Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana: “Waking a Sleeping Giant”

The American Midwest has turned into the stage for an unprecedented mobilization of workers — tens of thousands of public and private employees, students, firefighters, police, young people and housewives have turned out to confront a plan of cutbacks and attacks against unions launched by the Republican governor of the state. The legislature was occupied by the demonstrators for over two weeks.

The Democratic senators, under popular pressure, refused to provide quorum for voting on the budget bill and fled to the neighboring state of Illinois, as Wisconsin law authorizes police to take the legislators to the floor by force. The “battle of Wisconsin” has thrust itself into the center of the American political scene: similar budget balancing bills are being debated in other states, such as Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, where union resistance is also developing. On Saturday Feb. 26, demonstrations in solidarity were carried out throughout the country. This is occurring in the “Heartland” — the white, Anglo-Saxon Midwest. Three years ago, a large portion of the country was paralyzed by a general strike organized by the Latino community. Another thing: the demonstrators chant slogans relating their mobilizations to the revolutions in the Arab world. Clearly, they have a common root: the international capitalist bankruptcy, including the states and their fiscal resources.

The bill presented by the governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, eliminates collective bargaining by public employees over issues relating to retirement and other social benefits; in the area of salaries it reduces the possibility of increases to a figure no greater than the inflation figure reported by the government. In other words, it nullifies the possibility of any increase in real salary — unless it is approved by a majority of voters in a referendum. Additionally, it authorizes that members quit paying union dues and that union affiliation be renewed annually. It also establishes that public employees pay greater contributions toward their pension and health insurance plans. It is simply a brutal attack.

States and Municipalities in Default

The governors justify their cutback plans by the bankruptcy in which states as well as municipalities find themselves. “Collectively, America’s 50 states face some $125 billion in budget shortfalls in the coming year, according to the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, despite having already grappled with combined deficits of $430 billion over the past three years,” The Economist (Feb. 24) points out. “Worse, states, counties, municipalities and school districts face unfunded pension liabilities of anywhere between $700 billion and $3 trillion, depending on how gloomy your actuarial assumptions are.” A report indicates that this bankruptcy of the social safety net is due in great measure to the financial meltdown of 2007-2009 that dissolved the contributions of millions of future retired Americans, even those who invested in the Treasury or public titles. Wisconsin registers pension obligations in the amount of $3.5 billion, but the overhaul only reduces workers’ benefits by $30 million. Not to mention that Walker hopes to reduce taxes on the largest corporations. Union leaders, in alliance with Democrats, declared an agreement to accepting the cuts and salary reductions, provided they always maintain the right to collective bargaining. A Republican senator proposed a “suspension” of collective negotiations for two years, something that the unions and Democrats also accepted. But the governor has refused, for the moment, to yield ground.

It’s Not (Just) the Economy, Stupid

What is at stake goes beyond the balancing of state budgets. “If the governor’s efforts succeed, other states are expected to try to follow” (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18). Additionally, “various Democrats have joined the bandwagon, among them Andrew Cuomo from New York and Jerry Brown from California” (The Economist, Feb. 24)* as well as the recently elected mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, friend and ex-adviser of Obama. When Governor Walker attempted to put the law to a vote in Wisconsin, thousands upon thousands of public employees took to the streets. The schools in the capital had to close because teachers, by the thousands, called in sick to join in the protests. Firefighters and police, although excluded by Walker from the budget measure, joined the front lines of the demonstrations. The law’s passage imminent, the demonstrators entered the Capitol and stayed there, occupying the building, where they remained for two weeks. It was the virtual educational strike and storming of the Capitol that obligated the Democrats to withdraw quorum and abandon the state, not the opposite.

“Kill the Bill”

Since mid-February, the situation has maintained a sort of unstable equilibrium; the Capitol continues being occupied, with the police and firefighters mingling with the demonstrators; meanwhile, the Senate continues without quorum. Only the Democrats and union leaders are offering concessions: they have conceded the cuts, including a suspension of collective bargaining rights for two years, but Walker will not let them twist his arm. He threatened thousands of layoffs and even to call in the National Guard to suppress the workers, something that has not happened since 1934.

The Wisconsin battle has generated an extraordinary movement of solidarity and worker mobilization throughout the country with meetings, supportive actions, and fundraising to support the occupants of the Capitol extending to all regions. The issue of defense of collective bargaining and the right to organize workers has become part of the national debate. It’s not just solidarity: In Ohio, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets against the cutback plan pushed by that state’s governor, which proposed elimination of collective bargaining for public employees and allowing hiring of new workers (scabs) during an eventual stoppage. There are also mobilizations in Indiana, where bills were presented that included a plan that would authorize private sector workers to “choose” not to be in any union. On Saturday Feb. 26, worker demonstrations were held throughout the United States in solidarity with the fight in Wisconsin: In Madison, in spite of snow, 70,000 people united for the most important demonstration since the Vietnam War. There were also tens of thousands in every principal city in the country. The massiveness of the demonstration on the 26th gave new life to the storming of Madison’s Capitol: On Sunday the 27th the government’s attempt to clear the building failed when hundreds of state police officers declared support for the occupiers. The occupation continues stronger than ever.

In the United States the conscience of millions of workers is undergoing a transformation. The New York Times concluded that Wisconsin might be the “Tunisia of the United States’ working class.” It’s like one of the demonstrators on the 26th stated in his slogan, “Thank you, Governor Walker, for waking a sleeping giant — the American working class.”

*Editor’s note: This particular quote, although accurately translated, could not be independently verified. The following does appear in The Economist article quoted earlier: “By the same token, prominent contemporary Democrats, such as Rahm Emanuel, the newly elected mayor of Chicago and Andrew Cuomo, New York’s new governor, have argued that public-sector workers must tighten their belts.” (“Taking on the public-sector unions: Wisconsin and wider: A dispute in one cold state is having nationwide repercussions.” The Economist, Feb. 24, 2011.)