Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest
by Amy Goodman
TruthDig.com: February 23, 2011
As many as 80,000 people marched to the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison
on Saturday as part of an ongoing protest against newly elected Republican
Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to not just badger the state's public employee
unions, but to break them. The Madison uprising follows on the heels of
those in the Middle East. A sign held by one university student, an Iraq War
vet, read, "I went to Iraq and came home to Egypt?" Another read, "Walker:
Mubarak of the Midwest." Likewise, a photo has circulated in Madison of a
young man at a rally in Cairo, with a sign reading, "Egypt supports
Wisconsin workers: One world, one pain." Meanwhile, Libyans continue to defy
a violent government crackdown against masses seeking to oust longtime
dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and more than 10,000 marched Tuesday in Ohio to
oppose Republican Gov. John Kasich's attempted anti-union legislative
putsch.
Just a few weeks ago, solidarity between Egyptian youth and Wisconsin police
officers, or between Libyan workers and Ohio public employees, might have
elicited a raised eyebrow.
The uprising in Tunisia was sparked by the suicide of a young man named
Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old university graduate who could not find
professional work. Selling fruits and vegetables in the market, he was
repeatedly harassed by Tunisian authorities who eventually confiscated his
scale. Unbearably frustrated, he set himself on fire, a spark that ignited
the protests that became the wave of revolution in the Middle East and North
Africa. For decades in the region, people have lived under
dictatorships-many that receive U.S. military aid-suffering human-rights
abuses along with low income, high unemployment and almost no freedom of
speech. All this, while the elites amassed fortunes.
Similar grievances underlie the conflicts in Wisconsin and Ohio. The "Great
Recession" of 2008, according to economist Dean Baker, is now in its 37th
month, with no sign of relenting. In a recent paper, Baker says that, due to
the financial crisis, "many political figures have argued the need to
drastically reduce the generosity of public sector pensions, and possibly to
default on pension obligations already incurred. Most of the pension
shortfall ... is attributable to the plunge in the stock market in the years
2007-2009."
In other words, Wall Street hucksters, selling the complex mortgage-backed
securities that provoked the collapse, are the ones who caused any pension
shortfall. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston said
recently: "The average Wisconsin state employee gets $24,500 a year. That's
not a very big pension ... 15 percent of the money going into it each year
is being paid out to Wall Street to manage the money. That's a really huge
high percentage to pay out to Wall Street to manage the money."
So, while investment bankers skim a huge percentage off pension funds, it's
the workers who are being demonized and asked to make the sacrifices. Those
who caused the problem, who then got lavish bailouts and now are treated to
huge salaries and bonuses, are not being held accountable. Following the
money, it turns out Walker's campaign was funded by the notorious Koch
brothers, major backers of the tea party organizations. They also gave $1
million to the Republican Governors Association, which gave substantial
support to Walker's campaign. Is it surprising that Walker supports
corporations with tax breaks, and has launched a massive attack on
unionized, public-sector employees?
One of the unions being targeted by Walker, and by Kasich in Ohio, is
AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The union was founded in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, in
Madison. Its 1.6 million members are nurses, corrections officers,
child-care providers, EMTs and sanitation workers. It is instructive to
remember, in this Black History Month, that it was the struggle of the
sanitation workers of AFSCME local No. 1733 that brought Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. to Memphis, Tenn., back in April 1968. As Jesse Jackson Jr. told me
as he marched with students and their unionized teachers in Madison on
Tuesday: "Dr. King's last act on earth, marching in Memphis, Tenn., was
about workers' rights to collective bargaining and rights to dues checkoff.
You cannot remove the roof for the wealthy and remove the floor for the
poor."
The workers of Egypt were instrumental in bringing down the regime there, in
a remarkable coalition with Egypt's youth. In the streets of Madison, under
the Capitol dome, another demonstration of solidarity is taking place.
Wisconsin's workers have agreed to pay and pension concessions, but will not
give up their right to collective bargaining. At this point, Walker would be
wise to negotiate. It is not a good season to be a tyrant.
© 2011 Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on 800 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008
Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the "Alternative Nobel" prize, and received
the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.
***
Koch Industries Front Group Americans for Prosperity Launches Ad to Support
Walker's Union Busting
by: Lee Fang
ThinkProgress: 22 February 2011
As ThinkProgress has reported, the global conglomerate Koch Industries not
only helped elect Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), but is the leading force
orchestrating his union-busting campaign. Koch gave Walker over $43,000 in
direct donations and its allies aired millions of dollars worth of attack
ads against his Democratic opponent. Then, Koch political operatives
pressured Walker to crush labor unions as one of his first priorities. Tim
Phillips, a former lobbying partner to Jack Abramoff and current president
of Americans for Prosperity, a front financed by David Koch, told the New
York Times that Koch operatives "had worked behind the scenes to try to
encourage a union showdown." A Koch-financed front group, the American
Legislative Exchange Council, has prepped Wisconsin GOP lawmakers with
anti-labor legislative ideas.
Today, the Koch group Americans for Prosperity announced that it will air an
ad smearing the protesters in Madison and calling on the state to support
Walker's power grab. As we noted on Friday, Koch has demanded that
collective bargaining rights be curtailed for both private and public sector
unions, a step beyond Walker's already extreme move. The ad disparages the
pro-labor protesters for allegedly bringing in "out of state political
protesters." In fact, the small pro-Walker demonstration orchestrated by
Koch operatives last Saturday included a number of out of state conservative
activists, including Herman Cain (from Georgia), Jim Hoft (from Missouri),
and Phillips (from Virginia).
AFP NARRATOR: Democratic legislators don't even have the guts to show up
for their jobs, hiding out in other states. President Obama backs the union
bosses and floods the state with out of state political protesters. Governor
Walker has the courage to do what's right for Wisconsin. Stand with Walker.
Last year, at a Koch-organized fundraising meeting in Colorado attended by
fellow right-wing billionaires like Steve Schwarzman and Phil Anschutz,
attendees discussed strategies for taking down the labor movement. As
MSNBC's
Rachel Maddow has explained, the right's national anti-union campaign has
little to do with budget deficits. Instead, it is about defunding the
progressive movement and weakening Democrats in the longterm.
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Moreover, Koch's political activism on behalf of Walker is also a strategy
for increasing its profit margin. Koch Industries has a large set of
businesses within Wisconsin, including a network of oil pipelines, paper
plants, and coal companies. The Walker administration is signaling a very
Koch-friendly approach in targeting environmental regulations and going on
record with fierce opposition to clean energy policies.
To take full advantage of such a friendly local government, Koch Industries
quietly expanded its lobbying operation in the state. Koch has a new
government affairs office in Madison, and according to reporter Judith
Davidoff, recently registered seven full time lobbyists to work with the
Republican-led government in Wisconsin.
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