[Peace-discuss] Fw: EDITORIAL: Resistance Erupts in Wisconsin: Stop the Cuts & Union-Busting!

[David Johnson]

" The trade union movement and its allies cannot go along with the "hard cop - soft cop" ploy of the Democrats and Republicans.


The money is there -- more than enough of it -- to fully meet all the needs of all working people, particularly of Black and Latinos, who have been the hardest hit by the crisis.


But to obtain these funds and redirect them to meet human needs, the labor movement has to mobilize in the streets and the workplaces independently of the Democratic and Republican parties.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Larry Duncan 
To: Larry Duncan 
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 7:27 AM
Subject: EDITORIAL: Resistance Erupts in Wisconsin: Stop the Cuts & Union-Busting!


[Note: The following article is reprinted from the January-February 2011 issue of The Organizer newspaper. - theorganizer at earthlink.net]


Resistance Erupts in Wisconsin:
Stop the Cuts & Union-Busting!


EDITORIAL


As we go to press, recently elected Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin is scrambling to pass his Budget Repair Bill. This bill would effectively destroy public sector unions in  Wisconsin and gut the benefits of 200,000 Wisconsin public sector employees (such as healthcare and state pension contributions).


Walker tried to rush the vote on the bill in less than a week from when it was first introduced without public hearings. At this writing, the 14 Democrats in the State Senate have all left Wisconsin to prevent a vote on the bill. Walker is one vote shy of carrying the bill in the Wisconsin Senate. He is hoping to arm-twist one Democrat into supporting the bill, with no defections in his own Republican ranks.


Working people across the country, particularly union members and students are watching Wisconsin and pledging their full solidarity with the struggle. If this bill is passed in Wisconsin, everyone understands that similar legislation will be introduced in other states.


At this point, given the mass upsurge that has developed across the state and nationwide in opposition to this offensive, it is far from certain that Governor Walker will get his way, as a couple of the state's Republicans are wavering. The politicians cannot ignore the huge and growing mobilizations, as students and workers take to the streets, many walking out of their classrooms and jobs, as was the case with the K-12 teachers in 10 public school districts in Southern Wisconsin.


Thousands have also waged a mass sit-in/occupation of the State Capitol, with hundreds staying there round the clock.


Stop the Budget Cuts!


The organized labor movement has underscored the huge stakes in the fight in Wisconsin and in 10 other "battleground" states, where Republican governors are seeking to smash the trade unions through the introduction of "right-to-work" laws and/or the destruction of collective-bargaining agreements. They point out that if these attacks are not defeated, the labor movement could lose between 2 million and 3 million members in the next three years.


As part of their 2012 Re-Elect Obama campaign, the top union officials in the AFL-CIO and Change to Win are focusing their energies and funds to defeat the Republican assault in these "battleground" states.


These union leaders argue that it is impossible to halt the budget cuts in Wisconsin today because the Republicans control both houses of the state legislature and because the people have bought Governor Walker's rhetoric that the public sector unions represent the "haves" while the private sector workers represent the "have-nots." Clearly, public sector unions in Wisconsin have a gun at their heads.


But here's the problem: On Sunday, Feb. 20, AFT President Randi Weingarten told MSNBC that the unions -- AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions alike -- are prepared to make up to $100 million in concessions in terms of reduced wages and pensions in exchange for taking out the union-busting provision in the bill.


Is this the kind of proposal that should be coming from national union officials? Of course not. Asking public sector unionists to make even one cent worth of concessions is unacceptable. The economic crisis was not created by working people, and union officials should not permit the bosses and their hired hands in the federal and state governments -- whether Democrats or Republicans -- to balance their budgets on the backs of the working class and the oppressed.


Carey Gleason, a medical researcher in Wisconsin explained the real situation facing workers in a letter to The Organizer newspaper:


"The misinformation about our state budget is at best, inaccurate, and worst, slanderous. The state of Wisconsin is not in a budget crisis. We are projected to run a $120 million surplus this year.


"State workers gave up yearly cost-of-living wage increases about five years ago. That means we've had NO raises in the last five years. Plus we took a pay cut in the last two years with the work furlough program. On average the Wisconsin state worker is paid around 5% to 9 % less than her/his colleague in the private sector.


"Walker's Budget Repair Bill is NOT about the budget or balancing state finances. If it was, I'd like to know why he enacted tax cuts his SECOND DAY in office! The tax cuts to business (big and small) will cost the state $140 million.


"I know who the state workers are. They are conscientious, hard-working people with integrity. They care about their jobs and the people they serve."


Defending the unions and the public sector in Wisconsin and the rest of the country -- particularly in California and New York, where Democratic Party governors are the ones waging the assault on public sector workers -- requires an uncompromising struggle against both the union-busting attacks and the budget cuts. These struggles are inseparable, and they require taking on both Democrats and Republicans.


The situation in Wisconsin, in fact, would not be what it is today if the Democrats in the state legislature had not caved in to the blackmail of then Governor-elect Walker in the first place.


In the lame-duck session on Dec. 15, 2010 -- before the Republicans took over the legislature -- the 17 no-pay-raise contracts running from July 2009 to June 2011 for tens of thousands of workers were stalled in the Democrat-led state Senate, when outgoing Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) and Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) voted with the Republicans against the contracts.


The votes were a dramatic victory for Walker and his fellow Republicans, who argued that the contracts should be left for them to deal with, so that they could extract concessions from the unions on pensions and healthcare benefits. Otherwise, Walker and his cronies insisted, they would have to make deeper cuts in areas such as healthcare and education to address a budget shortfall of about $150 million through June and a gaping hole of up to $3.3 billion for the two-year period after that.


There Is Money to Solve the Budget Deficits!


The trade union movement and its allies cannot go along with the "hard cop - soft cop" ploy of the Democrats and Republicans.


The total states' budget deficits across the country are estimated at $124 billion. These deficits are being used as a bludgeon to go after the public sector. But there is plenty of funding available -- if only there were the political will to go after it -- to address the budget deficits and prevent the onslaught against the unions and the public sector.


Instead of pleading with state governors and legislatures to accept Draconian concessions in exchange for dropping their most heinous union-busting attacks, the trade union movement should be calling on its members and all its community allies to mobilize in large numbers against President Obama's $1.1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years -- cuts that are further crippling cash-strapped states and dismantling countless programs that provide assistance to low-income people.


The unions should be demanding that the war budget be slashed so that hundreds of billions of war dollars can be redirected to fund social services and to create jobs for all.


The unions should be demanding that the federal government recover the close to $2 trillion in stimulus funding that are still sitting in the vaults of the bankers and financial institutions, all of whom have refused to invest in the real economy and create jobs. These funds are, in fact, going back into the same speculative ventures that created the recent financial crisis.


The unions should be demanding at the state level that the legislatures tax the rich and the corporations. In Wisconsin a full-fledged battle could be waged to repeal Governor Walker's tax cuts and to demand that the state legislature tax the rich.


The fight also entails going after the huge sums in federal and state funding for prisons -- while schools, hospitals, libraries and other public services are starved for funds.


The money is there -- more than enough of it -- to fully meet all the needs of all working people, particularly of Black and Latinos, who have been the hardest hit by the crisis.


But to obtain these funds and redirect them to meet human needs, the labor movement has to mobilize in the streets and the workplaces independently of the Democratic and Republican parties.


The mass protests, walkouts, and sit-ins in Wisconsin point the way forward for working people throughout the country. As the spreading revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East demonstrate, working people can change the course of history through independent struggle.


Stop the Union-Busting!
Stop the Budget Cuts!
Tax the Rich!
No Concessions!
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