Robert Lafollette, Jr. and Joseph McCarthy. Russ Feingold and Scott Walker. How could one state–Wisconsin–elect politicians with such divergent views?

No state east of New York has had such a strong tradition of progressive views in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Despite the strength that Senator Robert Lafollette, Jr. and his father brought to the progressive wing of the Republican Party in Wisconsin, it seemed to have little staying power. In what must be one of the greatest political turnarounds in American history, Lafollette was defeated in 1946 in the Republican primary by conservative witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy. Did the people of Wisconsin fall for McCarthy’s criticism of Lafollette not joining the military in World War II, even though Lafollette was 46-years old at the time of Pearl Harbor and was a sitting U.S. senator? What caused the citizens to take a quantum leap to the right?

In Wisconsin, the state capital and the state university are both in the same town, Madison. The university has traditionally been a hotbed of progressive thinking and action, and at times that has flowed into the halls of the Capitol. This trend has continued into the current decade, but not because progressives at the university and in state government have been strengthening one another. Rather, it is students and faculty at the University, joined by thousands of state public employees demonstrating under the Rotunda in Governor Scott Walker’s office building.

Scott Walker has gone from being an embattled governor to a presidential contender. He was elected governor in 2010. The Wisconsin state legislature was also part of the red wave that covered the United States that year. Walker and the legislature collaborated in 2011 to pass the “Wisconsin budget repair bill,” which significantly changed the collective bargaining process for most public employees. The goal of the bill was to eliminate the deficit in the state budget. But the means of doing so was a punch in the gut to tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens, who had fought to bring a healthy equilibrium to the management-worker struggle, which has been with us since the first cave person hired another to do some work.

Public employees in Wisconsin and elsewhere are among the most under-paid workers in our economy. They often have jobs that are dangerous, tedious, and in the case of teachers, require far more than 40 hours a week with no overtime pay. Nonetheless, they were the target of Walker and the legislature. The law has survived a variety of challenges, including a recall election of Governor Walker. He defeated the recall in 2012 and then won reelection in 2014. His reelection only emboldened him to try to take the once union-strong state into a “right to work [for less]” state. Removing the confusing slogans, Walker wants to weaken labor unions in Wisconsin by not requiring workers to pay union dues, even if the employees of a company are represented in bargaining by a union.

Walker’s efforts to weaken unions in the private and the public sector has now drawn the ire of the National Football League. The NFL is certainly not  a bastion of liberalism, but players in the league have been organized and protected by the NFL Players Association since 1970. Players in the NFL may be well-compensated, but their working conditions have been terrible, with their health always at risk. Only with the Players Association has their pension been protected.

The one NFL team in Wisconsin is the storied Green Bay Packers. There is no billionaire owner of the team, just a bunch of interested citizens in the town of Green Bay and elsewhere in Wisconsin. Players on the Packers have always been enthusiastic union supporters.

Moving beyond the field of football, the NFL Players Association Is now playing politics in Wisconsin.

The union released a strongly worded statement on February 25 denouncing the state’s proposed right-to-work legislation — which would prohibit businesses and unions from requiring workers to pay union dues — and reaffirming its solidarity “with the working families of Wisconsin and organized labor in their fight against current attacks against their right to stand together as a team.”

The statement, written by executive director DeMaurice Smith, pointed to the various support staff employed at the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field who “will have their well being and livelihood jeopardized” by the law. It also acknowledged the “generations of skilled workers” who contribute to the state’s various industries and pointed to the law’s potentially devastating effects on wages and safety. Smith took direct shots at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who may be looking to boost his presidential aspirations at the expense of the state’s workers: “Governor Scott Walker may not value these vital employees, but as union members, we do.”

It would be a stretch to say that Scott Walker has been a demagogue of the ilk of Joe McCarthy. But Walker has successfully rallied Wisconsin citizens to undermine legislation that has protected them since the beginning of the progressive era in the late 19^th century. What’s happening in Wisconsin is similar to “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” in which citizens allow religiously formed social values to undermine their best economic interests. Yes, apparently this can happen too in Wisconsin, even with its strong university system and its proud progressive heritage.

This phenomenon stands as further evidence that the American body electorate is often more tuned into the politics of mythology and fear than to reason and their economic self-interest and that of their families and their neighbors. As I have said before, progressive education may be the best way to enlighten our citizenry.

The post Wisconsin shows how difficult it is to hold on to progressive gains appeared first on Occasional Planet.

With all the talk of raising the minimum wage, there is one state that shouldn’t have any trouble at all doing just that. Why? Because it’s the law. The minimum-wage law for the state of Wisconsin includes some very interesting language:

104.02  Living wage prescribed. Every wage paid or agreed to be paid by any employer to any employee… shall be not less than a living wage.
History: 1975 c. 94; 2005 a. 12.

104.03  Unlawful wages. Any employer paying, offering to pay, or agreeing to pay any employee a wage lower or less in value than a living wage is guilty of a violation of this chapter.

Recently, 100 people with salaries ranging from the minimum wage of $7.25 to as high as $15.05 filed a complaint with the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, telling him why their wage was not a living wage and therefore it violated the state statute. With a lie bigger than the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, Walker’s DWD (Department of Workforce Development) was quick to respond that $7.25 met the requirement for a living wage.

They did not call any of the 100 complainants. Despite being told over and over again that these people, who work full time, often had to decide between paying rent, buying food, or buying medicine (unable to afford all three and sometimes, could only afford one of the three), the DWD somehow felt that the respondents were living in the lap of luxury off of those princely sums. Unbelievably, part of the reason was that government assistance was considered enough extra income to meet the standard. That means food stamps bumped minimum-wage earners into the leisure class in the eyes of Walker’s government – the same government that provided the food stamps. Were they to simply raise the minimum wage, they would no longer have to provide food stamps for countless numbers of at risk workers.

Although Wisconsin Jobs Now vows the fight is not over, I am finding myself unable to get past the inhuman decision from Walker’s administration.

More justifications of this untenable decision had to do with “stuff” that the poor people owned. That old, tired, and insulting idea that if a poor person owns a refrigerator they are somehow living the life of Riley needs to die a quick and painful death. Some people used to have money and now have none. They may have owned things from that former life, like an aging iPhone or a battered car. (Yes, those who owned cars were considered living well above need. However, were any of those cars to break down there were no funds to repair them.) They may have realized that being able to buy food in a grocery store and keep it in a refrigerator saved a lot of money in the long run over eating out. Many apartments include a refrigerator in the furnishings. Most people consider it as essential as a stove or oven. The only people who appear to think of a refrigerator as a sign of abundant wealth are the kind of people who have never wanted for anything in their entire lives.

Regardless of the erroneous fantasies held by those with piles of money in the bank, this particular statute is there to protect the people who work hard and cannot make food and rent at the same time. The law is there to make sure that government fatcats and corporate masters value the workers who are such a huge part of any industry. Naturally, business interests are screaming that a higher minimum wage would immediately make them flee the state. Walker even cites some bogus study that says the more you pay your workforce, the more jobs are lost. This has been proven incorrect. In Seattle, WA, the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour and their job figures have been steadily climbing ever since.

It’s an easy equation even for someone who is not an economics major. If you put more money in the pockets of your workers, they will immediately pour that money into the economy of the state. They don’t hide it in offshore accounts. They use it, because they have to. They use it paying rents, buying food, clothes, and the occasional birthday cake. They spend the money on their kids, buying them school supplies and a new wardrobe for their growing bodies. They buy health insurance and gas for their functioning car. If you keep paying them too little to survive, there is only money for necessities. They pay their rent, or get some groceries, or maybe they decide to buy some much-needed medication (Walker did not accept Medicaid expansion, so a lot of poor people here have no insurance at all).

I am hoping that the battle for a living wage continues. The law is on the side of the underpaid. We just need to find a way to get our ridiculous little homunculus of a governor* to listen. Judging by all of the John Doe investigations into him and his administration, he’s not a big fan of laws. We need a miracle – like Mary Burke winning the Governor’s election next month.

*Ordinarily, I am not a fan of name-calling. I make an exception in Walker’s case because it’s an accurate description.

The post The minimum rage: Wisconsin edition appeared first on Occasional Planet.

In 1934, President Roosevelt traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin to support working families who were struggling against the equivalent of today’s Koch brothers. By doing so, he demonstrated to the people of the Midwest that he was on their side in the struggle against corporations and Wall Street. His direct support of working people, through his policies and actions, and his willingness to stand up to moneyed interests, won him spectacular political success—something President Obama could have if he did the same.

Today teachers and other public sector union workers of Wisconsin are battling against the extreme right wing agenda of Republican Governor Scott Walker. Although he did not campaign on these issues, Walker has declared war on public sector unions, given tax breaks to the wealthy, cut services to working families, and has plans to privatize state assets.

The hundreds of thousands who braved the bitter cold last January to protest Governor Walker’s extreme measures, and who are still battling to recall Walker next year, could use the same kind of support from President Obama that FDR gave workers in Wisconsin in 1934. But, since the demonstrations in Madison began, President Obama—who vowed during his campaign to walk the picket line whenever union workers were threatened—has been missing in action. And, in his recent Mid Western tour, he chose to steer clear of the political hot bed of Wisconsin.

Many of us are longing for candidate Obama to reappear and take a strong stand for working families against the greed of Wall Street and billionaires such as the Koch Brothers. Endless compromise in favor of their representatives—the Republican Party—is not helping us recover as a nation. In these difficult times, we, the people, need a strong advocate.

Like Obama today, FDR faced a harping demand from the Right for deregulation and small government as a solution to the country’s economic woes. But, unlike Obama who has not been clear where he stands, FDR scoffed at their self-serving ideas. His speech is as relevant and inspiring today as it was when he delivered it in Green Bay 77 years ago.  The following is an excerpt. For the full speech, click here.

People know also that the average man in Wisconsin waged a long and bitter fight for his rights. Here, and in the Nation as a whole, in the Nation at large . . . man has been fighting . . . against those forces which disregard human cooperation and human rights, in seeking that kind of individual profit which is gained at the expense of his fellows . . .

In the great national movement that culminated over a year ago [1933], people joined with enthusiasm. They lent hand and voice to the common cause, irrespective of many older political traditions. They saw the dawn of a new day. They were on the march; they were coming back into the possession of their own home land.

As the humble instruments of their vision and their power, those of us who were chosen to serve them in 1932 turned to the great task. In one year and five months, the people of the United States have received at least a partial answer to their demands for action; and neither the demand nor the action has reached the end of the road. . . .

Before I left on my trip . . . I received two letters from important men, both of them pleading that I say something to restore confidence. To both of them I wrote identical answers: “What would you like to have me say?” From one of them I have received no reply at all in six weeks. I take it that he is still wondering how to answer. The other man wrote me frankly that in his judgment the way to restore confidence was for me to tell the people of the United States that all supervision by all forms of Government, Federal and State, over all forms of human activity called business should be forthwith abolished.

Now, my friends, in other words, that man was frank enough to imply that he would repeal all laws, State or national, which regulate business—that a utility could henceforth charge any rate, unreasonable or otherwise; that the railroads could go back to rebates and other secret agreements; that the processors of food stuffs could disregard all rules of health and of good faith; that the unregulated wild-cat banking of a century ago could be restored; that fraudulent securities and watered stock could be palmed off on the public; that stock manipulation which caused panics and enriched insiders could go unchecked. In fact, my friends, if we were to listen to him and his type, the old law of the tooth and the claw would reign in our Nation once more.

The people of the United States will not restore that ancient order. There is no lack of confidence on the part of those business men, farmers and workers who clearly read the signs of the times. Sound economic improvement comes from the improved conditions of the whole population and not a small fraction thereof.

Those who would measure confidence in this country in the future must look first to the average citizen . . .

We who support this New Deal do so because it is a square deal and because it is essential to the preservation of security and happiness in a free society such as ours. I like its definition by a member of the Congress. He said:

“The new deal is an old deal—as old as the earliest aspirations of humanity for liberty and justice and the good life. It is as old as Christian ethics, for basically its ethics are the same. It is new as the Declaration of Independence was new, and the Constitution of the United States; its motives are the same. It voices the deathless cry of good men and good women for the opportunity to live and work in freedom, the right to be secure in their homes and in the fruits of their labor, the power to protect themselves against the ruthless and the cunning. It recognizes that man is indeed his brother’s keeper, insists that the laborer is worthy of his hire, demands that justice shall rule the mighty as well as the weak.

“It seeks to cement our society, rich and poor, manual worker and brain worker, into a voluntary brotherhood of freemen, standing together, striving together, for the common good of all.”

Keep that vision before your eyes and in your hearts; it can, it will be attained.

 

The post What Obama can learn from FDR appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Republicans flipped twenty legislative chambers across the country in 2010 and picked up 10 governorships. Many Republicans, like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, campaigned on the economy, promising more jobs, but having won, are racing to push through a radical conservative agenda. The country is looking for help on the economy, but state Republicans are devoting themselves to tax breaks for the rich, anti-abortion legislation, the destruction of public sector unions, and the suppression of the vote. Not exactly what the electorate bargained for.

According to the Washington Post,

Legislators have proposed 374 antiabortion bills this year, up from 174 last year. Lawmakers have introduced more than 750 bills on collective bargaining this year, with more than 500 aimed at public sector unions, a significant increase over past years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

At least 32 states are considering new or tougher requirements for voter identification at the polls. And 3,000 bills targeting pension reform for public sector employees are in hoppers nationwide, many of them modeled after legislation proposed by the American Legislative Change Council (ALEC), a high-profile conservative think tank that helps legislatures shape fiscal policy.

In Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and other states, polls are showing that independent and moderate voters who voted Republican are having buyer’s remorse. For example, hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Madison against Walker’s attempt to destroy public sector unions, including union members who had voted for him. A recall effort scheduled for July 12 could return the Wisconsin Senate to Democratic control. And after January 2012, another recall is planned against Governor Walker himself. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich pushed to strip state union’s of their collective bargaining rights through a bill called SB 5. That bill would actually go further than the one in Wisconsin by not exempting fire and law enforcement unions from the changes. And, Kasich aims to close an $8 billion budget gap largely through cuts to government services, such as a tightening of the eligibility requirements for government-subsidized health care for children in low income families. Ohioans are upset that Kasich’s budget will most hurt the state’s poor. In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder (R) is facing a backlash because of his controversial proposal to grant him the power to declare a financial emergency—what some are calling “financial martial law”—in a given city and appoint an emergency manager of his choosing. That manager could void union contracts and even dissolve a city government.

GOP overreach in Governor’s mansions and state houses could have an effect on national House and Senate races in those states in 2012. For example, in Wisconsin, Democratic Senator Herb Kohl is retiring and it’s not clear who is going to run for his seat—in either party—although there is a strong movement to encourage Russ Feingold to run again. But, Wisconsin voters, who are unhappy with the GOP agenda at the state and local level, may not be keen to elect a Republican. The likely Republican candidate would have been Representative Paul Ryan (WI) but it appears he has decided not to run. He has been a favorite of conservatives in WI, and a favorite of Wall Street, so he would have had plenty of money to mount a serious campaign. Then, he came up with a plan to radically restructure Medicare. Polls found that 80 percent of Americans opposed Ryan’s scheme, and angry crowds greeted the congressman in his April town hall meetings across southeast Wisconsin.

These are Democratic and moderate Republican voters who are angered by what their Republican Governor is doing in Madison and their representative is doing in Washington. Voters in Wisconsin and other states are turning against the radical GOP agenda, one that is decidedly out of touch with working families who are struggling with job loss and foreclosure. GOP overreach, at the state and local level, combined with their lack of real solutions for the economy, may just help Democrats in 2012.

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If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

—Frederick Douglass, 1857

The American failure in the past decades to protect and preserve working families can be laid at the feet of complacent liberals and the Democratic party as much as it can be laid at the feet of Republicans and movement conservatives. An addiction to comfort and the lucrative returns from the economic bubbles created by Wall Street allowed many so-called liberals (both politicians and voters) to look the other way as life deteriorated for the majority of poor and middle class Americans. The growing influence of corporations and Wall Street  on the political process, and on the American psyche, over the last decades has had an increasingly corrupting affect on our democracy. In what has become an Orwellian reality, our politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, invite corporate lobbyists to write our legislation, then take lucrative jobs as lobbyists when they leave office. It is a closed loop that leaves the citizens who elected them with no real voice or representation.

Democrats as well as Republicans, by aligning themselves with corporate money and power, have contributed to the precipitous economic decline of working and middle class families. President Reagan began the assault on unions and American families, then President Clinton continued with NAFTA, which helped corporations move middle class jobs overseas, and the deregulation of financial markets, which caused the economic meltdown of 2008. Recently, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision unleashed unlimited corporate money into the political process.

The corporate-fueled November 2010 shift to Republican control in Congress—and in many normally blue state legislatures and governorships—has resulted in an all out attack on what is left of unions and the middle class.  It is now clear that the wealthy are determined to claim any and all taxpayer-generated assets as their own, through government bailouts, tax cuts, and privatization schemes. The 2008 bailout of Wall Street, which saw trillions in taxpayer wealth transferred to the top 1%, was just a start. They are now trying to dismantle social safety nets and public sector unions as a way to cut “expenses” and “balance the budget” when the real issue is a lack of revenue—a fair taxation system that would fund the infrastructure and services a healthy society needs. As evidenced by Wisconsin Republican Governor Walker’s recent, and for the moment successful attack, on public sector workers, the billionaire’s coup is well under way.

The failure of liberals and the Democratic Party

Chris Hedges, author of The Death of the Liberal Class, in a recent article at Truthdig, commented on what happens when so-called liberals and the Democratic party, which is supposed to be the champion of working people, allow the erosion of democracy and democratic institutions.The following are excerpts from his excellent article “Power Concedes Nothing without a Demand.”

The liberal class is discovering what happens when you tolerate the intolerant. Let hate speech pollute the airways. Let corporations buy up your courts and state and federal legislative bodies. Let the Christian religion be manipulated by charlatans to demonize Muslims, gays and intellectuals, discredit science and become a source of personal enrichment. Let unions wither under corporate assault. Let social services and public education be stripped of funding. Let Wall Street loot the national treasury with impunity. . . .

Workers in this country paid for their rights by suffering brutal beatings, mass expulsions from company housing and jobs, crippling strikes, targeted assassinations of union leaders and armed battles with hired gun thugs and state militias. The Rockefellers, the Mellons, the Carnegies and the Morgans—the Koch Brothers Industries, Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart of their day—never gave a damn about workers. All they cared about was profit. The eight-hour workday, the minimum wage, Social Security, pensions, job safety, paid-vacations, retirement benefits and health insurance were achieved because hundreds of thousands of workers physically fought a system of capitalist exploitation. . . .

Those who fought to achieve these rights endured tremendous suffering, pain and deprivation. It is they who made possible our middle class and opened up our democracy. Our freedoms and rights were paid for with their courage and blood. . . .

The collapse of public education—nearly a third of the country is illiterate or semiliterate—and the rise of Democratic and Republican politicians who have sold their souls for corporate money, have left us largely defenseless. . . .

The public debate, dominated by corporate-controlled systems of information, ignores the steady impoverishment of the working class and absence of legal and regulatory mechanisms to prevent mounting corporate fraud and abuse. The airwaves are saturated with corporate apologists. They ask us why public-sector employees have benefits—sneeringly called “entitlements”—which nonunionized working- and middle-class people are denied. This argument is ingenious. It pits worker against worker in a mad scramble for scraps. And until we again speak in the language of open class warfare, grasping, as those who went before us did, that the rich will always protect themselves at our expense, we are doomed to a 21st century serfdom. . . .

The pillars of the liberal establishment, which once made incremental and piecemeal reform possible, have collapsed. . . . Schools and universities, on their knees for corporate dollars and their boards dominated by hedge fund and investment managers, have deformed education into the acquisition of narrow vocational skills that serve specialized corporate interests and create classes of drone-like systems managers. They make little attempt to equip students to make moral choices, stand up for civic virtues and seek a life of meaning. These moral and ethical questions are never even asked. Humanities departments are vanishing as swiftly as the ocean’s fish stocks. . . .

The electronic and much of the print press has become a shameless mouthpiece for the powerful and a magnet for corporate advertising. . . . Legitimate news organizations, such as NPR and The New York Times, are left cringing and apologizing before the beast—right-wing groups that hate “liberal” news organizations not because of any bias, but because they center public discussion on verifiable fact. And verifiable fact is not convenient to ideologues whose goal is the harnessing of inchoate rage and hatred. . . .

The Democratic Party, on the national level, has sold out working men and women for corporate and Wall Street campaign donations.  Which is why the resistance in Madison WI is so important to the health and future of the nation. Real change is happening at the local level, not in the compromised halls of Congress. It is ordinary citizens in the Midwest who are rising up against the assaults of the billionaire class and their political retainers. In Wisconsin, real Democrats in the Wisconsin state legislature, acting courageously and with integrity, are restoring respectability to the political profession. The Democrats in DC could learn a thing or two from state Representative Peter Barca, who tried to stop the bill that would strip workers of their right to collective bargaining from passing. And they could learn from the 14 Democratic state senators who left the state rather than allow a vote on Governor Walker’s draconian “Budget Repair Bill.”

Because of the willingness of the people of Wisconsin to stand and confront power, for the first time in decades, we have real hope. The American people are starting to connect the dots—from the Wall Street bailout with taxpayer money, to the trillions spent in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the so called lack of money for ordinary working families. The confrontations that are taking place in the capitols of the Midwest may return the states to real Democratic control through a series of recalls.

But, eventually, the confrontations must move to the doors of the financial institutions on Wall Street, and the corporations who pay no taxes and ship our good jobs overseas. A good precedent was set recently in St. Louis where citizens held a demonstration against union busting and corporate greed. The confrontations must move to the offices of congressmen and Senators in DC. We need more than the vague, unfocused, feel good march on the Mall staged by Jon Stewart. We must demand of our Democratic representatives in Washington that they stop pandering to the interests of the billionaire class and represent working Americans as they were elected to do—or step aside for someone who will.

The post No struggle, no progress appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The question shall arise in your day: which shall rule, wealth or man,” said Edward Ryan, the Chief Justice of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, in an address to the law school in Madison in 1873. “Which shall lead, money or intellect; who shall fill public stations — educated and patriotic free men or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?

The above quote is taken from an excellent post by David Dayen at Firedoglake in which he outlines a new coming together of the Democratic Party and the progressive grassroots. The new progressive strategies emerging in Wisconsin, Indiana and other states are inspiring authentic hope, and may give DC corporate Democrats pause as we approach 2012.

The following is a summary of Dayen’s post. For more detail check out  his complete article: “Postcard from a New American Progressive Movement: The Wisconsin Strategy.” His two main points are the following:

1. Tens of thousands of grassroots protestors have quickly and effectively organized themselves around the issues of jobs and worker’s rights. In a short span of time, progressives and labor union members demonstrating in Madison created the Capitol City Leadership Committee, an umbrella organization made up of different working groups, each with its own responsibilities. The Committee meets daily and any business is put to a democratic vote. If there is a tie, there are three rounds of debate and then the motion is tabled. One of newly emerged protest leaders, Thomas Bird, had this to say:

I believe that the progressive movement and the labor unions are the only political force left in this country capable of standing up for the brave, hard working Americans who have seen their voice drowned out by the influence of corporate campaign donations . . . The Democratic representatives of the state of Wisconsin have converted me from being a cynic into being an activist. It is the greatest honor of my life that I have been a part of this fight, and I will do everything that I possibly can do continue it.

2. The grassroots protesters and the Democratic members of the Wisconsin legislature are united. Both the Democratic Senators, who heroically left the state to deny the Republicans a quorum, and the Democrats in the State Assembly have become progressive activists. Assembly Democrats wear orange t-shirts that say “Fighting for Working Families.” They have held public hearings through the night to force the Capitol to stay open. They spent 63 hours on the Assembly floor stretching out debate on Walker’s “Budget Repair” bill, forcing the local media to report on what it contained. In short, Wisconsin Democratic legislators have left the compromised national Democratic Party behind and linked up with their progressive grassroots. They are focused on the near term goal of stopping Walker’s bill but they are also meeting to plot strategy for the medium and long-term fights progressives are clearly wanting to wage. The progressive grassroots in Wisconsin is now supported by a completely responsive state Democratic Party, and the feeling is mutual. According to Dayen, protesters and activists are willing to “crawl across glass”  for their Democratic legislators.

Together with protestors, the Democratic members of the legislature are developing a multi-pronged plan to win back the state for working people. It is precisely this kind of will to fight for labor and the middle and working class that has been missing among corporate Democrats in DC. Here are the main points of their plan:

• Take legal action against the bill: Milwaukee’s city attorney has declared the budget repair bill unconstitutional. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (who lost to Walker in the gubernatorial race) has requested Walker to seek a legal opinion from the state Attorney General on the legality of his bill. AFSCME has filed an unfair labor practice claim against Walker for refusing to negotiate while under a collective bargaining agreement. Democrats are looking at all footage of the Assembly vote, to see if Republicans may have voted illegally, by electronic device, for missing colleagues. Finally, lawyers plan to sue the state the moment Governor Walker signs any budget repair bill that includes the stripping of collective bargaining rights.

• Explore legal action against Walker: The phone call from “David Koch” features a number of statements from the Governor that could violate ethics, labor and election laws, including campaign finance. Walker admitted he is trying to break public employee unions like Reagan broke PATCO, and that he will use layoffs to that end.

• Hold a General strike. After March 13, state public employee unions will be operating without a contract. At that point, workers throughout Madison, though barred by Taft-Hartley requirements from joining strikes, may do so anyway. If the bill passes, chances are there will be at least some portion of Wisconsin that will go on a general strike for some amount of time.

• Win the majority in the state Supreme Court. On April 5, there’s a race for a state Supreme Court seat between an incumbent Republican, David Prosser, and Democrat, JoAnn Kloppenberg. Supreme Court races in Wisconsin are elections. According to Dayen, this race will be a national level battle, a proxy Presidential race with at least $10 million spent on it between both sides. If Kloppenberg wins, it  would shift the balance of power to Democrats and provide a major setback for Walker and the Republicans.

• Win current open legislative seats. The same day as that April 5 special election, there are primaries for three state Assembly races, vacated by three Republicans who joined Walker’s cabinet. While at least two of the three are seen as strong Republican seats, progressives in Wisconsin plan to contest all three.

• Mount recalls for Republican legislators and Governor Walker. There will be recall elections for many of the eight Republican state Senators who can be recalled immediately. The organizing for this has already begun. According to Dayen, progressives may first take on Republican Sen. Alberta Darling, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, which reported out the budget repair bill. She represents a North Shore suburban Milwaukee district, which is heavily Jewish and fairly Democratic. It’s the kind of seat many Democrats lost, but should have won in 2010. There’s already a candidate lined up for the recall, former Assemblyman Sheldon Wasserman. The possible recall of Gov. Walker cannot begin until January 2012. Progressives, working with Democratic politicians and party operatives, are united and have a very deliberate strategy to build momentum at every step of the way.

What’s happening in Wisconsin is spreading to other states:

This is a new synchronicity between the party apparatus and the grassroots, and it’s starting to spread. Perhaps more remarkable than the Wisconsin battle is the one happening in Indiana. State House Democrats walked out there in protest of a bill that would have crushed private employee unions. The Republicans pulled back on that. But Democrats remained out of the district, and vowed to stay put until an education bill that would set up a voucher system was scotched. Indiana Democrats are not exactly known as fighting progressives; in some cases they may be to the right of Wisconsin Republicans. But they have responded to their grassroots and are standing by them.

Ultimately, that’s how this new American progressive movement will move forward. The activists and the politicians, the protesters and the reformers, the signature-gatherers and the people fighting in the streets, the unions and the college students, all must unite on a series of goals dedicated to the rights of the worker to have a good job and a house and a reasonable way of life for themselves. People power, basic fundamental rights and justice. These are the tenets of the movement.

The post Wisconsin: Blueprint for a new progressive movement in America appeared first on Occasional Planet.

On February 27, the people occupying the Wisconsin state capital building in support of worker’s rights, broke out in a stirring rendition of a song from Les Misérables, one of the most famous and most performed musicals worldwide. The musical is based on the novel Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo, which follows the struggles of a group of characters as they seek personal redemption and social revolution in nineteenth century France.

Hugo, also a political activist, spoke out against social injustice. When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He then relocated to Guernsey, where he lived in exile until 1870. While in exile, he published a famous political pamphlet against Napoleon III, Napoléon le Petit. It includes the concept of “two plus two equals five” as a denial of truth by authority, a notion later used by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Hugo’s pamphlet was banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also penned Les Misérables.while in exile.

Today, February 28, Wisconsin TV stations are being flooded by Koch brothers funded advertising that claims “two plus two equals five,” demonizes the protesting workers, and supports Governor Walker’s draconian bill. Walker, who has only been in office six weeks, seems to be auditioning for the role of Napoleon III of Wisconsin. He has already given generous tax cuts to the wealthy. His “Budget Repair” bill would strip public workers of their right to collective bargaining. It would give him the authority to sell off public assets at his discretion, to whomever he wants, at whatever price he wants. It also would allow him to circumvent the legislature and cut health services for the poor and elderly. In addition he plans steep cuts to education and local governments. And, unless he has his way, he is threatening to lay off thousands of Wisconsin teachers and other public sector workers.

But the public sector workers and their supporters have been hanging strong for two weeks. This past weekend saw the largest number of demonstrators to date, upwards of 100,000 who stood in peaceful protest, in freezing temperatures, while snow fell. Others occupied the state capital building.

The public sector workers of Wisconsin are leading the country in what may turn out to be our own 21st century revolution—a revolution that restores social and economic justice to the working and middle class people of America.

Feel free to sing along in solidarity.

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of working men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of working men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of working men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

The post Madison protestors, inspired by Victor Hugo, take on Wisconsin’s newly elected emperor appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Wisconsin Republican Scott Walker was elected governor, and long time Democratic senator Russ Feingold was defeated, because conservative billionaires, David and Charles Koch, flooded the state with their money in order to influence the elections. Thanks to the Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision, they were able to fund, through various venues, an unprecedented number of non-stop, 24/7, conservative TV and radio ads. Most were negative, and the ones that weren’t, were not forthcoming about the extremist agenda they wished to enact. As George Lakoff notes, this massive amount of political advertising mattered, because “. . .language heard over and over changes brains.” Feingold, and Walker’s Democratic opponent, who had significantly less money, were simply not able to compete against the Koch brothers largesse. From Mother Jones on the Walker race for governor:

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker’s gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign’s second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch’s PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker’s opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

So far, the attention on Scott Walker’s legislative proposal has focused on his effort to revoke Wisconsin public employees’ collective bargaining rights. His major donors, the Kochs, have long backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and the Reason Foundation, which have called for the eradication of public-sector unions. They personally vehemently oppose them. But the Koch’s interest in Wisconsin politics goes beyond the issue of unions. They are counting on Walker to enact a core conservative principle by selling off the state’s assets to private interests. And if his bill passes, they will be first in line. Consider these items buried in Walker’s 144-page bill:

16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state-owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

So, to translate, the Koch brother’s reward for drowning Scott Walker in money may be a chance to buy a bunch of publicly owned power plants for a song. The “best interest of the state” phrase in the bill would mean whatever Walker wants it to mean. This is textbook Republican corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism.

It comes at no surprise that the Koch brothers already have considerable business interests in Wisconsin. They own Flint Hills Recources, LLC, a leading refining and chemicals company; Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. which operates a pipeline that crosses the state; the C. Reiss Coal Company that supplies coal to power companies; and the Georgia Pacific companies, which has six facilities in the state. And with Walker in the Governor’s mansion, other lucrative business opportunities await them. To underscore their keen interest and ongoing meddling in the state of Wisconsin, they recently bussed in Tea Party members at their expense to have a “rally” for Walker, to counter the teachers who are demonstrating.

The need to understand the many anti-democratic aspects of the Walker bill

There are other time bombs in this bill such as Walker being able to slash Badger Care and other programs for the poor at his discretion outside of the legislative process.

Walker’s “Budget Repair Bill” presents an important political moment for both the state of Wisconsin, and the country. It is a moment when anti-American, anti-democratic conservative forces, which are trying to usher in a new Gilded Age, can be named and stopped in their tracks. To be most effective, the teachers and their supporters demonstrating for the right to collective bargaining need to demonstrate against these other negative implications of the bill as well.

The Democratic legislators fled the state to avoid having this bill shoved through the senate without deliberation, and to allow for better public scrutiny of what it proposes. Hopefully the people of Wisconsin will soon understand just how extreme their governor’s agenda is, and publicly expose and stand against all of the draconian aspects of his bill. If they do, they will provide much needed inspiration and guidance for the rest of the country, especially in those Republican controlled states, whose politicians are well funded by people like the Koch’s, and that are also undergoing similar anti-union and anti-democratic attacks.

The post Why Wisconsin is ground zero of the billionaires’ assault on America appeared first on Occasional Planet.

There have been many individuals wondering whether people would have to take to the streets to  awaken our legislators, and most importantly President Barack Obama that “hello, there are progressives out here, and we’re feeling ignored.”

Perhaps it took a frustrated and principled individual in Tunisia named Mohamed Bouazizi who expressed his objections to government policies through self-immolation to get things moving. Reports are unclear as to whether he had a university degree or not even a high school diploma, but it seems that he was one of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe who are under-employed.  He was trying to support himself as a street vendor.  But in the spirit of “let no good deed go unpunished,” he couldn’t ply his wares without constantly being harassed by public and private officials for money, to comply with silly regulations, and to accept his “low station in life.”  And then in the spirit of Howard Beale in the movie “Network,” he said, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore” by literally going up in flames.

This was enough to strengthen the protests of the oppressed in Tunisia to the point where they could rally and overthrow their government.  A day or two later, people took to the streets in Egypt to seek the ouster of their dictator, Hosni Mubarak.  Since then the “power to the people” movement has spread throughout the Middle East to Bahrain, Jordan, Iran, Libya, and Yemen.

It may be coincidental or it may be causal, but in the third week of February 2011, public employees in the state of Wisconsin hit the streets.  A Republican Governor and most of the Republican-dominated state legislature want to curtail or abolish the right of public employees to organize and engage in collective bargaining.  Teachers and others did something that progressives have been talking about but not doing ever since the first doubts about President Obama’s commitment to, or even tolerance of, a progressive agenda arose.

Union membership has fallen from 33% following World War II, to 24% in 1979, to 14% in 1998.  Now it is under 9%.

The captains of industry tell us that it’s all in the interest of keeping prices low for American consumers.  If jobs were not outsourced, American companies couldn’t compete and more workers would lose their jobs resulting in even less consumer demand.  Perhaps that is true, but it is doubtful that the motives of most outsourcers are altruistic and based on concern about American workers and consumers.

However Republicans in Wisconsin and elsewhere try to frame their positions, what they are doing is (a) starving the beast, (b) busting unions, (c) justifying low taxes, and (d) laying guilt trips on public employees who are among our most dedicated workers, but susceptible to being called unpatriotic when they are abused.

My support for the workers is only dampened by the e-mails I receive from authoritarian progressives who tell me how to think and who to write and what to say.  My inbox gets flooded with e-mails telling me to sign this petition, go to an on-line survey and answer in the question(s) as they would have me do.  Why is it that I feel that the advocates for those who have been oppressed seem to express themselves with the same arrogance and assuredness as those who they accuse of being arbitrary and capricious?

I wonder what the point of being a progressive is if we can’t respect individuals’ rights to think for themselves.  How can we make progress as a country if we don’t encourage and cultivate critical thinking?  How can we treat our friends and associates when we tell them what to do rather than asking them to give consideration to an issue and a point of view.

To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never “signed” an on-line petition when told that I had to do it.  I did enthusiastically sign an on-line petition when the eighteen- year- old son of a friend of mine sent an e-mail in which he (a) immediately apologized for intruding upon my privacy, (b) asked for a moment so that he could briefly describe  the conclusions that he had reached on a public issues, and (c) asked me to consider the information he provided and to access other information and then draw a conclusion with which I was comfortable.  I did my best to follow his words of wisdom.  And I think of him every time an adult with whom I share many political views tells me what to do without acknowledging that many issues are complicated and the best we can do is try to give balanced consideration and then make our own choices (some people call this being pro-choice).

I was at college in Washington, DC when the large anti-Vietnam War rallies began.  I’d go to the Mall, wanting to be convinced that there were sound reasons to jump on the bandwagon against the war.  It didn’t take me long to get to that point, but it was in spite of rather than because of many of the protesters.  My most vivid memory of a march involved a street vendor.  Yes, you heard that correctly, a street vendor, probably not unlike Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia.

A middle-aged man entered the crowd with an aluminum carton strapped around his neck.  It was filled with dry ice and ice cream.  He was there to sell to marchers exactly what many of them wanted.   He was also trying to make a meager living.  Someone in the crowd yelled, “Liberate the ice cream man.”  Dozens descended upon him, took the container from him and threw ice cream bars to as many people as they could.  They “liberated” the ice cream vendor as if he was part of the military-industrial complex fomenting a war 8,000 miles away.  That image revolted me and explained a lot to me, including why our “liberated” baby boom generation has played key roles in electing Ronald Reagan twice, a George Bush three times, and applying pressure on Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to tilt more and more to the right.

So I’d like to apologize to those of you who have gotten this far in this post for possibly intruding on your time.  If you have gotten this far, I hope that you may find some wisdom in these words.  Finally, if you can tolerate the ambiguity that is associated with virtually every difficult situation and you have thoughts you’d like to express about what is happening in Wisconsin and elsewhere, please do so.

The post Can a movement tolerate ambiguity? appeared first on Occasional Planet.

BadgerCare is Wisconsin’s healthcare plan for low-income residents—and as state healthcare programs go, it’s one of the best. Wisconsin now ranks second in the country in percentage of people with access to health care. Massachusetts, with its mandatory health insurance program, is first.

Many states have health care options for low-income families with children, as does Wisconsin. But the Wisconsin legislature saw a need for a health care plan for adults without dependent children, and created the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan.  Here are the requirements for applying. You are eligible if you:

• Are a Wisconsin resident;
• Are a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant;
• Are age 19 through 64;
• Do not have children or do not have dependent children, under age 19 living with you;
• Are not pregnant;
• Have family income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level guidelines ($1,805 for a single person and $2,428.33 for a married couple*);
• Do not have private health insurance coverage when you request Core Plan coverage or in the 12 months before that date;
• Do not currently have access to insurance from an employer;
• Cannot sign up for insurance from an employer during month of application or next three months;
• Did not have access to insurance from an employer in the 12 months before you request Core Plan coverage; and
• Are not getting BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid or Medicare.

Once an applicant is accepted to BadgerCare Plus Core Plan, the healthcare is free with the exception of $3 co-pays for doctor visits and some prescriptions, and $100 for a hospital stay. The covered benefits are remarkably comprehensive.

As of June 15, 2009, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services began accepting applications for the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan with the earliest enrollment date July 15, 2009. Unfortunately, by October 2009, the application process for the plan was suspended because the total number of applications was greater than the 60,000 slots available. A Core Plan wait list was created, and people on the wait list will be able to enroll in the Core Plan as space becomes available.

But a wait list was not good enough for Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. On June 1, 2010, he announced that individuals who are currently waiting for health care coverage under the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan now have the option to enroll in the BadgerCare Plus Basic plan. The Basic plan is an entirely self-funded health care plan created for more than 50,000 adults without dependent children who are on the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan waiting list. Benefits will start for some enrollees July 1, 2010. Premiums will be $130 per month.

“This will not be a Cadillac health plan,” Governor Doyle said. “In fact, it will be just what the name suggests – it will be basic.  But basic coverage can be the difference between a treatable condition and a trip to the emergency room.  And basic coverage can be the difference between having protection while you try and get your feet back on the ground and going bankrupt trying to pay for medical care.”

Members will have access to catastrophic coverage plus:

•Up to 10 physician visits each year;

•Limited hospitalization;

◦Coverage for first inpatient hospital stay and five outpatient hospital visits;

◦Subsequent stays after $7,500 deductible;

•Up to five emergency room visits each year;

•Some generic medications; and

•Badger Rx Gold discount drug membership.

The Basic plan is not designed to be a long-term health coverage plan, but is instead a temporary plan to help people take care of their health care needs while they wait for coverage on the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan. BadgerCare Plus Basic builds on Governor Doyle’s work over the last seven years to make Wisconsin a health care leader.

The post On Wisconsin! Go BadgerCare! appeared first on Occasional Planet.