Wisconsin: the fight isn't over yet

Cross-posted at Feministe. 

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to join a couple friends for a short road trip to Madison, Wisconsin for the rally against Walker’s assault on workers’ rights on March 12, and to welcome back the 14 Democratic State legislators, who fled to Illinois in an attempt to stop the assault on workers’ rights by denying the legislature the required quorum needed to vote on the bill that was sure to pass due to the newly-elected Republican majority.  The turnout at the rally was huge.  And while I’m used to so-called “Minnesota Nice” (read: passive-aggression), never before have I encountered such a kind andhappy group of incredibly angry people.  And I can understand; it was hard to wipe the giant grin off of my own face while I was there.  The sheer number of people coming together, people of all ages, from all walks of life, and from several surrounding states was overwhelming and brought tears to my eyes.  I’m normally the kinda gal who keeps to herself in public, but I couldn’t help but look up and smile, wave, or say hello to fellow protesters and passers-by around me.  While it was my first time in Madison, I’ve never felt more at home.

Wisconsin was the first state in the US to provide collective bargaining rights to public employees, back in 1959, so it should come as no surprise that they are among the loudest to fight for their right to keep those very rights.  And even though the 14 Democrats and the State workers didn’t win this battle (although, keep your ears peeled, as the method used to pass the modified legislation was likely illegal), the war wages on in the Midwest– the heart of working class America.  Not only are there similar labor-busting battles waging in Ohio, Indiana, and other states, Michigan governor Rick Snyder has managed to quietly get passed several pieces of dangerous legislation that will essentially allow Michigan cities and towns to be completely taken over by corporations, should they be declared to be in a state of fiscal emergency.  Rachel Maddow discussed this on her show last Tuesday:

“Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget in Michigan is expected to cut aid to cities and towns so much that a lot of cities and towns in Michigan are expected to be in dire financial straits. Right now, Gov. Snyder is pushing a bill that would give himself, Gov. Snyder and his administration, the power to declare any town or school district to be in a financial emergency. If a town was declared by the governor and his administration to be in a financial emergency they would get to put somebody in charge of that town, and they want to give that emergency manager that they just put in charge of the town the power to, “reject, modify, or terminate any contracts that the town may have entered in to, including any collective bargaining agreements.” 

“This emergency person also gets the power under the bill to suspend or dismiss elected officials. Think about that for a second. Doesn’t matter who you voted for in Michigan. Doesn’t matter who you elected. Your elected local government can be dismissed at will. The emergency person sent in by the Rick Snyder administration could recommend that a school district be absorbed into another school district. That emergency person is also granted power specifically to disincorporate or dissolve entire city governments.”

Make no mistake about it; not only is the GOP engaged in a full-on assault on women’s rights, they’re wasting no time coming after everyone else, too.  And who better to start with than the only hope the Democratic party has left since the Citizens United ruling: unions.

Because no matter how many Republicans and well-meaning Democrats and even self-identified progressives want to complain about how unions are run, corruption within them, or their supposed incompetence, the fact is, as long as we remain in a system where workers and employers have competing goals, we need unions.  And frankly, with reports coming out every week about how corporate profits and productivity are up and private sector hiring remains stagnant, I’m sick and tired of hearing about how much more money public sector employees make compared to their private sector counterparts (see this article in the NYT for a good analysis), and how union employees’ striking over better working conditions and health care greedy and lazy.  It’s time we flip the dialog, and instead of getting angry that public sector employees are actually being treated decently, let’s ask private sector employers why they refuse to show their employees the same respect.

One thing that these protests and the other various State capitol occupations is proving is that, even if we don’t win every individual battle, we’re remembering how important it is for us to actually get out and fight, as presently as possible.  Until now, I’d forgotten that the Capitol is a public building.  I’d forgotten that it is my right to peacefully protest and petition my government.  I’d forgotten that I can do more than send over an electronic petition to my Congressman who probably won’t read it (although, online petitions and other “virtual” actions are certainly useful).  It’s as if, until now, since the massive protests in the Middle East began and spread in various forms to the US and elsewhere, that we progressives in the United States have forgotten that democracy and fighting for the rights of marginalized people is messy work, and tiring work.  And we’ve forgotten that it’s often more worthwhile to get out and do it in person if we can, where they can’t ignore us.

It’s well-known that the most apathetic non-voters here in the US are probably more aligned with the left than the right.  And, obviously, the right continues to bank on that every election season.  But getting out to vote?  It’s only one piece of the larger puzzle.  We have to keep being loud, and present.  Don’t forget that our various State capitol building are ourhouses.  And the streets surrounding it are our streets.  And our elected officials are our employees, because it’s our job to hire and fire them.  When it comes to politics in the United States, I’m not usually very optimistic.  But, right now, since the demonstrations in Egypt and through my trip to Madison, I feel very confident that we’re finally waking up, and that we might start seeing some real progressive change in the coming years.  Just so long as we keep on fighting!

Keep an eye on your state legislators.  You know where to go!

Shame.

So, I go to dinner with Jesse, all leisurely-like and happy, where I have a good calzone, try an interesting new beer, and then get home and settle in to take an online American Government test, check Facebook, and--- WHAT?!!  Wisconsin Republicans found a way to push through their bill on collective bargaining without the missing Democrats?!

Ezra Klein on what happened:

Here’s what just happened in Wisconsin: the rules of the state’s Senate require a quorum for any measures that spend money. That’s how the absence of the Senate’s Democrats could stymie Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget law -- it spent money, and thus it needed a quorum.

But in a surprise move earlier today, Wisconsin’s Senate Republicans rewrote the bill and left out all the parts that spent money. Then they quickly convened and passed the new law, which included the provisions stripping most public-employee unions of their collective bargaining rights but excluding everything in the law that spent money.

I will be in Madison Saturday.  Expect a lot of Tweets (@AprilStreich) and photos of the certain rage to come.

Watch the UpTake's live footage from the state capital here:

Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com

This is what democracy looks like

As you've already probably heard, today, nearly all of Indiana's Senate Democrats have followed the Wisconsin 14's lead and jumped ship, probably off to Illinois, the apparent safe haven for the Midwest's MIA Democratic lawmakers.  The cause of the Democrats' disappearing act is similar to Wisconsin's -- opposition to a bill that, if passed (which it is expected to, as both Indiana's House and Senate are majority Republican),  will effectively eliminate certain union bargaining rights:

Today’s fight was triggered by Republicans pushing a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating a contract that requires non-union members to kick-in fees for representation. It’s become the latest in what is becoming a national fight over Republican attempts to eliminate or limit collective bargaining.

Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, actually opposes the legislation, and has asked GOP leaders to drop it, with no success.  Not only does he oppose the legislation, but he also doesn't plan to send Indiana state troopers out to find the missing lawmakers, but he is fully in support of their decision:

“The activities of today are perfectly legitimate part of the process,” he said. “Even the smallest minority, and that’s what we’ve heard from in the last couple days, has every right to express the strength of its views and I salute those who did.”

The Wisconsin 14, meanwhile, are still assumed to be in Wisconsin, while Governor Walker attempts to lure them back home with threats to basically cancel their direct deposit, forcing them to collect their wages in person, from the House Majority Leader.  They're also planning to push ahead a vote on requiring voters to show photo ID in order to be eligible to vote, which Democrats are strongly opposed to, in the hopes that they will return to attempt fighting its passage.

This, of course, comes just at the heels of another recent development: the fact that Wisconsin Governor Walker plans to sell Wisconsin's infrastructure to the Koch Brothers:

Walker’s bill would allow state-owned heating, cooling, and power plants to be sold to private investors. As if that weren’t bad enough — selling off our public wealth as a short-term budget fix — the bill would also allow the sale to be made without competitive bidding. In other words, Wisconsin’s infrastructure will be sold directly to the Koch Brothers at bargain-basement prices.

Is there anyone left who isn't mad about this yet?  If these measures, and the larger trends of union-busting, are allowed to pass, the outlook is bleak.  As Warren notes, 

It’s a circle of deception for the American middle-class and intends to further add to the ridiculous discrepancy between the top 1% and the rest of us who work for them… soon with no ability or rights to demand living wages.  If they are not stopped by the workers (especially those very folks who claim these people represent them) then I fear a return to the dark ages of labor, such as the Industrial Age of the 1890's, where we serve the almighty dollar which will have been completely wrangled and imprisoned by the richest ever to walk the earth.

While the protests over proposed anti-worker legislation in Wisconsin and Indiana aren't directly comparable to what's happening in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and other countries abroad, the ongoing fights for freedom and democracy in the Middle East have clearly motivated us in other parts of the world to reconsider what we think we know about our governments, our leaders, and our ways of life.  I wrote the other day that I believe that the Wisconsin protests are important because of the threat that union-busting will have on the Democratic party's future success, but I think it's also important to consider this to be a wake-up call, and a call to continued action for those of us who advocate for the rights of the common person, the common worker, the poor, and the marginalized, everywhere.  

We don't know yet how things will pan out in Wisconsin, or in Indiana.  We don't know yet whether or not  the efforts of the Democrats who fled their home states as a last-ditch attempt to protect their states' workers' rights will be in vain.  We do know, though, that people joining together, willing to get loud and demand their rights, has worked in the past, still works today, and, if we keep at it, will continue to work in the future.  And we do know, too, that state legislators have successfully gotten unfair and damaging legislation dropped as a result of fleeing their states in past attempts.  What we need to remember is that we can keep doing this.  This is what democracy looks like!  This is what it looks like when working people realize that they have been placated and lied to long enough, and they've woken up to hold accountable those who are responsible.  

Important to remember are the wider implications of what's going on; seeing the forest, rather than the trees, to borrow from an over-used cliche.  What's most important is that we  keep letting those in power know that we will no longer allow them get away with making millions on the backs of their hardest-working citizens without adequate compensation and safety; we will no longer allow them to get away with profiting off of our planet's destruction; we will no longer allow them to get away with lying to us and taking advantage of our fears in order to push through their destructive agendas that will hurt us most in the end.  The fight isn't just on behalf of the country's low-level government employees, or its union workers; it's on behalf of every single person in this country who works full-time and is still living below the poverty line, for those who lack good health insurance, for those who are not in the upper income brackets of the elite few.  It's for the rest of us, who are finally fed up with empty promises and leaving our fates up to the whims of corporate America and Big Business interests.  It's about real democracy, which is us. 

People think that Americans are too sheltered, too coddled, so blind to the realities of the rest of the world, and what a "struggle" really is.  Or that, if Egyptians were Democrats, there wouldn't have even been a revolution in Egypt.  I think that this is a good point.  And, for as much as we like to believe what we keep hearing (it is easier), the Unites States is absolutely not the best at everything; in fact, we're really bad at a whole lot of really important things.  We have a lot to work on, and it's about time that we finally start realizing that.

For those of us falling on the left of the political spectrum, I think our future success from now forward depends on how we continue to respond to similar threats to average, hardworking Americans, and how willing we are to keep fighting, LOUDLY, and PRESENTLY.  This is what's important. It feels so inspiring because it is.  We liberals don't tend to fight all that loudly; we're more apt to blog furiously, or try to otherwise peaceably work it out... at least, that's how we're stereotyped to handle these conflicts.  And I think this is both because and why we consistently don't win.  We aren't as organized, and sometimes, it's true: sometimes we don't fight hard enough.  And this is our proof that we can actually do it, the motivation we need to finally win:  Speak Up.  Be Loud.  Get Heard.  They have to listen.  


...And finally, FUCKING VOTE.  It's probably safe to say that the majority of lazy slackers who are too apathetic to walk down the block and just fucking vote hold typically progressive/liberal views, and would have voted Democrat, if they'd bothered to get to the polls and maybe spend an hour or two listening to their local NPR member station or reading a page or two of their local newspaper to get basic information about the main candidates.  


Look, the right-wing counts on this happening.  We know this.  Let's stop living in that world where we pretend that's an unlikely conspiracy theory, and get with it.  They know that the majority of the country doesn't feel the way that they do, because the people whom their policies benefit make up a very, very small minority.  If they had to tell the truth and allow voters to make their decisions based on real information, they would never win.  Because they are a band of greedy fucks who care not about anything but their bank accounts and the bank accounts of their most valuable campaign contributors.  They know that they wouldn't be in office, fucking up everything for the rest of us while they make even more money, year after year after year, if you fuckers got off your Play Stations and spent half a second helping the rest of us make sure that doesn't happen.  So in 2012: I BEST SEE YOU OUT THERE.  It's literally up to you now, slackers.  We know you're on board; just put down the bong and get out there.

Democracy is within our reach.  Real protection for the working class is in our reach.  Let's keep up the momentum!  We're the ones who believe in the rights of marginalized people, who promote equality and free will; this is the time to stand up and make sure it happens.

And just try to watch and hear a minute of this without getting chills or tearing up:

Why the GOP is Misguided in Trying to Defund Public Broadcasting

Courtesy of PBS

The whole argument defund NPR and PBS (both funded federally by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) has been a conservative rallying cry for years.  Unfortunately, to understand the recent unpleasantness surrounding the current push to completely remove funds for public broadcasting, you have to start with the Juan Williams incident... I know, please bear with me a moment.

I'm sure you've already heard all the complaints from the right regarding Juan Williams' firing from NPR in October for comments he made on Bill O'Reilly's opinion show.  Certainly there are those who claim he was unjustly fired and I just don't feel their pain, nor Williams' subsequent 2 Million hardship payout he received after being immediately hired by Fox News.  He's not a dyed in the wool news person, he's an opinionator and he belongs amongst those who do that for a living.

For years his numerous bigoted comments have riled those at NPR and for good cause.  It's never been about conservative talking points, but more about his insensitive personal viewpoints that have gotten him into trouble.  Then the real question becomes, when did bigoted speech become the domain of the conversvative movement and/or the Republican party?  They were so ready to pounce on this story and defend his first amendment right to free-speech.  So does this mean that those who go on the air to bring us the news should always include a commentator who's expected to portray an intolerant and opinionated perspective?

It appears that bigotry is now a conservative value. I never thought that was the case, but if you feel Williams' prejudiced remarks are something you support, then it's pretty obvious your intolerance is showing... you might want to tuck that in. 

What came next was Jim DeMint's introduction of a bill to "Defund NPR and PBS" which was vigorously supported in the media by Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, also known as Williams' fellow employees at Fox News.  No surprise there.  All this hubbub came to the fore yesterday as the House voted to remove federal funding of CPB for this fiscal year.  In all honesty, I'm not so much concerned about the funding going away (it still has to pass the Senate, then again be voted on as a joint bill, then the President would have to approve it), I'm more concerned about a looming federal shut-down over the $60 billion in cuts the Republican's have proposed.  Maybe they're just upset because public broadcasting isn't funded by huge corporate entities providing commercials and such... I mean, what incentive do they have to care about this service if there's no way their corporate cronies can make money from it? 

The thing that upsets me the most though, is that there are literally millions of conservative, independent and liberal Americans who listen to NPR and watch PBS every single day.  How would it make conservative presidential and congressional candidates running in 2012 look if all fingers were pointed at them for taking away Sesame Street?  Without even looking at the gross waste going on via Defense spending, why isn't anything being done to curb the $10 Billion going to subsidies for petroleum products? Sounds much more wasteful than the $420 Million going to fund CPB or the $317 Million for Title X funding or $17 Million for Planned Parenthood funding.  So bigotry and sexism are also conservative values...

The last time I checked, a vast majority of the programing both media formats broadcast has little to do with politics and when it does, I can't recall I time they didn't present BOTH SIDES of a story.  If you can name me a national news entity that provides educational commentary, news and entertainment that is less biased than NPR or PBS, please point that out for us the blindly ignorant faithful.  What's even more frustrating is that all these folks that protest this funding are so far-right leaning that ANY news next to Fox's broadcasts looks like liberal mainstream media.  The 120 million that listen or watch every day can't collectively be that liberal, or is it that the opposition is just that conservative?

Here are a few things we either never would have had or would miss if our national public media resources disappeared tomorrow (time broadcasting):

• The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross (12 years).
• A Prairie Home Compainion (35 years).
• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (30+ years).
• All Things Considered (40 years).
• Sesame Street (41 years).
• Car Talk (34 years).
• Frontline ... featuring an exclusive documentary on the Egyptian revolution, airing this Tuesday, filmed from within Tahrir Square (27 years).
• Masterpiece (Theatre) (40 years).
• Morning Edition (32 years).
• Austin City Limits (36 years).
• Fresh Air with Terry Gross (35 years).
• Nova (36 years).

And many more...

The list above is not chock full of political banter, opinion or angry speech, nor are these programs recent additions to public broadcasting; these are institutions of learning, science, culture and art, not merely a political platform from which the government spews propaganda.  Public broadcasting has survived for over 40 years and through 5 Republican presidencies that didn't deem it unnecessary.  What about all those Americans who can't afford cable, so it's their only source of entertainment?  Or how about those who watch PBS because it's one of the only wholesome and educational resources left on TV?

Do we want to throw that all away because one guy made some bigoted remarks on someone else's intolerant, political opinion show?

Apparently, idiocy too is a conservative value.

You can support Public Broadcasting and the fight against eradicating it's funding below:

PBS, NPR, 170 Million Americans, Petition Site, Free Press, MoveOn.org, Credo Action

In his free time, Warren writes a blog about American Culture and Politics at Auspicious Scuttlebutt.