WISCONSIN GOV. Scott Walker's reputation is secure. He is known the length and breadth of the country as an anti-labor maniac who will go to any length--legal or not, moral or not, democratic or not--to break the unions of teachers, nurses and health-care workers, social workers and more.
Walker and his fellow Republicans thought they could get away with anything when they took office with majorities in both houses of the legislature. But they weren't counting on the immediate and furious response when Walker called a special session of the legislature and proposed a "budget repair bill" that went for every point on the right-wing wish list, from slashing spending for health care programs for the poor to virtually eliminating collective bargaining for public-sector unions.
The occupation of the state Capitol spurred by a sick-out by Madison teachers that spread across the state pressured Senate Democrats to flee, denying the Republicans the quorum they needed to ram their legislation through. Days of protest followed, while Walker and his supporters in the media complained about union "thugs" who were preventing them from getting their way.
Then, without warning this week, Walker dropped the bomb. Republicans in the Senate separated the anti-union provisions and other measures that weren't specifically about financial matters, allowing them to hold a vote without the quorum requirement.
The Republicans were able to hold a vote under the Senate's rules. But the supposed justification for taking away union rights from government workers--that this was necessary to close a shortfall in the state budget--was ripped away. Walker and the Republicans were revealed for what they are: Nothing more than union-busters, acting in the service of their corporate patrons.
The bill sailed through the Senate on Wednesday night, and the Assembly the next day, leaving the massive and vibrant movement that rose up against Walker with a challenge--step up the fight, or give up having lost on all counts.
For the union movement, this is a do-or-die moment. If you talk to any veteran union activist long enough, they'll tell you: We should have never let President Ronald Reagan get away with firing 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and obliterating their union PATCO. Labor failed to rally to PATCO's defense--and soon enough, other unions found themselves in the crosshairs.
Thirty years later, we're in a similar crisis with the Wisconsin legislation championed by Walker, which will destroy any meaningful power for public-sector unions. But as was the case with the PATCO defeat, top union leaders are strenuously trying to avoid what has become an inescapable, high-stakes clash between capital and labor.
The unions will be at the front of a huge demonstration planned for this Saturday, March 12, outside the Capitol. But labor officials have turned their eyes to an electoral strategy to recall Republican state senators--in the hope that, months from now, enough Democrats will become senators to reverse the anti-union law.
The Republican senators should be recalled--and Walker, too. But the reason that unionists and people concerned with justice around the country look to Wisconsin with hope isn't because of recall elections--but because of the massive mobilization that stopped Walker and Co. in their tracks and electrified the country with its spirit, its inventiveness and its determination. That's where the power lies to turn back this attack, not at the polls.
Union officials are demobilizing and disarming this movement at the very moment that workers need to step up the fight or lose decades of gains by organized labor. If top union officials are unable or unwilling to face up to this task, then a new leadership must step forward--one composed of rank and file activists and local union leaders unafraid to buck their higher-ups.
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