That's Wisconsin right now, where the Governor tried to crush public employee unions, and, furthermore, threatened to call the National Guard to impose martial law if people didn't like it. Well, people didn't like it, and now this is happening. Protests were 30,000 strong in Madison yesterday, and 25,000 today. Who knew people would actually fight to protect unions in this bastion of free-market individualism of a country! Rising star of the Republican party Paul Ryan (who represents Wisconsin in the House) said, "It's like Cairo has come to Wisconsin," while supporting the governor's plan. Haha, good one Paul Ryan, but not even close. Also, whoops! You just insinuated that the uprisings in Egypt were a bad thing! HuffPo's got your live blog again. America, fuck yeah! We are all Wisconsin....ians?.....ites? Something like that.
"Nobody would expect Walker to have any sense of history but his mention of the National Guard in reference to a labor dispute is chilling to those who recall the Bay View riot. In May 1886, nearly 15,000 workers gathered in Milwaukee to demand an eight hour workday. Thousands marched the streets with banners in Polish, German and English. Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk called the National Guard to respond; seven were killed (five by other estimates) and several more wounded."
ReplyDeleteAlso I think your surprise that this is happening is a little unwarranted: Wisconsin has a pretty deep history of labor struggle, even going so far as to pass a "Labor History in the Schools" bill two years ago, which required public schools to teach labor history.
http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/wisconsins-war-on-unions-coming-soon-to-a-town-near-you
Wow, I did not know that, but that's amazing. I always figured that Wisconsin must be somewhat progressive, for the simple fact that they elected Russ Feingold alone, though he was voted out of office in November like so many other progressive Democrats. Here's what he had to say about the current situation in his home state:
ReplyDelete“You know, I don’t think the voters of this state for a minute thought that we should start attacking public employees and public employee unions and the right to collectively bargain. This was a tough election because the economy was in a very bad condition, and people wanted to send a message. But I’m pretty sure the message was not destroy the opportunities for working people to protect themselves.”
He also started a PAC this past week that seeks to combat corporate influence in US politics. More on that here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/russ-feingold-progressives-united-corporate-influence_n_816693.html