
-
- Defying Walker's threats, "protesters, scores deep,
crushed into a corridor leading to (his) office here on Wednesday, their
screams echoing through the Capitol: 'Come out, come out, wherever you
are!' "
-
- Behind closed doors, Walker issued a press release saying:
-
- If he declares a state of emergency, his "bill authorizes
appointing authorities to terminate any employees that are absent for three
days without approval of the employer or any employees that participate
in an organized action to stop or slow work."
-
- In a separate statement, he added: "We didn't get
elected to worry about the politics. For us, it's simple. We're broke,"
but his solution follows Washington's, making workers pay for Wall Street
crimes and corporate enrichment, leaving them free to keep pillaging.
-
- Stanford University's Professor William Gould, a former
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) chairman, said:
-
- "I'm sure we're going to hear more from other states
where Republican governors are trying to heap the entire burden of the
financial crisis on public employees and (their) unions. I think it's quite
possible that if they're successful in doing this, a lot of other Republican
governors will emulate" them.
-
- In fact, Gould omitted saying Democrats are as ruthless
as Republicans, including Obama and governors in dozens of states - slashing
budgets, cutting workforces, and eliminating or reducing benefits since
2008, a process so far with no end in sight on the backs of ordinary workers
least able to cope.
-
- In Wisconsin, they, their supporters, and unions leaders
are responding, occupying the Capitol, distributing fliers, planning vigils
and "teach-outs," including over a dozen unions pledging millions
of dollars, phone banks, and volunteers to fight back there and elsewhere.
-
- According to Kim Anderson, National Education Association
(NEA) head of government relations:
-
- "We view the events in Wisconsin as one of the worst
attacks on workers' rights and their voices in the workplace that we've
ever seen."
-
- University of Wisconsin's Kevin Gibbons, heading its
teaching assistants union, said:
-
- "I think Governor Walker is using this financial
crisis as an excuse to attack unions, and if Wisconsin goes, what will
be next?"
-
- Already tensions in other states are growing, perhaps
heading for the boil. In Ohio, public workers protested outside the Columbus
Statehouse against legislation eliminating collective bargaining rights
for thousands, restricting them for many others if Senate Bill 5 (SB5)
passes. In Indianapolis, teachers rallied against a similar bill, and in
Nashville, Tennessee, a legislative committee is considering its own.
-
- Wisconsin's Republican majority will vote on Walker's
plan by week's end. Except for possible amendments, passage seems assured
unless protester thousands grow to tens of thousands, shut down the state
like in Egypt, and stay the course by remaining resolute against injustice
they won't tolerate.
-
- Public sector unions called the protests, including the
American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA),
and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),
among others. Students and private sector workers participated.
-
- These same unions and others, however, endorse Obama's
new austerity budget, and backed his Race to the Top assault on public
education. They also supported other measures barring government worker
strikes. In Wisconsin, they're concerned about a bill provision banning
automatic dues check-offs that if enacted affects millions of dollars in
union revenues.
-
- Workers have more pressing concerns - job security, a
living wage, vital benefits, including health care and pensions, and unions
backing them against federal, state and local governments wanting their
rights weakened or stripped.
-
- A University of Wisconsin teaching assistant perhaps
spoke for others, comparing state developments to ongoing Middle East uprisings,
saying, "When the government stops listening to us, that's when it
becomes like Egypt."
-
- It will have to far exceed replicating it, however, to
halt America's race to the bottom, harming workers relentlessly to enrich
bosses, wanting maximum wealth and power at the expense of rank and file
workforces treated like serfs, a malignancy spreading everywhere unless
stopped.
-
- On Wisconsin for class struggles too important to lose.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
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