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Ben Manski & Kabzuag Vaj: Making a Bigger Movement in Wisconsin
"This movement has to expand, we have no choice. They have no interest in compromise. . . we have to bend them or break them, because that's what they're doing to working class people in this state," says Ben Manski of Wisconsin WAVE, a new organization fighting austerity measures. He notes that labor organizations have nearly unanimously voted for to prepare for a general strike should Scott Walker's attack on unions be signed into law. And Kabzuag Vaj of Freedom, Inc. notes that, "If Governor Walker can attack people with some resources to fight back, he has no fear of poor people or people who have no resources."
Laura sat down with Ben and Kabzuag before she left Madison for Columbus, Ohio to discuss the wider movement, expanding beyond union rights, in Wisconsin and the rest of the world.
2 Comments so far
Show AllThough the anti-worker, anti-democracy Taft-Hartley Act makes a general strike illegal, it may be a useful, powerful weapon we need to use against the Corporatist-Militarist Ruling Class and its National Security Corporate Police State.
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has asked U.S. soldiers to refuse and resist deployment against workers in Wisconsin. See We Are Public Employees Too! - IVAW.org
http://www.ivaw.org/blog/we-are-public-employees-too
Perhaps the Great Turning is, at last, starting?
This national strike would be a wildcat strike. Same as PATCO was. My bosses would love to dismiss me for violation of the contract and along with that dismissal would be a cancellation of retirement benefits. There are other alternatives. I would willingly spend two weeks in Wisconsin working on political campaigns to recall Walker and his Senate cronies. A longer fight but a more effective one.