Assault on Unions Is an Attack on Basic Civil Rights

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Civil rights activist
Posted: February 22, 2011 06:15 PM

It looks like "Cairo has moved to Madison," said conservative Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, as 50,000 citizens took over the state's Capitol building. He got the spirit right, but the location wrong. In Madison, folks wearing Packers jerseys stand together with folks wearing Bears colors. Madison is this generation's Selma, the epicenter for the modern battle for basic human rights.

In 1965, the drive for basic voting rights was stalled in the U.S. Senate. President Johnson pushed Martin Luther King to stop demonstrating. Instead, Dr. King went to Selma. Selma was not a big city, but it held a mirror to the nation. There, on Bloody Sunday, peaceful demonstrators were met with dogs, clubs and hoses, and touched the conscience of a nation. Two days later, Johnson, invoking the famous words, "We shall overcome," introduced the Voting Rights Act. Five months later it was signed into law.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Warns Of 'Dire Consequences' If Budget Bill Fails To Pass

AP/The Huffington Post
Posted: 02/22/11 07:58 PM

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says failing to pass a bill stripping union rights for Wisconsin public workers would have "dire consequences."

Walker said in a speech broadcast live statewide Tuesday evening that if lawmakers don't pass the bill up to 1,500 state workers could be laid off by July with another 6,000 forced out of work over the next two years.

Top Obama Economic Aide: Social Security Reform Not A Part Of Discussion On Fiscal Future

February 22, 2011
HuffPost Reporting
stein@huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON -- Lost amid the budget battles in Congress and the anti-union legislation being considered in several states has been the White House's deliberate decision to take the topic of Social Security reform off the deficit debate menu.

The latest move in that direction came on Tuesday, when Jason Furman, deputy director of the President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, insisted that talk of Social Security reform "is not one you care about" if "you are worried about our long-run fiscal future."

Wisconsin Fight Goes to Core of ‘Who We Are as a People and Country’

by Mike Hall, Feb 22, 2011

Michael Peck, a board member of the Apollo Alliance, writes that the Wisconsin workers who have been in the streets and the Capitol Rotunda in Madison for more than a week:

are fighting for more than balancing a budget and even more than the
right to bargain collectively for our own welfare. Indeed, the stakes
are much, much higher and go to the core of who we are as a people and
country.

Poll: Public Opposes Taking Away Freedom to Bargain

by Tula Connell, Feb 22, 2011

A new poll shows the public strongly opposes laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employees to address budgets. Some 61 percent of the public say they would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33 percent who would favor such a law, according to poll out today by USA Today/Gallup.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, widely perceived to be on the verge of attacking the rights of public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs, already figured that out. Scott said today he would not consider taking away bargaining rights from public employees. Instead, Scott said in an interview:
as long as the discussion is honest about what benefits employees are
getting, he has no objection to public employees being members of
unions.

Locked Out of Capitol, Ohio Workers Sing ‘God Bless America’

by Tula Connell, Feb 22, 2011

Ohio workers today, locked out of their own statehouse today as they tried to rally for the freedom of public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs, stood outside the capitol building singing, “God Bless America” (video). This from the ground in Columbus:

Republican Governors Desert Wis.’s Scott Walker

by Tula Connell, Feb 22, 2011

Memo to Gov. Scott Walker: Your allies are deserting you. They know something you don’t seem to: the public supports the freedom to bargain for good middle-class jobs.

Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott:
My belief is as long as people know what they’re doing, collective
bargaining is fine.

Republican Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbitt:
We’ll begin negotiations with the public-sector unions and anticipate
we’ll conduct those in good faith.

Solidarity for Workers’ Struggles Grows

by Mike Hall, Feb 22, 2011

From California to North Carolina to Poland, workers, community and faith activists are standing in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin, Ohio and around the nation in their fights against a coordinated attack on middle-class jobs.
In a letter of support to Wisconsin workers, Piotr Duda, President of the Polish Trade Union Solidarnosc, writes:

Indiana Gov. Daniels (R) Urges GOP Lawmakers to Drop ‘Right to Work’ Bill

by Mike Hall, Feb 22, 2011

Here’s some great and startling news out of Indiana. The Indianapolis Star reports that Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) says that Republican legislators should drop the so-called “right to work” bill so lawmakers can get on with important state business.

Earlier today, Democratic members of the House headed out of state in order to block action on the bill. Reports the Star

From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity are Alive

by Medea Benjamin
Co-founder, CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Posted: February 21, 2011 03:58 PM

Here in Madison, Wisconsin, where protesters have occupied the State Capitol Building to stop the pending bill that would eliminate workers' right to collective bargaining, echoes of Cairo are everywhere. Protesters here were elated by the photo of an Egyptian engineer named Muhammad Saladin Nusair holding a sign in Tahrir Square saying "Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers -- One World, One Pain." The signs by protesters in Madison include "Welcome to Wiscairo," "From Egypt to Wisconsin: We Rise Up," and "Government Walker: Our Mubarak." The banner I brought directly from Tahrir Square saying "Solidarity with Egyptian Workers" has been hanging from the balcony of the Capitol alongside solidarity messages from around the country

What Happens in Wisconsin Will Affect Workers Across the Nation

by Tula Connell, Feb 21, 2011

John August, executive director of Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and native Wisconsinite, sends us this on events there. The coalition is an alliance of 29 local unions representing 90,000 health care workers.

I am a proud Wisconsinite—not just because of the recent victory of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 45, but also because of the state’s great progressive traditions. Those traditions include a strong labor movement and the birth of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the major public sector union, in 1936.

Yet all of those great, progressive traditions are fragile.

In many states today, including Wisconsin, public sector employees’ jobs, wages and benefits are on the line. The very right to have effective collective bargaining for public employees is at great risk all across the country.