The Return of Class Struggle through Wisconsin (Part 1 of 2)

In Wisconsin, the new Republican governor just passed — after a month of protest — an iniquitous budget bill crushing the rights of unionized workers in the state. The latter are continuing their protests, in an unusual flavor of “class struggle.”

Radiating from Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, an unprecedented situation not seen since the ’30s has developed in the United States over the past month. Yet nobody talks about it in the mainstream media. This shows the importance of the issue.

On Saturday, March 12, 2011, 185,000 people assembled at Capitol Square — the largest demonstration in the history of the state. Some say it was the biggest event ever in the whole country, except those in federal capital. A hated law has recently been signed, which shattered all the hard-won social progress in the fight there more than fifty years ago. Even worse is that hidden in strictly budgetary points, several articles give the governor extraordinary powers, which are fundamentally transforming the nature of the American democratic system.

It was Scott Walker, the newly elected Republican governor with funding from the Koch billionaires, who started the great wrath of his constituents. Ambitious, triumphant, he campaigned not on the anti-union offensive but on job creation. Wearing a red tie (as a provocation) to celebrate his wicked law on March 10, 2011, he conducted the signing ceremony in its ritual forms, discoursing on the favor of his legislation to future generations.

But he could not reach his goal, thanks to an amazing hocus-pocus that may well be unconstitutional. To counter the tactics of Senate Democrats who, three weeks earlier, had taken refuge in neighboring Illinois to prevent the necessary quorum to vote on any budget act, he suddenly claimed that the law is ultimately not budgetary and therefore does not require a quorum. A vote was held in accordance with never-before-seen procedures, without leaving the floor to the opposition and where only Republicans voted. In a few minutes, the text was adopted, despite four weeks of continuous events and 25 days of the capitol being occupied, the headquarters of the state government.

In a democracy, this house is the house of the people; it is open to citizens, and yet the governor had tried to kick them out. Initially, the police did not follow his orders, but then they no longer allowed in those who had left a little too quickly, out of respect for what they believed to be a lawful order from a legally elected governor. Despite a prompt judicial decision in favor of citizens declaring the closure illegal, Gov. Walker maintained his ban. To attend the hearing, Democratic lawmakers were forced to climb through windows and push through the protesters camped outside in the freezing snow — Wisconsin is near Canada.

But this Saturday, March 12, 2011, the legislative battle has temporarily been lost, and yet the protestors are more numerous. The budget bill overwhelmed officials while seeking to divide them because it spared the police and firefighters, judged too popular and of course useful in case of an overwhelming opposition. Miscalculation: “The cops with unions and workers,” as scrawled on their protest signs; people have understood the move, and more joined the demonstrators. The day before, at the sound of bagpipes, firefighters regrouped at the corner of Capitol Square, outside the headquarters of Marshall & Ilsley Bank, which generously funded the Walker campaign. Then they came and quietly withdrew money from their accounts.

Others followed suit: $192,000 dollars have left the coffers, and offices were closed quickly. The bank manages their pension funds and savings, but it has been said that there is an underground passage that connects directly to the governor’s office on Capitol Hill. Saturday, March 12, 2011, and so the fight is not over. The law may have been signed, but more than ever, they are all there: schoolchildren, students, teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, city workers and even farmers who came in reinforcement with their tractors — some brand new, some beautiful collectibles — that rallied around the main square. The journalist Paul Jay, interviewing the activist and historian Allen Ruff for The Real News Network, acted falsely surprised: “I don’t quite understand this piece of it. I would assume that a lot of the support so far for the public sector workers have come from the urban centers, which are generally a little more, you know, progressive, a little more pro-union. If the farmers are supporting the public sector workers, then who the heck is supporting Governor Walker?” (http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6400)

And his companion replied, “Well, the Koch brothers, the large corporations, the big firms here in the state, in Milwaukee and across the region and nationally.” (http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6400) He added that everyone in Madison understands that this attack is directed against the unions only in appearance. Frankly, first it will affect all communities in the state, even the smallest, and secondly, in general, as orchestrated by the Republicans in the entire country, its main purpose is to crush the workers through their unions and the Democrats, who rely on unions to fund their campaigns. From a two-party system, we would make a transition to the undisputed power of money. Class consciousness, believed to be dead in the U.S., is being reborn.

They had already received the supportive visit by Michael Moore, for whom the uplift of the importance of labor is an exciting time. In his speech, “America Is Not Broke!”,he described the situation as class struggle and triggers an even greater joy that the media has a tendency to hide what happens. Today, March 13, it is the alternative media who organized things. At the forum was Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine, which was founded in 1909 in Madison. The legacy of social struggle is very strong there, with a long and proud history of opposition to authority, especially that of large companies and insolent money. They are legion, those who participated in the four weeks of fighting because their parents and grandparents fought for these rights. A young girl carries a picture of her grandfather’s union on the back of her jacket: “He wanted to see it! His place is here … “