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From the Front Lines in Madison, WI
As someone who has been involved in the protests in Madison for the past six days, I find the news media coverage of the momentous events in this town to in no way portray the reality of what is going on here. In their attempts to constantly be balanced, the news media seem to have lost all ability to be accurate.
The mass protests by unions and their allies that have occurred in Madison, WI, resulted after an abrupt announcement by Governor Walker late last Friday, Feb. 11, that he was introducing and fast-tracking a so-called “Budget Repair” bill, which would not only deeply cut benefits to public workers, but effectively strip unions of all of their collective bargaining rights. The response to the Governor’s move was rapid and in no way orchestrated or long-planned – there was absolutely no possible time for that. By late Monday, Feb 14, the WI state legislature announced a hearing of the bill in the Joint Finance Committee which was open for public testimony. It was then that unions and affected public sector workers began to try to organize to fight the bill.
Interestingly, members of the public, including myself, arrived early Tuesday morning to have our positions heard in the committee hearing on the bill. When the public testimony began, numerous media outlets were present to cover the proceedings. The media portrayed the hearing as a chance for “both sides” to have their voices heard, as if this were an even dispute between two viewpoints with equally numbered constituents. That was not the case. The clerk’s office documented testimony against the bill versus for the bill to be roughly 20 to 1, at least. Moreover, I know first hand that many of the bill supporters who spoke before and after I did had not been waiting in line with the rest of us. Where did they come from? They seemed to be placed into the queue somehow, conveniently, very early in the day when the media was present. As the proceeding wore on, few if any supporters of the bill were present at all.
These six days of protests have been completely non-violent and peaceful. There have been rumblings that protesters have “trashed” the capitol. That is completely false. Members of unions, particularly the Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA) and the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants’ Association (MGAA), have been regularly organizing volunteer crews to clean up trash and litter.
As crowds swelled from approximately 13,000 on Tuesday, to around 70,000 (some estimate 100,000) on Saturday, the media finally began to take notice. But curiously, most media outlets only began to show up when the Tea Party announced it plans for a counter-rally on Saturday. Contrary to sources, these Saturday rallies did not consist of a meeting of disputing views in virtually equally numbers, nor were they a “clash.” The Walker supporters numbered roughly 700-1000 at most, while the anti-bill, pro-union activists outnumbered them nearly 100 to 1. Furthermore, there was no violence and no confrontation between opposing sides. (But interestingly, it was the first day that the capitol police posted signs on the capitol building stating “No Firearms Allowed.”) The Tea Party contingent barely made a blip with their paltry turnout.
As far as the actual issue at hand, most media outlets merely mimicked the talking points repeated ad infinitum by Governor Scott Walker, and did no investigating into the veracity of his claims, nor any critical questioning about the situation in Wisconsin. Here are some facts:
1. The state of Wisconsin is not facing a financial crisis. Though specific numbers have been continually disputed and some even claim that the state faces a surplus at the end of the 2009-2011 budget, what is clear is that Wisconsin’s financial woes are moderate at most, and do not constitute a dire situation. The $3.6 billion shortfall that Walker keeps repeating is based on the State Budget Office Analysis which calculated the 2011-2013 biennial figures based on agency requests. These requests always exceed actual monies allocated. The 2011-2013 actual budget has not even come out yet. Walker is misrepresenting these details. Moreover, Governor Walker was unconcerned about budget matters when he offered over $140 million in tax incentives to out-of-state multinational corporations, but now he is suddenly unable to afford to take care of his in-state workforce. The “crisis” is manufactured.
2. The government employee unions bargained for and ratified contracts late last year that provided numerous concessions, including but not limited to freezes in compensation for two years and increased health insurance premiums. Unions are not opposed to “sacrifices”; in fact, they had ALREADY agreed to them.
3. The erosion of collective bargaining rights has nothing at all to do with the contrived “Budget Repair.” Stripping unions of their freedom to negotiate will do nothing to help alleviate deficits.
4. The workers in the private sector have not been voluntarily sacrificing for the public good; pay cuts and loss of benefits have been thrust upon them without any say on their part, precisely because they do not have unions to support them.
5. The rhetoric spewed by the right, such as “I lost my pension, so should you” is akin to saying “My legs were cut off, now yours should be, too.” Unionists would prefer that our legs not be cut off – and we would like to see all non-union workers walking again too. Our battle is for the rights of ALL workers, and our victories are YOUR victories. This is trickle-up economics – and it actually works.
6. Union workers are not lazy slackers; indeed they do some of the most difficult jobs imaginable, such as being home-health care workers, factory laborers, and teachers.
7. The gap between rich and poor started to increase in the 1970s and has reached its widest margin today. Coincidentally, during that same time period, massive tax cuts for corporations and for the wealthy have been mounting.
8. The people who have not sacrificed are the wealthy and corporations. They have the ability to repair these purported budget deficits, yet those who can barely make a decent living are instead called upon to lose what little they have. All the while, Wall Street flourishes and the rich continue to accumulate more and more of the financial wealth of the nation.
9. The struggle in Wisconsin is not about my union or any other union; it is class warfare, plain and simple. It is a battle for decent human rights and against the systematic, concerted and well-orchestrated effort to remove all the rights of workers in this country. Anyone and everyone who makes less than a six-figure income – i.e. the poor and middle class - should be outraged by this immoral and unjust bill and united in our effort to protect our right to a decent living.
Why is it that those who have never had to worry about money, never had to sacrifice, and never had to fight for anything in their lives continually get more and more while working folks get less and less? And why, inexplicably, do other working folks support this race to the bottom?
The corporatization of America has already occurred; now we are well into the third-worldification of America.
We Wisconsin workers are fighting for you and fighting for this country. We must win.
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42 Comments so far
Show AllSee ya Tuesday, stay warm in the meantime.
Kudos to Kristine for letting the facts get in the way of the "story" we are being fed by the media's "balanced" reporters.
Its great to see so many students participating in pushing back against the fascist governor since students and other young Americans are experiencing the highest unemployment rate of any age group, due in no small part to the number of older workers delaying or cancelling retirement, because of the corporate hijacking of the US and global economy.
Until older workers are once again able to retire from their family wage jobs, job opportunities for young Americans will continue to be meager.
Hoping to be there for the Saturday rally....
Solidarity forever!!!!
Kristine,
I am glad that somebody finally has their facts straight! You did a very good job laying out the argument and I commend you. This is class warfare and I hope that the people that watch Fox "News" finally see what they are fighting for--Corporate America and their intent on making the US a banana republic. Thank you for your valuable and succinct argument.
Unfortunately, I can't be in Wisconsin this next week--I live in Minnesota. But I will be with you in spirit.
Unfortunately its not just the FOX audience that has fallen for the "race to the bottom, systematically destroy the middle class stategy". I know many Obamabots who have also swallowed the bait.
" We Wisconsin workers are fighting for you and fighting for this country ". Kristine: I do not live near you and would join you if I could, but I sure am proud of you! Paul
Corporate Media is a scam. When they start videoing we chant: tell the whole truth, tell the whole truth, tell the whole truth. Their monopolization of speech is a crime against the people. Boycott corporate media!
the claim that there is a real attempt at balance in news reporting, as much as it obscures the obvious biases our "free" press tries in vain to ignore, simply perpetuates the myth. there is no attempt at balance. there is willful intent to mislead and influence public opinion in the direction of a "mainstream" corporate construct - and it is succeeding.
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That's right Speculate. That is why we can't get Aljazeera TV on our Cable and Satellite Channels. I listen to Rush the other day. His whole show on Thursday was attacking Teachers and Liberals in Wisconsin that are Govt. Workers. He said he was not attacking Unions but must attack Liberals where ever they are. Who are the Listeners and viewers of Conservative Radio and TV??
Hello, you know what dish-network is doing? it is blocking the channel Free Speech TV and Link TV and giving people The Playboy Channel for free. I mean i just dont understand their urge to block socialist TV channels, that is so dumb. Because people can watch Free Speech TV and read socialist news websites like this one from the internet without the expensive Dish Network and Direct TV, which are getting real real expensive by the way
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Add to how Wall Street oligarchs have the unions by the balls:
Washington Post Writers Group / By Marie Cocco
The Fallacy of the 401(k)
401(k)s are the contemporary version of the get-rich-quick scheme. They place retirement in the shaky hands of the market.
October 14, 2008 |
WASHINGTON -- The essential fallacy of the 401(k) has been exposed. It took a historic market collapse -- one that threatens to impoverish workers already in retirement and those who are nearing it. But then, crushing hardship is often what's required to usher out an era of ideological illogic and unconscionable greed.
The advent of the 401(k) in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a leading indicator of what became a political mania for shifting the risk and responsibility for life's big challenges -- health care, an adequate income in retirement -- from employers and other broad-shouldered institutions to the narrower, weaker backs of individuals themselves.
It was never sold this way, of course. The pitch for the 401(k) was a contemporary version of the get-rich-quick scheme: The promise of strolling along a sun-dappled beach in retirement would be realized with ease, so long as workers regularly contributed modest amounts to the accounts, then let the compounding magic of the market work. To hear the mutual fund companies and the media tell it, only fuddy-duddies and dinosaur employers would be foolish enough to opt for the old-fashioned defined-benefit pension, the type employers paid for and professional managers oversaw, and which guaranteed monthly payments in old age. The type that gave the hard-boiled men and women of the industrial age security, but would never reward them with riches.
The offer seemed good to media observers, and to the politicians who nurtured the do-it-yourself retirement with successive legislative schemes. During the stock market boom of the 1990s, esteemed business publications published breathless articles featuring manufacturing workers who would use their lunch breaks to track their mutual fund balances and ponder the possibilities of the loan they would take out for a cabin on the lake or an anniversary trip to Hawaii.
But despite the hype, the data on 401(k)s have never -- ever -- shown that these accounts were creating a mass of workers who would be able to retire with security, let alone luxury.
The 401(k)s didn't expand the proportion of the work force with pension coverage, notwithstanding claims that shifting to accounts that required workers to contribute would make employers more willing to offer the benefit. Less than half of workers have any type of pension coverage from their current employer at all, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
For those who do have retirement accounts, the bottom line has long been grim. In 2004, the last year for which data are available, the median balance in IRA and 401(k) retirement accounts was $35,000, according to the Federal Reserve. For those nearest to retirement -- households headed by someone between 55 and 64 -- the median balance in 2004 was $60,000. That's enough to generate about $400 a month in retirement income, according to the research center.
These numbers reflect balances before the current market meltdown, which wiped out about $2 trillion in retirement assets when losses in individual accounts as well as employer-based pension funds are tallied. How did this happen? Like so many other political experiments of the last three decades, it was good for the corporate bottom line -- and therefore, supposedly good for America. The 401(k) plan was first promoted to supplement, not replace, traditional pensions, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Boston College center. Over time, as new businesses were formed, they opted to provide only these accounts, eschewing traditional plans.
More recently, even companies with healthy, traditional pension systems have frozen those plans (effectively abandoning their pledges to longtime workers) and replaced them with 401(k)s. Why? "Shifting from a defined-benefit plan to a 401(k) plan will reduce required employer contributions from 7 to 8 percent of payrolls to the 3 percent employer match," Munnell and a team of researchers wrote in a 2006 paper.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/102775/the_fallacy_of_the_401%28k%29/
And most American workers that I know (red team fans and blue team fans alike) continue to believe their 401k will actually allow them to retire someday.
I remember back then saying I thought a 401k was a scam to get people's money and use it, Ponzi it through multiple layers of investments from the bank to the mortgage lenders to the fed to the bank and rolling over a hundred times the same money over and over, all the time knowing full well that the end of the road is total collapse.
I remember writing about this in an econ class and having the prof scoff my prediction in 1981. Not too happy I was right cause I don't like some of what I see now. We have a long and very difficult road ahead of us. Our next job after we hold down the demolition of unions, is to bring to justice all the corrupted guys. Then we can work on campaign finance reform. Long road, long.
And enough with all the extreme rhetoric, intellectual babbling wordy stuff. Say it straight out. Please Mr Moyers, condense your speech. You got to pay attention to attention spans, It's rare an article is as well written as this one to hold the reader's attention.
Since I live in Oregon and am one of the newly poor, I cannot join you, but I am there in spirit.
Kristine Mattis:
This the best article I have read concerning events in Wisconsin - far better than the several by The Nation! Thank you!
Thank you Ms. Mattis for the excellent report, and thanks, too, to Define Freedom and netminnow and all of the others who are fighting on behalf of all of us.
Yes, solidarity forever!
Thank you, and all your fellow-fighters, Kristine. You are beacons of light for us all.
The democratically elected leaders of Wisconsin want this to pass. The majority of people in Wisconsin want this bill to pass.
It appears that democrats hate democracy when the vote goes against them.
Show me that majority. Oh by the way, welcome to our site. Turn on the lights, see the cockroaches scramble.
http://nation.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/21/poll-voters-support-wisconsin-governor-over-unions#
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2011/48_back_gop_governor_in_wisconsin_spat_38_side_with_unions
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/support-for-labor-unions-remains-at-near-historic-low.php#
That must be the new talking point. It is suddenly popping up everywhere.
Perhaps few Wisconsinites have ever been to a third world country and they really believe in winning the race to the bottom.
I have worked a few of the largest Corps. in the world and know a VP of Exxon-Mobil. I can tell you they all hate freedom. If we don't fight back now they will enslave us forever, if possible. They are very close to destroying the only movement in American history that has ever worked to make life better for the average working person. Without Unions we are very quickly sinking back into third world status and this is exactly what the Int'l Corps. want.
As a former NRA member and fighter for gun rights, I learned quickly, like most of us did, that any compromise of our position was fatal.
If you talk any compromise, you are done. Do not do it.
Great job Kristine. Keep up the good work on informing us!
Good lord some of you just can't seem to get the drift of the argument enough to even address the actual fact and figures of this. OK, so here, your football team is currently in union negotiations for their playing contracts for next year and if they decide to hold out, you won't have a Stupor Bowl next year. You seem the types to support sports so how do you feel about their unions? And maybe you might consider the union guys that put the tires on at NASCAR...hmmm.
This is a fabulous article, easy to read and factual. Thanks. And bravo for having the courage to be in front. I know the feeling...scary as hell !!! but invigorating.
Thank you for this report. Here is my narrative of the first few days plus some quick movement analysis. That's what we have here folks, a movement.
http://prop-press.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/report-from-day-five-first-chance-to-reflect.html
DEAR SOCIALIST BROTHERS AND SISTERS: What USA needs is a United Socialist Front, as soon as possible. I know that there is a lot of sectarianism in the right and also in the left. People in America should put away their petty differences and should be less perfectionist, less apologetic and less argumentative, and unite into a United Socialist Workers Front as a third party option.
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American protesters in Wisconsin are demonstrating / rioting against their government. Many are public workers, calling for dignity, citing a critical need to fight against paycuts and destructive reductions in community services.
Unprecedented government meddling in collective bargaining practices promises to reduce workplace safety -- endangering schoolchildren, the elderly, and those in the wider community already most at risk.
At the problem's root are high costs from overseas US occupation forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Continued warmaking expenditures demand huge resources, draining the US domestic economy.
"The Awl" provides further insight into Walker's plan which involves cutting tens of thousands off medicare:
"Wisconsin's union employees are upset about a loss of collective bargaining and a mandated increase in benefit payments, including for health insurance. But at least these employees would still have health insurance. What has been widely ignored about Walker's bill (in part because of the speed with which he's fisting it down Wisconsin's gullet) is a sneaky provision that paves the way for him to cut, or eliminate, Medicaid and BadgerCare healthcare benefits for low-income people."
Yes, Class War at its worst. So, there's much more at stake here and even greater incentive to see Walker, his allies and their bill burn. Much more of import at the link.
http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/burning-down-wisconsin-the-hidden-budget-bill-item-even-worse-than-union-busting
"Why is it that those who have never had to worry about money, never had to sacrifice, and never had to fight for anything in their lives continually get more and more while working folks get less and less?"
Why you say? Because they have taken it from us!
They are like parasites feeding on the host.
Unions do not represent the people, they represent their own interest period. I was a member of a skilled trades union that I will call union1 for around 12 years. Eventually I left union1's active member list to work for an employer who was signatory to a different union (union2). I continued to pay $400 in annual dues to union1 for the privilege of having the opportunity to return to union1's actively seeking employment list should the need arise (I received no other benefit for my $400 dollars a year). Union1's response was to fine me $12,000 dollars for "taking their work". According to union1 I was doing their work even though union1 had never performed that function for my employer and the employer's business had nothing what so ever to do with the skilled trades (no competition). The National portion of the union1 initially found us (it was more then just me) "innocent" of the charges and ordered us reinstated. The National then helped the local union1 amend their by-laws so that they could successfully charge us $12,000 and throw us out which they did. The poor taste in my mouth from my experiences with unions has led me into a management (non union) position with my employer. I know the corporation I work for is also completely self interested, but leaving the union environment still reduces the self interested bodies I must deal with by one. Also public sector unions do not have competition from other entities like in the private sector, and public sector unions give massively to the very politicians whose budgets employ the public sector personnel (quid pro quo).
Your personal anecdote has no serious application to a discussion of the events in Wisconsin - if it is true. I say that because using fake personal anecdotes to discredit organized labor is a common propaganda trick.
2 America's. Good answer. Yes, there is some union corruption but having said that, I will take a corrupt union over a corrupt Governor and corrupt corporations any day!
Unions can play a vital role in the protection against abuses of capital. My point and what I have experienced is that unions are as self interested as corporations and politicians. Their leaders will through you under the bus just as fast and sleep very well after doing it.
Here are some clues and from that, if you want, you will easily be able to research "if it's true". Union1 once had Marty Maddaloni as their Business Manager. You might remember his name, he later became the President of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, he resigned that post after being sued by the federal government for imprudent management of the Union's pension fund ($800 Million of the member's benefits), due to improper investment in the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, Fla. I'm not sure if or how he paid that huge fine. Anyway, from that you should be able to tell who Union1 is; if you can get a copy of union1's by-laws it will have a clause that states, paraphrasing here, "members who go to work for any non-signatory employer's Utility or Maintenance department including employer XXX (that employer is not a competitor or in the skilled trades business), the offending member(s) shall be fined (my fine was $12,000) and/or expelled".
By the way "if it is true" might have been funny if that hadn't been done to me, to my family and to all the member's pensions.
While I sympathize with your personal situation and can acknowledge the occasional corruption in unions - most are hierarchies, after all, and that's always bad news - the blanket proclamation that unions are corrupt is overused and ridiculous. Unions may not be the perfect solution at all times, but nothing in this unsustainable, industrial, capitalist society is. Right now, there are the only protection we have, and from my experience, they have been worthwhile (if too timid). These isolated incidents of corruption in unions are constantly exaggerated to create a meme, while the whole raison d'etre of corporations is corrupt - yet that seems to be acceptable.
Hello pensatrice
I don't think we are as far off as you would think, I believe unions are very necessary to protect against the abuses of capital.
I see human nature guiding the government, the union and the corporation. All of the three show equal and the same self interest because humans run them all. They are all equally necessary, they are all equally useful, and they all improve our lives. But all three will destroy our lives if it is in their best interest to do so.
I joined those unions because I saw value in doing so, I still see great value in unions. Likewise I see value in corporations, they supply goods and services that my family needs or finds useful (Steve jobs is super rich but my wife loves her i-phone). As a left leaning libertarian the difference will be that I don't care what other people make, and I don't feel that I am entitled to what they legally earned.
I think we are actually VERY far off in our positions. I think corporations are inherently immoral and should not exist in our society. I think they produce manufactured needs and unnecessary items (i.e., "bads"), not useful goods and services. I also think technology has contributed to a great deal of destruction in our society (I don't have an iphone, nor a cell phone, and would prefer to be discussing this in person rather via the internet). I also think employment is merely slavery in service to corporate masters. Moreover, I don't believe in protecting what people have "legally earned" because incomes are not based on anything but markets, and markets do not reflect the real values of anything in society. They are harmful, destructive, and unethical. Basically, I think the whole structure of our society is immoral and unethical, but given what we have now and the current situation in Wisconsin, around the country, and around the globe, I suppport unions, collective bargaaining, and the rights of the poor and midddle class.
Hello pensatrice
I guess we are a lot father apart then I thought; I would not dream of deciding what goods and services your family needs or desires. I am thankful that men and women work together enough to supply the technologies we have. To me, while I have an employer, it is my skills that really employ me. I wish to keep what I have legally earned and for you to keep what you have legally earned. If markets do not determine the value of goods and services then people will, and people are more self interested then markets, also people believe that what they are doing is more important than what almost everyone else is doing. I believe the result of what you desire would be that the value setters would become kings, and would be getting kick-backs from every sector of society to make that sector's value greater as compared with the rest of society.
If you can't be in Wisconsin but want to show your solidarity, on Saturday, February 26, 2011, there will be protests around the country under the auspices of US Uncut (fashioned after UK Uncut) about how the poor and middle class are making all the sacrifices while the banks and wealthy corporations get tax cuts or pay nothing at all. Wisconsin is ground zero; let's help make this a mass movement.
http://usuncut.org/