| On March 11, as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law the anti-worker, anti-social bill he pushed through the legislature, high school students organized walk-outs statewide. Workers and students have reclaimed the Capitol building in Wisconsin and continue to occupy it. Another major demonstration is taking place March 12, including a large delegation of farmers and others coming in from statewide and surrounding states. Walker signed the bill following passage in the Senate on Wednesday March 9, and then the Assembly on March 10. In all it took only three days for debate and votes in both houses in the amended bill, which removed any content on financial matters, despite being called a “budget” bill. As people have been saying from the start, this is bill is not meant to solve budget problems, especially those concerning education, healthcare and social programs. It is an anti-worker, anti-social bill that solves no problem and serves to make conditions worse. The workers and students had prepared for possible passage of the bill March 9. Many packed the gallery inside while many more rallied outside. Workers statewide were again bussed in by the unions. When the Senate passed the bill, the crowds inside erupted with shouts of Shame, Shame! As soon as word reached protesters outside, thousands stormed the Capitol chanting Whose House? Our House! and This is What Democracy Looks Like! They immediately filled the building once again, jamming three floors. Firefighters remain a main force alongside teachers, students and healthcare workers. Within a short time, police abandoned efforts to keep people out, with some police themselves part of the demonstration. The occupation also occurred despite repeated efforts by the Governor and Republicans to block the public from entering their public building or bringing in signs, food, etc. After manipulating people to leave at night with the promise they could return in the morning, the Governor had acted to shut down the Capitol to the public. Special rules were passed, requiring people to have appointments, not use cameras, cell phones, or laptops etc. Police were stationed at all the doors and entrance for the public restricted to one door. But with passage of the bill, protesters refused to submit and insisted on entering. Once inside they also organized sit-ins in front of the offices of the Republican leaders of the Senate and Assembly and blocked the area outside the Assembly chanting We’re not leaving, Not this Time! Thousands continue to remain inside the building and local police and the county sheriff are so far not forcing them out. As the county sheriff has said, “I refuse to be the palace guard for the Governor.” State troopers have acted to remove some of those conducting the sit-ins from in front of the Assembly, but not from the building itself. Chants of Whose House, Our House have also been joined by chants for General Strike! Local unions are going forward with plans for such a strike, both educating the public and preparing their ranks. The call, endorsed by the South Central Labor Federation encompassing 97 local unions and 47,000 workers is gaining increasing support. Head of the firefighters union Joe Conway in an interview March 10 explained: “Well, a strike is the trump card as Jim Cavanaugh from the south federation of labor said. We’ve got to work on it, put everything into place, make sure emergency operations are in place. It takes a lot of coordination. The general strikes that happened in Ontario, that’s similar to what happened here in Wisconsin. And so we’ve got to take those lessons learned back from the ‘70s in Ontario, 1935 in Minneapolis and San Francisco that created the National Labor Relations Act. We’ve got a lot of education and learning to do and if we do put this into place we’ve got to make sure it is effective and I think our people are ready.” March 12 is sure to see yet another large demonstration standing up for the rights of the workers and the rights of all. Public service workers and their allies remain firm in saying that without the basic legal right to organize into collectives and bargain, the working class is stripped of its dignity and subjected to the whims, dictate, impunity and narrow interests of employers. Parts of Walker’s anti-worker bill are especially designed for this, giving the Governor arbitrary powers to declare “emergencies,” outlaw strikes and fire workers who organize or participate in them. This is a pre-emptive action in part to prevent strikes against passage of the bill. Public Right Yes, Monopoly Right No! The bill also requires that unions recertify every year and that contracts only last for one year. This “legalizes” impunity for the governor and local executives to organize to eliminate the unions altogether while imposing tremendous uncertainty for the workers and the public they serve. The firm resistance by youth and workers in Wisconsin and nationwide shows they recognize the danger of these laws. A modern society cannot function without the working class having full legal right to organize itself and defend its basic interests and those of fellow workers and society. Youth and workers are also angered and concerned about the existing system of governance that allows big money and the monopoly media to put into power such an extremist anti-worker anti-social element as Walker and other Republican Senators. A recall campaign is underway to remove eight Republican Senators, with hundreds of thousands of signatures required and many tens of thousands already gathered. Plans to recall Walker after he has served the required one-year in office are also underway. But many recognize the limitations of such actions in serving to repeal the law, as even a Democratic majority in the Senate does not mean a repeal would pass the Assembly. So various other tactics, including strikes, demonstrations and boycotts are also under discussion. In addition, Wisconsin is not alone in facing these anti-worker bills. Across the country, states are demanding “flexibility” to eliminate or reduce pensions and healthcare and other workers’ rights. Republicans and Democrats alike are calling for massive budget cuts. There is grave concern that if the various laws removing binding agreements and legal guarantees for the rights of workers to organize to defend themselves and bargain collectively are instituted, the system will degenerate into an open fascist dictatorship of the most powerful rich and their monopolies. Many of the placards that protesters are carrying denounced the relationship between monopoly capital and those running in elections. Walker himself promotes the fact that the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch and other wealthy people bankrolled his campaign for governor. Through millions of dollars of attack ads, his campaign and many like it created an atmosphere of fear and confusion over state budgets and the origin of the economic crisis. Racist anti-immigrant attacks were also widespread. Anti-immigrant laws at the state level, like the budget bills, are also being used to strip all workers of their rights and further benefit the monopolies. As protesters repeatedly proclaim, the stand of the people for rights must carry weight. It is public right that must flourish and monopoly right that must be restricted. This What Democracy Looks Like! The current system has no place in a modern society — where the people themselves, especially the working class and youth, are demanding empowerment and a system of governance that guarantees their right to participate in decision-making and to control the direction of the economy and how society funds itself and how it spends those funds. As signs across the country are saying in various ways: Stop Paying the Rich! Budget Cuts Are Not Solutions —Stop War Funding! Freeze Debt Payments to Banks, Not Workers’ Wages! Whose House? Our House! Whose Rights? Our Rights! Who Decides? We Decide! |