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Wisconsin revolt : USA is following Egypt revolution...

Tuesday 22 February 2011

For over a week now, in response to the draconian anti-labor proposals of the Republican Governor, the people of Wisconsin have rose up in the hundreds of thousands in militant and creative fashion in defense of public workers and the unions.

The Capitol in Madison has been occupied. The surrounding area has seen a sea of demonstrators. Teachers across the state have gone on unofficial strike and high school students have walked-out in support. Rallies of hundreds and thousands have occurred all over the state. This week support rallies will happen all over the country.

On Wisconsin!

For Mass Actions, Occupations & a General Strike!

Spread the Struggle!

Power to the People!

This movement - directly inspired, it must be said, by the heroic people of Egypt and the Middle East - with its contagious energy, determination, humor, and optimism has taken everyone by surprise. The politicians, bosses, unions, and media were all unprepared for the wave that has crashed ashore. But this upsurge is at a crossroads and must push forward defiantly or risk being co-opted or crushed leaving us with yet another heroic defeat or false “victory” to lament for years to come.

Instead of defeat, we can move forward. We support the popular call promoted by the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) revolutionary union and others for a state-wide General Strike. This should include public and private sectors, union and non-unionized sectors, students and unemployed. As other communities and sectors of the working-class step forward to join the struggle they must be free to raise their own specific concerns and demands. The movement must be open to “speakers from the floor”. We must resist any pressure to reduce the movement to a small number of lowest common-denominator demands that favor relatively privileged layers and that the system finds acceptable. This movement must not be satisfied with a return to the status quo but formulate demands of our own for what the people actually need.

Build General Strike Committees in the unions and workplaces, in the schools, on the Reservations, in the prisons, and in every local urban and rural community!

The Governor has the votes he needs in the state Legislature to pass the measures that will strip collective bargaining rights from most public employees, ban strikes, and implement deep cuts to workers’ pay, benefits and pensions. The Democrats move to leave the state and prevent quorum can be seen as a clever political ploy – or more realistically - as a means to give the ruling class (the corporate and political elite) time to reassess and regroup in the wake of this social explosion. In any case the Democratic Party is in no way an ally of working people and oppressed communities. The Democrats are participating in social cuts in states all across the county and at the Federal level. Next door in Minnesota, even the very liberal Governor there is proposing severe cuts to Health and Human services.

Similarly we cannot expect an effective way forward from the bureaucracy of the unions. Their entire strategy revolves around having “friends” in high places, only seriously mobilizing their membership to mark ballots every several years. They could not lead a militant movement if they wanted to - they have not led a serious struggle for generations. Yet all their political capital rests on their ability to channel workers dissatisfaction. Already they have begun trying to assert their control over the spontaneous movement at the Capitol, by taking down signs deemed inappropriate (for instance “Walk like an Egyptian”) and stepping up the “marshalling” of the crowds.

There is a real risk that the union bureaucracy and the Democrats will try and present a “compromise” of severe cuts minus the collective bargaining roll-back. “Don’t take away our right to negotiate how deep we let you cut our pay and benefits” is pathetic but they are already starting to sound out this approach. We must be prepared to defy this and explain the danger to the bulk of the movement who so far see the Democrats and union tops only in a positive light.

If, in the likelihood that the efforts toward mass strikes become bottled up inside the union structures, we must push ahead with whatever means of mass direct action we can muster. Mass demonstrations; more unofficial strikes and high school walk-outs; occupations of campuses and State facilities, Republican and Democratic Party headquarters, corporate supporters of the Governor, etc. We must come out of this struggle with a network of working-class activists willing to organize/participate in mass direct action.

Finally since in many ways the wave that started this whole thing came from the Middle East, lets end there as well: The United States spends billions and billions of tax dollars on military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, huge military presence in Kuwait, Bahrain and in the surrounding seas, support for the apartheid Israeli state, and dictatorships and monarchies across the region. The National Guard that the Governor has threatened to deploy against the workers of Wisconsin has spent many months guarding the Empire over there. All this to control the people and resources of the Middle East for the same global capitalist system that is attacking us here in Wisconsin and killing our planet.

We cannot have an honest discussion about budgets, deficits, or resources without addressing the costs of Empire – both financially and morally. Our movement must defend the self-determination of the working people across the Middle East and help them dissolve the Empire of Capital that benefits no one but the rich elite.

While all eyes turn to the huge rallies and political turmoil playing out in the Midwest—Wisconsin has been joined by Ohio, Indiana, and tomorrow Michigan—workers elsewhere fight the same battles on smaller stages.

Service and maintenance workers at Poconos Medical Center in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, stood firm against union-busting and went out on their first-ever strike.

The one-day action February 9 hit their employer for refusing to negotiate in good faith and illegally interfering with workers’ rights to discuss workplace issues on their own time. The unfair labor practice strike by 550 members of Service Employees Healthcare PA followed management’s failed bid to deauthorize the union last year.

Though an overwhelming majority of workers voted for a closed shop, to have more strength to advocate for their patients and themselves, the hospital refused to honor PMC workers’ democratic vote.

The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint in fall 2010 over the hospital’s illegal interference in workers’ rights to discuss workplace issues.

“The NLRB’s complaint shows that management is willing to do anything, including breaking the law, to weaken or get rid of our union,” said Madeline Vazquez, a unit clerk.

In Wisconsin, the themes are similar : refusals to negotiate with unions, threats of yearly deauthorization votes, and attempts to choke off unions’ ability to speak out.

The numbers may be smaller in Vermont, but the motivations on both sides are the same : public sector management looks to cut costs and 60 Teamster bus drivers in Burlington are fighting for union contracts that safeguard the public.

“Management has a computer spitting out our schedules,” said 20-year driver Mike Walker, chief steward for Teamsters Local 597, “but if we try to keep to the schedule, we almost have to break traffic laws. If we don’t keep to the schedule, riders aren’t getting what they need from a public bus company.”

On February 13 nearly 100 community members—riders, students, and union members—showed their support in an exuberant rally at Burlington City Hall.

“We’re in the middle and we have to stand up,” Walker said.

Other sticking points in the contract dispute with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority include management’s proposal to greatly expand part-time positions. “We know what this is about,” said Jim Fouts, a driver and Teamsters for a Democratic Union activist. “They don’t want to pay benefits, retirement, sick leave—those things which really allow workers to enjoy some basic decent life.

“Remember the UPS strike in 1997 ? That was also over exploitation of part-timers. And all over America, everyone recognized that problem, so the public rallied in support of those UPS strikers.”

Students at both the University of Vermont (UVM) and St. Michael’s College—heavy users of county buses—have surged to support the drivers. Daniel Filstein of Students Stand Up at UVM pointed out in a resolution adopted unanimously by the student senate that UVM pays CCTA roughly $300,000 a year for bus services.

The crowd was moved by Donna Iverson, a teaching assistant at Burlington High School and member of the Burlington Education Association/NEA, when she described her reliance on bus service and said she has never seen a driver show anything less than patience, respect, and compassion for all passengers. She proposed starting a Bus Riders Union to support the drivers.

After the rally, driver Rob Singerland reflected that “the support I saw was unreal. And that woman who said when it comes to the needy, homeless, and handicapped, that we show nothing but compassion, and how we take our time regardless of the time schedule to do so, made me feel good. Really good ! Good about what I do, what we do, for a living.”

Despite a year of slow negotiations, threats by management, and some internal struggle against Local 597 leaders to gain rank-and-file control of bargaining, Singerland said the rally made him see that “this negotiation is bigger than just us and the company. To think that all these people are supporting us, that 60-plus drivers in small-town USA have a good chance of becoming an example of what anyone can accomplish, is just amazing to me.”

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